My Swing (Triggers)

I've been Playing Golf for: 2-3 Months

My current handicap index or average score is: No real average, only played 1-2 full rounds. Mostly play on a par 3/4 course.

My typical ball flight is: My "clean" hits are about 7 out of 10 straight, but I will hook the other 3.

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Working on consistently striking the ball. So I guess eliminating fat/thin shots.

I will be working to get a better setup to record my swing, as well as using some higher frame rate. Just wanted to get this thread started so I'd have a place to put them as I get them. Sorry about the vertical video as well, hopefully should be getting some new ones today.

Front On Video:

Down the Line Video:

These videos were from a week or two ago after I had just finished Ben Hogans book, and was working to implement those concepts. I was hitting a very old 9i in these video. Was on travel and the range only had 1 loaner left club

I am rereading/practicing techniques from hogans when I have time. I seem to do much better with my swing when I'm at the range after I have hit around 10-20 balls to get a feel for my swing, but this doesn't translate very well to the course yet.

I struggle the most with my driver/woods, and feel pretty confident in my irons.

Thanks Boogie,

I've done a pretty good amount of browsing through here before deciding to post, but hadn't seen that 5SK thread. I'll dig through those in my spare time

I should have some better angled video today, but thanks for the initial look :)

Edit: Actually just ordered some alignment sticks earlier today to help with some of these drills.

Got to the range yesterday, didn't get my camera setup ideal.. Was low on battery so I didn't have too many attempts and it turns out the Galaxy S5 can't do slow motion videos when it is low on battery...

One thing I noticed is that my divots, they were very consistently starting BEFORE the ball and aiming to my LEFT. See below on a still from one of the videos:

I'm not sure if this is relevant or not but it was very consistent. It also resulted in a couple fat shots from hitting too much before the ball.. but most of the shots were fairly good distance, around 140-150 but not very high with my 9i

http://thesandtrap.com/t/77244/how-to-hit-a-driver-hit-it-further-and-stop-slicing

Worked on this a bit with my driver, the "leaning back" helped a ton.. but I am still moving my head back as mentioned above turning my back swing. My alignment sticks came in last night so I'll be working with those to try to correct that. Here's the video of the driver attempts, as I said.. I didn't get my frame dialed in so it cuts off part of the back swing, but just showing to include the head motion. I did follow the advice from the hip turn video posted, by opening up the feet a bit... it felt pretty strange.

This is definitely the case at the moment.

Edit: To add, I also need to work on keeping my lead arm straight through the back and down swing...

Got some slow motion better angle videos yesterday.

FO Driver Slow Motion:

DTL Slow Motion Driver:

FO Slow Motion 7i

Divots on my irons were still a little behind the ball, I think this has to do with no getting my weight forward on the downswing. Possibly a carry over from some head/hip movement in the back swing.

Seems like my head movement is a little less, and I'm keeping my lead arm a little straighter through the swing.. both still need work.

Worked on this drill yesterday a bit, from the 5SK thread... it was a huge difference where the divot ended up. It was surprising how far the ball travel even with a small swing during this drill, since I wasn't losing a lot of power hitting the ground first. Still need to work on putting it together with the full swing.

Went out and played a par 63 course ( all 3/4s ) on Saturday, went OK.. Shot 94. Slowly getting more consistent hitting the ball, driver was much bettter but still mishitting a ball on almost every hole..

I noticed again at the range my swing path is still very "inside - out" by looking at the divots, like I mentioned before... and I think that this is resulting in some hooks on my irons. I can see multiple issues with this, from doing a little research it tends to shallow out the arc causing the ground to be hit first.

Hopefully getting to the range this week again for some more work on my turn/swing plane.

Been skimming through the 5SK video thread so more looking for drills

Found 2 good ones I think are relevant to improving my swing:

As for the head motion mentioned in a few post above, when I'm practicing in my garage/house... so there some feedback mechanism or check to see if my head is stationary? Or would the best way be to just record my drills?

3 Priorities for improving my swing atm:

- Eliminate head movement

- Backswing plane

- Weight forward during impact

It seems I should be able to practice most of these thing together, while not even being at the range. I've been spending about 10-15 minutes a day working on them.

It's great that you are utilizing the videos that are up on here. They are an invaluable tool. However, I would just like to say, try to pick 1 thing and just focus on that. I could be wrong, but I've found just focusing on one drill usually works best for me. Trying different drills to find one that works best for you is great, but I think that you just don't want to get stuck in the habit of constantly switching drills.

Good point, and actually I was kind of just thinking this and is why I added a list of priorities after reading the practice tips thread ( http://thesandtrap.com/t/54840/simple-specific-slow-short-and-success-the-five-s-s-of-great-practice )

That said, I'll stick with my priority list order and work on minimizing my head movement specifically.

Also, if it's not an issue, I'd like to use this thread as sort of a practice log and storage of relevant videos :) Easier to keep track of

That's pretty much exactly what this thread is for.

Perfect then :) Thanks!

Finally looked this up, leaving here for reference..

http://thesandtrap.com/t/53724/the-ps-positions-or-as-alignments-in-the-golf-swing

Play this course again yesterday, got down to 87. Which is + 24

I think that is the best I've played. Minimizing my mishits, and was getting some drives pretty far down the fairway. Only had two 3 putts but hardly left myself with any putts for pars.

No 7s + though, which is big for me, I was just consistently at bogey/double bogey. 1 par, 10 bogeys, 7 doubles.

Worst double was the 18th, a par 4 250 hole.. I drove to the left of the green and rolled right into a bunker that too 3 shots to get out :|

Went to the range again on Sunday, felt pretty good. I think my head movement is starting to get very minimal during my back swing, and my swing in general is starting to look better.

FO 7i

DTL 7i

Still working on getting my weight forward more. Divots are still a bit before the ball, but one thing at a time :)

* Sorry about the frame not including everything, my wife was recording these.. didn't wanna be too critical lol

Thanks @billchao I'll try to get out a little more :D

So I've been noticing a tendency for a hook with my irons, and I think I've realized what is causing it.

Last night I was working on some drills in my living room, and after I placed my grip; I felt an urge to move my left hand into a "stronger" position ( I'm a lefty so, my bottom hand ). I've noticed this one the course before and try to make a conscience effort to avoid it, but I'm guessing it slips up sometimes.

Here's a picture from the video posted above, clearly showing how strong the left hand grip is.

I will be working ASAP to get this into a more neutral position.