What Are You Working On?

[Downrange45]

Consistency. Hole 18 on Tuesday was typical. Best drive of the day, middle of the fairway. Hybrid down the middle leaving me a 9 iron to the green. Two straight crazy shots off the toe with the face wide open. Deft little pitch from hole 9 fairway over a bunker and under tree branches to the green (I must have closed my eyes). One putt. Exhausting.

[dchoye]

Update on my EE and posture thru the ball is improving. I been noticing that for my woods and driver that if I turn my head ahead of my swing like Allenby or Garrigus my spine angle looks more efficient moving through impact I can also lateral bend better One of my keys is to keep my left eye on the butt of the club and this keeps my head moving with the handle in front of the club head as I come into impact As far as the shanking issue , it's just with my irons. I can hit the heel of my driver or fw and it doesn't matter So I made an adjustment for my irons to have a strong left hand grip my spine is more vertical at address but I will tilt my head more like Nicklaus and keep my left eye at mid shaft The problem I'm still have with my iron shots is at impact my shoulders are too level horizontal and I still lose spine angle.

[Lihu]

Aside from healing my muscles, I need serious work on my short game. It's somehow gone from bad to really bad. I made GIR or near GIR on all but one hole (470 yard par 4), and proceeded to bogey most of them and double one.

Working on incorporating key 2, while maintaining key 1 with center turn only.

[dchoye]

My EE is now gone. One of the things that helped is too look at my swing path 1-2 foot in front of the ball instead of focusing directly at the ball. Also keeping my head behind the ball at impact and releasing the club with arms extended I was standing up too early

[Dedicated2Journ]

I'm working on a lot of stuff. I would say the most important of which is my swing pivot and putting stroke. I've been going back and forth between a pivot stall (distance/timing)  and pivot acceleration (accuracy/consistency). I've finally settled down on pivot acceleration for accuracy. However, it hasn't been easy slotting the club to make this achievable. 3 months of hard work is starting to finally solidify.

I have also been toying with a toe balanced and face balanced putting approach. This of course gives me multiple putting strokes to choose from. After a lot of experimentation, I've decided to go with the Luke Donald straight back straight thru, face balanced approach. He's top 5 putting in the world every year. In today's age toe balanced putting isn't necessary, as the greens are nearly perfect. Face balanced putting makes sense. A straight back straight thru stroke makes sense. Adding a super stroke to minimized clubface manipulation makes sense.

Guess we'll see how it works come tournament season!

[Rock In Socks]

Working on a more consistent putting stance and stroke, starting with the grip. Currently seems to different hole to hole right now. Also, I have been working on delveloping a better backswing with my irons and driver this past year. This has lead to quite a bit of success.

[Ernest Jones]

Working on getting more pressure/weight onto my lead foot in transition. This helps with my priority piece and also gets my hips to be ever so slightly more open at impact. Thought process from A4 is basically press down (lead foot), snap lead shoulder UP and AROUND.

Really like this swing thought from Hunter Mahan:

Quote:

"Pretend there's a pressure gauge under your left foot and push down as hard as you can as you bring the club down."

It's simple and specific. I will sometimes hit balls with that one thought to the exclusion of all else, I'll even visualize a red lcd pressure gauge readout and try to spike the number.

I also do a lot of work with my impact bag with partial swings focusing on my hips and getting them as open as I can.

When I get it right impact is rock-solid. When I **** it up I get thins and fats. Lately the solid-to-crapola ratio has been trending in the right direction. Distance is up and accuracy...well who really gives a crap about accuracy...lol. I kid, I kid...

[TallyWhacker]

I noticed earlier this season that most of my divots have struck an out-to-in angle - towards my front foot.

I have started working on getting my left elbow (I'm a lefty) into my side on the down swing to help stay on the correct plane.

When I do it right, my drive is dramatically improved.  I am still not comfortable with the irons, though.  I usually end up clubbing-up and taking a 1/2 to 3/4 swing, which I feel like I can control better.

I wanted to break 100 this year, and I did, once (96), but not with the consistency I was looking for.  Although I have reduced my average score by about 15 strokes, so I feel like I am making progress.  I'm going to focus on grooving that in-to-out swing path this winter, and lose some weight, and get into the 90s next season.

[MrDC]

Wrist hinge and lag, it's so easy to have a small flip in a swing and even if you get your weight forward and steady head the flip can still remain, it's super important to not release the hands early.

So what I've been working on is the pump drill and to maintain the triangle- hands, left shoulder and club head well past my hips, I actually don't release the club at all, just let the swing do it, I think this has been one of the single most important things I've worked on, easy power and better accuracy all from this one thing.

[Abu3baid]

Working on not translating the head forward in the DS I am using a door or just a set up to ingrain my DS without moving.. I haven't seen improvement yet, but most likely because I need to continue ingraining slowly, I'm following up to make sure I'm practicing this piece correctly!

[awright87]

I just discovered/joined this site. Great info here. I've been playing for about 6 months, scoring anywhere between 105-120, HP calculator says I'm at at a 40 currently. I recently had my first swing lesson where we touched on the basic swing fundamentals. Before the lesson I was pretty much going through the basic amateur motions of scooping the ball/no divot, using every club in the bag. But since my lesson I've been applying the fundamentals trying to hit the ball correctly. After the lesson I quickly learned I'm best with my 7-9 irons but really struggle with lower irons. Tell me does this strategy make sense to some of you. I've been playing my last several rounds using only my driver (I hit it fairly straight 150-200yds), 7-9irons, wedges & putter. As I get better I will gradually add the other clubs. I know it will be awhile before my score will start reflecting & I'm fine with that. I just want to hit the ball correctly.

[Tat14]

It makes sense to me.

My local track is short (6000). I can go round after round only playing Driver or 3W off the tee, and nothing longer than a 7I for the approach. Of course, I can hook that short iron, but that's a bit OT here.

IMHO, short-irons and below are easier to play because higher loft means more backspin over sidespin. That, and they seem to fit more comfortably than longer clubs at address.

Let those other clubs earn a place in your bag. I suggest working on that tee game too.

Cheers!

[Lihu]

Working on key 1 some more. Trying to get my hip turn synchronized my upper body while maintaining the spine. Noticed that getting to the "limbo position" at the finish naturally, is much less stressful on the body. Working on this as well. Seems like I am almost ready to work on key 2.

[Abu3baid]

Secondary axis tilt.. I've never had it (ever) and not only that, but my head also translates left a long way! It is so hard to swing out with so much working against you. Basically my head and body goes left and the path just follows.. So even if it doesn't look like I'm going over the top I end up hitting the biggest push shots of all time with my long clubs, and I have inconsistent contact to be able to play anything but 100 golf. The current drill is for me me to take it to the to of the bs and then work on bringing my arms down fast than my shoulder opening up. I need to have a good weight shift and pressure on my left foot while keeping my head relatively steady on the DS. On the bs I am giving the thumbs up with my left hand to make sure that I don't come across my body too much and my arms just go along with my pivot as I need them to just go along for the ride so that I don't overswing. I have come a long way, and now it is time to battle my two biggest enemies.. Overswing and lack of SAT. I am taking baby steps and working at it every night at home, eventually the picture will change right?

[shaggs2riches]

I went in for a lesson on high definition golf simulator this afternoon. Did a follow up on stuff worked on from last lesson. Learned that my contact has progressed a ton since I first walked into the facility back in November. I have also learned that I have been over exaggerating points given to me off the last lesson. My grip was too weak before, now I have moved to a too strong grip. Meaning my left hand has been to rolled back and my right hand has been not rolled over enough. I have also been putting way to much forward shaft lean on my irons. This would explain my hooking long shots with a lower trajectory. A correction of hand grip, ball position and proper forward press brought my shots to where they should be going. It did however feel really awkward and not near as relaxed as I have been swinging. I expect with time it will start to feel more natural, and my confidence will come back. Good thing I still have at minimum 4 months to get it straight, before I can take it to the real golf course.

[DrvFrShow]

Working on a centered pivot. I'd been sliding my hips and upper body back on my backswing. Now this is hard because I have to watch out for the opposite problem - the reverse pivot, but I know what that feels like and I know what happens when i go there. This is not easy.

I've been at this about a week... every day. I've hit about 200 balls a day with this single thing in mind. I can feel the hip slide now and it feels wrong. I've done the hip slide and can feel the thin shot coming. It is very difficult to recover. So I go back to what was working - the centered pivot = solid contact.

It didn't at first. I was duffing one shot after another, but I just kept at it. Now I'm getting streaks of solid hits with it, and they're much longer between mishits than they were.

[RussUK]

After a poor end to last year i have decided to commit to Stack & Tilt. Worked ok at the start of 2014 but tailed off and i lost track. Range session last week dire so the last 4 balls i went back to S&T; and ripped four 5 irons straight and long one after the other.

The main thing im working on is the "left shoulder down" part. I may be doing it right but i sometimes struggle to get it right in my head. My understanding is that on takeaway the spine starts to tilt left which in turn pulls the shoulder down...is this correct?

I have a feeling there will be a thread somewhere if someone can point me in the right direction or if its a quick answer just put me straight.

This site has already helped me understand the S&T; book content more clearly so fingers crossed as this seem to be the main part holding me back and stopping me enjoying playing.

....oh my putting is pretty poor too but that's another story

[vangator]

I worked on using more right hand and snapping (or slapping) it for my lag. I've had problems unhinging consistently (too early/too late) using my left hand. Using the right hand, I hit the best shots I may have ever hit. Consistently. My problem right now is being too quick on my transition starting my downswing. I had some major league drives today. I had 3 in the 300+ range. Haven't done that in years. But, right now I have too many swing thoughts. Need time on the range.