kc8kir

It really appears to me that he is overswinging. At the top of his swing he is distorting his spine angle, his left wrist is breaking down, and the club passing parallel. Almost at the point of reverse pivoting. I was in this same backswing position a few months ago. Trying to keep it so mechanical and the left arm straight, I was distorting the swing with my "hands high" Nicklaus swing attempts. Some of the take away positions are very good, but yes, he is loosing all lag. Since his wrist break down at the top, the club past parallel makes it very hard to re-establish the correct angles. The club straightens with the left arm and you end up swiping the ball instead of hitting through it. Check his grip for tension and then make sure his left hand has a short thumb position. That will help control the wrist breakdown (see Hogans Five Fundamentals about this one). Gonna feel wierd at first, but the control is superb. 3/4 swings and practicing the hogan power move drill should help with the power problem and teach him to maintain lag. Make sure he controls club position with the left, adding power with the right hand only the bottom (to maintain lag and give a release through the ball). As Hogan warned "beware the overcontrolling right hand!". He also needs to stop dipping on the downswing. Sitting into your left side a bit is ok, but he is literally dropping that right shoulder and head so much that it is going to cause a lot of inconsistencies. Power will be lost as well because you are abruptly changing the diameter of the swing (think of a weight on the end of a string, spinning round your finger, if you bob your finger, the string bends and the energy is wasted). In the downswing, we are really just giving that spinning weight a slight lateral transfer, to encourage lag and build momentum towards the bottom of the arc. Spin (or swing, either works) that weight on your finger and if you time it correctly, shifting your finger laterally will add tension in the string and momentum to the bottom of the swing. This is the best example of lag creation I have been shown. Try to teach him steady head position in the swing. Swing around the head. Not rock solid position, but enough to keep his spine angle. Gotta add some whip to that swing! If he is shooting hcp 9 with that swing already, he has real potential because he must have awesome hand-eye coordination and short game skills. Just my 2 cents.

Took my dad to a pro shop last weekend. Had him try hitting the big cavity back clubs...said it felt like swinging a "weighted marshmallow at the ball". No feel of the club head / smooth momentum. Guess I better start looking for some stiff blades like his.

Nice to see the swing of someone with a handicap under 10. Confirms a few things for me with my own swing (bad spine angle / posture on long clubs = bad turn = bad balance = bad strikes). Going to fix that right away. I agree, turn the tempo down a bit, remember the power is in the lag, which feels effortless and kinda slow, not in how fast you whip the club to the top of the swing. Looks good! That last swing with the camera behind the ball was golden. My brain knew that sound immediately... FLUSH.

Golf instruction has advocated swinging through the ball (as though it wasn't there) for years. All the greats did this in one way or another. It produces acceleration through the shot, which is vital for letting the club do the work and stay on path. As far as the head thing goes, "keep your head down" is a misused term, just like "shift your weight to the right". Keeping the head down promotes low chin positions and poor posture. The weight (just like a pitcher throwing a fast ball) must naturally go to the inside of the rear foot (Nicklaus termed this "playing golf from inside the feet"). Ron's method appears to be taking your focus off hitting the ball and into feeling gravity rule the club (allowing for that all important lag). Even Tiger talks about not rushing the top of the swing and allowing gravity to rule before applying power to the swing (whip, sling, etc). Notice though that Ron does NOT change spine angle prior to impact. He rotate and preserves it, allowing the head to rotate along with the shot. Perfectly fine because the impact position, the moment of truth, is preserved and left unhindered. It's really too bad I don't live in SoCal or I would take Ron up on his offer. All you have to do is swing a blade once, through the sweet spot, with a smooth swing, to realize it doesn't take a body builder to make that ball fly like the devil is chasing it.

I recently bought one of those things to put a nice line on the ball (yeah, I know, could have just used a gatorade ring... ). I use spot putting because I feel it 1) helps me keep my line better 2) helps me trust my line better 3) accelerate through the ball for better roll. The line on the ball now really helps to see the correct line, find a spot on that line about 8 inches in front of the ball (standing above the ball after aiming the line from behind) and get my putter square to the line. Very precise putting. I used to try to pick out a spot and keep my eye on it while moving around the ball into the address position. I would always loose the spot and have to try again. With the line on the ball, I not only can always pick a new spot on the correct line, but I can make sure the putter is square as well.

Well, I am no where near your handicap, but i'll take a shot at this. Hear me out . A lot of great players have had that head drop in their swing (chi-chi rodriguez is probably the best example). The fact is that it worked for them. If you really feel it is impacting your consistency, then this old school drill will help you out. Go to a hardware store and buy a stiff small diameter pole of some sort (aluminum rod, whatever) and take it to the range. Where a baseball cap and set the rod into the ground out from you leaning in at an angle so it rests on the brim of the cap when you address the ball. Take small swings, building to full swings, and try to keep that rod touching the hat brim throughout the swing, until you release past contact. Alternatively, you can have someone put their hand on your head and make sure you stay in contact with the stationary hand through the swing (Jack Nicklaus's teacher, Jack Grout, used to hold Jack's hair to teach him not to bob or sway the head). Keeping your head down in the swing is good for consistency (staying down through the shot), but only if it's position stays relatively constant from address. Big changes can impact your swing because it will be different every time. The rod will allow for some movement but you will feel yourself loose contact if you really shift off it. Hope that helps.

