How You Got Your Swing.

[Blacksheep]

I was given some really good basics by a guy named byron drydon (God rest his soul) back when i was 25 . I laid off for seven years and just started back about 8 months ago. I met an older guy at the club i joined 4 months ago. He got me into a 3/4 swing with good shoulder turn. I have gone from a 6 to almost scratch in a few short months. The guy who gave me the new swing hits the ball solid every time. He' s 64 years old. I'm 52 and have never played better.

[AmazingWhacker]

My current swing is a product of:

hundreds of hours at the range

hundreds of hours hitting into a net

Shawn Clement's youtube videos

Brian Manzella's Never Slice Again video

14 lessons from 2 different pros

And most recently, regular video analysis (self)

I would say I hit it pretty good as far as pure contact goes - when I go to the range if there are 10 guys there, I will be in the top 3 most often.  I don't play much actual golf but I recently played 9 holes at 9 over.  I hit my drives good and was making good contact and all - I just missed every green.

[Derek Ong]

Originally Posted by AmazingWhacker

My current swing is a product of:

hundreds of hours at the range

hundreds of hours hitting into a net

Shawn Clement's youtube videos

Brian Manzella's Never Slice Again video

14 lessons from 2 different pros

And most recently, regular video analysis (self)

That's a little similar to my experience.

• hundreds of hours at the range
• Many including Shawn Clement's youtube videos
• A few Brian Manzella's video (bought Soft Draw and Never Slice Again)
• And most recently, very little video analysis (self)

I always had the talent but without lessons and any right exposure to professionals, for 6 years i was always struggling to beat 110. I guess i should have really swallowed my pride and seek pro lessons (but good pros are not easy to come by in Penang, Malaysia)

Took a year hiatus and came back to the game this last year. Now i play in the nineties and i reckon i will be doing the eighties soon cos it's really my chipping and putting which is the main challenge for me now. FIR is better than my putts and GIR. My chipping really sucks. Now i need to spend my time on this aspect (always ignored it).

Anyways, i felt awesome since i came back and i really can thank a few things for it:

From B.Manzella

• Learned D-Plane  - it is awesome to know exactly what i did by looking at the ballflight
• Pop Out was a great nugget and don't think i would have thought i was doing it.

From Nick Faldo (from GolfToday UK website)

• Mirrored his setup. For me his setup is the truest to the way the ball is supposed to be hit. The axis tilted setup, head behind ball, highs slightly forward, to the slight forward lean and hands under shoulders.
• Hands/arms under shoulders (hanging almost straight down) for me is a big one, if not the biggest one. Still feels/looks weird after years of hands forward from shoulders. My clubs are standard lie btw.
• Weight is on BALLS of feet at setup. In an article by Nick, he spent some time discussing this. I know everyone says it but no one has really said how to feel it. Nick said setup, lift your heels up an inch off the ground, settle the weight, and then slowly put heels down (or similar effect). What a big difference that made.

All i can say is i feel excellent and am very much enjoying my golf. it's great when you can actually hit my clubs flush most of the time on the course, and actually expecting nothing less, with that feel we all love, and the sound, and that silent, motionless stare with the body at the finish position, until the ball comes to a full stop.

Just sharing my little adventure.

[inthehole]

Originally Posted by Kapanda

How the hell do you do that? 150 rounds??

most have been 9 holes after work (course is 10 minutes from my house) & last winter was so warm in NJ/PA, played all the way through ... lets just say they know me there - LOL

Plus, my wife loves to golf as much as I do, so I don't get any cr@p about my golf OCD ... great couples time

[TimATC]

Three trips to The Golf Evolution! Dave, Erik, and James are awesome, and I probably would have quit the game without their instruction. I'm lucky that I live in Buffalo, NY and it's so close to Erie.......:~(

[TWG50]

Great thread.

After years of on-and-off golf growing up and through college, I took my first lesson early last year and was quickly hooked.  We worked hard on the basics, but could not warm up to the instructor.  So after 3 months of pounding sand at the driving range, I took another lesson at the Biltmore.

A couple of tweaks to my set-up and a new, simplified swing thought helped me shoot a 79 the next day.

I guess the answer for me is much the same as everyone else:

- A bit of instruction

- Lots of hard work

- A touch of OCD

[Bookin Weasel]

Started off with a ~20+ handicap.  Had a good 40 yard slice off the tee.  Then, the Golf Channel came along and I listened to every Lee Trevino instructional tip, clip, segment I could find. I love the way he says, "and for you amateurs out there".  Great lessons from probably one of the top 3 ball strikers of all time.  Learned the figure 8 for approaching inside and more shallow, managing bunker play, chipping out of a bad lie and taking the big number out of play, etc.  Straightened out the long fellow , , and down went the big numbers and the handicap, as well.

At one time, got the handicap down to a 6 then came the kids and the short game went to pot due to lack of practice.  Starting now to accept my natural tendencies and work the course with these consistent moves.  Still a work in progress, but a job I love to do.....

[GaijinGolfer]

As Ben Hogan said, "the secret is in the dirt".  I got my swing by spending hundreds and hundreds of hours hitting golf balls in a park near where I grew up in Wisconsin.  Id go out there every day and just hit balls.  A lot of it was just trying different things and seeing what worked and what didnt.

Eventually, I took some lessons and they tweaked my swing and showed me some things that I could do to get better and that really helped my swing because I was more able to self-diagnose my swing and understand why a swing produced a bad shot.

[soon_tourpro]

7 Months of building deep practice and variation at range to build a feedback loop.

Model used Mike Austin.

Result are 5 clubs longer.

Self correction loop.

a free flowing motion going all out.

[JP1111]

Originally Posted by Kapanda

How the hell do you do that? 150 rounds??

I've probably played more than that in less time. I started in May 2011 and I reckon I've played 200 rounds (95% of them 18 holes too). I work 2 12 hour days, 2 12 hour nights and then get 6 days off, so I am able to play 8 days out of 10, plus I had a month off when I changed jobs and played probably 25 rounds in that month alone.

Anyway back on topic. I got into the game through work friends who persuaded me to play with them one weekend so I literally bought a £100 set of clubs on the way to the course and shot a 138 round my local muni (Par 70, 6100 yards). From then on I had got the bug so I started putting in hour after hour at the range whilst playing a couple of rounds a week as a single in the evening when the course was quiet. At first I just made sure I could make clean(ish) contact every time without worrying much about swing mechanics and managed to break 100 for the first time after about 20 rounds. I then found Shawn Clements youtube videos which helped alot and just went from there really, tweaking various things as I went along. I'm pretty happy with my swing now, It's reliable and when I get dialed in my irons in particular are very accurate (driving can be wayward at times but I rarely make less than 50% fairways). I've got myself down to a 12 handicap and on my home course I often come close to breaking 80. I guess now it's a case of adding power (a par 4 over 400 yards is hard work for me as I rarely drive more than 240) and learning to shape both ways.