3Jack Swing Progress Journal

[Richie3Jack]

Oct 20, 2015 22:43:41 GMT -5 jnaturally said:

Hey Ritchie,

Does Kelvin advocate any methods for changing the trajectory?

Have you noticed how most pro's hit a low, mid, or high shot? Is it all in the setup and swing length?

Yes, he does. Part of it has to do with the lower body movement. If you want to hit it lower, slow down the lower body.





3JACK

[Richie3Jack]

Last night I did some experimentation using the video camera. I was working on my right elbow move, scapula dig and shoulder drop. I started to see a better ahaft plane in transition. Eventually, I started to work on my posture at address.

Here's an old picture of my posture of my swing from about a year ago.



Here's more of what Kelvin prescribes:

The back of the shoulders (right where the armpit is) should go over the balls of the feet.  The center of the hip should be at the heels and the tailbone should just be outside the heels.

It's hard to tell with mine because I'm aligned closed to the target and the camera angle isn't very good.  But, I think that we should take my picture and align the lines with the right leg and foot.

As we can see, my back is very crouched over.  The back of the shoulders is closer to the ball than it is to the balls of my right foot.  And the right hip is moving closer to the middle of my right foot instead of the heel of my right foot.

Perhaps that is why I tend to play from a closed stance, a way to compensate for my crouched posture.

Either way, I started to work on my posture to make it look more like Tiger's and found that my shaft plane started to get flatter and I didn't have to think about it.

The way I look at it is similar to putting styles.

Michelle Wie is extremely crouched over.  Her shoulders are well outside of her feet.

We know with this putting style she has to have a smaller arc in her stroke.

Conversely, somebody like Justin Leonard who is more upright is going to have a wider arc to his stroke.

I'm certain there is a better biomechanical explanation, but I think that is a simpler analogy that works for me.

And I think it better explains why the steep shaft plane tends to come and go with me, sometimes my posture is not nearly as crouched and the shaft plane flattens out better on those days.

The other thing I have been working on is from this article from Kelvin.

kelvinmiyahira.com/articles/21-2010-articles/54-2010-04-spine-engine-swing-lateral-bend

Particularly this part:

The big part is the line that shows the right shoulder dropping and then the right side of Ishikawa's body bending inward.  That's easy enough, but doing that with a right elbow move is a little harder to execute.  And doing that move with the right elbow move and hiking the right hip up makes it even more difficult.

Here's an even more helpful illustration:

Now that I have the Swing Groove at my place, I can pay closer attention to this in slow motion and I'm starting to feel the scapula dig and the rotation come into play.

***

I did not practice my putting on Monday and it showed up yesterday early on.  But as things went along I started putting better and better to the point of doing it pretty well.  The big thing I've been working on is getting a routine down.  David Orr has a particular routine that he prefers.  I can see why he prefers it from a neuroscience perspective, but it takes practice to get used to it.

The thing is as David says, you have to do it every time the same way. 

The best free throw shooter I ever saw was a guy that played at my high school by the name of Bob Piddock.  I'm aware that there were better free throw shooters if you had a pure free throw shooting competition.  But, those guys are usually not good basketball players.  Or they are just pure shooters that don't play very physical.  Bob was the best player in our HS history and played college ball.  He was an all-around player that would handle the ball, post up inside to start the game and then when that started to get going, he would go out and shoot 3's and then when they started to guard up on the 3 point shot, he would drive by.

When he was a freshman starting on the varsity team, the team was playing in the conference championship and the opposing coach wanted to foul the star freshman and put the pressure on Bob...who went 14 for 14 from the free throw line.

By his senior year he would get fouled constantly and go to the line.  And he started off the year making his first 237 free throws!  In game competition!

The thing I noticed about Bob was that he had the SAME EXACT routine before every free throw. 

He would grab the tongues of his sneakers, step back a couple of paces.  Step back up to the free throw line.  Get the ball, take a couple of dribbles, a little ball spin and shoot.

And because he made the first free throw, he would do the same exact thing on the second free throw.   Grab the sneakers, step back, step forward, 2 dribbles, spin the ball and shoot. 

So, I have been working on that and I have to really drill it into me.  The only problem is that I have started to think too mechanically and I have to remember that it's like shooting a free throw, you're just trying to get the ball to reach your target.

