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

[iacas]

Yeah, so you can turn. You just need a titch of back extension to keep your head relatively in place.

 

Good luck. I'm going to let you and Brad work on it for awhile.

[bortass]

1 minute ago, iacas said:

Yeah, so you can turn. You just need a titch of back extension to keep your head relatively in place.

 

Good luck. I'm going to let you and Brad work on it for awhile.

 

 

Thanks again. The back extension may be the part I'm missing. I'll track down some AMG videos to broaden my knowledge base regarding the spine and head movement. I know the head doesn't stay still but I drop it during the takeaway which seems to be bad.

[TheDeanAbides]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

 

 

Thanks again. The back extension may be the part I'm missing. I'll track down some AMG videos to broaden my knowledge base regarding the spine and head movement. I know the head doesn't stay still but I drop it during the takeaway which seems to be bad.

You could practice that quick drill Erik mentioned, but do it incrementally so it translates. Start standing, then bend a little, then a little more etc. Do it in front of a mirror so you can see what's happening. 

[bortass]

Progress! Not perfect but I rotate w/o dropping my head as much. The hips are probably still wrong but my focus was trying to turn with a club across my chest w/o my head dropping too much. The fist video I took, I saw that my head was going up, so I scrapped it. This one still has some movement but I think I'm on the right track.

 

 

[GoGoErky]

40 minutes ago, bortass said:

Progress! Not perfect but I rotate w/o dropping my head as much. The hips are probably still wrong but my focus was trying to turn with a club across my chest w/o my head dropping too much. The fist video I took, I saw that my head was going up, so I scrapped it. This one still has some movement but I think I'm on the right track.

 

 

Better rotation and not having the left hip move out creating the false turn 

[bortass]

9 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

Better rotation and not having the left hip move out creating the false turn 

Completely subjective but how close did I get to being correct? 25% 50%… just trying to get a feel for what I did that time compared to Target state.

[GoGoErky]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

Completely subjective but how close did I get to being correct? 25% 50%… just trying to get a feel for what I did that time compared to Target state.

We can call is around 25%.
 

this video should help it get better

 

 

 

[bortass]

Todays videos. They look better and the comment Erik made about the back extension was a big help in understanding things better.

 

@GoGoErky Thanks for sharing that video. I did some of those drills prior to filming these.

 

I am a big too close to the camera in the DTL one and the club on the floor is an attempt to line the camera up better.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

20 minutes ago, bortass said:

Todays videos. They look better and the comment Erik made about the back extension was a big help in understanding things better.

 

@GoGoErky Thanks for sharing that video. I did some of those drills prior to filming these.

 

I am a big too close to the camera in the DTL one and the club on the floor is an attempt to line the camera up better.

 

 

 

 

 

Do you think the center of your pelvis is over your ankles?

[bortass]

6 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Do you think the center of your pelvis is over your ankles?

No, it's behind my heels. I am trying to get the posture better but forgot to in these videos. My habit is to pretend I'm sitting on a high stool which is what the above shows.

 

When I try to do it better I bend my knees a touch, so they aren't locked, and then lean forward from my hips. I'll keep working on it and hopefully it will show in in tomorrow's videos.

[GoGoErky]

31 minutes ago, bortass said:

Todays videos. They look better and the comment Erik made about the back extension was a big help in understanding things better.

 

@GoGoErky Thanks for sharing that video. I did some of those drills prior to filming these.

 

I am a big too close to the camera in the DTL one and the club on the floor is an attempt to line the camera up better.

 

 

 

 

 

not expecting perfection a this point.

What do you think here?

 

 

How does the grip look?

[GoGoErky]

2 minutes ago, bortass said:

No, it's behind my heels. I am trying to get the posture better but forgot to in these videos. My habit is to pretend I'm sitting on a high stool which is what the above shows.

 

When I try to do it better I bend my knees a touch, so they aren't locked, and then lean forward from my hips. I'll keep working on it and hopefully it will show in in tomorrow's videos.

