Good swing but can't hit the ground? Not taking divots.

[loki993]

Ok. Obviously there is a fault here but I can't figure it out. It's something I've struggled with for a long time and obviously it makes the game pretty hard. 

 

Basically I can take what feels like a good swing on the ball. Other people watch me and says the swing is ok. However the low point of my swing is probably anywhere from 1/4 to maybe 1/2 inch off the ground. 

 

This obviously causes me to top the ball fiercely. Every now and then something happens and I'll catch a good one but when that happens it doesn't feel like I did anything different.

 

So what would be the cause and is it even possible to take a relatively good swing on the ball but basically completely miss the ground on the downswing?

 

How do I fix this? 

[MikeW2]

What are your scores versus your expectations? Tom Watson did ok as a sweeper.

[MPStrat]

How shallow or steep the turf interaction is for a player can sometimes be misleading. Topping the ball fiercely is more of the giveaway that you have a major issue somewhere in your swing. No one can say for sure what your issue is without seeing it.

[YMark]

29 minutes ago, loki993 said:

However the low point of my swing is probably anywhere from 1/4 to maybe 1/2 inch off the ground. 

 

15 minutes ago, MikeW2 said:

What are your scores versus your expectations? Tom Watson did ok as a sweeper.

 

Tom Watson didn't hit the middle of the golf ball.

[MikeW2]

7 minutes ago, YMark said:

 

 

Tom Watson didn't hit the middle of the golf ball.

😂 no he definitely did not. My point was you don’t have to take huge divots to successfully strike a golf ball.

[loki993]

24 minutes ago, MikeW2 said:

What are your scores versus your expectations? Tom Watson did ok as a sweeper.

 But I'm not even sweeping the ground...I'm not touching it at all. 

16 minutes ago, MPStrat said:

How shallow or steep the turf interaction is for a player can sometimes be misleading. Topping the ball fiercely is more of the giveaway that you have a major issue somewhere in your swing. No one can say for sure what your issue is without seeing it.

I can try to get it on tape but the issue is there is basically no turf interaction a lot of the time. 

[rooski]

Extend your clubs 1/4 to 1/2 inch?

[MPStrat]

1 hour ago, loki993 said:

 But I'm not even sweeping the ground...I'm not touching it at all. 

I can try to get it on tape but the issue is there is basically no turf interaction a lot of the time. 

Without a video there is no way to diagnose why this is happening 

[Valtiel]

30 minutes ago, MPStrat said:

Without a video there is no way to diagnose why this is happening 

Agreed. Even the most likely causes will need video to confirm. 

[loki993]

Yeah, Ill try to get something today and post it. 

[RoyalTroon]

1 hour ago, loki993 said:

Yeah, Ill try to get something today and post it. 

 

Good deal, could be something simple like losing your legs because of something up top.

[KMeloney]

You could be lifting/pulling away from the ball in your backswing and not getting back down to it in the downswing.

[BombinJim]

Have you been hitting off mats? Perhaps it’s a subconscious effort to not smash into the fake turf.

[Zitlow]

A ball whirling on a string is pulling the string into extension away from our hand. 

 

I was taught that the energy in the clubhead is pulling away, pulling our arms into extension away from our center. So at impact the arms are stretching out.

 

 

The club is fully released when the right arm and club form a line about 45^ past the ball. From there the clubhead pulls the right side around the posted up left side into the finish. 

 

People who hold off the release might not experience the sensation of their arms stretching out. Not sure but it seems to me they are retaining energy in their arms in order to control the face through impact. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[loki993]

Here are the videos, maybe the swing isn't as good as I thought, either way let me know what you think:

 

 

[RoyalTroon]

10 hours ago, Zitlow said:

A ball whirling on a string is pulling the string into extension away from our hand. 

 

I was taught that the energy in the clubhead is pulling away, pulling our arms into extension away from our center. So at impact the arms are stretching out.

 

The club is fully released when the right arm and club form a line about 45^ past the ball. From there the clubhead pulls the right side around the posted up left side into the finish. 

