BigTerp's swing journey

[BigTerp1524]

For those interested, I'm going to use this thread to document my journey from a complete hacker swing to gaining a serviceable swing (hopefully!!). I'm using Monte's new NTC series and will be doing the work from home on my own. Access to a pro for lessons in my area is limited due to several reasons, and personal time constraints with work and home life (2 kids under 5) add to the struggle to find time for lessons. I have a rec room with enough space to fully swing at least a 6 iron, so most of my work will be done there in the evenings after we get the kids to bed. Looking forward to the challenge!!

 

A little about myself........39 year old and have played off and on for several years after high school/college, but the past 4 years or so has only been a yearly scramble tournament for work. This past year I played 4 rounds, which lit back up the spark for golf. I'm a high handicap (30+) with a best round of 104, which was actually my last round of this past year. I've always been a "grip it and rip it" type guy, so results were obviously extremely inconsistent. I've NEVER worked on any aspect of my swing. I'm a big dude at 6'8" 245#'s, but in shape and athletic.  I game a set of hand me down Cleveland Classic driver and woods, 4-PW generic Dunlop irons (FB Marketplace purchase for $20 that I re-gripped) and hand me down 52 and 60 degree Cleveland wedges. These clubs, being standard everything, are less than ideal for me at my size. So I will be getting fit sometime before the ground thaws this spring, and finally getting a set of properly fit clubs. But hope to have a somewhat of a repeatable swing before then to hopefully take better advantage of the process. 

 

Going to try and upload 1 video a week to document my progress. Feel free to tear it apart, make fun, offer advice/suggestions, etc., etc. 

[BigTerp1524]

 

 

We'll call this day 1. This is after I've been working on a few things for a week or so. Just following a YouTube video here or there that addressed issues I thought I had. The first thing I addressed was my grip. I had a really strong grip with my right (bottom) hand pretty far behind the grip. Figured since I was pretty much rebuilding my swing, this was a good place to start. I've since gone to a fairly neutral grip, which surprisingly feels really good. The picture is where my grip started.

 

In the videos I'm working on extension in follow through and shallowing the club on the downswing. For whatever reason, I really struggle with extending my follow through. I wouldn't call my swing a bad OTT, but it did seem to get fairly steep on the way down. Did a bunch of drills and tried several techniques, but nothing really felt comfortable/correct.

 

 

 

 

 

[BigTerp1524]

After watching the above videos, I realized that I'm REALLY early extending. Seemed to be the most glaring fault to my eyes. I'm shallowing out the club a bit better than before, but it still doesn't feel good/natural the way I'm doing it, but was at least happy to see I was able to get it shallowed out a bit as intended.

 

My main focus now was addressing the EE. I watched videos that explained what EE was and how to attempt to fix it. I worked on staying down and focusing on rotating my hips through impact. Nothing really helped. I then posted on here regarding EE, and Monte made a comment that really made sense. He said EE wasn't a swing fault in and of itself. EE was a result of a swing fault further back the line and that needed to be addressed to fix the EE. Makes sense!! I concluded that my steeper than ideal downswing contributed as well as an overly long backswing which left my hands behind. In my mind both issues would lead me have to stand up to catch my hands up and to compensate for the steep shaft angle coming back down. Now I had something to work on, but how do I go about it?.........

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

Okay, always start with the first issues. Your setup is actually pretty good, and your grip is okay. The first issue - especially if you're going with NTC - is your first move. Stiff wrists and way inside is a killer that it's impossible to recover from, and it's exactly the opposite of what Monte teaches in NTC.

 

Work on getting the 7 0'clock position on Monte's NTC down. forget about EE - that's a symptom that might correct itself when you get into a better position earlier on.

 

Do the drill to feel how to get to a correct 7 o'clock position until it feels like it's natural and repeatable. There's no point even making full swings until you can do this. 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by TheDeanAbides

[glk]

Basics.  Ball to far back.    Right hand needs to cover left thumb in grip.

many things to address but start with learning how to properly set the wrists - wrists need to be set gradually with trail wrist extending - you never extend your trail wrist.

 

face on video angle okay.  Down the line camera needs to be centered on hands at belt level.

 

you have a good setup for taking an online live lesson with monte  - both outdoors and what you described indoors.   Should consider it.   Welcome to the journey.

