Be Better, Brad! (Update 4-11-2024 with new swing videos)

[bortass]

On 3/20/2024 at 9:24 PM, betarhoalphadelta said:

My son had a team match at San Juan Hills today...

 

 

As they say...

 

 

Awesome!

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

On 3/18/2024 at 7:29 PM, betarhoalphadelta said:

Hit the range this morning and got some video. Basically only worked on sway with 8i, and some intermittent pitching just to get reps.

 

It FELT like I wasn't swaying, but the video doesn't look like I've done much to tame it. 

 

 

 

Still gotta work on that first move, buddy. It's a little bit arms pushing away and rolling. Need a bit more up and set. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Made it back out to the range today. One thing I haven't yet done is take any video of my chipping/pitching motion. 

As I said, Monte had diagnosed IIRC a couple of key problems. Too much lateral movement, too much hip activity, head dropping in the downswing, and an active stabbing movement trying to accelerate the hands too aggressively forcing me to then try to stop them to not hit the ball a mile. Err... That's a LOT. 

 

We largely worked on two things:

1. Weight pre-set and trying to take the hips out of it. So you can see my setup here with the trail leg offset, and all my weight on that lead foot. Monte said that this activity with where the trail foot is placed is something I can use as a drill and then move to a conventional stance, or that if it worked for me, might just play that way. I've been playing that way on the course so far. 
2. A better "feel" to somewhat take the overactive hands out of it. What we eventually settled on was feeling that the downswing starts by pressuring / pushing the lead foot. I think that helps me avoid dropping the head/torso, and also gives me literally ANYTHING to think about other than accelerating the hands, and it's helped. 

I'm getting much more consistent contact on that chipping/pitching motion. I'm still trying to figure out distance control, but the more I do it, the better it is. I've taken to instead of playing my 56*/12* wedge square, playing my 60*/6* wedge slightly open. I've always been a little scared of digging in a low bounce 60 if square, and scared of blading a high bounce 56 if open, but opening the 60 exposes the bounce without appreciably raising the leading edge. And I can take a LITTLE more swing at it while getting less carry distance. So it's been more consistent so far, at least on the range. 

 

Below are a short and then longer pitch, both DTL and FO:

 

 

The next thing I've been continuing to work on is sway. Today it felt far more natural than it has at my previous range session. 

 

My "feel" is to pressure the right foot into the ground early in the takeaway. Not to "push off" per se, but to "push down". Essentially the  idea is that I'll be resisting the sway off the ball. To an extent I think my previous attempt I was almost going too far, but this looks pretty good to me so far. 

 

 

It's going to take some practice, though. I need a lot more reps to get the timing right. But I think it feels more "right" and looks better. 

Edited April 11 by betarhoalphadelta

[betarhoalphadelta]

Just checked off an accomplishment. Peloton workout #1000!

 

Since June 2022, I've now amassed 380 rides, 337 strength, 241 stretches, and a smattering of other modalities to round it out. And since I basically don't do warmup/cooldown rides, and do a lot of PZ work, I checked my average for the last 100 rides and I averaged 44.9 minutes per ride. So that's a lot of minutes and a lot of miles--even if I haven't gone anywhere lol. 

 

As it relates to golf, since the start of 2024 I've been doing core every single day, which should help with a lot in a golf swing for rotational stability and strength. I've also recently started adding in lower body strength workouts, which includes quite a bit of squats and deadlifts, which I understand are some of the key moves needed to make better use of the ground and improve distance. And dumbbell work in general helps with grip strength, which I also know is important. 

 

Gonna have to be getting time in on the range and the pitch & putt course, because I'm running out of excuses for why my scores are so bad lol 😂

[bortass]

Great job on your fitness journey!

 

When are you planning on playing next?

[betarhoalphadelta]

On 4/15/2024 at 6:20 AM, bortass said:

Great job on your fitness journey!

 

When are you planning on playing next?

 Next round should be the 28th. Gotta get out to the range several times between now and then, but it keeps getting closed due to rain/muddy conditions. I should be able to get there this week at least though. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Hit the range today. It was so-so. Ended up leaving a little past halfway through the bucket because overall I just wasn't "feeling it". 

 

There were bright spots. I did a lot of my work with the 60* wedge practicing short/longer pitches and I'm feeling comfortable and confident over the ball that I'm not just going to chunk or blade everything. I also worked the 7i to work on the sway and it's feeling a little less like I'm falling over and doing a reverse pivot, and I'm hitting it well. I definitely feel like my body is trying to learn that it doesn't need to slide so much on the downswing (bc it didn't sway in the backswing), which in itself is a little weird. But for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm on the right track with this. 

