The Be Boy

I had a similar experience with a coach. Went to see him for 1 hour and was hitting the ball better than I ever have before, then when I went to the range a couple days after and I just couldn’t recreate the feeling he gave me and it was frustrating. Funnily enough my coach was telling me to swing like Tommy Fleetwood. Didn’t really resonate with me until I saw a break down of another player with a l steep swing and tried to copy that a bit and now Somethings clicked and I’m hitting it loads better. But I asked my friends and they said my swing doesn’t look any different. Maybe try and explain to your friend that he won’t lose ‘his swing’. The difference will be very subtle but unless he’s found a new revolutionary way to swing the club, his swing is never going to be completely dissimilar to at least one tour pro.

Hi All Just got a new M5 driver and haven't really hit it much yet. Took it to the range the other day and couldn't do much with it even when just trying to knock it 100 yards straight. I know just going to the range and swinging away isn't the best but I've looked at videos of how to hit driver and none of them really focus on how to PRACTICE with it for a complete novice. The couple times I've used it I've just been trying to make contact on the centre of the face. Can't consistently yet but it has improved a bit. Just been taking half swings and trying to knock it straight. Cheers for any help Cheers

Me and some friends played 9 holes at our local course. Shot 27 over which is terrible even for me. Got a few boogys and doubles, just a couple of big blow ups. The best part that? Me and my friends laughing hysterically as I four putt on a par 4 for a 12. Looking back on it, it's probably the most fun I've had playing golf in the 4 months since I started.

So I tried to practice keeping my head in place and really stretching out my left arm when I take a back swing and it's mad a huge difference in results. It seems now my good strikes are really good hits, and I connect really well and my bad strikes are what I would have considered good before so that's progress. Still need to stop over swinging. @boogielicious, I plan to give those drills you sent a go next time I'm at the range. I've just been focusing on trying to stretch my arm and keep my head still at the moment. Played 9 holes today and was excited about what it was going to be like, but unfortunately it hasn't translated yet. Was hitting lots of big pushes right and just not hitting it well at all. Guess it's going to take a while to translate to on the course. I read a thread here about a similar issue and it said to basically change clubs every time you hit a ball which makes sense. I've been hitting my 6 iron for 20 balls and grooving it and hitting it really well, but it always takes a few swings before I can get in that grove with another club. Next range session to do list: do what feels like a half swing everything not hit the same club twice I am starting to hit a big hook occasionally now where I never did before. If anyone's got any ideas how to nip it in the bud before it becomes ingrained that'd be awesome. Tends to happen more on the 4 hybrid and 5,6 irons, 4h and 5i especially. Cheers

For me it was hitting my wedges. I read Dave pelz’s short game bilble and started practicing my 30-40 yard swing. Started connecting with it better but still a hacker. my most recent was from trt. If I feel like I’m keeping my left arm straight and stretching it out on the back swing I can make consistently good contact with the ball. During a round I’d be lucky to pure it once but now it’s every other ball on the range. Still can’t repeat it on the course but I’m so excited for when it does start to carry over.

Well I’d probably guess it was me over swinging that’s causing my head and then body move. But even before the club gets that high my torso seems to be bobbling up and down a lot so who know. Cheers

he gave me a drill for it, there were a few drills he gave me for certain things but it's slow going. I have tried thinking about keeping my head still during the swing and that's helped it a bit. But it's slow going. Cheers

I have a tendency to over swing but I can see the ball. Admittedly sometimes it feels like I'm looking at it from the corner of my eye. Cheers