 

Two videos that apply

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by glk

[BigTerp1524]

Shortly after the revelation above, I came across Monte's new NTC series. After some reading and suggestions from a few on here to check it out, I did just that. Everything immediately made sense. Several AH-HA!!! moments just from the first few series of videos. The first evening I worked solely on the no turn take away and proper wrist positioning. Felt really weird, but good at the same time. This made me realize how steep/high my previous backswing was. This alone helped the two issues I wanted to address (steep downswing and long backswing). I did not hit a single ball that first evening. Just tried to get comfortable with my new takeaway and backswing.

 

The second evening I again worked on the no turn portion just really trying to get comfortable and engrain that part of my backswing. I still feel like I get too long in my backswing, and maybe you guys can confirm that from the video below. But I now feel like I'm getting where I need to be from address to top of backswing.

 

I also started working through the cast A and B portion of the videos. Again, it made total sense to me. Monte's explanation is very biomechanical to me, and really resonates. I took a few full swings with my 7 iron, and while still fairly rough and odd feeling just because it's different, it also felt really good and closer to what I think things should feel like. From the video I believe I'm getting the shallowed out better and my EE is WAY better. I wasn't even thinking of anything related to EE. Following Monte's NTC made it that much better on it's own. Very encouraging!! I'm still having issues extending on my follow through, but it does look a bit better to my eyes.

 

To me, things overall look a bit better after just 2 days of working on Monte's NTC.

 

 

 

 

[BigTerp1524]

16 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Okay, always start with the first issues. Your setup is actually pretty good, and your grip is okay. The first issue - especially if you're going with NTC - is your first move. Stiff wrists and way inside is a killer that it's impossible to recover from, and it's exactly the opposite of what Monte teaches in NTC.

 

Work on getting the 7 0'clock position on Monte's NTC down. forget about EE - that's a symptom that might correct itself when you get into a better position earlier on.

 

Do the drill to feel how to get to a correct 7 o'clock position until it feels like it's natural and repeatable. There's no point even making full swings until you can do this. 

 

 

 

@TheDeanAbides Thanks!! This is exactly what I did when starting with NTC, which was after the videos you referencing. I keep reading about one piece takeaway, one piece takeaway, one piece takeaway.....and took it too literally. I think things look a bit better in the videos since, which is 2 days into working through the NTC.

[BigTerp1524]

17 minutes ago, glk said:

Basics.  Ball to far back.    Right hand needs to cover left thumb in grip.

many things to address but start with learning how to properly set the wrists - wrists need to be set gradually with trail wrist extending - you never extend your trail wrist.

 

face on video angle okay.  Down the line camera needs to be centered on hands at belt level.

 

you have a good setup for taking an online live lesson with monte.  Should consider it. 

 

 

 

 

@glkThanks!!

 

I struggle with ball positioning for sure. I always feel like I don't have it far enough up in my stance, but it feels so weird closer to my lead foot. Something to work on. 

 

That grip picture was how I started. I've since gotten way more neutral. You should be able to see that in the 2 other videos I've since posted.

 

Wrist positioning is something I'm working on, for sure. Again, I think this has improved in my subsequent videos.

[TheDeanAbides]

You're still making almost the same move off the ball. The idea is for your wrists to hinge immediately and the butt of your club to point somewhere between the ball and your feet halfway back. Yours points miles out past the ball. work on that first move. 🙂

[bortass]

Good luck! I'm looking forward to following your progress. I've seen your posts in the "big" NTC thread, so you're aware of that. 

 

I'm not an expert, at all, but I would recommend making sure to take some time to just swing the club without thinking about any of the drills. The only thought would be to hit the ball. I did this recently and it seems to have made a positive difference for me. It got me out of thinking about the swing and just letting it happen.

 

Do you have a consistent miss or is it all over the place? When I was trying to break 100, I had an insta slice. I did not need to think about it. Just swing the club and it'd go left then take a hard right turn into the trees. A one way miss will be your friend because you can plan for it. Don't shocked if you develop a two way miss as you work on things though.

 

If you have a scoring goal in mind, the biggest thing to learn will likely be the mental game.

