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I used to be very confused at the range when practicing on the mat, I don't know where I was aiming, it's feel like I'm not square to anything, when I'm aligning myself to the mat I felt like I was aiming way right. Then I watched YouTube and an instructor (Shawn Clement I think) have this video about keeping your focus on the target even when you are looking at the ball. This does work, or maybe it's coincidentally but sometimes I hit right on the target with a weird ball flight, then I checked and found out that my foot is aiming left (I tend to setup open if I'm not being careful, not sure why)

Hello again, it's been a while since I decided to learn how to properly swing a golf club, and this is currently where I'm at: I've been Playing Golf for: 10 months My current handicap index or average score is: 24 (I use oobgolf.com, not sure how they calculate my handicap index) My typical ball flight is: mid launch, start right then curve left, if everything is synced up, I hit slight draw all day, but... The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: blocks and hooks, my friends are telling me that I'm swinging way too flat and I'm working on steepen up my swing. From the video I think I'm moving my head too much toward the target at the start of the downswing, what do you think? PS: I'm trying to get my hands more ahead of the ball, but I usually hit a block fade doing that (can't square the clubhead properly) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJ2IxI40aE

Tightening the grip is the reason why I am still hitting huge banana slice with all my clubs later in the round. I'm still working on it...

I hit a 913H 24* at Titleist demo day, I was so happy with it I almost made an order right there. But I'm cheap, so I looked around on Ebay and bought an used 910H with Diamana Kai'li 80, same loft, almost same shaft (I think so) and hit it no different from the demo club. Saved $200, and I can't see any different in feel, ball flights... etc... so I'm happy.

I tried hitting up before and it didn't work for me, switched back to hitting down on it, better... My best driving round I hit 11/14 fairways, 210-220 yards average (best one 242 yards, 95mph swingspeed) - with a steel shaft driver (TT Dynalite Gold R300, Nike VR_S 13* head) - one average, I hit maybe 8-9 fairways with this driver, distance seems consistent longer than 200 yards... I have always struggling with my driver, distance wise, I don't have much problem with hitting it relatively straight but somehow I just can hit it right on the sweetspot on a regular basis. This, I need to address with more practice, but hitting down, launching low, combine with spinning more works for me. The ball take off low, and keep flying, keep on flying, touch the ground with a shallow angle and roll some... I believe the key to get more roll is shallow landing angle... I now setup with the ball toward center of my stance, same position as my setup with 7 wood (I hit down with woods, too)

I don't understand the "towel under armpits" drill... what good does it do? Your arms are connected to your body at the shoulders, not the elbows.

Wow, you are exactly like me, I'm a beginner, and the most consistently club in my bag is the driver, as I said above, "most" is definitely not "all". I can get the ball about 40-50 yards from the green with par -2 most of the time, and if I didn't shank, or blade, or chunk my chip/pitch, of if I didn't putt way shorter than intended, I would have playing bogey game by now, I lost 2 balls in the last three rounds, all bladed into the water. Just like you, my short game is the worst.

I would leave out any club with a number lower than 6 if I were you. Irons: 6-P Wedges: 52* and 56* A driver and a putter. You don't even need a driver, but it's fun to hit so just get one, 11.5* or 13* in loft preferable. Here are the reasons: - A driver is hard to hit consistently, for most, and one of the easiest to hit with full swing is a pitching wedge or a 9 iron, you can hit it at least 1/2 distance of your driver, why not hitting 2 shots with either of them, better than a slice or a hook OB or into the water, save on balls, too. But I would still buy a driver, in my case, it's the easiest to hit wood type clubs, practice hitting driver helps on developing better club path (in-square-in), too. - On the irons, seriously hitting straight, pure shots with a 7 iron is hard enough at your (and my) skill level, I can hit it pure about 6 out of 10 times, mishits are not terrible, though. Have a 6 iron to have some challenge, I like some challenge. - Wedges, these are importance, unfortunately I didn't realize it sooner, mini shots like chipping or pitching are shortened full shot, with the most important part, impact. So buy a 52 with somewhat less bounce (8-10*) and a 56 with more bounce (14-16*) and spent 60% of your practice time on chipping and pitching, hitting out of the sand, distance control, getting good impact with forward shaft lean, make the ball spin enough not to roll uncontrollablely... etc... - Putter, well you will need one of these, if money is not a problem, get one of these better looking, milled putter. 5 other clubs you will decide on later, until then you will know what you need, don't worry. All the longer clubs are just penalty traps for a beginner. There is this guy I know who went on a business trip and stayed for the weekend so he brought a mini clubs set with him (8, P, 52, 56, putter) and he brought back with him 2 score cards, 12 and 16 over. I play with him all the time and the best he can managed is 26 with a full clubs set. He putts good, I don't remember seeing him making 3 putts, or 1 putt (lol)

This is what I do, I picture what the shot will look like, how the ball launch, land and roll and do some practice swing to pre set the swing, and then I setup and swing away... it's rarely happen the way I imagined, though :D

You are not having fun, apparently.