 

People who hold off the release might not experience the sensation of their arms stretching out. Not sure but it seems to me they are retaining energy in their arms in order to control the face through impact.

 

Solid teaching you had, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's close to what Jackie Burke Jr. had to say about the same thing in his second book.    He said "late in the downswing try to extend your arms.  They should feel like they are straining to leave your shoulder sockets."    Those old timers sure knew their stuff in better ways than what's in the marketplace today- the content war era. 

 

Jackie said the swing must have its own energy and we are to leave it alone.   

Edited May 9, 2023 by BALLYBUNION

[golfarb1]

Mor Norman suggested taking” bacon strip divots NOT pork chop size divots”.

Try three SETUP changes 

1. place more weight on your left foot via having your lead hip over your lead foot 

2. preset some shaft lean by moving your hands adjacent to your inner lead thigh 

3.Bend your knees so that a vertical line touching the front of your knees intersects the middle of your shoelaces . 

[LKNgolf]

Great drill for iron contact is learning to hit shots with the ball extremely forward in your stance.  I mean it’s a drill…don’t need to kill it or even do a huge swing.  I’m talking place the ball well in front of your lead foot and learn to make contact.  Then slowly work the ball back.  Essentially retraining your low point to move forward.  It has worked for me in the past.  Perhaps it could give you a feeling to go on.  Good luck. 

[4thand11]

Get yourself a grass whip! 

 

 

[loki993]

So I may have sort of figured this out yesterday. Easy half swings are fine, then I take a full swing and top. I did this a few times. Then, I tried to may attention to what I was going different with a half swing them a full, I shifted my weight much better with a half swing. So,  I slowed way down and made sure I was getting into my left side during the transition and I made great contact. Did a few of these, then tried to speed up and topping again. Slowed down again, good contact, good divot, hitting ball then turf, great. I did like 10 of these, all good. 

 

 

So what seems to happen to me is when I get fast and try to swing at what feels like full speed for me, but maybe Im overswinging who knows, I get out of sync, I start with my arms first and either don't get onto my left side at all or I do it really late and I top. 

 

When I go slow and I mean really slow, and concentrate on transition, I can bump my hips to the left, get on the left side and everything works as it should. 

 

 

So what are some good transition drills I can try and drills that will help me practice a good weight shift so I can get it really engrained and then hopefully be able to start adding speed back to my swing. 

Edited May 15, 2023 by loki993

[GoGoErky]

You have no turn in your swing. You are very flat and your arms and wrists don’t move properly. Your right arm is to collapsed at the end of the backswing.

 

You pull your arms up and

chicken wing the swing and will never actually hit the ball this way.

 

There’s a lot that has to be worked on. Some ways to go about it would be to go to a local pro and work with them, hire an online coach, look into YouTube videos on proper grip, takeaway, backswing, transition and downswing from teachers like AMG, Chris Ryan. Or buy video series like Monte’ efficient swing, no turn cast, amg’s free or paid membership academy, Eric Cogorno’s courses.

[Sp4zRX]

Edit.. just saw video of swing. I don’t think my comment is useful and possibly harmful. 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Sp4zRX

[loki993]

12 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

You have no turn in your swing. You are very flat and your arms and wrists don’t move properly. Your right arm is to collapsed at the end of the backswing.

 

You pull your arms up and

chicken wing the swing and will never actually hit the ball this way.

 

There’s a lot that has to be worked on. Some ways to go about it would be to go to a local pro and work with them, hire an online coach, look into YouTube videos on proper grip, takeaway, backswing, transition and downswing from teachers like AMG, Chris Ryan. Or buy video series like Monte’ efficient swing, no turn cast, amg’s free or paid membership academy, Eric Cogorno’s courses.

 

10 minutes ago, Sp4zRX said:

Edit.. just saw video of swing. I don’t think my comment is useful and possibly harmful. 

 

The more I look at that video the worse it looks, those are not my best swings. I have a slow motion video but editing it seemingly a challenge with free software. 

