Ball placement - off back foot??

[lilbilly]

First post here folks, appreciate all the thoughts in advance.

over the years (15) that I've been playing, my swing has "evolved" somewhat, good and bad and probably year to year. Especially through college and these early child rearing years where both money and time are scarce.

for some time now, I've been playing the ball far back in my stance with short irons and wedges. My results aren't terrible, but I know this isn't the normal 'suggested' method. I'm not really sure when I started doing this.

my question is, is it bad or causing other issues and if normal swings would have that ball several inches farther forward, am I dropping my upper body (spine angle) to make proper compact?

[carpediem4300]

the question i would ask are

1) whats the ballflight like when you hit it good

2) whats the miss like

3) are you taking a divot

[iacas]

The ball is back there because your weight is not far enough forward and you flip at the ball, so putting the ball back allows you to strike it more cleanly despite your low point being WAY too far back.

I'd work on moving your low point forward, not "cheating" and putting the ball way back in your stance.

[lilbilly]

the question i would ask are 1) whats the ballflight like when you hit it good 2) whats the miss like 3) are you taking a divot

1. Straight or a slight draw. 2. Misses are pull hooks, rarely fat, sometimes thin skulls 3. Yes, divots are usually straight and shallow. Most of my misses are related to inconsistent swings. I struggle w/ OTT some Which is where the pull hooks come from.

[lilbilly]

The ball is back there because your weight is not far enough forward and you flip at the ball, so putting the ball back allows you to strike it more cleanly despite your low point being WAY too far back. I'd work on moving your low point forward, not "cheating" and putting the ball way back in your stance.

[quote name="iacas" url="/t/57989/ball-placement-off-back-foot#post_711325"]The ball is back there because your weight is not far enough forward and you flip at the ball, so putting the ball back allows you to strike it more cleanly despite your low point being WAY too far back. I'd work on moving your low point forward, not "cheating" and putting the ball way back in your stance. [/quote] I have tried moving it forward before. So it's my weight shift? Is there some drills that would help me me ingrain this? When I have attempted before it's short lived bc I hit so many thin that I stop.

[carpediem4300]

watch the brian manzella videos or phil mickleson videos

both basically attain to keeping the hands ahead of the club with a good forward weight shift

you "thin" the ball because of a mixture of poor weightshift and "flipping" at the ball trying to get it airborn rather than hitting down and through and letting the loft do the work,

Im far to suseptable to this issue myself, i cure my taking 4-5 quick practice strokes focusing on hands ahead of the clubhead at impact

[lilbilly]

Originally Posted by carpediem4300

watch the brian manzella videos or phil mickleson videos

both basically attain to keeping the hands ahead of the club with a good forward weight shift

you "thin" the ball because of a mixture of poor weightshift and "flipping" at the ball trying to get it airborn rather than hitting down and through and letting the loft do the work,

Im far to suseptable to this issue myself, i cure my taking 4-5 quick practice strokes focusing on hands ahead of the clubhead at impact

I only hit thin when I try to move the ball forward. Through years of having the ball back further, my hands have been "trained" and I release the lag alot earlier. That's tough to break.

Help me here with weight shift. My weight has always been well centered and not on my heels at address. How should the weight be distributed throughout the swing?

[carpediem4300]

if your hands are well trained is tehre a reason to change your ball position?

only thing you can do is practice hands forward.

are we talking the same weight shift here? i mean from centred stance to back foot, to front foot

your talking weight distribution front to back of the feet themselves,.....depends on player and your balance,...my weight is on my toes mostly (as i feel it) but its probably actually around the mid arch/ ball of my foot

[Matthew Brett]

Originally Posted by lilbilly

First post here folks, appreciate all the thoughts in advance.

over the years (15) that I've been playing, my swing has "evolved" somewhat, good and bad and probably year to year. Especially through college and these early child rearing years where both money and time are scarce.

for some time now, I've been playing the ball far back in my stance with short irons and wedges. My results aren't terrible, but I know this isn't the normal 'suggested' method. I'm not really sure when I started doing this.

my question is, is it bad or causing other issues and if normal swings would have that ball several inches farther forward, am I dropping my upper body (spine angle) to make proper compact?