I started to see some of the other issues I was having.  I think I'm an instinctive aimer instead of a person that uses the putter to aim which is something David talks quite a bit about.

I think overall....my putting is coming along.  I'm not quite hitting the lick, but it's getting there.  The only big issue I have now is I still don't see the line very well. I bought some yarn and knitting needles to help with that.  I'm also tempted to purchase a Perfect Putter.  Although they are not cheap.

[Richie3Jack]

I only played once this week as come Fall I usually like to take more of a break from golf and enjoy the nice weather and watch football.

One of the things I've been thinking about is what tends to cause me to 'bury my chin into my chest.'

Here's an old video back in the M.O.R.A.D. days.



This actually isn't too bad:



But, you can still see some semblance of the neck tilting downward and my chin going into my chest. It's not as bad here nearly as my recent swings have been.

I started to think about it and I believe it is a move that is the result of something else. And I think there are few culprits to this:

1) Shaft plane is 'above plane.'

2) Pressure in the feet is moving too much towards the toes

3) Upper thoracic spine is too bent over.

And I think #2 and #3 are probably causing #1.

I started to experiment with this by holding a position of p5 and then moving the pressure toward my heels and then moving it toward my toes. You start to see the shaft plane get too upright as the pressure gets towards my toes.

Then I did the same exercise, but this time by crouching and then straightening my upper thoracic spine and as I crouched more, the shaft plane naturally gets steeper.

I think what happens is that with the bent over thoracic spine, that helps me get the pressure towards my toes. And even if I move the pressure towards my heels at the top of the swing, I start to get the pressure towards my toes on the downswing.

I think that pressure shift from heels to toes alone causes me to tilt the neck downward because essentially I'm trying to re-adjust my head in order to see the ball comfortably. Combine that with the steep shaft plane, I have to figure out a way to flip the wrists in order to hit the ball straight.

In the pic above where my neck does *not* tilt downward as much, we see more weight evenly distributed throughout my feet instead of towards my toes. And my shaft plane is pretty good.

I was experimenting with that and have started to see improvements in the start down.

I then went to play with my dad and shot +1 at Eagle Creek with a double bogey and a 3-putt. I had some lapses and I lost a little speed, but my goal was to just work on the address posture and focus on my mental game. I really didn't expect to break 75 out there.

***

My putting was much better.

On Friday I was working on my putting and started to struggle badly. I did a clock drill and only made 2 out of 10 putts. I was extremely frustrated and then one of my friends came over and wanted to see me do the clock drill. I told him 'I'll be luck to make 5 of these' and then I proceeded to make 9 out of 10 from 5-feet. I continued to work on my putting and I started to experiment a bit and remembered that on David Orr's Web site he discussed that the butt of the putter grip can move back in a straight line in the stroke I employ. I started to focus on that and the putting was so much better.

On Saturday I thought I putted pretty well. My misses were generally not quite making the read or the less than idea putting green conditions.

I did practice on the Pelz Putting Tutor using the 'straight back butt of the club' method and started to hit the left marble again. However, I think that is due to striking the putt slightly off the heel which causes it to launch a little left.

I'm going to try and find my impact spot tonight with the putter and see if I am hitting it off the heel. I really think I am very close putting stroke wise and plan to get on the SAM Puttlab again sometime soon.

[Richie3Jack]

We played Skyview at Terra Vista on Saturday. I shot 75 (+3) going 38-37.

I actually hit the irons quite well. The best I've hit them in quite some time. The ball flight was more penetrating across the board which is a good sign that I'm not getting the shaft angle so steep and then under-flipping to get the path correct.

However, the contact with the driver was a little off and on Friday I started to see some hand path issues that were causing that as I wasn't quite delivering the clubhead into the ball like I wanted to. With that, I mainly focused on pre-shot routines, external focus, getting the address position 'right' and starting the downswing by using my back and scapula instead of my right bicep and right chest.

In the end, I hit 12 GIR which is pretty solid because that course has some long par-3's and par-4's along with a tricky par-5. I did see some surges in power. I hit a driver off the toe into the wind 290 yards (although the Wishon 919 is hot on toe-hits). I usually hit my 5-iron about 190 yards and I hit one on the very first hole 195 yards into a 1-2 club wind.

