Sorting through Swing Thoughts / Accountability thread

[vandyland]

Current swing, happy with it so not looking for feedback or to change anything. Ball flight is a light draw at the moment.

 

Hit about 70 balls at 80% working on not spinning out early. Chipped and pitched for 20 minutes after that. 

[cnosil]

5 minutes ago, vandyland said:

Current swing, happy with it 

I’d be happy with it.  

[vandyland]

Been hitting balls multiple times this week and feel like my shortgame is in a really good place. Chipping and pitching has felt automatic so I am less consumed with technical thoughts and able to just focus on the shot. As for the full swing, that still has more than a few technical thoughts (as always) associated with it. Not raising up in the backswing is a big one but also keeping my hips quiet and back in the downswing. The scottie scheffler slide drill ingrains that fairly well but I don't really want that creeping into my swing. Still can get a little spinny from the top so working on tempering that, as always. Probably won't get to play much the next few weeks as we have a newborn (priorities, I know) but might get out towards the end of paternity leave. 

[vandyland]

Played twice this week and shot 73/76 which is good for me at that golf course. Irons have been great, wedges decent, putting decent and driving has been a tad erratic. Currently seeing a two way miss which is manageable but could portend trouble down the road. Also have been able to have a few range and short game sessions this week. Probably hit 70-100 30 yd pitches from different spots and about 30 bunker shots. Also played the up/down game trying to get up/down from various places around the practice green. On the range, working mostly on 75% mid irons trying to keep my hips from getting out ahead and resisting the urge to stand up in the back swing. So far so good. Short game has come a long way in the last few months. It is a great relief to not be worried about my technique on short shots and just be able to feel the shot.

[vandyland]

Played golf for a 3rd time this week and I think I could get pretty good if I played 3x a week! This is an aberration for me to play this much but my differentials were very good this week.
 

Just no real errors out there. A few bogeys here and there but no real wasted shots. 

[vandyland]

Played again today and hit balls over the weekend. Identified a small issue in my takeaway where I wasn't getting the club quite square half way back (it was slightly open) so we worked on that today with minimal other changes. Made 5 birdies today and shot even par 72 at a fairly difficult course so feeling very good about that. The driver was a little questionable in a few spots but overall we got around really well. 

[vandyland]

Our range is getting worked on so only 100 yd shots and under and we are on mats. Not ideal but still wanted to see a few swings on camera, current wedge swing looks like this:

and then from a few days ago before range was shortened, I noted my head is starting to bob a little bit but, overall, it is a soft draw and the clubface looks good at the top and half way back. 

 

Edited May 7 by vandyland

[vandyland]

Played 18 holes yesterday in VERY wet conditions. I felt like I was struggling a little with my driver and determined I was just trying to muscle it too much and not letting it drop into the slot. Hit the ball ok with driver but some were coming out a little low on the face which is usually from me coming a little bit over the top. Made 4 birdies and shot 75 at a challenging track but was a bit sloppy on the par 5s and played them +2 on the day. 

Went back to the range this morning to work on dropping the club a bit in the transition (that is the feel, it doesn't really LOOK like that at full speed) and was hitting push draws again which is a good sign for me. Position at the top looks GREAT (for me, for what I am trying to do) but that is also with a 54* wedge. Flat left wrist, arms in line with shoulder plane, some hip "depth" and maintained most of my spine angle from setup. 

Edited May 9 by vandyland

[vandyland]

Well, at long last, I am starting to develop some forearm/bicep pain. I would imagine it is due to mats and hitting a lot of balls and such. It doesn't bother me when I play but usually after or when I am picking up my daughter or son I feel it in the crook of my arm. This has led me to buy some prosoft inserts for my steel shafts (which are a bit harsher than my KBS Tour 120s) but this may not bring much or any relief but I am trying that BEFORE I dive into graphite shafts for my irons since that is going to be a very expensive endeavor. It isn't that painful but I imagine it is going to slowly get worse if I don't do anything about it. Assuming the inserts don't work, I will go for a shaft fitting and hopefully I can at least try out some of the following:

MMT 105 / Steelfiber 110 / Recoil Dart 105 -- those seem to be the main heavy graphite options that don't cost $70+ dollars/shaft. 

