Video diary of improvement.

[GZS]

From the makers of YOUR HELP!

Well, I have a thread in I&A, but I just now noticed that I should probably be posting my videos in here. So, I'll leave that thread to die and start a proper diary-esque thread here so that I can keep track of my progress and get input whenever you all would like.

Reasons for the change in swing:
Too steep.
Unable to work the ball.
Slight inconsistencies.

(My) proposed solution/s:
Use the lower body for power, arms for control.
Flatten swing as a result of the change in power.

(Your) proposed solution/s:
Shorten backswing by A LOT. The abbreviated backswing should give much more control and consistency.
Increase spine tilt at address.

Overall advice thus far:
Focus on the movement.
Take small steps to work toward the greater goal.

Old videos:
Can be found in the I&A section in the thread "Changing your swing". It won't allow me to have so many links in the thread. :(

Current Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0A5qMYfvLM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqC7WF1maIE

- The third from yesterday.


Things that I am trying to work on:
Flattening the swing even more.
Abbreviating the backswing.
Keeping the right elbow tucked.
Spine tilt at address.
Consistent strong grip.

I will update progress in the form of video and more than likely just posts as I was doing in the other thread. It is very much a reinforcement of the ideas, for me.

Your input is always welcome, even if it is mean... telling me that I'm an incompetent golfer and I'll never be scratch. I'll take it all!

[GZS]

Well, I decided to go take a look at some videos of Vijay, whom I believe my swing looks most like, to see how I was looking at impact and I am proud to say that at impact, I am pretty spot on.

My backswing and downswing pre-impact leave much to be desired... but it appears that I manipulate the club just enough to get it done correctly.

I have not picked up a club this week with the exception of yesterday before the wife and I were going out. I grabbed a 4i out of my bag at the back door, swung it twice and threw it back in the bag. She gave me the evil eye and I told her that it was because I had not touched a club this week, and we cannot get any progress without actually swinging. I did not want to say that I hadn't touched a club all week!

Again, my right elbow is all jacked up. I am manipulating the elbow to get the correct height at the top as opposed to bending my wrists.

I, oddly enough, do not appear to use my arms enough. From what I gathered of my videos, I start my swing with my legs. After I get my legs about 3/8th of the way cleared, my shoulder turn really starts. Once my shoulder turn starts and it pulls my arms, I appear to wait even longer. It is not until I am more than 1/2 way through my hip turn that I actually begin the downswing with my left arm. I believe that with the proper backswing, wrist movement and turn, that I can use my arms and lag to generate a LOT more club head speed.


Anyone's input would be greatly appreciated.

[GZS]

No real update today other than I went out for 9. We were supposed to do 18, but rain hates me.

I woke up at around 3 and my telephone had a text! My normal partner asked if I'd like to go out for a round. I hopped out of bed and grabbed my son from school. I did not even check the weather, but it was a bit chilly. I grabbed him some play clothes and my buddy came to pick us up. We went out to a course about 40 minutes away with the intent on playing 18. He had his woman with him and I, my son.

I could write a freaking book with how awesome it was to take my son. This was the first time that he has went with me. It was fun.

Long story short in regards to my play;

I played horribly. It does not make any sense to me. I'm putting phenomenal divots. I'm making a semi-correct swing. I imagine my club head speed is near what it was with my old swing. I keep leaving the ball short! Granted, today we had gotten to the 3rd hole and it started raining. No thunder/lightning... just rain. Consistent, heavy rain.

The only thing that saved my round was my sand wedge. I love that club and I can point and shoot with it. Otherwise, it was just bleh. The 16th is a par 3, 180 yards from an elevated tee box. The green is 10-12 feet below. Being that it was pouring down rain, I grabbed my 6. That's right... MY 6! I gave it a nice fluid swing with the ball back in my stance a bit to keep the spin high and I left it 20 yards short. My hybrids are doing very well.... but now my irons are suffering. I know that I play a shaft too soft for my swing, but holy wow... My 52 has always been a bad club for me. Swinging for the fences, I can only get it 110 yards. No idea why. It is just a terrible club. I was 80 out and gave it a peppy swing.... 20 yards short.

The one thing that really made the round worth the effort (other than my son coming) was the last hole. We get to the tee box and my buddy says "7 irons for the entire hole." Hell, I'm game. It's pouring down rain and we have both played poorly. We're not getting to the front 9, let's do it. Then I went to grab my 7 and saw that beautiful 2 iron in my bag. "Let's hit this!" I said, later stating that we could not use tees.... to hit the 2i off of the box. He steps up and absolutely chunks it. I give it a go and pure it. I have hit the club one other time and it was the same result. Slight draw, 230ish yards. The trajectory on that club is awesome! The shaft is probably 3 inches too short, but screw it. It's fun! At any rate... solid tee shot! He decides to hit 2 or 3 more... the last he somehow managed to hit straight up in the air. He hits a driver and then decides that we need to hit 7 irons again. I'm ~195 yards to clear a river. I could hit my normal 7 iron and lay up or attempt to hit a proper 7 and carry. My son hops out of the cart "Okay, this is what you need to do...." and proceeds to show me a perfect golf swing. "Keep it straight!" he says. (He has never had a lesson, and where he found a perfect swing is beyond me...) I do my usual mathematical formulas in my head to not actually think about the swing mechanics and give it a go.

