ZANDER1994

Had two lessons over the past month. We focused on getting a bit more outside on the takeaway and put a towel under my left armpit to encourage more rotation through impact. Still not perfect obviously but I’ve stopped the heel strikes which I’m happy about 🙂

To clarify, do you mean the path is too far in to out? I used to struggle with a terrible OTT move and have worked a lot on swinging more in to out over the past year so that’d actually make a lot of sense if I am overdoing it now. Any drills to get the right elbow in the correct spot that you may recommend?

I was really excited for this season. I’d been shooting in the low 80s pretty consistently and thought maybe this was the year I could possibly break 80. And then out of nowhere, I started shanking… it’s been a week or two and I feel disgusted every time I leave the range. I hit 50 balls in a row and every single one was a heel strike today. My coach is booked for the next two weeks but I have a lesson scheduled for the end of the month. Can someone help me diagnose this in the meantime? Any drill suggestions I could do instead of sitting on my hands for the next two weeks?

So this past year I worked on one thing and one thing only: swing plane. I completely rebuilt the way I swing (including my grip) and can say with confidence I am no longer coming over the top. My scores have dropped significantly. I no longer slice the ball and I am seeing consistent in-to-out swing paths on my launch monitor. That being said, I still predominantly hit a fade and my miss is often a push that fades slightly. My launch monitor shows an open face to path ratio more than 95% of the time with my stock swing. On slow motion stills I have noticed my clubface is slightly closed at the top but because I struggle with a cupped wrist, by the time I am at P6, the club face is wide open. I have been researching ways to correct this and I discovered this week the “motorcycle move” is very effective for me. I can produce a closed face to path ratio consistently by simply feeling a twist as I bring the club down. The only thing is, everyone talks about doing this move with your lead (left) hand. I find it incredibly difficult to feel any closing motion with my left hand, but the right hand is very easy to twist. I simply think of my right V between my pointer and my thumb twisting to the left and that seems to work for me and I start hitting draws. Is there any issue with feeling this motion in the right hand as opposed to the left? Or are they the same thing? At the end of the day I am probably going to keep doing it because it works, but I just wanted to hear from anyone else who consciously does this move if you feel any sensation in the right hand as you do it. Thanks.

Just another view of my swing currently and now that I have my indoor net setup 🙂

So for the past 4-5 months I have practiced with the lagshot training aid 1-2 times per week. One one hand, I feel I am not coming over the top as much as I had in the past. On the other hand, I’ve noticed my takeaway is really from the inside now (too much from the inside). I am also still humping the goat. I have played in the low 80s this season with this swing, including two 80s, a handful of 82s, and an 84 this month at a tough course I had never played before. I’m not sure if this swing is truly an improvement or if I am just playing better due to more play time this season.

This past winter I made some pretty significant changes to my swing. My handicap has dropped from a 16 to a 9 this year which feels amazing. I played with a few buddies today and shot an 82 (+10). Thing is, I was +6 after hole 3. I doubled the first three holes. Still, I ended up shooting only +8 on the front and +2 on the back. I’ve noticed most of my rounds this season have gone this way. I consistently play much better on the back, often by 5 strokes or more. My first few holes are always pretty rocky. The morning starts with me hitting a handful of thin shots or duffs and racking up strokes and then I get into a groove and make up for it with the rest of the round. How can I get into a groove with my swing sooner? I usually hit a small bucket on the range and hit a few chips/putts before playing but that hasn’t seemed to help. I just don’t feel confident I know where the ball is going to go when I swing on the first few holes. But by the last few holes, I feel the exact opposite.

