What Are You Working On?

[Unforgiven93]

Trying to get to the next level... not really sure how.  Going to start getting consistent lessons from a pro who is better than me, and start reading books on the mental game.  We will see what happens.

[JacksonJ13]

I strike the ball fairly well, but I have a bad habit of pulling the ball so I'm working on coming more from the inside and not making such an outside to inside swing. Also my mental game could use some fine tuning. I usually get pretty down on myself after a blow up hole (ex: a 6 or a 7)

[JonMA1]

Weight forward (5 iron swing).

Started recording the swing and am beginning to understand my ball flight and lack of distance. As easy as it is to shift my hips, weight and hands with a slow motion practice swing, I have yet to do it with a full swing. It's like my old swing just takes over. It's unbelievable how different a feel and reality are once you see your swing on video.

Because I'm not clearing my hips, I'm coming over the top. I get good shoulder turn on the backswing, keep my head fairly still but there is no hip movement forward to start the downswing, I finish with my left foot slightly in front of me (left leg angled towards target), a slight backwards lean and too much weight on my back foot. I'm still able to maintain a flat left wrist at impact.

This is my opinion and probably an oversimplification, but If I learn to clear the hips, it may help eliminate the o.t.t move (which is preventing an inside-to-out swing path). The weight/hands forward at impact may help improve lag and de-loft the club.

[Atlantic]

Just starting out, about halfway through my set of lessons. Been going to the driving range in between lessons, just trying to get a feel for my new clubs. Really struggled with swinging the driver today, as my lessons have been all irons and wedges. I guess just trying to improve the mechanics of my swing so I can hit the ball consistently enough to be able to tackle a real course.

[metrybill]

Rotation, rotation, rotation a la Chuck Quinton - the 2" backswing with the right shoulder blade.

30 putts or less.

Downswing - head back lower body forward.

Metrybill

Ping Anser Driver

Ping G25 fairway 4wood

Adams hybrids (18, 20, 23)

Bridgestone J40 DPC irons (5-P)

Titleist 54* and 58* wedges

Putter: what day is it, usually a TM center shaft mallet.

[BugDude]

Downloaded a cool free app on my iphone, "Swing Reader."  Recorded my swing with my phone, trimmed it down to just the swing portion and uploaded it into the app.  Used features to draw a circle around my head and angle lines with degree markings on the plane, arms, etc.  I learned some things about my swing that I'm now working on.

[Kryptic]

I am currently working on my short game. The dreadful put. I want to read the green and be able to judge where the green breaks, which would(if read right) lead to the ball falling into the cup.

[Lihu]

Over the top, stance, alignment, ball position, putting pace, putting grip,.... This has been in progress for two months. The problem was that I pulled everything, and putted downward on the ball rather than slightly upward. Changes everything, but at least I am technically still a novice, and have not ingrained any bad habits other than my flat outside in swing...lol...

[Ernest Jones]

A more centered set-up. That'll be the east part. Also need to do some serious "wood shedding" with my hip rotation rates, that'll be a little more work. The end goal is a better transition and a flatter downswing.

[Mr. Desmond]

1. I continue to work on what Mike and Erik have had me working on since April - a backswing where my elbow stays in front of my shirt seam - if I have an efficient backswing then I don't need to make other compensations coming back down.

To be successful, I am becoming less handsy and turning my body and hips more (hips turn and angled up), allowing the right elbow to make the club ascend

2. I am working on the first move down - as the transfer to the big toe and squash down on it.

3. Sequencing and Rhythm are keys as I do this.

My past swing was too arms-driven - I am finding it a slow process to involve the body more and the arms less and at the right time.

Short Game: More Utley-Esque, Soft Arms, Drop Club into Ball, Strong Pivot

Putting: More Utley-Like - Relaxed, soft arms, relaxed grip, less thinking, more athletic. Working on AimPoint

Note to Erik: Refresher Course needed....

[daniel2852]

I'm getting better so I finally have some concrete things to works on.

-Wedges: I have 4 wedges now in my bag and I'm trying to figure out which to keep and how far each one goes. I'm in love with my 64 and 56. I can't decide if I should keep my 52 or my 60 now. I also need to work on short game distances with these wedges, and dropping and stopping on greens instead of letting the ball roll away.

-Irons- I still have a hard time hitting a 6 and 5 iron, and a 7 and 8 iron are topped sometimes as well. I need to move my ball back in stance, that's really the only problem because I'm hitting a divot behind the ball and thus topping it.

-Woods/hybrid- I'm hitting driver, hybrid and wood better than ever(250 yard drives). I just need to work on 3 and 5 wood off the deck, keeping the swing plane shallow and hitting down on the ball.

