Unkynd

Thanks Ridden. My main problem with my long game is consistency. I tend to have 2-5 shots per round where I hit way behind the ball and end up with a fat shot that goes 1/4 of the normal distance. My main problem with my short game is judging distance on chips. When I practice, I'll know that a 7:30 chip with my LW will go about 12 steps.... 9:00 with LW is about 24 steps, etc... but when I get on the course, it seems like my 7:30 goes about 8 steps, so I end up screwing those chips up a lot. I also don't spend a lot of time practicing chipping/pitching inside 30 yard. Obviously something I need to work on. I also give away a lot of strokes putting. Obviously based on the 47 putts I had on 18 a few rounds ago. I went to the range today and got a face on view. I'll post it when I get home. I can see from the video that my right arm never fully extends through impact. Not sure how big of a problem that is, but when I force myself to extend my left arm through impact I tend to hit the ground behind the ball and end up with those fat shots. I'm also severly overswinging on my backswing. That's something I tried to work on a little bit at the range today, but it's going to take more than 1 session to fix. [updated with face on vids] [sorry about the audio on the first one... 16 MPH winds... ]

Need face on view :) Thanks for posting.. .the strobe light affect screwed with my eyes. Your swing looks great though.

Thanks guys, that's encouraging that neither of you think my swing is a complete disaster :) I tend to go back and forth between a few weeks of full swings and a few weeks of 3/4 swings. I wasn't feeling like I was getting enough torque on my 3/4 swings, and that's why I was going full swing mode. I'll switch back to 3/4 for awhile, because I do think I was hitting the sweet spot a little more consistently on the 3/4 swing shots. I'll give that feet together drill a shot. Do you do it at the range and actually hit balls that way or is it something you do with no ball?

Here's my current swing.

Looks like you're doing what I was doing when I was pushing the ball a lot. I don't know what is fundamentally correct, but when I quit turning my wrist during the backswing, it stopped all the pushes I was hitting. I started cocking my wrist straight back on my backswing, which kept me from twisting my wrists around. I lacked the timing to get them twisted backed through during impact, especially when I was trying to hold my lag. Might work for you, give it a try.

Yah, it's a lot more fun when I'm not digging a grave 4 feet behind the ball :) Thanks for all your advice man. You nailed the key parts of my swing that were jacked.

Thank you. I haven't recorded myself at the range yet, but I did play a 9 hole par 3 course today and I could definitely tell a difference. All of my shots were arcs (no wormburners) and I didn't have any shots that were complete duffs. I still have to work on controlling direction. Hopefully getting my follow through a little cleaner will help with that. Normally I shoot 40-50 on this Par 27. Today was a 39, woot! I tried keeping my swing in the "B Plane" as UTTexas recommended, but I don't quite have the rest of my swing conditioned yet. As a result, I ended up flipping more when I tried to keep my swing flatter. For now, I'm going to stick with 3/4 max swings and practice keeping my weight & hands forward until it comes naturally. After that I might work on the full swing again.

Alo, I'm in Mustang (a suburb of Oklahoma City).

Thank You bwdial. I remember reading that thread about the flying wedge. I noticed that my follow through seemed really quick... definitely something I need to work on. Thanks uttexas, you gave some great advice that made a lot of sense to me 2 days ago. I practiced a lot with getting my hips and weight forward, and obviously still have a lot of work to do in that regard. Your advice this time is a little more complicated, and might take me awhile to digest. Are you basically saying that I need to flatten out my backswing and not take it so steep? Based on the deep hands thread, it looks like my hands aren't supposed to go up to the level of my shoulders. Am I understanding that correctly? I appreciate all of the feedback, and can already say that I feel more comfortable over the ball with the changes that have been suggested so far. Maybe the next time I go out to play 18 I can break 120. It's good to have goals!

Went to the range again today and tried to focus on keeping my weight forward. I can see that I'm still swaying a bit back on my backswing, but I did feel like I was hitting the ball better and actually leaving some divots that weren't 4 feet behind the ball. I appreciate all of the input from everyone. It's nice going to the range and having something tangible to focus on. I think I'm making some progress with the weight forward thing, but still a ways to go.

Thank You everyone that replied. I'm hoping to get back to the range tomorrow, and I'll work on keeping my weight forward and starting the downswing with the hips.

ahh, because my arms start moving down before my lower body? I find that when I try to move my hips first my head is all over the place. I guess that's something I need to work on too. What should I work on first? Flipping, Hip Movement, Weight Forward, or something else? I know if I try to tackle everything at once, I"m going to end up getting too many thoughts in my head. Right now I'm looking to improve ball striking consistency, because as you observed, I do hit behind the ball way too often. Accuracy would be next; I'd like to hit the ball in the general direction that I'm aiming. At this point, distance would be last on my list, because without the other 2, the distance isn't going to help much.

