Everyone's Favourite - a Swing Video!

[Canary_Yellow]

In my opinion you have to hit it longer to get down to low handicaps.

You need to be able to reach nearly all par 4's in regulation, you should be getting to a position where you can reach virtually all par 3's with irons and reach some par 5's in 2. Otherwise you are permanently on the back foot trying to maintain a score rather than push for a lower one.

I’m sure that’s right for lower handicaps. In fact, extra distance is beneficial at any level.

However, if you’re playing off 16, a bit of extra distance isn’t going to turn you into a single figure handicapper. There must be easier wins before that - for example, having a tee shot that gets you 200+ yards down the fairway (consistently), with an iron, hybrid or a fairway wood if necessary, and a solid short game.

My experience of being a mid handicapper was that I could hit the ball a decent enough distance, but I’d waste a lot of shots being three off the tee, or hacking out of the long stuff / trees, three putting and poor chipping / bunker play.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

A large part of hitting further is hitting out of the middle of the club face more often.
So improved technique along with more speed would see a rapid rise in distance gains.

 

[HeftyHacker]

@Orikoru I found it interesting that your pro was telling you stand closer and to reduce the disconnect between your arms and body - when I had lessons back in May last year it was because I had this horrible low hook. I went to see James Robinson (of Rick Shiels "fame") and, as he put it, "you've got these long levers yet you're swinging it like a t-rex".

He had me standing further from the ball and really feeling as though im almost throwing the club out at about 4 o'clock (with 12 o'clock being down the line) on my backswing and getting my arms out and high.

I went from this:

To this:

The second one wasn't perfect (needed to lay the club off more and get the arms higher still) but distance was up by about 20 yards and the ball flight was much higher and straighter.

Unfortunately I've never really got it grooved in so once I've hit a couple of bad ones my tendency is to revert to my more "natural" t rex swing and it gets even worse. Needs a lot of range time I think to become second nature.

 

[Orikoru]

@Orikoru I found it interesting that your pro was telling you stand closer and to reduce the disconnect between your arms and body - when I had lessons back in May last year it was because I had this horrible low hook. I went to see James Robinson (of Rick Shiels "fame") and, as he put it, "you've got these long levers yet you're swinging it like a t-rex".

He had me standing further from the ball and really feeling as though im almost throwing the club out at about 4 o'clock (with 12 o'clock being down the line) on my backswing and getting my arms out and high.

I went from this:

To this:

The second one wasn't perfect (needed to lay the club off more and get the arms higher still) but distance was up by about 20 yards and the ball flight was much higher and straighter.

Unfortunately I've never really got it grooved in so once I've hit a couple of bad ones my tendency is to revert to my more "natural" t rex swing and it gets even worse. Needs a lot of range time I think to become second nature.

Can be hard to get the balance right I think. When I went to the range Sunday it was only 3 days after the lesson but I couldn't hit the ball for love nor money - whereas on the lesson it was good. I think I was actually overcorrecting and went too near the ball with my stance. Eventually I went back a bit, felt like I was almost back to my old stance, but I got my wife to do the videos, watched it back and it actually wasn't like my old stance at all, it was still a lot better.

 

[Maninblack4612]

@Orikoru I found it interesting that your pro was telling you stand closer and to reduce the disconnect between your arms and body - when I had lessons back in May last year it was because I had this horrible low hook. I went to see James Robinson (of Rick Shiels "fame") and, as he put it, "you've got these long levers yet you're swinging it like a t-rex".

He had me standing further from the ball and really feeling as though im almost throwing the club out at about 4 o'clock (with 12 o'clock being down the line) on my backswing and getting my arms out and high.

I went from this:

To this:

The second one wasn't perfect (needed to lay the club off more and get the arms higher still) but distance was up by about 20 yards and the ball flight was much higher and straighter.

Unfortunately I've never really got it grooved in so once I've hit a couple of bad ones my tendency is to revert to my more "natural" t rex swing and it gets even worse. Needs a lot of range time I think to become second nature.

Sounds like the difference between a "one plane" & "two plane" swing, as defined by coach Jim Hardy. Pros tend to teach their own swing. The OP's coach appears to be a two plane advocate, which has the player standing closer to the ball & swinging more steeply. Works for some, not for me.