I only made 2 putts with any distance, but I had 3 lip outs and most of my misses were on putts that I hit them where I wanted to, I just didn't quite make the correct read. I was probably more satisfied with the 4 footer I made on the par-3 13th hole. They had the pin in a terrible position and I had the 4 footer with 4% slope. Usually the big breaking short putts are an automatic miss for me. Instead, I played the break perfectly, had the perfect speed and struck it perfectly on the sweetspot and made it center cut. Even my old man said he thought I played way too much break and could not believe it broke perfectly into the cup.

The Swing Groover I think is doing a decent job. I need to practice it more as I still go to the range. But, I feel I've made progress with my start down 'right elbow move' and 'scapula dig' because of it.

I find that what is happening now is very typical with movement pattern training.

I have gone from learning how to do the movement by isolating the movement and I'm starting to groove the movement into my swing at slower speeds and it is starting to take in my full speed swing. Eventually, that will get grooved into my full speed swing.

I started to see it 'wear off' in the latter part of my round on Saturday, but I got it back for the most part as I made a double on 17 where I hit a pretty good drive and it kicked into the bunker up against the lip. Then on 18 I hit another good drive that just found the fairway bunker as well.

[Richie3Jack]

I was pretty frustrated with my performance on the range on Monday. So much so that I decided I was just going to go to the putting green and practice and then go home and work on movement pattern training with the Swing Groover.

But, when I got to the putting green it was being used by a kids golf clinic and it was about to turn dark. So instead of driving all the way down and turning back, I went to the range and hit some balls.

The main theme I worked on was trying to get back my swing from June thru August. I had only recorded video of it one time and it looked far better than it does not. It seemed so easy as well. I would mainly focus on getting anterior pelvic tilt and not sliding the tailbone forward and just internally rotating the left leg. I could aim pretty far left and never worry about missing left and could do it with a lot of power.

One of the things I started to notice is that I was not starting the backswing quite like I used to in the summer. Lucas Wald better describes it here.



I was getting a bit of a sway and IIRC, it started to develop because I was trying to get my left knee to kick inward more behind the ball in the backswing. Instead, I started to focus on solely internally rotating the right hip and moving the right hip almost straight backwards and shifting the pressure towards the heel of my right foot at the top of the swing. It's actually an easy move to do, but I could see my brain fighting against it because I had been swaying off the ball for the past 2 months. That's where slow motion training was helpful in avoiding doing that.

I was still working on using the right shoulder and right scapula to start transition so I could get the right elbow move going to where I could flatten out the shaft plane and sustain the right shoulder ER.

However, I started to notice that I was getting into the Right Pelvic Tilt which is a killer of golf swings.

Thankfully, Kelvin wrote a great article showing some measurable positions to target that can be found here:

kelvinmiyahira.com/articles/articles-2/2015-articles/140-measurable-targets

One of the pieces Kelvin writes about is the left leg tilt at impact as shown by JB Holmes:



I started to see that I was not getting the left leg into extension early enough and that was causing the RPT. I'm glad I read the article because I started to see how that left leg has to tilt in order to get the leg into extension and it all works together to be able to rotate and avoid RPT.

By the end I started hitting the ball entirely better. I still was fighting against some old habits from time to time and I could really feel the fight between those mechanics, but I'm much more pleased with where everything is going.

[Richie3Jack]

On Thursday I started to work on something new and I like where it was heading, so I continued to work on it through the weekend.

Lumbar Lordosis.

Here's the main article from Kelvin on the subject.

kelvinmiyahira.com/articles/21-2010-articles/1-micro-moves-of-a-correct-backswing

I have found that I can actually get the lumbar lordosis pretty good even though my spine at address is hunched over quite a bit. I just really have to stop being lazy and make the swing for it. And I also found that in order to get lumbar lordosis, my left foot has to be in a different position as it lifts in the backswing. To me, lumbar lordosis feels more like I am rotating the shoulders (along with the internal rotation of the hips) so much that at the top of the swing the right shoulder is closer to the target than the left shoulder.

This picture of Ryo Ishikawa provides that visual perfectly.



By Friday I was hitting the ball much further on the range, but didn't quite know where it was going. On Saturday, I played with my dad and shot 77 at Harmony Golf Preserve. I used by Taylor Made R11 driver because that is more forgiving. I was struggling with my mid to short irons using the new swing because I had only been practicing lumbar lordosis with my 3 and 4-iron.

