My Swing (xilez)

**xilez** · November 3, 2014

So I have stumbled across a good picture from playing this weekend and thought i'd share. it's been a while, but my previous posting on this site has helped me tremendously, so thank you to all ST posters.

So here is me, at 150 hitting to the back of the ground. I choose to soft swing a 6 iron. I end up in the left green side bunker. My face looks open at the top, so I am assuming that is what caused this?

Link is here! Unfortunately, I cannot put image tags around and instagram photo

http://instagram.com/p/u3m6jlTT1U/

**xilez** · November 3, 2014

Could not find the edit post button for some reason

**DrvFrShow** · November 3, 2014

Could not find the edit post button for some reason

It looks like you're on a sidehill lie. The ball is slightly above your feet giving it the tendency to draw left of your target. So if you aimed straight for the pin, your ball flight would draw left and not where you aimed.

Side hill lies are tricky. Ball below your feet the ball will tend to go to your right. Ball above your feet the ball will tend to go to your left. You have to play that.

And then there's a balance thing. When the ball is below your feet balance is very tricky. I've managed to fall backward on my heels and pull hook it.

Here's an article about this.

**xilez** · May 28, 2015

So it's been a WHILEEEEE since I posted a swing thread. This season I am getting pretty serious about improving (after college I focused on work and didnt play much), playing 1-2 times each weekend the past month and a half. LSW has helped me a lot. I have yet to register an official handicap, currently gathering the rounds to do so. I would estimate my HCI to be about 15. I consistently shoot mid 80's. My past three rounds have been 86 (40 on the front 9; 46 on the back after losing my driver) ,82,88 (difficult course).

I would say my biggest problem is that I tend to "lose" my driver later in the round, and have a hard time recovering. I feel my putting is pretty decent (I tend to over read and try "too" hard if you know what I mean.) My scrambling is very good. GIR is king, and I am focusing on improving that.

Since reading LSW, I really focus on steady head (as well as tempo), and from practice with the Expo marker on the club face, I tend to make pretty square contact. My typical ball flight is straight with a small fade on the longer irons. My misses with shorter clubs tend to be a pull (I think its because sometime I have a tendency to be set up too far, or too close, and with 5 iron, hybrid and driver are slices.

Recently I have really focused on making contact with the ball, and then the ground. There is something really satisfying to me about taking a good divot. Yesterday I went out and got all my swing variations for all my wedges, and feel confident heading into my rounds this weekend I can post a score. I feel like I have improved my setup correctly for each club.

I look forward to receiving some in-depth feedback from all the wonderful people on here, and looking forward to improving my swing at every step.

Help me improve!

**xilez** · June 1, 2015

Played two rounds this Saturday at 2 different courses. Shot a 91 the first 18. No warmup, took me about 5-6 holes to get my body and brain in sync, wasnt following through enough with my driver. 6 strokes gained from errant tee shots alone. Back 9 was much better.

Shot an 84 (39 on the front) the second round of 18 at a different course. Played very well, only 2 errant tshots. Also an errant shot into the water attempting to go for it on 2 on a par 5. I feel that if I went out, and played smart strategic golf, I could consistently shoot about 80. Its hard for me to want to do that. I paid to play, and I want to try to go all out.

Did some practice at the range focusing on ~50yd chips with different wedges. Focused on solid contact and different flight patterns.

Friend of mine downloaded Anayzr and we were looking at a couple of my swings posted above. What I thought was a steady head, turns out to be not so steady, my head seems to move a few inches forward before impact. My right arm also seems to be chicken winged, is this a bad thing?

Would love everyone's thoughts! Thanks

***iacas*** · June 1, 2015

Your grip is extremely weak, probably palmy as well.
Your arms are slow to come down and you have to stall your body, leading to a higher overtaking rate, a bit of a flip, and so on.

So, I would…

Fix the grip.
Work on some drills to get the handle down faster. There are a variety of them here, but one of the favorites I have is to feel that you're pulling the handle/hands straight down to a spot in front of the golf ball from the top of your backswing, like you're trying to stick a spear in the ground there.

You'll eventually need to work on getting more open at impact, but you have to be good with the shaft at 6 and 7 before we can worry too much about that. Yes, it ties into this stalling and flipping, but I see it as likely the other way first: the stall is caused by the arms coming down too slowly. Get the arms down faster and it'll clean up a little.

**xilez** · June 1, 2015

Thanks for the input Erik. It's interesting you mentioned grip. I have seen that thread, and felt that recently I have done a nice job of getting the grip of out my palms and more into the fingers of my left hand. I will try to snag some pictures of my grip later tonight.

