My Swing (Used to Be a 3)

[Used to Be a 3]

I've been Playing Golf for: 15 years, then quit for 20 years, started up again 3 months ago
My current handicap index or average score is: Used to be 3.5.  Playing very erratically since I started again, from 80 to 100.
My typical ball flight is: Erratic, but tend to hit very slight draws, also pushes and the occasional high slice.
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Erraticism

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Videos: 

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by Used to Be a 3

[bm85]

For accurate proper advice on your swing, I'd recommend posting a swing video with a ball.

[Used to Be a 3]

Sure, no problem.  You mean from behind so you can see the ball flight?

[b101]

Both face-on view and down-the-line are best. See the link below for your best advice:

https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

[Used to Be a 3]

Just now, b101 said:

Both face-on view and down-the-line are best. See the link below for your best advice:

https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

OK, thanks, I'm a rank newbie here, and I didn't read all the advice on doing this before I posted--a rank newbie mistake.  Will have that up later today for the kid and me.

[b101]

1 minute ago, Used to Be a 3 said:

OK, thanks, I'm a rank newbie here, and I didn't read all the advice on doing this before I posted--a rank newbie mistake.  Will have that up later today for the kid and me.

No worries! It's a friendly place, so welcome and enjoy! There are tons of people who know far more about the golf swing than I do, but would definitely recommend this thread as well if you're to get the most out of this place. Loads of good stuff to read about all over the forums and hope others can help get you back toward that handicap 

 

[Used to Be a 3]

13 minutes ago, b101 said:

No worries! It's a friendly place, so welcome and enjoy! There are tons of people who know far more about the golf swing than I do, but would definitely recommend this thread as well if you're to get the most out of this place. Loads of good stuff to read about all over the forums and hope others can help get you back toward that handicap 

 

Hey thanks!  Yes, dreaming of getting back to the 3.5, but also wanting, perhaps the dreamer in me, to one day get to scratch.  Silly hopes, tried to do it for 15 years when young and strong and couldn't.  If it weren't for foolish hope, though, who would ever play this crazy game anyway?

[Used to Be a 3]

Here's a video of my swing while hitting the ball.  The shot was a slight push, no discernible curve left or right, average trajectory.

 

 

Swing starts at 00:15.

Here's my swing from behind, showing the shot and trajectory, this was a very similar ball flight to the swing shown just above from the side view, maybe pushed a bit more.  (One thing that leaps out is I was aiming, at least in my mind, at the right edge of that barn.  I can see right away that I'm lined up several degrees to the right of that and pretty much seem to be hitting the way I'm aiming.  One problem might be that I learned how to line up many years ago back when I was hitting a pretty consistent draw, and now that I'm hitting the ball fairly straight, with at most usually a very faint draw, I'm lined up improperly for what I'm doing--now I have an idea why I hit that first drive yesterday on the course into the woods on the right, then hit the drive off the second hole even farther right and OB).

 

[bm85]

19 hours ago, Used to Be a 3 said:

Sure, no problem.  You mean from behind so you can see the ball flight?

No sir, it's not just to view flight. Swings with a ball are often mechanically different than swings without one. Maybe in a practice swing without a ball your swing looks okay, but in a video while hitting a ball you notice early extension, flipping, a stalled pivot or something that might need some work. 

Yours to me looks good, and quite similar really - but I'm not an instructor.

I can say I like the lag you're getting, and that follow through looks like a 3 for sure!

[SunkTheBirdie]

Not the best camera angle.  

Try to keep the camera pointed parallel to the ground, not pointing into the ground.  and you should be filming along the toe line. 

If the filmer wants to see you in the shot as they take it they have to:

- kneel or sit on their bum and film from 10 feet behind.

- or be 15 feet back and keep the camera at their belly button. 

- a tripod is better than a person everytime.

 

To me, your setup encourages a flat inside takeaway. You are reaching quite a bit for the ball, as seen by the distance between your right thigh and your hands. This encourages the swing to go around the body (less up and down).   Add to that your handsy takeaway where you pull the clubhead in early and hard and it gets you "too inside" "under plane". ... which causes the across the line look at A4 (top of swing).  

I'd work on setup and takeaway.

 

[Used to Be a 3]

43 minutes ago, SunkTheBirdie said:

Not the best camera angle.  

Try to keep the camera pointed parallel to the ground, not pointing into the ground.  and you should be filming along the toe line. 