[BigTerp1524]

6 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

You're still making almost the same move off the ball. The idea is for your wrists to hinge immediately and the butt of your club to point somewhere between the ball and your feet halfway back. Yours points miles out past the ball. work on that first move. 🙂

Thanks!! Yes, I see that now. Although it doesn't feel like that. Should be an easy fix. Hopefully next week we'll see some improvement there!!

 

Regarding NTC and getting to 8 in the backswing, would I be effectively shorting my backswing at the top compared to what I currently do? I definitely struggle with feeling like I over rotate/get too long in my back swing. Just looking for what I should be feeling here. Get to 8 and call it good?

[bortass]

9 minutes ago, BigTerp1524 said:

Thanks!! Yes, I see that now. Although it doesn't feel like that. Should be an easy fix. Hopefully next week we'll see some improvement there!!

 

Regarding NTC and getting to 8 in the backswing, would I be effectively shorting my backswing at the top compared to what I currently do? I definitely struggle with feeling like I over rotate/get too long in my back swing. Just looking for what I should be feeling here. Get to 8 and call it good?

Get to 8 and call it good. Monte comments on this in the video and elsewhere about how this will help those people who have a back swing that's too long. 

[BigTerp1524]

9 minutes ago, bortass said:

Good luck! I'm looking forward to following your progress. I've seen your posts in the "big" NTC thread, so you're aware of that. 

 

I'm not an expert, at all, but I would recommend making sure to take some time to just swing the club without thinking about any of the drills. The only thought would be to hit the ball. I did this recently and it seems to have made a positive difference for me. It got me out of thinking about the swing and just letting it happen.

 

Do you have a consistent miss or is it all over the place? When I was trying to break 100, I had an insta slice. I did not need to think about it. Just swing the club and it'd go left then take a hard right turn into the trees. A one way miss will be your friend because you can plan for it. Don't shocked if you develop a two way miss as you work on things though.

 

If you have a scoring goal in mind, the biggest thing to learn will likely be the mental game.

 

Thanks!!

 

Yeah, I do this (just swing) from time to time. When working through drills and thinking about certain things in the swing things  can start to feel stiff/rigid for me. Good advice!!

 

I miss right. Usually a bit of a fade, but it can turn into a nice slice when it gets bad, especially off the tee. Starts off towards target and then a sharp right into OB typically. And definitely not consistent enough to play any of this. If I setup to the left a bit, that's when I typically hit a missile dead straight and then into the crap to the left, HA!!

 

Yes, goal is to break 100. Course management alone would make a big difference. Need to get out of the hero shot mentality for sure!!

[glk]

Some drills for takeaway

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CArLoP8llFa/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFkD4GOlDC7/

 

consider learning to hit the ball with short swings, one hand.   And two handed just to at most left arm parallel.

seing is complex and to solely learn via full swings at speed is more than likely lead to slow progress.  
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAMNS8Hl9rZ/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAOOW7eFqkJ/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdruZrF9iR/

 

and again consider online live with monte.  30 minutes to an hour and you can gain so much more than many back and forth here online.  And monte will insure you are making the proper motions and answer your questions live.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGVMKPuMq-t/

 

 

 

[BigTerp1524]

3 minutes ago, bortass said:

Get to 8 and call it good. Monte comments on this in the video and elsewhere about how this will help those people who have a back swing that's too long. 

 

Cool. Thanks!! I missed him saying this. Will definitely work to 8 and go from there.

[BigTerp1524]

4 minutes ago, glk said:

Some drills for takeaway

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CArLoP8llFa/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFkD4GOlDC7/

 

consider learning to hit the ball with short swings, one hand.   And two handed just to at most left arm parallel.

seing is complex and to solely learn via full swings at speed is more than likely lead to slow progress.  
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAMNS8Hl9rZ/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAOOW7eFqkJ/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdruZrF9iR/

 

and again consider online live with monte.  30 minutes to an hour and you can gain so much more than many back and forth here online.  And monte will insure you are making the proper motions and answer your questions live.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGVMKPuMq-t/

 

 

 

Thanks for the drills. I'll check them out.

 

I've been doing the 9 to 3 drill, which sounds similar to what you're suggesting for short swings. I'll continue to work on those.