[vandyland]

I got on trackman today and hit Steelfiber 110cw stiff (it is the only heavy graphite option we have at our club) and was impressed with the dispersion. It wasn't a 1:1 test as I have a Maltby iron set so I used a JPX 923Tour 34* 7 iron head (in the SF110cw) vs my TS1-IM 32* 7 iron head (FST 125 Stiff). It was not a great swing day for me overall so that is probably a good test of the shaft's deflection and feel. Did not "throw out" any shots:

Some of the dispersion help is down to the Mizuno head being  2* weaker, I would imagine, but I was impressed. The weight was good and feedback was still pretty good. The one thing I felt like I was struggling with was closing the face in the Steelfiber but that could be any number of things. I was hitting slight fades more often than not with the steelfibers and slight draws with teh FST 125. My club path / face to path with the Steelfibers was 3.2 / 1.0 vs 4.4 / -0.4 with the FST. Not sure what that tells me except maybe I can be a tad inconsistent. I will say the Steelfiber felt firmer to me. Here are all the comparative numbers if anyone cares:

I still really want to try the MMT 105 and the Recoil Dart 105 if possible. I *think* the steelfiber 110 is a little stiff for me but maybe that is what was helping with dispersion. Who can say?

[vandyland]

Played a beautiful round of golf (for me) this weekend and shot 1 over from the tips (6700 yds, par 71) at one of our quirkier golf courses here in the Greater Nashville area. Hit one ball OB but still managed to make a bogey on that hole and kind of save the round. Made 4 birdies and, all around, played quite well. Hit one or two loose iron shots but my newly found short game mostly saved me. I have managed to sustain good golf now for several months with a few feels that have kept me going. Seems like an odd time to switch shafts in my irons so I am approaching that cautiously. 

I did schedule a shaft fitting for this week and I am hoping to see similar results from one of the shaft combos. I am not necessarily chasing "better" (though better would be great) but if I can get some comfort and keep similar numbers, I think that is a win. It is a considerable cost to take on, re-shafting, but this is like the one thing I spend money on for myself so let's do it. 

[vandyland]

Went through a detailed fitting last week for iron shafts and now I just can't wait for my new iron setup -- new Fujikura Axiom 130X shafts into my same TS1-IM heads, moving on from the steel FST 125 budget shafts I put in there as they are harsh AF. The other thing that we determined during the fitting is that my lie angle is probably a tad upright, which makes sense since my miss is a heel heavy divot which shuts the face a little and I have had trouble getting the ball to start right of target (I play a draw). My adaptation has been to aim a little right of target and then the ball starts on line and goes left or even starts a little left and goes farther left. 

Not the end all be all, but in looking at the ping lie angle chart, I land about here on the measurements:

Which is interesting because I think the only ping club I ever had (a Ping HL long iron/utility) was a Blue dot which I could not hit for love or money. I also have some ping eye 2s that are black dot that I may bend flat one day just to see how they do (assuming that 1* doesn't crack a cast head, they are BeCu which may or may not make a difference). My recollection is that cast heads can be bent a degree or two. 

Anyway, this got me down the road of bending my 60*, 54* and 48* wedges one degree flat. And, with a small sample size, the divot was shallower and ball flight was less left (I even left a few out right, probably due to my former compensations). Like with any good experience with new equipment, it has me looking at my shafts (ALL OF MY SHAFTS) a little sideways as well as my lie angles. Will go ahead and bend the entire iron set 1* flat to see how we get along on the range. My driver and hybrid are already in their flattest setting and I don't *think* my Mizuno 4 iron needs to be flattened (Mizuno usually skews flat anyway) and *should be* 60* lie angle, will have it checked. 

Edited May 29 by vandyland

[vandyland]

Went ahead and bent my PW, 9 and 8 iron one degree flat (7 iron is already basically there). Only hit the PW on the range but divot is more even and shallower, ball is starting more online and contact is more centered and maybe *slightly* heel side (I think I will slowly adjust). Previously I had been mostly toe side with heel heavy divots. In reality, a 1* change in lie angle isn't that dramatic so it is probably more mental for me but I liked the early returns. Will be playing saturday morning barring bad weather and that will be the real test. 

[vandyland]

Played this past weekend, working on my Cast A again and had highs and lows. On the front 9 I was struggling a bit with my wedges and turned at 42, not great. 1 birdie and a whole mess of bogeys. Played the back much steadier and shot 37 while hitting some excellent iron shots including a 5 iron from 206 that finished 12 ft from the hole (missed the putt of course). The flatter lies are working well in the irons but a bit of an adjustment in my wedges. I think I was used to handle raising a little to compensate but I am going to push through it. A 79 isn't the end of the world and there were some very encouraging swings in there. 

On the swing front, I think I have been taking the club outside the line a little too much (over correcting against my urge to pull the club inside on the takeaway). As always, I want to be careful getting too flat and inside in my backswing but the outside takeaway makes it very hard to not come in super steep on the downswing. Anyway, have been hitting balls into the net at night and mostly concerned with setup, takeaway and that first move down. 