I actually hit the driver pretty well and then just started to punch my iron shots when I could Nothing satisfied me more than on the 18th hole at Harmony, a 465 yard par-4. I hit my driver a bit off the toe and had 165 to the flag and hit an 8-iron a little fat and still got it to the flag. I have some problems with my elbow stiffening up due to years on the computer for work. I've found that it stiffens up a bit when getting into lumbar lordosis, but only when I don't get dual hip internal rotation. If I start to sway in the backswing, then the elbow stiffening up is a problem.

I was practicing on Sunday and I was hitting the ball alright, but still didn't quite like my downswing. I then decided to work on solely trying to get into as much anterior pelvic tilt as I possibly could in the downswing. I then started to hit the ball much more accurately and it started to feel much more like my swing back in the summer when I was hitting the ball so well. I looked at it on camera and the slide went away and the 'Sam Snead squat' we excellent.

So for now, I plan on working on the backswing with the lumbar lordosis and working on the ATP. Hopefully after a few weeks of reps, I will get those down comfortably and then I can work on the lordosis in the early backswing and get the right elbow into the position that I want it:

***

I feel like I've been putting better on the practice green. I would still like to figure out a way where I can stop hitting the putts less towards the heel. I'm fine with favoring the heel, but I think it is overdone by a dimple or so and that is causing launch direction issues.

But on Saturday at Harmony Golf Preserve, I was putting my putts badly which is rare for me since I hardly ever pull putts.

In the end, I think I had some aim issues (aiming left for once) and the path/arc was getting a bit too far left at times as well.

On Sunday I practiced and I would say that right-to-left putts are giving me more troubles. But, I used the string drill and started putting them better. I still think the Perfect Putter is really good for this because you get a perfect understanding of how a putt rolls and you don't have to worry about making compensations to get the ball in the hole.

[Richie3Jack]

I have been out of commission for 5 days with acute bronchitis. I never had bronchitis in my life until about 4 years ago. I didn't know how to handle it (I thought you just use cold medicine) and it got pretty bad and the doctor told me back then I was lucky that I didn't get pneumonia. A couple of years later I caught it again, it was milder and it still knocked me out of commission. Then Sunday I started to feel it come on and I thought I could just heal with some rest. That didn't work, so I went to the doctor before it got too bad where I couldn't work.

It's too bad because I shot 67 (-5) on Saturday at Stone Creek up in Ocala. Finally, I had a great round putting. Combined with hitting 13 GIR, everything clicked. With that said, Stone Creek's greens were in fantastic shape and they really only had about 1 or 2% slopes on them.

I hadn't touched a club since then and on Thursday I started using the Pelz Putting Tudor, again. The stroke is still pretty good and I'm doing well on the PPT. I also used the foot spray on my putter to measure the impact and I started hitting putts off the toe.

It's a bit crazy because I was hitting putts a little too far off the heel for my tastes. My stroke is such where the misses should be more towards the toe and being towards the heel instead is either a stroke mechanics or fitting issue or both.

But getting back to putting after the layoff, I was now hitting putts off the toe and doing it too much.

One of the things I found was that my backswing stroke was moving too quickly. Again, I point to David Orr's brilliance on this...I have a stroke pattern that is actually more prone to the backstroke being too quick whereas somebody different like Zach Johnson and his stroke could be prone to having a backstroke that moves too slow. I can't begin to tell you how I think people that are not on David's Web site are so completely missing out on how to not only putt better, but to permanently become a better putter and to easily troubleshoot future putting problems.

***

I struck the ball okay at Stone Creek on Saturday. I started out well, but then struggled on the back nine a bit before putting things together.

I have been working on my address alignment a little and have been thinking about some things.

I tend to line up with a closed stance. I've been doing that since the M.O.R.A.D. days and in reality, have been doing that for a long time.

I *think* the reason for it is I have a natural tendency to stand too close to the ball. And it feels like my right hip and leg are way too close to the ball when I align square.

So, I think subconsciously I started to close my stance to counter that 'too close to the ball' feeling. I also think that may have set me off in getting the pressure up towards my toes in the swing as well.

With all of that 'being too close to the ball', I think the counter to that is to steepen the shaft plane and tuck the chin in towards the chest on the downswing. Basically, trying to change the shaft angle in order to deliver the club to the ball and tucking the chin into the chest to give me room to do it.

