Friday evening I grabbed my video camera and setup shop in the living room to figure out why I've been feeling somewhat disconnected in my swing. It's hard to describe the feeling, but every once in a while I start feeling weak with my swing, particularly with the driver. I feel off-balance and like my arms are sort of flying all over the place.
This would be in contrast to a very powerful rotation and in balance follow through when I feel connected.
I'm able to take full swings in the living room when I do this, but I also do a lot of slow motion "live" with the camera hooked up to the TV so I can see the motion as I feel it. It's a setup that's worked out pretty well for diagnosing swing issues.
Anyway, I focused again on the takeaway as I was a few weeks ago. I have always had a habit of pulling the clubhead inside my hands during the takeaway, and it's what I caught myself doing on video. The result of doing this is a sort of loop around between my backswing and downswing, where I bring the clubhead too far inside during the backswing, get really steep with my arms near the top, and loop it back down to bring it on plane on the downswing. I've realized this causes all sorts of fun issues with my balance, maintaining angles, and ultimately consistency.
So the key now is to maintain arm, wrist, and hand angles until about the 8 o'clock position. I also let my hands get closer to my right thigh as they move in an arc from the shoulder turn while maintaining the clubhead outside of the arc my hands create. From this point it gets a little more complicated for me. Provided I've done that well, my right elbow should be in a position close to my side and ready to fold up. If I let my right elbow fly out a behind me at this stage I can almost guarantee a hook or big draw.
But if my right elbow is in a good position then I'll feel the connection and know that I'm in a good position and can "turn and burn" for a great shot.
One key though that I need to remember is to make sure I'm balanced in my setup. I'm finding myself too much on my toes at address, and when I'm like that I tend to fall closer to the ball during the downswing. I need to remember to get in a solid, neutral balance position prior to initiating the takeaway, and I need to remember to do that moreso with the driver where the longer club can more easily pull my entire upper body out of alignment.
Basically I spent all weekend working on these things. I worked on it at the range and on the practice course and mixed in different types of drills, shot shapes, and targets throughout the repetitions. It'll take some time to fully absorb the motion I want to have, but the mental-physical connections are starting to solidify already. With more quality practice over the next few weeks I shouldn't have to think about the takeaway too much.
I also spent a lot of time working on chipping this weekend. I specifically focused on hitting my targets around the green in terms of identifying and hitting landing spots for the chip. For lies, I focused on lies in thick rough and mostly short-sided to the pin since I've been having trouble with that lately and my aggressive play to pins has led to many instances of being short-sided.
At this time of year I'm trying to get in as much work as I can throughout the week. Originally the plan was to take it easy and start getting ready for Nationals in August, but after thinking about it I decided I ought to take advantage of the weather and the longer daylight hours of the summer. So, that's what I'm doing. It'll probably be like this for me until October.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
TS Debbie
The Tropical Storm is sort of messing up any practice time right now. It's a good break though. Sometimes you need a break to rejuvenate. Looking forward to getting out on the course, possibly tomorrow. If anything the weather looks very good for Thursday and the rest of the weekend.
I kind of decided that unless there's a compelling reason to play, I won't play in any more tournaments until August. I'm kind of happy to spend time working on things, plus I get the nice Tahoe vacation in a few weeks. After that I can start getting back in tournament shape. Meanwhile I'll continue to focus on more mechanical improvements.
I kind of decided that unless there's a compelling reason to play, I won't play in any more tournaments until August. I'm kind of happy to spend time working on things, plus I get the nice Tahoe vacation in a few weeks. After that I can start getting back in tournament shape. Meanwhile I'll continue to focus on more mechanical improvements.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Mentally Tired
I suppose this weekend is a good example of how I play when I'm mentally worn out. I didn't play terrible this weekend, but it wasn't as good as I should be playing and mentally I could never get any kind of concentration going. Some stuff happened at work this past week that was a culmination of a years' worth of frustrations, and by the end of the week I was mentally worn out. It's carried over into my golf game.
Having said that, out of the 3 rounds I played I did have a great round on the aerated Champions course, shooting a 1-over 73 playing from the black tees. The other two rounds were on the Legends course at 77 and 79. My balance felt off most of the time, but I think it was more mental than anything. I say that because I was perfectly fine on the range.
