JoeMal

I was brought back down to reality tonight in my lesson.... I showed up a few minutes early and bought a bucket of balls..started working on my practice swing before my instructor arrived shortly after. He approached and asked how I've been, yada yada. I told him I had been to the driving range and was practicing in my backyard. He asked "So what have you been practicing on?" I said "I'm really struggling with my hip and shoulder rotation. I feel like I'm swaying and not rotating on an axis..." He looks at me and says, "I don't ever recall talking about that....where did you pick that up? How are you doing with your short strokes and 'connection'?" (He's been focusing a lot on "connection" between my body and the club) I looked dumbfounded. He called me out. Here I am...three weeks into golf, and I'm trying to do it all. Stance, grip, straight arms, straight back, head down, hinge - but not too far, arms in, explode, control the club, rotate! try not to chicken wing, follow through, etc etc. I have been struck by analysis paralysis and I'm trying to overdue it. It was sobering. So this lesson we went all the way back to the beginning and redid my first lesson. This made me frustrated at first but by the end I realized I needed it. He was right. I'm coming out swinging, sprinting in a marathon. This site, YouTube, etc are great because there's so much information out there. But for a guy like me...I need to crawl. Crawl a lot. Then walk. Then jog. Then run. SO...we worked on my stance. I was falling back into hunching over where he wanted me more bend at the waist and not the back. We also worked on short backswings without hinge...straight back, straight forward with some force. He also noticed I was coming down open, so I really tried to keep my clubface straight and not open up. I had the tendency to swing way behind me (Because I was trying to over rotate with the club). I hit more straight, pure shots tonight in my last 10 minutes than I have in the last 3 weeks. I need to slow down and focus on what I'm being taught instead of trying to be a weekend warrior and do it myself. I'm getting way ahead of myself. I truly appreciate all the knowledge on this forum but I think it's made me forget that I'm still a baby. Working on getting some video uploaded...

This thread is really good for a beginner. The slower backswing I have...even an exaggerated backswing where I think (man this is slow!) the better I feel and am able to control my swing. It's much easier to feel when things are going wrong, and you can simply go back to address and start over. It's also easier to capture successes/failures on camera and see them immediately at the range instead of waiting until you get home to slow them down on a PC. The slower pace also helps keep me calm and loose, where when you're going 80-100%, it's more stressful as you're trying to cram so many thoughts into a swing that takes less than two seconds. Sometimes I find myself so tense that my body refuses to move in the way I want it to. Calming down and going slower frees up my muscles and they're more willing to cooperate.

Iron Observations: Still a little flex in my left arm Not rotating hips Driver Observations: Too much backswing Lots of lower body movement Lots of head movement I'm going to try to get out this weekend and hit a little more and my next lesson is Monday evening. I also need to pay more attention to where I line up as I'm not getting good angles on my videos. I was at the far end of the driving range and there are some trees directly off to my right so I had to sort of angle away from the camera to ensure I wasn't hitting into the trees.

I hit a bucket of balls tonight. I put the ball a little further back in my stance and was making better contact with my irons but still not hitting pure as I'm hitting fat. Swing still looks terrible. It's crazy how what you feel yourself doing is really not what's happening at all! I bought a little cell phone tripod mount that worked great to get some video without lugging my camera to the range. I'm going to figure out how to chop up the video and post it. On a positive note, I did hit my driver nicely about 4 times out of 7. Long and straight. Happy with that so far but I did have a huge backswing which I'll need to work on. Overall I think it's going to be a long haul but I guess that's what golf is all about. I am competitive so sucking is hard for me but I'll work through it and won't give up

This site costs me a lot of money

I really want these from Daphne but just haven't bought them yet. Probably good Christmas presents from family. I love to BBQ and these are my favorite specimens :)

A footlong will be free in prison!

Agree. You can Google "Golf Digest hot list 2013" for example to see "the best" clubs from a given year. Then at a shop you'll know what to look for. Also hit in a simulator and don't be afraid to take recommendations from store employees. Just remember some of them may be making money off you

I am new to golf and decided to get used irons but bought new driver and putter because they were nearly as cheap as used. Complete sets aren't bad and would get you by for a while but I opted to spend a little more upfront on decent starter equipment

This is awesome thank you and everyone else who made those threads so informational

I'm sure his salesman loved him!

So how do you guys video tape yourselves? My wife stays home with our daughter and sadly I don't have many friends to go play with. Do you take a camera and a tripod?

