Feel and swing like an old man - please help me!

60 yr old man trying to get back into it. Feel like my hands r behind the club head on shorter clubs and I'm getting handsey with longer clubs and really struggle with longer clubs. I'm avoiding anything longer than a 4 iron now, due to delofting the longer clubs I believe. I know the back swing is short, but if I try to lenghten my backswing my head elevates and causes more inconsistency. I have started taking lessons and working on a few items, but cannot afford many lessons. Pick me apart and please offer any drills/tips to help this old man out...

Do you have any physical limitations other than typical loss of strength/flexibility that comes with age?

Work on your flexibility. Lack of it is killing you.

Right hip replacement and left shoulder was cleaned up bout 5 yrs ago.... Was thinking that a stretching routine should be part of daily regiment.

If you gain some flexibility it will help you clear your hips on the downswing. If you can't, you always will be flipping the club and you will have to come up with some stance that allows for that.

Chippo21,

Lack of flexibility is likely NOT the issue. (Not saying increased flexibility won't help, just saying you probably have enough to make a decent golf swing.)

The far more likely issue is a lack of awareness of how your body needs to move to actually turn.

Try this drill: Take a club and place it across your shoulders, with the butt end pointing targetward. Hold it in place by crossing your arms across your chest. Then get in your golf posture. Then turning the butt of the club all the way to where the ball is. (Not necessary to point the butt to the ball, it can point outside of it.)

If you can do the drill you are plenty flexible enough. If you can't, there may or may not be an underlying issue. Would have to see you trying to do it.

This is a vital fist step to improving your golf swing. Try it and let us know what happens.

Jeff,

Thanks for your post, preformed your drill and all I get was bout 70 degrees. Upper middle back was screaming when I tried to get more turn. With that said, i'm believing I need to get into sum kind daily stretching routine.... I seen a clip from Peter Jacobson today, where he pauses at the top as long as he can to help get a little more flex. I'm goin to try this and I'm open to anything any other drills.

Jeff,

Thanks for your post, preformed your drill and all I get was bout 70 degrees. Upper middle back was screaming when I tried to get more turn. With that said, i'm believing I need to get into sum kind daily stretching routine.... I seen a clip from Peter Jacobson today, where he pauses at the top as long as he can to help get a little more flex. I'm goin to try this and I'm open to anything any other drills.

Thanks for doing the drill. That tells me there are likely 2 reasons. Either not enough hip turn, or again could be just flexibilty.

Try the same type of drill but with the club across your hips and see what kind of turn you get. Key here is to not turn hips level, but keep the tilts.

You can also turn hips first, then bring club up to your shoulders and see where you get.

If 70 is all you have to work with right now, thats ok. Looks like you were getting an ok turn in the video, but FO would be more revealing. If you have face on video can you post it?

It's likely your biggest issue right now is how your right arm collapses at the top of the backswing. When you try and make your swing longer that likely gets worse.

Try keeping right arm much straighter in backswing. I'd recommend right arm only swings here and there to get a feel for it. Slow motion with both hands too. It'll take a bit to reprogram how to get back to the ball from a different backswing.

The turn is not the problem. Lack of a release of the lower body is far more problematic. If he can’t get to his left side, the turn is useless.

The turn is not the problem. Lack of a release of the lower body is far more problematic. If he can’t get to his left side, the turn is useless.

He cant get to his left side not because of lack of flexibility either. The drill I gave is more of a proof of enough flexibility to make a decent swing than anything else.

The issue is he is far too narrow at the top, makes it hard to transition shallow. He gets steep in transition, then stands up and flings the clubhead to right field to shallow. Standing up stalls the hip rotation.

I am a few weeks short of my 61st birthday, so I get where you are coming from. I do three drills on a regular basis, which have really helped me with balance, tempo, staying centered, flexibility and timing. I do the drills on the range and at home. The drills: The Ben Hogan drill (a/k/a perpetual motion drill), the feet together drill, and the step through drill (a/k/a the Gary Player drill).

The drills have helped me to adapt my swing that one that works for my body and that doesn’t cause pain or strain. I do the drills at varying speeds, but always in even tempo.

The Ben Hogan drill:

Feet together drill:

Gary Player drill:

Here is a bonus video that is well worth watching for us “senior” golfers:

Give the drills a try. Listen to your body, adapt to what is comfortable and works for you.

Jeff, I'm get bout 60 degs at the hips, both directions from a starting point. Not really sure what u mean with keeping right arm straight, I would assume to keep it straight A's long as possible on backswing? I did play around with my right elbow, if I get it up and away from my body, I believe I can get more turn with it up. I don't have a clue if this is good r not to have right elbow up at backswing? Will try the right arm only drill at range today... Have posted a FO vid below.

Al, thanks for sending drills! I knew bout the feet together drill and will add the others to my range sessions.

Lot to think and incorporate into my swing. Game was just ok 15 yrs ago, developed real bad habits, especially with longer clubs, laid off for 10 yrs and trying to get back into it and cannot get bad ingrained traits out of my swing. Lossing sum flexibility over the yrs is not helping either.

Chippo21,

You get plenty of turn in your backswing. Don't obsess about it.

For the right arm staying straight, its just a feel. The arm has to bend, but yours gets way way over bent. About 90 bend at the elbow is all you really want to see.

Work on that for a while, see how you adapt to the new backswing.