Smilesy

Thanks mvmac, I'll have a look at those topics. It really is weird the difference between reality and feel, and until I saw it on video I didn't really understand that

I had a go at the things you mentioned above. It is very interesting how little (almost zero) change there is compared to how big a change in feel there is. I felt like my head didn't move at all, but it still moves a lot. I was also trying to reduce the amount my arms and hands move up at the end of the back swing, which did seem to change a bit. I was hitting nice little draws which I was happy about. My target was the middle yellow distance sign (it's hard to see in the video) and this shot started to the right of it by about 10m and ended up pretty much dead down the target.

First video post in a while. For the last couple of years I've really just been trying to play with what I've got, which has worked ok, but recently my normal fade had turned into a slice too often for my liking. I worked out most of the reason for that was that my shoulders had become really open at address, my feet and hip were ok, but shoulder were terrible. Once I sorted that a out I was actually hitting it pretty much dead straight. It's now winter over here in Australia and I've decided to do some work on my swing. The goals I have are to increase my club head speed from around 104ish to around 108ish (though I'd like 110), and to also keep my ball flight straight, to a small draw (I've had enough of the fades). With those goals in mind what do you all think I should be working on first?

I see what you've saying about trusting the swing. I almost have two modes, free swing when I'm not tight which I think is easily good enough to get to scratch, then I have my tight nervous swing which is terrible. I guess you can look at it too ways, you need build a swing that works when you are really tight, or that the swing is fine, but you need to be able to stay loose. I lean towards the latter and think I need to work on staying loose rather than reworking the swing again.

I’ve been around 2-4 for the last couple of years and have really struggled to get down to scratch (which is my main goal). A couple of years ago I would have said B all day. I was hitting solid drives but my iron play and short game just wasn’t up to the level needed. I’ve worked hard and now hit around 12 greens in reg for most rounds, 15ish in good ones, with 10 fairways. Stats wise that should get me pretty close to scratch if not plue, the issue is more mental for me now. The last 5 rounds I've played (including a couple of tournament rounds) I have been under par (between -3 and -1) after 9, then have fallen apart and finished around 4 over. It is all mental, which is very annoying, as I seem to find it much harder to sort out than physical swing issues. An example is my last tournament, I started par, birdie, birdie, birdie, then pared in to the turn. I then for reason which I'm still trying to work out, I got really tight and went into defensive mode and ended up 3 over. The one technical area I am still working on it my putting, which isn’t bad, I very rarely 3 putt, but I also don’t make anyway near enough of the 10-15 footers.

Its interesting what pressure does. The best shots I have every played have all come when really under the pump in match play, the best was a when one down on the last, opponent already on the green but not that close, I needed a birdie, hit a 9i to about a foot. Interestingly though when I'm doing well in a stroke play event I'm a massive choker. The last round of my club championships I was easily in the top 8 (make it into match play) but choked big time and finished 6 over for the last 3 holes to miss out by 2 shots. That article makes me think I need to work out what makes me choke. I have a feeling I fear loosing too much in the stroke events, were in match play the worst you can do is loose a hole, the pressure is totally different. I have a world amateur ranking event next week (I just want to make the cut, some of the guys in it are off +5) so I'll try and think a bit differently in that and see if I can focus on success rather than failure.

I use a Samsung Note 2. I think all the newer Samsung Galaxy phone can do 1/8 speed (30*8=240). You do drop quite a bit in resolution at 1/8 but for golf I've found it fine. I have started to use 1/4 (120fps) more often now as I don't find I'm really getting any benefit from 240fps over 120 as I'm really looking at my body movements, and I'm not as concerned about my club head. Here is an example at 120fps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18fhswgiPjw

I had a hit of the 6i at a demo day a few days ago and was really impressed. It is one of the bigger blades I've seen heal to toe, similar size to me MP-53s, and was a lot more forgiving than I expected. I didn't hit too far from the middle, but enough that I thought I would have seen a significant performance drop, but I really didn't. Very nice clubs.

Yeah, I always use my phone's camera when working on my swing. It will do 240fps which really helps. I'm trying to now work out if I can somehow come up with a way to automatically replay each swing after I hit, it really breaks my rhythm when I have to stop and check the video after each one.

Last winter (I'm in Australia, so from June to August) I did a fair bit of work hitting into a net. By the end of winter I was hitting the ball really well contact wise in the net, and was really excited to get out and play on the course. To my horror though I was hitting everything about 30m left of target with my irons. I hadn't made any huge changes to my swing it was mainly just that I was overly closing the club face at impact. It then took me 3 months of hard practise (3 x 1-2 hour range sessions off grass) to get back to where I had been before the net sessions. That said I am now in a better place than when I started last winter, but I has taken about 7 months to get there. I will again be working on things hitting into my net, but at least once a week I will be going to range to make sure that I am still hitting the ball roughly where I'm aiming. That's the aim of the game in the end, it doesn't matter what your swing looks like, you need to be able to hit the ball at your target and that's something you can't get an idea of with a net.

