IG building a new swing - Lesson 1 - Feb 16th

[IrishGolfer]

I went for a lesson on Friday. I am playing quite well now so it would have been easy to pay lip service to it, but I am looking to build in a lot more consistency to my swing this year. My goal is to get to a 3 index. I have known for a while that I need to work on some fundamentals on grip, posture and alignment to move my game forward. The Pro I went to is a really cool guy and I have had a few lessons with him before. He asked me what my goals were and I said I really wanted to work on my swing this season and was prepared to put the hours in. So he pretty much tore my swing apart!! But he also did it in a modular way saying that I should work on building my swing a bit at a time.

He has given my 5 things to work on over the next few weeks

1. I was squatting down over the ball, with too much knee flex. I have found it very difficult to stand more erect, with big pressures on my lower back. I am 6'1" and flexing my knees was the only way to get down to the ball. However it appears I have had my weight too much on my heels. By moving my weight towards the toes it was much easier to stand taller. So now I stand upright as tall as I can be, bend from my waist first and then very slightly flex the knees. A SIMPLE REVELATION!!
2. Hands ahead of the ball. I had my hands dropping back ever so slightly behind the ball. So now I am setting them ahead of the ball at address.
3. Turning the shoulders. I was not rotating my shoulders on the way back as much as I should. This was leading to me picking up the club on the way back. I need to take a low slow take-away and then concentrate on fully turning my shoulders. By keeping my chin high, I am now working at getting the left shoulder under the chin. Boy I can really feel the tightness in the shoulders, but on the positive, it feels as if I am much more wound up, like a coiled spring.:hunter:
4. Keeping my height consistent throughout the swing. I tend to dip or come up during the swing and follow-though. This sometimes leads to slightly thinned or heavy shots. He has me now trying to maintain my height throughout. No drill here, just awareness.
5. Clearing my left hip and getting off my right foot. I am still a little behind the ball on impact with my weight not transferring quickly enough from my right to my left side. At impact, with my weight still on my right, my forearms and wrists are a blur and I tend to hit a block or a hook if I over-compensate. Trying to be less handsy. This is probably the biggest thing I have to work on and I have tried snapping my left leg straight, and trying to focus on turning my left hip sharply behind me (if that makes sense). That will be the focus of my next lesson in a few weeks time. I will try and build in the posture stuff into muscle memory so I don't have to think about it.

Of course with 27 things to focus on my game is now going to be in the crapper over the next few weeks. On one drive on Saturday I froze over the ball and eventually ended up hitting a smothered hook that felt awful. However there were also a lot of positive swings and I still shot a decent score (+4).

I am planning to keep this as a lesson log over the next few months and track my progress.

 

[ezra76]

Good luck and keep us posted. I need to go for a few lessons soon, no total rebuild, just little by little changes.

 

[Farquod]

I was squatting down over the ball, with too much knee flex. I have found it very difficult to stand more erect, with big pressures on my lower back. I am 6'1" and flexing my knees was the only way to get down to the ball. However it appears I have had my weight too much on my heels. By moving my weight towards the toes it was much easier to stand taller. So now I stand upright as tall as I can be, bend from my waist first and then very slightly flex the knees. A SIMPLE REVELATION!!

Keeping my height consistent throughout the swing. I tend to dip or come up during the swing and follow-though. This sometimes leads to slightly thinned or heavy shots. He has me now trying to maintain my height throughout. No drill here, just awareness.

Good luck, IG. :thumbs up: These two kinda work together, and are something that have caused me some grief over the past couple of years. The weight back (for me) was a result of Hogan, and did result in a very stable base. Like you, I had a pro move me forward; FWIW, this cost me some consistency, and in a couple of very distinct instances I unconsciously rocked back during my swing, with predictably disastrous results. (I didn't even know I had done it; one of my playing partners told me what he saw. Perfect illustration of your swing attempting to revert to what it knows best under stress). I have since settled on a hybrid position that I find more stable, yet is not the "spectator sport stick" position that Hogan advocates. This seems to work somewhat better for me. I hope you suss it out successfully for you tho dude. It was a toughie.

 

[IrishGolfer]

This is something I would never figured out myself. Takes someone to notice this. I agree about consistency and possible rocking and I will have to be aware of that, but so far it feels good.

Here is a still of my old swing. Very squat and hands too close to my body. Hopefully I will get a similar shot to compare new set-up soon, which shows my standing taller and hands away from legs. In the meantime, here's how Ernie does it.