I'll check that out, thank you. I didn't post it initially because of how washed out the video is due to the sun being in that direction, and my camera angle was too high so you can't see the ball until it's in flight. I see what you're saying about my body moving to the right though. I'm actually trying to keep my weight on the left foot, but clearly I'm failing at that, heh. Does it look like my swing is getting too far behind me on the backswing, or is that okay?

I had the same experience after reading the SnT book, but I'm a beginner so I know for a fact that I wasn't doing hardly any of it correctly.

Disclaimer : I'm terrible at golf, usually shooting around 120 on a par 72. This is my first video, and I know I'm doing tons of crap wrong. My amateur analysis: my swing plane is too flat; my wrists are turning too much during the backswing; my grip is too tight; i suck at golf;my left arm bends slightly at the top of my backswing; This particular shot was a ground ball to center field.... hooray. This second video is for comic relief only. Caution : Don't consume beverages while watching me suck at golf.

Crazy, I've read some of the S&T; stuff and while it looks like it might be decent, the complete lack of S&T; pros in my area is a concern. I wanted to at least get the very basics down before I went to a pro, because I don't want to waste $100 for them to tell me that my grip is too tight (i know that) and my club face is open (i know that) and my swing is too much out to in (yup). I'm trying to fix the things I know are wrong with my swing before spending the cash on a pro. Is that dumb? Would I be better off going to a pro instead of trying to fix those things on my own? Would it be worth the $75-$100 per hour? I'm admittedly a terrible golfer, I shot 121 on my last 18, and that's about average for me. So I have a whole lot of room for improvement, lol.

Thanks iacas, I've read a lot of your threads and have purchased the stack & tilt book, so I understand the points you are making. I am 99% certain that my club face is open at impact, but I also have an out to in issue as well. I'm trying to fix the club face issue before I move on to the more difficult task of changing my swing to an inside swing. I think the cause of my club face being open is that I tend to roll my wrists similar to the way a batter rolls their wrists when swinging at a baseball. I can feel myself doing it, but so far I haven't figured out how to fix it other than mentally forcing my wrists to keep from rolling. Shripe, that looks like a pretty good aid. I might pick it up, has anyone used it and had results that showed at the range/on the course?

I have a terrible slice with my driver, which I believe is mostly caused by hitting the ball with the face of the club open. I don't have a range near my house, and would like a decent training aid to use in my back yard. I have neighbors, and my yard isn't huge... so what is a good training aid to use for correcting a slice? Are impact bags any good? I've tried the wiffle balls and foam balls, but neither of those seem to react the same way as a normal ball.

I went back and forth quite a bit trying to decided between Ebay, Rock Bottom, Callaway Preowned, or Gigagolf. I finally decided to go with the Cleveland CG Gold Black irons on Rock Bottom. Can't wait til they get here. Anyone have experience with Rock Bottom? Says it will ship in 48 hours and be delivered in 1-6 days.. am I going to get them closer to the 2 day mark, or closer to the 8 day mark? I'm replacing a set of Dunlop clubs that I got for $25.... these will surely be better.

Ordered a 3 Iron, it looks great. Feels really good too. I went and tried out a Callaway X-22 today, and the Giga GX-922 feels really similar. I also ordered a TRX Ti Driver, and it looks.... ummm... invisible. It wasn't in the freaking box. It was on the Invoice in the box, but the club wasn't in there. Just shot an email to their tech support.... anyone else had this happen?

Having read several of the threads concerning used clubs and their value, I'm almost ready to commit. Being 5'7" tall, I need a club with a lie that is about 2 degrees flat. That being said, most of the used clubs that are reasonably good deals are standard lie. Is it a good idea to just buy the standard lie clubs and get them adjusted? Anything I need to consider (heard forged is better for this)? Is the benefit of buying new clubs to get them to the correct lie up front worth the cost? Lastly, about how much will it cost to adjust the lie of used standard lie clubs?

I'm in the same boat right now. I'm either going to buy these http://www.rockbottomgolf.com/adams-...irons-set.html Adams Golf- 2008 Tight Lies 4-SW Hybrid Irons or http://www.gigagolf.com The Giga Golf GX 922 irons. I'm leaning toward the 922's because I can get them in graphite for relatively cheap, and I can get the lie of the club adjusted as part of the cost. I'm 5'7" and got unofficially fitted at the golf store locally, and the Ping Orange Dots (-2 degree flat) and -1/2" shaft were what fit the best. Opinions welcomed :)