zenchili

At the range I go to they recently opened a fitting center with Trackman. You can rent the trackman for $50 for a half hour. I haven't done it but it would be pretty cool. I don't know if there is something like this where you are but it might be another option.

You are probably treating the driver like a completely different club, it should be the same swing only with a slightly different setup. If you're hitting your other clubs well, you can hit the driver well. Often the way we think is different but it's subtle. The cramped sensation is your body telling you that you are doing something different. Try to swing so that the cramped sensation isn't there, so that it feels like you're swinging a different club, one that you love to swing.

Draw is the typical ball flight. I don't believe that I flip. I do try to release fully, in fact I have to when I build that much lag. If I flipped I would lose distance and accuracy. I've got plenty of both right now. In fact I've started to hit the ball so far that it's throwing my course management and club selection off, for fear of flying greens.

I totally agree. I wish I had brought my camera to the range earlier. I decided to record my swing because I was hitting it so well at the range I wanted to see what I was doing. I recorded these swings as soon as I got home from the range. My ball flight was a high draw (about 5 yd draw), that carried forever (no ballooning though). If I'm not letting my body complete the release then I fight a block, otherwise I hit them with a draw or dead straight. I was astonished at the distance and accuracy I was getting in that range session with crappy range balls in 39 degree weather. My contact was dead solid and I was hitting my 8 iron about 180. I'm used to hitting my around about 155 so this was something special. I hadn't been to the range in about a month, although I had some good rounds before this. But things clicked with the swing and I was feeling like things were changing, so that's why I went to the range. I'm planning on recording some ball flight on Monday.

Thanks Matt. It comes down to course management and consistency for me. My game has actually improved since the season ended but I obviously can't post any scores until April, so my official handicap is an 8, but I'm not sure what my real handicap would be right now. Besides scoring is not all about ball striking. Putting and short game are huge elements as well.

I must not have had very good light when I tried the 60 FPS at HD level. Thanks for the info.

True. I tried this today and yes the club head was blurry. 240 FPS is the way to go. And I actually just use another setting for full speed. The BGA setting at 30 fps gives me good enough video for your basic analysis and a goof file size. Higher definition doesn't really do much more for analysis. Between the VGA and 240 FPS mode I get all of the analysis I need.

It' Sanyo FH1, I think it is 448x336. It works great for me. The 600 FPS is really tiny and virtually unusable, but the 240 is awesome. Also, the Full HD at 60 FPS is sweet!

Yeah, it is really flat. But man does he hit it solid. I think the other swing comparable in its flatness is Matt Kuchar.

I'm definitely flattered. I have a lot of work to do. I sent clips of the swing to a local pro who believes we can get it a lot better. There are still some places where I could be more efficient. But I really appreciate the feedback. I really like Chad Campbell's swing, but I was not attempting to copy or mimic either him or Hogan. I was just trying to find the most efficient way to hit a golf ball far and accurately and this is what has come out of that work.

That is a huge compliment. You just made my day.

There is a slight over the top but it has been greatly reduced. I plan on reducing it further. I've got time until my season starts in April so I'm putting the winter to good use.

Thanks. It's been an interesting journey the last few months.

Yeah, the eyes tracking the club is something I did a long time ago because it helped to keep me on plane. I still do it on the practice swings but not on actual swings with a ball. There's a lot I've been working on. Flattening the swing, staying on plane, keeping the spine angle (or even increasing the tilt away from the ball on the downwsing). It's in the ebook I wrote. But it's not so much about working on each thing separately, it's more about understanding what creates distance, power, and accuracy effortlessly. Once I started to understand that everything else became easier to implement, and the swing actually became simpler and more efficient.

Had a good range session. A bunch of things have really clicked lately. Would like some feedback on my swing. I know I need to get on plane a little bit quicker, but any other thoughts would be appreciated. Here's the link .

I wish I still had access to it. I haven't played it in a few years but it is a great course and I really enjoyed playing there.

The nice thing is that with the right mat, you don't need to rely on the sound to tell the difference. You can feel it and see it in the ball flight.

I started playing when I was a kid. Learned how to play golf at a course in Westchester called Quaker Ridge. I later stopped playing for about 10 years then got back into 3 years ago. Working toward becoming a scratch golfer and created a blog to track my progress. Three years ago I couldn't break 100 regularly, and I'm now an 8.0 handicap trending lower. The blog is called "Journey to Scratch". I write because I love the game, and I hope that some of what I learn in the process can help other golfers. If you get the chance please check out the blog and let me know what you think. It is a joy to write about golf.

Actually this was something I was thinking about last night. So I started to take some swings and really focused on the action of my left knee. What did I find? I found that it's challenging to keep the left knee flexed throughout the backswing without leaning forward. One of my old tendencies was a bit of a reverse pivot. I found that when I was able to keep the knee in as similar a position at the top of the backswing as when I set up, that two big things happened. 1) It was much easier to keep my swing on plane. 2) It was easier to keep my spine angle intact However, it felt more constrained. But I will take that if leads to a better swing plane. I'm going to write about this on my blog because I think it's important. I have a good article on building club head speed and this kind of builds on that.

I took a number of videos at the Traveler's championship earlier this year. The nice thing is that my camera has a slow mo-mode, that records at 240 frames per second. :) Here's a link to some of the videos I've posted. I found them really helpful for studying what the pros do vs what I do and it has really helped me to improve my swing. Here's the link .

I really dislike hitting off mats at the range. But around here it's my only option. One of the things I'm thinking of doing is bringing a portable mat that allows me to hit down and through the ball (unlike normal range mats). I reviewed the Country Club Elite Mats and I bought the small 24x30 one. You can see my review here . Unfortunately hitting of mats is just a fact of life for many of us, but it can be made better with the right additions. Best of luck to you.