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Swing Overhaul Part 9: The Plan Comes Together

So. I am writing this on the final day of an eventful 2020. This year has literally FLEW by. It seemed yesterday that on March 18, 2020 the lockdown was announced by our government. What proceeded after that was beyond mine or anyone’s imagination as this COVID pandemic wreaked havoc to our business and personal plans. I witnessed customers shuttering their businesses. I witnessed close friends losing their jobs. Even for the first time in our 10 year history, we had to let people go in our company. It was an unprecedented, global disaster that seem to be continuing well into 2021.

To all affected in some ways, whether its a job loss, business loss, personal and health loss, I can only provide the scarce comfort that we have the largest brains in the world all working together to get us out of this and we pray that humanity will show its merit for survival by surviving this.

Back to golf though – I had the chance to cram in a few games since the previous 9 hole.

a) Another 9 hole round following it (my 4th round with new swing) – continuous improvement was evident and finally began to get my winnings back again.

b) Another 18 hole at Palm Garden – and shot an impressive 90 on the back of 6 pars . This is my 5th round – I gave myself 10 rounds to shoot under 90, which I hope I will be able to do soon, with this new swing.  My dropped shots in this game was more of my irons – short changing myself on numerous occasions and landing into hazards. My drive was working out reasonably well except for one hole where I OB’ed.

c) Another 9 hole – and once more ingraining the swing more and more.

The plus I am getting on this new swing was that there is less (much less) movement and swaying. I feel more ‘on top’ of the ball and more confident in hitting the ball consistently at the same spot. The other plus is that when I feel I should crank it up on strength, I can do it with just ‘stepping down’ on my left side. And likewise, if I want to control, I can not ‘step down’ so much. Stepping down here is described as literally, pushing down on my left leg, as if I am hitting a throttle. To boom the drive, I step it down, but I tend to pull this if I hit it too quick. Otherwise, I don’t and the shot seems to be ok but I tend to fall back a bit as if I just reverse-pivoted. I don’t really know how to reconcile these movements properly but the results are OK. I also find myself able to conjure up a baby fade as well if required, by ensuring my takeway is not so ’rounded’ but rather straight back, and my finish has that Patrick Reed-ish kind of twirl. I have never been able to do something like that before with the old swing, but with this stacked swing, since my body isn’t swaying so much anymore, I feel that I can get more control over the swing.

Overall, I think I made the correct decision to change my swing. It feels less stressful and I am not over swinging or over-bashing the ball but with the stacked feeling, I feel I can pummel the ball equally long with less moving parts. This hopefully ensure my swing can last me for the next 30-40 years. I love this game too much to give it up when I hit 60 due to a bad swing mechanics.

So – have a happy new year and here is looking at a better 2021 – not just in golf, but in everything else happening on our beautiful planet Earth!

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Swing Overhaul Part 8: Part by Part

Keeping last game’s takeaway in mind, I decided not to worry too much about positions and focus on basically one thing only – keeping my weight on the left (and also my head not moving much). The swing thought now is broken down into easier bits. Address the ball in a slightly closed position, keep weight on the left and shift my hips to the left a little. From that address position, I just take a way as how I would usually do. I don’t think about dipping my shoulder, or tilting my spine or even keeping my elbows close to my body. I just use whatever swing I had from there on while keeping my weight shifted to the left.

So another 9 hole, and finally, something began to click. I gave myself 10 games to embed the swing mechanics in. I am into my third game – 2 X9 holes and one 18 holes.

The first 9 and 18 holes were disastrous. But now, this time it was different. With the simplified swing thought in my head, I proceeded to rip the first drive down the fairway – a welcome sight, after 27 holes of train wreck.

My iron approach was pushed way right but at least there was contact, and I knew this was probably how I will proceed on from here on.

Throughout the entire 9, swing thought was simple – weight left, head still. All the other thoughts, on whether my shoulder was at a tilt angle, my right knee straight, my elbows connected to my body and all those – out of my head.

Without those thoughts, swing began to free up. And the concern just became distance and alignment. What a difference.

Sure, I still lost my 9 hole bet again, but I know for sure, I am on the right road to improve.

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Swing Overhaul Part 7: 18 hole Tryout

The great Tiger Woods once said: “Achieving trust is always the final step with a change. That’s the hardest thing, taking Ranger Rick to the course.”

While my golf game is currently probably around 0.04% of hit level, this ranger rick quote still applies. We all can hit it on the range, but what the hell happens on the course?

Since my previous nine hole outing, I’ve gone to the range to sort out a few things and am getting more and more used to this Stack and Tilt. To an extent I felt fairly confident in accepting an invite to tee it up at Amverton for my first 18 hole with a new swing.

WHAT. A. MESS.

I really, really do not understand why the flaming heck I can be hitting great shots on the range but end up like an epileptic baboon when I am on the course.

Its strange, because while I am fairly comfortable with the changes, when I hit the course, I struggle to even hit the most basic shots. When I pulled my driver far left to begin, I knew I was in for a long day.

It was a game that was as unmemorable as anything. When you are playing badly, all holes sort of converge into a single messy experience and you don’t really remember anything except hacking the ball over and over. Therefore, I don’t recall anything much except for a chip in birdie and some good chip shots here and there. Otherwise, except for one good drive on the 10th hole (or was it the 10th?) – all my drives were either missing , topped or yanked. I probably shot close to 110 on total scores.

Would it be back to the drawing board?

Again, I don’t know what more can be done except to try to ingrain the whole feel more and more into the game and go out and play. The proof is there that I am hitting the ball better than before when I am on the range. I just need to ingrain it.

As I told my partners – it’s very easy to tell what’s happening but very difficult to actually fix it. I would address the ball – ok. I would do a takeaway, into the ‘slot’ – ok. It’s right at the top of the swing that everything breaks. My right elbow disconnects from my body, and then its an all arms swing –  my swing drops without connecting to the body so I have no idea where the clubhead is because the arms and body are no longer working together. I can feel the disconnect, but by then, it’s too late. The swing is already on its downswing and the transition is completely off.

One of my playing partners did make an interesting note: “When making changes, don’t try to change everything at once, but make it incremental. Small changes first and slowly move into it.”

I think it makes sense. I may be trying to tear down and build everything up too quickly. Maybe what I need isn’t a house tear down but a home renovation room by room.

That’s food for thought.