To me, your setup encourages a flat inside takeaway. You are reaching quite a bit for the ball, as seen by the distance between your right thigh and your hands. This encourages the swing to go around the body (less up and down).   Add to that your handsy takeaway where you pull the clubhead in early and hard and it gets you "too inside" "under plane". ... which causes the across the line look at A4 (top of swing).  

I'd work on setup and takeaway.

 

Thanks for the info on the angle and video.  My teenage son was taking it, and neither of us have a clue about proper camera angles for these videos, so appreciated.  

So I'll try dropping my hands, you mean just relax at address and let the angle between shaft and arms increase, right?  By "under plane", you mean I should come back more steeply and then drop down through impact?  Thanks for the help. 

1 hour ago, bm85 said:

No sir, it's not just to view flight. Swings with a ball are often mechanically different than swings without one. Maybe in a practice swing without a ball your swing looks okay, but in a video while hitting a ball you notice early extension, flipping, a stalled pivot or something that might need some work. 

Yours to me looks good, and quite similar really - but I'm not an instructor.

I can say I like the lag you're getting, and that follow through looks like a 3 for sure!

Thanks for the compliments!  By my swing looking "similar", you mean to the practice swing?  I see the lag and that looks good, but yet I don't hit the ball very far.  Once in a while I can get a drive out past 260 - 270 without wind or hardpan helping out, but the average is more like 230s.  That may be a matter of ball striking, not getting the sweet spot, or maybe swinging too slowly, don't know.  Thanks for saying the follow through looks like a 3, but my game has been horrific, all over the place.  In the last three months since I took up the game after a 20 year layoff, I've played almost exclusively 9 hole rounds and have ranged from 39 to 54.  I hadn't shot a 54 for 9 holes since high school!  My son, who just took the game up in October, and whose swing I put up on this forum, beat me that day.  

So I'm scratching the head wondering how to get the game back, the improvement doesn't seem to be coming.  Ah, golf!

[Secretmove]

Good swing.   Lots of power there, and for your age a very athletic swing.  At P10 your back is facing the caddy, good flexibility.  It looks like you are swinging with about 100 to 105 club head speed, which if you catch it in the middle, will get you about 230 in the air.  It takes a while after that long a layoff, to get the timing back.  The way to get your timing back is do P5 to P9 drills, or some call it 3 oclock to 9 oclock drills, with about 70 percent power, hit a foam ball on a string on a rubber tee, just get some reps, the timing and solid strikes will follow.   Look up "slicefixer 9 to 3 drills" on the internets and watch that to get an idea. 

BTW, you have good post impact positions, your shaft is pointing to the center of body at P7.5 or so. 

BTWx2.  The perfect way to damage elbows is to lay off for 10 years and then start swing full driver.  Also the perfect way to screw up timing.  You've got plenty club head speed, just do 100,  9 to 3 drills a day for a couple days, you'll be back to the center of the clubface. 

[klineka]

You have a solid looking swing for not playing in 20 years! Well done.

I'm not really qualified to give advice on swings, but the impact position looks pretty solid in my opinion

You said youve shot both 39 and 50+ on 9 since starting again, if you had to self-evaluate, where do you think you are losing strokes? Do you hit it O.B. frequently, do you 3 putt half of the holes, flub multiple chips, etc?

Over the long term improving your swing will help you drop the most strokes, but there might be some quick-wins you can get in areas that dont take as much skill (think putting, alignment, playing to avoid O.B., etc)while working on your full stroke

1 hour ago, Secretmove said:

It looks like you are swinging with about 100 to 105 club head speed, which if you catch it in the middle, will get you about 230 in the air. 

I dont agree with this. 105 mph clubhead speed, even with a relatively low ball speed of 145mph which is a smash factor of 1.38 (which indicates a less than perfect strike), would carry 250yds with a 15 degree launch angle and 2500 rpm spin. Even a lower launch angle at 12 degrees would still carry 245. so 245-250 on a less than perfect smash factor. Bringing that smash factor up to 1.45, so ball speed of 153, and the carry increases to 263 with 12 a degree launch angle. Those all assume 0 spin axis which obviously isnt realistic, but clubhead speed of 105 should be carrying at least 240 and probably closer to 250. 

[iacas]

On 1/14/2018 at 11:56 AM, b101 said:

Both face-on view and down-the-line are best. See the link below for your best advice:

https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

On 1/15/2018 at 10:04 AM, Used to Be a 3 said:

Thanks for the info on the angle and video.  My teenage son was taking it, and neither of us have a clue about proper camera angles for these videos, so appreciated.

