Another reason for starting this blog is to help organize my thoughts & monitor my progress with the new techniques that I may be working on.
Full Swing
What I have decided to work on recently is to swing a little flatter on my backswing & to improve my footwork to create more space for my arms to swing. With the former, I have been working on a drill my friend, Dong Yi, has showed me. He has me taking the club back half-way to where my arm is parallel to the ground & then just turning my shoulders to complete my backswing. What I appeared to be doing before is poor sequencing where my arms and shoulders were connected about halfway back, then my shoulders would stop turning & my arms would continue to finish the swing. What this caused was an over-the-top position at the apex of my backswing and for my club to be laid-off at the top. I'm also over-swinging so that's another key to fix.
With improving my footwork, I worked with Mike Malaska over a year ago & he wanted me to swing flat footed, then work on rolling my right foot, and then eventually finishing my swing after mastering each of those stages. What Dong showed me was that some people learn better footwork not with his/her right foot, but conversely with the left foot or left leg. So what Dong showed me was that Anthony Kim feels as though right before initiating the downswing, his hips fire in reverse. In other words, his left hip contorts to the right rather than towards the target. Whether it actually does that is a different story, but this is what he feels to create that "squat" during the downswing and to stay grounded better. So what Dong pointed out was that for him, he feels as if his left knee goes towards his right knee just before initiating the downswing which creates a "posted" feeling. Essentially, my weight should shift towards the balls of my left foot during the downswing & feel as if I'm stomping on the ground.
All of these keys helped my right heel from coming off of the ground, to begin to roll towards the target, & to create spacing for my arms to hit the shot. Therefore, my hips do not interfere, & I don't become "stuck" on my downswing. All of these changes were also to help myself from coming out of the shot where I would get steep right at impact. I've been working on these things for two days now so we shall see how it progresses.
Short Game
With my short game, I've been mainly working on rotating my chest towards the target & shifting my weight more effectively. In the past, I would chip or pitch with all arms and that would cause me to be out of sync and ground out before the ball or skull the shot. I believe the problem with my chest not rotating stemmed from me wanting to quiet my lower body in the full swing and incorporating that in my short game. Therefore, things haven't been working effectively or naturally as they should.
Today I practiced and found that I was lacking a lateral weight shift before my body pivot. In my brief experimentation, it seemed to be amazing. I can't wait to try it out more tomorrow.
Putting
My last lesson was with Penny Pulz, and it was on my putting. She helped out immensely & showed me to read greens like an "athlete" rather than a mechanical robot that I was becoming. Essentially it is to feel the read of the putt in my body or rather becoming aware of my body's senses as I read the putt. Then when I step up to execute the putt, I just continue to feel what I felt during the read of the putt. It has been absolutely amazing so far with my clutch putting with money on the line. I haven't been able to test it out in a tournament yet, but I have been taking a lot of my friends' money haha. I believe that it is a much better way of reading greens and feeling speed. I do believe that speed is the more important of the two variables when it comes to putting, and I used to concentrate on that aspect for the line I chose as I stood over a putt. I feel as though I have had great success doing so. But changing my mindset, and I suppose it is my "energy" when reading a putt & becoming aware of my senses during execution, I feel as though I have become even better.
From a stroke standpoint I have been working on improving the path & alignment. Penny had me on this device called Tomi which measured the swing path, tempo, face rotation, etc. In summary, my tempo was good, but my swing path was inside to out because I would open the face too much on the backswing and then close it on the thru-swing. For this reason, I would have to swing outside to keep my putts on my intended line.
To fix this, I got a putting plane which I have been using to learn the feeling of putting with a more consistent arc in my stroke. In addition, I bought a metal meter stick & have been putting with that to work on my alignment & to start my putts on my intended line. If the putter face is even just a touch closed or open, the ball will not stay on the meter stick, & I will receive instant feedback on my putts.
So far, all of these things have been leading me to make more putts on the golf course. I really want to play in a tournament soon! My scores have been really good since having the lesson with Penny back in December. I've only been playing 9 holes when I would go out, but they have been something like 2, 4, 3, even, 3, 2, 2 under par the last few times I have played. The worst was even par which was when I played with Ai Miyazato, and it was only six holes. I remember last year, my friends from the Cactus Tour would comment on how I shoot under par all the time, & I would reply that it's not really the case, and it wasn't. Last year, I was closer to even par most of the time I would tee it up, but after working on my putting, I'm seeing consistent rounds in substantial red figures. I'll keep working hard, & it'll get even better :D
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