carri10

This won't help your weekend, but maybe might be of interest to others on the thread. Every year 7 friends and myself used to play a cut down Ryder Cup. Given we were all in the UK, it was split between English players and Celtic players (Scotland, Welsh and Ireland). Anyone from the UK would now that this is plenty to get the competitive juices flowing. Most countries have enough local rivalry to get something like this dynamic going - in the states, you could play "yankees vs west coasters" or something. Anyway, we'd play Saturday morning foreballs, Saturday afternoon foresomes and then singles on Sunday. Then a big lunch and a pint and off back home. Always a highlight of peoples golfing calendar. Just throwing it out there..

Wow. Putting the lines on the video doesn't make my swing look any prettier! Really useful insight. Having practiced this a little at the range, I can really feel how much I used to lift up. I'm also feeling more turn of the hips during backswing. Contact is much worse for the moment, but I'll battle through....

Good point - Let's say mental control, then. Like a lot of things, it's how we define the question that counts! When you put it like that, it is quite the opposite of chess, for example.

I know what you're saying. But at the range I could work on them, ingrain them, slow motion swing them etc. When I was out on the course (which is what golf is all about) I had to not focus on them and get my mind out of the way. This, in my definition, is more mental -surely. Now, I do think that golf is mostly physical, but the ability to "just let it happen", or "flow" or what ever is more significant than other sports. I've never had to work on this in rugby for instance. The game goes so quick you can't think technique. Golf gives you too much time to think about what you're trying to do and sometimes, that just doesn't help. Would you not agree?

Good advice and oh so easy to forget. I found myself at the range the other day, hitting it really well (for me) and just got caught up in hitting well and admiring the results. Completely failed to make any progress on the thing I was working on (left should down in back swing). Effectively a waste of a precious hour.

I find that going really slow (like 5 mph) is useful to make sure you have control and awareness of motion. To get an even better feeling, try closing your eyes. I do this when I am trying to feel a new motion. I would say that the normal swing has a lot of forces in that you won't experience swinging slow. Imagine a golf head (iron) weighs about 250g, the shaft 100g. If you are swinging that at 80mph (and say, shoulder to ball is about 1.5m), you have a centripetal force of 300N (really approximately). Which is about 70lbs. That is a lot. Unless you train your body to accept this force generation, you'll be in trouble. So, go for the slow swings, but don't only swing slow.

From second Evolvr lesson, I was told to move left shoulder down in the backswing. I assume to get more angle in my shoulders during pivot. Problem is this led to a lot of fat shots. Really fat. Is this right and my body will gradually accommodate, or have I got the action wrong?

Hiya I would venture that it depends on the standard. This is based, like a lot of things, on personal experience. When I started off, it was almost all physical. Just getting the body moving in the right direction was all learning movements - hence physical. Now, I'll give you an anecdote (yeah, I know, the plural of anecdote is not data). I was playing a round with my instructor. First 4 holes, FW hit at 50%, Shot into green 50% on green. Instructor says to me - stop thinking, just get up there, look at the target and hit it. Next 5 holes - 4 GIR. Simply because I wasn't getting myself all tensed up about the result and ensuring I rotated enough back and forward. I just relaxed and hit the damn thing. So for me, now, mental is a significant percentage. Is it higher then physical - no. At the end of the day, we are swinging a lump of steel at 100mph. That is, by definition, physical. However, the better I get, the less advice I get to keep the wrist flat at impact.....get my posture right.... etc, and the more advice I get to attend to what I am thinking. By the way - I haven't read the whole 21 page thread, so apologies if I am simply adding to some already well debated subjects. We could also start a debate on why there are no mental coaches in clubs, yet plenty on tour - but I haven't been on the site long enough to get involved in that

That's interesting. I know next to nothing about publishing, but would have thought it would have been easier and cheaper to make an e-Book than go the paper route. Did you get advice that you'd get more copies into the hands of people if you went traditional?

