Lost about thirty yards per club, whats going on?

Hi All

I have been struggling with my swing for the last six months or so (haven't we all) and I have lost about 20-30 yrds per club, at the beginning of the year I would pull a 7 iron for a 140 yard shot now I am maxing out my 7 iron at 110 yrds, my 3wood used to go 200-210 now down to 190 ish.
I know it is difficult to analyse what is going on with my swing without seeing it but is there anything that I should be looking for?
I am have a fairly decent wrist cock and release, I do tend to hit the ball on a very high trajectory but I don't know what is causing it, I have a 9 degree driver and used to carry around 220-230 now down to 200-210, any ideas please.

Mike

You might be staying behind the ball more than usual. If you have a video camera, try recording your swing from the face-on angle, and see if your shaft tends to sort of lean back behind the club-head. Other than that, idk what you're doing "wrong" unless your just not compressing the ball with the irons. That's all I know to tell ya' man

Go back to the basics. More specifically, look at your hip and shoulder turns. Every once in a while, I don't turn my hips b/c I'm concentrating on my shoulders.

Force yourself to hit down on the ball instead of scooping it. Get yourself hitting the ball low by really holding the lag instead of flipping the club through. Feel as though you are dragging the club through the zone, especially with irons.

This happens to me sometimes, just focus on pinching the ball, and hands in front of the clubhead.

Thanks Guys

I will get the video camera out after the holidays and see if I see if I am "scooping it".
I think it started to go pear shaped when I was to change my swing to a more of a decending blow at the ball, that totally screwed my game up and I tried go back to basics with a simple shoulder turn and maybe like Denver said I may have lost my hip turn.

My wife got me the Stack & Tilt Swing dvd set for Xmas, has any one tried it?

Mike

I have the solution! watch this video everyday for one month and everyday pick up something new and work on it in your golf swing

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-...ect-golf-swing

Thanks, Great Video, I will take some time and watch it more closely and take notes.

Thanks again

Mike

Could be more arm lift than shouler turn,this is usually a power sapper.

What do You Mean "more arm lift"?

Your probably only taking the club back slightly with your shoulders and raising your arms to the top of your backswing,take the club back fully with your shoulders,don't let your left arm pass your heart on the back swing as this allows you to turn your shoulders proper,when you reach max don't try and get more as this is arm lift,try three quarter swings first.I'm guessing this could be part of your problem,its the usual power sapper.

I agree with Bruce. Loss of power is invariably when you just become an arm swinger and don't coil into a braced right leg with a proper shoulder turn. If you don't load up correctly, you cannot swing from the ground up using your legs, hips and torso to produce the power.

Every time I'm out playing or practicing, I see guys who think they are making a good turn on the backswing -- but all they are doing is pulling the club around with their arms while allowing the hips and shoulders to turn the same amount-no athletic loading at all. Then they have nothing really in place to generate power so they swing the arms and hands back to the ball, a weak proposition.

If you want to feel a proper turn, take your stance and think about holding a shot put (you know, the big heavy ball in track and field) with both hands centered on the chest. Now turn your shoulders and load your lower body as if you were going to throw the weight. Notice, your hands stay centered on your chest while your shoulders turn against a restricted right hip -- it is simple really.

Now do the same thing with a club in your hands with your arms comfortably extended -- keep the triangle in front of your chest. That is a backswing. From there, don't slide just drop your hands while turning your hips through, keeping the right elbow close on the downswing. It is true you want good extension (i.e. pushing the club away from your chest extending the arms) on the backswing, but you do not want to let the arms take the club inside and behind you, let the shoulders take the club back and let the hips drive the body though from the ground up on the downswing. It is as simple as skipping a flat rock on a pond of water.

I feel like a broken record saying this stuff -- sorry if it is redundant.

Just a hint : shoulder turn = torso turn

regards,

Mike I knew when I read the heading for this post that when I got to reading the post that I was going to read more of the same swing thought stuff that I always read in these forums. Whenever you are having and issue in any sport where have lost performance that you once had you must first look to your body first and you will likely have to look no further so long as you don't have any injuries. I don't know anything about your swing and really it doesn't matter because it is obvious that your body is not creating force where it once did. This is NOT caused by " wrist cock or keeping your hands low, or keeping your head down or my favorite not holding your lag long enough!" People always think backwards when it comes to an unexplained performance drop. I can tell you also that you don't have a golf specific workout routine in place to keep your muscle imbalances between your right and left side under control. Well guess what happens when one side of your body overpowers then other. The dominant side begins to provide less and less resistance to the other side to allow you provide a full range of motion for force production. If you are a righty then your right side is becoming to dominant and you need to change that by really working your non dominant side. You need to put in at least double the number swings that you take right handed, but left handed with a weighted club. You will feel horribly uncoordinated at first but you will love the results when things balance out. I know this works for fact becasuse I play both left and right handed and I can feel exactly what you are experiencing when I get lazy. I know that if my lefty swing feels tight that my righty swing is gonna be butter and vice versa. I don't even come close to hitting a shank or anything until that tension begins to creep in (tension in the lower back and hips on the same side are usually my first signs first signs). If you can get it to where your dominant side is your left side if you are a righty you WILL hit the ball futher than you ever have in your life I promise. It has nothing to do with swing thoughts because when your body is cooperating with you, you don't have to worry about holding your lag do you. Get on a golf specific workout plan today if you ever want to be as good as you can be. Or you can do what most golfer's do which is do nothing over the winter so those muscles lose strength and as they become weaker the imbalance becomes less and less.

Hi

If I come to think of it, back in January I was playing at my best, I decided to get in shape and started working out three times a week, so far I have lost 23 pounds in weight and lost 27 inches and put on loads of muscle around my arms and chest area.
So if what you are saying is correct that could be the cause of my problems, my dominant right side has too much power overtaking my left, leaving my left side almost dormant, so if that is the case I need to work my left side harder to even it up, is that right?

I may also be guilty of not rotating enough, that probably stems back to June when I went to the Nick Faldo Golf Institute in Orlando (video analisys of swing posted months ago on this forum) and the instructor said I was over rotating and to work on turning less, so I have probaly over done it!

Thanks for your input

Mike

That is great that you have been really dedicated to your fitness because that is the true key to maximizing your potential. Yes, swinging a weighted club lefty will help speed up the process because it simply weights more than a normal club and it will make the muscles work harder. First and foremost start off easy taking half swings to get warmed up and don't overdo it initially because these muscles have been untrained for a while now so they need to be brought along at a slower pace. As you are swinging the club focus on firing your hips or what I call " hitting it with your hips" which means to emphasize your hips leading the downswing ( basically your glutes or butt muscles should be really working and that is where a bunch of power in the swing comes from). The extra weight will help you keep your hands and shoulder's pretty inactive but your left forearm will burn because their roles are reversed in the swing. I would say do about 4 sets of 50 swings and see how that goes, then once you are used to it then you should do them everyday and it will help speed up the process. And after you play a round righty as a cool down swing double the number of strokes you just played your round in ( Hopefully it is under 200 and will get smaller!). Right after you finish swingin lefty and you go back to hitting righty the club will not feel light like it does had you been swingin the heavy club righty but it will take a minute or two to get your bearings but you should pretty quickly be able to see what the benifits will be as you get your imbalance to even out and if you can work your non dominant side into being dominant then you will hit the ball further I garauntee but that really takes sticking to it making it important and apart of your routine.

I'll bet the instructor was referring to over rotating your hips on the back swing and getting the club trapped inside and behind you -- a common fault. If you firm up the lower body, and keep the club in front of your chest, I don't think you can over rotate your shoulders -- maybe, but unlikely.