So I have been playing some of my best golf this year. I’m consistently shooting in the low 80s and it feels great. I also bought a house (with a big garage I’ll be building a sim in) and have been getting to know the nearby courses. I’ve figured out the closest course to me is freaking awesome but the range is a beach. The range is 90% sand with a few pieces of grass sticking up. You could build a sandcastle from it. I figured out after going there a couple times to just swing like I’m in a fairway trap (focus on picking the ball and take a small to no divot at all) in order to not get a face full of sand and lose half my distance. My question is this - should I keep practicing on this range, or could it possibly screw up my swing? I actually think it might *help* my swing by punishing fat shots even more than usual, but I can tell I am purposefully avoiding taking a divot and it’s leading to lots of thin shots. Looking for opinions.

Ah, yes I meant closed not open, thanks. I will say, hitting a few shots doing this for me mostly confirmed the feeling of hitting in to out. Flightscope was confirming the path was in to out as well. For me, I feel that was so valuable to feel, as a golfer who has only ever swung out to in. When I went back to setting up more neutral, I was able to continue achieving in-to-out readings on the sim.

I mostly play as a single during the on-season here in Minneapolis. I'd reckon each year I probably golf with well over 200 people I've never met before. It's seriously boosted my confidence playing in front of strangers, and I've rarely ever had a bad experience. As a side note, I think if you are a young professional like me, golf is still an excellent hobby to pick up in 2022. I've found it immensely beneficial to gaining comfortability in talking to people who are much older than you and building connections with them. It's a great skill to take to the office and something I think more 20-somethings should focus on. Anyway, near the end of the 21' season I had a great connection with an older gentleman and at the end of the round the guy stuffed a brand new Ping G425 Crossover 2-Iron into my bag. He mumbled something about not being able to hit the damn thing anyway, smiled and shook my hand before heading off to the parking lot. It was definitely the nicest thing a complete stranger has done for me in a long time. It turns out the club already had an extra stiff shaft in it (how about that!). So today I was practicing with this club, and as I usually experience with my longer irons, I was struggling losing the ball to the right. My stock shot is a slight pull, which starts to fade as I get into my longer clubs. I've tried so many things to shallow out my swing, and come less over the top but have had little success. In my frustration today, I decided to stop and search for some drills to swing more in to out, as I have done many times in the past. I stumbled across Clay Ballard's video below. At the 3:48 mark he talks a bit about setup, and suggests a drill that involves starting your swing with your hips open and bumped slightly towards the target, to promote an in to out path. I had never tried this drill before. I hit a few balls doing this, and all I can say is I had wow moment. For the first time in my life, I started hitting high draws with a long iron (a 2 iron no less!). I applied this drill to various clubs throughout my bag and the result was the same. Now some of this may be due as well to changes I recently made to my grip - up until this Fall I had played with an ultra strong grip. But through lessons during the off-season this year I have been making a conscious effort to weaken it. I think weakening my grip has allowed me to learn a different release, whilst this tip from Clay has finally helped me hit more in to out. I understand my swing still has many technical problems and is far from perfect, but I will take the small win of getting the ball to curve left. I still intend to play a fade on the course, but this is another tool in the bag to get out of tough spots that require a hook. I've posted a video of me doing the drill below for folks to ridicule and will end this meandering story on swing thoughts here 🙂