Short game hurt a bit too. Recently I modified my grip when chipping to be more neutral instead of strong, and I'm having trouble trusting my chips out of the rough.
I spent some time practicing as well, working on full swing and short game. I've been waiting on the greens to recover from the recent aerification so I can practice putting. With all the rain we're getting this week I should be able to start doing that soon. My putting stroke did feel a bit off, but again I didn't have the mental energy to do the visualization I've been working on when putting either.
Overall I'd rate my practice and play this weekend average. The more neutral grip is starting to feel comfortable, and I'm learning how to shape the ball on the course. I won't worry too much about the negatives this weekend until I get through this mental spell. This week looks to be a wet week with the tropical storm, so I'll have to take advantage of any opportunities to practice.
Having said that, out of the 3 rounds I played I did have a great round on the aerated Champions course, shooting a 1-over 73 playing from the black tees. The other two rounds were on the Legends course at 77 and 79. My balance felt off most of the time, but I think it was more mental than anything. I say that because I was perfectly fine on the range.
Short game hurt a bit too. Recently I modified my grip when chipping to be more neutral instead of strong, and I'm having trouble trusting my chips out of the rough.
I spent some time practicing as well, working on full swing and short game. I've been waiting on the greens to recover from the recent aerification so I can practice putting. With all the rain we're getting this week I should be able to start doing that soon. My putting stroke did feel a bit off, but again I didn't have the mental energy to do the visualization I've been working on when putting either.
Overall I'd rate my practice and play this weekend average. The more neutral grip is starting to feel comfortable, and I'm learning how to shape the ball on the course. I won't worry too much about the negatives this weekend until I get through this mental spell. This week looks to be a wet week with the tropical storm, so I'll have to take advantage of any opportunities to practice.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Wednesday Round
Played 9 holes with the group last night. Had a bit of a rough start going +6 in the first 3 holes. I wasn't in a good mental state with some frustrations outside of golf, so it took me a bit to get into a better frame of mind.
I did that by the 4th hole though, a long par 5 that I birdied. I went even-par for the rest of the holes to finish the 9 at +5. That's below average for me, but given the start of the round I still took away some positives.
For one, I was able to take the ball flight control to the course. I made mistakes, but nothing unrecoverable. Also, despite the negative mental state I was in at the start, I was able to refocus and turn it around in time to salvage the round. That's not an easy thing to do. Third, the wind made club selection and targeting difficult - it was a 3-club wind so most of the time I was focused on playing the safe shots and staying out of trouble, especially since most of the time the wind played as a crosswind with a slight helping or hurting.
The weekend weather forecast looks grim. Lots of rain. And next week isn't looking much better. I'll have to take advantage of any good weather as it happens, even if that means going to practice early in the morning.
I did that by the 4th hole though, a long par 5 that I birdied. I went even-par for the rest of the holes to finish the 9 at +5. That's below average for me, but given the start of the round I still took away some positives.
For one, I was able to take the ball flight control to the course. I made mistakes, but nothing unrecoverable. Also, despite the negative mental state I was in at the start, I was able to refocus and turn it around in time to salvage the round. That's not an easy thing to do. Third, the wind made club selection and targeting difficult - it was a 3-club wind so most of the time I was focused on playing the safe shots and staying out of trouble, especially since most of the time the wind played as a crosswind with a slight helping or hurting.
The weekend weather forecast looks grim. Lots of rain. And next week isn't looking much better. I'll have to take advantage of any good weather as it happens, even if that means going to practice early in the morning.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Unlocking a New Level
Today I felt like I unlocked a new level in my golf game. It's difficult to describe, but the work from the last few days is really starting to show.
Again I worked on mixing shot trajectories between fade, straight, and draw throughout my clubs. At some point while taking swings I realized that I could pull out a perfectly straight shot on demand. Or if desired I could hit a weak fade. Or perhaps I wanted to just slice the hell out of the ball - to maybe work around trees. Or maybe I wanted to hook it with my driver - not that I've ever seen a hole where I'd need to hook it with my driver - but I could do it.
