Hulk Smash *TEST IN PROGRESS*

[LeftyRM7]

Ok, so we’ve all seen the new Bryson and his new swing the last few weeks. After looking into it a bit to see what he’s really doing from a technique standpoint, it got me wondering what us mortals could learn from it. I’ve been all over the place with my driver lately and have been searching for anything to get back on track. I did super speed training last year for about 8 weeks, gained around 10 mph club speed but got busy and was happy with my gains. I played some of my best golf during and just after I was speed training. I really believe slowing down can throw timing off and make things worse, which is my tendency when I’m not playing well. Also, being a fan of Mark Crossfield, I’ve been seeing what he’s been doing with his swing and the gains he’s made. So I’ve decided to put in some work and go Hulk Smash!

 

Here’s the adjustments I’ve made:

-Tee the ball up about 1/2” higher, most of the ball is above the face at address.

-Setup slightly farther from the ball and really feel myself reaching to hit up on the ball

-In my downswing I really feel myself pushing off with my lead foot and almost jumping backwards at impact. It feels like my whole body is rotating around my lead shoulder.

-Swing full throttle, let it rip

 

After a test session on the range this afternoon, it’s got me excited. Strike and ball flight were very consistent, which is what I struggle with on course. It was a consistent high fade, a big fade but it’s a start. It gets me wondering if I should loft down my Epic Flash to help but without real numbers, I have no idea where my launch and spin are. Hopefully I can get on a launch monitor soon and really get an idea where I’m at and where I need to go.

 

I can’t be the only one curious and starting to test the waters a bit. Any thoughts, opinions, suggestions greatly appreciated...

 

 

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[aerospace_ray]

I can tell by your post your are much younger and in better shape physically than I am  .  I wish you luck in this "Hulk" distance journey.

With that stated, all I would suggest is 1. maybe let a local teaching pro watch your swing (there just might be a few tweaks to compliment what you are already testing). 2. Regarding lofting down, honestly you probably need to go the range and get monitor numbers (like GCQUAD / TRACKMAN). That is why I suggested a teaching pro as they possibly can do both for you (swing + equipment). Regardless sounds like you are going to have some fun. 

[MDGolfHacker]

Normally, when I tee up the ball that high, I sky the living daylights out of the driver crown.  At most for me, closer to 1/2 the ball above the crown.  I tend to crowd the space between the shaft butt end and my belly (dang beer belly) resulting in hooks so I've been concentrating on keeping that distance consistent and making sure my hands don't outrace my shoulder turn.  Good luck on your hulk smash test.  Would be interest to see what kind of numbers and results you get.

 

MDGolfHacker

[LeftyRM7]

Normally, when I tee up the ball that high, I sky the living daylights out of the driver crown.  At most for me, closer to 1/2 the ball above the crown.  I tend to crowd the space between the shaft butt end and my belly (dang beer belly) resulting in hooks so I've been concentrating on keeping that distance consistent and making sure my hands don't outrace my shoulder turn.  Good luck on your hulk smash test.  Would be interest to see what kind of numbers and results you get.
 
MDGolfHacker

Honestly my usual strike is high toe and tend to sky one every now and then. But there’s a mental side to that equation, with teeing the ball lower, you feel the need to go down to get it and that can make it worse. So far I’ve found that I’ve actually been more low heel with the new swing. I figured some of this out a few weeks ago at the range, saw a strike drill for irons. Hit one off the ground, one teed up like a 3 wood and one like a driver. I found that teeing the ball up “too high” for irons really helped my strike and that’s where I started to get the feel of hitting up and really going after it.


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[GolfSpy AFG]

17 hours ago, MDGolfHacker said:

Normally, when I tee up the ball that high, I sky the living daylights out of the driver crown.  At most for me, closer to 1/2 the ball above the crown.  I tend to crowd the space between the shaft butt end and my belly (dang beer belly) resulting in hooks so I've been concentrating on keeping that distance consistent and making sure my hands don't outrace my shoulder turn.  Good luck on your hulk smash test.  Would be interest to see what kind of numbers and results you get.

 

MDGolfHacker

I'm no coach, but I struggled with this too..I like to tee the ball up higher and try to elevate the flight if there is a tree to take on, or if the hole is playing downwind.  I used to pull that off quite easily, until i wasn't, but my GolfTec coach diagnosed I was coming in too steep.  Once I shallowed it out a bit and caught it on the upswing the shot was back in the arsenal.

Just a thought.

[MDGolfHacker]

34 minutes ago, Getoffmylawn said:

I'm no coach, but I struggled with this too..I like to tee the ball up higher and try to elevate the flight if there is a tree to take on, or if the hole is playing downwind.  I used to pull that off quite easily, until i wasn't, but my GolfTec coach diagnosed I was coming in too steep.  Once I shallowed it out a bit and caught it on the upswing the shot was back in the arsenal.