Mechanics- I need to work on starting with more  weight on left foot and then transferring to right foot for the backswing, then releasing through. If I do this every time my shots go really far, this lack of leg work has been holding back my distance and consistency for quite some time. My slicing has improved vastly. I used to intentionally aim left to adjust for my slice, and now I'm hitting shots left!

I took a video of my swing again, and I've improved leagues in 1  years. I'm still have trouble keeping the left arm straight and still swinging from the outside a little. MAjor improvements though, watching all those slow motion golf swings really helps.

Overall the most work needed is short pitches and getting mid-iron shots up in the air. I have improved so much it's amazing, in 1 year I only shot a par 3 times. Yesterday shot two pars and three bogeys over 14 holes.

[Billmc]

Working on better wedge play, inside 80yards. I get it there, but i am usually sitting near the outer green so i like to get it closer to the hole. Also my putting,or i should say my green reading!. I can not read a green to save my life!.At the end of the day if i could master reading a green i would be a happy golfer.

[Laws of Woo]

Woods, primarily my driver and 3 wood. I fight a slice with them (and only them). I've tweaked my swing a bit and cut my driver down to 44.5",  and so far it is coming around. Driving accuracy/consistency has improved greatly, I still have much room for improvement, but I have gained a lot of confidence with them now.

Putting here and there as well, more so trying to read greens better. I can usually hit my lines I aim for, but poor reads have led to too many putts.

[metrybill]

PROPER LIE ANGLES FOR SHORT IRONS ARE A BIG, BIG DEAL FOR BETTER PLAYERS AND for WANNABE BETTER PLAYERS.

Poor wedge and short iron play can be, more often than not with solid contact, related to lie angles.  Too far left with the short irons [8 iron to LW] might mean too upright a lie angle. Too far right, deep toe divots, might mean too flat a lie angle. Get fitted .  In general, the longer the club the less important lie angles are.  The shorter, more lofted the club is the more important lie angles are.

Metrybill

p.s. I have no dog in the hunt.  I am an amateur.  Spend $50 to $150 for the entire set and get your clubs fit for your game.  Again, proper Lie Angles are a game improvement Must.  Scientifically, this is not remotely debatable.

[maddog0512]

Two things I'm working on at the moment.  First, keeping a steady head and rotating around my spine better.  I noticed in some video of my swing that I have a sway in my backswing that pulls me off the ball and shallows my shoulder turn, which bumps my head to the right.  By staying more centered and cutting out the sway I seem to get a better (i.e. steeper) shoulder turn that doesn't move the ball so much in my field of vision.  Secondly, rolling onto the instep of my right (trail) foot on the downswing.  In the video I took of my swing, my right heel comes up very early and very high.  I think by keeping it down and rolling through impact, that I will limit my hip turn.  As of now with my driver, my hips are facing the target at impact, not pretty.  Hopefully, this will help straighten out my swing path because I'm definitely cutting across the ball and putting left to right spin on it.

[saevel25]

Back to working on Keys 1 - 3, had a big meltdown yesterday, really bad. Something was out of sorts. Got to channel my inner stupid monkey :p

[0ldblu3]

For me it's getting my hips moving faster. In order to do that I have to drive my right knee toward my left knee. None of this is hard if I make a proper turn, in fact it's easy. That's the amazing part, it's easy if I start correctly. So what I'm working on is making a proper turn away from the ball, then firing my right knee towards my left and getting my hips all the way through before my hands. Simple!

My tendency is to only get my hips 75% percent through and therefore my arms/hands make up the rest and pull the shot left. If I drive the knee the hips just go and then bang...the cutest little draw (and long too!).

And of course, keep my head still and stay in the shot. I'm thinking of going to a professional hypnotist for that part. There is no bio-mechanical reason to stand up, I just do it from time to time and off the shot goes leaking out to the right.

[Spyder]

Currently working on correcting a setup and path issue with my driver and irons. Occasionally, I feel as though I am returning the club to the ball just slightly over the top (out-to-in) with a square club face and this is resulting in a straight ball flight, but also resulting in me missing my target slightly left on many shots.

I'll be updating my "MySwing" thread this weekend with actual swing videos and will be open to feedback and critique for sure.

My driver is what is pissing me off right now though because I can typically resolve my issue with a slightly weaker grip. I've been trying to implement what Erik posted in relation to grip strength though and strengthen my grip to promote a draw on command. For some reason, this is causing me to roll over more and results in a closed face and slightly out-to-in path. I think I realized that I am some type of freak though as this is typically the opposite for most people (a stronger grip should promote a slightly open club face with an in-to-out path resulting in a slight push-draw).

I've got some work to do though and not much time left to get it done before some big money events in late July and early August!