CFreddie & Preeway's Excellent (swing improvement) Adventure

[CFreddie]

After uniting under the same cause (our current golf swings stink), @Preeway and I decided to document our path to (hopeful) improvement.  Our hope is that the MGS community can keep us accountable and have some fun in the process.  Feel free to encourage, provide feedback, or even question why we are doing this in the first place (we have thick skins  ).  Without further ado...here we go!

Introductions

CFreddie: If I haven’t met some of you, my name is Chris and I’ve been a member of this community for about a year at this point.  I stumbled on this place last year and have been blown away by the welcoming community of like-minded golfers – I feel like I know so many of you, even if I’ve only “met” you through here (or on the weekly community call).  And since I’ve grown close to this community, I feel like I can be a bit more transparent with yall – I’m in a REALLY dark place golf-wise.  Ever since my trip to Southern Pines last November, I’d categorize my swing as “broken” – consistency is the main culprit, but its starting to really affect the mental aspect of my game (for example, I nearly walked off after 9 holes on two different occasions in recent rounds).  And that has lead us to here…

Preeway: 

My name is Chris and I’m a hyper analytical swing analyzer. <background voices> “Hi Chris.” I began playing golf when I was around 10 years old and quickly developed a pretty smooth swing. Only problem was I had a pretty significant “swing flaw” that I didn’t come to realize until I was around 16. I got a job at a golf course in high school and the head pro was very gracious in helping me with some swing improvements. Sadly, I didn’t really perfect the things I needed to and as a result I just learned to play with the swing I had and how to compensate for the flaws I had. Fast forward 40 years and I have become determined to make the swing improvements I sought out so long ago in an effort to improve consistency and swing speed. have a tendency to sway my hips side to side instead of rotating through the swing. I am sharing my journey with the forum in an effort to glean insight from fellow spies as well as to get some accountability as I share my progress over the next 9 months. Hopefully by this fall I will have been able to make visible progress in my swing mechanics.

Identifying Our Faults

CFreddie: On the recommendation of a friend, I signed up for a month’s access to Cogorno Golf, which I have seen referenced in other threads here.  All-in-all, I’m enjoying the service so far, especially given the price ($80 / month, which includes a TON of lessons / drills / classes).  First up, I filmed & sent in my “current” swing to get analyzed, and my instructor came back with a couple good nuggets.

 

Fault#1 – Maintain grip throughout swing: this was the most apparent issue – my grip is super strong / turned, but I’m losing that wrist flexion somewhere past parallel in my backswing.  Proposed fix: reduce turn (slightly) and maintain flexion through contact / follow-through

Fault #2 – The other apparent issue was my lack of turn in my hips on contact / follow-through.  Proposed fix: this one is a bit easier – just flare my feet a bit to allow hips to rotate a bit easier through turn / follow-through

Fault #3 – Reduce “sway” on back-swing – this has been a killer for me recently (particularly on irons).  Proposed fix: instructor felt that the feet flare should address some of this, along with a stronger focus on the turn. 

Preeway: 

A couple of the key points I’m going to try to address.

Fault #1- On the backswing, I want to be see my hips turn and my weight load onto the trail leg without any excessive lateral movement. This video shows a pretty good example (IMO) of a good weight transfer to my trail side.

Fault #2- In the transition I want to see visible shallowing at the waist and my hips open to the target prior to contact getting made. Using the same video as reference, there is no visible shallowing in my downswing

Fault #3 - I have a tendency to break my wrists early in the downswing (early extension) and I want to do better at holding my wrists in flexion longer in the downswing. The video here shows my usual early extension and my often present poor weight shift (even a hint of a reverse weight shift) which led to a very high draw in a stiff wind. This was a 120 yard par 3 and I hit an 8-iron which is my usual 160-165 yard club. It was only a 15-20mph head wind and I missed the green about 5 feet short of the green.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-9M6qEyp8uA

These pictures are screen shots of the video above to highlight my early extension.

Goal Setting - What are trying to accomplish here?

CFreddie: All-in-all, I hope to develop consistency (instead of focus on a specifc part of my bag) – I believe I have a good set of fundamentals to build off of, and hope these small tweaks could lead to better results.  My natural ball flight has traditionally been a slight draw, but has developed into a nasty draw pull recently.  Based on the feedback up to this point, this is completely understandable (closed face prior to impact, poor hip / knee turn, early extension), and early results seem to be pretty positive.  