Just a thought.

I'll have to try that...

 

MDGolfHacker

[LeftyRM7]

I'm no coach, but I struggled with this too..I like to tee the ball up higher and try to elevate the flight if there is a tree to take on, or if the hole is playing downwind.  I used to pull that off quite easily, until i wasn't, but my GolfTec coach diagnosed I was coming in too steep.  Once I shallowed it out a bit and caught it on the upswing the shot was back in the arsenal.
Just a thought.

Definitely can be a chicken or the egg situation. Are you delivering the club based off of your tee height or teeing your ball based off of your club delivery


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[DPattGolf]

If u are going to try this then u are going to need to loft down to get the best possibly distance results. Bryson lofted down around 2 degrees to a 5.5 degree driver. Without a loft change, u will likely be losing out on some of the distance gains with launches being too high 

[GolfSpy AFG]

Definitely can be a chicken or the egg situation. Are you delivering the club based off of your tee height or teeing your ball based off of your club delivery


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I’m certain the former. A normal stock tee shot for me involves teeing it at a more “standard” height with half the ball above the crown. I’m just saying that when I want to manufacture a higher flight I will tee it higher, widen the stance, and tilt a little more away from the target. But, in my experience, that’s all a formula for a pop-up if you deliver the club too steep.


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[LeftyRM7]

First round in the books on Saturday, after digesting some data, I think I’m on to something. I’ll start by saying that this was not a good day to run this test on course, as it was somewhat windy, but I was committed.

Much like on the range, I saw a noticeable jump in consistency, from strike, start line, trajectory and overall ball flight. As I saw on the range, I had a consistent high, big fade(slice really). I hit a whopping 2/10 fairways but only had 3/10 that cost me strokes, 2 drops and 1 punch out. Again proving that fairways are just not a reliable stat for average golfers, in my opinion. On average, not so different from my normal stat line, so far. As I suspected, I didn’t see a big jump in overall distance, but my average shot WAY up. According to my shotscope, my performance average went from 244 to 253 but my average went from 208 to 236. My strokes gained went from -7.7 to -3.25 and my driving handicap went from 32 to 15. Overall I scored 4 strokes above my average. Shotscope data is from this year/season and SG is from GolfMetrics app, based on my 3 previous rounds, as I just started using SG. Here is my dispersion with driver, I normally have a 60/40 left miss. Taking the right side out of play was nice.



I feel like slowing down was creating my 2 way miss as my timing would change from shot to shot. I’d go after one and fade it, then try to ease one in the fairway and draw it. For me, going after it takes the conscious thought out of it and let’s my muscle memory take over, at least that’s my hypothesis. I like where this is going, but it definitely needs some work and more data. I’m convinced I need to work on my driver to better suit the new swing, and myself to get the club face closed a touch more and make it more playable. Also had a bad day with my irons, hitting everything thin. Most likely my new move bleeding into the rest of my game so I’ll have to manage that. More to come...


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[LeftyRM7]

Round 2 in the books...

2 things before I get into the data. 1. I decided to loft my Epic Flash down to 8° from 9°. 2. I had my first ever lesson this week and made some slight swing changes that will have an affect as well.

Like last week, I saw my consistency all around better than usual. I saw a huge improvement in ball flight, as I was hitting a soft cut, much lower and straiter. To me it looked like lofting down, which also closes the face slightly, got the ball on line more and reduced spin to maximize my distance. I definitely had more of a right miss this week. I hit 5/10 fairways, but took 4 penalties. 2 lost balls and had 2 shots that left me blocked out from the green. Strokes gained of -3.63, all based off of a scratch golfer, as I’m a 20 handicap. Driving handicap was average at 24. BUT unlike last week, I saw an obvious jump in distance. Average went up to 243 and my performance average jumped up to 278!!!! That’s 34 yards above my previous performance average! It showed up in scoring as well as I tied my course best 90. I was net -4 through 15 holes but I’d been outside all day in the 100° heat and I ran out of gas at the end. Needless to say, I’m absolutely stoked about what I’ve seen so far, the numbers do not lie!


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[BMart519]

Reducing loft on your driver opens the face, increasing loft closes it and increases lie angle. 

[fixyurdivot]

Hulk Smash... I like it .  My experience on the range is that the harder and faster I swing (any club) the less consistent I become in both distances and dispersion.  Tempo is key for me.  I'm not willing to trade distance for consistency.  Also staying within my normal zone keeps my shoulder and elbow pain in check - for the most part - and that is REALLY important.

