Please give some feedback on my swing....

[hbradford]

First time poster, long time lurker. Been playing golf for a few years now and am stuck and not getting much better, playing to a +20 handicap. Lots of challenges and things to overcome, but getting off the tee has really been a challenge lately. Literally never pull my driver anymore, and even at the range can't hit it. Go in and out of hitting 3 wood and hybrids off the tee, and if it's really bad will just pull a 4 or 5 iron has I tend to hit them fairly consistently. Don't have the childhood muscle memory I do for skiing, snow boarding, basketball or tennis etc, and somewhat feel like I'm starting over every time I pick up a club. Mind you i've probably clocked at least 50 rounds of golf this year.

 

Here's what I know.

- Crossing the line

- Club face is closed at the top

- get ahead of the club, need to stay back

- swing is long

 

Power has never been an issue, so I always try to keep a very controlled, often criticized for a slow swing. Swing thoughts are a stable base, full turn, loose grip, head/watch ball.

 

Anyway, love some thoughts on my swing. Videos are rather long, sorry....

 

6 and 8 iron down the line....

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3 wood, as head on as I could get.

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[golfingchuck]

Your practice swing in the first video at the 2 minute mark was good. Copy that. Get that toe up more, face is really closed. Speed up your back swing, please! You seem to be on your heels a little bit

[akiracornell]

You can consistantly shave 5 strokes of your game chipping and putting. The only way to save par if you dont make green in reg is to chip it close for a 1putt. And then you also have to putt well. Long putts have to get close to finish.
As far as making more greens, slow down your downswing. Your body looks very tense. Relax and let the club do its job. Scoring in golf depends more on consistancy than power. If you swung a driver like you were only trying to get it to go 180 down the middle, it would still go 250+. And that would put u in better position than resorting to 5 irons.
Take brake from the range and master chipping speed, reading greens, long, medium and short putting speed. Practice a consistant bunker shot Combine those with a mellow consistant club swing and you will turn that 20+ hcap into the low teens pretty quick. I cut 5-8 strokes out of my game by going to the range only once week and chipping and putting 2-3 times per week.

[bacination]

Hello.

Step 1. Work on tempo. It is going to be much harder for you to get anything else right until you have decent tempo. Your backswing is , way way too long. I dont mean in the traditional sense, but in duration.

Step 2. Once you have decent tempo, you can start thinking about TOE DOWN positions, which is what the previous poster meant and issue like early extension. It is critical that you get tempo right first though.

[hbradford]

Thanks guys, all good tips/feedback/things to try. Anyone got any good tempo drils?

[akiracornell]

[quote name='hbradford' timestamp='1348017308' post='5660827']
Thanks guys, all good tips/feedback/things to try. Anyone got any good tempo drils?
[/quote]

[akiracornell]

Well when things get all jacked up for me i resort literally to slowing way down. I will quit trying to manipulate mechanics, tempo, power and release. I will just swing the club lightly with rythum threw the ball. Like 60% power. At first it will bug u because u feel like your wasting range balls you payed for by not practicing your full swing. But it works for me.
Lets say you hit your seven iron 150. Just start slow and hit like 100. Then 110, then 120. And so on till you work up to a full swing. What this does is show you dont have to power it or manipulate as you slowly work your way up. What you find is that it takes a whole lot less energy with a smooth swing to max out a given club. The harder you try the more inconsistent it gets without any distance gains. It lets you find that happy medium between an easy rythmic swing and a more agressive full swing. If i said grab you 9 iron and hit that trash can. How far away could you put the can and almost hit it every time. Thats the distance i would say is your natural tempo. Or where you could warm up at .
Funny thing is I have to get really frusterated somtimes to break down and do it to find tempo. Even if you just try to hit a given club 30 yards short of normal it can help you find that easy rythmic swing, and just slowly work it 10 yards at a time upto full. An easy swing is much easier to repeat on the course.

[akiracornell]

Well, i watched both videos all the way through. Im thinking if you can find a way to speed up that back swing it might also help you. I can see thats how you groove it. And I use to take it back pretty slow also. But I changed it once i read a study that said if you stare at a fixed object too long it can work against your reflexes when using hand eye coordination. If i stare too long I usually back off the ball and restart my pre-shot routine. More practice swings back and forth can help you groove a quicker takeaway. For me, taking too long or longer than usual; usually results in a bad shot. im also thinking maybe you could benefit from a new preshot routine.

personally I have developed two different pre-shot routines. My old one is two practice swings infront of the ball to make sure everything looks and feels right. The other main thing i do before address is get behind the ball to find alignment. I find a blade of grass or pick a spot about 2 feet infront of the ball exactly online with my target, i keep my eye on that one blade or spot as i walk up to the ball, not taking my eye off it. i visualize the ball taking off through that spot as i walk up. Watch keegan bradleys pre shot routine. Im thinking he does somthing similar. I set up and square my stance to hit the ball through that spot of grass. i look up once maybe twice to check alignment while I get my feet set comfortably, one waggle, foreward press and go. Jack nicklaus and tom watson both use this technique for alignment and i have incorperated for all my shots and use it for long putts where i cant see the hole. if nicklaus did it, and tom watson said he copied it, and nicklaus has more majors than tiger, well anyway.

I notice you usually have about one waggle before address. And then a long pause. The waggle is a feel move.
Maybe you could also benifit from a little forward press to get faster rythum going back. Forward pressing is pushing your hands slightly forward over the ball at address in order to start the backswing. i move my hands and turn my hips forward maybe an inch initiate the backswing. For me it does two things, it previews impact position for irons and gets rythum going. Sam snead had this little move with his knees.
he actually has like 3 different moves to start the swing. Feet, waggle, and the little knee move. Somtimes just soaking up someone elses timing and rythum allows us to mimick it. Its well edited. Once u watch it through, u start to soak up what he did. [media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDn_2_kvmBE[/media]

here a sweet old video of hogans rythum. Great rythum to study and imitate [media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWLLPKiSMRk[/media]