# Swing development over winter



## Jimaroid (Nov 8, 2015)

I've signed up to a package of lessons for the winter and before they kicked off I thought I'd get a video of where my swing is at now so I can see how it all develops in the coming months. I've got an idea of what I want to work on and I thought it'd be interesting to share the progress. Thoughts welcome. 

[video=youtube;UBN650zh4Pc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBN650zh4Pc[/video]


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## patricks148 (Nov 8, 2015)

hey hombre, that is a nice sweeng..


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## Jimaroid (Nov 8, 2015)

:thup:


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## Farneyman (Nov 8, 2015)

Stunt double used there?


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## stevek1969 (Nov 8, 2015)

Which one did you sign up for as i did the same with the very same man?


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## Jimaroid (Nov 8, 2015)

stevek1969 said:



			Which one did you sign up for as i did the same with the very same man?
		
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All-in with the "tour" package, a whole bunch of lessons, trackman and physio sessions to come. I'm going kill or cure.


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## stevek1969 (Nov 8, 2015)

Jimaroid said:



			All-in with the "tour" package, a whole bunch of lessons, trackman and physio sessions to come. I'm going kill or cure. 

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Haha , the physio will kill you, joking aside Shelly is top class she knows her stuff, i went for the Pro as id seen Shelly last year


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## daverollo (Nov 9, 2015)

Good luck with the development Jim, I think you have some good foundations to work on (having seen you at Dundonald), change is tough though, 2 steps forward, 1 back.  I am finding it tricky to take my golf range form to the course at the moment, slow progress!!


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## patricks148 (Nov 9, 2015)

Jimaroid said:



			I've signed up to a package of lessons for the winter and before they kicked off I thought I'd get a video of where my swing is at now so I can see how it all develops in the coming months. I've got an idea of what I want to work on and I thought it'd be interesting to share the progress. Thoughts welcome. 

[video=youtube;UBN650zh4Pc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBN650zh4Pc[/video]
		
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In all seriousness Jim, i think you have a lovely looking swing, what are you not happy with and looking to change?


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## Jimaroid (Nov 9, 2015)

patricks148 said:



			In all seriousness Jim, i think you have a lovely looking swing, what are you not happy with and looking to change?
		
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Basically it's a loss of confidence in ball direction. Most of this year I've been struggling to hit greens with regularity, typified by poor par-3 performances where I'm hitting the ball pin high but not knowing if I'm going to be 30 yards left or right. My irons between 120 & 180 yards have been pretty poor even though I feel like I'm striking the ball much better than I used to. I'm not looking to change anything for the sake of it but I want to get better advice and find more focus on what to practice for consistent results.

In a sort-of related way, I also have a lingering problem with my left foot which I hurt when out running earlier in the year. I was planning on going to see the local TPI physio about it but recently the local Pro started offering package deals with lessons, trackman and physio sessions all included. So with that and all the above it seems too good a package to refuse.


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## the_coach (Nov 9, 2015)

think it's a good thing for folks who have kinda reached a plateau of  performance levels often times with a pattern to the issues happening  that's stopping further progression to book a series of lessons.

thing  is to go with an open mind to what areas are goin to be looked at &  in what order - but goin with an underlying acceptance that a bunch of  things through the process will need to change

although many folks who have decent overall movement  so the swing motion feels fluid, an observer would see a decent motion  there but there are some things happening within that that still give  the issues & variable shot outcomes

problems with little ways  more inconsistent contact & face angle will be down to the lateral  movement off the ball not always being able to be matched with the  amount of movement to get back to the ball for good impact conditions  overall so affects face angle direction at strike - plus a little ways  bigger variable in vertical height going back to coming back to the ball  will affect the consistency of the 'low point' of any swing falling in  more consistent place for better impact conditions 

this along with set-up, grip, ball position - so not only how the hands are on the handle but the shaft angle at address

stance width so how the legs work - lead leg over active some will play into any height issues

in the meantime looking to keep a more 'centered'  swing motion a 'feeling' of maintaining vertical height keeping little  more stability in the legs - weight pressure into ground rather than  left to right lateral feeling of movement - so there's not so much lead  leg bend motion not so much height variables back & through

not  exactly sure of the club in the vid but ball position appears a little  forwards no doubt it's probably got there to help accommodate contact 

would try flaring the lead foot out some more to target should help with lead knee stability with perhaps a tad more stance width too to stabilize the lateral - trail shoulder 'turns' not move away from target

good luck with the lessons & swing re-work


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## Jimaroid (Nov 9, 2015)

Thanks coach. I'd not looked at my own swing since the start of the year and I was pretty surprised how much lateral and vertical movement seems to have crept in. Definitely take your point about being open minded, I'm expecting some difficult times ahead but am confident I'll be better off come spring.


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## Junior (Nov 9, 2015)

I don't know much about swinging........but that looks mighty fine.  Great tempo.......you lose a bit of height, which is a problem I have, .......but then again so does Westwood and Tiger


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## the_coach (Nov 9, 2015)

Jimaroid said:



			Thanks coach. I'd not looked at my own swing since the start of the year and I was pretty surprised how much lateral and vertical movement seems to have crept in. Definitely take your point about being open minded, I'm expecting some difficult times ahead but am confident I'll be better off come spring.
		