Hiya All I've been Playing Golf for: 10 years - with a 5 year kid break My current handicap index or average score is: 18 My typical ball flight is: pull/pull draw The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: pull draw Current swing thoughts are -Posture don't arch back and neck -Start backswing with right ass cheek -Just rotate on the way back, don't sway to the right -downswing - rotate body, rotate, rotate...ROTATE! -impact try to drive club face forward (impact bag feeling) not flip Not all at the same time, of course! Videos: The hand signals show the ball flight on DTL. This is a 6I This is a selection of shots, I've not given you the highlights real. Shank happens once every 20-30 Push every 15-20 over draw every other shot.

Tried this. Extreme weak grip. Horrible thin shot. Felt like I was dislocating some important joint when doing it! Extreme strong grip. Managed to land it with a push draw about 10 yds left of target. Currently, I'm learning that a harder left hand grip pressure feeling allows me to start on a push line more. Really loosening up brings a pull start line into play. For me this is one way I am learning to feel the club face. As I improve I can also feel mid swing if my timing of body rotation is good or bad. If good, the club face returns to square/slightly open. If bad i either pull or get some extra unconscious manipulation thing happening Which is usually not helpful!

This I really agree with. Really As it happens I went for the trackman certified guy. Thanks for the all the thoughts, At lot of them made a lot of sense. Not sure I really got an answer into the fundamental question -How do you know if the advice you are being given is just plain wrong? I, for one, don't want to waste a couple of months being shown the wrong path. It's a difficult game and weeding out the good advice from the bad is tricky. The best I've found is to look at how an instructor fixes a "problem" If they talk about fixing the movements that lead up to the problem, the previous links in the chain, then they get more points. If they just fix the problem without referring to anything else, then they lose points with me. Thanks for the help all. Now to get to the range again!

I'll see if I can. Good instruction over internet can't be a good as 1:1 good instruction though - right? If I get someone here who is good then continuing with both 1:1 and Evolvr would be complicated - unless the 2 coaches had a discussion on what to do with me. I don't think that level of service is available until I'm playing amateur for Singapore That is useful, thanks I suppose my problem is that I don't want to waste time and be led down a wrong path by choosing an instructor who doesn't really know what they are talking about. This forum has many commenting on the general standard of tuition, I don't want to fall foul of a poor instructor. The thing is, I know a little bit about the golf swing, but not much. An example. My first instructor wanted me to perform and action that, to me, felt like I was really actively releasing my right hand. I have read that the release shouldn't be a really active thing, and that with a swing driven by the body, the "release" should happen naturally. This same guy wants me to do this action, which he calls a "snap release" and says that getting the timing right will be key. That doesn't sound wonderfully repeatable to me. I think I'll post my swing in the members swing section (iphone slo mo would do the trick?) and show the advice I've been given. I'll let the forum critique it and that will help me choose. sounds like a plan?

Hello All. I've recently decided to get a little more serious about this game and am looking for a coach. I played off 18, 5 years ago, but having had two kids since, the time out on course has plummeted. Things have come round so there is more time available and I want to get back into things. Problem is that here in Singapore, coaching ain't cheap (nothing is!) For a course of 10 lessons, I'm looking at 1100SG$. I'm not against paying that sum at all - if I get quality coaching! So my question is - how do you go about choosing a coach? How do I make sure I'm getting quality before laying down the 1100SG$? Getting lessons one by one costs a lot more (160 a lesson) Due to SG culture, there is not a strong review culture on the internet, so that didn't help me too much. So far I gone to 2 separate guys for a lessons and submitted a video to evolvr. First guy listens to my goals etc and then uses a iPad for video. He took a look at my swing and decided that my left elbow chicken wings after impact. He then got me to try to swing the club head through impact; a snap release he called it. I got a real feel of trying to force the right hand to release. This led to a load of pulls, which he put down to just getting my timing right. Second guy is trackman certified. He also listened to what my goals are and then watched my swing and then asked me if I knew what determined ball flight. He knew the new ball flight laws - which was a good start. He thought I flipped a little (although he doesn't like the term flipping) and got out an impact bag and had me try to push the thing forward with some half swings. He then got me to pitch a load of balls, making sure the face stayed facing the sky for as long as possible (a foot or so past impact) Evolvr told me to change my posture slightly to have less arch in my back. I know a little bit about the swing, but not enough to second guess advice from a pro. How did you go about choosing? For info, they must be at least 100 coaches in Singapore. They love practicing golf here, even if they don't play so much! Happy to provide more info......