[TheDeanAbides]

40 minutes ago, BigTerp1524 said:

Thanks!! Yes, I see that now. Although it doesn't feel like that. Should be an easy fix. Hopefully next week we'll see some improvement there!!

 

Regarding NTC and getting to 8 in the backswing, would I be effectively shorting my backswing at the top compared to what I currently do? I definitely struggle with feeling like I over rotate/get too long in my back swing. Just looking for what I should be feeling here. Get to 8 and call it good?

Honestly, until you have 7 down you would be well advised to forget about 8. Learning to hit half shots at this stage will put you miles ahead of most amateurs. 

[BigTerp1524]

27 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Honestly, until you have 7 down you would be well advised to forget about 8. Learning to hit half shots at this stage will put you miles ahead of most amateurs. 

Thanks. I'll heed this advice.

 

Would you suggest I get to 7 with left arm parallel to the ground and hit shots from there? This should also help with hinging my wrist earlier as you suggested before. Also, should I be working on cast a and b from this point? The cast b drill from the videos sound very similar to what you're suggesting. I would think so, since that is an integral part of the downswing with NTC, but I don't want to get ahead of myself as I've already done. Maybe I should just concentrate on delivering the club to the ball without worrying about any of that after getting to 7 with the proper wrist set? 

Edited January 13, 2021 by BigTerp1524

[TheDeanAbides]

26 minutes ago, BigTerp1524 said:

Thanks. I'll heed this advice.

 

Would you suggest I get to 7 with left arm parallel to the ground and hit shots from there? This should also help with hinging my wrist earlier as you suggested before. Also, should I be working on cast a and b from this point? The cast b drill from the videos sound very similar to what you're suggesting. I would think so, since that is an integral part of the downswing with NTC, but I don't want to get ahead of myself as I've already done. Maybe I should just concentrate on delivering the club to the ball without worrying about any of that after getting to 7 with the proper wrist set? 

Yes, it's a very useful shot and exactly what Monte is talking about in this blog post. Practice that shot a lot. Use cast B - there isn't time for cast a.

 

I worked on this exclusively for over a month and it was miraculous for my short game. I can now hit this shot with everything up to a 3 iron for a low controlled wind beater. 

[mgoblue83]

I like your swing. Please avoid chasing positions and stay athletic. Positions slow you down!

 

The only thing I would change is your shoulder tilt because you are VERY flat and at your height that's not going to work very well. Get your left shoulder moving down toward the ball instead of around you and stay athletic. 

[TheDeanAbides]

14 minutes ago, mgoblue83 said:

I like your swing. Please avoid chasing positions and stay athletic. Positions slow you down!

 

The only thing I would change is your shoulder tilt because you are VERY flat and at your height that's not going to work very well. Get your left shoulder moving down toward the ball instead of around you and stay athletic. 

This is the danger of a thread like this. He's following a particular teacher and comments that dissuade him, however well meaning, are probably going to be counterproductive. 

 

Nothing Monte teaches slows anyone down. 

Edited January 13, 2021 by TheDeanAbides

[BigTerp1524]

59 minutes ago, mgoblue83 said:

I like your swing. Please avoid chasing positions and stay athletic. Positions slow you down!

 

The only thing I would change is your shoulder tilt because you are VERY flat and at your height that's not going to work very well. Get your left shoulder moving down toward the ball instead of around you and stay athletic. 

Thanks!! Appreciate the insight!!

 

I'm in the first stages of rebuilding my swing following Monte's NTC. Really feel like I need to nail certain points of the swing before I can put it all together. For me, it's best to get to those spots, pause, check, reset and repeat. Then slowly work on putting it all together. It's going to be work, but I know I'll get there.

 

I was a pitcher in college. Our pitching coach use to have us do what he called "dry drills" while we shagged balls during BP. This is where you would pause for 3 seconds at 5 different points of a windup, with the 5th being the final portion of the throw and follow through. Always felt stupid, but really helped keep my pitching mechanics sharp. Trying to translate that experience/feeling into this.

[mgoblue83]

2 minutes ago, BigTerp1524 said:

Thanks!! Appreciate the insight!!

 

I'm in the first stages of rebuilding my swing following Monte's NTC. Really feel like I need to nail certain points of the swing before I can put it all together. For me, it's best to get to those spots, pause, check, reset and repeat. Then slowly work on putting it all together. It's going to be work, but I know I'll get there.

