BigTerp's swing journey

[rondo01]

Just happened to stumble into this. Pretty good blueprint on how to get a little more out of practice.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQmrRR_WTF4

Edited July 23, 2021 by rondo01

[BigTerp1524]

15 minutes ago, rondo01 said:

Just happened to stumble into this. Pretty good blueprint on how to get a little more out of practice.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQmrRR_WTF4

Thanks. I'll check it out.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Obviously improving ballstriking will be the quickest path to improving score. 

 

I was just saying that you shouldn't be "mad" at yourself for a skulled pitch that ends up on the green. It's better than a skulled pitch that goes 30 yards over the green, or a chunked pitch that stops 30 yards short of the green. 

 

Enjoy the luck when it comes. You got away with one!

[BigTerp1524]

36 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Obviously improving ballstriking will be the quickest path to improving score. 

 

I was just saying that you shouldn't be "mad" at yourself for a skulled pitch that ends up on the green. It's better than a skulled pitch that goes 30 yards over the green, or a chunked pitch that stops 30 yards short of the green. 

 

Enjoy the luck when it comes. You got away with one!

You're right. I think I was just trying to express my thoughts on how I needed to worry less about score and more on just executing each shot. Got a little rambly with it. I get what you're saying, I really do. And don't get me wrong, I'm happy when I can eek out a par or bogey, even if I didn't go about it the most pretty way. I just got a little too hyper focused on "breaking 100" and have let my scoring overtake my focus on simply hitting the ball well. Such a funny game!!!

[bortass]

1 hour ago, BigTerp1524 said:

I totally get this. And I think one day, hopefully sooner than later, I'll be able to lean more towards this. But for now, and where I'm at with my game, there are so many mishits that my focus should be on limiting them as much as possible. As my swing continues to improve, ball striking will improve and I'll start becoming more and more consistent across the board. Soon I hope to be able to get upset with myself when I hit my 7i as good as possible, but leave it 10 yards short of the green because I should've went 6i. I need to focus more on the simple things that I can currently control. Things like making solid contact, course management, etc. I quickly went back to look at my last round and I had 14 mishits on the day. I'm not talking about missing left/right or short/long or even the drives that I sliced way right only to follow it up with a drive that I pulled way left. 14 balls that I either chunked, skulled or hit off the toe so terribly they went 45 degrees right. Those are the types of shots for me right now that leave the most strokes on the course and what I need to focus on. If I hit an approach shot or a tee shot on a par 3 well but leave it a little short or left/right, so be it. I hit it solid. Then my focus moves to hitting a solid chip/pitch. Judged the speed wrong and left it way short? Oh well, I still hit it solid. But if I'm chunking and topping my way around the course and still making bogey's and a few pars, that's not a good way to get better.  

 

I appreciate the conversation today. It has really shown me what my current focus needs to be on during a round. 

I think this is a great mindset to have. I honestly wish it's how I looked at the game back in 2008 when I first started to break 100. It would have saved my so much frustration and mental churn. However, that's not how I'm wired and I had to suffer through it to learn the hard way. It was worth it though. It helped me grow as a person off the course as well.

[betarhoalphadelta]

14 minutes ago, BigTerp1524 said:

You're right. I think I was just trying to express my thoughts on how I needed to worry less about score and more on just executing each shot. Got a little rambly with it. I get what you're saying, I really do. And don't get me wrong, I'm happy when I can eek out a par or bogey, even if I didn't go about it the most pretty way. I just got a little too hyper focused on "breaking 100" and have let my scoring overtake my focus on simply hitting the ball well. Such a funny game!!!

 

The good thing about 100 as a number is that for guys at our level, inconsistency is our most consistent aspect. So you're not going to be slowly dropping scores to 105, then 102, then a bunch of rounds of 100 and 101, before finally getting that 98... That's what happens to good golfers who are trying to break a score like 80... They're grinding and grinding and maybe pull a 78 or 79 one day. 

