My Swing (adragon0216)

[adragon0216]

 

I've been Playing Golf for: 7 months
My current handicap index or average score is: handicap is 16, but have been playing badly for past 3 months
My typical ball flight is: fade / slice
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: slice

To combat my slice, I have been experimenting with a strong grip. This has helped me eliminate slices for my irons, however, my 4 iron, 19 degree hybrid, 3 wood and driver has been suffering as a result. They go quite low and do not fly far at all. For example I hit a 4 iron yesterday about 5 meters off the ground going 170 including roll. Before going for a strong grip, I have been looking around as well as getting coaching for a fix to my slice, but none have worked. My driver is on the short side, I believe around 43 inches. Below are two videos, one with a neutral grip a few weeks back, and one from a week ago with a strong grip. One thing I've heard a few times is that I rotate too much, but I have absolutely no idea how I should change it to improve my ball flight. Would love any advice/things people pick out of my swing. 

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Videos: 

 

 

[Golfer2223]

There is no such thing as a strong grip. There is a stronger left hand or stronger right hand. If you strengthen the right hand grip this will help close the face. If you weaken the left hand grip this will also help close the face, though less so.

Stand taller and flatten the swing out until you are older. Don't try to be so bent over at the hips at impact. Take lessons so you don't get hurt swinging this way. Your shoulders should turn level through the ball. Like I said don't increase the bend from the hips at impact.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Golfer2223

[saevel25]

Posture looks really good. I would say that it does look like you are standing slightly too close to the ball in the first video there. I would scooch on back about 2-3 inches. From the DLT View you should be able to fit the width of your hand between your thighs and the butt end of the club. 

16 hours ago, adragon0216 said:

To combat my slice, I have been experimenting with a strong grip. This has helped me eliminate slices for my irons, however, my 4 iron, 19 degree hybrid, 3 wood and driver has been suffering as a result. 

A grip doesn't really influence the swing that much. It's more of a fine tuning issue. There is probably other issues in the swing causing a severe enough inward swing path at impact for it to be a slice. 

Seriously man, you have a great looking swing. 

My best observation is that your body out paces your arms. You are getting stuck behind you. Usually this is a block move. You don't have a big issue with the club being far inside your hands at A6. When you rotate that much it's going to pull the path left because everything is connected pulling the hands inward in the finish. 

I would work on getting the hands down quicker, and feel like they are pushing out to right field, away from your body. 

It is a weird thing to think or feel like you need to push your hands away from the body because your body wants to turn pulling them the other way.  

 

[Ernest Jones]

38 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Posture looks really good. I would say that it does look like you are standing slightly too close to the ball in the first video there. I would scooch on back about 2-3 inches. From the DLT View you should be able to fit the width of your hand between your thighs and the butt end of the club. 

A grip doesn't really influence the swing that much. It's more of a fine tuning issue. There is probably other issues in the swing causing a severe enough inward swing path at impact for it to be a slice. 

Seriously man, you have a great looking swing. 

My best observation is that your body out paces your arms. You are getting stuck behind you. Usually this is a block move. You don't have a big issue with the club being far inside your hands at A6. When you rotate that much it's going to pull the path left because everything is connected pulling the hands inward in the finish. 

I would work on getting the hands down quicker, and feel like they are pushing out to right field, away from your body. 

It is a weird thing to think or feel like you need to push your hands away from the body because your body wants to turn pulling them the other way.  

 

That is a tough one. When I'm doing it well, I sometimes have the feeling of my body turning hard left while my arms are driving hard right. Feels like everything is going two different directions at once and the ball is splitting the difference and going down the intended line. 

[iacas]

12 hours ago, Golfer2223 said:

There is no such thing as a strong grip. There is a stronger left hand or stronger right hand. If you strengthen the right hand grip this will help close the face. If you weaken the left hand grip this will also help close the face, though less so.

Stronger grips tend to mean the hands are, for a righty, rotated to the right on the grip as you look down at setup. Weak is to the left.

You can have a "strong" grip or a "weak" grip relative to neutral. You can have a grip that's "stronger" or "weaker" than another grip, too.

A strong grip can promote closing the clubface, but in many players, it actually helps them hold it off. Consider Zach Johnson, for example: his clubface points right of the target line nearly every time he hits the ball, and he has a very strong grip (both hands rotated clockwise or to the right).

12 hours ago, Golfer2223 said:

Stand taller and flatten the swing out until you are older. Don't try to be so bent over at the hips at impact. Take lessons so you don't get hurt swinging this way. Your shoulders should turn level through the ball. Like I said don't increase the bend from the hips at impact.

Why?

Word of advice… you should always be able to say "why" you want something done, and until you build up a lot of credibility, you should always say why when you post.

