Smitty1304 Swing & Path to Single Digits

I started off golfing ~3 years ago when I was invited to play as a sub to fill in for a casual work league. I purchased an old used set of Ping I3s and a beat up putter from a friend to play and was instantly hooked with the challenge. Until then, I had never played golf other than just hitting balls at a driving range 1-2 times for individual sports gym class. I grew up playing baseball at a young age, which led me to the typical banana slice ball. After 1-2 years of shooting mid 90's - low 100's, I decided I wanted to improve my game.

I decided to take the game more "seriously" and decided to upgrade the equipment I was using in pursuit of improving. While having better equipment certainly helped in some aspects, it obviously didn't change my scores by much. Last year is the first year I kept an unofficial handicap during rounds and am hovering between 15-17 HC. When everything is clicking, I'm currently capable of shooting mid to upper 80's, but typically a mid-90's shooter with the occasional low 100's.

Which leads me to this year and dedicating the time to actually improving all aspects of my game to improve my scoring. This winter has been terrible for the midwest with it being cold and snow/ice. I haven't been able to get out and golf in almost 3 months. This past week, I reached out to local instructor Josh Nahm (http://www.firekeepe...er-golf-academy) for a lesson and the results are below.

Start of Lesson (Before)- Cupping of Wrist and Overswinging

Before Impact Position (Left) - Flipping & EE

After (Left Picture)- More Wrist Flexion and Shorter Backswing

Before/After Comparison Launch - With 8-Iron I started with 89mph CHS & ~31-32* Launch, After- CHS 97mph 16-17* Launch

Until the weather warms up, I will practice in my basement with 1/2 swing working on maintaining wrist conditions. I also got the itch to order some new Cobra F9 irons and I'm looking forward to see how the Cobra Connect system will give me the data to improve my game. I plan to use this thread to track my progress and help hold me accountable.

Holy s***. What a difference!

Nice job both of you.

Nice job both of you.

Thanks Monte. The grip, setup, and instruction you provided almost 2 years ago at the Kansas City Clinic laid the foundation. The Boditrak was showing good weight transfer throughout the swing and once I was able to pair up your feel of the elbow working towards the belly betting with more wrist flexion, it was night/day difference.

I’ll be watching this eagerly...

The wrist angles and improved launch angles are the main things I’m working on this winter.

If I made your improvements in a year I think I’d be pretty happy... Great job! Must be one hell of an instructor.

nice changes..... but... 98 with a 8I ?? I thought tour average was upper 80's... so you must hit that 8 like 220 ?? WOW!

nice changes..... but... 98 with a 8I ?? I thought tour average was upper 80's... so you must hit that 8 like 220 ?? WOW!

It was indoors using Flightscope (possibly a false reading). When I had my iron fitting 1.5 years ago, I was swinging 91-92 with a 7-iron on Trackman. With the better sequencing I expect a few mph difference.

Crazy changes for a single lesson. My FS sometimes gives funky numbers for CHS indoors, but its typically the other way around. I typically just concentrate on ball speed. Either way the delta and LA change is legit!

Another before and after from Smitty

You have FO after? I bet it's gucci with that LA change

You have FO after? I bet it's gucci with that LA change

I’ll look for it, sure I have it. His HackMotion graphs are even more amazing with his change.

 

 

 

Another before and after from Smitty

Just curious but what were the suggest feelings from the pro vs what worked for YOU to get "more shallow". Also what did you have to overdo feelings wise?

You have FO after? I bet it's gucci with that LA change

 

I'll look for it, sure I have it. His HackMotion graphs are even more amazing with his change.

I'm not sure if there was a chart big enough to graph my starting wrist conditions. I definitely put the Hack in Hackmotion.

 

 

 

Another before and after from Smitty

Just curious but what were the suggest feelings from the pro vs what worked for YOU to get "more shallow". Also what did you have to overdo feelings wise?

