Steven's swing journal. High handicapper looking for help.

[Steven19114]

Hi,

 

So im from South Africa, I started playing golf mid last year so that's about 9 months of golf, im 26 years old currently a 19 handicap and im fat :)

 

Ive been struggling a lot with my swing until I found this forum, someone suggested in a post I made about body movement that I watch a video from one of Monte's regarding rotation. So basically after watching it , all I think about is the the trial elbow , this has made me play about 200x's better then I usual do. I've recently been breaking 50 pretty easy again where about a month ago I was playing golf like a 30 handicapper and felt i was getting worst and worst by the week.

 

So im going to use this journal as a place to document my own swing and try post goals etc. I would love any feedback on my swings.

 

PS: I know the DTL video's angle is way off, I will get another one done later the week.

 

Im also not sure if I should record in slomo or normal, youtube has a function to slow it down, but i guess if its even slower it will be easier to spot mistakes?

 

Ok so im still trying to get the hang of the new swing, im also trying to get more shoulder rotation to get my back facing the target more, also cocking my wrists seem to give me a lot more distance, specially with driver.

Being a fader of the ball, the new swing has mostly taken that away and I tend to pull it more often, however if I do what feels like bringing my trial shoulder down in the downswing it tends to go straight more often.

 

 

[Steven19114]

Just got myself Ben Hogan's 5 lessons, also something that one of the forum members suggested.

 

I must still get threw it but something I picked up on in the foreword was that Hogan says you should use your leading arm as the "dominant" arm in the swing. Ive always used my trial arm. Will be testing this over the week and see how it goes.

[Steven19114]

Played my first 9 hole competition since starting my "new swing".

 

Result was s***, overall im happy. I played 50, but hit every fairway besides the par 3's. My irons sucked and especially my short game chipping. Im happy with my driver atm but I need to work on my iron and short game. So for the rest of the week ill be practicing only 150m and in. Where the majority will be around the green about 10/20m away and then putting also.

 

I will make a video over the weekend to see if things are going better.

[Steven19114]

Played my first 9 after 2days of practice with Monte's short game, I shot 44, which is very solid for me and the best part is I screwed up 2 holes and could have easily been closer to 40 had I made better decisions.

 

I cannot explain how much the "arm dominant" swing thought has helped me, my long game has never been better and after 2 days of a bit of Monte's short game practice im already more confident in my short game, now just to stick with the practice, I will prob be taking another video on Sunday to see if my swing is looking better, I still go out to in often which I am working on.

 

Cheers

[copperjeff]

Looks like you have a lot of good things going on in your swing.

 

In the backswing though you end up swaying your hips a touch and looks like your weight gets to the outside of your back foot instead of into your heel.

 

Good luck with your game. I always enjoy these swing journal posts!

[Steven19114]

Looks like you have a lot of good things going on in your swing.

 

In the backswing though you end up swaying your hips a touch and looks like your weight gets to the outside of your back foot instead of into your heel.

 

Good luck with your game. I always enjoy these swing journal posts!

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the reply, Im lacking a bit with the content but been playing so much lately and been practicing way to little.

 

I will try be a bit more mindful of the pressure moving to my heel and see how it goes, thanks!

[Steven19114]

 

Current swing, practicing 7 iron.

 

Am im to much to the inside or is this plane fine?

[Steven19114]

Will be posting a video soon shortly, hopefully the Monte followers can give it a look and help me out.

 

Results have been good so far, my ball striking is at its best, however my distance still isnt that great. But being able to stay in the fairway has seen my scores drop a lot. Im not done with his drive for dough series yet so hopefully his adive on how to get the club head speed up will start paying off soon.

 

Cheers.

[BettorThanMost]

You're too inside on the takeaway - you are rolling your hands open. think about keeping the club "outside" your hands. Hands in, club out, will get you in a much cleaner position at the top. Hope this helps.

[copperjeff]

Last video you posted is looking really good. You will want to work on that takeaway, rolling the club inside like that will make partial shots a lot harder.

 

Ideally, at left arm parallel butt of club should point more towards target line, you are way outside of it. Good check point to work towards.

 

Hope to see a new video soon!

[Steven19114]

So i haven't posted here in a while but I have been working on a couple things.

 

So first things first I have had a online coaching session with monte as well as been to see a coach, online is hard and I think sticking to going to see a coach is better. However I will still do a online session with Monte every 2nd month or so just to see if there is anything my coach misses because I still respect monte's word a lot.

 

Basically what im working on atm is a higher backswing vs a laid off one ( Which results in not sucking the club in on my takeaway ), then im trying to speed up my arms because according to my coach my hips fire way to hard, I then also work on releasing the club "harder" with my wrists to close the clubface more.

 

My coach has given me some drills to practice and I will be spending the next week just practicing them until Sunday where I will make a video again and take it from there.

 

My drills are;

 

1. The hogan waggle.

2. Flamingo drill ( Tony luckzak ) to promote faster arm speed with less hips.

3. Closing of the club face with 1 hand.

 

Im not focusing on any short game atm, my biggest issue is long game, as soon as I can start hitting fairways a little more consistently and actually make it to the green in 2 or 3 ill start changing my focus but for now my main focus is the long game.

[copperjeff]

Sounds like you have a solid plan moving forward!

 

Love to hear and see the updates!

[Steven19114]

So i've had a couple days practice, been going well im finally scoring close to my 20handicap with a round of 46 and 47 yesterday.

 

The bad thing is my swing hasn't changed much on video, im still sucking the club behind me a lot which obvs is my biggest swing fault, I have a competition today so just going to go with the flow and from tomorrow im going to only work on my backswing and getting my hands up higher.

 

My plan is to follows monte's videos, he has 2 which I like 1. the perfect backswing and 2. keeping the clubs/hands in front of you.

 

It is something he said I must change and something I thought I have changed but its still pretty bad, will video the progress and take it from there.

[Steven19114]

Havent posted in over a month.

 

Here is whats happening, overall I have been jumping around following a lot of different peoples advice, had different online coaching and just kept following to many peoples advice. A buddy of mine who is a lower handicap then me follows rotaryswing.com and I have seen him improve a lot the last 6months. So after reaching the point of almost quitting golf I decided "f*** it" lets give it a go.

 

I have been doing rotary swing for about 3weeks now and had 1 swing review with them, my 2nd one will follow this week, and I will post both my pre and post RS swing here later the week. My scores haven't improved much but im becoming a more consistent striker with the bit I have taken away, my golf swing on camera looks much less sloppy then before and that has a ton to do with their setup and rotation video's. Obvs im still s*** and my swing is no where near perfect but I can feel and see positive things are happening.

 

They have a short game and putting section also, I follow their putting advice as it makes a load of sense to me but i have been struggling a lot with their short game. Im considering moving back to Monte's video's as I think I had the best results while using his chipping technique, but at the moment short game isnt a priority until I have a decent swing going so that gives me some time to try out a couple of other techniques in the mean time before I commit to something.

 

Video's to follow soon

Cheers