 

You're going to have one random round where you're hitting well and shoot something like a 93 and blast right through the target number. And then the confidence comes with it...

 

I, personally, can't wait to read it when it happens lol.

[BigTerp1524]

2 minutes ago, bortass said:

I think this is a great mindset to have. I honestly wish it's how I looked at the game back in 2008 when I first started to break 100. It would have saved my so much frustration and mental churn. However, that's not how I'm wired and I had to suffer through it to learn the hard way. It was worth it though. It helped me grow as a person off the course as well.

I think it was you earlier who suggested I don't even keep score. I'm not going to be able to do that. But I do need to be a little more real with myself and set more realistic expectations and keep the frustration level down. Just like @betarhoalphadelta said above, things aren't going to be extremely consistent. There is going to be some rough rounds. I've had great rounds with all parts of my game, just not during the same round, LOL!! One day they will all come together and the score will reflect. Until then, I just need to focus on the simple things and let everything else take it's course.

[bortass]

21 minutes ago, BigTerp1524 said:

I think it was you earlier who suggested I don't even keep score. I'm not going to be able to do that. But I do need to be a little more real with myself and set more realistic expectations and keep the frustration level down. Just like @betarhoalphadelta said above, things aren't going to be extremely consistent. There is going to be some rough rounds. I've had great rounds with all parts of my game, just not during the same round, LOL!! One day they will all come together and the score will reflect. Until then, I just need to focus on the simple things and let everything else take it's course.

My suggestion was and it's what I do is keep score hole by hole but do not add it up until after the round. Write down the number and move on. Let it be a surprise at the end. Doing it this way helped remove the sudden pressure of OMG, I'm playing great and just need X to break 100 and then promptly hitting my tee shot OOB...I know I was advised to not keep score but it's just not how I am, lol. For the most part there is no right or wrong way, just what's right for you.

 

32 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

The good thing about 100 as a number is that for guys at our level, inconsistency is our most consistent aspect. So you're not going to be slowly dropping scores to 105, then 102, then a bunch of rounds of 100 and 101, before finally getting that 98... That's what happens to good golfers who are trying to break a score like 80... They're grinding and grinding and maybe pull a 78 or 79 one day. 

 

You're going to have one random round where you're hitting well and shoot something like a 93 and blast right through the target number. And then the confidence comes with it...

 

I, personally, can't wait to read it when it happens lol.

 

I can't wait to read it too. I'm not good by any stretch but there's something about reading both you and @betarhoalphadelta going out and having positive things happen on the course. It's awesome.

 

I also agree that you are unlikely to have a slow and steady progression but instead swings in your scores. One day things will click a bit and you discover you broke 100 w/o realizing it. At least that was my experience, I had no clue until I added up the numbers after #18 and redid my math a couple times because I was surprised.

 

The confidence will set in as you do it more and you feel like you are 'playing golf'. 

 

 

[BigTerp1524]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

My suggestion was and it's what I do is keep score hole by hole but do not add it up until after the round. Write down the number and move on. Let it be a surprise at the end. Doing it this way helped remove the sudden pressure of OMG, I'm playing great and just need X to break 100 and then promptly hitting my tee shot OOB...I know I was advised to not keep score but it's just not how I am, lol. For the most part there is no right or wrong way, just what's right for you.

 

 

I can't wait to read it too. I'm not good by any stretch but there's something about reading both you and @betarhoalphadelta going out and having positive things happen on the course. It's awesome.

 

I also agree that you are unlikely to have a slow and steady progression but instead swings in your scores. One day things will click a bit and you discover you broke 100 w/o realizing it. At least that was my experience, I had no clue until I added up the numbers after #18 and redid my math a couple times because I was surprised.

 

The confidence will set in as you do it more and you feel like you are 'playing golf'. 

 

 

Thanks man!! I needed a good reset and reassessment after my round on Wednesday. The discussions between yourself, @betarhoalphadelta, @TheDeanAbides and others have been really helpful!! Again, I appreciate it. The mental part of this game has been a lot more then I imagined. 

