Written on 8-15-2020.
And, the learning continues. I am now watching the YouTube series #Grip to #Finish-Build a 365-Day ‘Moe Norman Single Plane Golf Swing, and I am on Part 2.
My Perfect Impact Club came in the mail yesterday, so I hope to go to the range later this week. I am thinking that this system is similar to Shot Doctor’s Successful Six. I just need to know this system inside and out.
Written on 8-17-2020.
It’s James’s 27th birthday today! We have had a great day so far, too. He dropped me off at Pinon Hills on his way to Char and Ed’s place. He was having a little business meeting with Char, but the bigger news is that they are willing to sell him their Fiat, and it only has just over 30,000 miles on it. I think he should do it. They are asking a reasonable price.
He joined me on the range after his meeting, and I shared some of my range balls with him. He arrived earlier to pick me up than I thought he would, so I was still down there. We had a blast swinging my clubs together.
After the range balls were used up, we went to...
Dick’s, so James could get his birthday gift from us, a new pair of shoes. His were looking a little worn. We followed that quick shopping trip with lunch from Five Guys. We took it with us, and ate in the shade right near the entrance to the mall where we would come in when we used to watch movies way back when. It was wonderful to be able to just hang out with my son. After he has been away in New Zealand for four years, it was also surreal. Happy birthday, James!On to golf…
I must be obsessing a bit with the new golf swing, because I had a dream about it. I was playing with Todd and Moe, and I hit a great shot with my 8-iron over a large tree. My ball ended up in some deep rough, though, so I had to explain to Todd that I didn’t know this course yet, but I did want him to know it was a really great swing and it went right where I was aiming. He nodded in agreement.
I didn’t get a chance to see or talk to Moe, but I knew he was off to play his own shot. I am betting he was on the fairway. I think that I knew from all the videos I have watched that he didn’t especially like meeting new people, and it took a while to earn his trust, but I know I was somehow allowed to play along with him…as long as I didn’t talk to him too much.
I am currently working on keeping a steady head. If I can’t keep my head from moving around, this whole thing won’t work, so it’s been an area of focus. I brought my own little homemade Steadhead device to the range today, and because I had the whole practice area to myself from 9:00 until around 11:30 (Pinon isn’t open until 12:00 on Mondays), I was able to do whatever I wanted and not worry about getting embarrassed. The solitude was wonderful.
I am also working on getting my trail leg bent on my back swing, so I can rotate my club around that knee. I start by getting my legs locked straight and then slowly, barely start bending them to start my back swing. I pause at the top (coming to a complete stop), move into my flexed lead knee and attempt to fire through the ball with my arms. I thought it would look really good on video, but my trail knee still looked like it was almost straightening (it didn’t completely straighten, but it didn’t look as flexed as I thought it would be), and my head was not as steady as I expected it would be after I took off my Steadhead thing either. The video from today also showed that I was nearly standing up a little bit at impact. Will this ever end? When will I match the model?
Here is an analogy of what I am doing that keeps coming to my mind. At the beginning of The Last Jedi, Poe attacks a huge First Order dreadnought to allow the Resistance to escape. His guns get taken out before he is finished, however, so he asks BB-8 to fix them. BB-8 drops down into the heart of the X-wing and begins to patch thing up, but every time he plugs a circuit, another one begins to leak. He uses many of his “arms,” but they keep popping up until he has to use his dome head to jam them all up, and that works.
My swing change is like that. I can get my left knee to bend, but then my head doesn’t stay still. I get my head to stay mostly still, but then I don’t keep my trail foot on the ground. I keep my trail foot on the ground, and I end up with lousy impact. See the pattern?
I think I will take it one step at a time until it all comes together. It starts with address. Then the backswing. If I can master those, I might be able to move forward. Sigh. This is hard.
Enough for now. It’s a little past 11:00, and my eyes are getting droopy. Good night.
Until next time…
Written on 8-22-2020.
It’s wedding day for Savannah, and Danielle and Becca, who are in the wedding party, had to be in Hesperus early this morning to prepare. Matt is coming today, too, so that’s a real bummer for Danielle, but it’s great for us. We will get to see him first, and he will be coming with us to go to the wedding, which starts at 4:00. It all worked out that he could come, so Danielle is thrilled.
James got his new longboard from landyachts.com finally, and he and Cari Englehart are riding it over at the reservoir. Belinda is at A’s house trying to find something to wear. Kody is napping on his bed in the living room, the Roomba just got started, and I am writing on my bed. The LPGA is on TV, and it’s great background for what I am doing, writing about golf.
On to golf…
I played at Civitan yesterday to take a break from the range. I was hoping again that it would all come together, and I would score well, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. It became a practice round again, and I didn’t focus on the score.
I did get two bogeys on hole #7 this time, and I hit that green in regulation the first time I played it. That’s better.
Unfortunately, I only hit two greens in regulation. Some of the misses were because I hit behind the ball and came up short. A couple were topped or thin. Others were long, and I even accidentally hit the green on #8 from the teeing area on #4. Oops! I had a decent shot at birdie after that shot, but it wasn’t the correct green. I could hit that green from the wrong tee, but I couldn’t hit it either time from the correct tee. Pretty frustrating. I am working on my full swing, but I am not getting results still. I must remain patient.
I did have some good short game practice. While waiting to play (it got clogged up at #3 for a bit), I got up and down four times on #2 from above the green. I got plenty of two putts in while waiting on some holes, too, and I managed a one putt on #7 from 30 paces! I got that after I triple-putted for a bogey, so that helped stop the stinging.
I used my new Sandy Andy to learn how I could utilize it from off the green, and I got more comfortable with it. It can cut through some deep, thick grass, and I was able to get my golf ball on the green from some tough lies.
I was pretty frustrated with the whole Moe Norman swing thing. I can stripe it when I am on the range, and I can closely match the model, but it somehow changes when I aim at a real golf hole. Not sure why.
I used my old swing once on the last hole. I just wanted to see what would happen. It was easier to make contact. With the Moe Norman swing, it appears harder to get back to the ball due to the club being so far behind it at address. My old swing didn’t do much better, though. The contact was decent, but I still ended up missing the green short and right. That was the only hole where I teed it up, too, so that might have helped.
I got a text from B that said she and James were eating out at Blake’s and going to the Edgerton’s, so I chose to grab my dinner at Sonic and go to the range at Pinon to end my day with better contact.
It was an improvement there, but I worry about becoming a practice player still. I need to remember why I am doing all of this…to score better on real golf courses after making this change.
I chose to work through all of my clubs from my sand wedge to my utility club. I filmed from the front until I made a decent swing with each club at least once, and then I did it all over again from down the line.
I made incredible contact with that new Perfect Impact Club. It feels heavier, so when I drop it right on the back of the ball with the correct tilt of the club, the ball just flies. I ended my session with that club, and I had smooth, consistent, “perfect” contact four times in a row.
When I reviewed the video this time, I saw that my trail knee does not keep its flex like I feel like it does in the back swing. I also noticed that my swing (possibly because that knee straightens) is longer than the model. I would really benefit from a shorter back swing, and I might be able to accomplish that by keeping my knee flexed more than I feel it is doing. What would happen if I feel I am locking in that trail knee? What if I feel like I am just taking half swings? Wouldn’t I return the club more consistently to the back of the ball? I believe that is what I will focus on next week.
If I have the address down with the proper spacing, the back swing would be the next step towards improvement.
Matt should be here soon, and I am getting hungry.
Until next time…
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