8 January 2023|Golfing with gratitude
I emailed Sandy ahead of this lesson to say I would like to review the recent changes to ensure my grip and transition had not slipped back, then spend most of the lesson working with my driver. You’ll know from my previous posts that I believe I'm capable of more speed. The ingredients are there but I’m struggling to put it together and let the speed out. I’ve seen good speed using the sticks and when swinging the driver without the ball, but it slows considerably when a ball is introduced.
Irons: I was concerned that with my grip now comfortable, had it just slipped back to its old position? Fortunately, it’s fine and being comfortable is good news. Despite the improved grip position though, the wear on my glove suggests there is still scope for further improvement. It may be that the grips on the PXG irons are indeed too thick, but we’ll see how things go when I get my new irons. The grip I’ve chosen for them did seem a touch thinner, especially at the butt end. It was good to see the face on photos demonstrate much better positions both at address and impact. Trackman data was good for both swing path and delivered face angle. My shot shape was straight or a draw and nothing went to the right. Time to start trusting that! Overall, the progress with my irons is positive. I'm now really looking forward to getting the new irons!
Driver: Now for the challenging bit. I feel that my strike pattern has been better since I did the recent range work, but my swing speed is still too slow. Despite consistently getting over 100mph in the garden, it’s been more like 93mph when hitting balls. It was the same today. Good, fast practice swings and then the first few hits were all around 93mph. I’m swinging my 3W at the same speed so there must be more to go for with the longer club. So if I’ve got speed, how do I access it?
Observation: My iron swing transition is improving but with driver, the transition and sequencing are still an issue. I’m just not transferring my weight effectively enough. I'm almost “hanging back” in the swing and trying to hit too up on the ball. It’s significantly impeding rotation and hurting power. Sandy thinks it may be a legacy from using a driver without enough loft.
Instruction: We increased the loft on the driver to its maximum setting of +1.5*. From SGGT I know the head measures 10.7*, so it is now playing at 12.2*. Sandy’s logic is that if my brain knows that I have more loft then my body will “naturally” adjust in the swing. The aim is to get more weight onto my left side in the transition with better posture in order to prevent falling back and hitting up as much. My challenge is to keep the ball flight down despite the higher loft by transitioning better. We are trying to keep "swing thoughts" to a minimum.
Two key drills helped me get the correct feeling. First up, we swung a length of pipe as if it were a baseball bat. I had no issue transitioning my weight and turning through doing that. We then did a step drill where you stand with feet together and move the left foot out during the backswing, like with the baseball swing. Both seemed to free me up considerably and my swing speed increased to a high of 97.8mph, tantalisingly close to my 100mph initial target. We didn’t break 100mph today but getting almost 98mph from 93mph at the start was very encouraging.
Practice takeaways and next lesson: my target is to be consistently swinging at 100mph by my next lesson in early Feb. I’ve found a light broom handle to practice the baseball swing and will also keep using the step drill. I find getting a good rhythm and tempo is important and Sandy suggested getting something like the orange whip training aid to help. He also suggested just focusing on using the heaviest swing weight for most of my speed sessions. The next lesson will take a closer look at strike location and efficiency. We will then consider a driver fitting.
Initial practice that afternoon: I took the broom handle, heavy stick and the SwingMate to the driving range. I warmed up with the stick and the broom handle. The very first swing (with a ball) cracked the speed barrier and hit 105mph. Of the 30 balls I hit in this session a third of them were through 100mph with the balance mostly in the 95-100mph range. There was a lot of variety though and one rogue swing even got to 119mph, but I think that must be an error – I’ve ordered new batteries for the SwingMate!
Second practice: I maybe shouldn’t have gone back the next day, but I did. Speed is addictive! I only took 30 balls, but that was more than enough. Again, the baseball swing and step drill were effective at getting a feel for the transition we are trying to achieve. My speed wasn’t quite as good today, but I still managed a similar number above the 100mph mark. I’m not convinced the SwingMate works as well at the range as it does in the garden. I’ll change the battery but I think the issue is the direct sunlight that comes into the range. It definitely impacts the ability of the TopTracer to pick up the balls and sessions there seem best on dull days. I also think I need to develop a better warm-up routine as I definitely felt that I’d overdone it after this session. I need to remember that I’m 53 and not 23!!
First round: I was fortunate enough to get a game on the Old on Saturday. I was feeling sore post my practice on Thu and Fri and I also fell on my backside on Sat morning – not a great start. My driving was a bit of a mixed bag but over the whole round it was ok. I had to remember I'm trying to focus on speed over accuracy. I was out in 37 and back in 43 with the bad holes coming home caused by wild drives (hooks) and finding bunkers. Overall, I was happy. Most of my game was in decent shape and driving is on an improving trend. Great drives on 16 and 17 were two highlights.
Conclusion: I’m optimistic that I can get my base speed up to 100mph without feeling like I’m killing myself to do it. I found the feel-based exercises helped and are relatively easy to work on or build into a pre-shot routine. Extra yards off the tee must surely have positive benefits for other areas of my game, but I don’t want to obsess over it at the expense of deterioration elsewhere (or injury). If I can regularly swing at the 100mph level and keep the ball under control, then I’ll be happy.
Despite the temptation of some excellent sale bargains, I'm holding off making any driver change until I've worked more on my swing.
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