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

[iacas]

34 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

Finally got a chance to watch this one.

 

from the down the line we can see you’re getting away from the concept of the drill. Rig arm bending and some extension of the trail wrists getting the club behind you. The goal is to keep the arms connected to you and just turn without moving the arms, not bending of the trail elbow and no setting of any kind of the wrist.

 

heres the robot Erik used as the example

 

here’s your dtl

 

you need to work on just rotating and no arm movement at all. This gets to what dean mentions above about the pelvis movement. 

 

Yes, and to be clear, the robots are PAST what your swing should end up at. It's exaggeration… but again, I think exaggeration is the fastest way to push past a current habit.

 

[GoGoErky]

29 minutes ago, iacas said:

 

Yes, and to be clear, the robots are PAST what your swing should end up at. It's exaggeration… but again, I think exaggeration is the fastest way to push past a current habit.

 

Agree on the exaggeration being needed. Almost go to the extreme to feel something completely different 

[bortass]

 

 

Okay, just a DTL shot to see if this is any closer to being correct. This video is a bit longer because I added the slow motion of my grip to the end of the clip. I watched the video Iacas has on the grip and tried to apply it. I will say I'm having some issues with the clubface when doing it. It's getting very closed even though the face is square when I'm holding the club up. He talks about where you start trying to grip the club can make the grip stronger or weaker. I have not figured out where I should be starting the gripping process to get a square face. Maybe I'm a hopeless case?

 

I really do not feel my arms or wrists moving when I do this drill. Is this any better?

 

 

 

Edited May 30 by bortass
Video change

[iacas]

The video doesn't play and I will be teaching for the next bunch of hours, so… you're probably curling the grip up into your hand rather than wrapping your hand over the grip.

 

[bortass]

18 minutes ago, iacas said:

The video doesn't play and I will be teaching for the next bunch of hours, so… you're probably curling the grip up into your hand rather than wrapping your hand over the grip.

 

I re-edited it and uploaded a better version that seems to work. Thanks for trying to look at the original one. I'll keep practicing wrapping my hand over the grip.

[bortass]

I should quit playing. I cannot seem to make decent contact, decent not great, more than a few times a round. Scores are progressively worse. I really have little clue where the ball is gonna go since I seem to have almost every miss under the sun right now. Top it off with my mental game is being very stressed. I can shrug off some of the many misfires but I'm getting frustrated at times when I play.

 

I believe I know why of course. I'm very confident in what I'm about to say but could be wrong. I am trying to make swing changes and most of the time, the course is when I swing clubs and get to see what happens. Today, I had a mix of shift my pelvis, fix my grip, try to rotate around my spine versus twisting and rolling the club inside. Perfect world, I'd take time off from playing but my membership is  a sunk cost. It only covers playing, not the range, so I still need to play to make it worthwhile.

 

I completely understand why things are the way they are. It's quite logical and I get it. The rough part is the emotional side takes over at times and even if I know playing like poo is okay, it really bugs me. Today, there were a few holes/shots where I wish I kept my cool. Granted when I get frustrated, I just swear at myself. No tantrums or club throwing.

 

One good thing is when I am over the ball, I have no fear/worry. I know what I want to do. There's no self doubt or fear of don't hit it in the trees. I can leave the bad shots behind me over the ball. My driver was AWOL today but I used it every hole I could. I hit pulls into the left trees, popped one up about 30 yards and OOB, hit some push fades into the right trees. Also hit some very solid ones too. It didn't matter if I popped it up OOB on #9, on #10 tee I had no qualms hitting driver and just went through my regular routine.

 

I just felt the need to vent a little after the mess I made on the course today.

 

There are some positives though:

• I hit a couple great looking, high baby draws with my driver. I seem to be able to miss anyplace with it right now but can still hit some real good shots.
• I hit some real good chips with my SW. I made sure to move more like I do with the drill from Iacas. I actually managed to hit the ball how you're supposed to a few times. Normally I blade or duff them. Instead I got the nice click sound of decent contact and the ball got up in the air a few feet. 
• I felt, therefore no proof, that I did better with rotating around my spine on a couple shots.
• I did my best to grip the club better throughout the round.

My plan is to keep working on things w/o a ball. I want to get to the range to work on chipping the ball 40 yards with that drill swing. I will post video as I can for feedback as well.

 

Have a great weekend!

