lord it's been some time

Alright so not the constant posting that I had been hoping for but isn't that how a blog works?  It's not like good golf isn't a goal but it also isn't easy.  The game is 95% mental and 5% non sucking swing and if you've got that you've got yourself a pretty good golf game.  This spring and summer were not easy or fun and it had a serious effect on my game.  Quick summary without too many unnecessary details:
- Started to see John and coaching was going just okay.  In the end I found out he wasn't the right fit for me as his style wasn't my thing and he didn't explain things in a way that clicked for me.  I think he is an excellent coach and I am a much better golfer when I use the set up that he taught me.  I will for sure have this set up into the absolute indefinite future.  While every coach  I have from now forward will have their own idea of the right setup I really like John's and I think that it's really sold and build for swinging from the lower body.
- Not that it matters.  John moved to China to teach golf there to Olympic hopefuls.
- Emotionally this summer hasn't been easy.  A rough life carries straight out onto the course and I actually left the course in one instance where I couldn't pull my shit together emotionally enough to even play.  No wonder Tiger fell off the scene when his wife chased after him with a golf club.

Last week though I decided I've had enough bad golf games and called my friend Jeff.  He isn't exactly a PGA swing coach but he is good at reminding me of the things I'm doing wrong.  He calls me out all the stuff that John called out and the most important thing?  He doesn't use gimmicks.  None of this oh well if you hold your club like this you will fix your swing cause it's so closed at impact that you can't possibly slice the ball.  No.  Jeff says something and it must be how he says it or how he explains things but they click with me right away and it's easy for me to fix things on the spot.  He also gets me motivated to play well and that's what it's all about... motivation to  play well and motivation to practice.  I'm telling you, practice is key.  You've got to practice... and not just like once a month, once a week, twice a week.... but like at least one round a week and practice a couple times a week.  Clubs in hand three times a week to maintain playing the same way you play every week.  Add a swing coach, time on the putting green with drills and sticks, working out, yoga, range time and chipping.  Hours of chipping... then... then watch your handicap drop.  Simple as that right?  Who has all this time???

Lunch Monday:  Putting... After work Monday:  Meet with Jeff and work on swing.
Tuesday:  Yoga at lunch, swim after work
Wednesday: Yoga at lunch, range after work with chipping
Thursday: Yoga at lunch, curling at night
Friday:  Swim at lunch if lucky or yoga, short game or practice after work.
Saturday:  Yoga or 18 holes.
Sunday:  Comedy Golf

So... the time exists.  But... it is really hard to get that practice in.  Kevin is gone all week working on the east coast and I have no kids and by looking at my calendar you probably think no social life either :)  I used to curl as much as I play golf and I got really pretty good at it.  Curling isn't accessible here so I've replaced the obsession with golf.  Love it.  Shot one of my best rounds this weekend and now I cannot wait to get back out and play again.  More goodies to come!  Thanks for sticking with me, it's onward and upward from here!

1+1+1+1+1+1+1 = a golf swing

I'm supposed to practice these little swings and every time I add something else I'm supposed to do I forget something else.  Good back swing, why have I lost my posture?  Good contact, why is your wrist opening the club face?  Time to practice... how?  I've just come up with a good way to do this.  Same as rowing!  Focus tens.

Ten 1.25 swings....

Ten for back swing position at the hinge. 

Ten for grounded feet. 

Ten for hips swinging the club. 

Ten for only a 1.25 finish club butt pointed at my hip. 

Ten for wrist position. 

Ten for feeling the club change direction.  

Ten for good posture. 

Gonna see how this works for me.  It worked with rowing after all.  Quick hands away, sitting up, slow up the side... with any highly technical sport with repetitive movement I think this might be key!  For sure without a doubt when I keep my good posture and swing with my hips the rest becomes much easier.  Duh Amanda.

