HerdGolf

I recently took a series of lessons and on camera the swing looks ok but I've developed a case of the dreaded word shanks. Never had them before and can't get rid of them. What I notice is at the start of the downswing my left shoulder more up then around torqueing the crap out of my lower back and moving my hands away from the body. How should the left shoulder work on the downswing?

thanks. I've tried the stand up drill before and I absolutly kill the driver when I do this. I tend to go from a bit of a digger to a sweeper on the irons. I kinda of forgot about that drill. It worked pretty well a while back but I took it to far and started thinning my irons.

Help!!! I have this really bad habit of my head dipping down and towards that ball on the back swing. My body resets to this position and I hozzle the crap out of irons and hit on the very inside of woods. I assume the head shouldn't move in towards the ball on the backswing. Any drills or swing thoughts to help this?

update. I tried some of the stand up drills. I can absolutely smash my driver with this since it actually makes me stand up and sweep the ball. Not so good for the irons. I can barely make a divot with my sand wedge. Today at the range I tried to extend way back on the backswing instead of tilting down or standing up. This seemed to work well. It didn't change the spine angle and allow for nice downward blow with irons. Good with driver as well. It also helps slow my transition tempo. I tend to have a very fast move with the arms down to start the backswing. Is a wide swing arc good with lower irons as well as driver?

I have to get this story out to any golfers that suffer for tennis elbow. I'll try to keep this short. I bought my slightly used Titleist 735CM off ebay and the clubs were listed as standard everything. When I got them I found the grips to be midsized. I have average size hands so I've always played standard grips. I was too cheap to change the grips so I played 1 year with the grips. I'm a basically a driving range rat. When it was time to re-grip I did it myself and went back to standard with 1 wrap of tape. After about 2 months I started getting some mild tennis elbow. By the end of the year I had it so bad I couldn't get thru a round. I had a cortisone shot and gave it 3 months off. After 1 month it was back really bad. It finally dawned on my that it might be the grips. I had a local pro change the grips back to std with 3 wraps of tape to get closer to midsize. With in 2 months the elbow was nothing more than a dull ache. I had one more shot and 2 months later its gone. Moral of the story is be careful if when changing the grip size or doing it yourself. I'm sure I stretched the grips and made them really thin. I'm about 99% that the grips did it because nothing else changed.

I really miss Playing Lessons.

What i noticed about my backswing vs big easy is his left shoulder is even with or slightly higher in frame 3 vs 2. Where my left shoulder was lower or closer to the ball if I was comparing. I will try some of the ideas from the previous thread. The "standing up" drill

I've noticed that you illustrated the stack and tilt swing. Would your comment be the same for the traditional modern swing and not S&T;?

OK after doing some video watching and looking in a mirror I think I'm dropping the left shoulder at the top instead of tilting left. I found this post which was helpful http://thesandtrap.com/t/33450/help-dropping-left-shoulder-during-backswing

I set up to ball as I should. Slight tilt right with my head a bit behind the ball. As i turn back I keep the head pretty still and turn my left shoulder behind the ball. I find that if I restrict my hip turn at the end of back-swing my sine actually goes from slight right to tilting back left like a reverse pivot. Stragne looking on camera. My left shoulder is behind the ball but I can see spine tilting slightly left. If I allow my hips to rotate more on the back swing i don't tilt as much. Could someone give me advice? Does what I said make sense? I'm pretty flexible so my shoulders turn about 100deg with restricted hips.

Mix between Cost too much and other. I was a 8 handicap trying to get to scratch. So I started taking some lessons from a local pro. I've always been more of a centralized swinger and he really wanted me to get more behind the ball. After 6 lessons and 3 months of beating ball I was worse. I guess my only advise is if your a good golfer make sure what you want to achieve is similar to what the pro wants to teach. After another year I'm finally back to where I was

I think the worst thing that happened to the LPGA is Michelle Wie not becoming the female Tiger Woods. I saw her play 5 years ago. Wow what a great player. The crowds were huge. Everyone wanted to see her. I hope she gets the desire back soon. I've been to a few LPGA events and the top 30-40 or so are really, really good. the rest are not much better than you’re really good local player. It’s only natural to want to see American players do better than Asian if you're from the USA. I don’t think racism plays that much in to it. I'm an avid golfer who watches way too much Golf Channel so I personally don’t care who wins but I tend to pay more attention when it’s an American. Maybe the hardcore golf fans don't care who wins but the average Joe who makes up the majority of viewership does. Interesting point about Williams making more than the LPGA players.

Yes the top players are Asian. Sorry my point was the Amerian players have to get better or the tour will never get more popular.

I've always wondered when the PGA tour will start helping the LPGA tour just like mens college sports has to help womens sport. Title V I think. I love to listen to the interviews with the LPGA players when the ask them why the LPGA can get more sponsored events. It seems like they only play every other week at best. I hate to sound harsh but its like watching the teenage Asia tour. Don't get me wrong those ladies are great golfers but most Americans want to see American women playing better. This is the only way this tour stands a chance. Maybe try to combine a couple of events with the PGA tour to get more people exposed to the LPGA tour.

I've worked hard over the last several months getting the swing where I want. Guy I take lessons from says I'm just a hair under the plane on the backswing, but nothing he would change. I have a good lateral shift of the hips forward to start the downswing with the arms lagging behind as they should. The problem is if I don't make the hips to rotate hard I shank the irons and hit close to the hozzle on the driver. Anyone have an idea why this might be happening? I can see in video that my hips freeze after the lateral shift until after I hit the ball unless I really force them to spin. It doesn't concern me expect when I'm trying to take something of a wedge or lower iron. I tend not fire the hips fast which on the range equals shank.