Right now, I'm still working on the backswing and the lumbar lordosis.  And I've been working on the Anterior Pelvic Tilt to allow me to hit quality golf shots.  But, I think when I fully recover I will really need to work hard on address alignment and not getting the pressure up towards my toes on the golf swing.

[Richie3Jack]

Played Rio Pinar on Saturday and shot 71 (-1) with 12 GIR. My right elbow has been stiffening up a bit lately and by the end of rounds of golf it doesn't make it comfortable to swing. Interestingly enough, it's okay if I get the right hip internal rotation properly in the backswing.

I did hit some really impressive shots, like the 320 yard drive on #9 (the old 18th hole). I used to be a member at Rio Pinar and I had never been that close to the hole. In fact, we had difficulty finding the ball because I didn't think it would be that far down the fairway.

Essentially, I hit the driver pretty well, the long approach shots well, short game play was good and putted pretty well. My mid iron play was awful, but the other parts of the game made up for it.

I started to work a little on my alignment as my shoulders are way too open at address and I think that throws off my eyeline and the perception of where I want to go changes. I will probably try to work on that some more this week along with flexing my knees more at address to help keep the pressure off my toes in the swing.

***

I thought overall I putted pretty well. Here's the putts thru the round:

#1: Made about a 10-footer

#2: Tap in for birdie

#3: Had a putt from about 15-feet than I hit where I wanted to, but the read was a little off (was more straight than I thought).

#4: Missed a 5-footer. Right-to-Left break and I missed it on the low side.

#5: Got away with a push and made an 8-footer uphill that broke to the right.

#6: Hit this putt exactly where I wanted to (about a 20-footer), but it stayed straight instead of breaking to the right.

#7: Can't remember this putt for some reason.

#8: 3-putted here. Hit the first putt (about 40-feet) where I wanted, but mis-read the break badly. The 2nd putt was about 6-feet and I missed this badly, but I think the greens grass was pretty bad. Another right-to-left that I missed low.

#9: Uphill left-to-right from 7-feet that I hit where I wanted to, but it broke more than I thought.

#10: Made a 12-footer with a left to right break.

#11: Made a nice 5-footer that was pretty straight.

#12: Hit the putt where I wanted to. I don't think the speed was 'bad', but it broke more than I thought at the end. Had I hit it a little harder, I think it goes in.

#13: Tap in.

#14: Tap in.

#15: Tap in

#16: Bad mis-read. Not sure how it broke right instead of left from about 10-feet

#17: From 15-20 feet, putt broke, but not enough. Tough putt to read.

#18: Putt looked like it would break left, but it only did a hair (from 15-feet).

I think I'm still having a problem with right-to-left putts and the tendency is to miss them on the low side. David says with my putting style, it should be an under-read, but I'm thinking I'm having launch direction perception issues.

[Richie3Jack]

We played Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday was on an Exec Course in 20+ mph winds. Then I shot 68 (-4) on Friday and 73 (+1) on Saturday.

In fact, I came this close for a double eagle from 252 yards out on Friday.

I was working still on the lumbar lordosis and using that create that 'right elbow move.' and for the most part it worked pretty well.  On Saturday, I stared to get a little bit of Right Pelvic Tilt and I had to work that out.

I also think I made a discovery as I had been discussing the issues I have with alignment at address and I think the big thing is that my shoulders were aligned too far open at address.  But I think what I would do is counter those open shoulders at address with a closed stance.  So I really need to get better at squaring up the shoulders and the stance.  I was hitting some pushes over the week, but once I squared up the rest of the body with the shoulders, the shots started to go straight.

***

I putted pretty well on Thursday given these were The Villages greens which are not exactly fast or smooth or flat.  Some of the pin positions were ridiculous.  I putted okay on Friday despite shooting 68 and I struggled early on Saturday, but started to come around on the back nine where I was 2 under par.

I think the issues I was having on the last 2 days were more dealing with what I call the 'launch illusion.'  David Orr talks about this on his Web site and it was incredibly helpful.

Let's imagine you have a 10-foot putt that is straight as an arrow to the hole.  And you hit the putt perfectly into the cup...meaning that at impact, the path is dead square to the target and the putter face is at 0.0* to the target and the ball drops into the cup.

Depending on your stroke mechanics, you can very easily have the illusion that when the ball is initially launched off the putter face that you have either pushed the putt or pulled the putt.

