My Road to Improvement - 7/9/25 new swing video

[bortass]

Wish I had asked for feedback sooner because it’s making me evaluate what I’ve been doing.

 

@betarhoalphadelta I hear ya on chasing numbers. I didn’t think I was doing that but maybe I have been. 
 

6 hours ago, TheDeanAbides said:

This is the crux. I feel like Bort has gotten a bit lost in the weeds.

Yeah and I can’t sell it either😆. I hear what all of you are telling me though.

 

16 hours ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Theres a bit more to it than that unfortunately. Also need to choke down/and or hover the club a bit above the ground for uphill lies to counter the tendency to chunk here, similar to ball above the feet lies. Downhill lies are a bit trick and take a bit more practice to figure out

I will need to find a way to practice this. The range doesn’t have any spots to work on uneven lies. The course closes very early year round and my only concern about popping into the fairway behind the house to practice these lies is the divots etc that will occur. I plan to work on bunker shots once there is more evening light but I just need to rake after.

[bortass]

17 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

Are you working on wrist motions with HM for the takeaway or are they all transition/impact related.

 

I would guess that your other swing faults are why even with hm you’re still having issues. Last swing I saw was your pre/post clinic swing. In that swing you just kicked the left knee out which prevented any pelvis rotation, combine that with immediately over folding the right arm and then just lifting the arm, you then throw the right shoulder towards the ball and get steep then prevent the arms from getting away frm you and having to stall and try to hit it from the inside.

 

if your swing looks like that still or close to it hm isn’t going to solve much 

Impact related. It doesn’t flag my takeaway as an issue. I plan to get some new swing video within the next couple of days and will share. Get your popcorn ready! lol.

[GoGoErky]

22 minutes ago, bortass said:

Impact related. It doesn’t flag my takeaway as an issue. I plan to get some new swing video within the next couple of days and will share. Get your popcorn ready! lol.

While impact related could help, it’s going to be hard to repeat what your working on there because of how they are working in the takeaway and backswing/transition along with how the arms, upper body and hips are moving.

 

But yeah let’s see some videos

[bortass]

Well here are a couple videos and I have two more that need to editing prior to uploading. They are all with a 7i. The clubs on the ground are being used to help get my hands in line with the camera. I took DTL, FO, slo-mo DTL, and slo-mo FO. Each video contains five shots. The only editing I'm doing is to remove the sound, cut out any walking around, and make it 16:9 so it's not a short. It will take me a bit to get all the videos uploaded, especially slow motion ones since I will need to cut a lot of wasted time out of those.

 

I did sets of five shots because I thought it'd give a better representation of my swing. I have found that filming myself can cause issues, namely making even worse contact than normal. I know my balance got towards my toes in a few shot and that never happens when I play. No idea why it happened but it wasn't a one off.

 

I can chop these up even more if needed, just let me know. I really don't like videos of my swing cuz I'm a lard @ss, lol.

 

 

 

 

 

[SNIPERBBB]

Just a hint on slo-mo...on youtube videos, you can click the gears button and change the play back speed to 1/4 speed that does a pretty good job so you dont have to do it via your editing program.

 

One that that stands out to me is you have an extreme chicken wing and no extension through impact. 

Edited February 24 by SNIPERBBB

[GoGoErky]

13 minutes ago, bortass said:

Well here are a couple videos and I have two more that need to editing prior to uploading. They are all with a 7i. The clubs on the ground are being used to help get my hands in line with the camera. I took DTL, FO, slo-mo DTL, and slo-mo FO. Each video contains five shots. The only editing I'm doing is to remove the sound, cut out any walking around, and make it 16:9 so it's not a short. It will take me a bit to get all the videos uploaded, especially slow motion ones since I will need to cut a lot of wasted time out of those.

 

I did sets of five shots because I thought it'd give a better representation of my swing. I have found that filming myself can cause issues, namely making even worse contact than normal. I know my balance got towards my toes in a few shot and that never happens when I play. No idea why it happened but it wasn't a one off.

 

I can chop these up even more if needed, just let me know. I really don't like videos of my swing cuz I'm a lard @ss, lol.

 

 

 

 

 

This swing is very similar to the one you posted in your pre and post clinic one.