I've been Playing Golf for: 4 months My current handicap index or average score is: 35-40 My typical ball flight is: Push or Draw The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Duffs and Tops Hi All Been playing for a few months and really struggle with tops, duffs, just not striking it well at all. I pretty much spray balls all over the fairway too but not to fussed about that at the minute. Been to see a coach and he showed me a few things. He wanted me to attack the ball on a steeper plane, move my head less and shift my weight more/come forward when I swing. I've already started to implement the changes and they're paying off. Still struggle to make good connection with the ball, and the distance is all over the place. The coach said I should be able to hit a 7 iron 155-160 (instead of the 130-140 I hit it now) with my swing speed when I'm going for it, but whenever I try to go over what feels like 60-70% I cant make contact. The few times I have struck it really well when I swing hard I'm knocking the ball miles but it's so few and fair between it's not worth it. I have started to try and swing in as big of a arc as possible and that seems to have improved my striking a lot. And a friend mentioned today that I'm not holding the my lag long enough in the down swing, but I'm not really sure how to address that, or whether I even should at this stage. Any help much appreciated Cheers Videos: [Delete this, Embed Videos Here - https://thesandtrap.com/how-to/embed-videos/]

Hey everyone Just wanted to update the thread and thank everyone for their advice. I went to see a couch and he's kinda showed me what to do and I've started doing some of the drills recommended by you guys. Noticeable improvement already but still a long way to go. For those that might be interested, I wasn't shifting my weight forward, more pivoting on the spot but not actually taking the weight off my back foot. Been drilling the happy Gilmore swing (without actually hitting the ball) to get a feel for shifting my weight and bought some masking tape and put a strip on the mat behind the ball before I hit the ball, so I can tell for sure when I'm hitting it right. Not really sure about what distance I should have it away from the ball though. Next is fixing the push/pull hook found out I have! Cheers again guys

Fair enough, I take it back then. I'm really not, I'm just looking to get started down the right path because at the moment I'm a bit lost. Mats don't break your swing I agree, but I feel like hitting off mats has ingrained a couple bad habits already. That was the point of the thread, to see if anyone else can offer insights and advice about how to break it. Genuine question: do you think that two months in, my ball striking would still be virtually none existent? which it really is at the moment. I played 9 holes yesterday and connected well with the ball once with a full iron shot, off a tee. The rest were either tops or fat shots/complete duffs. Maybe my expectations are too high. Cheers

Thanks everyone for the replies. I appreciate it. Some good little tips I'm going to try next time I'm at the range. @ncates00 for someone trying not to be snarky I think you failed a bit there, mate. I don't expect anyone to say, 'do this and it'll fix everything' I was just hoping someone might have had a similar experience and could offer some advice. Don't really appreciate being called immature. 'If you can distinguish between a well-struck shot and when you have hit it fat, it shouldn't matter that you have to hit off mats.' - yeah, this is what I'm struggling with but you're right, I haven't broken my swing, I've never had a swing that works. I'll buy a cheap tripod or something and get some swing videos uploaded soon. Thanks When I saw someone before he said I struggled with this so I'll focus on that. I'll do that today, cheers Thanks again everyone

Thanks for your input. I've tried hitting it with tape behind the ball but then someone said that it can still scrape it and not be a fat shot so i gave up. The problem is I haven't really developed a 'feel' for hitting down on it. I've kinda trained myself to hit everything fat so when I do move it back in my stance, my brain still wants to connect with it in the exact way I'm trying to correct for and I get the same results. As silly as it might sound I don't really think its a swing issue (although my swing isn't great but I'm improving it everyday) it's that I feel like now I need to undo it this habit and I don't know the best way to go about it.

Hi all I'm pretty new to the forum so forgive me for being niave. Just started playing golf 2 months ago, mainly hitting off matts at the driving range and a few round round the course. N Now although I've started seeing a pro, and he's helped me out with my swing loads I just can't hit the ball when I'm hitting off the grass. I've basically trained myself to hit it fat all the time as that'll still produce a perfectly reasonable strike off matts but on the course it's a different story. Hitting fat all the time and if I try and correct it I'll hit it thin. The guy that I saw said ball striking is the biggest thing and showed me, but he showed me on matts and I feel like either he didn't realise how bad the issue was or he can't tell. I'm not going to see him anymore because I can't afford lessons right now. I live in the UK and there are no grass ranges around me to drill this out of me. So anyone got any drills or ideas about what I can do to get rid of this bad habit. It's the no 1 thing holding me back at the minute and it's frustrating the hell out of me. Any tips much appreciated.