I think it was around the time I hooked my driver - on purpose - for the third time that I realized I could turn around and fire away a perfectly straight bomb on the next shot with my driver. Then I could hook it again, followed up with another straight shot. And if I wanted to hit a low, piercing-through-the-wind drive, I could pull that out of my back pocket on demand.
In the past if I hooked it I would get a little worried. A second hook would make me nervous. A third hook would freak me out, and I'd spend the rest of the time trying to figure out why I was hooking. Today a hook didn't happen unless I wanted it to. That's different. It's liberating.
Granted, hitting targets exactly as planned is a whole different beast. I also have to better understand how distance is affected. How much distance from my normal straight shot do I lose with a fade? It seems to be about half a club to a club with an average fade (5-10 yards), but if I need to bend it around trees I might be losing 2 or more clubs of distance (20 or so yards).
This is exciting for me. It's always exciting when hard work starts paying off. I've taken a lot of swings in the last 4 days, and my body is feeling it. My upper back is on fire right now in the area of the Latissimus Dorsi. I've probably made 1,500 swings in 4 days, maybe more. My hands are swollen too. As much as I hate doing it when I'm feeling good about things (I like to take advantage of "good" feel in golf) I'll probably take tomorrow off to give my body some recovery time.
Between the recent putting improvements (that are holding) and the work I put in the last few days I'm hoping this is the beginning of the next phase of my game. If so, then perhaps the new goals I'm thinking about for the rest of the year aren't so outrageous after all (top 10 GCAT nationals, qualify for FSGA Mid-Am). We'll see. This is a fun journey.
Again I worked on mixing shot trajectories between fade, straight, and draw throughout my clubs. At some point while taking swings I realized that I could pull out a perfectly straight shot on demand. Or if desired I could hit a weak fade. Or perhaps I wanted to just slice the hell out of the ball - to maybe work around trees. Or maybe I wanted to hook it with my driver - not that I've ever seen a hole where I'd need to hook it with my driver - but I could do it.
I think it was around the time I hooked my driver - on purpose - for the third time that I realized I could turn around and fire away a perfectly straight bomb on the next shot with my driver. Then I could hook it again, followed up with another straight shot. And if I wanted to hit a low, piercing-through-the-wind drive, I could pull that out of my back pocket on demand.
In the past if I hooked it I would get a little worried. A second hook would make me nervous. A third hook would freak me out, and I'd spend the rest of the time trying to figure out why I was hooking. Today a hook didn't happen unless I wanted it to. That's different. It's liberating.
Granted, hitting targets exactly as planned is a whole different beast. I also have to better understand how distance is affected. How much distance from my normal straight shot do I lose with a fade? It seems to be about half a club to a club with an average fade (5-10 yards), but if I need to bend it around trees I might be losing 2 or more clubs of distance (20 or so yards).
This is exciting for me. It's always exciting when hard work starts paying off. I've taken a lot of swings in the last 4 days, and my body is feeling it. My upper back is on fire right now in the area of the Latissimus Dorsi. I've probably made 1,500 swings in 4 days, maybe more. My hands are swollen too. As much as I hate doing it when I'm feeling good about things (I like to take advantage of "good" feel in golf) I'll probably take tomorrow off to give my body some recovery time.
Between the recent putting improvements (that are holding) and the work I put in the last few days I'm hoping this is the beginning of the next phase of my game. If so, then perhaps the new goals I'm thinking about for the rest of the year aren't so outrageous after all (top 10 GCAT nationals, qualify for FSGA Mid-Am). We'll see. This is a fun journey.
Swing Practice
As it always does, the round at Sawgrass highlighted weak areas of my game, so I spent the weekend and will continue to spend time in the coming weeks working on those areas. I also played a couple rounds, but I didn't really keep score and focused more on doing the things I was working on in practice.
My practice consisted of a lot of swings, particularly in the area of shaping shots. The only way to play a course like Sawgrass effectively is to be able to shape shots left-right or right-left. Instead of practicing hitting the ball straight, I would work in sets of three shots - draw, straight, fade. And repeat the process. At the start, most of my swings were with the PW or 7-iron, but I worked through all the clubs. Toward the end of the session I started switching clubs every 3 swings, mostly between the longer and shorter clubs to simulate the switching we experience while playing a round. Occasionally I would mix in high or low shots with the draw/fade, but I'll look at shot height as the next step.
