Swing 2.0

So now that spring is here and golf season has rolled around got out the camera and started to work on the swing. To my shock and horror this is what I saw.

It didn't feel like that but that's what the video says. Damn all those swing thoughts and feelings were wrong!

Of course I was trying to get my swing to look like my son's. How does he do that?

I'm just sick of the chicken wings. My son said just keep your arms straight in the follow through. So I tried that and it worked! At least for a while and I thought I had things figured out. Once again I was so exited to try out the new swing and this time I was sure it was it! About the 10 time I've told my wife that.

So this past weekend I busted out the old golf net and harassed everyone in my family to film me. They all dreaded this. I finally ended up setting up a table so that I could place the camera on it and film myself. But further video analysis with the net had me in good positions but I wasn't able to close the club face and everything was going way right. I was also trying to develop more lag and I was just fighting everything to get a swing to look good. My son says he doesn't think about it he just swings. arghh. So the straight arm thing wasn't working.

Then I stumbled upon this site when trying to figure out how to stop casting.

http://www.aroundhawaii.com/lifestyle/health_and_fitness/2007-11_tigers_impact_position_how_to_achieve_it.html

It talked about closing the clubface at the top of the backswing, supination, and rotating the left wrist up right after impact like how Tiger does. Well I tried it and it worked! And I had actually tried it two years ago as the first post of this blog but I didn't know enoughabout golf swings back then and thought it was wrong because it felt weird. Well it was right. And that's what Kelvin says in the article. It feels weird creating supination and he even has a training device to help with that. I was just a huge flipper before. My golf pro with swing analysis didn't even catch that.

I've tried the new swing Monday 18 holes and today 18 holes on two different golf courses and it definitely works. I'm not embarrassed with my swing anymore and can actually hit driver pretty good now. I was even teeing off the far tees today and easily keeping up with the big boys. Here's the before and after.

Impact position

Follow through

The best part about it is that I don't have to think about swinging anymore. I just have to get my wrists in the right position and then the lag, closing of the clubface, power, extension, and divot after the ball all takes care of itself. And best of all I'm straighter no fade/slice and I easily added a club to my distance. And it even helped my chipping.

So I took a huge leap and I think I'm for sure at the next level and this will help me to break into the 80's consistently. These last two rounds have been high and low 80's. Will now work on more athleticism and power.

Better

After watching a friend hit it inspired me and reminded me to shorten backswing, lag, and accelerate through. Finally in correct impact position and extension!

Chicken wings

About a month ago was hitting the 3 wood pretty good until I saw the swing. Oh man the chicken wings!

At least son's swing is beautiful. How does he do that?

Driver

Been working a lot on the driver lately because I've been playing longer courses finally. Played Lesigny and Clement Ader. Now Champigny seems like a pitch and putt.

Everytime it seems like I get the driver down and not slicing it slowly comes back. So I have to try different "magic" things each time to help. The last one was doing a one piece takeaway. That cured the slice for about 2 weeks. Then on the range it came back. So it was either slicing or pulling but never straight. Then just this past weekend it was trying to really flatten out the swing like a baseball swing and go inside out. Well just for fun I was swinging all out and sailed a couple all the way to the other side. I'm sure of this because a guy picked up one of my balls that rolled by him and hit it back. So that's about a 300 yard drive. But the wind was at my back. But it was with practice balls. But it was fun to do that. And it was going straight. Not in the same direction each time be straight.

So still working on the driver which is fickle but irons and hybrid are pretty solid now even off grass.

Shorter backswing

Have to memorize this!!!

Watched Julian the local golf pro swing during practice. Well it must have inspired me somehow to shorten my backswing so I'll have more control. I've gotten more power thanks to my lag now but it's going all over the place. I also forgot to do some of the basic things that I just learned two lessons ago!!!

1. Grip. The club somehow got back in the palm of my left hand over the last month or so instead of in my fingers. I don't know how but I remembered this and put the club back in my fingers and all of a sudden I got the whip back and gained in distance with less effort. Need a drill to remember this!

2. Shorter backswing. In order to try and get rid of my reverse pivot I tried shortening my backswing and then letting the club whip. Usually this resulted in a slice since my hand were usually late. I don't know why but this wasn't happening today. Maybe because...

3. Keep head down. I've been forgetting to watch the club contact the ball and have been either fat or thin. So I really tried to watch the club contact the ball. Then look up to see where the ball went. This really helped as well.

I felt like I wasn't swinging that hard and the ball would just fly with just a slight fade and straight almost every time. I hit my 6 iron about 10 balls in a row that all went nice and far with a great sound at impact. Haven't done that in ages. Tried it out with the hybrid and driver and it worked as well. At least it seemed like I was more like the pros that can just send the ball flying. Once again another feeling like "this is finally it!". This is how it should feel like. Will try to test again tomorrow. I hate how the swing just keeps moving and it's just trying to fight bad habits instead of improving!!

As usual got home and had my son film for reference.

Ryo's video swing analysis

1. Setup. Make sure ball is in middle of clubface. Club in middle of stance. Feet pointing slightly outward like Tiger Woods to have a better finish.

2. Backswing. Need to turn body with arms and keep weight on the left foot.

3. Feeling. Relax arms.

Played a course the other day and he hit his driver 175 yards. 10 years old hitting 175 is pretty cool!

Swing 1.11: Another lesson

Went with Ryo to get a lesson at Rina's. Worked on new things:

1. Stance. Need to relax arms. Narrower stance to let body rotate properly. Bend arms around neck. Backswing starts with left shoulder pushing backwards

2. Visualisation drill. Need to develop more feels because I'm too analytical and perfectionist. So practice swings visualizing where I want the ball to go until I feel like I can do it. Then hit the ball.

3. Clubface position. Have got a slight fade so need to speed up my hands. The drill for this was with hands apart try to have the toe of the club facing straight up after release when pointing towards target. Do a couple of practice swings then when comfortable hit the ball.

For a fade when hitting the ball keep clubface open.

Do exercise of hitting fades and draws.

Oh yeah while Ryo was having his lesson I was hitting balls and was looking at my clubhead speed. The fastest I could get it was when I did the full "Remax" longdrive swing and I got the clubhead to 100 mph at impact. The distance driven was 229 yards.