My Swing (yupintherough)

[yupintherough]

Thanks for taking a peek, everyone. Just started out on my golf journey, and I'm looking to get better! As I said in my "Member Intro" post - I'm better than I'd feared, and worse than I'd hoped! I'm also looking to change all of that with some concentrated practice and hope to find a good instructor in the Boston area to help out every week or two for the first few months - if anyone has a suggestion for someone, fire away! I'm in the city, but do keep a car - so traveling about is always an option, although closer is easier. Anyhow, the meat of this post now that I've screwed up the courage to figure out some filming basics (not the best yet, I can do better - bear with me!). Boy, y'all are right, feel ain't real!

Thanks & cheers

I've been Playing Golf for: About 1 month!

My current handicap index or average score is: 30.4 (local club provides GHIN #)

My typical ball flight is: Random! Usually not terrible but not reliable

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Slice and/or topped shot

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Videos:

[whatwoodtigerdo]

Dude A+ on production value. Someone can help more than me but your stance is definitely too narrow. You have to get your feet wider.

[yupintherough]

Ha! That's a bit of OCD on my part, making sure that I can distract you from the slightly-off camera angles and overly-blurry DTL footage... I swear I'll get better at that! Good point about the stance width; I've noticed my habit is now getting to be "too narrow" perhaps: one of the first drills I had success with was the "feet together" drill to minimize my awful sway (I could feel it, so it must have looked like I was an extra from "The Perfect Storm" or something: gale winds and a heaving deck!). I've probably ingrained that too much. Thanks for the pointer!

[yupintherough]

Ok, so it's been about a month of being too busy to spend as much time as I'd want on this game... but have been playing/practicing and really enjoying it. I haven't updated this thread obviously, so when I remembered that at the range, I had just enough juice to grab one video. I know it doesn't follow any of the best-practices, but posting is mostly a way to make sure that I keep plugging along and trying to make improvements!

[billchao]

Wow, nice swing for a newbie! You have some good things going on that you can build on pretty easily, IMO. I think your priority should be Key #2: Weight Forward. You do a great job of turning about your center on the backswing, but you need to get your weight forward on the downswing. You have too much weight on your right foot; good golfers typically have almost 90% of their weight on the front foot at impact. To do this, you need to push your hips forward. Really feels like you're driving down on your left foot, and your left knee should retain its flex longer. [VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHNJhIp4AE4[/VIDEO] Here's some supplemental reading, too: [CONTENTEMBED=/t/74723/introduction-to-the-purestrike-5-simple-keys-5sk-learning-system layout=inline][/CONTENTEMBED] [CONTENTEMBED=/t/29616/the-biggest-secret-slide-your-hips layout=inline][/CONTENTEMBED] Also, you want to be careful of where you line up your camera, because off angles can distort the view of your swing. http://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

[yupintherough]

Thanks for encouragement! Feels like I'm making some progress, that swing at least is getting the ball up in the air and down the range/fairway a lot farther and more reliably than my first swings ever were (shocking, I know). And I think you're right about the next priority - I'm not moving all over anymore, but man, could I look MORE like the example in the 5SK video of the guy who "fakes it" with weight forward? I should model for that!

Appreciate you pointing that out. It's like so many things you get a blind spot on: it feels like I'm doing it, so I must be, right? NO. Nonononononono. Not even close. I'll be heading to the range in a bit, and that's absolutely the piece I'll try to work on next to see how it feels going slow & steady.

Thanks again!

[yupintherough]

Ok, doesn't look much better (and I apologize for the slightly off angle; hard to steal a proper spot for the camera without interfering with a grass bay!), but was feeling some improvement. Still not moving my weight enough, but again, it's a good thought, and I think I had more of it today even though I didn't capture that. Certainly has a better result of more distance + higher trajectory when I can do it. I didn't have a ball to step on, but I was using a stick jammed into the grass a few inches from my left hip as a "target": that was a useful swing thought. Also been trying to start the downswing with the weight transfer; when I get lazy, it's clearly all arms. Grrrr. Can't wait for real lessons to begin soon!

[boogielicious]

@yupintherough

Try slowing down your swings and break the swing down into pieces.  Go to the top of the backswing (A4) then to A5 (left arm parallel to ground, then A6 (shaft parallel to ground).  From A4 to A6, your weight should move forward as Erik's does in the 5 SK video.  Rehearse the weight shift and just hit the ball easy, i.e., 25% - 50% swing only.  Not full speed.  Post a full speed video of this drill.  The basis for slowing down your drills is explained below.

Also, @Foursum Golf posted a great exercise to do to increase your shoulder turn. It is number 4 on this post.  Your shoulder turn is a little tight and this exercise really will help.

[yupintherough]

Thanks for the pointers- I'll dive in a bit later, and hopefully grab a moment to get some video of the drills. Without going 3 weeks this time as well!

[yupintherough]

I'll also allow that I think the turn is right for the same reason my stance was too narrow and easily fixed to begin with: I think I'm overdoing moves that keep me feeling totally in control, vs anything that feels like a huge windup etc for fear of losing what control I do have. I think there's clearly a middle ground to get to quickly if I want to progress!

[mvmac]

I'd check your grip, looks a little palmy with the left hand

and definitely focus on Key #2

[yupintherough]

Thanks for the pointers... I'm definitely working on #2 right now as I mentioned, that was pretty clear looking at my video... And I'll take a peek at the grip as well. Just saw the thread you have up just recently here: http://thesandtrap.com/t/75436/how-to-grip-a-golf-club-commonalities-of-a-functional-golf-grip ... Those 2 things should be my next pieces to work on I'd say. Thanks again to everyone here for helping with this journey!

[CarlSpackler]

Looks like you are making good progress.

[yupintherough]

Appreciate it! Hopefully lots more progress to come over the next few weeks... Starting lessons and working harder with video per the last few suggestions.