[vandyland]

Played 9 holes this past weekend and had a really great ballstriking day. Hit 8/9 greens in regulation and hit 6/7 fairways. Was actually disappointed to only be -2 on the round. Main focus was staying in posture in the backswing with early wrist set and then doing Monte's Cast A in the downswing. Setting all my clubs to 1 degree flat has helped with my iron start line and I was hitting soft draws all day, loved that. 

[vandyland]

It's been a while but haven't played much golf the last few weeks due to work. I did get Fujikura Axiom 125X shafts put in all my irons so I am a graphite guy now which I like so far. Also, hit balls on Monday and found that moving my head back behind the ball a little more at address gives me more of an inside delivery and helps me from spinning out. The risk there is too much of that will probably lead me to hang back or hit the ball fat. My head had moved to even with the ball at address and I was catching things a little thin as a result. Hit the ball really well at the range so excited to get out there hopefully in the next few weeks and play some good golf. When I keep my head back my ballflight also goes up significantly which is a good thing for me in TN as we don't have a ton of wind. Will see how this progresses. 

[vandyland]

Well hit the ball great at the range and then went and played a new course and got completely ejected. Worst round in the last 12 months probably. Was even through 6 and then folded like a lawn chair and felt like I bogeyed every hole after that. I am now going to panic buy a collection of Monte videos. A humbling experience and I was starting to think I was good at golf...that was my mistake. I now feel like I should do the bart simpson and write out "I am an average golfer" 200 times on a chalkboard. Golf, theoretically, has never been easier with all the technology we have and yet I can still find a way to make it nearly impossible. 

[vandyland]

Well bought "Broom Force" from Monte today. Will start working through that. If nothing else it will get me focused on proper movements again and stop focusing on how badly I just played. Will try to log 7 straight days of broom force (though I will be without golf clubs from July 11 - 19th (but I can still find a broom I am sure). 

[Goober]

Monte’s stuff is so good imho.Ive bought broom force,NTC, Power Shift, and efficient swing; and one online lesson.Im starting to get the feel that power shift with a decent backswing is 90% of it. The rest is the NTC cast move A and B.It all falls apart if you can’t grasp the proper shift.It creates extend trail leg and flex in transition.Where in your videos I see the reverse that we all fight.
 

start with power shift first. The rest will be way easier.

[vandyland]

12 hours ago, Goober said:

start with power shift first. The rest will be way easier.

I will eventually get there. I started with NTC almost 2 years ago, went to a Monte Clinic in 2023, bought efficient swing which I never really got along with and now I have broom force. I worked through the drills for about an hour last night and I think the slapshot/Nike/Scottie Scheffler Drill is helping me the most. I have used that drill before but not also in combination with the (what feels like) extreme vertical unhinging. Results were good into the net but as Monte says I shouldn't really care about where the ball is going right now or contact. Broom force is a pretty compact group of videos. After the explanations of why Broomforce and common swing faults there are about 7 drills in there to work on. Spent most of my time on the "Fling it" and "Slapshot" drill last night and will try to continue with drills 1-4 for the rest of the week until we go on the family vacation (no golf clubs going there). 

Drill 1 - Roll it (can do this one on vacation since it uses a broom)
Drill 2 - Sweep it
Drill 3 - Fling it
Drill 4 - Slapshot

Edited July 9 by vandyland

[Goober]

I’m a huge fan of drills.And Monte’s video series has so many of them.Find a few that pertains to your needs 

[vandyland]

Did another 45 minutes of drills last night, mostly just fling it and slapshot for 3-4 balls and then regular, 80% swings for 2-3 shots so see how it transferred. The drills are slowly shutting off my lower body which I *think* is a good thing. I tend to have an overactive lower body that tries to get out ahead of the ball (a big Monte No-No) and the slapshot drill in particular is really good at keeping me from early extending and/or getting my rear hip ahead of my hands. 

I have a slight worry that if I do the slapshot drill too much I won't be able to get that sliding back foot out of my swing. But if I hit the ball better....,maybe who cares? Works for Scottie. 

[Goober]

I’m learning now that all of us battle an over active body.People that goat hump especially.Why the Justin Rose style drill is a good one.So many of us have played arms stuck behind body our entire golfing careers.

[NM01]

17 minutes ago, Goober said:

I’m learning now that all of us battle an over active body.People that goat hump especially.Why the Justin Rose style drill is a good one.So many of us have played arms stuck behind body our entire golfing careers.

It’s because most amateurs move their hips in the wrong way so there’s no choice but to goat hump.