 

[solarbear88]

Good luck. That seems like alot to work on, but really when you look at it closely, it is just setting up properly and turning around your spine. Alot of the things you mention are a result of a dodgy set up and may fix themselves once you set up right. For example, dipping is often caused by bad balance. Keep it simple.

Have you ever had a clubfit? It might be worth your while seeing a good clubfitter.

 

[IrishGolfer]

Good luck. That seems like alot to work on, but really when you look at it closely, it is just setting up properly and turning around your spine. Alot of the things you mention are a result of a dodgy set up and may fix themselves once you set up right. For example, dipping is often caused by bad balance. Keep it simple.

Have you ever had a clubfit? It might be worth your while seeing a good clubfitter.

Cheers SB
I'm in this for the long haul and have a bit more time this season to work on things. Hopefully 90% of all this is addressable in the set-up.

I asked my Pro about my irons and he reckoned standard length was OK. Will check later in the season though.

 

[solarbear88]

Cheers SB
I'm in this for the long haul and have a bit more time this season to work on things. Hopefully 90% of all this is addressable in the set-up.

I asked my Pro about my irons and he reckoned standard length was OK. Will check later in the season though.

Thats cool. 6'1 is a bit borderline and depends on arm length but your pro should know.

When you look at all those points most of them are set up so you should be able to just set up and focus on one other thing.

 

[MizunoGolf27]

Good luck with the lessons, and keep us posted with how there going. I also thought when reading this that you might need a longer club..but if the pro says it's alright then I'm sure it is. And he would know since he's a pro. I have been having that same problem with my head going up and down durning my swing. I've been doing it for a while but didn't catch it until I saw it on video.

 

[IrishGolfer]

Next stage - a few weeks on.

Here's me with the Hibore 9.5 smacking this out about 240 on a cold winter's morning.

tbh watching this in slow motion is not so good.
I'm trying to stand more upright, rythm is quite good.
Still going across the line a bit at the top.
Looks a bit ugly after impact.

Comments or input welcome....
YouTube - IG hitting the Big Dog

 

[charnockpro]

Set up looks good now and the backswing is good if not a tad to much inside the line on the takeaway, in the latter stages, whereby the right arm gets a little in behind you causing the club to cross the line, this is then a chain reaction where you do re route the club well but because the club is coming from behind you this is where i see the problem of when your coach described you as standing up out of the shot, because the shaft is behind you and a bit trapped, in a an effort to square it your reaction is to release early with your hands from underneath and then lean back to stop you hooking it too much.

I would say to you to monitor the right arm position making sure it doesnt get too deep and then this will create a better path and angle of attack on the way down as the club doesnt have to travel as far and is travelling on cleaner lines

 

[IrishGolfer]

to monitor the right arm position making sure it doesnt get too deep and then this will create a better path and angle of attack on the way down as the club doesnt have to travel as far and is travelling on cleaner lines

Cheers CP I appreciate the keen eye. What does too deep mean? You mean too much on the inside on the way back?

You are spot on btw about my downswing, regarding the early release and sit back. Drills, I needs drills!

 

[charnockpro]

Cheers CP I appreciate the keen eye. What does too deep mean? You mean too much on the inside on the way back?

You are spot on btw about my downswing, regarding the early release and sit back. Drills, I needs drills!

If you were to look face on you would see at the top of the backswing, a long left arm and a right angled right arm visible, with your swing your right arm would be disappearing behind you, akin to a flying right elbow but not as extreme, if you work on trying to stop your right arm getting too deep by the pre set drill, address the ball and then set your wrists as far as they will go so your club is parallel to an alignment club on the ground and the swing to the top and you should feel the better right arm position

 

[Jules150]

charnockpro-very proffesional looking webiste, it looks great did you design that yourself?

 

[IrishGolfer]

Cheers CP
I'll give it a go...

 

[IrishGolfer]

Further analysis

Hey CP,

looking at this a bit more
photo #1 - Set-up getting better Ernie!

photo #2 - You are saying my take-away is too much on the inside (I agree and this photo shows it well) - the only way I can think to counter is to exagerate my hands to go back "outside the line" rather than inside, right?
At this point the clubs need to be parallel?

photo #3 - Here I am too much on the inside and have gone across the line at the top. From what you are saying if I get photo#2 right, this should self correct?

photo #4 - what angle should the club be on (assuming it is 45 degrees now)? I DO look a bit cramped and I can see me getting stuck on the heel of my back foot here. And that's where I turn this into a hook or block if the timing is off. I had an idea of practicing with the weight on my right foot on my toe all the way through the swing, any sense here?