[LeftyRM7]

Hulk Smash... I like it .  My experience on the range is that the harder and faster I swing (any club) the less consistent I become in both distances and dispersion.  Tempo is key for me.  I'm not willing to trade distance for consistency.  Also staying within my normal zone keeps my shoulder and elbow pain in check - for the most part - and that is REALLY important.

Yes this is definitely not for everyone, at 33 years old I’m in the best shape of my life, partly thanks to my wife who’s a fitness trainer. It’s definitely bigger than just a golf thing, have to have the fitness/health to go with it.

As far as tempo goes, I think the biggest gains I’ve made in my swing are tempo based. But separating tempo from speed is key. I’m quick(tempo) and fast(speed). When I’m at my best, I feel slow tempo but fast speed. Like my new swing coach says, less back there(backswing) and more over here(follow through). It’s a fine line and different for everyone.


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[LeftyRM7]

Hulk Smash... I like it .  My experience on the range is that the harder and faster I swing (any club) the less consistent I become in both distances and dispersion.  Tempo is key for me.  I'm not willing to trade distance for consistency.  Also staying within my normal zone keeps my shoulder and elbow pain in check - for the most part - and that is REALLY important.

Yes this is definitely not for everyone, at 33 years old I’m in the best shape of my life, partly thanks to my wife who’s a fitness trainer. It’s definitely bigger than just a golf thing, have to have the fitness/health to go with it.

As far as tempo goes, I think the biggest gains I’ve made in my swing are tempo based. But separating tempo from speed is key. I’m quick(tempo) and fast(speed). When I’m at my best, I feel slow tempo but fast speed. Like my new swing coach says, less back there(backswing) and more over here(follow through). It’s a fine line and different for everyone.


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[LeftyRM7]

5 rounds down and the results are undeniable. Had a few bad days with the driver but no worse than before but the good days were noticeably better. Most bad shots I find are strike related, although I do have the occasional center strike bomb that turns way left. On average I’ve gained 23 yards with my driver, still a small data sample but more to come. 

 

I did go halfway back on my earlier adjustment. After talking to Callaway to confirm, I left the loft at -1(8°) but went back with the lie setting. They say the draw setting is about 2° upright and the face angle change is negligible, slight open in neutral and slightly closed in draw, at -1 loft. Loft and lie adjustments being completely independent of one another. I had gone to -1 loft and draw, (wanting to bring the height down and start the ball further right) but I didn’t like the pulls I saw. So -1 loft and neutral is where I’m staying. 

 

Looking at my dispersion, the shots I’d like to eliminate are the short right pulls. Either end up OB or ricocheting off a tree back into play. Overall not a whole lot different left to right than before, just longer.

 

The real eye opener for me was when I plotted my distance(P-AVG) against strokes gained for each round. Generally the belief is faster/longer is more inaccurate and detrimental to scoring but clearly that is not the trend I see. As the trend line indicates, as my length has increased, my scoring went up. Especially when you look at my season average prior to the changes, the lone dot bottom left. Again, small data set(5 rounds) vs 25 previous rounds this year.

[RI_Redneck]

On 6/25/2020 at 7:50 PM, LeftyRM7 said:

 

Ok, so we’ve all seen the new Bryson and his new swing the last few weeks. After looking into it a bit to see what he’s really doing from a technique standpoint, it got me wondering what us mortals could learn from it. I’ve been all over the place with my driver lately and have been searching for anything to get back on track. I did super speed training last year for about 8 weeks, gained around 10 mph club speed but got busy and was happy with my gains. I played some of my best golf during and just after I was speed training. I really believe slowing down can throw timing off and make things worse, which is my tendency when I’m not playing well. Also, being a fan of Mark Crossfield, I’ve been seeing what he’s been doing with his swing and the gains he’s made. So I’ve decided to put in some work and go Hulk Smash!

 

Here’s the adjustments I’ve made:

-Tee the ball up about 1/2” higher, most of the ball is above the face at address.

-Setup slightly farther from the ball and really feel myself reaching to hit up on the ball

-In my downswing I really feel myself pushing off with my lead foot and almost jumping backwards at impact. It feels like my whole body is rotating around my lead shoulder.

-Swing full throttle, let it rip

 

After a test session on the range this afternoon, it’s got me excited. Strike and ball flight were very consistent, which is what I struggle with on course. It was a consistent high fade, a big fade but it’s a start. It gets me wondering if I should loft down my Epic Flash to help but without real numbers, I have no idea where my launch and spin are. Hopefully I can get on a launch monitor soon and really get an idea where I’m at and where I need to go.

 

I can’t be the only one curious and starting to test the waters a bit. Any thoughts, opinions, suggestions greatly appreciated...

 

 

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Just my $0.02, but be careful developing a driver swing that is so different from the swing you use with all your other clubs. The tendency is to fall somewhere in between and cause issues with all your clubs.

Good luck,

BT