With my stroke mechanics, the illusion is a push.  With somebody like Tiger Woods and his stroke, the illusion is likely a pull.

And because there is that illusion, sometimes the instincts start to kick in and tell you that you're aimed poorly.  But, the real kicker is that sometimes the instincts are right and sometimes they are wrong.  And even worse, sometimes they change in what they favor (the illusion or reality).

For instance, let's say on that 10-foot straight putt, my instincts on Friday may have been telling me that I needed to aim more left in fear of pushing it.  But in reality, where I have aimed up until that point was correct.

However, on Saturday, the instincts could be telling me the exact opposite and those instincts could be more correct.

Anyway, on Sunday I started practicing a lot with the Pelz Putting Tutor and the Mi Putting Template.  I also went to the PGA Tour Superstore and wanted to try some different putters because I still plan on using the Edel E-3 Torque Balanced putter, but I wanted to try out some different grips and lengths.

I've decided to switch to a GripMaster USA Cabretta midsize putter grip:

I have also decided to add a 1/2" shaft extension to the putter.

One of the putters I really liked the feel of was the Bettinardi Signature Series 10 putter:

They had 2 of them at the PGA Tour Superstore (at $495 a piece!) and they had a special designed GripMaster USA grip on them made just for Bettinardi.  I think they are still virtually the same as the Cabretta grip I ordered.  The Bettinardi Signature Series putter was also about 1/2" longer and that felt good noticeably better.  It is also at 71* lie angle.  My Edel is at 35" long and 70* lie angle.  So for now, I'll add the 1/2" extension and put the GripMaster grip on and see how that goes.  I am hoping that it will lead to a little more consistency with the face contact, get the face contact more towards the center of the club and reduce a little of the tension in my arms as well as give me a hair more rotation so I can avoid hitting pushes.

Attachments:

[Richie3Jack]

The good news (great news) is I shot 71 (-1) at Rio Pinar and 69 (-3) at Deltona Club over the week. The bad news is that right elbow stiffened up once again and outside of the driver, the ballstriking hasn't been all that good. I only hit 10 greens at Deltona Club and got by with great putting (25 putts) and short game play.

With that said, I had not touched a club (besides my putter) all week long. From a ballstriking perspective, I am still figuring out the lumbar lordosis and the scapula dig on the downswing. I did start to notice that I need to work on getting my right hip deeper behind me in the backswing and I see how that affects my foot action.

***

The putting was very good this weekend. I added a 1/2" shaft extension to my putter and then had The GripMaster stitch-back putter grip added. I loved the 1/2" extension, but the grip isn't quite for me. It's too slick and it has become difficult to quite feel what I want. I did find that I bought the wrong grip. The putter grip on the Bettinardi's is the Clubmaker model. I might try to find some ways to make the grip a little more tacky. If I can't, then I guess I'll try the Clubmaker model.

But the 1/2" extension has done wonders so far. The face contact is much better. I started to notice some things about the putting stroke, putter and face contact as well.

If the putter is a bit too short, it's easy to start hitting putts off the heel. The tendency is to start thrusting the body more towards the ball. And if I have a proper length putter, toe hits are likely an issue with having the stance too narrow and heel hits are more about not getting the lead shoulder moving up and inward soon enough in the thru-swing.

[Richie3Jack]

I played on Saturday and shot 76 (+4). The course is 7,000 yards long, but it is a little different in that it has six par-3's. Each of the par-3's were over 200 yards long and four of the par-4's were over 430 yards long (and into the wind). They had a 375 yard par-4 and a 350 yard par-4's, but for the most part the approach shots on the par-3's and par-4's were long. The par-5's were shorter, usually in the 510 to 530 yard range.

So, it was a weird course as I don't think I've ever played a course that long with that many par-3's. I shot 76 mainly because I drove the ball terribly on the par-5's. I only counted 1 good drive on the par-5's. I actually played the par-3's at even par. I just couldn't get anything close for birdie.

I have been working hard on the lumbar lordosis, especially in transition:





That works in combination with the right elbow move and really driving that right elbow forward.

A lot of Lucas' students do this so damn well.



You can see Ryland's right elbow 'work underneath' and continue to drive in the downswing. This is what took me a while to figure out, the back and shoulders have to create that move:



When I started focusing on the back and shoulders (with the scapula 'dig'), it was easy to see how the right elbow moves into the position that Ryland has it in and is driving forward.

