My Swing (FlyingSpaniard)

[FlyingSpaniard]

I've been Playing Golf for: 5 months
My current handicap index or average score is: 36 HCI
My typical ball flight is: Draw
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Hooks and thins

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Videos: 

Maybe this video is not perfect (lighting, etc.), and I regret not having taken a down-the-line view that day, but I believe in not letting the perfect becoming the enemy of the good, so I wanted to get this started for feedback and self-motivation.

A little bit about my golfing career: I took lessons when I was a kid, but pretty much never played (went out to an executive course a few times, and did 9 holes about once), then I switched to other sports, mainly soccer.

Earlier this year, more than 20 years later, I was bored out of my skull in an August afternoon up in the Basque Country, so I decided to go to the range and hit some balls... Covid had got me thinking for a while how I needed an outdoors hobby, things immediately clicked in that first range session, and I've been hooked ever since.

I took two lessons in August during the summer holiday, the instructor worked mostly on grip, address and backswing. I liked his style but there was not much time for anything else as I had to travel back to my hometown.

In mid-September I signed up for group classes at the Spanish Golf Federation and to cut to the chase, it was a terrible experience.

The problem was not so much that the instruction time was limited (at an hour with groups of four, each one of us got around 15min), but rather that I the instruction style was IMHO bonkers. Very little was provided in the way of formal instruction, with a pro just watching you hit balls and making an occasional correction, claiming that a golf swing "should be built on instinct". The instructor strengthened my grip, made some posture corrections at address, taught me basic chipping technique, but never explained anything else in 8 lessons. When I consistently started hooking the ball out of nowhere, the instructor claimed that this was "progress" as I had been slicing it before, without explaining absolutely anything outside of that (I didn't know why I was slicing it earlier or hooking it later), or how to work towards fixing it. I received zero instruction about club path, how my arms and hands were supposed to work during the swing, or any other swing fundamentals such as weight transfer or face control and had to fend for myself to learn online. Seeing this and learning that a member of our class had been taking lessons for over SIX MONTHS and had an absolutely atrocious swing, I decided to quit and find better instruction. I am really disappointed that a leading institution that is partly responsible for raising the country's talent and who can take partial credit for Jon Rahm's golf education has such poor instruction standards for the common golfer... 

Anyway, I digress. I feel like I wasted a couple months but I think that will be irrelevant in my golfing career, so rant's over.

Around November I quit the Federation and signed up for one-to-one lessons at a private club, which has one of the best youth teams in the country and an LPGA Major champion as head of instruction. The difference in instruction quality is massive, namely:

- They have a consistent swing model they teach as a base (kind of like 5sk)
- They explain fundamentals such as club and face path, force transfer, etc. I see they do this even with very little kids (6-8 y.o.)
- They still leave ample room for "instinct" and swing idiosyncrasies
- They have excellent tech (Trackman, radars, etc.)

I've only had 4 lessons, but so far I've been delighted and I see myself sticking with them for a long time.

Some things we have worked in particular with my new instructor:

- In-to-out swing, face control, and creating a base draw shot shape
- Loose wrists at the top of the backswing, "maintaining the L"
- "Connecting" the club to the body
- Hitting a drive

Other things I've kind of self-coached are force/weight transfer, hip movement, and low point control. I was hitting it fat on turf due to not knowing how to read mishits on mats, and became resolved to nip that in the bud.

In the last month I've also radically transformed my practice from mindlessly pounding balls to breaking everything down to smaller pieces of work and drills, then leaving some time at the end of practice to bring it together by hitting some highly targeted shots with no swing thoughts, as if I was out on the course.

My ball-striking has improved massively as a result in the last couple of weeks... Since adopting a draw, I've seen my 7 iron distances jump from 130m to 145m average (as measured by Toptracer), and my shot dispersion is clearly grouped more tightly around the left. At the course, GIRs are starting to become a not-so-uncommon occurrence and I very rarely hit fat shots anymore.

On the other hand, I'm now battling a hook, some thinned (but often workable) shots, and my short game and putter have degraded significantly since becoming obsessed with my ball-striking. Not to mention that I still can hardly hit a driver (I tee off with a mix of driver, hybrid or 4i) or that I literally don't know how to get out of the bunker (I've tried self-teaching but I cannot for the life of me figure it out, so I will make that a priority in next week's lesson).

I plan to keep attending lessons weekly, rebalance my practice around the 60-25-15 rule, keep splitting work into smaller items and drills, practice about 15-20 hours and play at least 18 holes every week.

In short: I am clearly still terrible, but I'm loving the grind, and I'm eager to see where it takes me!

Please fire away with any comments and critiques. I think there is so much work to be done on my swing and so many aspects to work on that I feel that I will not be able to address everything immediately, but I am keeping a backlog of issues to work on for months ahead, so your feedback is most welcome.

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by FlyingSpaniard

[billchao]

Since you’re taking lessons, I’m not going say too much, but if that’s a mid iron in your hands your ball position is a little too far back. Weight transfer is definitely an issue, but focus on what you’re working on. One piece at a time.

Weekly lesson, though, I don’t know about. It takes time to make changes. Unless you’re learning a new skill every week you’re basically getting the same lesson for a while or paying to have the instructor watch you practice.

[FlyingSpaniard]

3 minutes ago, billchao said:

Since you’re taking lessons, I’m not going say too much, but if that’s a mid iron in your hands your ball position is a little too far back. Weight transfer is definitely an issue, but focus on what you’re working on. One piece at a time.

That's an 8-iron, sorry. Weight transfer and shot shaping are my current big pieces, so I definitely hope to keep making progress.

 

9 minutes ago, billchao said:

Weekly lesson, though, I don’t know about. It takes time to make changes. Unless you’re learning a new skill every week you’re basically getting the same lesson for a while or paying to have the instructor watch you practice.

I feel like I'm getting plenty of value out of it...

Last week we focused on hitting the driver, where I still feel I could use one or two standalone lessons just for basics. Still need a dedicated bunker lesson like I mentioned. By the time we get back to striking irons it will be 3 weeks, easily.

Also bear in mind I am making time to practice for at least 15 hours per week, plus a full round... I firmly believe in focusing on a couple things at a time, but I have more time available for practice than most people.

[iacas]

I think:

• Ball's much too far back.
• Grip is very palmy. Knuckles aren't anywhere near parallel to the shaft/grip.