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McLovin's Journey to Improve

Greg Kulbick said:
I don't even know what that means.
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Well I know the reference, but unless you use 'panic stroke' a lot, or try to apply it to a lot of situations, I'm not sure I quite get it either. I'll still give @McLovin credit for using a Mean Girls gif either way though.

Good luck with the lesson this weekend, man. Hopefully you get some more good input/feedback.
 
McLovin said:
stop trying to make the panic stroke happen. it's not gonna happen.

...at least not for me haha
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Fine. Stick with your professional instructor.

 
Great start Chris and thanks for letting us follow along your journey. As with any major swing change, success is not overnight but just stick with it, you sound like you have confidence in Tyler so continue with the trust. As others have said, every time out will get easier. Good luck....we’re 100% in your camp.
 
McLovin said:
I decided to commit to improving my game this year. I made a commitment last year as well, but I do not feel the coach I worked with was the best fit for me.

So this year I am working with Tyler McGhie https://www.tylermcghiegolf.com/

I will use this thread to capture my ramblings from lessons, post videos/pics of progress, and capture my thoughts as I work through and struggle with this stupid game.
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Now that you don’t have the pressure of preparing for the force of nature know as Finley... I bet you will start playing the best golf of your life...
 
Just found this thread and got caught up. Improvement showing already and I'm jealous you are working with Tyler. Keep it up Chris!!!
 
McLovin said:
I have another 2-hour session with Tyler this Sunday. We will do one hour of full swing, and one hour of short game. That will conclude this 5-hour block. I want to hit some drivers with him and get some feedback, and also work on a higher-percentage short game shot for when I don't have to take it up top. Then we will talk about what the next step is.

I abandoned the golf shaft drill. I just couldn't get it set up on my own. I took some more video on Sunday, and it showed that the backswing work has not been very fruitful yet. He gave me a good image: Get the club moving through the wrists. Right now, the club is laying off too much to the top of the backswing, and hindering that wrist-set.

Since our text exchange, I have been working on that feel. I've landed on a somewhat new feel, where the thumbs are moving to the top and pointing behind me/down the line. I'm finding that to be so much easier in getting to the top, instead of thinking about the club head. I remember @Tadashi70 saying I'm someone who swings the handle, and I think that may be the key for me. We need to focus more on feeling the handle/hands than the club head.

I'll try to get a video before our next lesson to show the progress (or lack thereof!).
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Hands control the club face, so that makes sense to me. I think other teachers (Malaska maybe?) have said as much. I know I’m a guy who doesn’t feel the club head much during a swing. I have much better awareness of what my hands are doing in space. Good luck!
 
JDax said:
Now that you don’t have the pressure of preparing for the force of nature know as Finley... I bet you will start playing the best golf of your life...
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funny you mention that. I was re-listening to the post-gd shipshow podcast this week. and I made a joke about @zbeekner4 eating more ice cream sandwiches than @EthanatorCG made pars in singles. @JasonFinleyCG goes "at the risk of being an a##hole, did you actually make any pars today?" I said "yes" like it was a stupid question, but quickly followed by "after you beat me" lmao
 
Looking forward to our round together next week. Get a chance to see your progress and play some good golf!
 
zbeekner4 said:
Looking forward to our round together next week. Get a chance to see your progress and play some good golf!
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I am making NO guarantees about the quality of the golf that will be played haha

But I can guarantee we will have a ton of fun together!

I'm excited about this thumbs thought, and to see what Tyler thinks when we get together tomorrow.
 
McLovin said:
funny you mention that. I was re-listening to the post-gd shipshow podcast this week. and I made a joke about @zbeekner4 eating more ice cream sandwiches than @EthanatorCG made pars in singles. @JasonFinleyCG goes "at the risk of being an a##hole, did you actually make any pars today?" I said "yes" like it was a stupid question, but quickly followed by "after you beat me" lmao
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It happens I started playing better after I was closed out too... lol
 
McLovin said:
I am making NO guarantees about the quality of the golf that will be played haha

But I can guarantee we will have a ton of fun together!

I'm excited about this thumbs thought, and to see what Tyler thinks when we get together tomorrow.
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That's the right attitude. As long as you are having fun that's what matters. Hopefully I can get down there to catch a round with you! As I said before, even the early pictures of the position changes look great.
 
