My Swing (Golfer20)

[Golfer20]

I've been Playing Golf for: 7 years

My current handicap index or average score is: 85

My typical ball flight is: A little high with all of my shots.  I ALWAYS miss with my driver to the right. 
 

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Just trying to gain more distance. I can usually hit the ball pretty solid, however I really lacking distance.  I usually hit my my driver about 220.  My 9-iron usually only goes about 120-130.  The DTL video is with a pitching wedge.  The FO swing is with a 9-iron. 

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Videos: 

 

 

[JeepXJ98]

I'm not an instructor, and I certainly don't have the game of golf down to a science. But it looks to me like your hip turn could stand to be increased You have a lot more arms, then shoulders, then hips.....this could be the cause of you lacking distance. But I'd wait for someone more knowledgeable to weigh in before you start making changes 🙂 

[Golfer20]

33 minutes ago, JeepXJ98 said:

I'm not an instructor, and I certainly don't have the game of golf down to a science. But it looks to me like your hip turn could stand to be increased You have a lot more arms, then shoulders, then hips.....this could be the cause of you lacking distance. But I'd wait for someone more knowledgeable to weigh in before you start making changes 🙂 

Thanks for the reply. So you’re saying that I need more hip turn in the backswing or the downswing? 

[JeepXJ98]

1 hour ago, Golfer20 said:

Thanks for the reply. So you’re saying that I need more hip turn in the backswing or the downswing? 

 To my untrained eye, yes. Your hip turn in the backswing seems to be a little lacking. More hip turn on the backswing will automatically lead to more in the downswing as you bring them back forward. And that should equate to more power. Right now it looks like a lot of your power is coming from your arms. This, I believe, would also contribute to your high ball flight as you're 'lifting' while coming through the ball.

Edited May 15, 2019 by JeepXJ98

[iacas]

Have you tried… swinging faster?

Not being facetious.

Also, try this.

[Golfer20]

15 minutes ago, iacas said:

Have you tried… swinging faster?

Not being facetious.

Also, try this.

I can see where youre coming from. It does look like I’m swinging pretty slow. I guess I have been focused on positions so much here lately, I have forgotten to swing fast! I know you say most of the speed comes from the arms Iacas... I remember seeing a post about that in the Swing Thoughts forum. 

 

Thanks for the reply. 

[ladders11]

Swing just looks a little bit cautious, if there is any way to use an impact bag to improve your feel, that may help. Another drill is flip the club around and swing, listening for the loudest swish. You want the loudest swish to be when you get the club into the ball. 

Various exercises to improve club speed can workout too.

[Golfer20]

I recently joined Evolvr after spinning my wheels the past couple of years and thought I'd share what I am working on with my instructor.  We first worked on improving my grip to make it more in my fingers.  Also, we worked on getting my stance more in the balls of my feet instead of sitting back on my heels.  Here's what my stance looked like before the change:

Here's what it looks like after the change:

 

It's amazing how much improving my grip and stance has already improved my ball striking.  I just feel like I am in a better position to attack the ball. 

From there we started working on my weight shift.  The swing below is too rotational and not enough movement forward:

This is a harder change to make but I have been working on it the past couple of weeks and here's what it currently looks like:

I am excited about the changes that I have made so far, and I am looking forward to continuing to improve. 

[saevel25]

Not to step on some toes here. 

With your 5 iron, just to continue on the set up, might want to make sure the ball isn't too far back in your stance. I would say it need to be at least two ball widths further forward in the stance for a 5 iron. This might help with the weight shift, as you have to get forward to hit the ball. When the ball is back, it is easy for the body to hang back. 

Same Maybe with the 8 iron, ball is still too far back, the stance is a bit narrow for an 8 iron. If you take that stance for the 8 iron, then just shift your back foot further away to take a slightly wider stance. Like, the position of the outside of your foot should be closer to where the inside of your foot should be.Maybe it is different for you. For me, that ball position might be where I put a full swing lob wedge or sand wedge. 