For me I get a good mental vision taking the flag out. It really makes me thing about holing the putt or chip, when its in I tend to be thinking about just getting it close.

Thanks guys. Casting is something I used to work on, but at the moment I've given up trying to make any changes in that area, I think I have other issues causing me more problems. IACAS, what you're saying there is exactly what I'm attempting to work on at the moment. I used to have a massive issue with excessive lateral hip movement in my swing, and I think in trying to fix that I've totally locked my hip rotation on the back swing. It's know become a habit that is proving to be harder to break than I thought it would be. Thanks for the comments and I'll keep working away and post a follow up in a few weeks. Cheers

Hi All, Over the last few weeks I've been doing some work on my game. For a couple of weeks I was pureing the ball, but pulling everything way way way left with my irons. I got a tip from a mate who noticed that I had ball way forward in my stance with my irons (PW was level with the inside of my left foot,and long irons on the outside of the left foot). I've played a couple of rounds since and have been playing much better (2 over and 3 over rounds). Anyway here is a FO and DL video of my swing from today with a 6 iron. Let me know what you think. http://youtu.be/BiOeHq4JvxY http://youtu.be/0gJ85AOOoOc

What do you mean by p6?

Thanks, I'm going to do some work on that for the next few weeks and then I'll post again

Thanks for the reply. I think my biggest issue at the moment is ball striking consistency, mainly hitting it thin. I think that is due to not hitting down on the ball enough, but I'm not really show how to improve on that. From looking at the video myself, I think the biggest issue I have is early extension, which is something I will investigate how to improve. What else do you see as major issues. Cheers

Hi guys, I'm currently a 4 handicapper with my strengths being driving and wedge play, iron play is what holds me back. I'm not a huge hitter but tend to keep it in play off the tee, just let myself down missing greens. This is a swing from today, comments and constrictive criticism much appreciated. I've been Playing Golf for: 6 years My current handicap index or average score is: 4 My typical ball flight is: Straight The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Short right fade, due to not committing to the shot

I totally agree with you on that, I think it is really helpful having a net to hit balls into when you are making a swing change, that way you really aren't too results focused. When you hit the range though and you do start to get a bit more results focused I think that is when you need to start focusing on the ball again.

I've been working pretty hard on my game in the off season (we’re just coming out of winter in South Eastern Australia), hitting the gym and doing a load of exercises in my shed involving an impact with the aim of reducing my excessive lateral movement and improving my kinetic links. Anyway I've started doing a couple of range sessions a week now that the weather is better and have been hitting it terribly which was really depressing after working really hard. It took me a few sessions but in the end I worked out what was going wrong, I wasn't focused on the ball at all. I was looking the general direction of the ball, but I wasn't focused on it. Since I've worked that out my ball striking has improved massively to the point that I'm now hitting as well as I ever have, and I'm feeling good about the off season work. I just thought I’d post my personal lesson as it may help others out there, don’t get over focused on other things, in the end you need to hit the ball.

I do two drills when I practise and have found they work well for me. Firstly I warm up a bit just putting around to a few holes just to get a bit of feeling. The first drill I do is making 10x6 feet putts, if you miss one go back to zero. Towards the end of the season I normally push it up to 20 if I'm finding 10 easy. I think the 6 foot putt is the most important length to be totally confident over, it takes pressure off the longer putts. After making 10 in a row, I get one ball and work out a course of 18 holes (some long tough ones, some short makeable ones). I then have to go round in under 36 putts, if not I do it again.

I didn't think the 58's had the normal mizuno feel. Still soft but not the mizuno feel.

OK, I stand corrected. I think the point is still valid though. I play MP-32's and love them, but I know they are really too much club for me, I only have them due to my stupid ego and lust. I think unless you are able to practice/play at least 3-4 times a week you probably aren't getting any benefit from blades or something like the Titleist CB, and really should be looking at the AP2's or MP-58/53. I've had a hit a the AP2's not long ago and really liked them, very forgiving and a nice solid feel. They don't have nearly as much feedback as my 32's though. I didn't really think much of the MP-58's, they just didn't feel like Mizuno irons. The MP-53's are back to the great butter soft Mizzy feel though, and are pretty damn forgiving. I reckon a combo set of the 53's and 63's would be mint.

I'm a die hard Mizuno man, so obviously I'm biased. When you look at what most of the pro's are now playing I think you are crazy if you don't play a CB iron. Even people like Adam Scott who always played blades and is a superb ball striker (he can putt for &^*! though) has switched to AP2's. So really I think you should be comparing the AP2's vs MP-53. If I had to make a choice I hate to say it but I would get the 63's (they are just so pretty)

I had a similar situation. I find a 3h goes about 10m further than my old 3i (no longer in the bag), so I have a 20m gap between my 4i and 3h. My 3h flies pretty high though, about the same height as my 5i so I find my gripping down an inch on the 3h takes off about 10m so it fits in pretty well, and gives me a bit more versatility.