Overall the practice was okay. My backswing felt weird at times, although I may have just been overthinking it. I was able to execute the shots I wanted to execute most of the time, but I had streaks of frustration with thin or fat shots. It'll take time.
I also worked on hitting the "stinger" shot with my 4-iron (no lower iron) and a few times with my 5-wood. I read online that the way to hit it is to move the ball back in the stance, put more of your weight on your front side at address, take a low backswing, and keep your hands low in the follow through of the downswing. Since I've never seen one in person I have no idea what a stinger is supposed to look like, but I love the contact and ball flight I get with that setup and swing. It's almost too easy to hit well. Occasionally I'd push the ball right, but the fix there is to make sure I don't let my hips get too far ahead of my chest in the downswing. I'll have to try it out on the course and see what kind of distance I get out of it. It might become a great tee shot on tight fairways.
I also worked on some short game, and I realized I was letting my grip get too strong when chipping. By weakening my grip to be more neutral chipping has become much more controlled and simple. I like simple fixes like that.
It was a hard weekend of practice, and I'm pretty sore at this point from all the swings. I think between playing a couple rounds and the practice I was on the golf course for about 18 hours. The plan for this week is to get 3 or so days of practice and play in the Wednesday group.
My practice consisted of a lot of swings, particularly in the area of shaping shots. The only way to play a course like Sawgrass effectively is to be able to shape shots left-right or right-left. Instead of practicing hitting the ball straight, I would work in sets of three shots - draw, straight, fade. And repeat the process. At the start, most of my swings were with the PW or 7-iron, but I worked through all the clubs. Toward the end of the session I started switching clubs every 3 swings, mostly between the longer and shorter clubs to simulate the switching we experience while playing a round. Occasionally I would mix in high or low shots with the draw/fade, but I'll look at shot height as the next step.
Overall the practice was okay. My backswing felt weird at times, although I may have just been overthinking it. I was able to execute the shots I wanted to execute most of the time, but I had streaks of frustration with thin or fat shots. It'll take time.
I also worked on hitting the "stinger" shot with my 4-iron (no lower iron) and a few times with my 5-wood. I read online that the way to hit it is to move the ball back in the stance, put more of your weight on your front side at address, take a low backswing, and keep your hands low in the follow through of the downswing. Since I've never seen one in person I have no idea what a stinger is supposed to look like, but I love the contact and ball flight I get with that setup and swing. It's almost too easy to hit well. Occasionally I'd push the ball right, but the fix there is to make sure I don't let my hips get too far ahead of my chest in the downswing. I'll have to try it out on the course and see what kind of distance I get out of it. It might become a great tee shot on tight fairways.
I also worked on some short game, and I realized I was letting my grip get too strong when chipping. By weakening my grip to be more neutral chipping has become much more controlled and simple. I like simple fixes like that.
It was a hard weekend of practice, and I'm pretty sore at this point from all the swings. I think between playing a couple rounds and the practice I was on the golf course for about 18 hours. The plan for this week is to get 3 or so days of practice and play in the Wednesday group.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Wet Week and a Test
It was a wet week in the afternoons around here, so I didn't get to practice at all this week since getting back from the tournament. I did play 6 holes on Wednesday evening until the lightning made me too nervous to play anymore. I stop enjoying golf or having a club in my hand when lightning is around.
With rain hitting again Thursday I got the mirror out and setup the webcam with the V1 software in my living room to get some looks at my swing. I spent about 30 minutes doing some dry swings and working various feels, checking those feels against the video to see how well I was on or off plane, what my body was doing, etc.
Turns out I've been moving my head too much during the downswing. I had the same sort of problem with hitting when I played baseball, although I learned to control it with pitching. Anyway, my head has basically been moving down to the ball and left, or down the line toward my target. The end result is that I don't get a proper hip bump, the club goes outside the line from my shoulders starting their turn too soon, and the clubface closes too early.
I had an opportunity to work on that today, actually, and I love how my swing feels and the ball flight I get when I keep my head from moving all around. I went up to TPC Sawgrass to play the Stadium course today. I played decent (+6), considering my forecaddie made a few mistakes on yardages that led to a few big numbers. I also played much more aggressive than I typically would (hitting Driver when I'd normally hit 3-wood, for instance), which led to me getting in trouble I would normally avoid and further inflated the score. Putting was awesome. Didn't miss a putt within 6' and made a few in the 8'-20' range for birdie. Again, the visualization stuff I've started to do is making a huge difference. Perhaps I need to start taking that to the full swing.