 

your balance is to far back in your setup. Hands might be a little to low and far away.

 

You have the left hip come forward in the backing and have no torso or pelvis rotation. Because of this you fire the right shoulder towards the ball and then fight to not stay over the top.

 

None of the hm stuff you were working on would fix this.

 

i would recommend getting Monte’s grip and setup fundamental videos and work on that along with no turn cast and focus on the wrist sat and push to 7

 

This is a good drill too

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CroFxXuuzOw/?igsh=MWNuamdrdHoyajQ4Yg==

[bortass]

Here's the DTL slow motion with only four swings since the last one didn't get recorded in slow motion. Not sure if these matter or not or if the full speed ones are all that was needed.

 

 

[bortass]

30 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

This swing is very similar to the one you posted in your pre and post clinic one.

 

your balance is to far back in your setup. Hands might be a little to low and far away.

 

You have the left hip come forward in the backing and have no torso or pelvis rotation. Because of this you fire the right shoulder towards the ball and then fight to not stay over the top.

 

None of the hm stuff you were working on would fix this.

 

i would recommend getting Monte’s grip and setup fundamental videos and work on that along with no turn cast and focus on the wrist sat and push to 7

 

This is a good drill too

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CroFxXuuzOw/?igsh=MWNuamdrdHoyajQ4Yg==

Thanks for the list!

 

Balance too far back means I'm squatting too much correct?

 

36 minutes ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Just a hint on slo-mo...on youtube videos, you can click the gears button and change the play back speed to 1/4 speed that does a pretty good job so you dont have to do it via your editing program.

 

One that that stands out to me is you have an extreme chicken wing and no extension through impact. 

Good to know about the speed. I always just record in slow motion but that sounds faster.

 

I don't even like chicken wings, so having one in my golf game is very no bueno.

[SNIPERBBB]

The slow mo does make looking at things a bit smoother if you want to get more picky into the details..like this still coming into impact.

 

[GoGoErky]

10 minutes ago, bortass said:

Balance too far back means I'm squatting too much correct?

Somewhat. Your butt is too far back. A good check point is hip joint in line with the ankle

[bortass]

Only three shots in slow motion face on but the chicken wing is even more obvious. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that I can't hit the ball for beans. I think I need a drink, lol.

 

 

Edited February 24 by bortass

[GoGoErky]

17 minutes ago, bortass said:

Only three shots in slow motion face on but the chicken wing is even more obvious. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that I can't hit the ball for beans. I think I need a drink, lol.

 

 

The chicken wing is your compensation for what happens in the backswing and downswing in order for you to try and hit the ball.

 

what club is this?

[bortass]

Just now, GoGoErky said:

The chicken wing is your compensation for what happens in the backswing and downswing in order for you to try and hit the ball.

 

what club is this?

All of them are seven irons.

[GoGoErky]

6 minutes ago, bortass said:

All of them are seven irons.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the ball up a little further in the stance and maybe narrow the stance a little. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Obviously you know I don't know squat... But I drew a line of your spine angle and then a perpendicular line for your shoulder turn, at address... Copied those lines to a picture of you at the top, and then drew another showing your actual shoulder angle. 

 

 

 

I know it's one of the things I've brought up before... You're basically standing up to turn flat, instead of turning around the inclined spine angle at address. As Monte pointed out here, you want the shoulders to turn on the axis of that line perpendicular to the spine angle:

 

 

And then at about 3:30 he talks about even if you're too flat, if you can get your right shoulder pointed back down at the ball, it can be ok... But instead you have the classic OTT right shoulder move (4:10 on the video) where you throw it up and out towards the ball, and if I advance your swing to the point at where I can see the most right tilt and try to figure out where your shoulder line would be pointed, it would be off-frame somewhere out towards the edge of the driving range, not remotely pointed back to the ball. 

 

I don't know, not being an instructor, exactly WHERE this ranks in priority or what to fix... Or perhaps if other fixes will promote improvement here. But this has always been one of THE most common swing faults I see in most of the high-handicap guys I've played with. It was one of the first things I fixed with my son in those early days I could still fix him (before turning him to Monte). 

