supercow

Actually, closing your stance will actually encourage a draw if you take the club away on the proper path (since you're attacking it from further inside). I'm still trying to work out whether I actually like this avatar. Kind of scares me a little... LOL I'm still seriously thinking about trying one of these: http://supertomate.typepad.fr/blog/W...s_3%5B2%5D.jpg http://supertomate.typepad.fr/blog/W...s_4%5B2%5D.jpg

You need to either find a really good golf book or professional... normally, the reason why people tend to 'stand up' during the swing though is because their initial setup/stance is wrong. For example, they may be too close to the ball and in order to create the room needed to swing freely they need to stand up to give their arms/hands room to move through.

This lag reminds me of the old Sergio who also had problems with blocks/hooks due to excessive lag. A couple of things you could try to reduce the size of your backswing are: - is to feel as though you are sitting down on your trailing leg on the way back. As soon as you feel as though you're weight is not being transferred to this trailing leg, stop your backswing - shorten your the length of your thumb down the length of the shaft - change your grip. That looks pretty strong (if I'm seeing it properly) and you'll notice that people with stronger grips appear to have more lag in their downswing (Duval is a good example of this) - develop a feel for where the clubhead is. The more you play/practice, the more you'll discover that you're able to know where the clubhead/clubshaft is pointed at the top of your backswing. You can use this to your advantage to gradually groove yourself stop at a certain position - focus on the feel for the left side of your torso. As soon as you feel as though this is being pulled laterally away from your front foot stop your backswing Note - these 'fixes' may result in a reduction in your power/distance.

To turn more you could try: - stretching - lifting your chin slightly to give more room for your shoulder to turn under - closing your stance slightly to give your body more room to turn (Hogan style) - increasing your tilt (away from the target) which will also round out your swing a little bit more and give you more room to turn With regards to your wrists, I'm guessing that: - you could be too stiff at address in the first place which means that you can't really set it at the top - your grip is flawed (especially in the left hand) which doesn't allow the wrist to hinge properly at the top of your backswing If I remember other possibilities then I'll post later on...

Seems to be a pattern here which makes it easier to analyse I have the funny feeling that you may be trying to guide your shots around the course rather than actually swinging and trusting that the ball will end up close to your target. One thing that I could recommend here is to find a field (or a driving range), drop a stack of balls, and then start swinging away away at random targets. This will hopefully help you to begin to 'trust' your own swing and stop attempting to guide shots toward your target (this is assuming your swing doesn't contain significant flaws which would cause you to hit these shots in the first place). Its obvious that your short game needs work if you want to score better. One of the things that I noticed while watching good amateurs (at least sub-4 handicaps) is that even though they may drive the thing miles and absolutely everywhere (compared to professional golfers) they are either extremely good chippers/pitchers or putters. Those people who possess a combination of both tend to dominate local tournaments. You need to be able to remain in the 'present'. That is, you need to be able to remain relatively 'mentally stable' and take the good shots with the bad so that when you do have bad shots they do not impact on what occurs thereafter. I think this often comes with maturity, more time playing the game, and sometimes reading certain mental game books.

Are they much different?

I have these periods every once in a while... Feels bizarre when you go back to your normal self though.

Mine was on a short 380 yard, par 4. Perfect drive. Next shot went waaaayyy right, hit a tree, and bounced across to the left side of the green where I was stuck in the rough/fringe. Played a half chip/pitch to tap in range.

Titleist 906F2 if I'm on a course where fairway wood tee shots are required. Else, it gets swapped for a low lofted hybrid on courses where I'll be playing more shots from off the deck.

These should help you understand what we're trying to say and why... http://www.oneplanegolfswing.com/p3_...two_plane.html http://perfectgolfswingreview.net/

Benefit of closed stance is that it gives more room for your torso to turn to allow you to gain more speed. Potential problem is that you could end up attacking from too far inside and hooking/pushing shots. Opposite is true when opening stance. Changing angle of feet can often resrict/free movement of hips. Hogan opened his front foot primarily to give him freedom of movement of hips on the downswing and squared the backfoot to resrict hip rotation on the way back.

I've seen very few people who could be considered true one planers. An example of a 'true' one planer is Ben Hogan who basically retraced his backswing/downswing shaft plane. Most modern swings end up parallel to this shaft plane at the top and then drop back down on the shaft plane later on in the swing, http://www.youtube.com/user/golflessonacademy You need to work out what works for you though. If you go to a 'true' one plane swing directional control may become more of an issue as well as (a lack of) height.

Do you miss big or small (in regards to both GIR/Fairways)? Do you have a tendency to miss to one side? Is there a pattern to the holes where you are losing strokes (i.e. lose strokes mostly off of par 4s)? Is there a pattern to the shots that you tend to miss (i.e. miss mainly using mid-long iron shots)? Do you three putt because you're so far away from the hole are you just a bad putter? Is your inability to get up and down because you can't chip/pitch the ball close enough? Do you tend to blow up mentally for a series of holes or are bad holes interspresed with good holes?

