My Swing (x3nt0n)

[x3nt0n]

 

I've been Playing Golf for: 5 months
My current handicap index or average score is: 32.5
My typical ball flight is: fade
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: bad/inconsistent contact

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Videos: 

This is what I was doing when I first started golfing, inconsistent contact, lack of power and fading everything. I improved this at the end of the summer just by trying to swing more around my body. I could hit a fade or a draw just by changing my swing path, it was great. Now it's back.

It looks to me like I need to turn my left shoulder down under my chin not just straight around, that should help me get some hip turn and then not have to lift my arms to finish the backswing.

Just wondering what you guys thought? 

[Alx]

As a beginner the biggest thing that helped me make consistent contact was keeping the head in place. Dont move it around. For the more indepth stuff I'll leave it to the folks who know something .

[x3nt0n]

  On 1/2/2016 at 8:53 PM, Alx said:

As a beginner the biggest thing that helped me make consistent contact was keeping the head in place. Dont move it around. For the more indepth stuff I'll leave it to the folks who know something .

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Well I was obviously overcomplicating things. I hit the range today with the sole swing thought of keeping my head still. I found less knee bend helped with keeping my head still. I only had bad contact on 5 shots out of 120, and on all of them I let my head move slightly, and I knew that's what I'd done. So massive thanks to you.

Was hitting some slight fades, but only about 5-10 yards and they were all coming back onto target. 

Think I'll try to ingrain the still head a bit more then work on zeroing my swing out. Whilst a small fade isn't necessarily a bad shot to have, my long term goal is to be able to shape the ball, and I feel this would be easier from a neutral, straight shot.

[x3nt0n]

A friend and work colleague suggested keeping the head still was a bad swing thought. The idea that I pivot around my the centre of my chest was suggested as an alternative. Hit the range again tonight, and oh my goodness! 

I keep occasionally slipping into a slight bob and sometimes concentrate so hard on pivoting around the centre of my chest I take my eye off the ball. However, much improved.

Also improved my tempo and clubhead speed through the ball. If I do my backswing too slowly it goes wrong, but too quick and it goes wrong. Today I started slowly and accelerated through my backswing and increased acceleration into my downswing. I used to think my backswing had to be a consistent speed, no idea why; What a difference. I'm not sure how accurate the distance markers are at my local range, and it was dark but I hit a few 6 irons past the 170 marker and a 4 iron just past the 200 yard marker. Then I got excited and started really trying to murder the ball, and it all went a bit wrong for a while.

My SW just went much higher in the air but gave me my usual 70 yards, which makes me think I'm hitting it up too much.

 

It will be interesting to see if I can replicate some of these distances, and get consistent contact, consistently. Will try and remember my camera next time.

Edited January 4, 2016 by x3nt0n

[saevel25]

  On 1/4/2016 at 10:01 PM, x3nt0n said:

A friend and work colleague suggested keeping the head still was a bad swing thought. The idea that I pivot around my the centre of my chest was suggested as an alternative. Hit the range again tonight, and oh my goodness! 

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As in a feel, focusing on keeping the head steady isn't high up there on the list. If you perform a center pivot correctly the head stays pretty steady anyways. 

Yea, you do need to stop moving your head up, down and all around  and get a better centered pivot. 

 

  On 1/4/2016 at 10:01 PM, x3nt0n said:

Also improved my tempo and clubhead speed through the ball. If I do my backswing too slowly it goes wrong, but too quick and it goes wrong. Today I started slowly and accelerated through my backswing and increased acceleration into my downswing. I used to think my backswing had to be a consistent speed, no idea why; What a difference.

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Tempo is a finicky thing. I believe those who say you have poor tempo means they have no way of describing what is wrong but just assumes you are swinging too hard.

Tempo is how your turn rates match up. The speed of that depends on the golfer. Nick Price had a fast tempo but it was consistent. Ernie Els had a slow tempo. 

If your turn rates are solid then your tempo should be pretty good baring anything like a massive flip which can tend to feel like you are swinging fast or out of control because the club releases way too early. 

 

 

[x3nt0n]

  On 1/5/2016 at 12:28 AM, saevel25 said:

As in a feel, focusing on keeping the head steady isn't high up there on the list. If you perform a center pivot correctly the head stays pretty steady anyways. 

Yea, you do need to stop moving your head up, down and all around  and get a better centered pivot. 

 

Tempo is a finicky thing. I believe those who say you have poor tempo means they have no way of describing what is wrong but just assumes you are swinging too hard.

Tempo is how your turn rates match up. The speed of that depends on the golfer. Nick Price had a fast tempo but it was consistent. Ernie Els had a slow tempo. 

If your turn rates are solid then your tempo should be pretty good baring anything like a massive flip which can tend to feel like you are swinging fast or out of control because the club releases way too early. 

 

 

 

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Thanks very much for linking the centred hip turn, very helpful.

I've been hitting the ball better, so thought I'd managed to stop bobbing up and down. Filmed myself at the range tonight, and sadly, not the case. I think I'm bobbing up and down less, and turning my hips more, but still moving up and down.

Here is a side by side of a straight shot against a bad fade. The only difference I can see is my head doesn't rise quite as much on the straight shot and my takeaway looks more marginally more around my body. 

It also looks to me like my right arm is getting stuck under my chin, rather than passing in front of it and 'pulling' my head up. Is this the problem or merely a symptom of an issue I'm not seeing?

 

[x3nt0n]

I was told by my friendly colleague and pro that I had no separation between my upper and lower body. He gave me a drill to try where I bend my knees more and squat, on my back swing feel like I'm squatting almost into a sitting position. This is effectively the opposite of standing up, as I was doing, so seemed like a reasonable drill.

Here is my first attempt at a full swing after a warm up and a few pitch shots:

Here is the last ball I hit, by this time the feeling was to push my backside out, then just soften my knees, no sitting down or squatting:

Sorry for the grainy/flickering video. I was filming at 120fps, but the light wasn't up to the task.

Swing still feels strange, but I've got much better posture and lower hip turn. Massive improvement. 

Some work just to get use to this swing before I think about tweaking anything else I think.

Thanks for the help/advice guys, much appreciated.