See the link from earlier in this topic.

[Used to Be a 3]

23 hours ago, Secretmove said:

Good swing.   Lots of power there, and for your age a very athletic swing.  At P10 your back is facing the caddy, good flexibility.  It looks like you are swinging with about 100 to 105 club head speed, which if you catch it in the middle, will get you about 230 in the air.  It takes a while after that long a layoff, to get the timing back.  The way to get your timing back is do P5 to P9 drills, or some call it 3 oclock to 9 oclock drills, with about 70 percent power, hit a foam ball on a string on a rubber tee, just get some reps, the timing and solid strikes will follow.   Look up "slicefixer 9 to 3 drills" on the internets and watch that to get an idea. 

BTW, you have good post impact positions, your shaft is pointing to the center of body at P7.5 or so. 

BTWx2.  The perfect way to damage elbows is to lay off for 10 years and then start swing full driver.  Also the perfect way to screw up timing.  You've got plenty club head speed, just do 100,  9 to 3 drills a day for a couple days, you'll be back to the center of the clubface. 

Thanks very much for the kind comments.  I don't know about carries that far, though.  It seems like my average is more like 230-ish after rollout.  Now this may be because I'm hitting the ball all over the clubface and making poor contact, probably so.  My game is so bad, that theory makes sense.  If I hit 10 drives, it'll go something like this for total distance including roll: 210, 210, 220, 220, 230, 230, 230, 240, 270, 270.  So the average is 235 or so.  Maybe the clubhead speed is more than I'm thinking and those few long ones are representing that.  One thing I can say, I have no video of my swing 30 years ago, but do have several photos of the swing with a high speed camera at different positions, which I pasted together to form a swing sequence many years ago.  I used to lose that lag very early in the downswing when I was young, for some reason after the two decade layoff I'm coming back with a lot more lag (still not much more average distance, though, alas)

Thanks for comment on impact position, but that left hand looks a little cupped at the wrist, no?  Not so good, far as I know.  But never had a lesson in my life, so what I know about the golf swing is probably less than the average golfer.

Thanks again for the help.

21 hours ago, iacas said:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

See the link from earlier in this topic.

Thanks, IACAS, we'll get that stuff together with the angles better.  Appreciated.  Based on our results, we need a lot of help!

[Used to Be a 3]

21 hours ago, klineka said:

You have a solid looking swing for not playing in 20 years! Well done.

I'm not really qualified to give advice on swings, but the impact position looks pretty solid in my opinion

You said youve shot both 39 and 50+ on 9 since starting again, if you had to self-evaluate, where do you think you are losing strokes? Do you hit it O.B. frequently, do you 3 putt half of the holes, flub multiple chips, etc?

 

I do a lot of things wrong.  Last round, a 50(!) for 9 holes (on a championship-level course like we used to play back in high school state championships, albeit played from the 4th of 6 tees, not the tips), I drove into the trees on the first hole, a par 5, then recover, reached the green in regulation, then 3 putted for a bogey, next hole drove OB to the right, triple bogey, then went on a run of holes where I was either on the green, right on the fringe, or a short chip away in regulation every time, hitting the ball pretty well, but this run included a 4 putt after reaching the green in regulation and multiple 3 putts.  Had 22 putts (ugh!) for nine holes.  So the round started with errant drives and bad putting and then just got worse.  Only parred one hole the whole way around, and that was where I hit an iron on  a par three right at the hole, then two putted from 15 feet.  So a lot of it's short game, but it's also long game inconsistency.  I hit about three poor full shots the whole nine, though, but horrible results.  I love and hate golf.

[Secretmove]

you look like a hundred mph to me.  that will get you 230 to 240 with variables listed on the right.  I was trying to find anyplace that measured CHS here in Columbus, one place Golf Galaxy has it, Golfsmith damned if they didn't go out of business, didn't know that, bought by Dicks.  Golftek has a ball speed radar, and they back figure CHS for $135 an hour.  I have a little gaget, just like the one in the below chart, gives CHS, but they are not very accurate. 

BTW, if that's your barn you are hitting golf balls at, I'm not responsible for any damage to cows, turkeys, chickens, sheep or other farm creatures while you are  exploring "long game inconsistency". 

 

 

[Secretmove]

9 to 3 drills, pay no attention to all the words, just watch the pictures and listen to the music.