Does this make sense at all? (semi long)

[bamagrad03]

So, my two biggest issues are: lifting (either body or head) and overswinging with my arms while not engaging my hips.

I'm fighting these two things every swing. I have a really hard time focusing on engaging my hips and just letting my arms fall through. When I do, it's great, and when I don't - well I top it like a newbie.

After a horrible day at the range Wednesday, I had a really good day yesterday. But I stopped focusing on him rotation and JUST on the ball. And on my swings where I didn't pull my head/body up or look away too soon, I absolutely crushed it. Straight and far (all 7i no driver yet).

But here's the question: does my forcing the head/body down MAKE me engage my hips? Since I wasn't consciously engaging my hips first, I'm unsure if I'm still overs-winging with my arms first or if my keeping my eyes on the ball has somehow fixed my other problem.

Generally I'm inclined to think that if it the results are great, don't worry about the mechanics. aka if only focusing on keeping my head down hits a straight and far ball - who cares if you're properly engaging your hips? But I don't think that's a good long term solution. However, if the two are somehow linked - eye on the ball forces hip rotation - then yay, that's good news.

[Wisguy]

I've got somewhat of a similar problem, but I've been hitting my mid and long irons fat, usually not the first few holes but after I've warmed up a bit.  I attended a free golf clinic at the local muni course this week and sure enough, most of my first 20 shots were really nice, but then I started hitting them fat again.  When the instructor finally got around to me, I pointed out the divots I had been making, he asked what the problem was since they seemed to be nice divots, and I responded that they were all about 6" behind the ball.  He had me hit a few shots and of course I had to pure my 5-iron straight at the 175 yard flag, and he asked me with a laugh what I was doing there (I did feel a bit guilty since many of the other attendees were new to the game, but the clinic wasn't advertised as being for begginers only and anyway, you gotta like free range balls).  But then I hit a few fat ones and he paused for a moment and gave me a suggestion.

The instructor told me that instead of focusing on a lot of technical and complex issues that could potentially cure the problem, like weight transfer, hand speed, shoulder height, etc... that would perhaps merely muddle up my swing futher, instead I should try something simple:  he told me that I was not turning toward the target enough and was causing problems trying to compensate with my hands and arms.  Instead, what he had me do was ensure that I was rotating my hips sufficiently by making sure my belt buckle was square to the target as I watched the ball go downrange.  He told me not to worry specifically about what my hips were doing but instead just focuse on having the belf buckle face the target at the end of my swing.  Sure enough, my last five balls all were nice shots and it seemed to make a difference.

I tried this tip out while practicing chipping, too, and it really helped with my short game, also.

Hope that tip is helpful.

[Jon Robert]

"

Generally I'm inclined to think that if it the results are great, don't worry about the mechanics."

yes otherwise it can be Paralysis by analysis

"the golf swing is a connected series of feels, and when you get these feels right and rightly connected, you will swing perfectly"

"I am not a natural golfer. There is nothing instinctive about my game. Everything I have ever done in golf I had to learn to do"

PERCY BOOMER

The highly respected golf instruction “thought leader” Percy Boomer said long ago, “what you need to learn are not the technical or mathematical details of a good shot but the feel of it.”

http://www.impactzonegolf.com/percy-boomer/

Percy Boomer rivals Ernest Jones as the most highly respected and most influential teachers of the game from the World War II era and earlier. "On Learning Golf" was first published in 1946 and has gone through more than 20 reprints as modern golfers keep rediscovering it.

http://golf.about.com/od/golftips/tp/classicinstruct.htm