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Posted

I've been Playing Golf for: 3 years, just a few rounds per year, lots of range time, too much YouTube instruction, not enough actual instruction (none!)
My current handicap index or average score is: 110-120
My typical ball flight is: High slice, or worm-burner
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Thins (mostly) and chunks... beginner stuff


I finally got the courage to share my golf swing with TST...

I believe I started out with a big over-the-top plus early extension move - classic beginner stuff. I now, I think, have a better feel for how the club should shallow in the downswing but I still have the early extension which leads to a lot of thins and whiffs. Sometimes I overcompensate with a squat/crouch into impact that just leads to fat shots.

Interested in whether you guys agree that early extension is the priority fault, whether my downswing is in fact still too steep, and any other observations?

Thanks in advance.

 

 


  • Moderator
Posted
  On 6/7/2019 at 6:45 PM, Coder said:

I've been Playing Golf for: 3 years, just a few rounds per year, lots of range time, too much YouTube instruction, not enough actual instruction (none!)
My current handicap index or average score is: 110-120
My typical ball flight is: High slice, or worm-burner
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Thins (mostly) and chunks... beginner stuff


I finally got the courage to share my golf swing with TST...

I believe I started out with a big over-the-top plus early extension move - classic beginner stuff. I now, I think, have a better feel for how the club should shallow in the downswing but I still have the early extension which leads to a lot of thins and whiffs. Sometimes I overcompensate with a squat/crouch into impact that just leads to fat shots.

Interested in whether you guys agree that early extension is the priority fault, whether my downswing is in fact still too steep, and any other observations?

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Expand  

There are a lot of good things about your swing: your head is steady, you don’t sway back in your backswing and you are flexible. I would recommend working on making good contact.

Start with shorter swings, like 1/4 and 1/2 swings and just focus on good solid contact. Go to a range and don’t worry about which direction the ball goes. Just work on hitting the ball before the ground. You will develop a feel for what good contact feels like.

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Scott

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Posted

Thanks @boogielicious I will give that a try. I also plan to try out a couple of new feels -  bringing the left hip backwards into line with the right, and keeping the hands low through impact. I'll report back!


Posted

You've got quite a few really good looking elements in your swing. I would say the biggest issue for you related to consistency is posture. Simplest way to see it is on your face on video, look at how your head moves. It's more than just your head but that's the easiest thing to track. It has some movement, which a little of is not a huge issue, however you can see it moving up into and through impact and that rarely has good results. From there it continues up as your whole body looses its posture and you end up basically in a standing position.

Fix or drill: If you have a stool this works great but you could also just use the back of a chair. You want the stool at a height where you can just rest your butt on the edge of it with good setup posture. Then you make some practice swings and try and keep contact with the stool. This does two things. First keeps your legs from bending more or straightening in order to keep the same contact point on the stool. Second, the slight sitting posture you need to just rest against the stool is the posture you want to keep throughout the swing especially through contact and into the finish. You can also do this drill against a wall without a club. Put your butt against the wall with good setup posture, and make half swings either mimicking holding a club or just independently hanging your arms down. Work on keeping contact with the wall through the entire movement. The contact point can move from middle to right cheek then to left. That is fine. Again most important is keeping consistent contact through the swing, aka not standing up at impact.

I fight this in my swing especially with longer clubs and harder swings, so I alway have the thought "posture through impact" as my key swing thought.

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Posted
  On 6/12/2019 at 11:47 PM, Adam C said:

Again most important is keeping consistent contact through the swing, aka not standing up at impact.

Expand  

Thanks @Adam C for your detailed post and I will give the stool drill a try.

  On 6/13/2019 at 12:01 PM, trainsmokegolf said:

Check out Louis oosthuizen swings,  you guys have similar flow. 

Expand  

Thanks @trainsmokegolf for that nice compliment! I have just looked at Oosthuizen's swing and he does seem to extend his lead leg quite early, but maybe too early for an amateur like me to be copying!?


  • 11 months later...
Posted

Hi everyone,

1 year since last update, and only 9 holes played in that time! Golf was put on hold for various reasons but I did still visit the range occasionally, and took my first proper lesson just before lockdown began. Looking forward to a lot more golf soon...

I think (?) I am getting better hip turn now. Swing feels much less cramped-up at impact compared to before.

Body weight falling back and staying back, tending to hit thin shots?? Not sure. All comments appreciated!

 


Posted

A comment from a fellow high handicapper: you have a very good swing for someone shooting in the 110s!

Unless you have a terrible short game, even without major improvements, just practicing to get good contact, you should be able to stay easily in the low 90s.

I guess you are hitting a foam/plastic ball (unless that's your neighbor house and you really hate him). If that's the case you should record when hitting a real ball. Just like people have different swings when swinging with and without ball, I noticed differences (at least in my case) also when hitting a lighter plastic ball, and you don't get the right feedback

 

 

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  • Administrator
Posted

Could you record and make a swing where you feel that you start your backswing with the hips turning a bunch?

Could you record a "swing" where you put a shaft across your shoulders and twist that back as far as possible during a "backswing"?

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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Posted

Hello @iacas - it's an honour to hear from the man himself!

Here is my "hips first" attempt. It definitely feels different, and I think looks different at top of backswing.

 

And here with shaft across shoulders, I realise now it should've been a full swing motion rather than stopping...

 

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  • Administrator
Posted

MUCH better.

Do that for awhile and then look for the next piece.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

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Note: This thread is 1870 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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  • Posts

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    • Okay - I'm going to try this again from the top. While that may not be what I said, it is what I meant, although it appears I didn't express it very clearly. The hands apply forces and torques to the club throughout the swing. Any force applied to something like a club can be broken down into the portion of the force that is perpendicular to the shaft and the portion that is parallel to the shaft. The part that is perpendicular to it is applying a torque to the club, which will cause its rotation to change. In a similar fashion, we can look at the club as the sum of two different sets of motion. One of those is how the COM of the club is moving through space. That is affected by all the forces applied to the club, be they from the hands or gravity or the ground or the ball or the air - I think that's about it. The hands in a full swing are going to be the vast majority of those forces. Then the change in location of the COM (translational motion I think it's called) is caused by the net of all the forces applying to it. The perpendicular portion of the force is the only one that matters for rotational motion. That can be considered exclusive of the translational motion. Rotational motion will change with torques applied and can be contemplated on its own. From P6 to P7, you start with the club lagging behind the hands. The hands then pull up (among other things), which is a force applied to the club, not directly through the COM of the club. That means that a torque is being applied to the club by the hands. One which will cause the club to rotate around its COM if we are exclusively looking at the rotational motion. And so, in that sense, the club is rotating around it's COM. That's the part of the motion that I was trying to describe originally. That upward force from the hands is also going to be accelerating the COM around the swing arc due to the net effect of the forces applied to it.  Then, the combined effect of the forces and torques may be to cause the club to rotate around something else in a different reference frame. You can draw a line up the shaft of the club in each frame of video around impact and the point where those lines meet is roughly the center of rotation of the club in the static frame. That center of rotation is also moving through time as you'll see the point where the lines meet is rarely going to remain in the same spot. In any case, this is a different rotation from what I was trying to talk about previously. 
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