Was sitting around and some thoughts came into my mind on how to improve the popularity of golf. Anyway, came up with this - http://dtbnguyen.googlepages.com/Imp...-Golf-1.02.pdf No doubt, some of the ideas seem pretty strange but some of the them include: - breaking the course up at 6/9/12/18 holes so that people can still play a few holes after work without having to pay the full green fee - having bigger gaps between tees so that ladies/kids have a genuine chance of scoring well - bundling lessons with clubs so that it is easier for golfers entering the game for the first time - adding miniature 'scoops' on golf clubs to make them more forgiving for golfing novices - having standardised starter sets which comprise high lofted/short shafter driver, hybrids (since most beginners find it hard to hit long irons/fairway woods), a few irons (to give people a taste of what real golf is about), wedge (to give people the opportunity to practice in their yard), and putter to make it simpler/cheaper to enter the game - yadayada...

http://www.oneplanegolfswing.com/p3_...two_plane.html

Different. These shafts have a longer tip section in order to accomodate the bore-thru on the Titleist clubs.

Been collating some of my notes and came up with some articles which may be of interest to others. http://dtbnguyen.googlepages.com/bin...iclesdocuments

- focus on maintaining knee flex in trailing leg to increase coil and ensure proper weight shift. This also reduces lateral motion. - relax, you look incredibly stiff over the ball, maybe develop a pre-swing waggle of some sort. - your head seems to be stuck to your chest at the moment. Lift it a tad. This will allow your shoulders to rotate back and forth without you having to change your spine angle. - swing seems to be driven by upper body at the moment. Just fire your lower body when you've completed your backswing and let the swing 'happen'. Do not attempt to guide or lift the ball into the air. - can't see it clearly but work on your grip as well as posture. Grip looks a little strong at the moment but I can't be entirely sure because the movie is kind of fuzzy. Most of the time I hit fat shots when I'm stooped over too far. - is it possible to get a down the line view? I have the funny feeling that you're starting back too steep... Also, want to get a better idea of your setup/stance.

I've suffered from hooks ever since I took up the game. I have a whole bunch of modifications in my swing to guard against this issue. First is setup, I have more weight on my front side than normal which makes my swing slightly more upright due to reduced spinal tilt. Second, is head rotation. Instead of keeping my head down I let it rotate freely towards the target which means my arms are less likely to come across the ball instead of through it. Three is checking to ensure that my grip isn't too strong. Four, is keep my arms in front my body throughout the swing so that I don't attack from too far inside. Five, if I'm having a really bad case of the hooks I start counter-rotating my wrists so that I'm at the top of my backswing position my clubface is completely open (a la Hogan). Six, just stay loose and let the club release naturally instead of forcing it to release. I'm fairly sure that there are other techniques as well but that is all that I can remember for now... Could even deliberately attempt to slide laterally to induce a block.

Could try the gate drill where you have two pegs spaced slightly wider than putter at your strike zone. If your path it incorrect you'll hit one of them, it not all is good. For lag putting, I normally have one of two thoughts. If I'm on super fast greens, I just think about changing the length of my swing and maintaining the same tempo throughout the stroke. If I'm on slower greens, I just think about accelerating through the stroke straight towards my target. Oh, one more thing. I tend to think about rotating my entire upper torso instead of just my shoulders. Seems to make things easier for me since my grip tension is to slight.

Inside, square, inside. Of late its been outside inside on longer putts though which has made lag putting a pain in the butt. Back to the practice green we go...

Find a mirror and an intermediate target in front of it. Attempt to line up square to the intermediate target without looking at the mirror. Check the mirror to see that you are square. Repeat until correct. Go out to a random field and pick a target. Line yourself up and then drop a golf club in front/back of your shoes. Walk away and see whether the club is parallel to the target. If not repeat until correct. Find a wide hallway and pick a target. Line yourself up and ensure that your body is parallel to the wall. If not repeat until correct.

A lower top of the backswing position does promote more body rotation but you're shot shape is going to be highly dependent on how you release the clubhead. For instance, Duval/Trevino/Hogan all have relatively low hands but they all play fades most of the time because they have relatively passive hands and release via their bodies. Yes, left to right is fade if you're a righty. If you definitely want to hit a draw but you're out of sequence, here is a swing thought that may help. Keep the butt of the clubhead pointed at the ball for as long as possible during the backswing. When you start your downswing, think about waiting for the club to drop behind you as you fire your lower body, then clamp your right elbow to the right hand side of your rib cage and fire as hard as you please with lower or upper body. The ball should start out right of target and then draw back towards your target (assuming you have a neutral grip). Note of caution though, a draw is a hell of a lot more difficult to control than a fade primarily due to the distance a draw rolls after hitting the deck and the tendency of draws to come out lower than fades. By the way, swing videos would really help...

A friend of mine had a Cobra SS Unlimited that cracked. They replaced it with a newer model. Another person that I know cracked his Titleist 983E. They replaced it with a 905S. I cracked my Titleist 980F. They replaced it with a 906F2.