My Swing (TryingtoPlay)

[TryingtoPlay]

 

I've been Playing Golf: Off and on for my entire life
My current handicap index or average score is:  Unfathomable
My typical ball flight is: Left to right, although I also hook.
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: The top, the slice, the hook, the duff, E.t.c. E.t.c. E.t.c.

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Videos: 

 

Edited October 26, 2016 by RandallT
Moderator edited to get the embeds working

[chspeed]

OK. Take a deep breath, and commit yourself to spending the off-season on improving some basics.

Start with posture, and then work your way through the 5 keys.

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/56069-good-golf-posture-how-to-address-the-golf-ball/

[TryingtoPlay]

13 minutes ago, chspeed said:

OK. Take a deep breath, and commit yourself to spending the off-season on improving some basics.

Start with posture, and then work your way through the 5 keys.

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/56069-good-golf-posture-how-to-address-the-golf-ball/

I included a link to my swing on Vimeo.

[klossy]

Congrats on posting to TST!  I can somewhat sympathize with your golf swing troubles, as mine looked very similar to yours not too long ago, and comes back from time to time.  A couple of things I noticed:

1. You look very tense in your setup.  If you're tense, you'll most likely rush your swing, which forces your body to try to compensate.

2. Your knees look a bit 'over bent', you shouldn't ever be uncomfortable in your stance, at least from a general athletic stance perspective.  Compare your posture to a couple other pro or accomplished golfer's posture, and note any differences.

Things that have helped me out that may help you:

1. Download some Tour Tempo tracks, you can find them on ITunes or Youtube.  I'd recommend starting with a 24/8 or a 27/9 tempo track - I didn't find amazing results from just the tempo portion, but it made me realize that I was spending too much time in the transition due to 'over swinging', and allowed me to realize that I needed to make my swing more compact.

2. Focus on keeping your hands low and 'smooth'.  You seem to do a decent job of this in your backswing, but it looks like you 'rush' from the top down to make contact, which keeps your hands high, and forces the rest of your body to try and compensate to deliver the face to the ball.  Therefore, start practicing your takeaway and downswing to get a feeling of 'low hands' - this helped me deliver the clubface to a consistent location more... consistently.

3. Try swinging with a weak grip - or honestly, just try swinging with different, but correct, grip positions.  This isn't an attempt to try to 'fix' your grip, I honestly can't really see it, but rather make your body more aware if it's positions during the swing.

4. Download a slow-motion video app (assuming you have a smartphone).  I use the free version of 'HUDL Technique' and make practice swings in my living room to the TourTempo tracks, and then check the positions to make sure I'm on plane during the downswing.

5. Lastly, try not to focus on hitting the ball.  I know, it sounds strange, because the whole point of swinging is to hit the ball.  But it helped me to think about my swing path through the ball.

 

You'll find alot more technical information on this site, specifically about the 5 swing keys and positions, etc.  You can dive in, but I believe those are secondary to making a solid swing without a ball first to feel how it should, then you can focus on the details from there.

 

Good luck!

 

[chspeed]

1 minute ago, TryingtoPlay said:

I included a link to my swing on Vimeo.

I know, I saw it. Thus the recommendation to start with posture.

[RandallT]

As a moderator, I took the liberty of embedding those video, rather than have the link to vimeo. Hope that helps people see them easier.

There are moments when in golf that you feel it's all going nowhere, and it seems like you might be at that point right now. Since you mention you're on the brink of quitting, my thought is also to relax, take a breath, and just assess what you want from golf. We are all different, and we all want different things at different times. (sometimes low scores, sometimes to compete, sometimes to get exercise, sometimes enjoy outdoors & meeting people, sometimes just the challenge of improving your swing, etc).

I'd suggest backing off the seriousness of it all, and shift to a more light-hearted approach and just challenge yourself to make a big change in your swing. Since your swing isn't working, set yourself to pick one big thing in your swing, work diligently on it, and make it substantially different.

The thread above will help you pick something. I'd recommend you find the "5SK" thread, and you can choose one of the keys- steady head, etc. Or work on posture, as mentioned above. Just pick one thing at a time.

Then there are links in the thread above to how to practice that. (See the 5 S's).

People on your swing thread here will probably give you ideas on what your one biggest weakness is (as @klossy did), but it will be up to you to decide on where to focus. If you get an instructor, that makes it easy: just follow their instructions.

But bottom line, there are great resources here (TST, in this swing thread and at link above) to find where your biggest weakness is, and ideas how to go about fixing that. I'd probably not worry the least bit about scores for a while- or at least not get frustrated by them if you are one who wants to measure progress.

I'll tell you also that you're NOT ALONE in this. Change is hard in golf. Don't think everyone else has it easy and can pick up new stuff quickly- most of us struggle pretty hard. Wish I were someone that just naturally had it, but I'm not. From the strangers I play with, very few of us are naturals, and it just takes work and discipline to make progress. I'm in a phase of enjoying the challenge of swing improvement again (but I've been where you are), so I'll just wish that mindset on you. That will be critical. Hang in there.

 

[iacas]

2 hours ago, chspeed said:

I know, I saw it. Thus the recommendation to start with posture.

I second the recommendation to start with posture.

Then, look at the threads on how to make a centered pivot.

[TryingtoPlay]

22 hours ago, iacas said:

I second the recommendation to start with posture.

Then, look at the threads on how to make a centered pivot.

How I setup now is probably symptomatic of the lessons that I took as a kid in which my posture was criticized for slumping over the ball. I did notice that in the videos that I posted my weight seemed to be distributed more on my heels. I don't remember exactly what I was working on that day that was inducing that, but that is not really common for me.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, TryingtoPlay said:

How I setup now is probably symptomatic of the lessons that I took as a kid in which my posture was criticized for slumping over the ball. I did notice that in the videos that I posted my weight seemed to be distributed more on my heels. I don't remember exactly what I was working on that day that was inducing that, but that is not really common for me.

Slumping is fine in golf.

[JonMA1]

@TryingtoPlay, please take the advice you've been given and try to work it into your practice sessions. Be patient and give it lots of time and dedication. Don't fall into the same mistake many of us do by expecting too much too soon in the way of successful results. We often give up too early.

Check out the link below to see how @boogielicious practices. Very methodical and patient with a very relaxed attitude (at least that's how it looks). It's how players like you and I should attempt to practice...