amoline

Well, for what it's worth, the other week at my home course, there was a group who was kindly asked to remove themselves from the premises after driving the golf cart directly across greens multiple times, and teeing off without any pants. - No, I'm not kidding.

Super stoked to see some tangible progress that wasn't a drill today in my wedge swing with what I've been working on -- stopping the lateral head movement toward the target. At last, there was negligible head movement on video, and I hit some great wedge shots.

I think whatever feels the best is what you should do. I learned on an old set of blades from my grandfather, and I'm playing a pro combo type set right now -- anything super game improvement, or game improvement looks ugly as a mud fence to me. Even if my handicap isn't quite up to snuff for any full blades, I like playing the blade look the best. Ultimately, it is confidence in your club that will equate to best performance. I have a friend and fellow club golf teammate who plays i20s and if I wanted them, I'd have to -- quote -- "pry them from [his] cold, dead hands!" -- enjoy your clubs. :)

Small plug for the PM-grind wedges. Because of the courses I play on, I have a 58° and a 64° PM-grind wedge. At first the 64° definitely cost me strokes, but now it lets me pull off some pretty special shots as long as I don't get too cocky (ie stupid) about things. Bonus when a playing partner asks in shock what club that was and I say 64° and I get looked at like I'm nuts.

Hopefully this question won't come off in the wrong way -- I mean it as a compliment! But if I may ask, assuming it's accurate, why are you a 20 handicap? All pure stats, themselves, aside, just from your personal experience, what do you think is holding you back from scoring the most? Because you certainly have an awesome looking swing. Guessing, I'm a similar-ish handicap and I can say it's definitely the "blowup holes" that are wrecking my scores, and I wouldn't say that there's a particular glaringly horrible aspect of my game. I practice everything, of course. Just curious what your two cents are about your own game! Nice swing, and sorry for hijacking your thread a little.

In my own swing, I find that my "shank causing death move" is nearly always head movement towards the target. Even by a few inches and your path is moved and your risk for a terribly miss increases substantially. The problem for me gets exasperated because if I shank it, I'll think on the next swing "OK, hit it at all costs -- hit it fat if you have to, just no thin shank" and that causes me to go caveman on the ball and makes the head movement even worse, even more increasing the likelihood of a shank. Just my two pennies. Worst scenario, I'll address it off the toe

Great guy from my hometown and very home course, actually, made it through local qualifying but missed at sectional qualifying by 3 shots (if I remember correctly). Great player (obviously) and feel bad that he didn't make it but he is getting better at every year's qualifier. Believe he played with Tony Finau at sectional.

Don't be too hard on yourself -- seriously. Unless you are actively trying to change a specific thing about the way you swing the club, nothing is going to change. This goes back to the swings on your poorest shots looking very close, if not exactly, to the same as every other decent or good shot. The changes will take time, and you have to power through the temporary timing issues that putting changes into your swing causes!

Full disclaimer: Not a professional instructor However, what I see is that you chicken wing because your body does not give your arms enough room to extend. This happens because you lose your spine angle and have no tilt away from the target. Nearly all good players have some spine tilt away from the target and maintain it all the way through impact. You can even see in a slow-motion of your video that you attempt to get to this position mid-downswing. So that's an easy setup fix. Like Iacas said there's no wrist hinge, so the first thing to check would be your grip. I would also take a look at some information on how your arms are supposed to rotate together on the backswing, because as it stands you simply lift them straight up which is not ideal. Just my two pennies -- hope this does help, however.

I feel like a total moron. Looking at DTL video, I noticed that my shoulder turn in my downswing is so vertical as to resemble a sad, fat-person impersonation of Dustin Johnson. And I wonder why I had shoulder blade pain. Yikes. Even trying to do that in slow motion I can feel the super stretch in my back. Really need to get that right shoulder out and down.