Before doing the drill ensure that grip, address and posture are good. If not then fix before doing the drill. You need to focus on the setup in order to get a good turn and eventually wrist set. All of this goes hand in hand

[bortass]

3 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

not expecting perfection a this point.

What do you think here?

 

 

How does the grip look?

 

 

The first picture looks pretty close to Erik. What am I missing?

 

Grip is still too much in the palm.

[GoGoErky]

1 minute ago, bortass said:

 

 

The first picture looks pretty close to Erik. What am I missing?

 

Grip is still too much in the palm.

Your turn is improving a little bit each day.

 

Compare his hands to yours.

 

I think he has slightly more hip rotation than you due to your setup

[bortass]

3 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

Your turn is improving a little bit each day.

 

Compare his hands to yours.

 

I think he has slightly more hip rotation than you due to your setup

His right wrist is bend more then mine and his left wrist is flatter.  Is that it? if so, my wrists are they way they are based on how far forward the handle is at address.

[GoGoErky]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

His right wrist is bend more then mine and his left wrist is flatter.  Is that it? if so, my wrists are they way they are based on how far forward the handle is at address.

Not quite.

 

incant see his left hand but can see yours. Hes not rolling early and is to an extent probably roiling the opposite direction. Where you have a slight roll which is going to break the triangle some

[iacas]

2 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

Your turn is improving a little bit each day.

 

Compare his hands to yours.

 

I think he has slightly more hip rotation than you due to your setup

 

Eric, I'm not going to suggest that my swing is remotely close to perfect or needs to be mimicked 100% faithfully. I recorded those in literally as long as it took me to toss my phone to a friend and say "record a video FO and DL" (I didn't say the abbreviations 😄) and to hit those two shots. Literally < 1 minute. 🙂 

 

Don't let perfect be the enemy of better.

[bortass]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

 

Eric, I'm not going to suggest that my swing is remotely close to perfect or needs to be mimicked 100% faithfully. I recorded those in literally as long as it took me to toss my phone to a friend and say "record a video FO and DL" (I didn't say the abbreviations 😄) and to hit those two shots. Literally < 1 minute. 🙂 

 

Don't let perfect be the enemy of better.

Don’t worry, I’m not. Better is better. I’ll take any improvement even if it’s not perfect. The mirror work is making a difference.

[TheDeanAbides]

10 hours ago, bortass said:

No, it's behind my heels. I am trying to get the posture better but forgot to in these videos. My habit is to pretend I'm sitting on a high stool which is what the above shows.

 

When I try to do it better I bend my knees a touch, so they aren't locked, and then lean forward from my hips. I'll keep working on it and hopefully it will show in in tomorrow's videos.

One thing Erik mentioned to me before is to feel like you're about to dive into a pool. Your weight is much more forward than you think. Don't think 'sit back' think 'alert and ready to spring forward'. 

[bortass]

Today's videos. I made sure to get the grip more in my fingers and to try to have better posture aka a diver versus a barfly. I also threw on an old Fitbit to see the left wrist movement. I added some comments before each video. Overall it's still looking better though I'm sure there's stuff I am missing.

 

Pretty sure I see some in the FO video. The club is cut off but I don't think that's a huge issue for today since it's more about the turn, arms, and what my hands do.

 

 

The DTL video looks pretty good to me. The Fitbit does not seem to rotate and the club looks more on plane versus behind me.

 

 

 

[bortass]

I have two things for today's update.

 

First, things are still rough on the course but I did not feel 'overwhelmed' with a bunch of thoughts like I did the week before. I'll get the big negative out of the way, driver killed me. I had eight penalty strokes, one OoB and the rest into hazards. One of the guys in my group who hasn't played with me in a while was quite surprised and commented about it.

 

Now for a couple positives. My approach game was statistically better than average even with the issues I had in that area. My strokes gained was 2.6 strokes better than the average of my last fifty rounds. My approach game is my weakest area, so that's very good in my book.

 

Second, I hit a few head scratcher shots. Seven iron off the tee and I hit a high draw, 157, to the back of the green. For reference my seven iron is my 140 club. A partial PW that I hit another high draw and it went 120 instead of 100. I managed three real good drives(for me), even with the wet ground from the overnight rain, 249, 221, 225. The longest of the three was a fade and the other two were baby draws down the middle. I had another great drive but there's a steep downslope about 200 yards off the tees, so I have to take the 274 yard drive with a massive grain of salt, but I did make better than usual contact.

 

I'm hoping the couple of good shots are a sign of the work I've been doing versus just getting lucky and making solid contact for a change. Too early to tell of course.

 

Snuck out to the range at lunch before the rain that's supposed to roll in soon. I did three things.

1. Worked on the drill, three sets, with my typical three drill and ten shots split with seven iron.  Overall it seemed positive just trying to hit the ball about forty yards. Face contact is closer to center than I get in any of my full swings or partial wedges.
2. I took the rest of the balls, save one, and worked on my partial wedge swing. This was a results based section using my AW. I was looking at ball flight compared to target, including trajectory. My partial wedges have been off and it's been really hurting me. I had a couple of my typical thin wedge goes way too far shots but the rest were all nice and high, mostly draws, that were what I consider reasonable shots based on target line and my skill level. One observation is I had a lot of toe strikes which is where I tend to hit all my clubs. I stood a touch closer to the ball and was able to shift the strike closer to center. What I do not know is if being too far from the ball promotes a toe strike since, as we all know, my swing isn't that great which means it could be other issues causing it(most likely this is the case).
3. The one saved ball was for the ending seven iron full swing. I went through my entire routine and hit it pretty good. Really wish I could do this on the course but someday perhaps.

 

This week will be continuing to work on the drill indoors w/o a ball.

[betarhoalphadelta]

3 hours ago, bortass said:

 

Second, I hit a few head scratcher shots. Seven iron off the tee and I hit a high draw, 157, to the back of the green. For reference my seven iron is my 140 club. A partial PW that I hit another high draw and it went 120 instead of 100. I managed three real good drives(for me), even with the wet ground from the overnight rain, 249, 221, 225. The longest of the three was a fade and the other two were baby draws down the middle. I had another great drive but there's a steep downslope about 200 yards off the tees, so I have to take the 274 yard drive with a massive grain of salt, but I did make better than usual contact.

 

 

To me, those random "it went nuclear!" shots are just a reminder how much my inefficient mechanics are holding me back distance-wise. 

 

I.e. I know how far I hit it when I pure one. And then I'll get that very rare, very random, shot where I hit it significantly further than that. The way I look at is that my swing has various bad things I compensate for which slow me down. But every once in a while, I sequence JUST a little bit differently and my brain gets the "go" signal instead of the "slow down; engage compensation" signal, and...

 

 

But the fact that you're seeing this, multiple times in one round, while working on a specific mechanical change should be a VERY positive sign. It's that you know you have that potential for that 157y 7 iron, and all you need to do is get rid of the bad in the swing to unleash it regularly. 

[TheDeanAbides]

8 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

To me, those random "it went nuclear!" shots are just a reminder how much my inefficient mechanics are holding me back distance-wise. 

 

I.e. I know how far I hit it when I pure one. And then I'll get that very rare, very random, shot where I hit it significantly further than that. The way I look at is that my swing has various bad things I compensate for which slow me down. But every once in a while, I sequence JUST a little bit differently and my brain gets the "go" signal instead of the "slow down; engage compensation" signal, and...

 

 

But the fact that you're seeing this, multiple times in one round, while working on a specific mechanical change should be a VERY positive sign. It's that you know you have that potential for that 157y 7 iron, and all you need to do is get rid of the bad in the swing to unleash it regularly. 

Those could just be flyers, Brad. 

[ShortGolfer]

Instead of looking at divots, I found it more helpful to compare my iron distances off the fairway versus Tee'ing it up on a exective course with Par 3s on holes 4 through 6.

