McLovin's Journey to Improve

Nice work, Chris! Love seeing the Mav orange flash thru the hitting zone.
 
36 yards gained in carry👏👏👏👏💪
 
@McLovin, what was the spin on the improved version of your swing? It looks like in the earlier example, you have the spin, but in the second one, it doesn’t show spin.
 
this is kinda cool. one of my better driver swings on trackman from our 3rd lesson together back in february of this year.

View attachment 8975907

speed was good for me, but the rest was, well, not good.

and here was one of my better swings from a lesson this month. progress!

View attachment 8975908
Very Nice! I can't remember if you said before, but has your basic shot shape changed? Do you hit more of a draw now?
 
@McLovin, what was the spin on the improved version of your swing? It looks like in the earlier example, you have the spin, but in the second one, it doesn’t show spin.

i don’t want to bother ty again, but iirc it was mid 2k.

the other swing i posted was weird, but was consistently what we were seeing. i’ve always been a low launch low spin guy. but last year i had a different instructor who wanted me to move hard left through impact. obviously i didn’t understand the move, and ended up with a left path and open face.

so ty and i have been working on more of an inside path, with positive attack. high draws.
 
Very Nice! I can't remember if you said before, but has your basic shot shape changed? Do you hit more of a draw now?

definitely. for the last few years my driver shape has been a cut, draw everything else. now driver shape is a draw that can draw a bit too much. not sure if that’s the club or me.
 
definitely. for the last few years my driver shape has been a cut, draw everything else. now driver shape is a draw that can draw a bit too much. not sure if that’s the club or me.
Those numbers that you are generating now definitely indicate draw. You come down the line so straight (which is great) that it wouldn’t take much head closure to be on the left side of your target. Those numbers are simply amazing.
 
Those numbers that you are generating now definitely indicate draw. You come down the line so straight (which is great) that it wouldn’t take much head closure to be on the left side of your target. Those numbers are simply amazing.

36 yards of extra carry is pretty insane. what is even more insane is that swing was a smooth, “chippy” swing. i’m not going after it at all. he just has me more loaded behind the ball, with more time to deliver the club efficiently. we don’t even have a downswing thought anymore. just a lower body thought in the backswing, a slight pause before transition, and let it go.
 
36 yards of extra carry is pretty insane. what is even more insane is that swing was a smooth, “chippy” swing. i’m not going after it at all. he just has me more loaded behind the ball, with more time to deliver the club efficiently. we don’t even have a downswing thought anymore. just a lower body thought in the backswing, a slight pause before transition, and let it go.

That's great to hear! The few times I've really hit a drive well (for me, 250+ vs 220-230) it has felt kind of slow & effortless, so that makes sense to me. Getting your body into the right position & hitting the ball with the right angle of attack, etc. makes a huge difference. So cool to see all your hard work paying off!
 
another lesson today just continuing to refine the lower body movement in the backswing, and hand position at the top. hands are still not really where we want them, but lower body is improving. at first, i was hitting the ball really well. we were excited. but he made a couple tweaks, added some thoughts, and by the end i wasn't hitting it well at all. the takeaway at the end was to keep working on the hips pushing back into the imaginary wall behind me throughout the entire backswing, keep things very soft in transition (no tension), and we added the feel of the head working back to its position at address while maintaining space in the lower body. my head has been shifting back away from the ball into impact, causing some fat and thin contact. so we need to get the head (i.e. weight) back to center at impact, which is scary for someone who has scars deep in his soul from the heel of the golf club. this was probably the first lesson we've had in awhile where i was actually hitting it worse by the end than i was at the beginning. but that's ok, i still feel like i'm owning the movement so much better, and feeling more and more comfortable.
 
feedback videos.

this is something ty had briefly identified before, but hadn't made a big deal about. my first move away from the ball is to twist the clubface closed. like, A LOT. so we need to be mindful about that, and keep the toe from turning in. he wants me to table the head movement work for now, and just focus on lower body spacing and smooth transition until that is more natural.

face on


down the line
 
feedback videos.

this is something ty had briefly identified before, but hadn't made a big deal about. my first move away from the ball is to twist the clubface closed. like, A LOT. so we need to be mindful about that, and keep the toe from turning in. he wants me to table the head movement work for now, and just focus on lower body spacing and smooth transition until that is more natural.

face on


down the line

That's a really interesting little clubhead manipulation on takeaway. Do you feel yourself do it?
 