Sunday 2/24/20 was the last lesson in my first series with Tyler. It was another 2-hour session. I told him I wanted to do a few things in this session:
*Film my swing before the lesson and after the lesson so I can see what my potential is.
*Work on driver
*Grab some Trackman numbers
*Check in on progress with flop shot
*Work on "standard" lower-flight greenside chip
*Discuss next steps

Due to a busy day, I wasn't able to arrive until right at the appointment time. So my warm-up was just a couple shots, then dove right into it. Tough to say for sure, but I felt rushed and never rekindled the fuller set I felt I was achieving earlier in the week. Filming confirmed we really hadn't added much (if any) set in the backswing. I told Tyler that as much as I liked the drill with the alignment sticks in the bag, I just couldn't get it set up properly on my own so we needed to find something else.

We set an alignment stick on the ground at the target. Then placed another stick at a 45-ish* angle, about 5' off my back foot. We stuck a tee in the butt end of the iron, and I worked on making a backswing with a wrist set such that the tee would be pointing at the top of the stick (good wrist set), instead of low on the stick (limited wrist set). We had some success with it, even hitting some 7i shots with an apex of 92' and spin of 6,800rpm with a range ball. That's hugely different for me, so encouraging.

Then we moved to driver. He asked what my miss was, and I said a low-face contact, bleeding cut that would still find the fairway or just into the right rough but without much height, carry or distance. He confirmed that my SS was still just over 100mph, but my spin was in the mid to high 3k, and launch was very low and therefore carry and distance were low.

We made some setup changes. Tee the ball up, then hover the driver and check where the sweet spot was. It showed too far to the heel, so we set the club with ball a little more off the toe. Then we changed my foot path to be a little closed to target. And Tyler stuck an alignment stick about 5 paces to the target, and a few paces to the right of my target line (think first base line). We started by getting the club more in front of me in the takeaway. The feel was to point the butt end of the club at my left hip at shaft parallel. Then from the top, swing along the foot line and release the head hard at the alignment stick.

Contact immediately moved up the head, and spin dropped by over 2k on a couple shots, but lived in the low 2k instead of mid-high 3k. The flight was a straight to gentle draw. We added a little club speed, but picked up about 25y carry. I felt good about it.

Then we moved to the short game area. We started with the high flop. While I wouldn't say it was perfect shot after perfect shot, Tyler liked my progress. So we didn't spend a ton of time with this shot. We mixed in the 56 and 60 so I could get a feel for different distances needed for the respective lofts.

We spent the rest of the short game time working on a higher-percentage, lower flighted chip. He said my setup was really good, no issues there. My issue starts off the ball in the backswing, where I get the club too far inside. So we set up a station with an alignment stick down the target line, then another stick off my back foot, at an angle approximating the shaft angle at address. Ii had to make short, waist high backswings and not hit the stick, then make a draw-type swing through impact. We got in a nice groove, but I kind of lost it at the end.

Lastly, we discussed the next steps. He said he wants to use the 3d motion again with the audible feedback. And he wants to go on the course and play a few holes to see how it's all coming together, and whether we need to pivot a bit. With as little progress as I've made in 5-hours and daily trips to the range over 3 weeks, it feels a little daunting right now. To be frank, I'm just disappointed in myself for not achieving any of the goals or making any repeatable progress yet. But I'm committed, and I'm confident I have the right guy to get me over this hump.

I have two videos, but Tyler said he's going to send more in the AM. Once I have them, I'll update the thread.
 
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I spent 3 yrs taking lessons on an average of once per month before everything started to take... so don't get discouraged. Working on short game now and closing the face of the driver and fairways
 
McLovin said:
Sunday 2/24/20 was the last lesson in my first series with Tyler. It was another 2-hour session. I told him I wanted to do a few things in this session:
*Film my swing before the lesson and after the lesson so I can see what my potential is.
*Work on driver
*Grab some Trackman numbers
*Check in on progress with flop shot
*Work on "standard" lower-flight greenside chip
*Discuss next steps

Due to a busy day, I wasn't able to arrive until right at the appointment time. So my warm-up was just a couple shots, then dove right into it. Tough to say for sure, but I felt rushed and never rekindled the fuller set I felt I was achieving earlier in the week. Filming confirmed we really hadn't added much (if any) set in the backswing. I told Tyler that as much as I liked the drill with the alignment sticks in the bag, I just couldn't get it set up properly on my own so we needed to find something else.

