My Swing (KyleAnthony)

[KyleAnthony]

Weight is really back in the heels at address.  I would also take a look at this post again [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/t/71448/my-swing-kyleanthony/18#post_937167]http://thesandtrap.com/t/71448/my-swing-kyleanthony/18#post_937167[/URL]

Ya I am sort of afraid of falling onto my toes and shanking the ball lol I'll try to be more balanced. Also am I standing to close to the ball??? [quote name="mdl" url="/t/71448/my-swing-kyleanthony/30#post_944046"]I'm no pro, but I've been working solely on trying to learn to hit a draw to overcome my own swing problems and inconsistencies.  So take this as you will.  The message of that video is exactly what I was going to recommend.  I didn't turn my hips enough at the start.  I learned to keep my hands in super tight, but the get them not coming OTT on the down swing I cocked my wrist at the top to try to slide my hands down super close to my blocking hip and suffered constantly from blocked push-fades.  Keys, feels, and issues that have helped/hindered me: 1) Feels like a very big turn and a flatter swing 2) Key for me has been not overdoing the hip turn to the point of over-straightening the back leg, raising the back hip too much, and dipping down with the head 3) Another feel that's helping me is feeling like the hands come into impact under plane 4) That helps me counteract another problem, which is don't spin at the top.  If my first move is a baseball-y shoulder turn at the top, I undo all the good from the hip turn and go right back to choosing between pull-draws and blocked push-fades. [/quote] Awesome thank you. I will try that at the range either tonight or tomorrow. I have tried playing draws but I play it as a controlled hook thing. I take a half step back with my back foot and keep my club square to the target and swing back and forward down my foot line. Any thoughts on this from anyone???

[Golfingdad]

Ya I am sort of afraid of falling onto my toes and shanking the ball lol I'll try to be more balanced. Also am I standing to close to the ball???

Start with the advice from Mike's previous post that he linked.  Flare the feet out more so your knees don't bow inward when they bend.

... and keep my club square to the target and swing back and forward down my foot line. Any thoughts on this from anyone???

It sounds like you may want to read up on the correct ball flight laws .  The bottom line is that if you return the club back to the ball at impact exactly how you descibe your setup, then your ball will start (generally) at your target and hook left of it.

(For the record, that is THE blog post that drew me to this website ... thanks a lot for being the cause of my production drop off at work, @iacas !!  Jerk! )

[mdl]

I have tried playing draws but I play it as a controlled hook thing. I take a half step back with my back foot and keep my club square to the target and swing back and forward down my foot line. Any thoughts on this from anyone???

It sounds like you may want to read up on the correct ball flight laws.  The bottom line is that if you return the club back to the ball at impact exactly how you descibe your setup, then your ball will start (generally) at your target and hook left of it.

I don't interpret what he's saying as necessarily misunderstanding the ball flight laws.  If you set up right edge of fairway, drop the back foot back, and try to play exactly as he says, you can in fact play a hard draw that starts at the right edge (where you face was pointing at the start) and draw back onto the fairway.

This is in fact exactly how I've been playing recently.  Trying to play what's a push draw from my initial setup line from which I drop my foot back to try to assure the draw.  So when it's working the shot cone starts only a tad right of my initial setup line and extends well left of that line.  Though I was dropping the foot back to try to force the issue and now I'm getting the point where I'm feeling more comfortable with the draw swing and the foot dropped back is starting to really encourage a huge hook back all the way across the fairway/green and ending well left of where I want.  I think I'm going to start not dropping the foot but still keep some of those diagonal swing path key things in mind and play a true push-draw relative to initial setup line and final foot line.

[Golfingdad]

I don't interpret what he's saying as necessarily misunderstanding the ball flight laws.  If you set up right edge of fairway, drop the back foot back, and try to play exactly as he says, you can in fact play a hard draw that starts at the right edge (where you face was pointing at the start) and draw back onto the fairway.

