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McLovin's Journey to Improve

McLovin said:


it’s real bad. club gets too far behind me. i can’t swing smoothly. chunks. thins. whiffs. you name it.
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We need to find a way to play together soon Chris! I simplified my short game technique and it's now a strength of mine. Would be happy to pass along what is working for me
 
93civiccpe said:
We need to find a way to play together soon Chris! I simplified my short game technique and it's now a strength of mine. Would be happy to pass along what is working for me
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absolutely!
 
That driver swing is looking great Cap!!!
 
Grins said:
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yeah i’ve watched that and tried to do what he says. there are just some fundamental flaws i need to work through, and need a lot of hand holding to get there.
 
You'll get there. After seeing what you've done with the full swing, once you've got that dialed in, the short game will get your full focus & you'll crush it.
 
Grins said:
You'll get there. After seeing what you've done with the full swing, once you've got that dialed in, the short game will get your full focus & you'll crush it.
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you know, in the past i would have made a self-deprecating response about how it’s not possible. but this thread, and documenting where i was mentally as i struggled with these changes, and how far i’ve come with hard work and ty’s wizardry, i actually think it’s possible to fix my short game next.
 
McLovin said:
then i went to the range yesterday to video some swings, and see if the feels are translating. honestly these are some of my favorite swings i’ve made this year. it’s so encouraging!
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Those swings are looking good
 
Very good stuff, I would hate to see my swing on video! I have never had any lessons but definitely could use them but to scared that I would be thinking too much and really screw myself. I just get up and hit the ball without much thought
 
Great improvement Chris! Do not stop.. The sequencing is looking much better
 
rough lesson today. irons were ok, we worked on a shorter backswing, not letting the hands get too high, so the club could set a little better. then, letting the club fall a bit in transition into the downswing. by the end i was hitting it pretty well, nice push draws. normalized 8i carry was 165-170, spin in the low 6k range. but we wasted a lot of time trying to get the path more to the right, with a headwind off the left. finally, as i just wasn't able to do it, we shifted our target to be more into the wind, and immediately my path went back to 2-3 from the inside, face 1-2 closed to path. i couldn't mentally NOT adjust for the wind off the left, and that was skewing our numbers. i guess it wasn't totally wasted time, because it exposed i try to move the ball with face manipulation much more than i can do it with path.

then we went to driver, and it was bad. like, real bad. and he didn't have much of an answer or feedback as to why. the swing was short, the distance was down, the contact was bad. the parting thought with driver was to just slow the takeaway down, good hip position in the backswing, and smoothness in the transition. trying to stay positive and just tell myself it was one of those days where i just didn't have it.

i stayed and hit some balls after. the iron stuff was feeling ok. when i do it, the result is great. it's just undoing old patterns. driver got a little better, but was still pretty erratic.

just an odd day, where i didn't feel we accomplished anything.
 
Do you feel when done this will be a total rebuild or more of a tweak?
 
JB said:
Do you feel when done this will be a total rebuild or more of a tweak?
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rebuild of my delivery numbers. better launch, more attack, more spin, more speed.

visually, yes i think it will look a lot different. but fortunately i don’t think it is a complete tear down of the downswing and impact. it’s just giving me more space, more load, and more time to hit the ball better.
 
McLovin said:
rebuild of my delivery numbers. better launch, more attack, more spin, more speed.

visually, yes i think it will look a lot different. but fortunately i don’t think it is a complete tear down of the downswing and impact. it’s just giving me more space, more load, and more time to hit the ball better.
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Thanks. Been a lot of fun to follow.
 
McLovin said:
rough lesson today. irons were ok, we worked on a shorter backswing, not letting the hands get too high, so the club could set a little better. then, letting the club fall a bit in transition into the downswing. by the end i was hitting it pretty well, nice push draws. normalized 8i carry was 165-170, spin in the low 6k range. but we wasted a lot of time trying to get the path more to the right, with a headwind off the left. finally, as i just wasn't able to do it, we shifted our target to be more into the wind, and immediately my path went back to 2-3 from the inside, face 1-2 closed to path. i couldn't mentally NOT adjust for the wind off the left, and that was skewing our numbers. i guess it wasn't totally wasted time, because it exposed i try to move the ball with face manipulation much more than i can do it with path.

then we went to driver, and it was bad. like, real bad. and he didn't have much of an answer or feedback as to why. the swing was short, the distance was down, the contact was bad. the parting thought with driver was to just slow the takeaway down, good hip position in the backswing, and smoothness in the transition. trying to stay positive and just tell myself it was one of those days where i just didn't have it.