I'm in the northern colorado area and if anything reasonably near comes by that I can make, I think a meetup would be fun. :) My handicap isn't anywhere near anything great though :P Will keep an eye out

Exciting day -- first day that I was able to actually go and hit a full practice bucket without feeling like i'm just going to keel over and die while my arm falls off. Sore, and going to still ease back into things. Didn't hit any drivers today. but things felt better all around. Rhythm feels a little strange and i think that's common after any kind of injury/pain happens. Having issues with lateral head movements on longer clubs, being a little chicken wingy and wish I could get some more distance as always. My biggest irritant at the moment is wondering why exactly I'm unable to get my hands more forward on the downswing. Anyway, just wanted to post a couple of updates.

Nice blog and I relate to it a lot. I find that all the things I work on in my swing take time to transition as I get to the longer clubs, always. I think at least for me with my longer clubs I always get in a mindset of "I need to kill it!" which of course exacerbates whatever my swing flaw is and does me no good. In 2013, tour pro average approach average from 150-175 yds was 27' 8", so unless you're just massively missing greens, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. I have this same issue -- ridiculous expectations of myself when playing.

After a little bit of soreness/injury I took a break from the range -- I was definitely hitting a LOT of golf balls. went back today to just ease back into things. Trying to do a left arm parallel wedge swing and still continue to work on the head movement forward. Pleased with some of the progress thus far. Strike wasn't great in this example but this was the best looking one as far as head movement went by far - which makes sense for the strike. Doing something new (better) so have to adjust.

Well, for what it's worth I currently use the Nike Vapor Pro Combo irons, which are a generation newer than the VR but nevertheless I very much enjoy them. One caveat -- on my 9 iron, the club's leading edge metal is actually worn off down to the raw finish of the club below. Since I can't be without a 9 iron for 3 weeks, I'm using it as is though Nike offered to take a look and replace it if necessary. They aren't old clubs, though, so I'm surprised that the durability isn't quite up as I think it should be. Other than that, though, they're great and even my cosmetic complaint isn't something that changes its performance. My brother who is a good junior golfer uses mostly all Callaway equipment, where as I mentioned I have lots of Nike equipment. I think that my Nike clubs accomplish the "in between" pro combo style set better than the Callaways I've tried in the past. I think that my Nikes are not the longest clubs in the world either, as compared to his similar Callaways (but he swings faster than I do, too). Then again, I don't think that any Nike pro combo set has ever pretended to be the longest iron out there, either. Just my two cents of course. But again I really must add in that no matter who has experience with what it's not very helpful to you as a golfer unless you are able to get fit... even for used models as WUTiger mentioned.

Full disclaimer: not a teaching professional. Stupid question: Are you sure it's a shank (and not a bladed shot or anything)? Seemingly, any issue would get worse the longer the club you're using gets. And you don't notice any shanks or even heel strikes on other clubs? You are setup almost level over the ball, and it wouldn't hurt at least to sort out the address somewhat by having some spine tilt away from the target at address. Your body is smarter than your brain in this sense. It knows that you want spine tilt at impact, so you have to throw in a compensatory move to create it: However, throughout your swing it's not there. Because it's such a big move to compensate with, I wouldn't doubt if this is at least in part one of the reasons you are having issues with your sand wedge. One of the feels I used for much the same issue (losing my tilt) was turning with the feeling like I'm putting all of my weight into my right heel. Not sure how this may work for you, but it did OK for me and may be worth a shot. Beyond this, though I still think it could have something to do with it, my other guess would be that your wedge has a lot of bounce and would actually be topping the ball, though with your handicap going "back to single digits" you would certainly know the difference. Can you upload a video of you shanking one for us? Hope some of this helps, even if a little bit... Andrew.

