My Swing (Triggers)

[golfaddict1]

Yup was gonna say the only thing thats gonna cause your hook is that super strong left hand combined with what already looks like a strongish right hand. Look at your clubface at the top of your backswing - its pointing to the sky! So closed! It should ideally match the back of your right hand. Get your left hand 'lifeline' to cover the top of your right thumb. This will feel super weak and awful at first but will stop you flipping the club at impact.

You're also losing your wrist angle and bowing your right arm at impact. Try to keep your right hand bowed slightly and leading through impact. This should also help straighten that right arm a bit and help you compress the ball more. Practice hitting some short low punch shots with a 6 iron, trying to hit the ball as low as possible by delofting through impact, leading with the right arm and hitting down through the ball.

[Triggers]

Yup was gonna say the only thing thats gonna cause your hook is that super strong left hand combined with what already looks like a strongish right hand. Look at your clubface at the top of your backswing - its pointing to the sky! So closed! It should ideally match the back of your right hand. Get your left hand 'lifeline' to cover the top of your right thumb. This will feel super weak and awful at first but will stop you flipping the club at impact.

You're also losing your wrist angle and bowing your right arm at impact. Try to keep your right hand bowed slightly and leading through impact. This should also help straighten that right arm a bit and help you compress the ball more. Practice hitting some short low punch shots with a 6 iron, trying to hit the ball as low as possible by delofting through impact, leading with the right arm and hitting down through the ball.

Thanks for taking a look and the @golfaddict1

I definitely agree all sorts of things can go wrong starting from a bad grip, so we'll see what gets cleaned up from just adjusting that.

As for the second point, to make sure I follow you:

I should be looking for something like the blue line, instead of the red ?

Doing a little looking at some other swings ( Phil ), seems that I see what you mean :)

[golfaddict1]

Thanks for taking a look and the @golfaddict1

I definitely agree all sorts of things can go wrong starting from a bad grip, so we'll see what gets cleaned up from just adjusting that.

As for the second point, to make sure I follow you:

I should be looking for something like the blue line, instead of the red ?

Doing a little looking at some other swings ( Phil ), seems that I see what you mean :)

Yes exactly. See how his hands are leading through the ball. I think your bent arm is caused by you lifting up and flipping the wrists through impact. I should say there are plenty of good players who have bent lead arms (Spieth, Westwood) but for them I think its anatomical i.e. they cant really straighten it fully whereas it looks like a compensation with you.

[iacas]

Yes exactly. See how his hands are leading through the ball. I think your bent arm is caused by you lifting up and flipping the wrists through impact. I should say there are plenty of good players who have bent lead arms (Spieth, Westwood) but for them I think its anatomical i.e. they cant really straighten it fully whereas it looks like a compensation with you.

Both of those players can extend their arm to straight. It's not anatomical.

You're seeing the result, not the cause.

I'd not worry about that stuff right now. I'd weaken the grip slightly and get it much more in the fingers - it appears to be "palmy strong." And keep working on the pivot and your start lines.

[Triggers]

Yes exactly. See how his hands are leading through the ball. I think your bent arm is caused by you lifting up and flipping the wrists through impact. I should say there are plenty of good players who have bent lead arms (Spieth, Westwood) but for them I think its anatomical i.e. they cant really straighten it fully whereas it looks like a compensation with you.

Both of those players can extend their arm to straight. It's not anatomical.

You're seeing the result, not the cause.

I'd not worry about that stuff right now. I'd weaken the grip slightly and get it much more in the fingers - it appears to be "palmy strong." And keep working on the pivot and your start lines.

Thanks guys, grips is definitely first up. I don't want to try to adjust too much until I see what changes fixing my grip makes.

I've already started working on using a weaker grip in my living room drills, which is working A1-A4 in various stages. I did also notice the tendency to have a bit of a palmy grip ( are you referencing a specific hand by that, or just in general? ) as well, I started working on that a few days ago.

Hopefully will be getting to the range tomorrow evening

[Triggers]

Haven't been able to get any new video lately, but I have been working on things consistently.

I've been working on slow practice swings to rehearse the pivot/lines around the house. Weakening my grip felt pretty weird at first but it's starting to feel pretty normal now.