The majority of amateurs move the lead hip forward in the backswing rather than the trail hip back. This also comes from lack of pressure shift into the trail side to start the swing.

So in the downswing the trail hip moves forward rather than lead hip moving back. And this also causes the late pressure shift and arms trailing the lower body.

Without getting the proper pressure shifting throughout the swing there is always going to be some issue with the swing and timing. When it’s working fine it will be fine, but when ones timing is off that’s when the bad day to some extent happens on the course.

The other issue that plagues many is late or no wrist set. Combine that with the above issue and you get a swing that has to make a bunch of compensations 

[Goober]

10 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

It’s because most amateurs move their hips in the wrong way so there’s no choice but to goat hump.

The majority of amateurs move the lead hip forward in the backswing rather than the trail hip back. This also comes from lack of pressure shift into the trail side to start the swing.

So in the downswing the trail hip moves forward rather than lead hip moving back. And this also causes the late pressure shift and arms trailing the lower body.

Without getting the proper pressure shifting throughout the swing there is always going to be some issue with the swing and timing. When it’s working fine it will be fine, but when ones timing is off that’s when the bad day to some extent happens on the course.

The other issue that plagues many is late or no wrist set. Combine that with the above issue and you get a swing that has to make a bunch of compensations 

You always have the best posts Ricky.Im not sure why the vast majority of us go wrong with the swing.Some just deal with it and never get better.Others try and just get farther down the rabbit hole.But as you said, there are some major areas that if never fixed or understood.. will cause all handicaps amateurs to truly play the game handicapped. And on the defense and never play on the offense 

[NM01]

22 minutes ago, Goober said:

You always have the best posts Ricky.Im not sure why the vast majority of us go wrong with the swing.Some just deal with it and never get better.Others try and just get farther down the rabbit hole.But as you said, there are some major areas that if never fixed or understood.. will cause all handicaps amateurs to truly play the game handicapped. And on the defense and never play on the offense 

A lot of amateurs took up the game as adults and we have the strength to overpower the club. We do things that feel natural and powerful to create speed but in the golf swing those things do the opposite.

Its easier for kids to do the right things because they haven’t developed the strength to overpower the club so they learn to use the body properly to swing.

Also as adults most us when we picked up the game didn’t start with lessons. We got clubs either second hand from someone, used from a store or if bought new whatever was on the shelf and used some generic concept of choosing flex based on what we thought about our physical capabilities, age, for some well pros are using x stuff and I’m not a pro I’ll go stiff flex.

Then we played the game and developed our swing filled with faults and compensations. To make changes to those we have to change our movement patterns which takes time. Most adults don’t have the time to practice or practice a lot and want to use their free time to play so the road to getting better takes longer. Some want immediate results so when they go on the course they can shoot better, but there’s no quick fix.

Which is where good instructors like Monte come in. They understand the time constraints so the focus is on the one thing to work on that will provide the quickest path to better golf. Then go from there onto the next big ticket item to fix. But again it’s hard to get to that next item if time isn’t spent on the first one. It’s why Monte despite costing himself money tells students 4-6 weeks between lessons and for some students it might be telling them to keep working on the samething for another 4-6 weeks. The reason is it takes 8-12 weeks to start changing a movement pattern in anything we do. 

[Goober]

This stuff isn’t who crosses the finish line first.Its crossing the finish line knowing you mastered what needed to be done. Than there will always be another race and finish line 

 

how life goes.Learn it right first, so you don’t have to go back and fix again 

[NM01]

1 hour ago, Goober said:

This stuff isn’t who crosses the finish line first.Its crossing the finish line knowing you mastered what needed to be done. Than there will always be another race and finish line 

 

how life goes.Learn it right first, so you don’t have to go back and fix again 

For the bold part that would be the way to do it but most adults pick up the game as a hobby whether due to social aspect with work scrambles, current friends play or as an outdoor activity during covid. They arent necessarily looking to do it the right way or take the time to go that route, it’s the play now lest later or maybe never.

Its those who get the bug and want to get better that then go then let me learn route.

the group I played with have no desire to practice and will complain when they have a bad stretch of golf playing the same courses 3 times a week

[Goober]

Would say that Monte’s NTC swing would be be best way for any amateur to advance the ball.It requires a lot of work to get there.But its simplicity is where it is at.Seems like a really bad shot would rarely happen if you follow his system 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Thoughts on playing while trying to let changes set in. I am trying to get more vertical hinge in the takeaway and I don’t want to play golf swing on the course. Is it best to do that feel in preshot routine and just play golf? Take it to a shorter course or play tees up and just do half swings? Avoid the course altogether (not an option as I do this work exercise).