 

[bortass]

@betarhoalphadelta Thanks for making the change in shoulder angles easier to see. I see the OTT move but the lines help make it more obvious regarding the amount I raise. I'm not sure of the order of operations either except for fixing my stance. It'll probably be stance and trying to get the backswing in a better place such as the push hands to 7 drill Monte has in NTC.

 

I am having flashbacks to 2013 or so when I thought I'd try to break 80 since I'd cracked 90. Someone just came out and said I didn't practice nearly enough to do it after I'd been at it a while and they were right. Don't get me wrong, they weren't mean about it just stating the obvious. It's a bit of a gut punch to have delusions stripped away by reality. Doubt anyone reading this has ever played ASL but I just failed a personal morale check. Time to either rally and try to do better or route off the board. Pretty sure I'll take the rally option.

[TheDeanAbides]

Without the OTT move you would likely miss the ball and fall over. I’m interested to see what the Grovellers say about your move. I think you’ve picked up some good ideas, mixed them up and turned several of them up to eleven. This coupled with some classic errors has you stuck. 

[bortass]

2 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

i would recommend getting Monte’s grip and setup fundamental videos and work on that along with no turn cast and focus on the wrist sat and push to 7

 

This is a good drill too

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CroFxXuuzOw/?igsh=MWNuamdrdHoyajQ4Yg==

Have all those videos. I have done the wrist set and push to 7 drill a few times recently. The nice thing with it is it is easy to do indoors since there is not swing involved. I also recognize the one from Powershift but I'm not sure if I have ever done it before.

[SNIPERBBB]

1 hour ago, GoGoErky said:

The chicken wing is your compensation for what happens in the backswing and downswing in order for you to try and hit the ball.

 Chicken wing comes from trying to lead with the left arm. Problem you're actually leading with left elbow and your disconnecting the arm from the shoulder so its moving independent of the rest of the body. I think thats how my dad torn his labrum requiring surgery  because he was a similiar build guy as the OP but carrying the ball 270...and he had a massive chicken wing as well.

[GoGoErky]

16 minutes ago, SNIPERBBB said:

 Chicken wing comes from trying to lead with the left arm. Problem you're actually leading with left elbow and your disconnecting the arm from the shoulder so its moving independent of the rest of the body. I think thats how my dad torn his labrum requiring surgery  because he was a similiar build guy as the OP but carrying the ball 270...and he had a massive chicken wing as well.

Is that not a result of his over the top move that he then tries to save by leading with the left arm/elbow?

[SNIPERBBB]

3 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

Is that not a result of his over the top move that he then tries to save by leading with the left arm/elbow?

no, you can definitely be OTT and not chicken wing.  Trying to hold the face off like he seems to being doing is a good way to chicken wing as well. 

[virtuoso]

54 minutes ago, SNIPERBBB said:

 Chicken wing comes from trying to lead with the left arm. Problem you're actually leading with left elbow and your disconnecting the arm from the shoulder so its moving independent of the rest of the body. I think thats how my dad torn his labrum requiring surgery  because he was a similiar build guy as the OP but carrying the ball 270...and he had a massive chicken wing as well.

Yes......but not the origin story. Can you imagine how deep in the ground this club would be if he didn't bend his arm?

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

@betarhoalphadelta Thanks for making the change in shoulder angles easier to see. I see the OTT move but the lines help make it more obvious regarding the amount I raise. I'm not sure of the order of operations either except for fixing my stance. It'll probably be stance and trying to get the backswing in a better place such as the push hands to 7 drill Monte has in NTC.

 

 

IMHO the reason people don't make the right move w/ shoulder angles is that it's completely unnatural. Your brain/body does NOT want to perform this movement with your spine inclined to the ground. It is just frankly easier and more "natural" to stand up and turn flatter, rather than stay inclined and replace your forward bend with an appropriate amount of left tilt. IMHO the appropriate motion makes most people inherently freak out because we are SO unused to performing nearly any movement in our daily lives that way. 

 

Others can give more idea than I can, but I wonder if a good non-club non-ball drill for you might be to do what Monte does in that video... Tape two alignment sticks together, lay them across your chest, and work on turning back and through with video. Do it at slow speed so you're forcing your body to feel the balance issues and the demands on your core muscles to remain at that angle. Use the video to checkpoint that you're actually maintaining that rotation perpendicular to the spine angle. 