I also wish I could play the course longer, say where the Tour guys play. Playing from the blue tees was too short for me. Granted, it's my fault - I should have played the 3 or 5 wood more often. My distance is getting stupid long for an amateur that's only been playing a few years, and getting in unnecessary trouble with the driver is starting to be a recurring theme if I play tees less than 7000 yards. That's a recent thing for me, so I'll adjust.
Probably the best moment was the eagle on the par 5 11th. I had a monster drive, albeit on the right side of the fairway, which left about 235 to the flag in the front of the green. The wind was helping and left to right, so we decided to play to 220. Worst case if I came up short I'd have a decent bunker shot, but I wouldn't go long and be in more trouble. Well, I took my 4-iron out, focused on doing nothing but treating my head and spine as an axis around which I turn, and the ball took off with a high trajectory and a maybe 5 yard draw. The ball landed just on the green and trickled up to about 8 feet away from the pin. I made the putt to sink my 4th ever eagle.
I enjoy playing the Stadium course. It's such a great test. You get punished for every mistake, and while it's possible to recover, doing so requires a lot of focus and good decisions.
This weekend I'll play a bit and practice. I need to get some reps with the no-head-movement feel, and I'd like to put in some good time with bunkers. They kind of killed me today at Stadium (and last weekend at the tournament), and I haven't felt comfortable in a greenside bunker in weeks.
With rain hitting again Thursday I got the mirror out and setup the webcam with the V1 software in my living room to get some looks at my swing. I spent about 30 minutes doing some dry swings and working various feels, checking those feels against the video to see how well I was on or off plane, what my body was doing, etc.
Turns out I've been moving my head too much during the downswing. I had the same sort of problem with hitting when I played baseball, although I learned to control it with pitching. Anyway, my head has basically been moving down to the ball and left, or down the line toward my target. The end result is that I don't get a proper hip bump, the club goes outside the line from my shoulders starting their turn too soon, and the clubface closes too early.
I had an opportunity to work on that today, actually, and I love how my swing feels and the ball flight I get when I keep my head from moving all around. I went up to TPC Sawgrass to play the Stadium course today. I played decent (+6), considering my forecaddie made a few mistakes on yardages that led to a few big numbers. I also played much more aggressive than I typically would (hitting Driver when I'd normally hit 3-wood, for instance), which led to me getting in trouble I would normally avoid and further inflated the score. Putting was awesome. Didn't miss a putt within 6' and made a few in the 8'-20' range for birdie. Again, the visualization stuff I've started to do is making a huge difference. Perhaps I need to start taking that to the full swing.
I also wish I could play the course longer, say where the Tour guys play. Playing from the blue tees was too short for me. Granted, it's my fault - I should have played the 3 or 5 wood more often. My distance is getting stupid long for an amateur that's only been playing a few years, and getting in unnecessary trouble with the driver is starting to be a recurring theme if I play tees less than 7000 yards. That's a recent thing for me, so I'll adjust.
Probably the best moment was the eagle on the par 5 11th. I had a monster drive, albeit on the right side of the fairway, which left about 235 to the flag in the front of the green. The wind was helping and left to right, so we decided to play to 220. Worst case if I came up short I'd have a decent bunker shot, but I wouldn't go long and be in more trouble. Well, I took my 4-iron out, focused on doing nothing but treating my head and spine as an axis around which I turn, and the ball took off with a high trajectory and a maybe 5 yard draw. The ball landed just on the green and trickled up to about 8 feet away from the pin. I made the putt to sink my 4th ever eagle.
I enjoy playing the Stadium course. It's such a great test. You get punished for every mistake, and while it's possible to recover, doing so requires a lot of focus and good decisions.
This weekend I'll play a bit and practice. I need to get some reps with the no-head-movement feel, and I'd like to put in some good time with bunkers. They kind of killed me today at Stadium (and last weekend at the tournament), and I haven't felt comfortable in a greenside bunker in weeks.
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