Got out and played 9 the last couple of weekends. Par for the 9 is 31 and I shot 44 and 43, both pretty good rounds for me. My goal for now is to get down to a complete bogey average on this course, which I'm not far off of.

Will try to update with a video of my swing practice soon.

[Triggers]

Got to the range today, felt pretty good. I don't think I hit any hooks.

7 Iron FO + Practice Swing Drill

7 Iron DTL

Driver FO

Driver DTL

My left hand is in a weaker position, still working on it of course. Last two times at the range I've had a tendency to push/block the ball left ( no curve, just starts left ), which from my understanding is a indication that I'm 'late' getting my upper body through the swing.

Slowly went through my practice drill in the 7i FO video. I feel like it helps a lot, still need to work on getting my weight forward and striking down on the ball; my misses are usually fat.

[Triggers]

A few things I noticed.. Ball position seems too far forward for my 7i. I haven't quote figured out how consistently setup with the ball yet. Secondly, in my FO views, my head is still drifting back some. Might be causing the tendency to hit fat if I get way back. Will keep working on that as usual

[Triggers]

Played 9 this weekend on vacation in Georgia. Shot a +7 42... definitely the best I have ever played. 7 bogeys, 2 pars; no 3 putts.

The pars I did make were all fairly long putts for me, maybe 7-8 feet. And I also missed a couple in those range for easy tap in bogeys.

One of the biggest take-aways was that I didn't hit any massively fat shots... which has been one of my issues. I did have some not so clean hits, but was able to recover pretty well on my next shot.

Should be back on the range this week.

[Triggers]

Been playing a little more than getting to the range.

Played 18 and 9 recently for a 101 and 51 respectively. The issue was a few lost balls from errant T shots in the 18.. still had few mishits that were basically just straight extra shots since they get very little distance.

The difference between these rounds and the 42 were mainly the lack of complete mishits. I started working on getting my swing plane just a little steeper, which has helped a lot in my divot control and loft... just a little inconsistent on the course when I revert back to my slightly more shallow path since I haven't full groved it in.

[Triggers]

Ended up playing another 9 today... one of my most enjoyable rounds.

Had to walk because they were doing maintenance on a bunch of carts, and it was awesome. Shot a 37, for a +7... it's one of our local city courses, so it's a par 62 with the front 9 being 30. I hit 4 GIR, and 2 out of 3 FIR on the par 4s. I didn't notice/forgot a little river separating the green and fairway that I drove into on the 3rd par 4.. woulda been a perfect drive otherwise.

Sadly... I 3-putt 3 of the holes that I hit GIR :| They were fairly long putts ( 20-30yards ) that I didn't really leave myself a easy 2nd putt. BUT.. if I improve on those 3 putts...

I need to start to work on expanding my club selection a bit, right now I'm only running Driver, 4H, 4-PW, SW, Putter. I really need a Gap/Attack wedge to fill between my PW and SW, and might get a lob wedge as well. Will eventually fill in a wood, but I mostly play the shorter courses atm, so I'm not too concerned there.

New video soon I hope.

[Triggers]

Been a while, been playing every weekend still. Been playing some full size courses recently instead of the executives, been averaging in the high 90s

Got some new swing videos yesterday to use as a "before" for the lesson I'll be getting tomorrow. Will finally be getting measured/fitted for my clubs as well, I'm 6'2'' with shortish arms for my size so we'll see what they say... May have my irons adjusted if it needs to be done.

Anyways, felt pretty good at the range yesterday. I was really trying to focus on "centered hip turn".. Which makes a huge difference in my ball striking, I feel like I'm finally starting to get my weight forward on my down swing, but if I don't make the centered hip turn; it's not as effective. With both it's great, finally getting some consistency in getting my divots AFTER the ball.

7 Iron FO

7 Iron DTL

[Triggers]

Got my fitting/lesson yesterday, went pretty well..

Sort of as expected main issues were:

- Hips/Head sliding back during the backswing, potentially a result of trying to over rotate in my back swing.

- Weight a little on my heals

- Clubs need 1-1.5 inches added

I'm 6'2'' with apparently short arms for my size. I was planning on putting new grips on myself, but I may just have a shop do it while doing the extension.

[Triggers]

Played 18 over the weekend, definitely noticing some differences from the few things in the lesson.

