It’s been a little over 6 months since I embarked on changing my golf swing to the Rotary Swing Tour model based on Anatomical Absolutes. It’s been an incredibly exciting, challenging, fun and frustrating experience all rolled into one. The exciting part has been seeing my swing in positions that I’ve never seen before and understanding the exact muscles and feelings that create these movements. It’s been challenging as I’ve learned there are no shortcuts to your brain learning to do something new, 3-5k reps is mandatory. That’s the most frustrating part, having to drill something over and over and over because the brain learns no other way.
At this point, I’m well on my way and am glad I’ve made the journey. I still continue to work on things and put in my reps daily and wanted to put together a little list of my drills I’m doing at the moment.
- Right arm in front of my chest to the top.
This has been a challenging one for me. I have to feel that my left arm never leaves my chest by moving the correct muscles in my back to rotate my torso. My humerus has to rotate clockwise as it I go back to keep my elbow from flying away from my body.I do this 100 times each day so it will take me a minimum of 1 month to master the movement. - Weight Shift – stabilizing left side.
Because of the hip injuries I’ve had from two car accidents, this one is a multi-faceted approach. I still require therapy on my hip which I’m going to twice a week right now to loosen up the connective tissue that’s been bound up for years. The work yesterday was so great I felt an inch taller! My left hip pops in my backswing a lot (it’s gross, you can hear it) and it’s because the femur is pulled up against the hip socket and has no room. I’m doing some specific yoga poses and stretches twice a day to help remove these restrictions as part of working on my weight transfer and stabilizing as I come down into impact.Yoga and stretches 2X per day and weight transfer drills (see Weight Shift Part 3 Video here) 100 times per day.
These are two of the biggest things in my golf swing to fix and I’m quite excited about the possibilities after these two changes are made. I have to work hard as I want to be in great playing shape by the time I get to Castle Pines at the end of May, so I’ve got some great motivation!
Chuck,
I was going to post this on the website but I will ask you here. If it is taking YOU 6 months, I now believe that this will take ME way over a year. I am going to keep working on the Tour model, but MY body is going to take a while. How do I (or you) continue to just play while you are going through this? I want to just go play once a week without worry about the RS2.0 stuff. Weight on the front side? Bucket Drill? Rotary Drill? If I use these thoughts to play wih, they aren’t really hindering progress of the “new swing” are they? Or do you just keep playing with the new swing and suffer thru?
It’s taking me 6 months because a) I’m extremely busy with other things and b) I’m doing everything perfectly from A-Z. This is something that unless you are a professional, you’ll never bother with. You need to just work on a few fundamentals and get them close and keep playing as you work on them. By now, you should have many of the basics mastered since the clinic you attended in January. If you’ve done the stuff Alison gave you and have had 3 months to do it, you should be well on your way now and just focus on those things for now. When things get off, you need to know WHAT is off. Is the Bucket Drill what you need? I don’t know, are your arms out of sync? You picked a bunch of random drills that have little to do with each other. Drills are like medicine that should be prescribed to fix things YOU need to work on.
Chuck
I have VERY tight hips almost no internal rotation. What specific yoga moves and stretches are you performing to help release the hip?
Hi Chuck!
I too have a left hip injury in the form of a labral tear (cartilage tear). This occurred 5 years ago on the golf course whilst swinging the Driver with extremely bad mechanics!!!
Anyway, I’d be interested to know of the particular exercises/stretches you do for the hips. I have just started a new regimen with a personal trainer here in Oz and would like to do a core specific workout with lots of stretching.
I’d appreciate any help you can give me. I hope to see you in Orlando some time in 2010!!!!
Cheers,
Neil.
The randomness made sense in my head when I wrote them
After 3 months the reality is that I HAVENT been working HARD enough. I now know that I am best served starting from the begining and doing it correctly. I just like to still play but my Ego has gotten in the way as my handicap goes wrong way. I understand your message completely, thanks. By the way, I think YOUR swing is actually looking really good at this point!
In this post you say that your humerus has to rotate clockwise as it goes back to keep your elbow from flying and you practice it 100 times each day. Can you elaborate on the rotation of your humerus and what drill you practice to refine that. Thanks Chuck.
“It’s been an incredibly exciting, challenging, fun and frustrating experience all rolled into one.”
Ditto on that. The amazing thing about RST is that you have the Answer Key in front of you. So, the temptation is to think that it will all just gel beautifully right now. But, reality isn’t like that. And, that’s the frustration. It comes in pieces. And, you know where you are at any time. A little patience and diligence go a long ways. Drill every day on what you need.
I’m just a shade under three months after the clinic. I’ve always had a top-driven, Chop swing. It’s fine on short clubs. But, long clubs were never a strength. I’m driving the ball right now better than ever. Pipeline straight…not stupid long, but longer than I’m used to..one right after the other. The Chop is just about out of here. And, it’s only going to get better. The RST Clinic was the best money I ever spent in golf. Period. If get half a chance, go to one.