***iacas*** · June 1, 2015

Thanks for the input Erik. It's interesting you mentioned grip. I have seen that thread, and felt that recently I have done a nice job of getting the grip of out my palms and more into the fingers of my left hand. I will try to snag some pictures of my grip later tonight.

It's incredibly weak. I'd fix that more. The Palm stuff is tough to see.

**xilez** · June 2, 2015

Worked on the grip tonight at the range. It definitely felt awkward a few times (had to force myself not to adjust during a waggle.)

I could tell immediately how much better my ball flight was. My distances were also increased a bit. Ive got a couple rounds this weekend, will post some follow-up after (and hopefully in round video)

**xilez** · June 8, 2015

Struggled pretty bad this weekend shooting my worst rounds of the season, 89 and 91. I seem to be dealing with a push fade on every club 6-iron and up. Any drills to help fix this?

**xilez** · June 8, 2015

After seeing this video, I feel I understand where my pushes are coming from. However, I am not sure what the correction is? It seems like I need fix my backswing to not be so steep, any drills for this?

***iacas*** · June 8, 2015

After seeing this video, I feel I understand where my pushes are coming from. However, I am not sure what the correction is? It seems like I need fix my backswing to not be so steep, any drills for this?

I don't agree.

I'd mentioned above to fix the grip… that could certainly help with the pushes.

**xilez** · June 30, 2015

Broke 80 for the first time this past Saturday, shot a 79! I know I still have a ways to go to do this consistently. This was the first time I played an entire round without losing a ball, and it felt good... And yes, it was a Snell Get Sum!

**xilez** · July 3, 2017

Wow almost 2 years since I have posted on update!

Still hovering around a 10-14, mostly scoring in the Mid 80s, few high and lower rounds mixed in. I have 3 rounds under 80 over the past 2 years.

Recently picked up a new set of fitted irons, and decided to focus more on my swing mechanics.

Previously when I was posting, I was always dealing with a big fade or slice. Since then, I have worked on my grip, and play a pretty consistent draw now a days. I tend to hit a big push fade if I swing to hard with my 5i - 3 hybrid, but overall I would say the big slices are mostly gone.

I thought Id post some swing vids from todays range session (had a pretty miserable round yesterday, just couldnt keep anything in play). Decided to visit some chapters of LSW, and visit the range to focus on my full swings.

These are 3 swings with a 4 iron

Would love some feedback!

Thanks all!

***iacas*** · July 4, 2017

1 hour ago, xilez said:

Wow almost 2 years since I have posted on update!

You should look at the great Instructional Content we have here.
You should buy a copy of LSW.
You should… work on Key #2 stuff, because…

You're kinda flat-footed here with virtually no weight transfer.

**xilez** · July 4, 2017

13 hours ago, iacas said:

You should look at the great Instructional Content we have here.

You should buy a copy of LSW.

You should… work on Key #2 stuff, because…

You're kinda flat-footed here with virtually no weight transfer.

I agree on the weight transfer. My initial thoughts when I saw the clips were how un-athletic they looked. Will work on #2 and report back.

Thanks for the links!

***iacas*** · July 15, 2017

How's the work going?

**xilez** · April 4, 2021

Well, I guess it is time to remedy that! Despite actively playing golf since my last post, I have not really improved. Rounds in the low-mid 80s for a few years, and more recently, in the 90s/low 100s.

Heading into the 2021 season, I knew I wanted this to finally be the year I try to get my HC to the mid-single digits. I recently discovered The Refuge/Nest from NLU, which has reinvigorated not only my love for the game, but the community behind it.

In July, I started taking lessons with an instructor I really enjoyed. After the first lesson, my takeaways were mostly set up related - suffered from standing a bit too far from the ball, and he wanted me standing a bit taller.

Lesson two was again another focus on setup, this time working on rear hip rotation and the front foot feeling like I was stomping down for the transition. Here is a swing vid from that lesson (I don't know how to scale it down 😄 )

As I mentioned, this lesson was in September - In October I got married, and with all that + honeymoon + winter, I kind of fell back into old habits by not practicing. Eventually, found out my instructor had moved to another facility and I sort of gave up paying for lessons at this point. Picked up a Planemate, and got through the first few modules but never got to the full swing portion.

Now we are into the 2021 season, and my handicap has slowly crept upward - struggling with inconsistent misses at the moment, but mostly, it's the shots leaking out to the right.

After picking up a new driver, new wedges, hybrid as well as Arccoss, I am really going to move forward with trying to practice and improve towards my goal of a 5-7 handicap.

First, here are some stats - Was REALLY struggling with the driver for a couple of months. Two way misses, no confidence, a lot of penalties. Currently sitting at a 13.6 HCP according to Grint.