It depends, I think. I was coming over the top not too long ago, slice all the time, fixed that by starting the downswing with my lower body and let my arms passively dropping the club into the slot, now I'm fixing block shots caused by over active lower body, focus on initiating the downswing by pulling the club... it works, but I started hooking shots... I want to give up this game...

According to these documents over at Hireko: http://www.hirekogolf.com/dynamic-shaft-fitting-addendum , 1 swingweight change equal 1 cpm gain (or loss) if and only if those changes are caused by clublength or headweight changes. So, roundly 3cpm increased if you cut off the shaft by 1/2".

I'm gaming a set of Value Golf Pinhawk SL built at just less than 37". They works, really allow me to groove my swing, one setup for all irons. However, there are some drawbacks you need to pay attention to: 1. "Long" irons are shorter, the 4 hybrid only have 20* loft, so if you don't have decent swing speed, you might have trouble getting the balls up to travel far. 2. "Short" irons are longer, ball flights are higher, more backspin, I hit my P about 115 yards and it launch like missiles. Accuracy wise, they are pretty good, since "long" irons are shorter, I got less mishits, the set 9 iron loft is 45* and P's loft is 50*, so if you choke them down to conventional length of a wedge, they work like P and G, good for shots that need more control. I will game with them for few more months and if I still have problem hitting the 4 hybrid, I might have them reshafted with progressive tip trimming, may helps launching balls with lower lofted clubs and keep the balls down with higher lofted ones.

About the same as mine up to the 21*, except my drives are 210, with roll, max :(

Perhap some of you please post some videos showing what kind of shots are you talking about? Flop shots seem to me are the kind of shots that send the ball go straight up, barely move forward and stay where it drop, maybe back off a little?

You are not taking in the mishits, assuming you need 50mph clubhead speed to hit a flop shot the same distance with a 10mph bump and run, if you blade the ball where would it go? I bet it would end up on the green, next hole's green maybe? It is a high risk/high reward shot, and if you can pull it off, it might be more accurate than bump and run.

Take a shorter backswing? I'm trying to limit my head movement on backswing, too. And turning your head to the left a bit at setup and take a shorter backswing seems helpful.

Your clubs are fine, no technology can help you hit the ball better if you don't have a swing. And trust me, you don't have a swing, yet. I started to play this stupid game almost 4 months ago, have taken lessons from a local instructor which his swings doesn't suit me, he's a hitter and being a flexible and lean guy, I can't hit the 5 iron past 150 yards, and that is when I wasn't slicing it to the next 3 fairways. I don't mean to blame him or something but his way of teaching didn't help as all, I was a customer to him and I think he needed to say "Well done", "Good job", "Don't worry it will get better"... blah blah blah... Then I pay $20 for a month of membership of Rotary Swing after reading some of the reviews, get in the member section and download ALL their videos. I spent 2 weeks watching the videos, standing in front of the mirror practicing setup, takeaway, weight transfer... all in small bits, without club, slooooooooowly... They have plenty of drills you can do at home, at work, everywhere (I even do the drill when I'm alone in the lift) At first, every moves seem stupidly ackward, "How the fvck can I turn my shoulder without turning my hips" I asked myself once, but it can be done with pratice and it feel natural now, I don't even realize that I'm turning my shoulder while my hips and head seem perfectly still, but the video I took myself swinging told me that. I went to the practice range after I think I can do a good backswing, I started to hit balls, BAD IDEA. After three sessions at the range I pretty much ruined my ungrooved backswing. I stay at home for 2 more weeks, doing drills, weight transfer, merry go round drill, 9-3 drill.... tons of them in tons of reps. The next month after that I went to the range to hit real balls, and spent almost that whole month trying to ruin the mats by hitting 80-90% super fat shots. Then I met a guy, he corrected my setup, corrected my downswing a bit... and it got better since. And that was 2 weeks ago. I'm still working on keeping my eyes focus on the back of the ball and not rushing my transition, lot of work left to do but my swing is begin to form and I feel good swinging everytime, knowing that the ball will end up (generally) where I aim, no more slice (but I started to hook it occationally, damn), no more bad mishits that I don't know why it happen. Am I turning pro anytime soon? No way, I'm happy if I can break 100 for the first time, I think I can do it in a month or two, but I now know what a proper swing produce, straight shots, soft clicking feel at the clubhead, effortless swing, and 20-30 yards added to all of my clubs. Off to practicing in my bedroom now. Have fun playing this stupid game.

Exactly the problem I'm having, (almost?) all of my thin/skull shots are cause by not focus on the ball at impact. In fact I'm having this problem with every clubs, with the driver, it caused shanks, tops, fats, thins, all kind of bad shots, with irons, same as yours, with wedges, bladed balls flying accross the green, into the bunker or water, with putter, miss the line in every directions possible.