This is in fact exactly how I've been playing recently.  Trying to play what's a push draw from my initial setup line from which I drop my foot back to try to assure the draw.  So when it's working the shot cone starts only a tad right of my initial setup line and extends well left of that line.  Though I was dropping the foot back to try to force the issue and now I'm getting the point where I'm feeling more comfortable with the draw swing and the foot dropped back is starting to really encourage a huge hook back all the way across the fairway/green and ending well left of where I want.  I think I'm going to start not dropping the foot but still keep some of those diagonal swing path key things in mind and play a true push-draw relative to initial setup line and final foot line.

I guess that all depends on his definition of the word "target."  When I hear "target," I assume that to mean where he wants the ball to finish.  I also recognize that just because somebody sets up that way doesn't mean that they are returning the club to that exact spot at impact, so it very well may work for them.  (Nick Faldo, for example.)

Whether he knows them or not, it's a great read.  I've read it several times.

[mvmac]

Any thoughts on this from anyone???

Here is kind of the bigger issue, saying this with "peace and love" (Howard Stern reference).  Whenever someone gives their take you respond with saying you'll "try it".  In my mind that means you'll hit 20 balls implementing a new feel and judge the validity of that feel on how well you hit those 20 balls.  Trying something doesn't always create positive results, for a number of reasons.  You might not be doing it correctly or not doing it enough.  You can't make changes making swings at full speed for 20 balls.  You gotta focus on your priority piece, not jump around from swing tip to swing tip.

Again said with peace and love

[iacas]

Here is kind of the bigger issue, saying this with "peace and love" (Howard Stern reference).  Whenever someone gives their take you respond with saying you'll "try it".  In my mind that means you'll hit 20 balls implementing a new feel and judge the validity of that feel on how well you hit those 20 balls.  Trying something doesn't always create positive results, for a number of reasons.  You might not be doing it correctly or not doing it enough.  You can't make changes making swings at full speed for 20 balls.  You gotta focus on your priority piece, not jump around from swing tip to swing tip.   Again said with peace and love ;-)

Read that a thousand times.

[KyleAnthony]

Ha[quote name="mvmac" url="/t/71448/my-swing-kyleanthony/30#post_944075"] Here is kind of the bigger issue, saying this with "peace and love" (Howard Stern reference).  Whenever someone gives their take you respond with saying you'll "try it".  In my mind that means you'll hit 20 balls implementing a new feel and judge the validity of that feel on how well you hit those 20 balls.  Trying something doesn't always create positive results, for a number of reasons.  You might not be doing it correctly or not doing it enough.  You can't make changes making swings at full speed for 20 balls.  You gotta focus on your priority piece, not jump around from swing tip to swing tip.   Again said with peace and love ;-) [/quote]haha. Noted ya sometimes I don't feel changes and feel like I can't do them. Usually ill try it out for a full bucket lol

[Hammer 4]

If I may interject something here. I learned from taking both tennis, and golf lessons that you need to practice 1 thing at a time, and practice that 1 thing until it is second nature. I find that if I have 1 Priority but skip to something else, it's like I lose the feel for the first priority thing, i.e. key 1, 2 or whatever it is. An example is about a month ago my lesson with Mike and Dana, where they had me improve my posture and work on my spine angle at finish. I need to constantly do those things or I find I don't do them sometimes, and when I don't, I hit crummy shots.

It may seem kinda boring for some, but in the end it's well worth staying on track..just my 3 cents.

[KyleAnthony]

If I may interject something here. I learned from taking both tennis, and golf lessons that you need to practice 1 thing at a time, and practice that 1 thing until it is second nature. I find that if I have 1 Priority but skip to something else, it's like I lose the feel for the first priority thing, i.e. key 1, 2 or whatever it is. An example is about a month ago my lesson with Mike and Dana, where they had me improve my posture and work on my spine angle at finish. I need to constantly do those things or I find I don't do them sometimes, and when I don't, I hit crummy shots. It may seem kinda boring for some, but in the end it's well worth staying on track..just my 3 cents.

very true. That makes a lot of sense

[KyleAnthony]

Spam

that was really interesting. maybe i should just stop thinking about how to tweak my swing and so forth and just work on hitting it

[BENtSwing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleAnthony

Any thoughts on this from anyone???