In order to keep myself accountable to this group, I'd love to get to a handicap in the SINGLE DIGITS BY EOY 

Preeway: My current go to ball flight has always been a high draw. I think my poor hip turn/weight transfer leads to a slight reverse weight shift (sometimes really egregious causing monster hooks) and a closing of the club face. When my game is on, this flaw is fairly minor and my draw is very predictable. I believe my high ball flight is due to my early extension with excessive club loft being presented at contact. I really want to be better at holding wrist flexion longer and taking a little loft off my approach shots. If I can make these adjustments to my swing I believe I will move from a draw to mid launching fade. I will also generate more ball speed and thus greater distance. I’ve always been a little annoyed in the past at my mid irons rolling out more than I like coming in from draw shot shape. The higher trajectory does help mitigate this somewhat but I believe hitting a mid launching fade will get me better stopping power with my approach shots.

In summary, I am looking to make these swing adjustments to generate more consistent shots, greater ball speed, and move from a high draw shot shape to a mid-launching fade. Although I play to a 3 handicap currently, my score variance ranges from 72 to 85 in 2023. I'd like to get down to scratch this year, or at the very least reduce my score variance from 13 strokes last year to less than 8 this year. 

Closing

We both plan to post weekly videos / pictures / write-ups of our progress – feel free to be an armchair instructor and call-out anything you see (we have thick skins  ). 

Looking forward to documenting this journey with yall!

 

Edited February 22 by CFreddie

[Preeway]

Thanks for getting this loaded @CFreddie. I am looking forward to embarking on this journey with you. Over the last two years I found that I had a tendency to have 2-3 really good rounds (70-75) and get lulled into a false sense of security of having a sound swing only to experience 3-4 really bad rounds (82-90) due to my early extension and poor hip turn. Bring on the critiques and advice and let's get this excellent adventure underway!

[GolfSpy_KFT]

This is awesome, guys. Really looking forward to following along as I am working on correcting some flaws of my own. 

[Preeway]

The thing I've begun to find the most helpful is the use of slo-mo video. The video below shows some of my flaws but it's harder to spot even when I go try to go frame by frame. I will be sharing a lot more vdeio using slo-mo cpature throught this journey.

Edited February 22 by Preeway

[Michael.Sandoval33]

I really love the idea of making this thread about personal accountability. I can't wait to see you guys rock this and come out with some buttery swings. 

Edited February 22 by Michael.Sandoval33
About*

[Josh Parker]

Great job guys and look forward to seeing the progress!  

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

This is awsome great idea on a collab...please tell me the name stems from Bill & Ted.....

[CFreddie]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_SHARK said:

This is awsome great idea on a collab...please tell me the name stems from Bill & Ted.....

[Preeway]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_SHARK said:

This is awsome great idea on a collab...please tell me the name stems from Bill & Ted.....

Most excellent catch on the thread title. Rufus would be proud.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

41 minutes ago, CFreddie said:

 

8 minutes ago, Preeway said:

Most excellent catch on the thread title. Rufus would be proud.

Movie quotes like @GolfSpy SAM and @Shanksterare my jam.

[Rob Person]

Love this!!! Let's cheer these guys forward with their endeavor to be better golfers!!!

[TJ Hall]

This is awesome…rooting for you guys on this journey!  Looking forward to seeing the progress!

[CFreddie]

Good morning everyone - wanted to send over a quick recap of my golf trip last weekend and how some of my recent swing changes came to fruition.

- I made a conscious effort to focus on a) keeping a slight cup in my wrist THROUGH the swing (my comfortable grip position is quite strong) b) ensuring my hips were more open when my right arm was parallel to ground on follow-thru throughout the weekend

- While I was making better iron & wedge contact for the most part, I noticed I was starting to fat more shots, which leads me to believe that a combination of unintentionally digging the leading edge (given the cupped wrist position) and a steeper AOA (again, I attribute this to my cupped wrist).  Based on this, my next focus will be to work on shallowing a bit more on downswing.

- While iron & wedge shots were pretty good and my putting was on  (sank a number of 10-15' putts throughout the weekend), my driver still needs a bit more work.  As chronicled in my Paradym "mini-review", the Ventus TR shaft is forcing me to focus more on swing tempo (which is a good thing), and I can get out of sorts quickly when I'm trying to muscle it a bit more.  

All-in-all great weekend of golf all around - I'm very excited to keep incorporating these changes into my game over the season (including the VCT End of Season Tournament starting next week)!

Any questions? Ask away!

[Preeway]

Great recap, @CFreddie. I wasn’t able to get in as much practice time as Inhad wanted the last couple weeks but I did get a new training aid that I plan to share more about soon. 

I’ve only used it with a few swings so far but now that I have a week off, I should be able to work on my weight shift and downswing transition with some focus. My next update will be coming soon. 

[CFreddie]

Just now, Preeway said:

Great recap, @CFreddie. I wasn’t able to get in as much practice time as Inhad wanted the last couple weeks but I did get a new training aid that I plan to share more about soon. 