I've been Playing Golf for: 2 weeks My current handicap index or average score is: I'm guessing somewhere in the triple digits. Never played 18 holes before. My typical ball flight is: Slice or "hosel rocket" as my instructor says The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Hitting off the heel. I also hit fat A little background..... I'm 29, 6'6" and wanting to learn how to play golf. This is something I've wanted to do for nearly a year and finally just started buying clubs and equipment so I can get moving. As with most things in life; the hardest part is getting started. You can see the current clubs I own in my signature. I've stared with lessons from a local "PGA" certified instructor. My lessons are 1 hour and we go through 50 balls. The videos below are during my 2nd lesson. I am truly embarrassed to post them but feel it's one step towards me getting better. I need to start somewhere and there's a lot of smart people that can help me here. One swing at a time I guess. To be honest, the swings don't feel as bad as they look on camera. And here she goes...sorry for the blurry video (I'll make sure to rib my instructor next time I see him) Videos: Areas for Improvement 1. Hip rotation. I really struggle with moving my hips on the backswing 2. Keeping my arms straight. I'm unsure how far back in my swing I need to keep my arms (both?) straight. My right arm can't help but bend at some point, and I see others doing this, so I think that's fine. But my left I really struggle keeping it straight when I try to hinge. 3. Making contact with the ball - I hit fat a lot. Too far behind the ball. My instructor keeps telling me "Just hit the ball" and "Hit the ball first" but I can't seem to hit the ball before my club strikes the ground. 4. When I do make contact with the ball, I hit the heel. A lot. Like 9 out of 10 times I hit on the heel. When I do make solid contact, it feels great and I know I hit a good shot. But a lot of times I hit the heel. My instructor told me I need to work on keeping my arms closer to my body on my downswing. Almost pulling them towards my body and exploding up through the shot. I did this successfully once and immediately felt how different it was, and it felt good. I hit about 120 yards with an 8 iron that swing (Unsure if that's good, but that's what he said ) 5. Making an aggressive downswing. He kept telling me to swing harder. But with my poor ability to make correct contact with the ball, I was afraid to really swing the club and I didn't think I could control it. If I can't connect going at half speed, why would I be able to connect at full speed? Watching the videos I do see how weak I am on my downswing. To be honest these videos were more at the beginning of the lesson and I think towards the end I was swinging harder but who knows. Anyway...this is me. 2 lessons in. I feel like I've learned a LOT in the 2 lessons I've had and if I can figure out how to quit hitting off the heel I think I'll be in much better shape.

Watching the end at 18 would be cool, congrats for that. But your 'primitive' explanation of the event does sound poorly planned. No charging stations and an app/server that was bogged down makes for a miserable 'smart' experience. Next time bring a battery backup that you can charge your phone with! (Or several and charge people $10 per fill-up... ) Sounds like some other sporting events I've been to - nothing like what you see on TV. Sometimes that is good. Other times, you just wish you were at home watching your own TV.

In my first hour lessons we worked on my foundation and stance. By the time I left, I was holding the club and standing at address completely differently than I was when I got there. And I'm fairly confident I would not have got there on my own...maybe with instruction from a peer or someone, but that's not guaranteed. And how long would that have taken me to correct something as basic as my stance? Compare that to what we covered in the first 20 minutes of a lesson. Again, for a beginner, I think it's good money spent. I think I will be "course ready" and confident way sooner than if I went at it alone.

I am just starting out golfing; taking my second lesson tonight, actually For me, I can't understand why people don't take lessons. I'm 29, so I could theoretically play golf for another 40+ years. That's a long time! Anyone who is "too busy" or "doesn't have the money" for lessons is kidding themselves. I will dump far more time and money into playing golf than I will learning how to play golf. Even if you're in your 50s and just getting started, you have a lot of life in front of you. Take a few hours and get lessons instead of jumping straight into 18 holes.

I'm 6'6"and play +1. Sometimes I wonder what a 1.5" club would feel like but I'm still learning so my may settle down over time

Will your turf be permanently attached to the foundation? If you can find a way to not make it attached, you could build/buy little wedges, semicircles, etc shapes and put them underneath the turf. You could move them around whenever you wanted a 'new' green layout. I'm thinking like pieces of foam board you could buy at a craft store, shaved down to whatever size you want to introduce slopes and grade. Be sure to post pics when you're done!

Odyssey White Hot Pro Havok putter Bag towel A dozen cheap Pinnacle golf balls for hitting around the house

Thanks for the tips. Hit my irons with some soapy water and a 000 steel wool pad and they look better. I don't feel like I can apply enough pressure with nylon. They look a lot better and I'll put a stiff wire brush on my shopping list

Tagged for comments. Sorry I can't contribute anything OP

Thanks for the recommendation. As a beginner I'm working on learning about the tools and products to have around and in my bag. Are groove sharpeners necessary or a gimmick?

While I think tennis shoes are fine most of the time, there are some benefit to golf shoes. Nice traction/grip and their more waterproof than tennis shoes. Plus you can get a decent pair for what tennis shoes cost. So why not get golf shoes? The less you're wearing your tennis shoes on the course, the longer they will last in general.

Ok I was going to get a wire brush and use that...but wasn't sure if it would hurt the stainless. I will look for one of those when I'm out this weekend. Looking for my first putter. I'm also researching how to repaint the white groove at the bottom of the club. Found a guy that swears by acrylic paint so I may have a little project this weekend to freshen up these G10s