lhagsjr

For the 2 years I have been playing golf I have been swinging up on my irons instead of down which of course has made me incredibly inconsistent. Ive recently begun to try to change my angle of attack. It is VERY hardwork to do but its a must. For anyone else going through this, here is a great video with drills: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=derek+hooper+ground+first&FORM;=VIRE3#view=detail∣=AB1E5B3A69B884907921AB1E5B3A69B884907921

At 34 years old, a lifetime athlete who did pretty well in pretty much any sport I tried, I figured I could play golf. The last 2 years have been humbling and frustrating to say the least. I almost quit golf 2x most recently this past 4th of July. Id like to say I have made some progress. Im always told I have a nice setup and grip but people I play with as well as the couple people I have taken lessons with. My backswing is solid after recently fixing a problematic laid off position. Just fixing my backswing to avoid the layoff position has improved my overall swing pretty quickly. Im still struggling to be consistent in my downswing. I had a great lesson with an 80 year former PGA professional yesterday. He believes I am "close" to playing some pretty good golf. He told me my main issue is my shoulder position(specifically the right shoulder) at impact/coming down. He states I "spin out" instead of driving my right shoulder "through" the ball. He held my forehead while making my swing and demanded my right shoulder go under his arm when coming down. IT was ridiculous how great of contact I was making. I was hitting my 7 iron 160 yards. Normally I hit it 140 if im lucky. But it wasnt just about the yards, its about the contact. It was so much more crisp. My question, anyone have any swing thoughts or ideas to make me drive my shoulder down instead of spinning out? Obviously I cant have my guy hold my forehead on the course :)

thoughts? Does anyone else do it? To me it has completely changed my golf game. Im now using it to start my swing and my contact is so much better...

After 7-8 months and probably 15 lessons, I have decided to move on from my instructor. Its frustrating for me as I have spent a lot of money and practice time with this guy as my Coach, but its just not working. I go in there and do the same thing every lesson. I dictate to him the lesson and not the other way around. There doesn't seem to be a plan in place at all. Its hard for my because I am a loyal person and wanted it to work with this guy but I cant wait any longer for it to turn around. I don't want to waste another golf season stuck in quick sand. This guy was focused on technology,etc on his lessons. I am switching to an older former PGA pro which I have heard is more hands on and not a complicated. I don't think one guy is more correct, I guess its a matter of style for each person. Has anyone had experience switching instructors until find the right one for them?

Any near Philadelphia recommend a particular instructor?

I am 1.5 years into trying to figure out a golf swing. Its been a slow process but Im starting to get things down like: Grip, Posture, Takeaway, Backswing,etc I know its the hardest part but I struggle with my downswing a lot. Specifically my right side tries to take over way too early. This causing flipping through impact for me. I just started working on creating lag. What works best for me is the thought of pulling the butt end of the club down. This has helped me not cast from the top and create decent lag. The final piece is my right hand. I really have no idea how it is suppose to be working at impact. Am I suppose to be releasing my right hand through the ball or after the ball? One tip I received was feel like your jamming your right hand into the ball. This would me you actually release after impact. Its very confusing one hand people say release AFTER impact but then you read everywhere you are suppose to whip the clubhead through impact which to me means releasing right before or at the ball. Can anyone fill me in on the roll of the right hand at impact? I just bought a training aid for this exact issue. Thank You

I just finished up a "round" of lessons with my current instructor. Overall I have had 8-9 lessons with him. First I want to say I really like him and he definitely cares. Although they are only suppose to be "hour" long lessons he stays at least 90 minutes with me each time. And constantly taking money of the price of the lessons because I have stuck with him. He also has all the latest technology. His intentions are 100% all good and I firmly believe that... Having said all the above, Im not seeing the progress. And it is not me not putting work in. I put a ton of range time in and constantly working at my game. I have had 9 lessons with him and we haven't advanced past a 6 iron and I am still inconsistent as hell just with the short irons we have been working on for 8-9 lessons. I don't think hes a bad teacher and I like him personally but for whatever reason I don't think we are mixing together. Am I wrong? Is is possible it is just taking very long? Im currently looking at possibly GOLFTEC but Im nervous as well. I don't want to fire this guy if it means Im really starting completely over. Im just struggling with this decision right now. Once the spring comes I want to be able to play decent golf...

I think I may have stumbled on an issue of mine because of this thread. Everyone here talking about choking down or at least being completely on the shaft. My left pad is hanging over(not completely on the shaft) in my grip. I think this may be a problem and causing some of my control issues. Any ideas what this can cause? I assume I should make the change and get my entire left hand at least on the shaft if not down about 1/4 inch clear of the butt?

I am a little over a year into this fun adventure. It was quite a struggle for a long time but slowly getting improvement. I can hit my wedges and short irons(through 7 iron) pretty well now. Still struggle a good amount with consistency with longer irons and Woods but Im really working hard on it. No one can call me a bad student. My instructor in my last lesson told me to work on coming from the inside more as I was coming into the ball to steeply(I Guess this means over the top. Today I was hitting it pretty solid but blocking it to the right. Not a crazy block but enough to tell me something was a little off. Everything I read tells me Im now coming too far from the inside of course. I am actually OK with this for now as over the top is a killer so Ill take coming in too far from the inside of that issue. I actually think I found my issue just by reading online and taking some practice swings in the backyard. I think my stance was way too wide. I read this causes you to no rotate enough and come too far from the inside. Does this makes sense? My stance was definitely on the wider side...