If the carry distances are the same that is the swing I'm looking for!

 

My usual miss is a thin with the ball going where I aimed it but only traveling 20 yards.  Though last week I thinned it all the way to green!

[betarhoalphadelta]

7 hours ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Those could just be flyers, Brad. 

 

Quite a few of these instances are teed up balls on par 3s, or driver. Dry ball, dry club, and no chance any grass got between the ball and clubface to take off spin. 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

1 hour ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Quite a few of these instances are teed up balls on par 3s, or driver. Dry ball, dry club, and no chance any grass got between the ball and clubface to take off spin. 

 

Fair. You do have power leaks, so it does make sense that occasionally something magical will happen. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

48 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Fair. You do have power leaks, so it does make sense that occasionally something magical will happen. 

 

I almost pointed out in the initial response that I knew they weren't flyers. But I didn't want to belabor it. 

 

But I think it was worth mentioning because I'm pretty sure @bortass's distance limitations are limited by mechanics, not by physical limits. I think this is true of most mid-high caps. I'm fairly certain mine are mechanical. I am not a short hitter by any means (~250 on a good drive, 170y 32* 7 iron) but I also know that there's no physical reason I shouldn't be adding 25-30 yards to my drives and at least a club up on irons. I'm large enough, strong enough, mobile/flexible enough, and I'm still probably 7-10 years from the age tipping point where things will start diminishing. And I see it on course every once in a while... So I know it's in there.

 

[bortass]

1 hour ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

But I think it was worth mentioning because I'm pretty sure @bortass's distance limitations are limited by mechanics, not by physical limits. I think this is true of most mid-high caps. I'm fairly certain mine are mechanical. I am not a short hitter by any means (~250 on a good drive, 170y 32* 7 iron) but I also know that there's no physical reason I shouldn't be adding 25-30 yards to my drives and at least a club up on irons. I'm large enough, strong enough, mobile/flexible enough, and I'm still probably 7-10 years from the age tipping point where things will start diminishing. And I see it on course every once in a while... So I know it's in there.

 

I agree with this, and hope I'm not delusional. My swing has a lot of power leaks: OTT, don't use wrists correctly,  don't use the pelvis and ground well, probably swing too slow(I don't mean swing speed, I mean tempo). So my swing speed is lower than it could be and I deliver the toe of the club to the ball more often than not. Not a great recipe for getting the most of what I got, lol.

[iacas]

You can still get fliers from SGI type clubs. The high launch, low spin, game-improvement type clubs when caught high on the face do the same thing a driver does: knock off spin while increasing the launch.

 

That's why good players generally don't use them - poor distance control. Too many little fliers here and there. I had a student who was a 5 who would hit his 7I 175… and occasionally 195. It was unusable. He traded them in for some cavity back player irons and shaved a stroke off his handicap in his next few rounds.

 

Have either of you ever measured your clubhead speed?

[betarhoalphadelta]

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

You can still get fliers from SGI type clubs. The high launch, low spin, game-improvement type clubs when caught high on the face do the same thing a driver does: knock off spin while increasing the launch.

 

That's why good players generally don't use them - poor distance control. Too many little fliers here and there. I had a student who was a 5 who would hit his 7I 175… and occasionally 195. It was unusable. He traded them in for some cavity back player irons and shaved a stroke off his handicap in his next few rounds.

 

Have either of you ever measured your clubhead speed?

 

Not since the end of 2022. I have a Garmin R10 but haven't been using it b/c I was afraid to use it in my backyard hitting station with real golf balls instead of foam... And I generally don't use it at the range b/c the range rocks are not going to give me good launch data...

 

That said, I just looked at my end/2022 data in the app and realized they now have the ability to export to CSV... So I'll probably start using it more at the range. It won't be good for carry numbers but will be useful for club delivery info. 

 

From that session, my 7i (37.5" so 6i length) clubhead speed was around 83-84 mph. Driver mostly 96-98, but with one at 101.