Ball striking was great to start the year but has become inconsistent over the past few weeks. Help is appreciated!

[hacker81]

[Valtiel]

How would you describe the inconsistencies/misses? Are they flight related, strike related, or both?

The first thing that stood out to me is your setup and how it feels crowded. Your initial takeaway supports this...



...as the first thing your hands do is move out away from the ball. If we're meant to generally take the club away in a somewhat straight line from the ball, the red dot at the end represents the ball you ARE moving straight back from, and its obviously about a ball further away from you. So if you're a little crowded at setup by this logic, then this exacerbates that:



If we put a box around your head we can see that you sink down quite a bit and also move towards the ball, shifting your center of gravity a little closer to it. If you're already a bit crowded at setup then this crowds you even further which your brain on some level likely knows you need to compensate for by pulling your hands in, which themselves are a little deep at the top (behind you) for how close you're standing to the ball. It's a a series of little match ups that are potentially working against you. My suggestions would then be one or more of the following:

1) Give yourself that one extra ball width of distance at address simply by addressing the ball normally and them pushing the ball away that amount. Swinging normally from this new position hopefully feels a little more free, especially if you're struggling with heel strikes.

2) Work on maintaining your posture and distance from the ball in your backswing. Sinking down is alright, but tends to happen later in the sequence with pros (usually in transition). Very few also come towards the ball like this, and those that do have a higher/more upright backswing to keep their hands in front of them more, which...

3) Get your hands a little higher and less "deep". The first two above are more important IMO, but depending on how those above tweaks feel, you might want to consider getting your hands in a more "neutral" position. You're not out of bounds right now or anything and could easily leave this as is, but its the match up idea I mentioned above.

It'll be a matter of what resonates with you. If 1 and 2 above feel alright as adjustments then #3 might not be necessary at all. If #1 for some reason feels terrible then you'll need to lean on #2 more and maybe a bit of #3.

Good luck and please follow up if you can!

Edited May 24, 2022 by Valtiel

[hacker81]

3 hours ago, Valtiel said:

How would you describe the inconsistencies/misses? Are they flight related, strike related, or both?

The first thing that stood out to me is your setup and how it feels crowded. Your initial takeaway supports this...



...as the first thing your hands do is move out away from the ball. If we're meant to generally take the club away in a somewhat straight line from the ball, the red dot at the end represents the ball you ARE moving straight back from, and its obviously about a ball further away from you. So if you're a little crowded at setup by this logic, then this exacerbates that:



If we put a box around your head we can see that you sink down quite a bit and also move towards the ball, shifting your center of gravity a little closer to it. If you're already a bit crowded at setup then this crowds you even further which your brain on some level likely knows you need to compensate for by pulling your hands in, which themselves are a little deep at the top (behind you) for how close you're standing to the ball. It's a a series of little match ups that are potentially working against you. My suggestions would then be one or more of the following:

1) Give yourself that one extra ball width of distance at address simply by addressing the ball normally and them pushing the ball away that amount. Swinging normally from this new position hopefully feels a little more free, especially if you're struggling with heel strikes.

2) Work on maintaining your posture and distance from the ball in your backswing. Sinking down is alright, but tends to happen later in the sequence with pros (usually in transition). Very few also come towards the ball like this, and those that do have a higher/more upright backswing to keep their hands in front of them more, which...

3) Get your hands a little higher and less "deep". The first two above are more important IMO, but depending on how those above tweaks feel, you might want to consider getting your hands in a more "neutral" position. You're not out of bounds right now or anything and could easily leave this as is, but its the match up idea I mentioned above.

It'll be a matter of what resonates with you. If 1 and 2 above feel alright as adjustments then #3 might not be necessary at all. If #1 for some reason feels terrible then you'll need to lean on #2 more and maybe a bit of #3.

Good luck and please follow up if you can!

Thank you so much! The trouble is mostly leaking shots to the right and some ball striking at the moment (ball striking contact issue has just appeared recently). My miss used to be to the left and I think I have over compensated and got some bad habits back. I'm going to work on what you suggested and let you know how it goes