Impact felt good. Very good. Trajectory was spot on. Follow through was stable, though a bit extended. Divot was perfect. 1/4 inch deep 3 inches long. Everything adds up. This HAS to be a good shot. 195ish was my carry and I cleared it by 2 yards max. The ball hit the fairway on the other side and hopped into the rough. My son jumps for joy and the round is saved. I get up to the ball, still having to use my 7 iron and punch to the green, leaving me 20 feet for birdie. Anything inside of 20ish feet were were taking automatic 2's because of the flooded greens. A par.....

To make matters worse, we stop on the way home to get our wives pie at this local bakery. I look closely at him and he is bone dry. I comment on that and he tells me that he is a waterproof jacket and pants. His shoes being waterproof as well. Here I stand, completely soaked from head to toe..... my son as well. He knew that it was going to rain. BLAH!

[matt11]

why are you hitting golf balls in the street?? hahaha

[schlyer]

I'm not so sure of your impact position. At :14 of the face on video, your hands are behind the ball at impact. The angle you create between the club and left arm at the top of your swing doesn't stay very long - looks like a cast.

[GZS]

[quote name='schlyer' timestamp='1316496023' post='3576389']
I'm not so sure of your impact position. At :14 of the face on video, your hands are behind the ball at impact. The angle you create between the club and left arm at the top of your swing doesn't stay very long - looks like a cast.
[/quote]

I was looking so closely at that the other day when I reviewed all of the videos that I had taken.....

I think due to the lack of quality in the camera, and my inability to spot exactly what I was doing wrong, I missed this.


I do not believe that I am casting, per say, but I do believe that I am releasing entirely too soon. I rewatched the aforementioned videos of Vijay and the shaft is parallel to the ground [b]much[/b] later in the swing. I think that this is attributing to my inability to hit the driver, now. More work to do!

Thank you for pointing that out.



Edit: Scratch that.... I'm casting it. It's even more evident in the DTL video.

Edit again: After reading Monte's blog, it appears that the casting, although making clean contact, is causing me to lose the distance that I should have. It all makes perfect sense!

[GZS]

[quote name='matt11' timestamp='1316492365' post='3576284']
why are you hitting golf balls in the street?? hahaha
[/quote]

Practice balls. I do not think that I could have convinced my buddy to stand in front of me, with a full swing, hitting a real golf ball.

With that being said, [b]ABANDON SHIP![/b]

I am scrapping everything and starting over. After the above mentioned casting revelation, reading Monte's blog, reading the book from the other thread, and revisiting the round yesterday, I'm going to start over.

With the amount of progress that I have made thus far, I am confident that I will be able to pull this off. I watched quite a few videos of people who have abbreviated swings and I think that Monte is correct. In his blog, he stated essentially that if the tour players were successful with an abbreviated swing, why couldn't we be? If it allows me to strike the ball correctly, be accurate, and accomplish all of my goals..... why would I not do it? I have nothing to lose at this point.

The positive of it all is that my sand wedge is my strongest club. Oddly enough, every swing that is not a full swing is done with an abbreviated swing.... much like the 9-3 drill. Distance is gauged by hip movement..... and as above, it is my "point and shoot" club. Even in the horrid conditions yesterday, I was rock solid with it. Something has to be right!


Timing will be a huge issue. I expect that a lot of practice will solve that, as even the plane change that I made proved difficult to get the timing down correctly. I'll work at it!

[GZS]

Pretty good progress today. I'm stopping the backswing when my left arm is parallel to the ground, leaving it similar to the 9-3 deal. My follow through is much longer, but that is okay with me.

The swing feels very weird. It feels like I am loading the shaft much differently. The club head does not race in front as much, but I did hit one thinner than an anorexic high school chick (sorry neighbors! I was using real balls today.)

I am having trouble keeping the club on plane through the backswing. My mind, for some reason, decides that the club needs to be perpendicular to the ground as opposed to on plane. Granted, this is how my original swing was, so I expect with some more practice I will be good to go.

[GZS]

It's been a very busy few days, but I did get to the range on Friday. I took my daughter and son, both whom are just whacking balls for the heck of it.

How did it go for me, you ask? How nice of you!

I don't know. The distances with the range balls were so off, that I don't know how to feel. I was putting some back into my 5 iron and the range markers indicated that it was going 130 yards. My pitching wedge spot on to the 100 yard marker. My 2 iron, which I was striping like a champ, was far.

Distances aside, I felt good about it. I felt much more in control and consistent. I was playing the ball slightly forward which led me to pull the ball, but they were straight pulls and I did not try to correct it. I just wanted to exaggerate the appropriate swing path to a forward stance so that I was certain that I was actually making proper contact.

Contact felt good. I took my old Ping Zing 2 knock offs instead of my normal gamer set. These have a considerable amount more "feel" to them, so I knew exactly when and where I mishit. Mishits were few and far between, but I did slice a 3i badly once. The club nearly twisted out of my hand.

I watched a few videos of Monte previous to going and I saw just how much power that he generated with his hips and a short swing... so I tried to swing for the fences with my lower body. It turned out okay. Nothing astonishing, but I did stripe that 2 iron a few times and it felt great.

My issues:

The lateral movement that I typically make is seemingly lost. I still end up in the same place, but perhaps I am doing it much later in the swing. I feel like the compact swing is causing me to do everything so quickly and precise that the margin for error is much smaller. (Lateral movement to shift the weight to the left foot in the downswing).

I have no idea where to finish my follow through. My mind tells me to stop at 3 o'clock, but I generate enough force to finish fully.

While I know that you should not focus on distance at a range, the distances with my clubs frightened me. It is an ego/macho thing, but that will screw with your head! With that being said, if the balls were old/crappy then the covers should have been deteriorated. I only looked at the face 4-5 times and saw remnants of the ball in the grooves.

That's all for now.