We set an alignment stick on the ground at the target. Then placed another stick at a 45-ish* angle, about 5' off my back foot. We stuck a tee in the butt end of the iron, and I worked on making a backswing with a wrist set such that the tee would be pointing at the top of the stick (good wrist set), instead of low on the stick (limited wrist set). We had some success with it, even hitting some 7i shots with an apex of 92' and spin of 6,800rpm with a range ball. That's hugely different for me, so encouraging.

Then we moved to driver. He asked what my miss was, and I said a low-face contact, bleeding cut that would still find the fairway or just into the right rough but without much height, carry or distance. He confirmed that my SS was still just over 100mph, but my spin was in the mid to high 3k, and launch was very low and therefore carry and distance were low.

We made some setup changes. Tee the ball up, then hover the driver and check where the sweet spot was. It showed too far to the heel, so we set the club with ball a little more off the toe. Then we changed my foot path to be a little closed to target. And Tyler stuck an alignment stick about 5 paces to the target, and a few paces to the right of my target line (think first base line). We started by getting the club more in front of me in the takeaway. The feel was to point the butt end of the club at my left hip at shaft parallel. Then from the top, swing along the foot line and release the head hard at the alignment stick.

Contact immediately moved up the head, and spin dropped by over 2k on a couple shots, but lived in the low 2k instead of mid-high 3k. The flight was a straight to gentle draw. We added a little club speed, but picked up about 25y carry. I felt good about it.

Then we moved to the short game area. We started with the high flop. While I wouldn't say it was perfect shot after perfect shot, Tyler liked my progress. So we didn't spend a ton of time with this shot. We mixed in the 56 and 60 so I could get a feel for different distances needed for the respective lofts.

We spent the rest of the short game time working on a higher-percentage, lower flighted chip. He said my setup was really good, no issues there. My issue starts off the ball in the backswing, where I get the club too far inside. So we set up a station with an alignment stick down the target line, then another stick off my back foot, at an angle approximating the shaft angle at address. Ii had to make short, waist high backswings and not hit the stick, then make a draw-type swing through impact. We got in a nice groove, but I kind of lost it at the end.

Lastly, we discussed the next steps. He said he wants to use the 3d motion again with the audible feedback. And he wants to go on the course and play a few holes to see how it's all coming together, and whether we need to pivot a bit. With as little progress as I've made in 5-hours and daily trips to the range over 3 weeks, it feels a little daunting right now. To be franked, I'm just disappointed in myself for not achieving any of the goals or making any repeatable progress yet. But I'm committed, and I'm confident I have the right guy to get me over this hump.

I have two videos, but Tyler said he's going to send more in the AM. Once I have them, I'll update the thread.
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Sounds like an intense 2 hours but significant progress made Chris!!
 
'Repeatable progress' takes time. Don't get down on yourself. You're putting in the work. That's all you can do, right?

Excited to see the videos tomorrow.
 
It sounds like you’re disappointed at the progress you’re making, but keep at it, you’ve got this!
McLovin said:
Sunday 2/24/20 was the last lesson in my first series with Tyler. It was another 2-hour session. I told him I wanted to do a few things in this session:
*Film my swing before the lesson and after the lesson so I can see what my potential is.
*Work on driver
*Grab some Trackman numbers
*Check in on progress with flop shot
*Work on "standard" lower-flight greenside chip
*Discuss next steps

Due to a busy day, I wasn't able to arrive until right at the appointment time. So my warm-up was just a couple shots, then dove right into it. Tough to say for sure, but I felt rushed and never rekindled the fuller set I felt I was achieving earlier in the week. Filming confirmed we really hadn't added much (if any) set in the backswing. I told Tyler that as much as I liked the drill with the alignment sticks in the bag, I just couldn't get it set up properly on my own so we needed to find something else.

We set an alignment stick on the ground at the target. Then placed another stick at a 45-ish* angle, about 5' off my back foot. We stuck a tee in the butt end of the iron, and I worked on making a backswing with a wrist set such that the tee would be pointing at the top of the stick (good wrist set), instead of low on the stick (limited wrist set). We had some success with it, even hitting some 7i shots with an apex of 92' and spin of 6,800rpm with a range ball. That's hugely different for me, so encouraging.

Then we moved to driver. He asked what my miss was, and I said a low-face contact, bleeding cut that would still find the fairway or just into the right rough but without much height, carry or distance. He confirmed that my SS was still just over 100mph, but my spin was in the mid to high 3k, and launch was very low and therefore carry and distance were low.

We made some setup changes. Tee the ball up, then hover the driver and check where the sweet spot was. It showed too far to the heel, so we set the club with ball a little more off the toe. Then we changed my foot path to be a little closed to target. And Tyler stuck an alignment stick about 5 paces to the target, and a few paces to the right of my target line (think first base line). We started by getting the club more in front of me in the takeaway. The feel was to point the butt end of the club at my left hip at shaft parallel. Then from the top, swing along the foot line and release the head hard at the alignment stick.

Contact immediately moved up the head, and spin dropped by over 2k on a couple shots, but lived in the low 2k instead of mid-high 3k. The flight was a straight to gentle draw. We added a little club speed, but picked up about 25y carry. I felt good about it.

Then we moved to the short game area. We started with the high flop. While I wouldn't say it was perfect shot after perfect shot, Tyler liked my progress. So we didn't spend a ton of time with this shot. We mixed in the 56 and 60 so I could get a feel for different distances needed for the respective lofts.

We spent the rest of the short game time working on a higher-percentage, lower flighted chip. He said my setup was really good, no issues there. My issue starts off the ball in the backswing, where I get the club too far inside. So we set up a station with an alignment stick down the target line, then another stick off my back foot, at an angle approximating the shaft angle at address. Ii had to make short, waist high backswings and not hit the stick, then make a draw-type swing through impact. We got in a nice groove, but I kind of lost it at the end.

Lastly, we discussed the next steps. He said he wants to use the 3d motion again with the audible feedback. And he wants to go on the course and play a few holes to see how it's all coming together, and whether we need to pivot a bit. With as little progress as I've made in 5-hours and daily trips to the range over 3 weeks, it feels a little daunting right now. To be franked, I'm just disappointed in myself for not achieving any of the goals or making any repeatable progress yet. But I'm committed, and I'm confident I have the right guy to get me over this hump.

I have two videos, but Tyler said he's going to send more in the AM. Once I have them, I'll update the thread.
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I know it feels disappointing, but you got this!

If you ever get a chance, you should read a book called "Mastery" by George Leonard.

In his book, he takes a look at how learning occurs, using training examples from golf, tennis, and aikido.
He states that the path to mastering any skill set looks something like this:

plateau (3).jpg

Learning takes place in apparent “spurts” separated by plateaus. In his words:
“To take the master’s journey, you have to practice diligently, striving to attain new levels of competence. But while doing so – and this is the inexorable fact of the journey – you also have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau; to keep practicing even when you seem to be getting nowhere.”

Being on the plateau is like the story of the Chinese bamboo tree (I got this from Hank Johnson’s book, How to Win the Three Games of Golf – which is another excellent, must-read too! (and he didn't come up with this, it's one of those apocryphal stories that's everywhere on the interwebz these days):

“You water and fertilize a little seed for a year and nothing happens. You keep watering and fertilizing the seed for the second year and still nothing happens. The same for the third and fourth year. Then early in the fifth year, this plant suddenly grows 90 feet in six weeks.
Now the question is, did the bamboo tree take six weeks to grow, or four-plus years and six weeks? Improving at golf is like that.”

From Leonard again:
“People we know as masters don’t devote themselves to their particular skill just to get better at it. The truth is, they love to practice – and because of this, they do get better.”

His point is to become a true master, you have to "learn to love the plateau".

Anyway, this is a long way to say - learning & progress is not linear. Keep plowing that field & you will certainly see rewards from all the work you're putting into it.
 
Keep up the hard work Chris and don’t be discouraged by the progress. You didn’t develope your current/old swing habits overnight so you won’t change them into new/better habits in a short time either.

Tyler seems incredible at what he does so stick with it and it will click eventually. I’ve taken packages of lessons with 4 or 5 different instructors over the years and there’s almost always a turning point. Sometimes it’s a swing thought or it just all clicks on the range one day randomly or on the course. And I’d probably say it’s typically closer to a month after learning a certain swing change or adjustment. These things take time but either way I can’t wait to play on Friday!
 
I’m new to the game. I’m thinking a new guy can see improvement much quicker then a guy that already has a pretty good game. I know things improved quickly for me at first. Now it takes more time to make adjustments. Keep at it and it will take. I’ve been working on this new grip for a month and it still feels foreign to me. Yesterday I was striking the ball great with it. You will see the fruits of your labor soon.
 
a couple wrap up videos on the irons



 
wrap up videos on driver

 
We need to play the Conservatory during this journey.
 
wrap up videos on short game



 
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