Golf advice

crosscreekcooter

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Ray Finkle

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Got my clubs fitted by a pro today. Three things I would consider noteworthy about it:
1. As mentioned before, I had found a mint condition set of Nike VR Pro Combos for a ridiculous deal. I was under the impression they were only demoed and never actually played with (a few light ball marks and some driving range mat green on the bottom of the 7 iron). Well, another reason for the previous guy giving them up may have been discovered. 6 iron through 9 iron were all at the same lie angle. The other four were at totally random angles that made zero sense. I said "welp, sounds like I have a nice little excuse for being a little inconsistent." He said "No, that's not a little excuse. Whoever did this should be shot and give you some money for all the stress and botched rounds you've had to suffer through. Hopefully he's picked a new career by now." :lol:

2. Lie was 2 degrees (toe down) from recommended specs. Absolutely incredible what the smallest adjustments will do. I believe it was NV that it said, but if you don't have them fitted for you you are hurting your game. Whoever said it, good call. When he put the 6 to recommended, I was struggling to get a consistent strike. Some towards the heel and one out towards the toe. He tweeked it a few more times til it was right. 10-15 straight shots right on the sweet-spot.

3. While at it, he put a sensor on one of his clubs to see if I had the right flex. After about 5 balls, he said that I may want to consider bumping up another level of stiffness but for the time being I'm hitting them pretty solid. I asked him his opinion on graphite. He said I didn't need to look at it because it's something he would absolutely not recommend for me. Said "if you end up getting hurt or we're both still alive and coming here in 20 years we'll talk about it. Your clubspeed is simply too fast and you are in too good of golf condition to use those things." Words from a golf pro, you graphite lovin suckas.
 

Gatordiddy

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Alright...so I went to Dick's ...they had a sale going on.
Mix of graphites (sorry Ray) and the rest steel shafts.
I'm playing tomorrow with the boss - I'll post some results.

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NVGator

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Alright...so I went to Dick's ...they had a sale going on.
Mix of graphites (sorry Ray) and the rest steel shafts.
I'm playing tomorrow with the boss - I'll post some results.

IMG_0604.jpg
How much $$?
 

Gatordiddy

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It was only $150 at Dicks
It came with two fairway hybrids instead of 4 and 5 irons.

Broke them in yesterday and they performed admirably.
My boss recommended a few tweaks to my swing, grip and club selection and I was hitting it much better on the back nine. I hit one drive around 250 yards.
But...
I have given a name to my pain and it is ... Sand Trap.
Nice course though. Back 15 - 18 were right next to the Potomac.

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Ray Finkle

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I have given a name to my pain and it is ... Sand Trap.

Keep going in there and you'll get good at getting out. Open stance, open clubface, early wrist hinge, contact sand 3 inches or so behind the ball, and power through the shot. You'll be an ace in no time.
 

Ray Finkle

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Ok, so I have taken on a complete overhaul of my swing with the main objective of this season being to break 80 of the first time. I have a low round of 83, several between 84 and 86 (where I would currently put my average), and of course through the learning process several higher. I have never received a lesson, and still don’t plan on it. To see if I could spot any glaring issues, I decided to record my swing.

Good God! Here I thought I had a pretty nice swing. No wonder I couldn’t consistently play well. The way I was swinging the 70s would have forever remained a dream. So I had a choice to make; deal with just being an average/below average golfer or pick my swing apart. As much work as I knew would have to go into it, I chose the latter. It has been about two months since I decided to take this on, probably around 3-5,000 range balls, and a ton of discomfort. Change feels awkward. Change feels like you are regressing. I have hit the range to the point any pressure point that could blister is now bulletproof.

About a month into this, I discovered a software that allows you to analyze your swing. You can highlight, draw lines, find angles, etc. This has helped tremendously. I feel it’s best to find a few golfers that you think you can/want to mimic. Now you probably will never fully achieve their exact swing, but there are a few critical moments in swings that you need to have in similar positions. Knowing why they do things differently and how it effects the rest of the chain is the part I enjoyed a lot about this.

I personally did my best to mesh the swings of Jason Day and Tiger Woods. Obviously, I am not them and the resulting swing I have developed is not a mirror image of either. The reason I chose these two? They hit the crap out of the ball, they both have/had the ability to create a lot of different shots from their solid platform, and they are both notorious for keeping their heads very still. The last one is an area I knew I needed to improve. A steady head allows you to keep your eye on the ball. Simple. Here’s how they do it.

