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- #201
we'll make it happen!
McLovin's Journey to Improve
we'll make it happen!
Do a playing lesson w/ him. Play 9 holes. Let’s him see what’s going on during the round & can make adjustments. Playing lessons are highly effective & vastly underused.
Agree - I had a playing lesson for 5 holes and it was enlightening. It wasn't about my swing, it was more about strategy and how to think on the course. In other words, how to play golf, not golf swing.
I'm pretty sure that's how they started their most recent series of lessons. Tyler suggested it if I recall and Chris thought it was a good way for him to see where things were at.
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- #205
@OldandStiff is correct. we did a playing lesson on a par 3 course, but played it so we could hit driver to different holes. he diagnosed some things there. i’ll make an update post from my lesson today.
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- #206
not a great start to today’s lesson. i drove to the course and arrived early to warm up. it’s about 35 minutes away. clouds were already looking bad. i text ty to let him know i’m there, and he says “i had you on for tomorrow but no worries i’ll head on up.” i’m an idiot but he accommodated my idiocy graciously.
he pulls up and says we should go under the covered area and hit off mats because of weather. not what i wanted, but the storm was looking bad. we are getting set up, and we feel some rain under the cover. then it gets worse. it’s blowing directly at us so we go indoors to wait it out. only it doesn’t stop. so he says he has a net in his garage and he can set up the trackman there. so kind of him to open his home. this guy is the best.
all this threw a wrench in the heart to heart i wanted to have. but we did talk a little about my miss and what’s been going on. i also told him i’ve been having some pain in my left shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist.
he has me hit some 9-irons for a baseline. not too bad. path and face are a little left, aoa around -2. we looked at some videos, and we are basically tabling the backswing work. where i am is where i might need to live. don’t let it get shorter, but our time is better spent refining the downswing and impact. i’m ok with that, as it’s obviously been a real struggle with very little progress and we don’t know why yet.
he shows me a video, and he shows me how good a lot of the downswing positions are. he reiterated what he’s been saying for awhile, that those positions should produce good golf shots, much better than what’s happening on the course.
but he focuses in on my impact position, and points out my trailing foot. it hasn’t really released at all. i posted a thread about this not long ago https://www.thehackersparadise.com/...ailing-foot-at-impact-is-too-passive.8910673/
so we play with some different feels to engage the trail side early and encourage some release. the feel that seemed best was an early lifting of the heel, “lifting” into the big toe. what we wanted to see was more negative attack. the passive trail side and no lower body release forced me to push the hands through impact and stay too shallow. we started around -2 aoa, and started living around -5 to -6, and he was really happy.
but before with my passive trail side, my path was still anywhere from -1 to 0. with the lower body opening, there was more room to swing the arms and the path became more negative. so we had to get the path more to the right. but the face was also too closed. so we worked on a combo move killing two birds with one stone. it’s basically a flip. not rolling the face closed, but pretty much cupping the left wrist through impact and toward right field. essentially swinging the club and releasing without rolling the face closed. this felt really weird, and will take some work. but we got some good results. higher launch, higher spin, but still good aoa and a slightly open path with a slightly closed face.
in this session ty said i hit the best golf shot he’s seen me hit yet. going off memory aoa was -7, path 0.3, face -0.5, so a high shot that started a little right and curved 8’. it’s the goal for sure.
he also sent me the contact info for a doctor who works with pga pros (he’s just been at the charles schwab). hopefully we can get together friday to look at the left shoulder/elbow/wrist stuff and see what we can do. if that guy can get me in, ty will see me and we’ll make sure we have the new feels dialed in.
so as has happened every time with ty, i feel rejuvenated and ready to take on the world. maybe the backswing work was for naught, but we have a path going forward. he said today was a lightbulb session where we might have found the secret sauce for me. the guy is so good at what he does, i just have to put the work in, trust it, and keep going.
