Golf Swing and Fitness plus Taylor Made R9 B stamps

Since having babies the priorities have changed.  A little.  I was still working on my swing and fitness.  The sleep deprivation made me susceptible to injury and road rage.  I can live with the rage but I hurt my neck again.  The body needs sleep to heal.

During the winter break I changed my irons.  I bought a set of Taylor Made R9 B stamps.  I was searching for an iron with no offset and liked these.  I put midsize grips on them which are 15 grams heavier than standard (extra wrap on the low hand) so I had to put some lead on the head to get to D1 swing weight.  It took me some tinkering to figure it out but I am enjoying them now.  I went to No Bogeys to have the irons built.  I put Project X 6.5 in the irons.  I also put a Vokey 46* wedge in for my pitching wedge.  I had all the shafts installed with the spine facing the target.

While I was there I started talking to Cary Schoen.  A teacher with TrackMan who gives lessons in the shop.  He had a some interesting things to say about the golf swing.  After a couple of visits and a demo lesson I was hooked.  We spent 7 lessons on the back swing, barely hitting balls.  I was a little frustrated but started seeing improvement early on.  Then we had a downswing lesson and after that I started striping it.  Cary teaches some Homer Kelly stuff and Ben Hogan stuff.  You can see my swing before and after below.

My posture was of some concern.  club face is shut.  I cross the line.  The follow through is disconnected and super high.  You can see where the club exits.

The next two are practice swings.  These swings are a great example of what Cary is teaching and what I am trying to do.

Here I am getting closer with a club in my hand.

Twins!! We had twins!

Golf was put on hold for the beginning on the year. We had a boy and a girl on Christmas Day.  It has been exciting and exhausting.

12 pound gain in 60 days

I have reached 170 lbs.  I thought I could get to this weight quicker than 60 days.  I obviously was not eating enough.  My sites are set on 175.  If I concentrate on the eating I should reach that weight before the first of the year.  My strength gains have increased weekly.  I have noticed some muscular size.  My legs, shoulders and back have noticeable growth.  I will be curious to see if my club head speed has increased with my strength gain.  If it does that will be an added benefit.

Titleist 913 D3 "slider" experiment with pictures

I believe that the invention of lead tape has allowed players to manipulate their golf clubs for decades.  TaylorMade built drivers with moveable weights and was credited for something that players have been doing for decades.

I have been trying to find a setup that will lower my trajectory and reduce spin.  With the 913 D3 Titleist driver I have experimented with a few different concepts.  First I adjusted the weights in the back of the driver.  I liked the 4 gram white dot weight.  I felt that I noticed a slightly lower trajectory with the 4 gram weight vs the 9 gram weight.  Titleist puts the different weights in the head to offset total swing weight based on shaft length.  They claim that the different weights will not alter the trajectory.

My latest experiment is the 913 D3 Titleist "Slider".  I was fortunate to play with two engineers recently and they explained the concept of the TM SLDR.  I also discovered that TM staff players are making adjustments to the SLDR by reducing the amount of weight in the driver.  The weighted slider portion of the driver is not removable but the staff players are having their drivers built with much lighter sliders.  The stock slider is 20 grams and the staffers are putting in a piece that is 8-10 grams.  With this new info I present the 913 D3 Titleist "slider".  I learned that having the weight low and towards the leading edge would create the effect I am after.  I have played 3 rounds with this new setup and I feel like I hit lower knuckle balls.  That makes me happy.  The sound and feel is completely different after I removed the weight from the tail end of the driver.  I tried with the two strips of lead but felt that was to heavy.

I am playing a Diamana White board 63x in with this setup.  This is the original white board with flower band.

The two strips of lead was to heavy.

Muscle and strength gain in the off season.

I had a tough finish to my season.  Neck injury forced me to withdraw from a couple of events.  I am feeling healthy now and I am on a mission to add 10 pounds to my little frame to help prevent further injuries.  I have been at 158 for the last 5 years.  That is mainly due to my routine in the gym and diet all reflecting a maintenance phase.  I have decided to change things up and I gained 6 pounds in the first 12 days.  The main reason for the gain is the increased calorie intake.  4 Hour Body is a book by Tim Ferris.  This book is the bible of body composition.  He wrote a chapter on how he gained 34 pounds in 4 weeks.  I am following his advice with some slight adjustments.  His main point is that nearly all people overtrain which does not allow them maximum growth and gain.  My workout routine looks like this:

First off every rep is 10 seconds.  5 seconds up and 5 seconds down.  Every set is to failure.  8 to 12 reps for each exercise.  Minimum rest of 3 minutes between sets.  3 to 4 days rest between workouts.  Concentrate on eating.

leg press
cable rows then superset with db pull overs
kettle bell swing 50 reps
db shoulder press
bosu ball abs
dips super set to cable flys for chest

add ons are:
drag curls
rear delt with cables
hip abduction for stability

my goal is to gain 10 pounds by the end of the year and then try to maintain a 4 to 5 pound lean muscle mass gain through next season.

Trophy Lake Golf and Casting Club, Washington. Titleist 913D3

After a long two days of travel, a practice round and then the qualifier for the Sahalee Am Scott and I ended up here, the first tee at Trophy Lake.  This place is AWESOME!  In Washington outside of Seattle, this gem of a golf course is off the beaten path.  We did not see many other players.  The place was very quiet.  The course was cut out of a forest.  It was...serene.  The yardage was near 7200 which included some long holes.  The course received lots of rain through the night and early morning so it played much longer.  We really lucked out on the weather.  When we decided to trek over there it was still raining but the day was absolutely perfect for our round of golf.  It started pouring on our drive home.  I think that area gets about 60 days of good weather a year.  We got 2 of them.

Tall pines surrounded every hole.

At times it looked like an enchanted forest.

Swinging out of my shoes on a par 5.  Scott hits it 290 in the air so I am always chasing.  I had 4 birdies on the day and kept the ball in play pretty well.  I am hitting the Titleist 913D3 8.5 with a Graphite Design Tour AD 7S tipped 1 inch.  The flex was 6.5.  It seems to fit my swing just fine.  My driver club head speed average is 110 mph.  I play the ProV1x.

Scenery on the course.

Some fly fishing after the round.  I wanted to take advantage of everything I could that day.  We had a 7:40 flight out of Seattle that night and we made it thanks to my impersonation of Mario Andretti.  We rented a Nissan Altima Coupe.  It was pretty fun to drive.  More fun than the cherry red Impala we had in Chicago.

We stopped at Gig Harbor on the way to the course.  Instagram helped me edit this photo.  We ate at Kelly's for breakfast and the food was excellent.  I had a smoked salmon omelette with capers and coffee from a local roaster.  Satisfaction was achieved.  Gig Harbor seemed like a nice vacation spot.

Scott is about to launch this ball into orbit.  Another drive over 300 yards.  It's obvious he can hit it well with lag like that and a very grounded base.  Great footwork.  It would be nice to be 6 foot 4.  He is hitting the Titleist 913D3 8.5 (white weight) with a Graphite Design Tour AD 7X.  He plays the Titleist ProV1x.

Titleist 913 Hybrid H-d 18

Hook machine:  I've had this hybrid for a year and I have hated from day 1. Every swing I make is an anti hook swing. It's finally out if the bag. 

I went with a toursauce favorite, Titleist. What I like most about this hybrid is I can adjust the lie angle .75 flat. That equals anti hook. It's in the bag for next weeks Sahalee Am.