My Swing (JoeMal)

[JoeMal]

I've been Playing Golf for: 2 weeks

My current handicap index or average score is: I'm guessing somewhere in the triple digits.  Never played 18 holes before.

My typical ball flight is: Slice or "hosel rocket" as my instructor says

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is:  Hitting off the heel.  I also hit fat

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A little background.....

I'm 29, 6'6" and wanting to learn how to play golf.  This is something I've wanted to do for nearly a year and finally just started buying clubs and equipment so I can get moving.  As with most things in life; the hardest part is getting started.  You can see the current clubs I own in my signature.

I've stared with lessons from a local "PGA" certified instructor.  My lessons are 1 hour and we go through 50 balls.  The videos below are during my 2nd lesson.  I am truly embarrassed to post them but feel it's one step towards me getting better.  I need to start somewhere and there's a lot of smart people that can help me here.  One swing at a time I guess.  To be honest, the swings don't feel as bad as they look on camera.

And here she goes...sorry for the blurry video (I'll make sure to rib my instructor next time I see him)

Videos:

Areas for Improvement

1.  Hip rotation.  I really struggle with moving my hips on the backswing

2.  Keeping my arms straight.  I'm unsure how far back in my swing I need to keep my arms (both?) straight.  My right arm can't help but bend at some point, and I see others doing this, so I think that's fine.  But my left I really struggle keeping it straight when I try to hinge.

3.  Making contact with the ball - I hit fat a lot.  Too far behind the ball.  My instructor keeps telling me "Just hit the ball" and "Hit the ball first" but I can't seem to hit the ball before my club strikes the ground.

4.  When I do make contact with the ball, I hit the heel.  A lot.  Like 9 out of 10 times I hit on the heel.  When I do make solid contact, it feels great and I know I hit a good shot.  But a lot of times I hit the heel.  My instructor told me I need to work on keeping my arms closer to my body on my downswing.  Almost pulling them towards my body and exploding up through the shot.  I did this successfully once and immediately felt how different it was, and it felt good.  I hit about 120 yards with an 8 iron that swing (Unsure if that's good, but that's what he said )

5.  Making an aggressive downswing.  He kept telling me to swing harder.  But with my poor ability to make correct contact with the ball, I was afraid to really swing the club and I didn't think I could control it.  If I can't connect going at half speed, why would I be able to connect at full speed?  Watching the videos I do see how weak I am on my downswing.  To be honest these videos were more at the beginning of the lesson and I think towards the end I was swinging harder but who knows.

Anyway...this is me.  2 lessons in.  I feel like I've learned a LOT in the 2 lessons I've had and if I can figure out how to quit hitting off the heel I think I'll be in much better shape.

[boogielicious]

@JoeMal

Don't be embarrassed about posting your swing. We all have to start somewhere.  It would help more if you hit balls in the video and get a more stable camera mount.

[JoeMal]

@JoeMal Don't be embarrassed about posting your swing. We all have to start somewhere.  It would help more if you hit balls in the video and get a more stable camera mount.

So how do you guys video tape yourselves? My wife stays home with our daughter and sadly I don't have many friends to go play with. Do you take a camera and a tripod?

[saevel25]

So how do you guys video tape yourselves? My wife stays home with our daughter and sadly I don't have many friends to go play with. Do you take a camera and a tripod?

Yep

[mvmac]

Areas for Improvement

1.  Hip rotation.  I really struggle with moving my hips on the backswing

2.  Keeping my arms straight.  I'm unsure how far back in my swing I need to keep my arms (both?) straight.  My right arm can't help but bend at some point, and I see others doing this, so I think that's fine.  But my left I really struggle keeping it straight when I try to hinge.

I agree the lack of hip turn is a problem, note the difference in these two pics. You basically make a backswing by just bending the arms. I'd like to see you do the opposite, feel like the right arm never bends, that'll force you to turn in order to make a backswing. Film some practice swings doing just that, exaggerate the hell out of it

Good thread on the hip turn.

How to Make a Centered Hip Turn

[ryan772]

Ive used the handles on my golfbag and a cellphone to take videos. A camera and tripod is best but if your taking them from the right heoght and angle just getting some feedback is good.

[JoeMal]

I hit a bucket of balls tonight. I put the ball a little further back in my stance and was making better contact with my irons but still not hitting pure as I'm hitting fat. Swing still looks terrible. It's crazy how what you feel yourself doing is really not what's happening at all! I bought a little cell phone tripod mount that worked great to get some video without lugging my camera to the range. I'm going to figure out how to chop up the video and post it. On a positive note, I did hit my driver nicely about 4 times out of 7. Long and straight. Happy with that so far but I did have a huge backswing which I'll need to work on. Overall I think it's going to be a long haul but I guess that's what golf is all about. I am competitive so sucking is hard for me but I'll work through it and won't give up

[JoeMal]

Iron Observations:

Still a little flex in my left arm

Not rotating hips

Driver Observations:

Too much backswing

Lots of lower body movement

Lots of head movement

I'm going to try to get out this weekend and hit a little more and my next lesson is Monday evening.  I also need to pay more attention to where I line up as I'm not getting good angles on my videos.  I was at the far end of the driving range and there are some trees directly off to my right so I had to sort of angle away from the camera to ensure I wasn't hitting into the trees.

[mvmac]

Also take a look at this thread. Left hand looks weak (turned under) and the right thumb is positioned down the center of the grip. Getting the grip better will allow you to have the hands a little forward and hopefully rotate your head more to the center. You have a lot of "slice pieces" in your set-up.

[JoeMal]

I was brought back down to reality tonight in my lesson....

I showed up a few minutes early and bought a bucket of balls..started working on my practice swing before my instructor arrived shortly after.  He approached and asked how I've been, yada yada.  I told him I had been to the driving range and was practicing in my backyard.

He asked "So what have you been practicing on?"

I said "I'm really struggling with my hip and shoulder rotation.  I feel like I'm swaying and not rotating on an axis..."

He looks at me and says, "I don't ever recall talking about that....where did you pick that up?  How are you doing with your short strokes and 'connection'?" (He's been focusing a lot on "connection" between my body and the club)

I looked dumbfounded.  He called me out.  Here I am...three weeks into golf, and I'm trying to do it all.  Stance, grip, straight arms, straight back, head down, hinge - but not too far, arms in, explode, control the club, rotate! try not to chicken wing, follow through, etc etc.  I have been struck by analysis paralysis and I'm trying to overdue it.  It was sobering.

So this lesson we went all the way back to the beginning and redid my first lesson.  This made me frustrated at first but by the end I realized I needed it.  He was right.  I'm coming out swinging, sprinting in a marathon.  This site, YouTube, etc are great because there's so much information out there.  But for a guy like me...I need to crawl.  Crawl a lot.  Then walk.  Then jog.  Then run.

SO...we worked on my stance.  I was falling back into hunching over where he wanted me more bend at the waist and not the back.  We also worked on short backswings without hinge...straight back, straight forward with some force.  He also noticed I was coming down open, so I really tried to keep my clubface straight and not open up.  I had the tendency to swing way behind me (Because I was trying to over rotate with the club).  I hit more straight, pure shots tonight in my last 10 minutes than I have in the last 3 weeks.  I need to slow down and focus on what I'm being taught instead of trying to be a weekend warrior and do it myself.  I'm getting way ahead of myself.  I truly appreciate all the knowledge on this forum but I think it's made me forget that I'm still a baby.  Working on getting some video uploaded...

[isukgolf]

Just wanted to say I wish I had done what you are doing when I started. Wanted you to give kudos for asking for help early. Smart move in my books. Good luck!

[JoeMal]