he pulls up and says we should go under the covered area and hit off mats because of weather. not what i wanted, but the storm was looking bad. we are getting set up, and we feel some rain under the cover. then it gets worse. it’s blowing directly at us so we go indoors to wait it out. only it doesn’t stop. so he says he has a net in his garage and he can set up the trackman there. so kind of him to open his home. this guy is the best.
all this threw a wrench in the heart to heart i wanted to have. but we did talk a little about my miss and what’s been going on. i also told him i’ve been having some pain in my left shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist.
he has me hit some 9-irons for a baseline. not too bad. path and face are a little left, aoa around -2. we looked at some videos, and we are basically tabling the backswing work. where i am is where i might need to live. don’t let it get shorter, but our time is better spent refining the downswing and impact. i’m ok with that, as it’s obviously been a real struggle with very little progress and we don’t know why yet.
he shows me a video, and he shows me how good a lot of the downswing positions are. he reiterated what he’s been saying for awhile, that those positions should produce good golf shots, much better than what’s happening on the course.
but he focuses in on my impact position, and points out my trailing foot. it hasn’t really released at all. i posted a thread about this not long ago https://www.thehackersparadise.com/...ailing-foot-at-impact-is-too-passive.8910673/
so we play with some different feels to engage the trail side early and encourage some release. the feel that seemed best was an early lifting of the heel, “lifting” into the big toe. what we wanted to see was more negative attack. the passive trail side and no lower body release forced me to push the hands through impact and stay too shallow. we started around -2 aoa, and started living around -5 to -6, and he was really happy.
but before with my passive trail side, my path was still anywhere from -1 to 0. with the lower body opening, there was more room to swing the arms and the path became more negative. so we had to get the path more to the right. but the face was also too closed. so we worked on a combo move killing two birds with one stone. it’s basically a flip. not rolling the face closed, but pretty much cupping the left wrist through impact and toward right field. essentially swinging the club and releasing without rolling the face closed. this felt really weird, and will take some work. but we got some good results. higher launch, higher spin, but still good aoa and a slightly open path with a slightly closed face.
in this session ty said i hit the best golf shot he’s seen me hit yet. going off memory aoa was -7, path 0.3, face -0.5, so a high shot that started a little right and curved 8’. it’s the goal for sure.
he also sent me the contact info for a doctor who works with pga pros (he’s just been at the charles schwab). hopefully we can get together friday to look at the left shoulder/elbow/wrist stuff and see what we can do. if that guy can get me in, ty will see me and we’ll make sure we have the new feels dialed in.
so as has happened every time with ty, i feel rejuvenated and ready to take on the world. maybe the backswing work was for naught, but we have a path going forward. he said today was a lightbulb session where we might have found the secret sauce for me. the guy is so good at what he does, i just have to put the work in, trust it, and keep going.
Man.. Maybe the weather keeping you from having the 'what are we doing here?' heart-to-heart will end up being a blessing. Sounds like some good things happened, and Tyler seems like an awesome human being. Wow.
I never saw the post of yours in December. That's kind of crazy. Makes me want to go back and watch a couple of your vids, because I don't remember that right foot. No way I could hit my irons with that leg posted and the heel flat. It would pull my face left, or I'd be heeling them trying to hold it open.
Just great to hear you guys found something and you got that enthusiasm back! I hope you get in to the Dr. You've mentioned how many thousands of balls you've hit working on some of this stuff, so your body is probably due for a little loving attention at this point.
I never saw the post of yours in December. That's kind of crazy. Makes me want to go back and watch a couple of your vids, because I don't remember that right foot. No way I could hit my irons with that leg posted and the heel flat. It would pull my face left, or I'd be heeling them trying to hold it open.
Just great to hear you guys found something and you got that enthusiasm back! I hope you get in to the Dr. You've mentioned how many thousands of balls you've hit working on some of this stuff, so your body is probably due for a little loving attention at this point.