[BigTerp1524]

Monte and I had to reschedule my lesson to Sunday. So last night I worked on a few things on my own. It's only the second time I've swung a club since my crappy round last week. The physical and mental break was nice. The first thing I did was setup some alignment sticks per @glk 's recommendation. I quickly realized I was setting up ever so slightly closed. Just a hair, but adjusting that little bit to get setup square to the target felt like a mile!! Didn't take long to get comfortable there though. I also setup a tad further away from the ball. Maybe a ball widths worth. I've always felt rather tied up at impact, and setting up just a bit further away felt better. Felt like I could swing the club a little more freely, and on video at impact I looked better there with my arms more extended (powerful) at impact. Wanted to address my passive lower body by working on the linear forces of the legs/feet to initiate hip rotation that we discussed a good bit in @betarhoalphadelta's thread the other day. This felt pretty good, but video confirmed I'm still pretty square with my hips at impact. This is something I want to pick Monte's brain about, but I'm sure it's coming from my arms trailing behind causing my lower body to stall as a compensation coming down so I can decently hit the ball. On video it just looks so weak and a very "armsy" swing, even though it doesn't feel that way. I'm sure once I get whatever I'm doing further back (I'm guessing still spinning my shoulders out) sorted out, everything will synch up much better and I'll be able to use the rotational forces of my hips better. Should make my ball striking more consistent and gain a little bit of power as well. That's the hope anyway. The last thing I addressed was cast A. Really tried to make it my swing thought, and it felt great. Looked back at my notes from my last lesson with Monte and next to cast A, I had "tucked right elbow" in parenthesis. These two thoughts/feels really seemed to get the club in a good position on the way down and made the club feel more powerful/efficient extension of my arms. Overall things felt fairly good.

 

A few things I noticed is that I'm still getting my hands a little deep on the way up and laying the club back too much at P3. For me, these two things sort of work hand in hand. Something I need to continue working on as it creeps back into my swing fairly regularly. The last thing I noticed is my weight transfer during my swing is pretty lackluster. I don't look to ever really shift my weight back initially, and then transfer/load the front leg before transition. I look to pretty much keep my weight on my front leg throughout the entire swing. Something else I'll bring up with Monte on Sunday.

 

Last night was more of a check-in for myself, and to highlight anything that I wanted to address with Monte. I feel like I'm pretty close to tying everything together and building a fairly solid swing. But I'm a bit lost on where to go from here. Hence the upcoming lesson that I'm hoping gets me back on the right path.

 

Deep hands and laid off club at P3.

 

A little deep at the top as well. 

 

Square hips and open chest/shoulders at impact. Need to be more opposite here, I think.

 

 

Pretty good club position, IMO, coming down at P5/P6ish. The cast A and tucked right elbow feels really help here.

 

And some video. The face on perspective really highlights my weight transfer, or lack of, issues.

 

 

 

[rondo01]

Looking forward to seeing what monte says for you, but I wonder if anyone else sees lead wrist flexion at p5/6?

[BigTerp1524]

28 minutes ago, rondo01 said:

Looking forward to seeing what monte says for you, but I wonder if anyone else sees lead wrist flexion at p5/6?

Yeah, me too!!!

 

Good catch. It does look flexed in the picture above. I went back and looked through the video on my phone and it doesn't look to be flexed before and after that position in the picture. 

 

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I went to Monte because of the specific issues you're having--that stalling of the hips and the flip of the hands through impact. Your face-on and DTL impact position looks almost exactly like my "before" picture, with the exception that you have a little more shoulder tilt whereas I had a lower left shoulder with a little left elbow bend.

 

Monte tried for the first half of the lesson to get through to me with the arms. For whatever reason, that didn't resonate with me. I just couldn't quite there. He did get the "keep the shoulders closed longer" thing through to me by showing me the difference between myself and Rory at P5--Rory had his hips square and still had his shoulders mostly closed--I did not.