My 7 wood (40.5", 21*) hit further than my 4 hybrid (36.75", 20*) about 10-15 yards. 3 iron replacement in my case. PS: My hybrid is from a single length irons set, hence the low loft and short length.

Unfortunately we don't have any clubfitter around here, I can go to Singapore to get fitted but that would take too much time, not to mention money. I went to the course today and played the best long game today, well I lost about 2 clubs of distance compared to my old irons but I have never hit so much pure shots before in a round. I thought about rebuild one of my clubs with another shaft and try it out for about 2 weeks, what do you think?

Hello, I'm new to the game and in need of some opinions. I outswung my first clubs after 2 months into the game, they were too flexible for my swing speed, I was consistency swing my 5 iron at 83mph and Asian 55 grams regular graphite shafts just wouldn't work for me. At that time I didn't know my swing sucks, I was trying to kill the ball with every swing, it's very funny that I did better at the course than at the range, now I kind of know why, I tensed up at the course and slowed down, it helped a little bit. Fast forward a little, I bought new irons, this time with 90 grams steel shaft, regular flex. The next 10 (roughly) range sessions are nightmare, I can't hit them, any of them, without digging into the ground first. I was very frustrated and decided to work on my swing from the ground up after a week not going to the range. It turned out that my takeaway, my backswing, downswing... all of them are way worse than I thought. So I worked on them all, practice every moves, 200-300 reps a day, slowly without club, with club, faster and faster, I also work on a smooth tempo, not rushing things up. But it didn't help, I still digging into the ground with almost every swing. About two weeks ago, there is this guy (7 handicap I believe) practiced next to my mat at the range, he came to me asking "Why do you keep hitting into the mat like that?", I was confused, like I wanted to, and answered "I think I have problem with my downswing, the clubhead keep going right down the mat". He asked my how long I was playing and after found out that I started about 3 months ago, he said I have a decent swing for a beginner, and spent almost 2 hours working with me straighten out some details. Wow, that was eye openning, he adjusted my setup and right away I hit 3 consecutive pure shots, balls was going high and far despite I swung easy like he said. The most important fix was getting the ball further away from my body at setup, to the point that my arms and the club almost make a straight line, just like the way he setup. I practice Rotary Swing, and that setup is way different than how they taught, but it works, after 2-3 range sessions, I can hit ball after ball online (well, dispersion is still about 40 yards right to left, but that's huge improvment) Few days ago, I chatted with some people at the range and they want to try my clubs, they were curious about the single length concept (all the irons are the same length) and right after the first swing, all 3 of them told me that the clubs are way too heavy, and surprisingly they all hitting fat shots trying the clubs. I was confused and went to the pro shop borrowing some 7 iron with 65 grams graphite shafts, and topped next 5 shots, the clubhead wouldn't go down enough to even hit thin shots. Now let me get to the point, after a lengthy introduction, do you think that too heavy a club with pull itself away from your body, hitting the ground, resulted in fat shots? I was wondering, but with a 90 grams shaft, 275 grams club head and standard 50 grams grip, these clubs are nowhere near the weight of other 8 iron with DG R300 shaft (all my irons are built to the spec of an 8 iron), 40 grams added weight to the shaft would make that much different? I'm in a middle of the road here, I can hit balls ok with my current clubs with my "adjusted" setup, reaching out for the ball, it works, why change it? But I'm having this idea of going back to graphite shafts (70-75 grams maybe, 55 grams shaft are too light, I can be sure of that) hopefully I can setup the way they (rotaryswing.com) taught. Thank you for keeping up with me to this part, English isn't my native language, I'm sorry if it's hard to understand.

I was looking at these, but somehow I can't find anything special about them compare to other shafts similar in weight. UST uses denser fiber to make Recoil shafts, means heavier shafts feel less boardy, flex better... comparable to steel shafts with advantages of graphite shafts (vibration dampening...) What are the improvements of the lighter Recoil series? $45 a piece, they better be good.

Trimming the shaft make the club lie flatter, assuming you setup with the same posture. It won't make the lie angle change one bit. To the OP: Being short like that, I would go see a clubmaker, don't buy off the rack sets and have them modified. Since you are going to take your first lesson, you don't even need a whole set, ask the clubmaker to build you a 7 or 8 iron, take your first few lessons with it and see how it's feel. Don't worry about lie angle or anything else, just get them feel right swinging. Most of the time you will find the club too heavy or too light, or too imbalance (head heavy or shaft heavy), tell the clubmaker, he will make adjustments accordingly. I made a bad decision switching to steel shaft irons without trying them out first and now have to spend $$$ going back to graphite, way too heavy for me. Go see a clubmaker or at least try before you buy.

What is your swing speed?