steviesouthpaw

You're positive about that?

I can't figure out how to post the picture but anyway, I have a picture of impact with a 7 iron and the shaft is bending away from the target. Seems to make zero sense but I'm dying to understand the physics or know that it's just an odd photography glitch. What's going on here? Does a golf club really flex like this at the bottom of the swing?

No. Strengthening your grip is a very good thing. Very hard for most any amateur to square the club face with a weak grip. You want to be able to see at least the two biggest knuckles on your glove hand as you address the ball. Weak grip promotes slicing action and more severely, the shanks....

I don't feel bad for you in San Diego man. You can still find an empty field at a public school on the weekends or something like that. Here in Massachusetts we truly have no choice in these horrid days of winter. I'd rather not hit off of mats but I'd rather the once a month off of mats than not swinging a club all winter. And if you play enough golf you know when you catch it clean or hit if fat. I don't care if you're hitting a rock off of a parking lot, you know the feeling of ground first or ball first.

I would take my older clubs and use a plank of wood with this drill. It gives you more severe feedback and stronger motivation to not hit the plank. I would also put the plank maybe an inch outside the ball. Just enough room for the club head to pass through without hitting the plank.

Try strengthening your grip on your glove hand. I guarantee you have too weak a grip making it harder to square the club face. Of course I mean hand angles , not how hard you are squeezing the club. Rotate your glove hand away from the target exposing more of the top of the hand to your eye sight. You want to be able to see at least the two big knuckles of your glove hand at address.

On the downswing my only thought is to keep my right elbow in to my ribcage. That seems to help me from throwing the club over the top as well. Good Luck![/QUOTE] This is a fantastic swing thought. Its huge for me. Here's a good drill too. Place a 2x4 on the ground about an inch outside your ball and parallel to the target line. Take the club back along that line and I guarantee that you will miss that two by four on your way through the ball. It feels horrible to hit it of course. If you do smash the 2x4 you've obviously thrown the club outside the target line on your way down. This helps to make sure you are not approaching the ball from the outside like that.

http://www.golf.com/golf/gallery/art...847397,00.html This is a fantastic article! In this article Sergio, one of the longest iron players ever, explains wide arc and lag. They also show a very cool diagram of computer images of his swing (check out frame 7). This ought to clear up this whole discussion.

I like him better now than I did before.

I got plenty. I just don't happen to be a Sox fan that thinks what the Yankees are doing is all that evil. I'm not gonna trash the Yanks just because I'm a Boston fan. That's become WAY to fashionable for my taste. Too many Boston and New York fans hate the other team more than they like their own. I say it would be a lot less fun without them. Spend it if ya got it; they play the games on the field for a reason, not on paper. I just find it humorous when people refer to their rooting interest in terms of "we" to the extent that that guy did. And I'll say it again, all the pressure is now on the Yanks. They don't win this year that's a HUGE let down.

Question for anyone who knows. We can all agree that the pros swing on plane. This is elementary. My question is why is there such a large variation on their shaft angle as it approaches the top of their swings? Some of them are much flatter than others who are more upright, almost perpendicular to the ground as the shaft is just shy of the very top of the back swing. There seems to be about 30-40* of variation between where their shafts are at this point in the swing as seen from behind the player looking down the target line. I have a much more upright swing plane like Dimarco and even Tiger (not that I'm comparing myself to them in any sense). Guys like Miguel Angel Jimenez have a very flat swing plane. Is this a matter of a players height? Or is this just a matter of preference and comfort? Make sense?

Are you on the team?

I don't think I could make it with my golf bag in the car. I need to finagle the clubs every day and putt and chip around the house and junk like that. I've got a problem.[/QUOTE] I NEVER leave my clubs in the car! I feel the same as you man....Need to have them around, especially in these winter months. God I hate it here!!!!!!!

Chipping is huge. My scores have gone down considerably this past season and an enormous percentage of that is accounted for by my chipping. I have read that you want to stand closer to the ball than you'd think would be comfortable to make more solid, consistent contact. That has proven very true for me. A simple tip that has absolutely worked for me. I stand close to the ball, flare my front foot out a few degrees with my feet fairly close together with weight leaning on the front side a bit, and make what amounts to a long putting stroke with my 8-SW depending on how far I want to carry the ball onto the green. Its a very consistent system.

Ugh...All I can do is sigh and sulk. I hate these NE winters with a passion. I've gotta move to NC. Where is Concord NC? Anywhere near Asheville? That's where we think of moving to.