In other news I realized golf is 95% mental, 3% style and 2% knowing what you're doing.  Also, no thanks to the PGA store my clubs are the right length and the grips are the jam.  Alright, off to practice.  Ten for grounded feet in two.  

practice makes perfect

Unsolicited advice.  I dish it out all the time... can't lie.  Random stuff, what roads to take after 5 PM, what curling shoes are best, how to pass the 8th grade, why you need Amazon prime.  When it comes to the golf course it's like men can't stop with the advice.  Choke down, choke up, feet wider, feet more narrow, stand closer, stand back a bit, arms loser, firmer grip, loosen the grip... rapid fire, unsolicited, I'm gonna punch you if you don't stop talking, advice.  So how's a girl to deal?  Here is some... uh, unsolicited advice on how to deal with it on the range and more importantly, in the middle of a round. :)

This week has been tough.  I'm trying to really working on making good contact, leading with the left wrist but not breaking the hinge, and finishing with weight transfer to make the ball go straight with good loft.  That's a lot of stuff to work on.  However, because I practice and practiced and practiced my set up I'm fining it easier to work on what I want.  That's been my deal all week - everything is off to the right though.  Shank freaking central.  Shaw Shank Redemption.  It's bad news.  Brad and I went to the driving range and he was determined to make this work for me.  So he starts talking, moving me around, do this, do that.  Bla bla bla.  This is why I have a pro.  The best thing to do is remember what your coach told you.  If the person you are with tells you something your pro told you take it as a good reminder.  If they say something that helps you understand something your pro already told you... great, it will only help to hear it in another way and maybe it will help make it stick.  If they start saying something that contradicts something your pro told you just gently tell the advice giving man, no.  Case in point.  I need to keep my feet shoulder distance - even a touch more.  My shoulders are really wide - wider than my hips for sure.  It looks funny to have my feet that far apart but I need to have them that way at this point because it helps with my hip rotation.  Brad didn't like it.  I just said, hey Brad, it's something I'm working on with John because bla bla bla.  He says okay and we move on.  In the end he helped remind me of some things I needed to be working on and I'm not hitting balls off to the right nearly as much.  It's good to get out and practice with different people.  It makes practice more fun and it helps me get used to golfing with more people so I'm less nervous in the tee box.  

Story two...  we had our tournament of champions yesterday at Bixby.  We still drew names and I got Brad's friend Brandon.  He and I have played together before and I could tell he was a bit disappointed that we drew the same number.  I knew he thought he had a good chance of winning with the right partner and that partner probably wasn't me.  We were one of the first groups to tee off.  I did my set up, took a deep breath, tried to calm my nerves and gave it a sold hit.  Right.  Right into the trees.  I pulled my tee, and walked back to my bag, tossed in the stupid six iron, threw my bag on my back and started down the fairway.  This was not how I wanted to start my round.  I could feel my body was tense, my heart was beating fast and I even felt a little numb and shaky.  CRAP.  I wanted a good first shot and I wanted to impress my partner.  I know Brandon is super competitive and I knew he wanted a chance to win.  Right away he started giving me advice, how to play, what the strategy was, not to let the other pair with us get in our heads.  Important to have fun... all this bull.  I walked up to my bad shot, picked my ball up and said, "Listen.  Take some of your own advice.  Just be cool and let's have a good game."  We did and he had nothing else to say to me about my swing  I shaped up after that and didn't have too many bad shots.  In fact, I golfed really well and we had a solid ham and egg game finishing -1.   Be firm about what you're working on and don't let anyone work you up or get in your business.

frame by frame

Pesky golf swing, so much going on!  The good news is I’ve really come a long way in how it should feel.  This is a video that I took clips from the app Ubersense.  It’s a stupid app name but it does the same thing pretty much as V1 Home.  It’s just easier to use and the videos are better since I don’t have the pro version.  Here we have Jaclyn Sweeny with her 8 iron.   The full back swing isn’t shown here but the parts I wanted to really look at are.

Overall notes about this series of photos

The secondary spinal tilt remains though the entire downswing and through impact. 

You can see in the photo of me and John he is showing me that my upper body is swaying towards the target when it should remain centered and to the right.  He is essentially holding me in place.  I am practicing this by standing in front of a door jam and I have to keep my spine tilted in the doorway as I practice my down swing hitting my hands (softly) into the door frame.  If I do it wrong I will be looking at or past the door jam and will no longer be in the doorway.

The feet are grounded. 

She does lift her heel slightly in frame 1:60 but you can see pretty clearly she is using the ground to rotate her hips. The right toes and ball of the foot are very grounded and her left heel is so grounded in 1:60 that her left toes actually come off the ground a bit.

Frame by Frame

1:58:  One of the easier things to see when actually watching the video is that her right hip really does come “up.”  Up is sort of not the right word but it has a feeling of elevation as we move from the backswing to down swing because we are changing directions and loading up using the ground as support for the lower body to move our weight over the left hip.  We are creating that hitting down motion on the ball that I’ve been after.   The hinge at the wrists is also visible too.  Keeping the hands relaxed allows the hinge (wrists) to change direction effortlessly.  There is a slight lag as we go from back swing to down swing.

