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?