Questions for anyone and everyone. Club lie at setup. With the arms hanging naturally, is it sitting more toe up or flat? Does it make a difference in contact consistency? Irons versus woods? Forward press. How much and with what clubs? This is a real source of inconsistency in my setup right now. Setting up pure vertical feels really weak. Setting up with too much forward press takes way too much loft off the club. Maybe just always keep the hands at the left thigh? Thanks!

I am going to have to agree with Jack Nicklaus on this one. He, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and Byron Nelson all positioned the ball just inside the left heel. Sounds like a solid method to me. Remember it is inside the left HEEL, NOT THE TOE. I had this problem early on, where I didn't recognize the difference. Lots of slices later, it is back in line with the left pectoral (logo on shirt, whatever). My problem lately is positioning myself consistently and not shifting around in my posture / club angle once I am setup. I tend to feel tilted one way or the other with each different type of club. Sometimes I forward press, sometimes I don't. Probably going to try writing down my preshot routine and sticking to it until it is a habit. Too much variability at this point. I like the setup up with both feet together, then right foot goes away based on the club. Really have to avoid getting too wide. Bobby Jones once played a tournament with a stance no wider than the length of his hand. If you look at videos of Nicklaus swinging, he is pretty narrow on short irons, and really not that wide on the driver / fairway wood. The narrow stance gives really crisp contact with those scoring clubs and provides great backspin. Look at Tiger sometime, and you will see he has his feet just outside the shoulders for the driver. I really would not go any wider. My problem right now is fairway woods and long irons. Not gonna surrender to hybrids... i want a swing that will be fundamentally correct. Not trying to lift the ball. Trying to sweep the inside corner (in to out) with a slight descending angle (my normal mid-iron shot is a 5 yard fade). Maybe I am just trying to swing too hard? I took my focus off the ball and tried just swinging along the grass right behind the ball (ie through the ball). Helped a little. Still slicing and hitting fat.

If I take one of my dad's clubs to the store, could they measure and determine the swing weight? Or can I do it with a scale myself by just weighing and measuring the CG? This seems to make a HUGE difference in my swing consistency btw.

Just curious. Does anyone else find that game improvement and super game improvement irons are just really too heavy overall, or too heavy towards the club head? I can hit a blade all day long and swing it nice and smooth and balanced, but pick up my cavity backs and it is like the club head is pulling me off plane all the time and making it really hard to control the club head. So frustrating. I play better with my dad's old set of ram accubar 1970s irons than with my 07 wilsons. I bet stiff versus regular shaft has something to do with it as well (I hit stiff way better off grass than I do regular... odd because my swing speed with a 6 iron is only about 89 mph, always a 3/4 swing). I find myself hitting fat shots with the game improvement clubs. It's like you can't (or maybe aren't supposed to) control the club head. I find this stupid because I was taught to play percentage golf and shape shots... impossible with these things! Ideas? I plan on playing golf the rest of my life, so switching to blades now really isn't a deterrent. I just though all this "technology" was supposed to help.

That video also fails to mention that the the biggest reason for that high average score is short game skills. People don't practice the essentials of scoring.

Catchy video eh? The fact is however, that the golf swing is really not THAT HARD. It is reading golf digest and trying to implement every little tip you hear, by yourself, that makes it impossible. Modern golf instruction is really confusing. Pick one method and stick with it. Find an instructor who will teach you that method and remember that it will become YOUR swing. The best ballstrikers all had one thing in common.. they look nothing alike except at impact. The classic swing is fine, the modern power golf swing is fine, the stack and tilt swing is fine, the one-plane swing is fine, and yes, the moe norman natural swing is fine. From the looks of some of your swing videos though, you have great flexibility. This can translate to power if you use it right. I suggest finding an instructor you like and sticking with him/her. They can help you build YOUR swing.

Looking at those photos above, I wouldn't use Tiger as the example either. Tiger's eye hand coordination and feel are so good that he can get away with stuff most of us would just fall apart under. Notice he keeps his shoulders along the line of the target, meaning his big hip rotation won't destroy the shot. This takes a lot of practice and coordination. Also, both of those pictures are slightly post impact, so naturally the foot is coming off the ground and the hips are considerably open (consider how fast this swing takes place). I like the picture of Greg Norman the best. See how he rolls the right foot inwards. Keeps the hips from spinning out and the shoulders online with the target (hips lead shoulders, in case you were wondering).

Having / working on the same problem here. The right foot comes up early, weight shifts to the toes, and your balance goes forward. The resulting counterbalance for your body is opening the hips early and the shoulders follow. Leads to all sorts of problems including the club cutting across the ball and making big slices / pulls. Fix: Learn to play from the insides of your feet. Hogan and Nicklaus were masters of this. At the top of your backswing, weight and pressure should be on the inside of the right foot (left foot in your case - I am right handed and play golf right handed, so reverse). If you are going to drive with your hips (classical swing style, not modern rotational, which IS OK) then you need to make sure you drive ALONG the target line and don't spin out. Practice short swings with the feeling that in the downswing you push off your right instep (not the toes). You will have the feeling of pushing along the target line. Don't overdo it, but this is the foot action you are looking for. When you actually swing, the foot will rise NATURALLY. You balance must stay centered through the swing (looking from down the line), and using the insides of the feet are key. Nicklaus said it best "golf is a game played inside your feet". Hope this helps. I am working on this right now and I can attest it works. An even more extreme drill (Shawn Clement came up with this one, check him out on youtube) is to wear an ice skate on the back foot (right in my case) and hit shots with that braced feeling. Teaches you never to go outside the back foot. Remember, the follow through is the result of good impact. So focus on what you do towards impact, and let the follow through occur naturally.