The dry erase marker really works!

[jkelley9]

I have to share this. I've haven't played much golf lately. We have our first child on the way (the little stinker was due 3 days ago...) so I've been nesting and getting stuff in the house ready (building the crib, dresser, changing table, hanging curtains, cleaning, etc., etc.) for the last several weekends. Not to mention helping my wife out since she's huge. I only played 1 round of golf in 2 months I think, on Friday after Thanksgiving with my father in law where I shot a 99 I think. 

Now I used to be a low 80's shooter on this course, but I wasn't very frustrated because it was very nice weather, calm, and I hadn't gotten out of the house in nature very much at all for a few months. So I walked away happy breaking 100. But was was a little frustrating to me was how I could completely lose my swing in ~2-3 months of playing sparingly. I figured I could at least make contact. I was keeping my head still, ground control was acceptable, path was in to out, my face angle seemed totally fine, but I was shanking the ball very frequently.

Well, since my wife hasn't popped yet I have some free time this weekend (everything is done...) so I ran out to the range to have a real range session yesterday. I was hitting them like dog crap. Frustrating in a sense, but I'm not the type that gets angry for hitting bad shots after not having played at all in a long time haha. 

So I brought my old iPhone 5 out with the alignment stick attachment thing and took some videos. I'm not expert, but I couldn't really see any GLARING issues with it... hmm.

Then I took out the dry erase market and painted the face of a 7i with it. Took a swing, and it was actually a decent feeling shot. Look down, the ball is ALL the way into the heel! "That's weird..." took another shot. Same thing, but a worse shot. Another, same thing. Another, another, another. A lot of the shanks I would look down and not see a mark. So I start painting the hosel...... yep..... was hitting the shaft! lol.

Of course, I told myself "I need to fix this, what am I going to do?" I didn't feel like changing my swing, especially after reviewing the video and thinking I was doing "okay." So instead, I just tried to hit the ball on the toe of the club. After ~10 balls of moving farther and farther out of the heel, the final PERCEPTION was to swing through the ball TRYING to hit an entire half a ball OUTSIDE the END of the toe! That produced remarkably consistent ball striking for 60-70 balls. So I told myself "don't get all hyped up on a 'fix' for just one range session, let's try and make it out again tomorrow."

Sure enough I go out today with a large bucket. Same thing. I had excellent ground control (for me), great aim, and MUCH more manageable misses (typically a pull).

I honestly believe that for the last 6+ months, even when playing well, I was hitting inside the heel and never knew it. I was a shorter player (7i ~140 yards or so) but a relatively longer driver @ ~240 carry or (estimating) which always perplexed me. I think these game improvement clubs nowadays are so good that my swing was pretty consistent, but pretty consistently wrong and I couldn't tell because even a heel shot on my clubs would feel pretty good. 

I was hitting every club much further these past 2 days. I need to go re-shoot my distances now. I couldn't figure out why I could only hit a SW ~60 yards before, and my gaps would get larger and larger going from 7i on down. I was hitting the heel. But now I was overshooting the green I usually aim for by 10-15 yards. for every club.

Isn't it amazing that even keeping your head down and still, and not looking up quickly after impact, that your perception can be that far off? AMAZING! I'm literally aiming to hit half of a ball outside the end of the club to get in the sweet spot!

 

TLDR; use a dry erase marker on the face of the club to track impact point. My perception was WILDLY off! This helped me TREMENDOUSLY!

[dennyjones]

Congrats on your Eureka moment.    Dr. Scholl's foot powder does the same and is easier to clean.

[nevets88]

Awesome! I think in the video down the line in slow motion, you should be able to see you're hitting it towards the heel, sometimes it gets blurry or the still frames aren't quite optimal. I forget what frame rate the iPhone 5 is, there may not be enough frames to tell. Guessing w/a good camera you can make out fat and heel shots better, although you'll need the proper view for depending on the faulty shot. Not gonna see heel shot as well face on.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, nevets88 said:

Not gonna see heel shot as well face on.

Depends on the specific frames being captured. Should be able to see a clubhead close hard fast from a heel strike. The opposite effect happens on a toe shot, of course.

[Buckeyebowman]

This reminds me of one of Erik's challenges from earlier this year. He wanted people to put a dime sized dot on the back of 5 different balls w/a Sharpie, and hit them w/a 6 or 7 iron to see where the club face was contacting the ball.

My first was very close to the hosel! It wasn't a shank, but it wasn't a very good shot either. I've battled hitting close to the hosel for a large part of my golfing life. This caused me to remember a bit of advice my Uncle, a country club pro prior to WWII, gave me. He said that he had a tendency to swing "out" at the ball, so he would set up with the ball a little toward the toe and not in the middle of the face. Let me see if I can find the pic.

Here it is. The last 4 flew very well, although I caught one a little high on the face. I was very happy that Erik suggested this, and I think it's a good thing to do from time to time.

[jkelley9]

On 12/25/2017 at 10:32 PM, Buckeyebowman said:

This reminds me of one of Erik's challenges from earlier this year. He wanted people to put a dime sized dot on the back of 5 different balls w/a Sharpie, and hit them w/a 6 or 7 iron to see where the club face was contacting the ball.

My first was very close to the hosel! It wasn't a shank, but it wasn't a very good shot either. I've battled hitting close to the hosel for a large part of my golfing life. This caused me to remember a bit of advice my Uncle, a country club pro prior to WWII, gave me. He said that he had a tendency to swing "out" at the ball, so he would set up with the ball a little toward the toe and not in the middle of the face. Let me see if I can find the pic.

Here it is. The last 4 flew very well, although I caught one a little high on the face. I was very happy that Erik suggested this, and I think it's a good thing to do from time to time.

That's basically what mine looked like, except i was even farther into the heel. I'm amazed that I was able to hit ANY good shots with this swing, but somehow I did. A testament to game improvement clubs, I guess!

I've gone back to the range ~3-4 more times and hit many balls. An immediate, significant improvement overall. Looking to get out this weekend and play a round or 9 holes. Although our first child was born a week ago so..... it's unlikely :)

I'll be keeping a dry erase marker in my bag at all times now and will use it every range practice session or warm-up before a round, now.

[dennyjones]

14 hours ago, jkelley9 said:

Although our first child was born a week ago so..... it's unlikely :)

Congrats!

[saevel25]

That is a very simple solution to work on strike location. Another is using a piece of masking tape. The ball will either tear, or leave some marks on the masking tape were it impacts the club.