Newbie from NC

[Griglygrak]

Hello from Raleigh NC.

I've been playing golf off-n-on for about 25 years but pretty regularly for the last ten. I typically shoot low to mid 80's but this year I'm on a mission to improve. Trouble is I'm a slow learner, LOL.

I bought a 5-pack of lessons and I've done two so far this year. My goal was to learn how to shape the ball as this was something I've never been able to do. I figured the first lesson or two would be fine tuning my swing then the remainder of the lessons would be on shaping the ball flight. Well, I showed up for the first lesson hitting the ball fairly well for a mid-January afternoon. At least that's what I thought. Then, I saw the video and I didn't even recognize myself. Awful take-away, no weight transfer, slight reverse C and a bit of chicken wing added in for good measure. It's a miracle I was able to hit the ball.

Fixing the take-away was set as priority #1 and I was given some drills to help this area. I dutifully hit the range about 2x's a week for about 6 weeks then went back for lesson #2. I was sure I had it nailed and had solved ALL of my faults. In my 'minds-eye,' I now had a PGA swing. Again the video told a different story. In reality, I had only made a minor improvement of the take-away and the rest was still pretty much crap. More homework was assigned and it was back to the range. Only now as I've learned that my minds-eye is a big liar I video myself each session. Progress is a bit slow but I feel that my methods are sound and the effort is there. I guess this means that somewhere down the road after all my other issues worked out I'll start working on shaping shots.

Hello again and I look forward to contributing to the community and using it as a learning resource.

john

[k-troop]

All I can say about your post is HA!!  I hate looking at pictures of my swing.  Interestingly, we hear (and talk about on the forum) all the time how a tour pro will describe what they're feeling or what they think they're doing.  Then compare it to the tape...even these dudes don't know, and they look at their swings all the time!

Welcome to the forum.  Great first post, and it certainly sounds like this is the place for you.  I can't promise you'll learn anything (though the odds are very good) but we all like to talk (read obsess) about the minutia of swing mechanics.

Good luck on your journey!  Now for my first tidbit of unsolicited swing advice:  forget trying to shape the ball (for now).  Focus on getting your weight forward, etc.  Once you've reached a point where you feel like you're hitting the positions you want and making consistently good contact, chances are you'll see a consistent shot shape emerge.  Most folks here would just tell you to stick with that, but once you've achieved consistent path and contact, hitting a draw or a fade is really just a matter of alignment and face angle.  Search "ball flight laws" here on TST for more discussion than you'd ever want to read about that.

Welcome again!