[adragon0216]

I loosened my hands on the grip, and played a great round of golf last sunday. Played with a consistent 20 yard cut on the driver. No score due to foursomes. Went to the range 2 days ago, and one thing caught my attention: my driver's ball flight seemed to go up then simply drop down, and did not stay in the air for long at all. Got my driver at 9.5+1.5 degrees if that gives any additional information.

No video due to my phone running out of battery. :(

[adragon0216]

Slight problem: the two range session I've had in the last few days have been filled with shanks. Just came out of nowhere, and doesn't look like I'll be looking forward to a round with this going on. I can't really figure out why this is happening, I don't believe I'm doing anything different to usual. My non-shanks look too too close to the hosel for comfort.

[iacas]

Your head goes down and back and your arms come down a tad too slowly (if they came down at the proper rate given your head movement you'd hit six inches behind every ball).

[Mike Boatright]

The golf grip is either slightly stronger or neutral The stronger grip allows the face to close a bit and the neutral keeps it from doing so as much. The problem lies in the strong grip if you place your right hand underneath the grip so much that you not connected to it then you leave the face wide open! The strong grip hook is a mere myth for me a strong grip is great for a baby draw or the driver because it's harder to square up vs say a sw. 

 

Your feet are way to close to each other and your swing looks like it's chopping wood and is vertical up and down which will cause your path to be awful and your body to clear early leaving you with so many adjustments to hit the ball that your lucky to catch up and leave it to the right. Ironically your shank swing looked the best it was a bit flatter and kinda on plane? Widen your stance bend your knees and bend over at address and maybe that will help also stick with the interlock grip it eliminates the need or worry about to strong or neutral at least for beginners good luck.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Mike Boatright

[adragon0216]

Most shots were pretty straight, but one or two leaked to the right. Taking any swing tips. Been working on stopping the out to in to eliminate any mad slice misses. Camera angle is slightly weird, but this shot was pretty straight with a baby draw.

My coach didn't like my right heel coming up too quickly. What are you guys' (and gals is applicable) opinion on this.

[boogielicious]

4 minutes ago, adragon0216 said:

Most shots were pretty straight, but one or two leaked to the right. Taking any swing tips. Been working on stopping the out to in to eliminate any mad slice misses. Camera angle is slightly weird, but this shot was pretty straight with a baby draw.

My coach didn't like my right heel coming up too quickly. What are you guys' (and gals is applicable) opinion on this.

Not sure if the right heel is an issue. The swing looks pretty good from this view. Can you post a face on view? That would help determine if the weight shift is the issue causing slices.

[adragon0216]

1 minute ago, boogielicious said:

Not sure if the right heel is an issue. The swing looks pretty good from this view. Can you post a face on view? That would help determine if the weight shift is the issue causing slices.

Recorded a FO video yesterday but it got corrupted. Oh well.

[saevel25]

1 hour ago, adragon0216 said:

My coach didn't like my right heel coming up too quickly. What are you guys' (and gals is applicable) opinion on this.

Jordan Spieth won 5 times last year and his right heel comes off the ground a lot. It just depends on the golfer. If the right heel is caused because of good turn rates then it's OK.

I would be more concerned with your head dropping down and backwards in the downswing.

 

[adragon0216]

Recently got the opportunity to get footage in on a better capture device (120 fps!) and here are two videos of my driver face on and down the line (bear the poor strike - shank if it were an iron). Currently struggling with my driver: nothing is very consistent. I can do (or think I have done) the same motion for two different swings but results in two way different results. Sometimes a high fade/slice comes out of nowhere, which puts me in trouble when I aim down the right hand side of the fairway for a draw.

Face on:

Down the line:

 

[b101]

As others have said, the main issue is still your head movement (although it does look improved in the most recent video). There's so many good things in your swing and you'll be amazed at how much more consistency you gain when you sort it out. Take slow (50%) swings, use video when you're on the range and try to feel like you're actually growing on your downswing (you won't be, but it's a good feel). Check the video after each swing and you'll realise whether you're achieving your aim or not. 

Seriously, though - there's so much good there, but you have to make a lot of compensations with your arms because you're losing so much height in the downswing. Sort that out and that'll be a load of problems gone. Good luck and keep posting 

[adragon0216]

I was working on my head movement a week ago but then realised that I was slightly aboe plane again and had to dedicate a few days to fix that. 2 rounds of golf ago I kinda screwed up my swing by putting a club as an alignment stick too close to the ball, resulting in the shanks. Kinda recovered for my round 2 days ago (game came back on last 5 holes). 

Anyways I'll quit the rambling. On my longer irons/clubs, they have beenvery unpredictable for me when I try to hit them with any power. Any idea why? I've got a video of it if required.