The only real change Josh had me feel was maintaining the wrist flexion at the top of the backswing and maintain that feeling through impact. The Hackmotion sensor provided great feedback on when I executed well or poorly based on the parameters that Josh set on the app. The next challenge for me is figuring out the "new" swing bottom and getting more forward with impact position.

I just ordered the new Puttout Mirror to help maintain a consistent setup, eye line , and path. Initial use with it I have noticed I have my path going too far left and have been pushing my putts. The feedback from the magnetic rails shows that I’m swiping across more than I thought. I’m looking forward to using it more to increase consistency.

@Smitty1304 any updates on your swing and working with Josh?

> @LowAndLeft32 said:

> @Smitty1304 any updates on your swing and working with Josh?

@LowAndLeft32 I haven't had any additional lessons with Josh yet, but I am definitely due for the next one.

As far as progress since my lesson from @ksgolfcoach, my iron striking has been much improved from last year. Last week I shot my lowest 9-hole round PR with a 39 during my work league.

I would say my driver is what I'm struggling with the most post-lesson and fighting a case of the hooks. My miss has been extremely on the toe side and/or very low on the face with even some tops.

As some of you midwesterner's have been experiencing, it has been an extremely wet season with record flooding and rainfall. It's been hard to get out a lot this year, but have been tracking my stats this year with Cobra Connect.

Below are some of the stats from my last 10 rounds. I've been fighting an overdraw lately, but my contact overall has been much improved this year. With it being very wet this year, distances are a little less than I would normally expect due to very little roll and/or plugged balls.

Anything that stands out that should be the emphasis for improvement, or an area that more data would be valuable to see first?

Snapshot of my round for the day - Highlight was dunking a 125yd PW for an Eagle today. The course was still quite wet due to getting 7" of rain 2 days ago.

With being a higher handicap (Currently 14.9 from Arccos) I tend to miss quite a few greens, or leave myself long putts when I do hit the green. My primary focus to improving for the moment is to work on my chipping and putting. I decided to purchase the book "Make More Putts" after seeing it praised a few times here and good reviews.

Current Putting Stats from Arccos - I will say my avg. putts is slightly inflated due to using putter off the green (1-2 strokes a round) that could be counted as chips:

I proceeded to try out the initial putting assessment to see where my tendencies are and areas I can focus on . For the first part, I putted 5 times in a row from the same spot and rotated around the hole at 3ft, 6ft, & 9ft distances.

**3 Foot** (Goal: 20) - Total: 16

* Uphill - 4

* Right-to-Left - 4

* Downhill - 4

* Left-to-Right - 4

**6 Foot** (Goal: 13) - Total: 10

* Uphill - 2

* Right-to-Left - 1

* Downhill - 4

* Left-to-Right - 3

**9 Foot** (Goal: 9) - Total: 3

* Uphill - 1

* Right-to-Left - 1

* Downhill - 1

* Left-to-Right - 0

Takeaway: What I noticed on the shorter putts is I had a tendency to miss on the left side of the hole ~95% on my misses.

**Lag Putting** - for this part of the assessment I marked off a 3ft radius around the hole and marked as a "make" if putt finished in the area. Distances at 20ft, 30ft, 40ft, & 50ft with 1-shot at each distance (10 rounds).

20ft - 10 for 10

30ft - 5 for 10

40ft - 3 for 10

50ft - 6 for 10

Total: 24 out of 40

Takeaway: For the lag putts, my miss was mostly due to going past the hole.

My next plan is to find a local putter fitter to see if my misses are related to bad alignment, bad stroke, and/or adjusting putter. I'm currently playing an Evnroll ER6 Mallet.

I'm finally starting to put some decent rounds together. I still have the occasional blow up holes, as I was even through 5 holes and then went triple, bogey, double, quad to finish with a 46 (9-hole work league) :( .

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the amount of improvement I've made so far this year with as little as I practice. Started the year around 18-20 and now down to a 12 (Arccos).