That's a really interesting little clubhead manipulation on takeaway. Do you feel yourself do it?

i didn’t until today. at the range i could definitely tell now that i’m trying not to do it.
 
i didn’t until today. at the range i could definitely tell now that i’m trying not to do it.
Where do you feel yourself not doing it?
 
Where do you feel yourself not doing it?

right now i don’t. before i wasn’t even aware i was doing it. yesterday on the range i was trying not to do it, almost let the toe open a bit. there were a few times i saw the club twist out of the corner of my eye during the takeaway, so i was aware of it when it happened.
 
another lesson today. we are trying to complete the most recently purchased 5-lesson package by the end of the year. after today we have two more hours.

today was really encouraging. he thought the lower body action was the best it's ever been. right hip depth was great on almost every swing for the full hour.

we started hitting 8-irons, and he kept saying "this is crazy interesting" while i was warming up. the hand/wrist position at the top continues to be a problem, and what he was seeing was that with the better lower body action, but poor wrist position, i was actually driving the hands really low at impact to try to get attack and contact, leading to slightly fat shots. he threw some numbers at me about the path of the shaft or something, i had never really heard it before. something about a typical 8-iron should be around 60*, but i was more like 45* so really low and flat.

instead of introducing any feels to get the hands higher, all he wanted me to try was to add some softness at the top of the backswing. let the weight of the clubhead bring everything down closer to parallel, then just "chip" the ball about 70y. i didn't heed his 70y ask, but i did add softness, and immediately we added 4mph club speed, attack was -3, face and path both 0, and shaft path (or whatever it was) increased to 55*.

so we just hit a bunch of 8-irons, trying to keep the good lower body action, and add that softness at the top. it's kind of a combination of feeling the head weight and letting gravity do its thing, with a slight pause. and it's the same thing we've done a good bit this year, it just takes time for me to understand it. most of what we saw was really super. speed lived in the 82-84mph range, spin over 6k, shaft path staying around 55*, and carry right around 160.

then we switched to driver. spin was average 2k, speed averaging 104, and distance was always a couple yards longer than trackman's optimal numbers. he said trackman will take the swing data, then spit out a calculation of the best possible outcome. on average i was 2 yards farther than the best per trackman (some knuckles for my man @DNevsCG!).

lastly we hit some 55* wedges. he loved what he was seeing, but wanted to add a little more softness. with the wedge, we have to keep the belly button back in transition, and the body rotating through, without losing space in the backswing. in a block of 6 shots, my distance from center was inside 15', 4 of which were less than 5' from center.

i'll post the feedback videos when he sends them.
 
iron feedback

 
driver feedback

 
Nice feedback on those videos! 290 with driver doesn't suck! The overall change from where you started is really eye-opening. Great work so far! And I love Tyler's explanations & coaching - he seems awesome.
 
A lot of hard work put in! The changes are noticeable! Seen gains in score?
 
A lot of hard work put in! The changes are noticeable! Seen gains in score?

no, not yet. sometimes i can put it together. but short game is still holding me back. that will be the focus next year.
 
no, not yet. sometimes i can put it together. but short game is still holding me back. that will be the focus next year.
What is holding you back in the short game?
 
What is holding you back in the short game?




it’s real bad. club gets too far behind me. i can’t swing smoothly. chunks. thins. whiffs. you name it.
 


it’s real bad. club gets too far behind me. i can’t swing smoothly. chunks. thins. whiffs. you name it.

I wish you luck! Struggles are never fun.
 
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