When the problem's not the swing...

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Andrew, similar to jamo, i was able to drop my handicap quite fast in my early days down to a solid 2.

So, if you look at my posts (other threads than this), you may notice I jump in a lot to discuss the swing, even though I'm obviously not a very experienced golfer.

It's because I'm an engineer, and an internet addict, and I've been learning everything I can learn online about the golf swing for the past several weeks. I've been trying to guess which things apply to my swing based on how my swing feels, and based on what the ball's doing. I've been doing pretty well, because the pro had a lot to say about all the things I was doing well at my first lesson. However, that lesson was also the first time I'd seen my own swing on video, and there were some things I couldn't feel myself doing. I had no idea how far I was swinging; I thought I was getting the shaft parallel to the ground, and I was actually getting it WAY past there. I also didn't realize the importance of holding some flex in my right knee throughout the swing, and I wasn't doing that. But throughout the two hour-long lessons I've had at that point, I've been looking at my swings on video and learning a lot about my swing. I think I understand it quite well at this point, but I'm not so great at repeating it with extreme accuracy yet. And really I think accuracy is what I need. I need the clubhead to come to the ball accurately; not low, not high, not inside, not outside, but on target. Also, my instructor has a term that comes from baseball, that he uses from time to time when I hit a push-fade, which is "the swing was good but the bat was late". I need to get good at making sure the bat wasn't early or late. I'll try to get a swing video up here at some point. But I guess I'm trying to say even though I don't actually strike the ball consistently yet, I feel I do understand quite a bit about how the golf swing works. -Andrew

[Joeyvee]

I can see what his pro means. Maybe the swings not terrible and he just has less than perefct hand-eye coordination. Rent a few pornos. Thatll help.> Haha. Get it. hand eye coordination.
In all seriousness maybe he just needs to work on that before the next phase of his swing is worked on. A lot of people who were athletic in the past have no problem hitting the ball. They just have all screwed up swings. But people who werent necessarily baseball or hockey players have trouble hitting it but maybe not such bad swings because they had no past reference at swinging sticks at balls. Id bet 7 to 1 that this guy wasnt a baseball or hockey player when he was younger.

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

I can see what his pro means. Maybe the swings not terrible and he just has less than perefct hand-eye coordination. Rent a few pornos. Thatll help.> Haha. Get it. hand eye coordination.

You'd be right, I never really played either of those sports. My only "swinging sticks at balls" (teehee) experience is high school tennis.

-Andrew

[RC]

I'm from the Jammo school of thought... the swing is the problem. I don't care if you only hit a ball 100 yards, you need to know enough about the mechanics of how to achieve solid contact. A teaching pro is the place to start, but pounding 1,000 balls with a poor swing that is not already making solid contact will only ingrain bad form. Suggest you try another approach.

[colin007]

theres also the possibilty that the pro was telling him a line to make him feel better. i had a pro tell me that i hit a great shot after i nearly bladed an 8 iron 185 yards and that the golf courses in the area would be no match for my "length".

[alomar123]

As I do agree that you need to hit a lot more balls, it is your swing. It is your swing as, your swing probably changes every week/day. You are not yet able to repeat the same swing because it is just to much to remember. Experience will help you the most right now, but just make sure you do not install bad technique. He can know exactly how he should be in every part of his swing, but if his muscles/brain cant follow there will be mistakes.

So, without both technique and repeatability he will not perform the way he wants. This is why golf takes a long time to learn, especially for those who are not putting in the work.

[Shorty]

I think you've either misunderstood your pro, or he didn't make his point clearly enough.
Problems at impact are swing problems, no two ways about it.
He may have been saying that your swing is basically OK but needed refinement.

No teaching pro is going to tell someone that his swing isn't the problem and then blame "impact position" when the club doesn't meet the ball in a square position.

Your problem is clearly with your swing. But it might not be as big a problem as you fear, so he's pretty much saying that your swing can be fixed, is my guess.

[mcgriff]

Splitting hairs here I think. I believe he is trying to burn the importance of repeatability into your head.