1:58:  Clearly we can see the ground is being used as leverage for the lower body with the right toes and ball of the foot. 

1:60:  The hinge is line with the club face, shaft, wrists and arm.  The butt of the club is pointed at that left hip.  The hands are NOT getting out in front.  Very connected.  I have been letting my hands get out in front rolling the top of my left hand out which opens the club face.  It’s also impossible to keep the top of the left hand facing the target if the wrists become unhinged. The butt of the club will face out left instead of at the hip.

1:61:  This is my favorite frame as it illustrates very clearly the position I want at impact.

The connection is the same as in 1:60 but even more so with the shoulder because the weight has transferred over the left hip.  What you can’t see here very well is the top of the left hand is facing the target.  Not opening the club face – it is square at impact.

The secondary spinal tilt is still  happening as the weight moves left the right heel is off the ground slightly but not twisted out and that left heel is firmly planted.

The right hip is still up creating a swinging down motion into the ball.  The lowest part of the swing is after the ball and the arms are all the way extended.

1:63: The arms continue to sweep away and the shoulders rotate into a finished position.

Looks pretty simple huh?  No big deal!  I am still working on quarter swings and am working my way up to half swings.  I am also working on a new pre-short routine.  Confirm the connection starting with the hinge.  Bend forward at the hips bringing the hinge to the ground…. I never bend forward enough.  Hands above the toes.  Then flex the knees and step apart.   I am also doing a trap drill to connect from the ground up.   Updates soon!!

making an impact

Swaying hips.  Like an 8th grade dance.  That's what we have here my friends.  Not only that I'm all upper body.  Have you seen me rock climb?  I've done it once... maybe twice.  I just pull myself up on top of stuff.
My golf coach, John, called my swing "armsey."  I'd say he is on the money.  Swinging with my upper body and not transferring weight over my left hip also causes me to hit behind the ball.  Bad news there too.

After my first lesson I learned a new pre-shot routine.  I also learned a correct set up.  In the last post I reviewed how I tend to squat a lot when I think about getting my arms to hang over my toes so I think standing with straight legs THEN bending them just until the quads engage will help me avoid too much bend in the knees.  I also tend to dump in the lower back and not to have my spine angle slightly left eyes directed at where I want to hit the ball. - Ahead - of the club face.

Check out that hot mess on the left.  John said that doesn't look like anyone he has taught golf to!  I believe him :)

The biggest deal is hitting down on the ball.  What I tend to do cause I'm "amrsey" is that I don't use the lower body to swing.  It took me two lessons and a lot of practice swings in my living room to get the right feeling.  Today at my lesson I really felt like it was coming together.  We reviewed a couple additional key things.

- Keeping my feet grounded.  Swaying that right heel out isn't helping anything.  Use the ground to rotate the hips. Lifting slightly with the right heel.
- The right hip needs to come up and the the secondary spinal tilt/angle needs to remain though impact.  I practiced hitting a door jam (lightly) with my arms to maintain that body position.
- Hands at impact hinge slightly.  The left had faces the target so I don't open the club face.
- Aligning the butt of the club with my left hip really helps with the hand position.  Getting my hands out in front does me no good.

Looking better!!  Just need that right arm a bit bent.  Getting there friends.   Getting there. 

A Yogi's Guide to Golf

I had my swing analysis the day before I played 18.  You may be thinking... bad idea.  It was probably a bad idea but in the end it really wasn't.  I scored a 48 on the back 9 which is more in line with how I golfed in about August.  Well before anyone had the chance to put a lot of bad ideas in my head about my swing I was doing pretty well.  Okay okay okay...  so I wasn't doing very well and 48 it's that great...  In fact, even this summer I was sucking but not too bad.  Even blind squirrels find nuts... am I right?

Look how cheeky I am here!  I won closest to the pin on hole 2 at Bixby the first time I played Comedy Golf.  Used my 8 iron over the lake.  Boom.  

I think actually blind squirrels don't last long in the wild and they forget where their nuts are.  Not wanting to be that squirrel or... ahem.... guy at the driving range hacking away thinking he's hot shit I did what I should have done months ago and got my swing looked at.  It is shocking.  It's actually horrifying.  It's shock therapy.  Oh you think your swing is good!?!?!  ZAP!  Hit her with the video!  The good news is John puts up with my slow learning abilities and I do make progress.  And seeing yourself do it wrong on video after he tells you it's wrong and then you do it again anyhow?  Yeah, that shit works.  My address is a million times better.  The funny thing is all the things I've learned from my other sports sort of apply here.  The only thing now is I wish I had played something that involved a stick an a ball....  Here is my Yogi's Guide to the Address.  Lord knows maybe some day I'll write the Yogi's Guide to Golf.  Hot sales in SoCal.  Just sayin. 