Here is kind of the bigger issue, saying this with "peace and love" (Howard Stern reference).  Whenever someone gives their take you respond with saying you'll "try it".  In my mind that means you'll hit 20 balls implementing a new feel and judge the validity of that feel on how well you hit those 20 balls.  Trying something doesn't always create positive results, for a number of reasons.  You might not be doing it correctly or not doing it enough.  You can't make changes making swings at full speed for 20 balls.  You gotta focus on your priority piece, not jump around from swing tip to swing tip.

Again said with peace and love

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleAnthony

thank you @mvmac i will try bowing my feet out to limit my knee flexing inward. and stop swaying. i really appreciate it

also is the under rotation of my shoulders limiting distance as well???

The simple answer is Yes

Had no idea I was dealing with fellow Stern fans. TST and Evolvr just got a whole lot cooler. Fla Fla Flo-hi to you all.

[iacas]

Read that a thousand times.

that was really interesting. maybe i should just stop thinking about how to tweak my swing and so forth and just work on hitting it

@KyleAnthony ! Come on dude.

Your swing produces the shots you hit now. It's very simple.

[KyleAnthony]

i think I'm just going to take a little break from tweaking my swing. i had a pretty good round yesterday, minus putting, and i think with practice consistency will come. if not then i guess i'll start tweaking again.

[tristanhilton85]

i think I'm just going to take a little break from tweaking my swing. i had a pretty good round yesterday, minus putting, and i think with practice consistency will come. if not then i guess i'll start tweaking again.

It's not about not tweaking the swing, it's about not jumping from one tweak to the next. Obviously you want to improve, and the swing you are currently making isn't giving you the results you want. That means you need to tweak it. Just make sure that you know the tweaks you are making and stick with them. Don't try something for a range session or two and then abandon it because you aren't all of a sudden shooting in the 70s. Real changes take time.

[iacas]

It's not about not tweaking the swing, it's about not jumping from one tweak to the next. Obviously you want to improve, and the swing you are currently making isn't giving you the results you want. That means you need to improve it. Just make sure that you know the tweaks you are making and stick with them. Don't try something for a range session or two and then abandon it because you aren't all of a sudden shooting in the 70s. Real changes take time.

FTFY. :)

@KyleAnthony , good luck. You seem to shoot in the high 80s or low 90s or whatever, and the biggest reason is the golf swing you have right now. I think the mental game can be important, but as @mvmac said, you keep hopping from one idea to the other. I don't even really care if you listen to my advice, or Mike's - but you need to pick something and stick to it, probably for months , and then make real changes. The mental game is likely not it - it's not going to shave 18 strokes off your scores.

I look forward to meeting you in the SoCal event. Take care.

[mdl]

i think I'm just going to take a little break from tweaking my swing. i had a pretty good round yesterday, minus putting, and i think with practice consistency will come. if not then i guess i'll start tweaking again.

Just gonna reiterate what Erik said.  It's totally cool if you want to accept your current swing, maybe just play the big fades, accept the big pull misses, and work on chipping and putting.  But just recognize that that means you're not going to improve much.  Sure, if you up the practice time you can become a bit more consistent with the current way you hit the ball and maybe drop a stroke or two if you significantly increase the short game and putting practice, but given your current swing has you in the high 80s, you need tweaks to make real, lasting scoring gains.

