OzzDOA

While hunting around the internets for homemade training aids I found something that helps me feel a pause at the top of my backswing. Take a gym sock or head cover and put 3 or 4 golf balls in it and swing it with a smoothe, deliberate motion. At the top of your backswing the balls in the sock/headcover should hit your left shoulder (for a righty), then start your downswing. When you finish the swing they should hit your right shoulder. If you do it properly there will be a slight delay from when your reach the top of your backswing to when the balls actually hit your left shoulder. This should give you that feeling of having a slight pause at the end of the backswing. If you rush it or do this too quickly you'll hit yourself in the back of the head with a sock full of golf balls. You'll learn the right tempo quickly enough unless you like giving yourself a good thrashing.

My usual range uses Top Flite Range balls and I'll carry my driver 220 ish at the range but I'll hit 260-270 on the course with my ball of choice. You can tell the difference from just the sound of the ball off of the driver and woods/metals. The range balls just have a duller thud to them. Funny thing happened last time I was at the range, I actually managed to knock the cover off of a ball. It was cut pretty bad to begin with so I just finished the job.

I'm lucky enough to have an indoor facility nearby that has a bunch of simulators. Just once a week or so during the cold months will keep the swing from rusting over.

Basically I am looking for something to really groove my swing. Most of the time my swing is good and I make solid contact with the ball, even taking divots in front of the ball (impressed myself with that one). However I have these cycles of "ruts" where I'll skull it, hit it thin or fat several times in a row. These cycles have been the single most frustrating bit in my game. I'll play 4 or 5 holes well (pars and bogeys) then I'll go to playing 4 or 5 holes like total dookie because of successive mis-hits. I've eliminated some of this by really paying attention to my setup and routine but it'll still creep in. Now, I went to the range last night and something interesting occurred. For some unknown reason my wife came along with me. I went through the first dozen or so balls with my usual routine and was hitting well, then the bomb dropped. My wife says, "I'm bored. Are you almost done?". I look down at the bucket and there is still a good 60 balls left. So in order to keep my wife from driving me nuts I decide to try and speed up the pace a bit. Then the mis-hits begin. I must have mis-hit 30 balls in a row. Not all was lost however. The last 20 balls I calmed down and just took 3/4 swings with good results, so the practice session was not a total waste. So I'm stewing this over on the way home and the light goes off. Something in my swing breaks down when I feel rushed or pressured. After putzing around the internet it would seem the best thing to really groove a swing for repeatability and tempo would be a hinged club so if I rush any part of the swing I'd get instant feed back. Thoughts?

Warming up with a weighted club does wonders for stretching and strengthening the golf specific muscles. I made my own using a junky 7 iron and pouring sand into the shaft then sealing the grip. Thing has to be at least 7 lbs.

Either way blisters are 99% caused by grip pressure. After coming back from not playing I had blisters and sore/stiff hands after every round/practice session. Then I read somewhere that the grip should be "like holding two baby birds". I starting to think about this during my practices and was amazed at how "loose" your grip could be and still control the club. Needless to say, I made this change and my hands are a lot less sore and I only get blisters if I hit a couple hundred or so balls at a time.

From what I understand power comes from the core muscles. The abs, chest and hips. I have been working on shortening my backswing to get rid of a flying right elbow and found that my distance is the same if not better. This is because to get your shoulders turned you need to use your core muscles to create the "coil". I've found while my shoulders, arms and hands are more relaxed that my hips and core feel like they explode more through impact.

Oh, who cares? He is a human just like everyone else. I wouldn't trust a guy who didn't use a choice explative now and again.

Is that the only thing? If it is then I know what to concentrate on with my practices.

Videos of my swing, with the 5 iron and the driver. Please ignore the commentary from the wife.

I have noticed that I do hit the ball with the woods towards the heel of the club. I'll try setting up a smidge towards the toe and see what happens. I also plan on doing lots and lots of gate drills to make sure my swing is controlled and on plane.

If the only difference is setup and ball position then why do I hit my 4h to SW perfectly straight 95% of the time but slice my driver and fairway woods? Think about it geometrically. Looking from behind you towards the target and picture an angle being formed by a line from the shaft of the club down to the impact point and a line running parallel with the deck. You'll see that the longer the shaft gets the flatter that angle becomes. If you think about it isn't the swing plane defined by the angle of the shaft in relation to the impact point and the deck? So if you have a flatter angle to begin with wouldn't you need a flatter, more horizontal or "inside" swing to return the club to a squared position at impact?

When you sit at work all day and think about what you want to work on at the practice range and why.

The thing with the driver and woods is that they are different from the other 11+ clubs in your bag. They are longer and the weight is distributed differently. I am working on straightening out my driver now and am starting to understand that because of the difference between the woods and irons/wedges you in effect need a different swing. With my irons I have a more verticle swing plane and it works just fine with those clubs, but due to the length and weighting of the woods the more verticle swing will lead to an outside-in swing path. Controlling the club with the driver and woods is much more critical. I have to stay conscious that I need to make a lower, more horizontal, sweeping swing with these clubs to affect the in-out-in swing needed to hit the ball straighter and with consistency. What I'm not so sure of is should I have "different" swings? To me it seems like Tiger, Anthony Kim, Padraig Harrington etc. don't swing any differently unless they are trying to play a specific shot. Then again, this may just be my lack of expertise in recognizing differences in the swings.

What flex is the shaft on the driver? I was skying my driver off the tee and moved to a stiffer shaft. No more skying the ball.