 

That said, for all the faults I have in the golf swing, that's not one of them, so I've never had to consciously work on it... So maybe that idea is complete BS. But it's something to think about. 

[SNIPERBBB]

12 minutes ago, virtuoso said:

Yes......but not the origin story. Can you imagine how deep in the ground this club would be if he didn't bend his arm?

Yes and my shoulder hurts thinking about it. 

[virtuoso]

15 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

IMHO the reason people don't make the right move w/ shoulder angles is that it's completely unnatural. Your brain/body does NOT want to perform this movement with your spine inclined to the ground. It is just frankly easier and more "natural" to stand up and turn flatter, rather than stay inclined and replace your forward bend with an appropriate amount of left tilt. IMHO the appropriate motion makes most people inherently freak out because we are SO unused to performing nearly any movement in our daily lives that way. 

 

Others can give more idea than I can, but I wonder if a good non-club non-ball drill for you might be to do what Monte does in that video... Tape two alignment sticks together, lay them across your chest, and work on turning back and through with video. Do it at slow speed so you're forcing your body to feel the balance issues and the demands on your core muscles to remain at that angle. Use the video to checkpoint that you're actually maintaining that rotation perpendicular to the spine angle. 

 

That said, for all the faults I have in the golf swing, that's not one of them, so I've never had to consciously work on it... So maybe that idea is complete BS. But it's something to think about. 

OK, but if his pelvis is in the wrong spot, at the wrong angle, how is he supposed to move his shoulders correctly?

[betarhoalphadelta]

4 minutes ago, virtuoso said:

OK, but if his pelvis is in the wrong spot, at the wrong angle, how is he supposed to move his shoulders correctly?

 

Hell, I don't know! My index is higher than his!

 

That's why I said this:

 

2 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

I don't know, not being an instructor, exactly WHERE this ranks in priority or what to fix... Or perhaps if other fixes will promote improvement here. 

 

 

25 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

That said, for all the faults I have in the golf swing, that's not one of them, so I've never had to consciously work on it... So maybe that idea is complete BS. But it's something to think about. 

 

All I know is that movement with the shoulders is not very functional. A shoulder turn that's too level, followed by a big OTT move throwing the right shoulder at the ball, is not something you see in any high-level swing. But... I don't REALLY know how to fix it. 

[bortass]

Thanks for all the input. I have a fair bit to think about and starting with the takeaway is probably the best first step. I’m open to other thoughts as well.

[iacas]

I say the word pelvis a lot… and it's important, because it's right in the middle of your body…

 

[bortass]

Great weather and I went to the range today. There were two things I wanted to work on. My address position and Monte's sequence drill that @GoGoErky shared yesterday.  The address changes were to bend more from the hips and bend the knees such that the shins are more over my feet which made it feel like i was on my toes. I also made sure to add in some side bend away from target. 

 

For the drill I did sets which were comprised of performing the drill three times and then hitting 10 balls with an easy swing. I used my seven iron just like yesterday. I did three sets, 39 balls, and then took a five minute break. I had enough balls for two more sets and I took some video( see below) I have both FO and DTL of me performing the drill and hitting a ball as part of a set. I also have slow motion video of both the FO and DTL shots that I can share is people think it would be helpful.

 

I will say that I was very happy with how the five sets went. I picked up on a feel during my backswing of pressure going towards my right heel. Things appeared to be better when I felt that. Low point control was much better as well. Of course I'm using a 7i and not trying to hit it full out but I only had one real bad chunk and a couple thins. I know ball flight don't matter during the drills but I left feeling positive which is nice after being embarrassed by yesterday's videos. 

 

This is going to be a very long road to try to improve my swing and I do expect things to be rocky when I play for who knows how long. Don't matter though, my swing is the biggest thing holding me back and I either need to really try to make it better or just stay as a guy that cabn sometimes break 90 but is more likely to be closer to 100.

 

Sequence Drill DTL w/ 7i

 

 

DTL swing that was part of the drill. 

 

 

Sequence drill FO

 

Last one for now. FO view of swinging as part of a drill set.

 

[Nels55]

I don't know if you have tried working on your swing from impact and back?  Here is a video on the subject: