What Are You Working On?

[JonMA1]

Holding my irons more in the fingers of my right hand at impact. The feel is that I'm pulling the club with my fingers instead of pushing with the top of the palm. All this ties into the continual struggle to get my weight (hips) more forward and keep my hands ahead of the club head at impact. It seems to be working well from the PW to the 7 iron.

[saevel25]

Getting the clubhead outside the hands at A2 by allowing the turn to take care of the depth and little wrist hinge to set the club outside the hands. From there letting the left arm slide up and the right elbow bend taking the club more up than around.

[Lihu]

Weight shift (aka Key 2).

Smoothing out the transition. Every step of the way to get my Key 2 back to where it was two months ago has been conscious, and took a month and a half to recover. I probably should take another lesson soon to review my progress. In any case, I will be posting more swings on my swing thread this weekend or sometime this week while playing.

[atrapasuenos]

Getting the club head to be out of my hands and not inside when I'm taking the club back. Also trying to "lower" my left hip when starting the swing. That should take care of my right foot compensating and getting up to early. It is really hard to try to change it.

[Abu3baid]

Haven't updated here in a while.

Working on a shorter backswing

I am currently exerting too much energy on the way down, and this is probably why the golf swing with the 3w and driver seem more like a wind up than a golf swing, so I can probably achieve the same amount of swing speed with better mechanics.. "this is specifically what my coach told me"

I of course concur that I am exerting too much effort on the downswing and this is probably one of the main reasons for my inconsistency in contact with those long clubs!!

specific drill I'm working on?

if my swing is from 1 - 10 I am swinging back and to A5 at a 2 and then trying to somehow get the feel for what it is like to have a shorter backswing.. Haven't found a feel for it yet, but I will be uploading a video real time as was requested so that we can see where to go from there!

[whatwoodtigerdo]

Haven't updated here in a while.

Working on a shorter backswing

I am currently exerting too much energy on the way down, and this is probably why the golf swing with the 3w and driver seem more like a wind up than a golf swing, so I can probably achieve the same amount of swing speed with better mechanics.. "this is specifically what my coach told me"

I of course concur that I am exerting too much effort on the downswing and this is probably one of the main reasons for my inconsistency in contact with those long clubs!!

specific drill I'm working on?

if my swing is from 1 - 10 I am swinging back and to A5 at a 2 and then trying to somehow get the feel for what it is like to have a shorter backswing.. Haven't found a feel for it yet, but I will be uploading a video real time as was requested so that we can see where to go from there!

I am working on this too for exactly 1 day . Hard to find a feeling for that I think. A very hard thing to do just in general. I go past parallel and I felt like if I kept my left arm rigid it cuts off my swing. It felt really short but my wife told me I was getting to parallel but this will definitely take video work.

It also made my violent transition cause pushes and then pulls on over compensations because my timing was way off.

[Rextilleon]

I'm working on the transition from back swing to downswing.  I'm concentrating on a having a smooth transition where my swing speed starts slowly and speeds up.  This allows me to get my body out in front.  I almost get the sensation that the hip turning is actually pulling my arms which are relatively passive.

[piken73]

I'm currently working on keeping my drives in play. It's one of three things that happens 1) hips don't turn enough and it goes right, don't get enough weight shift and pull it to the left or I hit it somewhere in the middle (which is happening more and more lately.) I hit 9 fairways last full round. I've also been messing around to find a ball I like. Tried ProV1s and X's, nxt tour, Bridgestone b330rx and e6, callaway hex chrome + and Taylor made project (a). Think I'm down to prov1, project a and hex chrome+. Any thoughts?

[natureboy]

I'm working on the transition from back swing to downswing.  I'm concentrating on a having a smooth transition where my swing speed starts slowly and speeds up.  This allows me to get my body out in front.  I almost get the sensation that the hip turning is actually pulling my arms which are relatively passive.

I seem to have that feel too when I hit a good drive. Too quick = overactive R arm (from top) = overdraw / hook. I also like to feel like my left leg plant / hip bump 'catches' the club at the top.

For a bit I was hitting 60% Fwy with that feel, but have probably drifted a bit back to a 'hitting at' instead of 'swinging through' mindset.

[sgt1372]

Thought I had everything figured out -- at least I was hitting the ball a reasonable distance w/o slicing it for the most part -- but a PGA instructor said that my swing was too flat and out of plane on the down swing, which was confirmed on video.   So, I'm back to working on my swing w/the driver to bring my arms farther up while also staying on plane through the down swing.  So, back to the driving range just hitting balls w/the driver.  It's like learning how to drive all over again but I think it's getting better.

[burton9190]

I'm working on actually swinging the club. I've never been able to get out of the mind set of 'grip it and rip it' no matter how hard I have tried in the past haha. Recently after playing 9 holes with a friend of mine who is a very good golfer I realised how effortless he gets power in his swing.

The feeling of throwing the club up and effortlessly swinging it back to the ball has been providing some amazing results, I've never hit a ball so well in my life. Such a powerful piercing ball flight regardless of shape whilst also gaining some serious distance. I've always had an upper body swing and all swing thoughts have been in my arms, my swing thoughts are now only based upon using my body to do the work (aside from keeping backswing on plane) - the club seems to drop into the 'slot' so effortlessly and I now understand how the body actually stores energy to create momentum to the club head.

I'm looking forward to drilling this in over the winter and play some good golf next summer (for a change!).

[Sacman]

I have been working on not swaying for about a month now. Its been a struggle. I have found that if I'm not thinking about it then I hit a lot better shots.

I had lost some distance with my driver. I moved the ball up more in my stance and I am hitting the ball much more out of the center of the club. Which in turn raised my ball speed up from 145 to 160 consistently. I will take that.

[JonMA1]

Still working on Key #2. Specifically a centered hip turn on the backswing with no hip rotation to start the downswing. I've got it down perfectly - until I swing at a ball, even with really slow, short swings. Hard to un-do what I've been doing for the last few years I suppose. I am getting weight forward but not nearly what it should be. Ultimately, I don't expect a perfect swing by the end of winter, but am hopeful about developing some better habits.

Anyway, the last several nights have been spent working indoors on what Mike suggested (which is to feel like the hips are sliding "towards 1st base"). Tonight, I got home from work while it was still light and took some full swings into the field just because I was jones'n to hit some. Was getting some really nice draws with the 7 iron. I always feel as though I'm doing something right if I can get that kind of ball flight and distance with easy swings.

Tomorrow night it'll be back to "working" on breaking old habits. The 5 "S"s of Great Practice.

[RayG]

Last weeks round was a bit better with a small change to my swing. So I ranged it a couple of days to work on the tweaks. First off, I have flattened my swing in the last few years and that has helped a bit. I was getting a bit lumberjack out there. While flattening, I have working on hand location and club/arm angle. When I was good I kept a straighter line down the arm and thru the club. Seemed to work for me- a 'natural' as I have been told since I was twelve. Somewhere along the line I took ONE lesson- messed me up completely. Since then I have tried to get back my 'natural' swing from my younger days. The first range session was a LOT better with the arm/club angle. Still a bit inconsistent, though. Yesterday, I took that tweak and added one thing- moving about 1-2" further away from the ball. And setting up the ball just on the toe side of center. I could sense it felt better AND more like what my swing used to feel like. It also seemed to force me to a better rotation with my hips. I had gone too stiff over the years as well and was rotating just my upper body with very little hip rotation. Having the ball on the toe side makes me take that inside out swing path as well. Much better consistency, no 'slices', most straight with some draws, along with some extra distance. Instead of using two lineup spots to represent a fairway width and be happy with landing between them, I chose a more specific target and was able to keep most within a typical half fairway width. I don't know- the straighter arm/club angle seems to help me maintain a consistent plane with no loops or hitches. I rarely get to parallel, so I think I get a bit more control with fewer chances to get wild out there.

[Lihu]

Moving backwards. Need to look at my body alignment through the swing. Even at address. Hope to straighten it out soon. Don't know why I got so out of whack again. If I fix this then on to my priority pieces.

[DrvFrShow]

Takeaway... well that's done. It's automatic now. It changed arm position, swing arc, and ball position. Yikes. That's a lot.

Contact drills. Punch shots with pitching wedge through 7 iron. Then moving to full swing. What's weird is that I do the drill I don't get the "whump" that some people get, but my ball flight and distance are identical, and it is evident that I hit down on the ball. What gives? Coach doesn't worry about it. I guess I shouldn't either. This was my lesson. Contact.

Posture. Staying with the swing through contact. I was popping out of my posture, so now I'm working on staying with it through impact and follow through.

I just realized I hit 1000 balls this week. Result? I'm able to hit 9 shots in a row before a miss. Before I was only able to get 3 in a row before a miss. 7 iron full swings are going 150 carry. Well, I have 16 more days until my next lesson to perfect this contact lesson. Probably 2400 balls. I'm not to hit anything over a 7 iron for now.

This is a difficult game.

PS: went to Eddie Bauer and got a couple pair of fleece lined pants for December and January. I have base layers tops, sweaters and a down vest. I don't want to freeze out there. At this rate I could hit 20,000 balls before golf season starts up again. I think I'm crazy. I've got a pack of lessons through the winter. Will I be more consistent next spring? Who knows?

Grit factor = high.

- Julia

[dchoye]

Went to my local PGA teaching pro and working on EE My problem stems from ball position to close I place the ball further away about 2 ball length further away than I normally would Immediately my posture was better and able to release the club better. Before I would feel "jammed up" at impact. I was able to create some space for my hands The numbers on the monitor was what I wanted to achieve. The only con was i was starting to shank occasionally between good shots. I think the fear of shanking does odd things to my setup

[luchnia]

Being a newby (I only started last year - had three lessons), I am working on getting consistent swing contact and still getting the "feel" of everything. The one thing that seems the most odd to me is uncoiling my hips first before my swing. It just seems to be the weirdest feeling to me. I seem to want my arms to initiate the swing instead of hips.

I guess my mind just reverts back to youth baseball days and golf is such a different animal than baseball. Though with baseball most hitters seem to initiate the swing with their left leg and hip even though they don't realize it. I love the feel of the rythm you have when getting ready to nail the baseball. I wish that feel would port over to golf somehow as that was most comfortable to me.

Several have said I have a very good golf swing for a beginner (whatever that means). I built me an indoor practice net and my winter plan is some solid practice getting dialed in and learning all my clubs much better.