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if for practice you got golf range balls with the 'hoop/circles' marked  on this can be pretty useful to help monitor lateral shift, both away or  too much towards target before impact

put ball down with the 'hoop'  horizontal to the ground then to check out lateral off the ball at  set-up raise up the hoop marking on the front side of the ball from  horizontal so the edge of the circle can just be seen through the left  eye - as you take a practice turn to the top, atop the swing the edge of  the hoop should still be visible
if too much lateral the edge of the hoop will disappear from the field of vision

like-wise  to check out too much lateral in the downswing if you do the complete  opposite raise hoop so the edge just being visible on the trail side of  ball at address through the right eye - slower practice swing to the top  then slow practice down to just before impact - the very edge of the  'hoop' should still be visible with the right eye up to the moment of  impact


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## Qwerty (Nov 13, 2015)

I had an issue earlier in the year with lateral movement to the left and similar to you Jim I couldn't believe how much my whole body had shifted to the left from address to impact Once I'd finally sought help and saw it on video.

Our swings look very similar, deliberate with a steady tempo and my ball position had also crept forward, Possibly to accomadate the 'shift'

It took me a while to regain staying 'Centered' over the ball through impact but I'm finally getting there and the scores have started to improve again. Definately a better contact with more power and Control.
Just to let you know though if you are going down this route.. Personally I got worse before I got better.

Im no expert but the rest of your swing looks Pretty Steady.
Good Luck :thup:


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## Jimaroid (Nov 13, 2015)

Cheers! Not expecting this to be an easy transition but it has to be done. I've been unhappy with my results this year and I was reviewing competition stats ahead of my first lesson yesterday and one thing was shocking:

Par 3 performance: 60% of returned scores were bogey or worse
compared to:
Par 5 performance: 12% bogey or worse

As I said above there is something really bad happening with mid and long irons and it shows in that Par 3 stat - I knew it was bad but not to that extent. Anyway, pleased to say that the first lesson last night was good but tough. I hit a randomised 15 shots between 120 and 180 yards on Trackman and pulled every one 20-30 yards left of where I was aiming which is exactly what I've been fighting against this year. Path was fine but clubface angle is getting very closed. Likely culprit being a strange interlocking and very basebally grip that I seem to have developed this year - something I've been conscious of getting worse but have convinced myself I had better control of the clubface that way. (Oh, Golf, how you tease us!)

So much like the_coach was leading to above, the first thing I'm working on is grip and club angle. Obviously it feels wrong to start with but I feel good about drilling into specific issues like that and I'm happy with the initial results. Long, long, long way to go yet... I'm sure we'll come to the lateral movement once I've got my grip under control.


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## stevek1969 (Nov 13, 2015)

Jim had my first lesson with Stuart yesterday, posture was all wrong ,left shoulder leaning low ,hands very low with the club and scooping the ball ,7 iron going as far as a wedge.  Now left shoulder higher trying to get the hands higher and dropping the club instead of casting it, lots of slow motion swings ahead to get it but ball striking much better after . A long winter a head i think but worth it


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## Jimaroid (Nov 13, 2015)

Good stuff, Steve. Hope it works out well for you. Not sure when I'll be back for the next lesson as it depends how quickly I get used to the new setup. Looks like a lot of cold evenings ahead for us both.


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## stevek1969 (Nov 14, 2015)

First time on the course trying to bed in the new swing changes ,83 blows for 37 pts, knocked my first drive straight out of bounds but after that i swung pretty well ,still a work in progress but definitely much better:thup:


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## stevek1969 (Nov 21, 2015)

Hows the lessons going Jim ?


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## Jimaroid (Nov 22, 2015)

stevek1969 said:



			Hows the lessons going Jim ?
		
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Not had a second lesson yet as I'm still getting comfortable with the new grip. It's starting to feel pretty good but I'm still a way from feeling as if it's a normal setup. I think I've hit 250 balls since the change, another 100 and maybe I'll be able to set a date for the next lesson.

How's it going yourself?


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## stevek1969 (Nov 22, 2015)

Jimaroid said:



			Not had a second lesson yet as I'm still getting comfortable with the new grip. It's starting to feel pretty good but I'm still a way from feeling as if it's a normal setup. I think I've hit 250 balls since the change, another 100 and maybe I'll be able to set a date for the next lesson.

How's it going yourself?
		
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Haven't had another one yet ,need to get my Trackman practise session sorted out before my next lesson, I've hit about 600 balls since and its getting there , won our sweep last week and this weekend so all good.


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## Jimaroid (Dec 11, 2015)

Oh well, I'd better report the bad with the good I suppose...

After feeling like I've settled in really well with the change in grip I went to have my second lesson this evening and it was a complete shambles. I turned up early for a warm-up and it was like I'd not held a club before, I was all over the place. For the first 10 minutes of the lesson we just had to conclude that it was a bad day at the office for me. Now, all credit to Stuart, he turned me around. He had me hitting 4 iron after 4 iron (not my favourite club) and some of the mojo came back. Next goal is to work on getting some weight off my toes to stand closer to the ball and hopefully get rid of so much head movement.

Very pleased with how the lesson ended but it was an absolute stinker to begin with. Trying to take the positives away from it, I'm glad he got to see me at my worst.


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## HomerJSimpson (Dec 11, 2015)

Jimaroid said:



			Oh well, I'd better report the bad with the good I suppose...

After feeling like I've settled in really well with the change in grip I went to have my second lesson this evening and it was a complete shambles. I turned up early for a warm-up and it was like I'd not held a club before, I was all over the place. For the first 10 minutes of the lesson we just had to conclude that it was a bad day at the office for me. Now, all credit to Stuart, he turned me around. He had me hitting 4 iron after 4 iron (not my favourite club) and some of the mojo came back. Next goal is to work on getting some weight off my toes to stand closer to the ball and hopefully get rid of so much head movement.

Very pleased with how the lesson ended but it was an absolute stinker to begin with. Trying to take the positives away from it, I'm glad he got to see me at my worst. 

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You get these days. I find if I've had a ropey day in work and go to the range my tempo and swing can be quick sub-consciously and be all over the shop despite being much calmer the night before. At least he got it working for you. Keep working at the drills and the grip and stay patient. It will come


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