 

For me, the "light bulb" was the comparison with Rory, coupled with taking little half swings where I was trying to get that feeling of the hips getting there while the shoulders remained more closed. It wasn't something that anyone (even Monte) could probably have explained, but once I felt it--and he definitely saw that I did it right--it was the first time I've ever known what the "feel" should actually be. I literally felt that I was back on my left side earlier than before, had a little bit of the squat, and then that left leg driving the left hip backwards, and it was a revelation. 

 

That was the good thing with Monte; he doesn't just have one way to teach things. I suspect that so many of his students have spent years trying to do "hips" and that focusing on arms maybe resets them mentally to "get it", but I was the opposite. He saw that I just wasn't "getting it" so he changed tactics until he found something I understood. But once it clicked, he saw it and we kept working down that line because it was clear that was working.

 

BTW literally for the next several weeks, after every range session the muscles in my left leg just above the ankle, and my left hip, would be sore. The force to push the left hip back was using muscles I had never really used in the golf swing. I was making moves that my body was COMPLETELY not used to... In fact, if I walked away from the range without feeling that soreness the next day, it was feedback that I was probably reverting to the old move. 

[BigTerp1524]

Yeah, we worked on the same thing in regards to keeping the shoulders closed. I got a decent feel for it during the lesson, and experienced what I would consider a well synched up swing. But could never really get that back after my lesson. I worked the crap out of the Justin Rose drill and I think I inadvertently started delaying my hips even more as a result of overdoing that particular drill.

 

I feel like I'm a little more knowledgeable of my own swing now compared to my last lesson in May, so I should be able to correct this "easier" than before. Just need some guidance on how to go about it. Hoping Monte can give me some new/different feels and drills to work this out. I really think it's the last piece to my puzzle to be able to start building a decent and consistent swing.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Yep, and I do want to mention that you shouldn't take any advice from me lol...

 

While it seems that we both had problems with a very similar position, you battle OTT and a slice while I battle a too much in->out path and a big sweeping hook. So even though we both get to the same position, we may be getting there in very different ways and have different fixes to make...

 

[bortass]

On 7/23/2021 at 2:44 PM, rondo01 said:

Just happened to stumble into this. Pretty good blueprint on how to get a little more out of practice.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQmrRR_WTF4

Thanks for sharing this. I'm starting to watch it and already have the book. I'm probably a bit over half through it but haven't gotten to the practice part. There's a lot in the book about how we learn, etcetera. I should either continue slogging through that or just skip to the back of the book where the practice plan stuff is.

[BigTerp1524]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

Thanks for sharing this. I'm starting to watch it and already have the book. I'm probably a bit over half through it but haven't gotten to the practice part. There's a lot in the book about how we learn, etcetera. I should either continue slogging through that or just skip to the back of the book where the practice plan stuff is.

I need to check this out. I keep forgetting!!

[glk]

Some observation on setup and takeaway for your consideration.

 

grip - get the right thumb pad to cover the left thumb - left thumb flat on grip.  Shouldn’t see that left thumb.  Hands need to be together to act as one unit. 
more like this

right shoulder - set in external rotation.   Don’t need to pinch them in as much as Adam shows but need that right arm external - it pulls away in takeaway and gets behind you early.    https://www.instagram.com/p/CKMI6q9FxrB/
left arm looks good.

 

You are cooked from this point on in the swing - you rotate your left shoulder to flatten  shaft and wrists set poorly.    Back of left wrist pointing to the ceiling.         Really hard to hit the ball from here.

Compared to this were you can see back of left hand facing camera - he didn’t roll his left shoulder, elbow still pointing down.

 

From that position your arms are going around you too deep and flat - example guy arms are going up etc.

