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McLovin's Journey to Improve

Man, This swing looks so darn good and there are pieces I would kill to steal. This has been an awesome transformation and you and Tyler clearly have it clicking.
 
KEV said:
The swing is coming along nicely Chris. I've enjoyed following along and seeing these improvements over time. It sounds like you guys have a great target for some big numbers, that should add some serious distance compared to where you started. You and I have pretty similar swings so it's been good to see those changes you guys are implementing.
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thanks man. it hasn’t always been fun, but i’d say we are the closest we’ve ever been. things are feeling more natural, and i’m seeing less in the swing to critique. i’d still like the lower body to move more naturally through impact, and i think i could use a little more pause at the top (it looks a little “bouncy” to me), but these are much smaller issues than when we started.

tyler was really happy with everything. he said he wants to dive into short game soon. i think that’s what next year will be. maybe 3 short game lessons for every 2 full swing lessons.
 
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Molten said:
Man, This swing looks so darn good and there are pieces I would kill to steal. This has been an awesome transformation and you and Tyler clearly have it clicking.
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i think if i had more $$$ and time to devote to more frequent lessons, it wouldn’t have taken 7 months to finally start seeing real progress. but to finally see some good improvement, and have a clear picture, is very satisfying. there’s more that needs to be done, but we are close to having a really solid foundation.
 
Helluva change from where you started! Looks so much better, but I imagine the more importantly you’re hitting it better. Lower scores coming soon!
 
Wow, missed a lot of your in between updates, but from the beginning until now is night and day - definitely shows the work and effort is paying off
 
Hope to see this swing when I'm there in December. You're killing it!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
i played yesterday, and basically none of the feels translated. so i went to the range today. my intent was to introduce a long pause at the top, and a smooth transition. i wanted to get video of swings with a sw, 9i, 6i, fw, and driver, both dtl and fo.

well, it started out ok, but it hit a really rough patch in the middle. like full on shanks. to be working on feels that are supposed to create more space, but see an increase in shanks, was neither expected nor welcomed.

it was extremely hard to mentally make myself pause at the top. so i decided to try something different. i looked away from the ball in making a backswing, then paused, looked at the ball, got centered, then made a smooth swing. it went a lot better. i think that will need to be my focus on the range. because when i can make that better backswing, everything is so much easier.

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things have been steadily declining since my last lesson. shanks, tops, pop-ups (a couple of lovely new skymarks on my clubs...), it's been a whole lot of bad and not much good.

it's been a lot of rinse and repeat during this process, consisting of a phenomenal lesson full of eureka moments followed by rapid regression. and then the whack-a-mole swing phenomenon where one lesson the swing is too shallow, the next it's too steep, the next the face needs to stay open, the next we need to close it earlier. whack one mole, and another mole-problem pops up.

there's also a weird confidence thing going on all of a sudden. as short as the backswing is, and as obvious as it is that my rehearsals are trying to push the backswing deeper, every tom dick and harry feels the need to comment and give me their $0.02. i was never one to get nervous when others watched me swing, now i can feel a lot of agitation and nerves. whenever someone is watching me. not a good feeling.

i suppose that's just part of it. trust the process. keep at it and it will get better. it WILL get better, right? RIGHT?????
 
McLovin said:
things have been steadily declining since my last lesson. shanks, tops, pop-ups (a couple of lovely new skymarks on my clubs...), it's been a whole lot of bad and not much good.

it's been a lot of rinse and repeat during this process, consisting of a phenomenal lesson full of eureka moments followed by rapid regression. and then the whack-a-mole swing phenomenon where one lesson the swing is too shallow, the next it's too steep, the next the face needs to stay open, the next we need to close it earlier. whack one mole, and another mole-problem pops up.

there's also a weird confidence thing going on all of a sudden. as short as the backswing is, and as obvious as it is that my rehearsals are trying to push the backswing deeper, every tom dick and harry feels the need to comment and give me their $0.02. i was never one to get nervous when others watched me swing, now i can feel a lot of agitation and nerves. whenever someone is watching me. not a good feeling.

i suppose that's just part of it. trust the process. keep at it and it will get better. it WILL get better, right? RIGHT?????
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It will. Sometimes it just takes one day. Never know.

From an outside observer position, nervousness around others seems like it's been building for a little while. I remember a comment you made a couple weeks ago (I'm not great with time) about how 'it's gotten so bad I don't even like to play with others' or something. I remember it making me pause, because those feelings tend to be a sign of spiraling confidence. I mean, we all get down, and have crap and inconsistent results, but I read that as you being a bit shaken by the inconsistency. Could be totally wrong in that. You mentioned earlier in the year though how you enjoyed the range more than playing lately. All felt like a progression in a way.

Not that I can relate to exactly what you're going through, but I can pretty much trace every shanky shot I've hit this year back to how I felt leading up to it. I mean, I've hit plenty of stinkers, but it takes doubt to find the proverbial hosel.

You honestly sound like your head is just a little mixed up with all the good results/bad results this year and and all the input/changes, and it's creeping into swing confidence. I don't think there's a universal recipe for taking it less seriously, but I do remember another recent post where you said you were having/had a ton of fun playing one day. I think. I can't remember the details. If it were me, I'd look at the reasons that was (outside of golf swings), and try to wrap some/more of that into my time with golf. Maybe spend some time helping out someone else with something about the game? That's the only way I know to get out of my head. Fun, and less about me. That's me though.

Not that you needed my $.02 :LOL: We're not at the range though, so maybe you'll give me a pass! Rooting for you as always man, and confident you'll even it out.