 

I think I got in my own head trying to get reps in with my reshafted 3 utility iron, which I kept hitting low on the face... It wasn't until my last swing with it that I actually got one out of the center, and I used that as my excuse to call it a victory and put the club back in the bag. But then there was driver. I'm trying to keep that "anti-sway" move from 7i and it was snap hook city. 

 

Didn't take any video today, so you're all spared from that 😉

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Played yesterday at River View. It was a mess.

 

The first hole kinda set the stage. Great shot off the tee with 5i. Draw right into the middle of the fairway. 120y shot with the 52* stuck to 15 feet. Three putt for bogey 🤬

 

Overall it was just a bad day. Driver was useless. Didn't hit a single ball into the fairway with driver all day. Actually that's not true... I hit one into A fairway, but it was not THE fairway of the hole I was playing lol. Ended up putting it in time out, but probably a little too late (w/ only two driver holes left to play). Putting was terrible--took 39 putts. Only had one 1-putt, but that was after a fairly short "chip with the putter" off the fringe, so it was basically gimme territory. Short game was inconsistent as hell. Had quite a few that were poor contact (my usual nemesis) and a few that were decent contact but misjudged distance so still bad outcome. 

 

The upshot was general iron play. Yeah, I had some "WTF was that?" moments and a couple where the left miss crept back in. But for the most part I was making good contact and hitting the ball roughly where I wanted. 

 

So the end result was 51/52 to finish with a 103. A 30.7 differential so obviously didn't affect my index, which remains 24.2 since I also didn't age out any good rounds. That differential even a little better than it should be because although par is 70, there was a hole under construction due to all the heavy rains, a par 5 that was playing 134 yards despite still being on the card as a 5. I made "birdie", which is to say bogey if it were a par 3. So par for the day should have been 68 instead of the usual 70, and so that differential should have been closer to 33. 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

Do you hit driver a lot? Does it get you in trouble a lot? What led you to keep hitting it when it wasn’t working? 

 

Edit: the first point in this video. 

 

Edited Monday at 01:56 PM by TheDeanAbides

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 hour ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Do you hit driver a lot? Does it get you in trouble a lot? What led you to keep hitting it when it wasn’t working? 

 

Edit: the first point in this video. 

 

 

I'm not a "hit driver everywhere" guy. Usually I try to think my way around the course and on certain holes will keep it in the bag if the benefit outweighs the costs. I.e. the first hole on this course is a little over 300 yards, par 4, and relatively tight off the tee (driving range to the right, OB to the left). Which is why I took 5i off the tee--I know that if I hit a decent 5i I'll have a wedge into the green so there's no real benefit to taking on the risk with driver. 

 

Generally, I'm not scared of driver, either. At my cap, I know that I can hit bad iron shots too, so playing an iron isn't without cost. I.e. on 17, after I took the driver out of the bag, I was hitting 5i off the tee on a par 5. I ended up hooking it into the 8th fairway. (Which was ironic as I'd faded my driver tee shot on 8 into the 17th fairway lol.) I actually recovered nicely and gave myself a mid iron into the green on that hole, but it's not like an iron means automatic success. So usually if there's no reason to not hit driver and the distance is beneficial, I hit it. 

 

What got me yesterday is that I should have taken it out of the bag sooner, as you suggest. And that was simply a mental error. With the stuff I've been working on at the range I've been hitting irons better but snap-hooking the driver, and lo and behold that was my driver miss most of the day (hole 8 was the a big exception, and then weirdly on 11 I pull-faded one which I almost NEVER do). I've thought that one issue is that with the swing change I've been screwing myself up at the range and hitting the driver REALLY high on the face, thinking I need a shorter rubber tee. So I thought maybe that wouldn't carry over to the course... But it did. And I thought maybe I'd work through it and get over it... And I didn't. 

[TheDeanAbides]

7 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

I'm not a "hit driver everywhere" guy. Usually I try to think my way around the course and on certain holes will keep it in the bag if the benefit outweighs the costs. I.e. the first hole on this course is a little over 300 yards, par 4, and relatively tight off the tee (driving range to the right, OB to the left). Which is why I took 5i off the tee--I know that if I hit a decent 5i I'll have a wedge into the green so there's no real benefit to taking on the risk with driver. 

 

Generally, I'm not scared of driver, either. At my cap, I know that I can hit bad iron shots too, so playing an iron isn't without cost. I.e. on 17, after I took the driver out of the bag, I was hitting 5i off the tee on a par 5. I ended up hooking it into the 8th fairway. (Which was ironic as I'd faded my driver tee shot on 8 into the 17th fairway lol.) I actually recovered nicely and gave myself a mid iron into the green on that hole, but it's not like an iron means automatic success. So usually if there's no reason to not hit driver and the distance is beneficial, I hit it. 