[bortass]

@iacas just confirming something about the drill. The arms/wrists stayed locked in position except for when the arms are lifted by the shoulders after rotating 90*. The lower body is free to move, so I should feel pressure into my trail foot as I rotate back. Correct?

[Chip Duffer]

34 minutes ago, bortass said:

@iacas just confirming something about the drill. The arms/wrists stayed locked in position except for when the arms are lifted by the shoulders after rotating 90*. The lower body is free to move, so I should feel pressure into my trail foot as I rotate back. Correct?

You should feel pressure in your trail foot and the same cheek.

[iacas]

43 minutes ago, Chip Duffer said:

You should feel pressure in your trail foot and the same cheek.

 

Yeah and I wouldn't say you "lock" your wrists.

[bortass]

Went to the range today and worked on the drill with a ball. I did the drill three times and then hit 10 balls trying to do the drill motions w/o pausing like I do in the drill itself. I did two sets of these before grabbing some slow motion video. Overall, I was very pleased with how it went. I know I have a long way to go but it was positive IMO. I did my best to only try to hit my 7i about 40 yards. I had some low point issues on a few of them but most were pretty good. I noticed the grass stains on the clubface were closer to center instead of way on the toe. The sound of club hitting ball was also pretty good.

 

I like to end my range session with a full swing. I went through my pre-shot routine and hit a shot that I wish I could have done on the course Saturday, lol. I think hitting balls helped me get a feel for it in action. Indoors I can't swing since I'm not about to bounce an iron off my wood floors and face the wrath of my wife. I like golf and want to get better but there are some limits... I guess I'm not dedicated enough, lol.

 

Here is DTL. I will try to get FO posted soon. One video is of me doing the drill and hitting a ball. The other is just trying to do the drill in a fluid motion and hitting a ball.

 

 

Drill with pauses.

 

Short swing w/o pauses.

 

 

 

[bortass]

 

I need to split face on into two posts due to file sizes.

 

First is performing the drill and hitting a ball.

 

 

 

[bortass]

Now for face on of trying to do the drill w/o pausing and hitting the ball.

 

 

[bortass]

Lastly one DTL normal speed video of trying to do the drill as a swing. I'm just including it to show the speed of my swing since that's important. I feel like I'm not going full speed but please let me know if this is still too fast.

 

 

 

[GoGoErky]

How well do you think your executing the turn part of the drill?

 

 

[bortass]

3 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

How well do you think your executing the turn part of the drill?

 

 

I think it's better but still off. I see that I still have the 'twist' where I shift my torso towards the trail side versus rotating around the spine. I also don't see much of a shift to the trail side at the start of things. Lastly, even though I feel like my right hip is going back, it looks like I am still coming off the 'wall' and my right hip moves towards the ball as I 'stand up'.

 

What else did I miss or get wrong with what I wrote above?

 

I have only been doing this for about a week and doing it 100% correctly still eludes me. I really don't know how long it will take until I get it but I will keep at it and try to make the next rep better.

 

 

[iacas]

 

Recorded this one VERY quickly the other day.

 

 

[GoGoErky]

 

1 hour ago, bortass said:

I think it's better but still off. I see that I still have the 'twist' where I shift my torso towards the trail side versus rotating around the spine. I also don't see much of a shift to the trail side at the start of things. Lastly, even though I feel like my right hip is going back, it looks like I am still coming off the 'wall' and my right hip moves towards the ball as I 'stand up'.

 

What else did I miss or get wrong with what I wrote above?

 

I have only been doing this for about a week and doing it 100% correctly still eludes me. I really don't know how long it will take until I get it but I will keep at it and try to make the next rep better.

 

 

I wouldn’t worry about pressure shifting at this point, the goal is to improve how rotate.

 

What I noticed in the dtl is the club getting behind the hands (means wrist are being involved and for you it’s right wrist flexion) remember this is a no wrist set move, and more than likely arms are moving more than the chest is rotating and arms doing nothing.
 

And then in drill with no pauses the right arms is bending, 

 
Then with the face on the confirmation of the arms doing most of the work and the chest not doing much.

 

Your face on where the hands are at the trail thigh. 

 

when compared to where Erik is at the same point, we can see how he maintains the triangle and the center of his chest has moved and is pointing towards his right foot while yours is still pointing towards the ball or what’s your address position and the triangle is lost.

 

you probably need to feel an over exaggeration of the center of your chest moving. You can do a couple drills to few this before doing this drill. Stick your right thumb into your chest and then turn the chest. Then take the butt of the club and put it in your belly button and grip down on the shaft and again feel the chest rotate without the club coming out of the belly button

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

Watch that your butt doesn't get too far out at address. 