i stayed and hit some balls after. the iron stuff was feeling ok. when i do it, the result is great. it's just undoing old patterns. driver got a little better, but was still pretty erratic.

just an odd day, where i didn't feel we accomplished anything.
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you seem a little down, keep your head up, keep grinding!
 
feedback iron video. i won’t post the driver video because it wasn’t really saying much. two steps forward, one step back sometimes.

 
holidays and covid have kept me from completing the last package with ty. but i have been able to get out for one round, and i’ve hit the range a bit. the round had some really promising stuff, but short game wrecked what could have been a decent score.

my practice has been utilizing a knockoff tour striker smart ball. i’ve really been enjoying it! most of my focuses are the same, i’ve just been using the smart ball to be more in sync, and to get my arms to not outrace me on the backswing.

here’s a swing video from this morning. 9i. the work this morning felt really good, although rewatching i actually lost connection kinda early in my downswing. still it was a good swing.



View attachment trim.CCBC0998-2A19-48FA-8B1B-12BFCB780789.MOV

and here are some screen shots. as i’m trying not to let the arms work too much in the backswing, keeping the hands a little lower so the wrists can set more softly, i’m also trying to maintain focus on the left knee flexing inside the toe line and maintaining hip flex at the top of the backswing. when the arms work too much and the hands go too high, i lose hip flex and push toward the ball. these series of pics below shows i did a good job maintaining space in the backswing, but i have a little more work to do in the follow through. it does feel like i’m owning the moves more and more, despite a layoff of almost a month.

6605165A-E65C-4B3D-9AD3-6D183235D5A6.jpeg
 
a buddy asked for a video of the apex pro pw. i think he just wanted to see me in slim fit pants. as the benevolent person i am, i obliged.

it was a hit or miss range session (second of the day haha), but i grabbed a couple of decent swings. face was a little closed here, and there’s a last little move in the backswing that i’d like to get rid of, but overall i am happy with where things are. tyler and i haven’t gotten together in awhile, and i know lots more work is to be done, but we have certainly made progress.

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McLovin said:
a buddy asked for a video of the apex pro pw. i think he just wanted to see me in slim fit pants. as the benevolent person i am, i obliged.

it was a hit or miss range session (second of the day haha), but i grabbed a couple of decent swings. face was a little closed here, and there’s a last little move in the backswing that i’d like to get rid of, but overall i am happy with where things are. tyler and i haven’t gotten together in awhile, and i know lots more work is to be done, but we have certainly made progress.

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:LOL: You're a good friend.


Along those lines... Where's the Honma Slim Fit wedge?!


Flight looks good. (y)
 
finally got out with ty today for the last in our series of lessons.

i hit a large bucket and a small bucket before the lesson. my goal today was to check in on full swing, then start the arduous road of fixing my short game.

ty said i was moving well. i hit a few good shots, and a couple that were just ok. after one of the just ok shots i said i needed more softness at the top. then the next shot with softness as the focus was fantastic. softness for us is feeling like the club is falling into parallel at the top, trying to eliminate tension.

ty said it’s interesting to see how the numbers change when my focus changes. for the ok shots, my attack was only -1 or -2. but when we got softer at the top, attack jumped to -4 to -6, and the ball just explodes off the face.

after those handful of shots, and ty hearing me own the feel and identify when i need to shift my focus, he said full swing is fine and we headed to short game.

he put me in my nightmare scenario. tight lie. below the surface of the green. tight pin. the only shot is a soft pitch with good contact.

predictably, the first shots were chunks and thins. he said set up is good, but i get the right elbow too far behind me, and i move off the ball away from the target. i try to find good contact by rotating hard, and the results are not good.

we tried to set the club with just wrists, but it wasn’t going well. so we shifted the focus and used steve stricker’s technique. not much wrist, but the head actually moves toward the target in the backswing, to get low point at or in front of the ball. the other piece for me is lifting the hands and keeping them in front instead of sucking behind me.

we hit everything off a small tee, so we could just focus on the movement instead of worrying about contact. by the end we were seeing some really good shots and most importantly it was easy.

after the lesson i went to the chipping area and kept working on it. i wouldn’t say i have it, but it was feeling a little more natural.

then i hit another large bucket of full swings. things are feeling good! 3.5 hours of practice. tiring but a lot of fun.
 
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