I’ve only used it with a few swings so far but now that I have a week off, I should be able to work on my weight shift and downswing transition with some focus. My next update will be coming soon. 

Interesting!  I can't wait to hear about this - seems like it could work well for both of us!

[cksurfdude]

10 hours ago, CFreddie said:

- While I was making better iron & wedge contact for the most part, I noticed I was starting to fat more shots, which leads me to believe that a combination of unintentionally digging the leading edge (given the cupped wrist position) and a steeper AOA (again, I attribute this to my cupped wrist).  Based on this, my next focus will be to work on shallowing a bit more on downswing.

- While I'm not an instructor nor do I play on TV ...

Just wanna relate one of the (many many many) things I struggle with and am working on...

.. is getting the pressure shift moving target-ward.. and much sooner in the swing sequence...

 

And dudes always...

 

[CFreddie]

13 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

- While I'm not an instructor nor do I play on TV ...

Just wanna relate one of the (many many many) things I struggle with and am working on...

.. is getting the pressure shift moving target-ward.. and much sooner in the swing sequence...

 

And dudes always...

 

Good stuff @cksurfdude.  Most outstanding!

[Rob Person]

Thanks for the updates!  Glad.yiur trip was a good sign of progress too!  With the pressure shift board, it it effective for just transfer, or will it also help with hip rotation? (an area I need to work on most definitely!)

[William P]

Just found this thread.

Excellent endeavor Chris and Chris! I will be following closely as I battle similar issues in my swing. Or facsimile thereof... 

Edited March 10 by William P

[cksurfdude]

21 hours ago, CFreddie said:

Good stuff @cksurfdude.  Most outstanding!

Whhoooaa.... thank you, my excellent friend!

Keep up the righteous work, Chris and Chris aka Chris-Squared!!

 

[Preeway]

Time for an update. This is taken from some range time I was able to get in on Monday. First video is with my 8 iron.

Second video is with my driver.

 

I've been working on my hip rotation and making sure I'm not just sliding into the downswing. Also working on getting my arms to lag a little longer to allow my hips to fully open up to my target before making contact with the ball. I think I still have a long way to go on that but I feel like I am making some progress on my hip turn. Looking for feedback, thoughts, and suggestions on drills to try that may help. I'll get some video of my work using the Downshift board as well in a few days.

[William P]

Are you using an app to record your swing or just your phone on slow motion?

[Preeway]

I bought a cheap mini tripod to hold my phone and set it for slo-mo. Then I have to edit the video because 8 seconds worth of video is almost a minute in slo mo. 

[William P]

Thanks.

[Rob Person]

Keep up the good work!  You seem to be making progress from what I've read so far!

[Preeway]

On 3/9/2024 at 7:16 PM, Rob Person said:

Thanks for the updates!  Glad.yiur trip was a good sign of progress too!  With the pressure shift board, it it effective for just transfer, or will it also help with hip rotation? (an area I need to work on most definitely!)

The board is more inclined to help transfer the weight so you have to add the rotation piece. I’m finding that it does make it easier to rotate rather than slide which is one of my targeted areas of improvement. 

[CFreddie]

End of March Update:

Its been a couple weeks since my last update, so I wanted to provide a couple recent takeaways on my path to improvement:

- For those that haven't been following the end of season VCT tournament (not sure why ), I've been blown away by some of my small swing changes recently, particularly with my driver & irons.  By focusing on my wrist flexion and hip turn, I've seen IMMEDIATE impact to contact and ball flight.

- Futhermore, my driver has now become a strength of my game - in the past three rounds, I'm averaging 60%+ fairways, which I don't believe I've ever achieved in my years of playing golf.  The only knock is that my ball flight is still a bit inconsistent - usually, my standard baby draw comes out, but I've started to see a small fade in certain instances - need to clean that up a bit.

- Next area of improvement - short game.  While I've improved greatly in general ball-striking, my short game has taken a couple steps back.  My plan of attack in April is to focus on short game - looking forward to documenting my journey here over the next month!

Paging @Preeway - how we doing my most excellent friend???

[Preeway]

On 4/6/2024 at 8:31 PM, CFreddie said:

End of March Update:Paging @Preeway - how we doing my most excellent friend???

It’s been a wild ride the month of March between my own health issues and my father in law passing. In short, my practice time has suffered more than I like. I’ve been working with my Downshift board to improve my transition but I need to get some video in so I can share and get some feedback. 

Overall, my swing has made some improvement but I still have a long way to go. Will work on getting some video together soon to share. If not at the range then for sure in the garage. 

[Hook DeLoft]