 

What got me yesterday is that I should have taken it out of the bag sooner, as you suggest. And that was simply a mental error. With the stuff I've been working on at the range I've been hitting irons better but snap-hooking the driver, and lo and behold that was my driver miss most of the day (hole 8 was the a big exception, and then weirdly on 11 I pull-faded one which I almost NEVER do). I've thought that one issue is that with the swing change I've been screwing myself up at the range and hitting the driver REALLY high on the face, thinking I need a shorter rubber tee. So I thought maybe that wouldn't carry over to the course... But it did. And I thought maybe I'd work through it and get over it... And I didn't. 

If you're hitting it high on the face you're coming in too steep. A lower tee isn't going to help that. 

 

It's interesting that you mention thinking your way around and then talk about the mental error or not retiring driver. I suspect that you'd be much more consistent hitting something shorter off the tee more regularly. What's the course you play regularly called? I'd love to see a card. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

2 hours ago, TheDeanAbides said:

If you're hitting it high on the face you're coming in too steep. A lower tee isn't going to help that. 

 

It's interesting that you mention thinking your way around and then talk about the mental error or not retiring driver. I suspect that you'd be much more consistent hitting something shorter off the tee more regularly. What's the course you play regularly called? I'd love to see a card. 

 

Bear in mind--these driver problems are a new thing. If you read some of my previous rounds, I was starting to get to the point where it felt like driver was one of my stronger areas. But I'm in the middle of a swing change to reduce my sway and get a better pressure shift, and it's working nicely for irons but I haven't figured out driver yet. I feel like I'm doing the new thing, but something I was doing previously is conflicting. 

 

The course I played yesterday is called River View, in Santa Ana CA. It's actually not a course we play all that regularly. 

 

There are two courses we play very regularly:

• Oso Creek in Mission Viejo CA: It's 3670 and par 60, with the longest par 4 (of 6 total) being 317 yards. So as you'd imagine, it doesn't lend itself to using driver much. In fact most of the holes are safe with wide landing areas at 200 off the tee but pinch or introduce penalty areas as you reach that 230-260 range. There's only one hole (the long one) that I consistently take driver, and that's because the hole has a creek crossing the fairway just beyond 200 yards. If you try to lay up, but hit it too far, the ball might roll down to the creek anyway, so you almost have to play it as a <150 yard tee shot and then >170 yard approach if you're laying up. Whereas if you can clear the creek, it's a HUGE advantage to just have a little wedge in. 
• San Juan Hills in San Juan Capistrano CA: There's a decent amount of driver on this course. I'll often take less than driver on #1, always on #6, always on #13, and I've vacillated between driver vs less on #15, but the more I have looked at it I think driver is the better play. 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

53 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Bear in mind--these driver problems are a new thing. If you read some of my previous rounds, I was starting to get to the point where it felt like driver was one of my stronger areas. But I'm in the middle of a swing change to reduce my sway and get a better pressure shift, and it's working nicely for irons but I haven't figured out driver yet. I feel like I'm doing the new thing, but something I was doing previously is conflicting. 

 

The course I played yesterday is called River View, in Santa Ana CA. It's actually not a course we play all that regularly. 

 

There are two courses we play very regularly:

• Oso Creek in Mission Viejo CA: It's 3670 and par 60, with the longest par 4 (of 6 total) being 317 yards. So as you'd imagine, it doesn't lend itself to using driver much. In fact most of the holes are safe with wide landing areas at 200 off the tee but pinch or introduce penalty areas as you reach that 230-260 range. There's only one hole (the long one) that I consistently take driver, and that's because the hole has a creek crossing the fairway just beyond 200 yards. If you try to lay up, but hit it too far, the ball might roll down to the creek anyway, so you almost have to play it as a <150 yard tee shot and then >170 yard approach if you're laying up. Whereas if you can clear the creek, it's a HUGE advantage to just have a little wedge in. 
• San Juan Hills in San Juan Capistrano CA: There's a decent amount of driver on this course. I'll often take less than driver on #1, always on #6, always on #13, and I've vacillated between driver vs less on #15, but the more I have looked at it I think driver is the better play. 

 

I hear you. Just as an aside, I got to single figures (so many years ago that we were still using wound balls!) without carrying any woods. 3 iron off pretty much every tee. If it was a long par four I accepted not reaching in two. My entire game was built on hitting it straight, which meant that it was there when I bought a driver. 
 

This also meant that I had to develop a solid short game. 
 

I often recommend this idea until a player is really effective on the range with the longer clubs, as they can be introduced later, but I get that we’re in a different era.