Flat Back

No more hunch back like an old man.  The key here is plugging the shoulders as in the set up for full wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana).  You will also then want to draw the shoulder blades down the back.  This brings the shoulders away from the ears and allows (girls tip) your left arm to rest to the left of your left breast.  The right arm is slightly bent and has more room because of the slight spinal tilt to the right.   This simple move of drawing the shoulders down the back and plugging the shoulders in also gives stability to your core and stops the club from being disconnected.  The added bonus is suddenly our arms are not glued together like the LAPD has us.  Extra bonus if you ditch the death grip on the club.  Look how much progress we've made so far!

Arms

No more reaching for the golf ball - arms hang over the toes now.  With feet shoulder width apart - seriously double check this.  Are they really shoulder width apart?  You should feel the weight come into the center of your feet and they should feel grounded.  As with any standing pose.. let's take Uttanasana or standing forward fold into consideration for a moment, all four corners of the feet are grounded and it's necessary to stay balanced as you fold down or come back up into Mountain Pose or you would tip over.  The same holds true here. The core engages and it feels as though you are just looking over the edge of a building.  When the club is held the butt of the club should point towards your left hip.  

Legs and Low Back

Although to this point it's all coming together and feels right I find myself having to still check two items.  One is I feel I really need to get into a squat.  Wrong!  Maybe it's just too many years of squats and Chair Pose (Ukatasana) but I feel like a really athletic address somehow includes getting my hips down too low.  This takes away our good balance - the knees bend just until the quads start to engage - not very much!  The hinge we are looking for is at the hips.  The low back also needs to be flat.  This comes with core engagement as well.  As in Chair Pose it's natural to want to dump the in the low spine and the "guts hang" as my Thursday lunch instructor says.  It does you no good to dump in the lower back.  You want it to be strong and supportive in your swing so remember, "Guts in! Guts in!"  Engage your lower back and transverse abdominals.  Tuck your pelvis floor in and you're good to go.   

Speaking of yoga - here is a fun new pose I learned today!  Demonstrated by the beautiful Sunina.  I can bet mine was not as lovely.  Check her out here - she has a really nice yoga blog.

So much was wrong now so much is right and that's not even the whole of it.  We're getting there friends.  Just these small changes while thinking about finishing and sweeping the club away made all but one of my drives on the back nine smoking fairway hitting beauties on Saturday.  

throwing down the cash money

I did it. I got a real golf coach.  Not some guy who says, let me record you with my iPhone so we can work on "that" but we never do.  Not some guy who just hacks away at the range all day.  Not some guy who is twice my age and wants to date me and not some guy half my age working on his tan.  This is the real deal. A PGA Pro who is A Certified with distinctions.  And I'm paying for it.  A lot for it.  I'm also getting a lot out of it.  I want to cry a little bit sometimes and when I go to the range mostly I just feel like it's all never going to come together.  Then it does.  Maybe one stroke where I feel something different turns into ten strokes where it feels right.  This is my journal and my notes.  My pictures of my trials and tribulations and glory.  2014 is the year of golf for me.  Here are my goals.

- Take ten lessons at least with John.  Master set up and the swing.  Then.....
- Practice twice a week on the range.  Twice a week putting.  Twice a week chipping.
- Play one game every week.
- Get my 29 handicap to under 20.
- Beat Kev... for real, not match play.  Handicaps and tee boxes accounted for.

Here is Kev.  He's my good looking golf partner.  He bangs on about how it is on Scotland and how you go to jail for 10 years for all kinds of golfing offences.  He is a little offensive to be honest :)  I'll keep him around for his good looks and charm.  Certainly not his golf cart (buggy) driving skills.  I also give him all the credit for giving me the little bit of a push I needed to really embrace the game.  I'm obsessed because of Kev and I thank him for it.  Sometimes I say, "Look what you've created!"  He just laughs.

 Me and Kev after playing 18 at Vineyard Escondido in a fundraiser for the San Diego Curling Club.

So there you have it.  Some goals, a real coach, and some motivation to play well.  Let's do this thing!

xx

A