But, what I also started to see was how the left leg could more naturally extend instead of be in flexion, just like Ryland does.

I have been working a lot on that transition move and in particular, making that the slowest part of the swing when I am doing slow motion practice.

***

The only thing I notice about my putting is that on right-to-left putts I miss low. I have examined this and I don't think I'm under-reading them which David says could be a possibility with my putting mechanics. Instead, I think that putter face is closing a little bit too soon.

As David says, you can't miss low on breaking putts because you'll never stand a chance (obviously). The weird thing is that it doesn't *feel* like a pull.

But, when I practice the 2-ball drill that Jeff Smith and Mario Bevilacqua, I can see that closed face coming in.



It would make sense that I'm closing the face a bit since I still putt left-to-right putts (not missing low, so I can always make the putt by hitting it high with a slower speed).

There was a great video that has helped me tremendously by David where he talks about the pull/push 'illusion' one can have with putting depending on their stroke.

My stroke is more outside-to-in, so with the putter head moving to the left more thru impact, I can hit a putt that is perfectly straight on line, but it will create an illusion that I am pushing the putt because the putter head is moving left thru impact.

I really noticed this doing the string drill on left-to-right putts.  And I could see how I would get on left-to-right putts....incorrectly thinking that I will miss right and then aiming more left and hitting it very soft.

I think a similar thing is going on with right-to-left putts.  Subconsciously, I think I am going to miss right and the face turns over in order to prevent that.  It *feels* like and under-read, but it's really not.

I have been working on the circular saw visual to prevent me closing the putter face too quickly.  And it feels like when I hit the putt, the ball is being pushed.  But, it's really not.

I have also been playing around with an old Mizuno Bettinardi C-06 putter

I am probably going to get it refinished from BOS Golf.  At the very least it can be a nice backup putter to have.

[Richie3Jack]

Last night I decided to play in a night league. Duran has a lighted range, but also a lighted par-3 course. There are leagues throughout the week there.

The par-3 course is really short. I think the longest par-3 is about 120 yards. The first couple of holes are only about 60 yards. I almost made a hole-in-one on the second hole (roughly 6 inches away). And the group behind us had a hole-in-one on the 5th hole.

I ended up shooting 25 (-2) with a 3-putt.

The greens are terrible there, but I didn't putt all that bad. The 3-putt was from the lack of practice on the putting greens (I practice at home) and I got too distracted by figuring out where to aim and ignored the speed of the putt. So I rammed one about 4-feet past the cup and then had a very difficult comeback putt that I missed.

Other than that I only had 1 other bad putt, on the 9th hole, where I got a little confused by where I was aiming and I ended up pulling it a smidge anyway.

I found it helpful though because there is still some pressure that I found that I was putting on myself and there was some struggles with worrying too much about a poor shot instead of focusing on hitting good shots and great shots. The last 4 holes were pretty darn good as I stuck a 100-yard shot to a tricky pin position, stuck a 70-yard shot to another tricky pin position and hit a good shot that spun back a bit too much...but made birdie anyway. And then I stuck a 116 yard shot to another tricky pin position.

David Orr did another video discussing in a class club fitting for a putter. Once again, some really great stuff.

I really think if I wanted the 'Billy Baroo' putter (or the Excalibur as David puts it), it could be done but I would have to take some of my knowledge and most of David's knowledge and get a putter created by somebody like Byron Morgan to exactly fit those specs.

What I find interesting is David's discussion of Smash Factor with the putter and how that plays a role. I think that is a more definitive way to figure out what type of feel a golfer likes best. If you like a feel of 1.72-ish Smash Factor, but 1.6 is too soft and 1.8 is too harsh...then you can start to figure things out more definitively.

[Richie3Jack]

Played this weekend at Grand Cypress on Saturday and the LPGA International (Jones Course) on Sunday. I had come off a nice week of range practice.

My left wrist and shoulder were stiff on Saturday. I've found when that happens, I rarely play well and this was no different. Lot of Right Pelvic Tilt going on early in the round and hitting toe-draws. I shot 39 on the front nine and turned it around a bit and shot 35 (-1) on the back nine. 74 isn't a terrible score, but the New Course at Grand Cypress is easy.