 

watch your face on video and note how you see the back of your left hand through out the swing and see the ripple effect compared to the example guys swing( posted below)

p6

 

 

watch the back of his left hand versus your left hand - his stays facing the camera way longer in backswing and downswing. 2nd tab has face on view.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ7AXsSsBkr/

 

Something to consider going into your lesson.  Not that you have many thoughts going on in your swing 😃.  But things can be cooked early in the swing from something as simple as rolling a shoulder versus keeping it still (yes your left forearm will pronate a bit to get to the p2.2 position where the back of the left hand faces the camera  - iis all at the elbow).

 

 

and your p2 is pretty good except you havent set your wrists enough at the point - need more left hinge and right extend - and the left shoulder roll makes thing go south very soon after.  And you tend to tilt your shoulders rather than rotate your ribcage - keeps you stuck on left side with late rotation which help getting those arms inside too.  Note the right shoulder versus example below - yours is practically square to camera.

 

 

I know you have a lesson but I couldn’t help myself.  As usual feel free to ignore -   hate seeing people struggle.   Might want to buy a dodgeball or something similar to do this https://www.instagram.com/p/BazdNK7lSr_/

 

shoulder tilt

 

Had this written up for a couple of days and wasn’t going to post it but somehow here it is.  Was a bit of an exercise for me to see what I could see if your swing.    Here now.   Some might be considered but would go with online live with monte.

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by glk

[BigTerp1524]

47 minutes ago, glk said:

Some observation on setup and takeaway for your consideration.

 

grip - get the right thumb pad to cover the left thumb - left thumb flat on grip.  Shouldn’t see that left thumb.  Hands need to be together to act as one unit. 
more like this

right shoulder - set in external rotation.   Don’t need to pinch them in as much as Adam shows but need that right arm external - it pulls away in takeaway and gets behind you early.    https://www.instagram.com/p/CKMI6q9FxrB/
left arm looks good.

 

You are cooked from this point on in the swing - you rotate your left shoulder to flatten  shaft and wrists set poorly.    Back of left wrist pointing to the ceiling.         Really hard to hit the ball from here.

Compared to this were you can see back of left hand facing camera - he didn’t roll his left shoulder, elbow still pointing down.

 

From that position your arms are going around you too deep and flat - example guy arms are going up etc.

 

watch your face on video and note how you see the back of your left hand through out the swing and see the ripple effect compared to the example guys swing( posted below)

p6

 

 

watch the back of his left hand versus your left hand - his stays facing the camera way longer in backswing and downswing. 2nd tab has face on view.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ7AXsSsBkr/

 

Something to consider going into your lesson.  Not that you have many thoughts going on in your swing 😃.  But things can be cooked early in the swing from something as simple as rolling a shoulder versus keeping it still (yes your left forearm will pronate a bit to get to the p2.2 position where the back of the left hand faces the camera  - iis all at the elbow).

 

 

and your p2 is pretty good except you havent set your wrists enough at the point - need more left hinge and right extend - and the left shoulder roll makes thing go south very soon after.  And you tend to tilt your shoulders rather than rotate your ribcage - keeps you stuck on left side with late rotation which help getting those arms inside too.  Note the right shoulder versus example below - yours is practically square to camera.

 

 

I know you have a lesson but I couldn’t help myself.  As usual feel free to ignore -   hate seeing people struggle.   Might want to buy a dodgeball or something similar to do this https://www.instagram.com/p/BazdNK7lSr_/

 

shoulder tilt

 

Had this written up for a couple of days and wasn’t going to post it but somehow here it is.  Was a bit of an exercise for me to see what I could see if your swing.    Here now.   Some might be considered but would go with online live with monte.

 

 

 

Thanks!! Appreciate the well thought out post. It'll take me a bit to digest it all, lol!!

 

As far as grip goes, are you suggesting I strengthening my left hand or make my right hand weaker? I've tried strengthening my left hand a bit (rolling it more over the top of the club) and it feels awful.