[GoGoErky]

21 minutes ago, loki993 said:

 

 

The more I look at that video the worse it looks, those are not my best swings. I have a slow motion video but editing it seemingly a challenge with free software. 

Slow motion doesn’t really capture the flow of the swing and also it’s best to capture video when hitting a ball and not just a practice swing or some other type of swing with no contact 

[Sp4zRX]

27 minutes ago, loki993 said:

 

 

The more I look at that video the worse it looks, those are not my best swings. I have a slow motion video but editing it seemingly a challenge with free software. 

I don’t mean to imply your swing is good or bad. My comment was based on your OP and recent comments. It sounded similar to stuff I am working on. After seeing the video, I see we are in different places. Not better or worse, just different so I don’t want to screw you up by giving advice that doesn’t apply. Which is why posting video is so important. I am not the person you want random advice from!

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Sp4zRX

[LKNgolf]

9 hours ago, loki993 said:

So I may have sort of figured this out yesterday. Easy half swings are fine, then I take a full swing and top. I did this a few times. Then, I tried to may attention to what I was going different with a half swing them a full, I shifted my weight much better with a half swing. So,  I slowed way down and made sure I was getting into my left side during the transition and I made great contact. Did a few of these, then tried to speed up and topping again. Slowed down again, good contact, good divot, hitting ball then turf, great. I did like 10 of these, all good. 

 

 

So what seems to happen to me is when I get fast and try to swing at what feels like full speed for me, but maybe Im overswinging who knows, I get out of sync, I start with my arms first and either don't get onto my left side at all or I do it really late and I top. 

 

When I go slow and I mean really slow, and concentrate on transition, I can bump my hips to the left, get on the left side and everything works as it should. 

 

 

So what are some good transition drills I can try and drills that will help me practice a good weight shift so I can get it really engrained and then hopefully be able to start adding speed back to my swing. 
 

I said it earlier in your thread but search up a few youtube videos on the ball forward drill.  If you get to where you can smack a 7 iron in front of your lead foot whenever you do move it back to center or wherever you like to play it you’ll be compressing it nicely.  I’ve found that when practicing this drill my trail foot will often walk through in the finish.  This seems ok to me as it really gets that feeling of moving toward the target.  I’m sure others have some way more technical drills but this is pretty easy to try without much know how.  Good luck l.

[loki993]

On 5/15/2023 at 10:29 AM, Sp4zRX said:

I don’t mean to imply your swing is good or bad. My comment was based on your OP and recent comments. It sounded similar to stuff I am working on. After seeing the video, I see we are in different places. Not better or worse, just different so I don’t want to screw you up by giving advice that doesn’t apply. Which is why posting video is so important. I am not the person you want random advice from!

 

 

And I didn't take it as that. When I look at that video now its not my best swing. It was getting dark, I was trying to get a quick video and it was a bit half assed. I do usually have a bit more turn that that, but turning well is something I struggle with. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by loki993

[Shilgy]

@loki993  I’m not an instructor but will throw my two cents in…

 

IMO there are two different ways of topping and a fix needs you to identify which way you do it.  An instructor or really good video is needed.

 

One way you can top is as you’ve mostly described….your swing possibly is just a quarter to a half inch above the ground…..but does that really make sense as a ball is 1.62” diameter and the sole of the club even a half inch above the turf would leave a thin shot but not really a top.

 

So two, and more likely imo, is you are essentially trying to help the ball up into the air a bit.  This is the more usual way folks top as the stroke bottoms out behind the ball and is back on the way up at impact with the leading edge catching the top half of the ball.

 

Good luck!

[GoGoErky]

On 5/16/2023 at 10:32 AM, loki993 said:

 

And I didn't take it as that. When I look at that video now its not my best swing. It was getting dark, I was trying to get a quick video and it was a bit half assed. I do usually have a bit more turn that that, but turning well is something I struggle with. 

So post a video of your good swing 

[loki993]

3 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

So post a video of your good swing 

 

I will, I just haven't had much time to get to the range and get a good one. Filming it in my back yard on uneven grass isnt really helpful.