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- #209
i’ve found a way to manage the right foot issue by basically dragging the handle without releasing the face. here are a couple screenshots from a video i sent to ty from a little over a week ago. here’s address:
and here is just past impact.
i’m dragging the handle so much. and i actually have a pretty neutral face to path. but with that much drag, there is an unmanageably low angle of attack. sometimes my aoa with irons is actually positive. it can make for some low spin bombs, but it’s not repeatable or manageable.
the heel work really helped the aoa get more negative. the path work will be a challenge. telling a recovered shankaholic that he needs to swing to the right with an open face is the stuff of nightmares. but when we did it, ty said it’s the best he’s ever seen me swing the club.
I also have trouble getting off my trail foot.
I try to resolve it by slowing my tempo to make certain my weight is on the inside of the trail heel and feel the inside of my trail leg where it meets the body. I get off the trail foot by slowing the arms to the top/at top while the lower body transfers and sequences. I atteempt to keep that club high until I feel the lead foot doing its thing.
My instructor also goes neutal with the face. He has me "motorcyle" the wrists at the top - which means flatten the lead wrist close to the top to close the usual cupped wrist. It's a process.
All tough to do on the course, especially when tired.
Whatever it takes, keep on with it, Chris. Good luck with alleviating the physical pain.
I think your swing thread helped my swing. About a week ago, after seeing Tyler talk about shallowing your swing, I went to Tyler's TXG Instructor Vids on youtube and saw the shallowing with other players, too. While my son was having a lesson today, I hit balls outside and did the shallowing motion - club high, let it "fall" to shallow and go low to high... some of my best ballstriking. Hope it translates to the course. Thx for the inspiration!
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- #212
interesting day today for this journey.
the last time ty and I got together and talked about some wrist, elbow and shoulder pain, he referred me to a physio that works with guys on tour. he said all my issues are related to some tennis elbow, but it's not awful. some massage, acupuncture, traumeel injections, stretching, and kt tape. also tested thoracic spine and shoulder range of motion. shoulder was above average, but thoracic spine was only about 60* so work to do there.
then ty and I got to work. we started with 9i. he liked most of what he saw. aoa was hovering around -4, path anywhere from 0 to 3, speed in the low 80s. best distance he told me was 160 carry. we need to keep working on getting the lower body to push up while the club swings in to out. we moved to 7i, and things weren't as good. but after working a little more on the same thoughts as the 9i, things got a lot better, and I ended the 7i work with a bomb that flew 186 and maintained 6k spin.
then onto my current bugaboo: the driver. out of the gate I hit a dead straight, mid-high shot. but the next two were awful. he said I was pretty stuck on my left side, not getting behind the ball, and my aoa was negative. so the thought was to take weight/pressure off the left foot. immediately aoa increased, and path stayed right around 0, but face was all over the place. he narrowed my stance a bit, and added a thought to add loft at impact. the contact point went up on the face, and I hit some nice drives by the end. the feels are actually pretty simple: weight off the lead foot, swing out with loft at impact.
the last time ty and I got together and talked about some wrist, elbow and shoulder pain, he referred me to a physio that works with guys on tour. he said all my issues are related to some tennis elbow, but it's not awful. some massage, acupuncture, traumeel injections, stretching, and kt tape. also tested thoracic spine and shoulder range of motion. shoulder was above average, but thoracic spine was only about 60* so work to do there.
then ty and I got to work. we started with 9i. he liked most of what he saw. aoa was hovering around -4, path anywhere from 0 to 3, speed in the low 80s. best distance he told me was 160 carry. we need to keep working on getting the lower body to push up while the club swings in to out. we moved to 7i, and things weren't as good. but after working a little more on the same thoughts as the 9i, things got a lot better, and I ended the 7i work with a bomb that flew 186 and maintained 6k spin.
then onto my current bugaboo: the driver. out of the gate I hit a dead straight, mid-high shot. but the next two were awful. he said I was pretty stuck on my left side, not getting behind the ball, and my aoa was negative. so the thought was to take weight/pressure off the left foot. immediately aoa increased, and path stayed right around 0, but face was all over the place. he narrowed my stance a bit, and added a thought to add loft at impact. the contact point went up on the face, and I hit some nice drives by the end. the feels are actually pretty simple: weight off the lead foot, swing out with loft at impact.
