Things are progressing, swing-wise.
I’m still positive that I’m having issues setting up completely square to my target line on the Tracer Golf screen because I tried something at the end of my session and suddenly, the balls were going more or less straight instead of pulled most of the time.
I’ll have to see how that works out next session, but things are still progressing – I forgot my gloves at home (I usually go through 2 as I tend to sweat through the first one by half an hour in), but still was able to generate ball speeds up to 190 mph even without one.
I also think I’ve solved the mystery of what I consider to be shorter distances than I usually drive the ball (both carry and run) out of doors – it seems that the Tracer Golf cameras, being overhead, struggle to pick up the ball when I launch it lower than 9 or 10 degrees (with a 6 degree lofted driver).
As you can see below, I find it hard to believe the carry and run numbers here with the club and ball speeds generated:
To be sure, anyone who knows golf technical numbers would scratch their heads to be told that a 6 degree driver with a positive Attack Angle of 4-5 degrees would produce backspin of over 3,000 RPM, but there it is above.
And that was the absolute lowest launch angle that I could get a ball to register on the monitor as well.
I tried lowering my attack angle but something strange would happen when I did – the cameras didn’t pick up the ball at all.
There were at least a dozen balls during the session where I felt sure I’d absolutely nutted that ball, bang into the center of the screen, and nothing. Not even a topped shot indicator or something like a worm-burner.
My best-feeling balls just wouldn’t register on the launch monitor, even as they cracked like gunfire and I could see they’d struck the screen above knee-height.
Ghost ball, and every time I increased my attack angle to raise the launch angle, I’d get the same thing happening – great club and ball speeds, but again, very high back spin rates (well over 3,000 RPM) and lower than expected carry and run:
It’s a 6 degree lofted club.
To be getting 285-300 yards of carry with a 6 degree lofted driver but less than 10 yards of run, this just doesn’t compute, as I have never driven a ball 300 yards or more carry with these launch angles that didn’t run at least 15-20 yards or more.
So I’m going to stop fussing about the actual numbers and keep working on things, because after nearly two decades of swing research, the numbers don’t compute with spin rates and carry/run compared to launch and club/ball speeds.
Still, I’m getting in some swing work regularly during the winter break and we’ll see how things are going once I get back outside.
Today, the swing was much better technically due to the setup changes, and instead of a sliding trailing foot, it is staying in place at impact and then releasing post-impact, although it’s not quite the step-around finish that would indicated optimal leverage from the top.
I can also state that there were absolutely no twisting force sensations on the leading leg with any swings for the first time since I began sessions at Tracer.
That means where before, I was getting to 190 mph ball speed but with some degree of twisting sensation in the leading leg at times, I was getting there today wearing no glove, feeling no twisting in the leading leg and feeling as though I wasn’t really swinging all that hard.
So, better is still better, so I’ll make sure to bring my gloves the next session and I’ll see if the changes I was making near the end where the ball straightened out are proper, although I think they were the key.
It seems I tend to set up with a square foot stance when on the launch monitors but get stuck open with the shoulders, likely a result of trying to keep the screen in my peripherals before I begin the backswing. Then everything is Pull City.
If I can straighten that out, then I’ll really have a good chance to work on things before the winter’s end.
Still no video, as I don’t intend to video record any swings until I feel they’re up to snuff.
But progress!
More to come.
WAX Golf 