I've been playing golf for 4-5 years and am currently a 15 handicap. I struggle with a steep, over the top swing and an overly strong grip. My shot shape is generally a straight pull. I can easily hit a high fade or a pull hook but can count on one hand the amount of times I've ever hit a high draw. I'm taking a series of lessons over the winter (I've had two so far) to change some things and I bought a couple training aids including the Plane Mate, the Swingyde and now the Lagshot. I also already owned a Momentus weighted club, which I keep in the car for practice swings before rounds to loosen up and in case I have road rage on the way home (just kidding 😄). Today was my first time using the Lagshot and all I can say is WOW. To explain this aid, it is essentially a slightly weighted club that has a whippy shaft, similar to the orange ball training aids, but you can actually hit balls with it because it has a clubhead at the end. The marketing primarily focuses on this helping people smooth out their swing in terms of timing, loading the shaft and creating lag. Personally, I was much more interested in this aid after seeing several people comment it made them start hitting hooks. It seems for many slicers, it taught them to close the face sooner on the downswing and pause at the top, lessening their tendency to come over the top. When using other training aids like the Plane Mate or the Swingyde, I've often found myself questioning if I am "doing it right". I have always liked the Momentus because you simply can't use it incorrectly. I immediately liked the Lagshot because it is painfully obvious when you are doing it wrong and gratifyingly clear when you get it right. My first 20 minutes with the Lagshot it was obvious to me I was indeed swinging it wrong. I couldn't hit the ball. I was topping it, shanking it, and hitting dead right pushes. I was happy though that this was the case, because basically it proved to me I had to change the way I was swinging to hit the ball straight. I kept at it for about 30-40 swings, hitting lots of chip shots in-between before it finally clicked. To hit the ball flush, in my head I had to feel like I was swinging through the red X below (slightly inside the ball) and shutting the face through impact with that X. After that clicked, I hit maybe 40 pure shots in a row with the Lagshot. When I switched back to my irons, things felt good. It was very easy to continue swinging the same swing I had been with the Lagshot, and make solid impact with my regular clubs. Now at first, I thought maybe the reason things felt good was just because of the weight of the Lagshot. Whenever I switch to my regular clubs after swinging the Momentus, I feel powerful and confident because that club is heavy and switching back to something lighter just feels good. But when I saw my swing on camera, it was clear that a) my rhythm was significantly better and b) I was swinging much less over the top! I'm very excited to try this training aid outdoors come this Spring. Unfortunately today, my apartment's simulator was down so I could not see ball flight. But I think that may have actually been a blessing because I did not concern myself with ball flight whilst practicing with the Lagshot today, allowing me to focus on mechanics. I will post more updates as I continue to use this aid, but for now I just wanted to post a video of my swing before the lagshot (the first video is from about 2 months ago) and a video of me after the lagshot (today) so you can see the difference I saw. I have a feeling this training aid is a winner for me and one I will use a lot!

It’s been 3 years since I posted a swing video but this offseason I am planning on doing a lot of work on my swing (I’ll be taking lessons every 3 weeks for 4-5 months). I just had my first lesson and we are working on shallowing out my swing, neutralizing my grip and getting me to stand closer to the ball. The first video linked here is my swing at the beginning of the season (showcasing my steep over the top move) and the second video is my swing today 10/21 about two weeks after my first lesson. I am currently a 15 handicap. I shot 12 over twice this year and one time shot 9 over. 8 iron in both videos.

Was hoping you’d comment! Yes, definitely not a push draw. For me when I hit a draw, it starts reasonably straight and just turns left 5-10 yards with anything 8i up. With long clubs like a 6i down I’d say it’s more of a slight pull when I choose to hit the draw and peels a little more left like 10-15 yards. In this video with the 8 iron the ball is starting at the tree above my knees and ending at the tree I’m sitting on in this picture. I’m curious *why* this is presumably a bad draw. I understand shallowing the club will produce more of a push draw, but why is that more desirable? I struggle to shallow the club, and prefer to hit a fade 99% of the time. So when I need to draw the ball I’ve always felt it is much easier to aim right and take my natural slightly out to in swing and just feel like I keep the left elbow in. It produces a draw that starts where I aim and turns left. So many videos talk about the push draw being preferred but no ever says why.

So I watch a lot of golf instruction on Youtube and a recurring theme I hear over and over is how you need to shallow the club in the downswing. Seems like it helps players come from the inside and effectively hit a draw. I personally have never been good at shallowing the club but I can pretty easily hit a high draw that starts straight and falls maybe 5-10 yards to the left (video of me at the range today below doing this). My handicap is somewhere around a 15 at the moment (shooting mid-high 80s) and I’m wondering if I should be spending significant time learning the “shallow” move or if it’s just golf instruction buzz that would just make me hit more of a push draw. Appreciate hearing any opinions on the matter. https://streamable.com/rxvvjl