I feel like its very slow but progress is being made in my golf swing. I feel like I have the setup/posture/grip areas down pretty good down. I feel like my backswing is solid and on plane. My golf instructor feels like I have one big item to "get over the humpDo". I have a hard time getting the concept of turning all the way through on the downswing and of course the negative reaction to that is I use my hands too much because the club has to get to the ball somehow. Does anyone have any tip or thought process to help them make sure they are turning their bodies through the ball in the downswing? Something that has helped a little bit is I think about finishing high above my shoulders. This almost forces your to turn through....

I hope everyone is doing well and their golf games are improving! Even though its cold here in Philadelphia I have been putting in a ton of work.I have made very small strides in my game but strides nonetheless. I feel like I can narrow my issues down to 2 although they are big ones. If the pros could correct me if I am wrong regarding the downswing: 1.) First you shift your weight to start downswing. Everyone does this differently. Firing hips, bumping hips, firing/bumping left knee, lets hands drop,etc. No matter how you do it, this is step #1 correct? I have tried various ways to do this and Im struggling on this aspect. Any suggestions are welcome 2.) After shifting weight come down from an inside path. Again, I don't even know if I am doing this or not. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks, HAGS

Hacker you are 100% correct. Its exactly the same. If you bump your hips then hands drop automatically. If you drop your hands the hips bump forward automatically. I was trying to initiate the downswing by bumping my hips and I was completely out of whack. I reversed it and let my hands drop via gravity from the top into the slot and it automatically bumped my hips forward. It has made my swing so much smoother. Its a personal preference. Neither is right or wrong. I found this video online to perfectly describe what Im doing now successfully:

Savvvy you are 100% correct. I was forcing too much of a shoulder turn because I was "trained" to make a full turn. My instructor can never accuse me of not listening. Any tip he gives me I master. I have had 5 lessons and Im thrilled with the improvement but it just takes time. For example when I first went there my grip was terrible and I didnt release the club/turn my hands over at all. The next time I saw him I was turning everything over too much. Pull the ball big time to the left. Now the shoulder turn was a focus a couple lessons ago and forcing it was helping my contact but like I said above overdoing it was causing me to get off balance. Today's Tip was to try to hit the ball to the 2nd baseman. The result was amazing once I got it. I was hitting 5 yard draws with the ball landing about a 2 yards left of target at maximum distance. Im curious if anyone else uses/have been given the tip to imagine hitting the ball over the 2nd baseman's head. Of course the first couple didnt go great but once I got the feeling it was great. My instructor loves where I am except for about the last 2 feet of the swing. Still to flipping with hands at the end and not enough turning through with body. Ive been at it for about 14 months and finally feel some progress is finally being made. I almost quit like 10 times. I would go to the range and hit shank after shank for months. Anyone who is having a hard time should listen to me. Golf is hard but if you put the work in it pays of EVENTUALLY. FYI I Still shank a few everyday. Maybe 3 or 4 out of my bucket of 50-60 balls..

Thank you Mike. I never really thought about the right hip turning around enough, Ive been focusing on making sure my left shoulder is turning enough. This make sense as sometimes I feel like Im turning my left side but it doesn't feel right, Makes sense about the hip idea because that means my left side is turning enough but not my right... I feel like the balance thing is something so stupid at setup. Ill try flaring out my feet more Thanks again

Hello All, I haven't been on here much in the last couple weeks. I joined a Country Club and even though its cold here in Philadelphia, I am putting some serious time in at the range. I am going everyday. I decided to not "give up" with golf but to make a 100% commitment to improving. I love it to much and I have only been at it for a year. I am finally making some very slow progress. I no longer get into those funks where all I do it shank it. My contact is not perfect by any stretch but on most swings I get decent contact at least. I know without a doubt when I shank the ball of the heel its because Im just not turning my shoulders/body enough. All hands swing and its ugly. So, knowing how important it is to get a full 90 degree shoulder turn and coil I am making sure to at least do this on every swing. And the results are pretty good. I am hitting my 8 iron about 140-150 yards consistently. My only issue with ball flight is its carrying a very slight fade that I don't really want. Any ideas on that? My second question is regarding balance. I feel like I have good posture. Feet flared slightly, slight knee flex, proper distance from the ball and bending from hips. At set up I feel like I am in an a good position. At times when Im making sure to make my full shoulder turn I feel slightly off balance and sometimes I move ever so slightly towards the ball which obviously isn't good. Usually I still hit the ball OK but I know this is not a good thing to feel off balance. Any ideas as to why? Is there something wrong with the setup? Or am I not performing the shoulder turn properly? I go by the left shoulder replacing the right shoulder position at address theory. I know its hard to say without video. But theories/guesses are cool I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks, Hags