I have always had good posture in my swing. It’s a must. I never looked past that though. Good, my back is nice and straight. That’s all I should need, right? Very wrong. I stood very upright at address, and this set off a massive chain reaction of suck, compensation, and inconsistency. Sadly, this is one of the last things I discovered in my analysis. Getting this corrected was by far the most uncomfortable change I made. I felt like I was going to fall forward, chunk every shot, and I just didn’t trust it. When you get your upper body out further in front though, it allows your lead arm smoothly go under your chin, it automatically clears your hips to make room for your elbow, and it keeps you from having to move your head around. There was a lot of awkward time in front of mirrors and, as always, even more range balls to get comfortable with this.


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One of the other big issues I had was bringing the club back really flat. This combined with my old upright stance was the perfect recipe for a slice. I am surprised I didn’t slice it more, but it was something I always had to take into account when playing a round. I made a slight adjustment to my grip, made sure to keep the clubhead outside of my hands in the first quarter or so of my backswing, and worked on keeping my right shoulder dropped down through impact. Again, the initial spine angle helped these fall into place fairly quickly.

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My hip rotation was piss poor. It was more of a twist and sway, both back and then through. Diddy saw in a video I put on here that my heels would come off the ground and then go back down. This was a drill I found that helped out a lot. I would start with my right heel off the ground and drive it into the ground as I brought the club back. This helped me feel the weight transfer and what part of my foot I should feel it in (inside of the heel to be exact). Honestly, other changes (most likely the initial transfer drill) fixed my forward sway.


(Photos above show this as well)


You need to create lag. Plain and simple. If you don’t, you won’t strike the ball solid and you will lose a lot of power and control. I would take a club out back and just take it back with one hand. I would try to keep the L shape with my wrist for as long as I could before letting the clubface naturally fall back to square at the ball. I did this drill several hundred times at night to both establish what lag is and to convince my brain that I don’t have to help the clubface close.


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The last main thing I had major issues with is overextending my backswing. I still fight this one. Bubba Watson makes it work, but he’s a rare one. It absolutely kills my timing and when I do it I know exactly why I’ve mi**** the ball. At this point for me, this is my shot killer. Rarely do I have something else create a mi****. When I stop at the right time, I am hitting them pure. It will take some work because every club has that slight difference in length/weight tugging on you to promote this. It is much better, but there is still work to be done. (Hard to tell from the camera angles below. I will try to get some better views of this)


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So there you have it. Several descriptions and images of things I was doing wrong and the steps I took to correct them. I am very fortunate to have an unlimited range ball practice facility near me and have created a lot of time for this. I hope that someone can use a thing or two from this write up to help improve their game. This has been a frustrating but very rewarding process and, if you are up to it, I recommend you take the time to address your own issues. I will keep you updated on my quest for the 70s and any other helpful nuances I come across. Play well!


Final Swings:

3 Wood:


4 Iron:


7 Iron:
 

Gatordiddy

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Holy cow Ray... that is night and day different from the swings I saw earlier.
You were nailing them in those videos.
Great advice - I guess I need to get busy on my swing now.
What software did you use to analyze your swing?

As for a swing "role model" ... I'm going with this:

giphy.gif
 

Ray Finkle

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What software did you use to analyze your swing?
It's called Kinovea. It's free and does everything I need. Fair warning: you must record your videos with your phone in the sideways position. Found that out the hard way :lol:
 

Gatordiddy

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It's called Kinovea. It's free and does everything I need. Fair warning: you must record your videos with your phone in the sideways position. Found that out the hard way :lol:

Good to know... I'll check it out. I got a membership to Top Golf last weekend so I'll head over there and see if I can figure it out.
Thanks!
 

NVGator

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Good stuff Ray. I'll watch the vids tomorrow.

Based on your description of who you want to model, this is exactly what Golf Tec does. Heard of them? I was given a gift of 5 lessons from my Mother-in-law and only used 2. All I felt was going on was trying to sell me knew clubs. I never used the any more.

Thanks for the name of the software, I was going to ask. Do you have your phone on a tripod? I need to get a tripod for my phone. Recommend any?
 

Gatordiddy

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Good stuff Ray. I'll watch the vids tomorrow.

Based on your description of who you want to model, this is exactly what Golf Tec does. Heard of them? I was given a gift of 5 lessons from my Mother-in-law and only used 2. All I felt was going on was trying to sell me knew clubs. I never used the any more.

Thanks for the name of the software, I was going to ask. Do you have your phone on a tripod? I need to get a tripod for my phone. Recommend any?

My office building is joined with a health club. And several times a week I see guys walk in and out with golf clubs. So I took a closer look and saw a Golf Tec tucked in the corner.
Thought about going but might bypass it now if it's just a sales job.
 

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