Lilbilly, I have had the same issue over the years.  As stated above, you aren't shifting your weight forward enough.  That being said, it isn't easy to just change this.  I have slowly but surely been able to move the ball up closer and closer to my front foot.  At this point I have the ball about 6 inches off my front foot and the back foot varies by club.  If you are happy with your stroke, why adjust it?  Look at bubba.  There are tons of golfers out there with unusual strokes.   The normal way is just the easiest way to teach somebody to be consistant in striking the ball.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by lilbilly

First post here folks, appreciate all the thoughts in advance.

over the years (15) that I've been playing, my swing has "evolved" somewhat, good and bad and probably year to year. Especially through college and these early child rearing years where both money and time are scarce.

for some time now, I've been playing the ball far back in my stance with short irons and wedges. My results aren't terrible, but I know this isn't the normal 'suggested' method. I'm not really sure when I started doing this.

my question is, is it bad or causing other issues and if normal swings would have that ball several inches farther forward, am I dropping my upper body (spine angle) to make proper compact?

There is definitely a fix.  It's a hard fix, but it can be done.  Move that ball up there, exaggerate it and put right on your left foot and figure out how to hit it.  Start with chips and then make the swing longer and longer as you start striking the ball correctly.  CarpeDiem is right, check out Manzella's "Confessions of a Former Flipper".  You'll have to train a proper pivot to hit it.

[lilbilly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilbilly

First post here folks, appreciate all the thoughts in advance.

over the years (15) that I've been playing, my swing has "evolved" somewhat, good and bad and probably year to year. Especially through college and these early child rearing years where both money and time are scarce.

for some time now, I've been playing the ball far back in my stance with short irons and wedges. My results aren't terrible, but I know this isn't the normal 'suggested' method. I'm not really sure when I started doing this.

my question is, is it bad or causing other issues and if normal swings would have that ball several inches farther forward, am I dropping my upper body (spine angle) to make proper compact?

Lilbilly, I have had the same issue over the years.  As stated above, you aren't shifting your weight forward enough.  That being said, it isn't easy to just change this.  I have slowly but surely been able to move the ball up closer and closer to my front foot.  At this point I have the ball about 6 inches off my front foot and the back foot varies by club.  If you are happy with your stroke, why adjust it?  Look at bubba.  There are tons of golfers out there with unusual strokes.   The normal way is just the easiest way to teach somebody to be consistant in striking the ball.

You are right. I am not necessarily unhappy with my swing, I'm mainly looking to score better. Just analyzing things and wanting to better my inconsistencies Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[glock35ipsc]

Getting my weight to shift forward on the downswing was something I worked really hard on over the winter, and I can already see the dividends.  I use to play to ball way back in my stance, as Erik says, to 'cheat' my flipping and lack of weight shift.  With the ball back, I was almost guaranteed to hit it first.  My problem was I would shift back on the backswing, but not turn my hips or body on the downswing.  This resulted in mostly an arm swing, early release, hips basically square at impact, hanging back and throwing the club into the ground behind the ball, and about 99% of my shots went right.  I had no idea what the left side of the course looked like!

During this winter we worked on turning my hips more, especially on the down swing.  My mental focus was on turning my right pocket back and into an imaginary wall, then turning the left pocket back and into the imaginary wall on the downswing, and KEEPING them turning through the shot, and sort of keeping the arms "dead".... just letting them go for the ride.  With that, I am able to play the ball about in-line with my left ear/pec/pocket area (I'm a righty) for all clubs (except for driver) and just change my back foot position with the different club lengths.  It has also made set-up a lot more consistent for me.  Now my shots are pretty straight, with the occasional slight miss to the right when I don't fully get my weight forward, and an occasional draw.  Where I use to need to setup waaaaaaay left to have a shot at my target (which was actually to the right), I am now pretty confident at setting up parallel to my target.

[lilbilly]

Saturday when I played most of my misses were hooks, with the occasional block right.