I then shot 71 (-1) at the LPGA International. Started out striking the ball well, but struggled in between and then finished out okay. It was windy, soft and not exactly warm. The greens were slow by LPGA International standards and were not rolling that smoothly.

What I've found is that I'm a little late with getting my left leg into extension in the downswing. It's not impossible, but it's very hard to go into RPT and slide if the left leg is in full extension. And you're not sliding if the left hip is going backwards (behind you) and/or going backwards (away from the target).



As you can see in Ryland's middle picture, the left leg is pretty much fully extended at that point.

One good thing is that I think I've figured out the pitch shot with a lot of spin mechanics.

I started to figure it out better when I watched these two videos:





I would say that short game play is probably the best part of my game even though I hardly practice it. I just wanted to learn how to hit high spinning pitch shots to add to my arsenal. Particularly because with the Bermuda grass and heavy wind in Florida, hitting flop shots are less reasonable.

The problems I had before were:

1. I would push off the ground with my feet and get both of my legs going into extension and losing the rotation.

2. To help with the rotation, I would slide the pressure well forward. This makes it harder to shallow out the AoA and not take a lot of turf and thus it reduced the spin rate because there was less friction.

3. I would not get enough wrist-cock on the backswing and more or less float load on the downswing. This would create a chopping downswing which would also get too much turf.


For me, the main part I had to work on first was the movement of the knees as Rumford describes. It's a real different move for me.

Then I had to learn how to get wrist-cock on the backswing and then 'cast' as Scheinblum describes. That wasn't as difficult to learn.

The problem was that once I got the wrist-cock and cast feel working, I would use my old leg action (push off the ground, extend both legs and stall the pelvis).

As Scheinblum describes in his video 'I'd rather speed up what's slow than slow down what's fast.'

So when I implemented the wrist-cock and cast (feel) pieces, I was starting to slow down my pelvis again with the jump-stall motion.

So the fix was really getting everything moving faster, including the backswing. That's because if I went slow with the backswing, I may get out of sync and then go too fast with the knee action.

It's really just wrist-cock and cast while rotating the lower body fast. And I started to see how easy it was to hit these shots, even from tough lies.

***

The putting was downright excellent this week. I had 26 putts on Saturday and 25 putts on Sunday. I'm going to start recording the average length of my birdie putts made and the average length of any 2 putts made to better see the progress I'm making.

Of course, the low putts per round was due to not hitting many greens and great short game play. But, I was putting well this weekend.

I still tend to miss right-to-left putts low and don't really know why.

I did mess around with the Bettinardi C-06 putter and as well as I strike that putter at home, it was ugly on a real putting green. So, I kept it in the bag and continued with the Edel putter.

I was messing around with the Bobby Grace 18 Blade



I putt really well with this putter, but I have my doubts since this is more of a wider arc, more face rotation putter. I have a small arc (on the backstroke) with less rotation.

I still need to change the grip on the Edel. It is just too slick for my tastes. I see that PURE Grips now has a midsize putter model.

I've been thinking of experimenting a little with some cheap putter off eBay and messing around with the specs

[vecino]

Hi...new here although been reading your posts for quite a while. Quick question...when Ryland has left leg in full extension, is his left hip in full flexion or does it have a ways to go to get there? I just saw a youtube clip of Kelvin looking at Robin 's swing, and I really liked the part where he says the swing is being driven at that point by the lower ab/rib. So I'm wondering at what point full left hip flexion happens and when the move to left hip extension begins. Anyway, I appreciate your sharing your experience implementing Kelvin's ideas.

[Richie3Jack]

Hello!

I could be wrong on this, but I believe that we want to look at this from a Left Pelvic Tilt, Right Pelvic Tilt as well as an Anterior Pelvic Tilt and Posterior Pelvic Tilt perspective.

So hip flexion would related to how the pelvis is tilted. If you have left pelvic tilt the left hip is flexed and anterior pelvic tilt has both hips in flexion.

So Ryland is trying to get into LPT and APT. Before impact, right around p6, the LPT is starting to transition into RPT and he should start to get into Posterior Pelvic Tilt.

I know Kelvin showed Anthony Kim as doing it very well, I just can't find the article on it.

Ryland looks to me to get into RPT a tad early in that swing, but that swing he was at 115 mph and has made some changes now to get to 120 mph with his driver.






3JACK