 

Good points about my takeaway. You pointed out the same thing months ago about keeping my left elbow pointed more towards the ground in my takeaway. I got better at that but it's creeped back in. Never even considered that while I've been trying to rid myself of being to deep and flattish going up. Also didn't notice how late I was setting my wrist. That wrist set in the takeaway is a big part of the NTC.

 

I understand what you're saying about my shoulders, but don't want to get ahead of myself. We'll see what gives me hell for on Sunday. HA!!

 

Thanks again for the breakdown. It all made a lot of sense. 

[glk]

15 minutes ago, BigTerp1524 said:

Thanks!! Appreciate the well thought out post. It'll take me a bit to digest it all, lol!!

 

As far as grip goes, are you suggesting I strengthening my left hand or make my right hand weaker? I've tried strengthening my left hand a bit (rolling it more over the top of the club) and it feels awful.

 

Good points about my takeaway. You pointed out the same thing months ago about keeping my left elbow pointed more towards the ground in my takeaway. I got better at that but it's creeped back in. Never even considered that while I've been trying to rid myself of being to deep and flattish going up. Also didn't notice how late I was setting my wrist. That wrist set in the takeaway is a big part of the NTC.

 

I understand what you're saying about my shoulders, but don't want to get ahead of myself. We'll see what gives me hell for on Sunday. HA!!

 

Thanks again for the breakdown. It all made a lot of sense. 

Right thumb pad on topleft thumb.   Not strengthen or weaken (though this will get right palm and left palm better aligned and weaken your right hand a bit. Looks like you have the club more in the palm of your right hand when it should be in the fingers

 

Chris Ryan explains it - around 4:20 he starts on right ha d if you want to skip the left.

 

[BigTerp1524]

Had my lesson with Monte yesterday evening. I explained my misses and what I've been working on. He watched a few swings and immediately pointed out my shoulders spinning out early (still) and how that was causing all my misses and issues. We talked about how I've been working on that since my last lesson and how I haven't really got it sorted out. Monte then pointed out my lack of a proper weight shift and re-center (I basically stay on my front side the whole swing) and how this causes my shoulders to spin out. Specifically, I had no right hip rotation on the way back. We worked on getting a weight shift back during the takeaway, then the right hip working around and behind which caused the weight shift/re-center to the front. From there I needed to rotate the left hip back and around keeping it against the "wall" instead of firing my right hip out and sliding forward. When all the above was done correctly, it felt like crap, HA!! But looked awesome on video. Shoulders stayed closed in transition, MUCH better, weight shift and hip rotation were what they should be. I even commented on one video he took that it was the best swing I've ever seen of myself, and I've taken a TON of video of my own swing. I may not have explained the above the best, but basically Monte addressed and corrected my crappy and passive lower body. Which, in turn, corrected my shoulders spinning out early without any thought or intent. Great feeling!! No other glaring issues with my swing that he mentioned. 

 

Lately, I've been feeling kind of stuck in my progression. I knew what my issue(s) were/are, but just felt like I was spinning my wheels with no clear direction on what I needed to do and not making much progress. The lesson with Monte got me back on track with something specific to work on that made a lot of sense, fixes a few of my faults and something I could really feel. Going to take some time to get comfortable with it all, but I'm prepared for the growing pains that it's going to take to get this right. 

[bortass]

Sounds like a great lesson to me. The lower body has always been a bit of a bugaboo for me. Have never been able to figure it out in the past and thus I have an armsy swing. Luckily, Monte's and AMG's videos on the subject have helped quite a bit but it's something I will need to eventually tackle. I'm looking forward to hearing your progress and how it improves your overall playing.

[BigTerp1524]

16 minutes ago, bortass said:

Sounds like a great lesson to me. The lower body has always been a bit of a bugaboo for me. Have never been able to figure it out in the past and thus I have an armsy swing. Luckily, Monte's and AMG's videos on the subject have helped quite a bit but it's something I will need to eventually tackle. I'm looking forward to hearing your progress and how it improves your overall playing.