 

I was a pitcher in college. Our pitching coach use to have us do what he called "dry drills" while we shagged balls during BP. This is where you would pause for 3 seconds at 5 different points of a windup, with the 5th being the final portion of the throw and follow through. Always felt stupid, but really helped keep my pitching mechanics sharp. Trying to translate that experience/feeling into this.

 

Sounds like a great way to practice but when it's time to play I'm sure you trusted those fundamentals and let it rip. Same thing with golf. Too many guys think about positions while trying to play and end up swinging like a low speed robot. 

[BigTerp1524]

1 minute ago, mgoblue83 said:

 

Sounds like a great way to practice but when it's time to play I'm sure you trusted those fundamentals and let it rip. Same thing with golf. Too many guys think about positions while trying to play and end up swinging like a low speed robot. 

 

Oh yeah, I get it. Just gotta build the foundation correctly first, which is where I'm currently at. I understand exactly what your saying though, and appreciate it!!

[TheDeanAbides]

13 minutes ago, mgoblue83 said:

 

Sounds like a great way to practice but when it's time to play I'm sure you trusted those fundamentals and let it rip. Same thing with golf. Too many guys think about positions while trying to play and end up swinging like a low speed robot. 

This I absolutely agree with. 

[BigTerp1524]

Day 3 following Monte's NTC and I took @TheDeanAbides and @glkadvice and worked only on the 7 o'clock position of the no turn by making half swings from there. Focused on getting the proper wrist set/hinge and using cast B on the swing. Also moved the ball up in my stance a bit which at first felt odd, but I quickly adjusted. This is something I've always struggled with though. Hit driver off my left heel and proceeded further back my stance with shorter clubs. Must irons I hit about the middle of my stance and shorter irons/wedges I played even further back. Where abouts should I be playing my irons in my stance? How about 4 iron vs 7 iron vs wedges? Just a little something I need to figure out and get consistent with.

 

Hitting half shots like this felt really good. Was surprised how much club head speed I could effortlessly produce from just the 7 o'clock position. Without thinking about fire hips first, rotate around spine or whatever it all just felt way more natural and athletic to let my arms/hands do the work. And like Monte says, the body reacts and does what it needs. I did get a little long doing this and was creeping back towards 8 o'clock and past parallel with my left arm. I feel I have a long back swing as is, so that habit probably creeped into this little drill as well. Thinking drills like this will help with that though.

 

Two encouraging things I saw with this was my impact position looked the best I've ever seen it. Not sure if it's from putting the ball further up on my stance, or the NTC itself. Either way I thought it looked pretty darn good. Also happy with my wrists with a nice flat lead wrist, extended trail wrist and the butt of the club pointing more between the ball and my feet. Plan to continue working on this the next few evenings. Have an hour booked at a local indoor simulator this Saturday. First time ever hitting on a simulator, looking forward to it.

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by BigTerp1524
To add video embedding

[games]

Kudos!  What a great move and look.  As Monte would say "Just keep doing that."  (Joke Monte tells about overhearing the "coaching" a name coach was giving one of his players.)

[glk]

Definite progress.   
 

somethings to consider - do the butt of club in the stomach drill in one of the Instagram I posted - does multiple good things - keeps clubhead outside hands, synch pivot and arms, gets you into position to hingethe club up and stand it up, gets you to keep right arm straight longer and right arm on top of left in takeaway.

 

some other drills to consider are here - don’t need a planemate to do these - they are really good drills to also build a good foundation off of.

 

https://www.tourstriker.com/planemate/

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by glk

[TheDeanAbides]

That's so much better. If you're still longer than 7 o'clock you have to feel like the backswing ends almost immediately to stop it at left arm parallel. If you get this then all that you need to do to get to the top is turn your shoulders a little more. That's it! 

 

Also love that you're getting your left shoulder down too. 

Edited January 14, 2021 by TheDeanAbides

[BigTerp1524]

10 hours ago, games said:

Kudos!  What a great move and look.  As Monte would say "Just keep doing that."  (Joke Monte tells about overhearing the "coaching" a name coach was giving one of his players.)

Thanks!! "Just keep doing that"..............is exactly what I plan to do.