I Believe My Instincts Were Correct – New Model

You’ll recall that the reason I’m building a new golf swing model is because the previous model I finished in 2017 was a generic, standard if you will, model that put together the similar things the greats did with regards to stance and pivot.

However, something about that standard model didn’t agree with me personally, no matter how well I struck the ball, because there was an element in the address that didn’t feel perfectly natural.

Yesterday at the range, I hit some balls from wedge to driver and, although I didn’t “have it” yet, I can’t recall making purer contact with my irons than I did today.

Even my misses (due to the setup not being exactly what I think it should be) were purely struck, center of the sweet spot.

As I began to get used to that particular setup, albeit not the one I’ll end up with, the dispersion tightened and it was Stripe City, which pleased my immensely, this being my first day back out of doors since last October.

Setup DTL

What really pleased me was the return to video analysis – I haven’t seen myself swing in six months, so the progress was slower than it might be, because the minute I got home and looked at the evidence, I knew what I wasn’t doing properly in my setup.

Unfortunately, I did something with the exposure because all of the video came out blurred, and I didn’t get any good face-on at all.  No matter, because it’s not the final product anyway.

I did get a middling down the line, which I put through the video maker with edged lining, so one isn’t distracted by the blurriness:

You’ll notice that early raising of the trailing heel, which is the product of my setup issue, specifically ball placement.

I had the correct posture and weight distribution/balance, but the ball position was that of the standard Classic Golf Swing model, so I thought about it when I got home and am pretty sure I’ve fixed that issue.

The reason for being sure is because way back in 2008, when I was trying to figure things out for myself, I actually tried the same weighting and ball position that I’ll be going forward with, and I was hammering the ball with that configuration.

Of course I was, because back then, before I began to build models based on other swingers and was going it alone, I relied solely on athletic instinct gained from my sports past.

So, even with the incorrect ball position, you see I was in line with the “3 Planes” theory of having the middle plane of the shaft at impact between the lower at address plane and the higher plane created by the left arm extended to the ball:

So, after the weekend that I’ll spend working on the swing with the adjustment I’ve identified, inclement weather will probably keep me away from the outdoor range until late next week.

I may make a last foray for the season to Tracer Golf on Monday or Tuesday to see how the swing works with speed and accuracy and also in order to hit the ground running next range session.

Overall, I was very happy with my striking on the irons/wedges front, but not with the Driver for the reason I’ve mentioned.

All I can say is that if I was getting such great results with the irons even with an un-optimal ball position, I can’t wait to see what happens when that has been corrected!

More to come.