Yea, you definitely changed the image of your swing in that last video, versus the 5 iron video. Good progress! 👍

[Golfer20]

8 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Not to step on some toes here. 

With your 5 iron, just to continue on the set up, might want to make sure the ball isn't too far back in your stance. I would say it need to be at least two ball widths further forward in the stance for a 5 iron. This might help with the weight shift, as you have to get forward to hit the ball. When the ball is back, it is easy for the body to hang back. 

Same Maybe with the 8 iron, ball is still too far back, the stance is a bit narrow for an 8 iron. If you take that stance for the 8 iron, then just shift your back foot further away to take a slightly wider stance. Like, the position of the outside of your foot should be closer to where the inside of your foot should be.Maybe it is different for you. For me, that ball position might be where I put a full swing lob wedge or sand wedge. 

Yea, you definitely changed the image of your swing in that last video, versus the 5 iron video. Good progress! 👍

Thanks for pointing that out.  They did mention my ball position being a touch too far back for both swings.  I guess I was just consumed with getting that weight shift and getting on the balls of my feet for my stance.  I'll pay more attention to my ball position in the next videos. 

Thanks 

[saevel25]

2 minutes ago, Golfer20 said:

Thanks for pointing that out.  They did mention my ball position being a touch too far back for both swings.  I guess I was just consumed with getting that weight shift and getting on the balls of my feet for my stance.  I'll pay more attention to my ball position in the next videos. 

Thanks 

I recommend setting up a hitting station, with an alignment stick (like you have in your video), just to keep ball position consistent. It gets tricky with hitting irons because you fat one shot and you have to move everything like 2-3" back 😉

I am not a fan of hitting off mats, but they are pretty good for practicing ball position. 

Another tip I recommend, is how you set up to the ball. Even for practice, set up to the ball like you would a normal shot. If you do that routine, with something like an alignment stick for reference, you'll train yourself really quickly what good ball position is. Even if you are working on something else. 

[Golfer20]

On 8/26/2022 at 4:46 PM, saevel25 said:

Another tip I recommend, is how you set up to the ball. Even for practice, set up to the ball like you would a normal shot. If you do that routine, with something like an alignment stick for reference, you'll train yourself really quickly what good ball position is. Even if you are working on something else. 

Good point.  I believe I am going to have to keep that alignment stick down to confirm the correct ball position.  Also, it'll serve another purpose to of making sure my camera angles are correct.  

Thanks

[Golfer20]

The past couple of months I have been working on my weight shift and getting to my left side.  I believe it's finally getting engrained, especially when you compare it to the five-iron swing above.  The swing below is from the course, which is good because I know I can carry it from the range to the course.

 

 

[Golfer20]

Continuing to work on the weight shift piece.  My playing partner was able to get a pretty cool rear view of my swing from the course:

 

 

You can certainly see the weight shift from this angle!  I like how things are progressing so far... 

[mdl]

Really excellent! Now fix the flip and you'll play off a 5

[Golfer20]

These past couple of months I have been continuing the weight shift piece where I "fall forward" on the down swing.  I think this will always be something that I have to work on and check from time to time along with my grip and stance.

Recently on Evolvr, I have been instructed to do what's called a "twist & roll" where I bow or arch the wrist on the downswing.  This is another way to square the face that helps to prevent my right hand from throwing in the downswing to square the face which sometimes leads to fat shots for me.  Doing this has also helped me with how my impact position looks:

Before:

After:

 

I am now struggling with thin shots, which may be from me not doing enough weight shift forward, but I am sure I'll be able to clean up this up through Evolvr.  It's nice to have a good looking impact position for once. 

[mdl]

Impressive shift! Not enough info to have an opinion on the connection to thin shots, but agreed you could get your weight a bit more forward. Maybe hips forward a bit more? Def head not leaning back over the rear foot as much at impact.

[iacas]

5 hours ago, mdl said:

Def head not leaning back over the rear foot as much at impact.

Yes. The fall is with most of the body.