I say this as someone who's definitely guilty of going through streaks of doing it on my own with no input from others, no video, just relying on feel and athleticism and practice.  Generally when I hit a plateau, I'll take some video and see that some of my old bad habits that I never quite drilled and solely focused on enough to make the change permanently ingrained have crept back in, and it's not that I need more practice or find something new to work on, it's just that I need to go back really drill in some of the basics.

Easy example, I've been obsessively focusing on learning to hit the draw.  Things have been going great but it's started to turn into an uncontrolled hook.  I took some video of myself recently and discovered that in solely focusing on feeling out club path at impact and getting the face closed, I'd lost some basics that I've gotten rid of in the past: club head under plane on the back swing, bent front arm at the top to allow a much too big a back swing, and weight not forward enough at impact.

[KyleAnthony]

It's not about not tweaking the swing, it's about not jumping from one tweak to the next. Obviously you want to improve, and the swing you are currently making isn't giving you the results you want. That means you need to tweak it. Just make sure that you know the tweaks you are making and stick with them. Don't try something for a range session or two and then abandon it because you aren't all of a sudden shooting in the 70s. Real changes take time.

FTFY. :)

@KyleAnthony, good luck. You seem to shoot in the high 80s or low 90s or whatever, and the biggest reason is the golf swing you have right now. I think the mental game can be important, but as @mvmac said, you keep hopping from one idea to the other. I don't even really care if you listen to my advice, or Mike's - but you need to pick something and stick to it, probably for months, and then make real changes. The mental game is likely not it - it's not going to shave 18 strokes off your scores.

I look forward to meeting you in the SoCal event. Take care.

Just gonna reiterate what Erik said.  It's totally cool if you want to accept your current swing, maybe just play the big fades, accept the big pull misses, and work on chipping and putting.  But just recognize that that means you're not going to improve much.  Sure, if you up the practice time you can become a bit more consistent with the current way you hit the ball and maybe drop a stroke or two if you significantly increase the short game and putting practice, but given your current swing has you in the high 80s, you need tweaks to make real, lasting scoring gains.

I say this as someone who's definitely guilty of going through streaks of doing it on my own with no input from others, no video, just relying on feel and athleticism and practice.  Generally when I hit a plateau, I'll take some video and see that some of my old bad habits that I never quite drilled and solely focused on enough to make the change permanently ingrained have crept back in, and it's not that I need more practice or find something new to work on, it's just that I need to go back really drill in some of the basics.

Easy example, I've been obsessively focusing on learning to hit the draw.  Things have been going great but it's started to turn into an uncontrolled hook.  I took some video of myself recently and discovered that in solely focusing on feeling out club path at impact and getting the face closed, I'd lost some basics that I've gotten rid of in the past: club head under plane on the back swing, bent front arm at the top to allow a much too big a back swing, and weight not forward enough at impact.

ya i agree. it does need some tweaking but i feel like, what mike said, is that I'm bouncing around so much and i think I'm in a hurry to improve as fast as possible I'm confusing myself on what I'm doing. I'm constantly changing stuff with my swings based one immediate results and i think I'm just going to take maybe 2-4 weeks off of tweaking and just play and see what exactly in my swing needs the attention first. i feel like I've focused so much on fixing my swing i haven't gone out and enjoyed golf as much. ya know

[mvmac]

ya i agree. it does need some tweaking but i feel like, what mike said, is that I'm bouncing around so much and i think I'm in a hurry to improve as fast as possible I'm confusing myself on what I'm doing. I'm constantly changing stuff with my swings based one immediate results and i think I'm just going to take maybe 2-4 weeks off of tweaking and just play and see what exactly in my swing needs the attention first. i feel like I've focused so much on fixing my swing i haven't gone out and enjoyed golf as much. ya know

Yeah stop trying to confuse yourself, you've been told what you need to do.  The information shared is valuable and coming from some of the best instructors in the world.  No "tweaking" is involved, work on making the priority piece better and you'll improve.  If you focus on anything not related to Keys #1 and #2 you're setting yourself up for failure.