Thanks, boogielicious! Have no doubt that that could come from trying to restrict my head moving forward. I need to practice better with the "body bump" being my lower body only and not dragging everything else along with it. (and don't know why the bold text won't go away :/ )

Here's a swing video today, just a wedge because I'm working on fixing some head movement things. Still, though. Bit different from last swing video, right? Advice, comments, and so forth welcome, as always. Just glad to be back here at TST! :D

Son of a gun, that's the thread I was looking for. Look at that. :) Thanks for finding the link and covering for those of us less able in finding things.

Total disclaimer -- I am not a professional instructor. However, I wanted to hopefully clarify a thing or two, if nothing else. Your "shallow plane -- heel hit" is actually incredibly steep Compare this to Adam Scott in a similar hand position After that you get into a position where you have no choice but to rake across it so hard that you actually just drag the hosel right into it. The fact that you can hit the ball from this position is actually a testament to your skill, in my opinion. :) You get into a very laid off (flat) position at the top, and it would feel weird to come back the same way, unless your name is Matt Kuchar. Oddly enough, your video of "steep plane" is actually more shallow than the one where you weren't choking down. Here, you actually have the club intersecting more of your trail arm instead of right across your lead arm. So here you are in fact more shallow and not steeper (so your compensatory move does not have to be so severe): So that's the easy part -- showing you what's up. For the other part, as I say I'm not a professional instructor by any means. However, a feel for me when I have had this issue in the past is you have to make your arms/hands feel like they are working in the opposite way than they currently are -- that is, they need to feel like your left hand is working "flatter" and your right hand moves along with it, so you get the club feeling like you're laying it further behind you instead of getting it more vertical. Down and in, not out and over. Lastly, you really need to be hitting a ball of some kind. Practice swings really don't help as much as you think they might. Secondly, if you got some face on video it would help, too. Record it at hip height, face on. Hitting a ball. :D My two cents -- as I said, not a pro instructor so take it for what it's worth, but I hope it gives you an idea or two. :) Andrew.

Well, hey folks! -- Remember me? I'm glad to be back after some time away! Sadly I've not been able to play as much golf as I would have liked, recently, but since range balls are free that's where the majority of my practice comes. I know, not the best, but it's better than nothing and keeps me entertained. Bit embarrassing to come back and see these swing videos -- eugh. Yikes, horrific! Hope everyone has been doing well. Look forward to getting back into the swing of things (swear, pun not intended) and hello to everyone new and old. Andrew

Just wanted to stop by and say nice swing... :) I am struggling with the same thing, taking that club inside... though mine is much worse. You already know all the drills with alignment sticks, and what not, I'm sure, but thought I'd just mention that's one of my favorite drills now, and lately I've just been sticking it in the ground and leaving it as I work on other things at the range... it makes sure I don't yank it way inside like that. Best of luck, and can't wait to continue watching your progress. :)

I watched this video awhile ago and was really hoping that I'd get something great out of it, but... I have to say, as a former flipper (every once in awhile a flip creeps in, but mostly I've just about fixed it I think), that quite literally the advice that made me stop flipping was to not throw my right wrist. After I finally learned and saw that the "release" should be a rotation style move (or at least, that's my feel), I'm doing so much better. I like lots of Monte's videos, but this video unfortunately was not the gem that I was looking for, as the title made it sound like :(

Well, just a small update -- Got a new driver today, woo! Hopefully I'll be able to do a small, just my opinion review with some decent info somewhere.. I'm still new, so I'm not sure if the new website has a place for these things yet.. :) Also, I did go out and get some new video about a week and a half ago, but there'd be no sense in posting it here, because truthfully there was zero change. :) Back to going slow with the alignment sticks, and this time I think I'm making some real progress, now that I know what it should both feel and look like. Also, it may not be the case, but I feel like I'm able to power through the ball better now that I've improved that. So, hopefully, I will be able to get some (actually) improved video up, soon.

117 swing speed, and you didn't feel like you were just flinging around a pool noodle? EDIT: Also if you're looking for two options off the tee, why not just opt for a 3W? I feel it would be a much better option for more consistency than just a different driver.