Hooks - Slice and CF?

[haplesshacker]

Following a point raised on Jezz's thread, and the great write up recently on CF at Mizuno.

What's the general concencus on here?

My swing is my swing, I have a slight in to out swing path, and slightly over active wrists causing some quite severe hooks, or power fades and the occasional beautiful draw. My clubs are listed below, all standard, so you know what sort of club they are, (large offset, slight draw biased driver etc).

Bearing in mind that I'm unlikely to have any major changes in my swing as I only play once a week maximum. Therefore changes are likely to make me worse (if that's possible!), and take a long time to 'groove' and become natural.

Am I better off getting custom fitted clubs or spending the money on lessons? I am not asking because I want to justify spending loads-a-money on some shiny new sticks, but out of interest in my enjoyment of the game. After all we all swing differently and I might just get more frustrated chasing the almost perfect swing and not enjoying the game itself.

Opinions please.

 

[forefortheday]

Lessons lessons and more leesons for me.

I've had one a month for about 10 months now and plenty of practice and I feel I am improving and getting a more regular swing through a better understanding of how to swing.

But find a pro who gets you to swing how best suits you, I don't believe there is anybody out there who swings it perfectly.

Shiny new sticks may have a temporary effect but wont change anything about your swing and thats what really counts

 

[USER1999]

Having seen you play, neither.

If you hit your current sticks to the best of your ability (and you did hit some nice shots at CB), there is no problem. New sticks won't make enough difference to warrant a change. What you need is a more consistent swing.

From what I saw, you need to practice more, such that what ever you are doing is more consistent, (no topping, fatting, etc), and then worry what the trend is.

A decent short game would tidy up alot, but you still need more consistency, particularly off the tee.

Your clubs are made for higher h/caps may be, and the odd lesson wouldn't go amiss, so I would tend in this direction, rather than new kit. My view is this would be an expensive mistake.

If you gave your clubs to David Howell, I bet he could play pretty well with them. It is way too easy to blame the sticks, when the problem lies with the golfer.

Save your money, and maybe have the occasional lesson.But in the meantime, just play more, and practice more.

 

[haplesshacker]

Thanks Murph.

I wasn't looking to aportion 'blame' to the current bats, but questioning as to whether the time that I have available for practice, lessons, playing more (all at more cost as well), was time well spent When maybe a CF set of bats might just straighten a few things up and therefore make the game a little less frustrating.

I have no predetermined route that I think I should take, and I am open minded to the advice given on here. I'm sure that everyone has been or are going through similar issues.

Murph. Thanks for the overly kind comments on events at CB though.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

It is hard for me to make a judgement but I certainly found custom fitted clubs meant that even with my bad shots (almost always a hook) there was much better dispersion and distance than before. I also had lessons at the time to remodel my swing which has given me stronger fundamentals and so I have come out with clubs that fit and a better more repeatable swing.

I think on balance if you only play once a week, a few lessons to check your basics and maybe work on your short game would be better in the longer term

 

[theeaglehunter]

lessons over equipment, once a week is usually enough to groove a swing if you go to the range. I only ever play this much tbh and don't find it a problem. Some weeks I don't even play if I am very busy but that doesn't stop me working on swing changes when I get a moment.

 

[SammmeBee]

Hapless - I'm with Murph

Lessons and practice are what you need with the sticks you have, which are more than perfectly adequate for you - indeed you did hit some really good iron shots.....

You need to learn course management but you only learn that by trial and error and then you have a 'eureka' moments....once you have a repeating swing that you know where it is going to go (roughly) then worry about getting a CF set.....as you are currently depending on what swing to take to the CF session is what you'll end up with and they may not be the 'correct' CF for your actual game....

 

[haplesshacker]

Thanks for that Sam. It's pretty much what I expected, ie there's no substitute for practice, practice, practice. There's no quick fix in any kind of sport. I should know that having been racing for 30 years and having been a professional instructor.

I admit that my course mgt at CB was not that good! But I'll never forget that 2nd shot on the par 3 out of the gorse, with you and Murph thinking how stupid I was trying to attempt it. But it was a one off. Generally though, my course mgt skills are better on the home track. Even to the extent of teeing off with the 4 iron, as I find it's more consistent than the rescues or the driver.

Perhaps I'll have a lesson every other week as we're only playing the full 18 every other week and the par 3 course on alternate weeks, which is when I'll have my lesson.

Just as well I haven't 'fallen out' with my current irons then.

 

[PeterPumpkinEater]

As a relative newbie to the game (8mths) I am find that the key to my game at the moment is studying and practice.

What I mean by that is that I feel that you could have 100 lessons and make adjustments to your swing many times, however, I think that you have to UNDERSTAND the mechanics of the swing and how swinging the club in-out, out-in, having a weaker grip, moving your alignment etc etc etc work the ball then I dont think that you will progress much further.

I have certainly felt this myself with lessons, but also watching instructional DVD's, internet clips, magazine articles etc. and then taking it to the range and the course are the only ways to improve. I have also used a camcorder over the last few weeks and I can now see that my terrible slice has been caused by casting across the ball and am now adopting techiques to rectify this accordingly.

 

[Leftie]

My swing is my swing, I have a slight in to out swing path, and slightly over active wrists causing some quite severe hooks, or power fades and the occasional beautiful draw.

I think that you know the answer Hapless.

In to out swing is usually good. Beautiful draw is excellent. Severe hooks and power fads are bad (I'm a fine one to preach ) and it is unlikely that C/F clubs will eradicate the variables caused by over/under active wrists. See your Pro and get some drills to sort out the variables.