Thanks. And yeah, it was a well worthwhile lesson. I feel like I've learned a lot about the golf swing in the past 7 or 8 months and I had a good idea of the things I was doing wrong, especially with my lower body/hips as I mentioned last week. I just needed some expert hands to get me going in the right direction. I certainly wasn't figuring it out on my own and honestly, was concerned of making things worse trying to self-diagnos. This is what Monte is great at. He was able to address the issue(s) I was having and find out what feels, drills, etc. worked for me to get me correcting them. Simple and to the point. Anxious to get to work on this.

[BigTerp1524]

Been working a good bit on my lower body and hips. It's starting to feel OK, but more importantly I'm understanding what I'm doing and what I need to do. I'm finally feeling when I put it all together, and man it feels good. It's just a matter of getting in the reps, just like before with everything else. A slightly more forward ball position seems to help. I've noticed my ball position has creeped back just a bit, and with the new move(s) Monte has me doing I have a more lateral move to my front side in transition than before which was leaving the ball too far back in my setup. Watched a video from AMG the other day about this particular thing (covering the golf ball) and gave it a try. Ball striking was immediately better. An interesting note is that I'll occasionally completely miss the ball by bringing the club head too far inside, I basically swing between my feet and ball and completely miss it. Something I complained about and noticed on video previously is that my hands and arms weren't getting any extension at impact, I also always felt a little tied up here as well. Now, when I do what I'm supposed to do with my hips, I feel like I can get good extension at impact and really swing the club through freely. Makes sense I suppose, that the above can happen when my old habits blend with the new moves. It's such an interesting, frustrating and at times comical progression working on something new in the swing.  

 

I've got a round scheduled for tomorrow morning, FINALLY. It's only going to be a high of 102*, so that part should be fun!! I'm 2 weeks out from my lesson with Monte and have been working pretty hard on what we went over. Going to have to really focus on just executing each shot tomorrow and not let swing thoughts creep in. 

[bortass]

Good luck with your round tomorrow! Don't melt. How humid is it going to be?

 

One kinda funny thing but it makes sense is when I swing near perfect, it feels effortless. At least that's the word I'll use, the swing feels so different in those cases. The ball just takes off with a high draw and goes 15-20 yards long with my irons, lol.

[BigTerp1524]

41 minutes ago, bortass said:

Good luck with your round tomorrow! Don't melt. How humid is it going to be?

 

One kinda funny thing but it makes sense is when I swing near perfect, it feels effortless. At least that's the word I'll use, the swing feels so different in those cases. The ball just takes off with a high draw and goes 15-20 yards long with my irons, lol.

Thanks. 60-70%ish humidity tomorrow, LOL!!

 

Effortless is a good description. I get the same feeling along with powerful, or at least more powerful with less effort than before. It's funny the things that typically feel powerful for me is usually my body compensating and creating extra effort that might feel like power or swinging harder or whatever when in reality it's just wasted effort.

[betarhoalphadelta]

2 hours ago, BigTerp1524 said:

Been working a good bit on my lower body and hips. It's starting to feel OK, but more importantly I'm understanding what I'm doing and what I need to do. I'm finally feeling when I put it all together, and man it feels good. It's just a matter of getting in the reps, just like before with everything else. A slightly more forward ball position seems to help. I've noticed my ball position has creeped back just a bit, and with the new move(s) Monte has me doing I have a more lateral move to my front side in transition than before which was leaving the ball too far back in my setup. Watched a video from AMG the other day about this particular thing (covering the golf ball) and gave it a try. Ball striking was immediately better. An interesting note is that I'll occasionally completely miss the ball by bringing the club head too far inside, I basically swing between my feet and ball and completely miss it. Something I complained about and noticed on video previously is that my hands and arms weren't getting any extension at impact, I also always felt a little tied up here as well. Now, when I do what I'm supposed to do with my hips, I feel like I can get good extension at impact and really swing the club through freely. Makes sense I suppose, that the above can happen when my old habits blend with the new moves. It's such an interesting, frustrating and at times comical progression working on something new in the swing.  