At top of driver swing, do you mean that effort to get higher at top?
But it all, iron and driver, look good. Wish I looked that impressive.
The wrist hinge to get close to parallel - do you want or something later ?
But it all, iron and driver, look good. Wish I looked that impressive.
The wrist hinge to get close to parallel - do you want or something later ?
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- #216
i just have a mental block against getting to parallel in the actual swing. rehearsal vs actual position at the top:
Your arms look much freer on the left.
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- #218
iron swing thoughts of pushing up with my trail side to start the downswing, and releasing the club with loft toward right field have been working pretty well, though i'm seeing some more heel contact than recent memory. some of that is the lower body needs to stay back in the downswing, though.
driver stuff is still a work in progress. I had a physio treatment yesterday where we did more injections in the elbow but also some graston scraping (ouch), and I hit balls afterward. driver was pretty erratic, but I think I was reverting to the pattern of pulling my upper body left and toward the target to start the downswing. on the last driver swing of the day I thought more about staying behind the ball and the shot was probably the best of the day. it's starting to feel like too many thoughts at once, with no one thought curing what's ailing me. I have to find a way to simplify but stay on track instead of regressing.
driver stuff is still a work in progress. I had a physio treatment yesterday where we did more injections in the elbow but also some graston scraping (ouch), and I hit balls afterward. driver was pretty erratic, but I think I was reverting to the pattern of pulling my upper body left and toward the target to start the downswing. on the last driver swing of the day I thought more about staying behind the ball and the shot was probably the best of the day. it's starting to feel like too many thoughts at once, with no one thought curing what's ailing me. I have to find a way to simplify but stay on track instead of regressing.
This is the second time today I've got to shares some of my dad's amazing golf advice...
Just close your eyes and swing as hard as you can.
Having been and still going down this road, I do a lot of rehearsal swings befween shots - maybe take 2 minutes between real shots, which takes.a lot of patience. The rehearsals may be slow so you can detect where you are in the swing and you can hit your new positions.
I may focus on my lower body for a while and only think stay behind the ball for the rest of it; what usually works for me, and we are all different, is keeping the head quiet while i'm working on lower body or arm positions. I may use a sand, gap or PW to slow things down and feel more of the swing. Every 10 real swings I may use an 8i just to do it.
I may focus on my lower body for a while and only think stay behind the ball for the rest of it; what usually works for me, and we are all different, is keeping the head quiet while i'm working on lower body or arm positions. I may use a sand, gap or PW to slow things down and feel more of the swing. Every 10 real swings I may use an 8i just to do it.
This is such great info and a ton of detail into your swing journey. Thanks for updating us all Chris.
I know you’ve been working extremely diligently to get to where you want to be. Keep up the good work bud and don’t get discouraged. The swing will click one of these days and you’re gonna shoot a 68
I know you’ve been working extremely diligently to get to where you want to be. Keep up the good work bud and don’t get discouraged. The swing will click one of these days and you’re gonna shoot a 68
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- #222
This is such great info and a ton of detail into your swing journey. Thanks for updating us all Chris.
I know you’ve been working extremely diligently to get to where you want to be. Keep up the good work bud and don’t get discouraged. The swing will click one of these days and you’re gonna shoot a 68
thanks my friend! at times it's definitely discouraging. other times it's exhilarating. that's golf!
Cap, when you are feeling down about your swing take solace in the FACT that you are better than most on this forum will ever be including myself.
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- #224
thanks big d. honestly, I don't really feel down about the swing. it's all part of the journey. if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun, right? the only thing I get down or disappointed about is when I feel like the work (and $$$) is not producing results. but it's a process, so having this thread to vent and good people like you helps me stay focused and committed, even if I need to b1tch and throw a pity party every now and then lol
I can totally relate. For me - especially on the course - I'm struggling to stay focused without paralyzing myself with what feels like a hundred different swing thoughts and feels.
More repetitions are needed for me to make some of these feels ingrained and more thoughtless, so I can be free to just swing.