Shot +83 on a par 63 course. Putting was a bit off, but I hit a lot of GIR which feels nice. Biggest issue is my driver atm, still don't feel confident putting it in the fairway

Have another lesson this Thursday.

[Triggers]

Played another around at my local par 63 course

Started off with 5 straight pars, which felt awesome. I made a few 6~ foot putts that saved par for me. Finished the first 9 at 5 over ( 3 bogeys, and a double ), which is the best 9 I've played. A +5 for 36. Second 9 still felt pretty good, but not as great at a 10 over 41.. but still resulted in my personal best score at my 'home' course of 78 ( + 15 )

I was still struggling with my driver when warming up with a small bucket, so I decided to minimize the use of it on the course. I think it hit it twice, once was decent ~230 or 240 yards total dist in the middle, and the other time was a low liner that probably only went 120-150 yards into some trees. Luckily I was able to hit a pretty solid 3 wood up with within chipping distance after laying up to the fairway to make bogey.

The thing about this course is that it's longest par 4s are only 380/400 yards. Some shorter par 4s are in the 290-350 range. I hit a 5 iron early in my round on a 215 yard par 3, and I hit the green and bounce off the back... which made me realize; why hit a driver if I'm only gonna hit it at best 250-260 but it's only 50/50?... I hit 5 iron off the tee on the rest of the pars 4s and it was awesome, I was hitting it a good 190-210 pretty consistently, leaving me with anywhere from 100-140 yards on the short par 4s. While I don't want to make it a crutch for covering up my driver, since when I play longer course it will be needed; it's definitely nice knowing I can get away with long irons on this course.

I could probably use my 4 or even my 3 iron as well, but I just felt so confident in the 5. The last month or so I've been feeling a lot better with my longer irons, slowly working my way up the bag I guess.

It's a completely different mindset going into some of these short par 4s... I think I hit 7 iron off the tee on one. 7 iron is probably my favorite club... I hit it about 170~ and one of the par 4 is 340... I ended up hitting 7 iron -> 7 iron, hitting both FIR and GIR.

Anyways, long post, but feels good making progress not only with the execution of my swing, but also the though process of planning out an entire hole before I step on the tee box. Another lesson coming up this thursday, and will probably update with a new swing video shortly after to see if I see any difference between before/after 2 lessons.

[Triggers]

Another lesson last night, starting to feel a little more comfortable realizing what is wrong during my swing.

Issues are still with keeping my back knee from moving, and back hip from sliding during my back swing. Going to be working on these things, along with my 'centered' hip turn in general in a mirror pretty often.

Planning on adding an inch to my clubs next week

[Triggers]

Another pretty good round on a par 63 course, +16 for a 79.

I need to get to the range to work on my driver, I'm not sure why but I have it in my head that I need to swing completely different than my iron swings. Haven't decided if I'll go to the range this week or play a round. Will try to get video either way

Pretty happy with my progress lately, should be getting my irons adjust next week :)

[golfaddict1]

Another pretty good round on a par 63 course, +16 for a 79.

I need to get to the range to work on my driver, I'm not sure why but I have it in my head that I need to swing completely different than my iron swings. Haven't decided if I'll go to the range this week or play a round. Will try to get video either way

Pretty happy with my progress lately, should be getting my irons adjust next week :)

Thats because you do need to make a different swing with your driver than your irons! The fact we're trying to hit up with the driver versus down with the irons makes for a very different feeling swing. That's were so many go wrong i.e. trying to swing all clubs the same way.

Also adding an inch to your clubs is quite severe! Unless you're 6'6''+ tall or have very short arms I'd be very wary of having length added to any club. I'm 6'3'' and made that mistake thinking I needed the extra length but it just makes clubs heavier and less stable and I play far better with standard length. A lot of pro's have their clubs shortened (especially driver) for added control.

BTW I too struggle with and am working on removing lateral hip movement and the 'feels' you need to have during the swing to achieve it are ridiculous and feel awful! I have to feel like my right hip is turning backwards and around towards my left heel whilst my left shoulder is going away from my target towards my right toes. I can honestly say for myself that my bad driver swings come from not rotating properly behind the ball and coming a little over the top on downswing as a result so be aware of that. You cant get away with it a little more with irons but driving requires a good turn whereby you dont lose spine angle or bump your hips away from target.