 

I've got a round scheduled for tomorrow morning, FINALLY. It's only going to be a high of 102*, so that part should be fun!! I'm 2 weeks out from my lesson with Monte and have been working pretty hard on what we went over. Going to have to really focus on just executing each shot tomorrow and not let swing thoughts creep in. 

 

Yeah, when you get the hips out of the way there's a lot more room for the arms 😉

 

Glad to hear this is working well. Sounds like we're working on a lot of the same things, and I completely understand how much better it feels when you do it right. I get the same thing--just wish I got that more often lol.

 

Good luck in your round! I'm playing as well tomorrow, and it should be "only" a high of 90* and humidity of 39%, so at least I'll have it a little easier. 

[BigTerp1524]

3 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Yeah, when you get the hips out of the way there's a lot more room for the arms 😉

 

Glad to hear this is working well. Sounds like we're working on a lot of the same things, and I completely understand how much better it feels when you do it right. I get the same thing--just wish I got that more often lol.

 

Good luck in your round! I'm playing as well tomorrow, and it should be "only" a high of 90* and humidity of 39%, so at least I'll have it a little easier. 

There's so many new feels currently, mostly good, but yeah feeling like the arms have more room or are more free is definitely one of them.

 

Good luck to you as well. I'll be alright in the heat. We are riding, so it won't be too awful.

[betarhoalphadelta]

I was thinking about this reading another thread...

 

For me it's a weird feeling. Essentially it's like as I'm approaching transition, that I'm "falling" onto my left side, and feel my left knee gain flexion almost like a squat, and my upper body drops an inch or so in height too...

 

My brain is screaming at me that I'm going to dig the clubhead through the turf and stick it down into the ground all the way to the grip because everything feels just so much "DOWN" to me at this point in the swing. 

 

Then I push off the left foot to get the left hip moving backwards, my torso and shoulders and follow and arms start moving out and around instead of getting stuck inside, and instead of digging a hole to China with the club I make perfect contact and the ball launches like it was shot out of a cannon.

 

It's that weird thing that doesn't feel like it should work, and then the results speak for themselves lol...

 

And then on video, it looks like a real golf swing.

[BigTerp1524]

3 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

I was thinking about this reading another thread...

 

For me it's a weird feeling. Essentially it's like as I'm approaching transition, that I'm "falling" onto my left side, and feel my left knee gain flexion almost like a squat, and my upper body drops an inch or so in height too...

 

My brain is screaming at me that I'm going to dig the clubhead through the turf and stick it down into the ground all the way to the grip because everything feels just so much "DOWN" to me at this point in the swing. 

 

Then I push off the left foot to get the left hip moving backwards, my torso and shoulders and follow and arms start moving out and around instead of getting stuck inside, and instead of digging a hole to China with the club I make perfect contact and the ball launches like it was shot out of a cannon.

 

It's that weird thing that doesn't feel like it should work, and then the results speak for themselves lol...

 

And then on video, it looks like a real golf swing.

I've yet to confirm anything on video, but I get much of the same feels you described above!! Especially the falling to the front and how I need to rotate the left hip back. From there, when I do it right, everything comes through effortlessly yet powerfully. Besides getting the weight shift sorted out, the big revelation for me was how the pivot is the left hip rotating around and back versus the left hip rotating out. The latter causes me to slid instead of getting proper rotation of the hips and all sorts of bad things were happening from there.

 

Once Monte got me doing all of the above correctly, it was honestly one of the most uncomfortable swing change I've worked on yet. But it's also become one the quickest ones to get comfortable. Goes to show how bad my weight shift and pivot was and how efficient and athletic it is when done properly. One you get the feel of it you instantly feel it when your off and the results concur. For me it doesn't feel like it shouldn't work instead it feels like THIS is how you're supposed to swing a golf club!!! Excited to continue working in this and really getting engrained into my swing.