And dude, there are no scores at the range. If anyone goes there to look good, or is trying to while they're there, they're likely not improving. I will occasionally smoke a few just to get a Tom, Dick, and Harry to stfu (because you can't just say that to strangers), but I'm there to work on my flaws. That's rarely pretty.

That look off, pause, look back, and hit thing is pretty impressive btw. I don't think I could do that.
 
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Keep the faith!

Believe me, I am taking 2-3 hr lessons once a month and some are great, some I suck. And then I suck afterwards. It's part of the deal. During the day, I put an impact ball between my arms and practice in the yard, or chip off a mat, hoping it will take. Do the Superspeed drills.

So desperate, I bought a GBox and am about to buy a Down under for training aids - The G-Box looks ridiculous but guys at TXG liked it ... I need to open up more.

If I were you, I'd try to play alone a couple of times and put down 2 balls. Don't keep score. Just see what happens on the course until you feel more confident
 
OldandStiff said:
You honestly sound like your head is just a little mixed up
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this is the answer. head is mixed up. not sure how to fix that. i'll keep an eye on the marketplace to see if anyone is selling a replacement brain.
 
quick range session today. i wanted to send a video to tyler. focus was to push the right hip back and away from the ball in the backswing, set the wrists, and slow the tempo down with a little pause at the top. i hit it pretty good, but lots of hard draws.

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McLovin said:
quick range session today. i wanted to send a video to tyler. focus was to push the right hip back and away from the ball in the backswing, set the wrists, and slow the tempo down with a little pause at the top. i hit it pretty good, but lots of hard draws.

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The swing is really coming along Chris!
 
93civiccpe said:
The swing is really coming along Chris!
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still not getting the trail hip to keep pushing back and away during the backswing. tyler said to shift away from the target even more so i have more time to load in the backswing.
 
McLovin said:
still not getting the trail hip to keep pushing back and away during the backswing. tyler said to shift away from the target even more so i have more time to load in the backswing.
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I can see how that would be beneficial.

I just picked up a GBox and it was delivered yesterday - It showed me how much more I've got to get the trail hip away and my body turning to load ...
 
Desmond said:
I can see how that would be beneficial.

I just picked up a GBox and it was delivered yesterday - It showed me how much more I've got to get the trail hip away and my body turning to load ...
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i need to work on my lead hip through impact and into the finish. it doesn’t clear very well. something like the gbox could be good for me.
 
McLovin said:
i need to work on my lead hip through impact and into the finish. it doesn’t clear very well. something like the gbox could be good for me.
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I am also looking to do both - trail hip back and lead hip and shoulders clearing
 
today we got together for the final lesson in this series. props to tyler for re-arranging his schedule to get me in before hurricane eta's bands passed over us.

my first swings of the day were pretty bad. felt like i wasn't moving freely at all, and the results were bad. he said my lower body was frozen, and i was basically just picking the club up and trying to make a swing. after some time we came to think that my focus was so squarely on setting the wrists, that i wasn't focusing enough on the lower body movement.

so the focus for today was only the trail hip pushing back and off the ball. ty had me do a quick range of motion test. we saw that my external hip rotation wasn't great, but internally it was really good. so we flared the trail foot a bit more, and changed the backswing feel to allow the trail quad/knee to actually twist over the right foot instead of just pushing the hip back. this definitely freed the lower body up more.

then we also wanted the lead hip to move more across the lower body, without letting the lead knee move over the toes. if the knee moves over the toes, that means it's "stuck" which can pull my hips into the ball. we basically abandoned any wrist set feels. to trigger the downswing, we wanted to feel like that trail hip had gotten deep enough, then i could start the downswing. the best swings were when the trail hip got deep; when it didn't less than stellar stuff happened.

we did this with 7i until the feel was more grooved. ss was averaging at 88, with aoa staying at about -4. then we went to driver. it was a unique feel, but we got it grooved as well and the average was 105 for the last few swings, and 3 up. one of the first swings with driver before we really had the feel grooved was 103, 263 carry. tyler said we should be able to add 3mph more ss with driver without really pushing speed, the extra ss will just be from better lower body movement. then we did some little wedge shots with the 56, and had really nice compression and spin.

after this, we decided to do some chipping. again, more awfulness. our focus right now is for the trail elbow to point at the trail hip, with very little speed in the motion. at setup i'm supposed to lean pretty heavily into my left side (trail ear supposed to be in line with the ball). we put the ball on a tee, and the last few shots were really nice. i need to work on this more, but it's not as fun as full swing!
 
here’s a video tyler posted this week that was basically speaking directly to me haha

 
Wow, that's crazy he's basically taking about you. You inspired him to make a video!!

I always like the way he explains things. I watch one of his 50 yd shot vids basically every time I change wedges so I go into the new sticks with my mind right about it. Helps me avoid adjusting to them in ways I shouldn't.
 
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OldandStiff said:
Wow, that's crazy he's basically taking about you. You inspired him to make a video!!

I always like the way he explains things. I watch one of his 50 yd shot vids basically every time I change wedges so I go into the new sticks with my mind right about it. Helps me avoid adjusting to them in ways I shouldn't.
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it’s exactly what we’ve been working on. he sent some videos tonight. i’ll post tomorrow. after our lesson i went to the range and hit some more shots. it was really feeling good. i lasered a target 180 out and was peppering it with a 7i. i lasered another target at 275 and was hitting past it with driver. these are not common things for me!
 
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