[bortass]

16 hours ago, iacas said:

 

Recorded this one VERY quickly the other day.

 

 

Thanks so much. This video really helps me get a better understanding. I am still turning flat and the lead shoulder needs to lower much more than my current understanding thinks it does.

[TheDeanAbides]

14 minutes ago, bortass said:

Thanks so much. This video really helps me get a better understanding. I am still turning flat and the lead shoulder needs to lower much more than my current understanding thinks it does.

Feel like you're trying to hit your right toe with your left shoulder. 

[bortass]

@GoGoErky here is my attempt at the butt of the club in belly button.

 

 

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

14 minutes ago, bortass said:

@GoGoErky here is my attempt at the butt of the club in belly button.

 

 

 

What do you see? Pivot look correct?

[GoGoErky]

57 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

What do you see? Pivot look correct?

Good question. 

Edited June 3 by GoGoErky

[bortass]

59 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

What do you see? Pivot look correct?

I see my arms stay 'locked' in place. I see my left shoulder go down more than normal for me. Those are both positives.

 

 It looks like I am going left right away. I thought it looked like Erik does that in the video of this drill he shared but I see based on the background his right hip doesn't move left(forward) the way mine does.

 

Don't flame me since I'm still trying to learn what I'm looking for/at but overall I thought the entire movement was pretty good compared to what I would do normally.

 

I understand you, @iacas, and @GoGoErky are trying to get me, and Brad, better at understanding what we are looking for/at. The whole teach a man to fish thing and I appreciate the time that is being put into it.

Edited June 3 by bortass

[bortass]

I just played around with the drill next to a door frame to make it easier for me to tell what my right hip is doing. If I just rotate my chest, my right hip moves left. If I rotate my chest while pushing my right foot into the ground, my right hip seems to move back and stay to the right. I'll video it and see if my observation was accurate and share it if so. If it's still wrong, I'll keep trying to find a way to get the right hip back and staying right.

Edited June 3 by bortass

[GoGoErky]

5 minutes ago, bortass said:

I see my arms stay 'locked' in place. I see my left shoulder go down more than normal for me. Those are both positives.

 

 It looks like I am going left right away. I thought it looked like Erik does that in the video of this drill he shared but I see based on the background his right hip doesn't move left(forward) the way mine does.

 

Don't flame me since I'm still trying to learn what I'm looking for/at but overall I thought the entire movement was pretty good compared to what I would do normally.

 

I understand you, @iacas, and @GoGoErky are trying to get me, and Brad, better at understanding what we are looking for/at. The whole teach a man to fish thing and I appreciate the time that is being put into it.

The positive is that you can rotate the chest without breaking the triangle. Thats the feel you need to do the drill from Erik. The leg shoulder does goes down but that to my eyes comes from the left knee flexion and what looks like a late side crunch. 
 

Im pretty sure Dean asked the pivot question because he sees what I saw right away, and that is if we looked at the down the line on this one we would see the same left hip out movement pattern 

[TheDeanAbides]

37 minutes ago, bortass said:

I just played around with the drill next to a door frame to make it easier for me to tell what my right hip is doing. If I just rotate my chest, my right hip moves left. If I rotate my chest while pushing my right foot into the ground, my right hip seems to move back and stay to the right. I'll video it and see if my observation was accurate and share it if so. If it's still wrong, I'll keep trying to find a way to get the right hip back and staying right.

Be careful that you're rotating your shoulders around your spine angle. Watch Erik's head and spine angle compared to yours. 

[bortass]

I am having a very hard time with this. This is still wrong and I feel this is as far as I can even rotate. The right hip is still going left. I'm at a loss as to what/how I can get myself to move correctly. I get that it's not been much time but I seem stumped as to how I'm supposed to make this happen, lol. I'll keep at it and see if I can figure out a trigger that will help. I'm starting to wonder if there are too many moving parts for my non athletic mind to handle at once.

 

 

 

[iacas]

Stand up (not like golf setup, just stand up), hold a club across your collarbones, and rotate as far back as you can while still looking at the camera.

 

Then do that same thing bent forward into golf posture.

[bortass]

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

Stand up (not like golf setup, just stand up), hold a club across your collarbones, and rotate as far back as you can while still looking at the camera.

 

Then do that same thing bent forward into golf posture.

Like this?