More swing videos! Tell me why I'm so trash!

[Orikoru]

This is how a lot of people practice and wonder why they don’t improve.

@Orikoru Are you picking a target before you hit a ball? That would be the place to start. At least you then have a frame of reference to evaluate each shot.

Get some alignment sticks down so you know your setup and aim is consistent.

Stand behind the ball and step in the each shot as you would on the course. Then step back after each shot and start again. Imagine you are hitting into a green on your course. It does take a bit of discipline but deliberate practice will be more effective than just machine gunning balls into the range.

I like to hit a few balls to warm up, maybe 10 to 15 balls. I don’t really care where they go, just make reasonably solid contact.
Then a bit of block practice to work on technique. If I’m hitting it well I stop pretty quickly. If not I keep going, but take my time. If I hit a few bad ones in a row I have a minute or two away.

Then I play some holes in my head. I literally imagine playing my course, hitting tee shots, then picking a club based on the quality of the previous shot and how far I think I would have to the green, then a chip or a pitch if needed.

For this I pick targets on the range and imagine how wide a fairway is between two points.

It might not suit everyone, but it’s more interesting for me that just smashing 100 balls.

Yeah, of sorts. The range only had '200' '150' signs pretty much, I picked a line rather than a target - as I mentioned I was hitting into a gale anyway so hard to know. I think I was basing my conclusions more on strike today since I was trying to not fat the ball.

(2nd bold) I think I would do this if I had more time rather than just popping out on a lunch break. I do agree that that's better, I probably rushed today's session a little bit. Generally I hit the ball better on the course than the driving range precisely because I am more target-focussed rather than swing-focussed.

 

[Orikoru]

I couldn't see the ball flight on the clips, but there is so much information to be gained from watching the flight, especially the bad ones lol

I may be wrong, but it looked like the face strike was a bit off the heel then toe at times? Maybe get some foot spray on the club face and check which part of the face you are contacting the ball with?

And definitely step back off the mat between shots instead of machine gunning them.

Almost certainly yeah! I've never been a good ball-striker. But how on earth do you fix that other than hitting 300 balls a week??

 

[sjw]

I couldn't see the ball flight on the clips, but there is so much information to be gained from watching the flight, especially the bad ones lol

I may be wrong, but it looked like the face strike was a bit off the heel then toe at times? Maybe get some foot spray on the club face and check which part of the face you are contacting the ball with?

And definitely step back off the mat between shots instead of machine gunning them.

Thanks for the reminder to put my foot spray in my new bag. I keep forgetting it and it's mighty annoying, when I'm trying to work on driver.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

Nice one. You are right, because this is what the lesson I had mainly worked on - I was even worse before. This is my old pre-lesson swing, where I was stood too far from the ball which meant I was even more armsy than currently. I also had the short backswing, but standing up a bit straighter has actually lengthened it organically without me even trying to implement that.

I do think I'm not very flexible for my age due to sitting behind a desk all day every day, so it's not as if I can really emulate Rory's swing (I know you weren't saying that exactly haha). If I try and get more body turn the ball feels a long way away suddenly, if you know what I mean. I've always had quite a short swing but I'd rather strike the ball ok even if it doesn't go as far.

Yeah I obviously wasn’t expecting you to swing like Rory. Would be nice though, right?

Like I said, I have the same problem being armsy, just I was standing too close, and it is 100% a flexibility/range of motion issue. And I am weaker than a small child. All the result of lots of previous injuries, sitting at a desk all day and being lazy.

A few weeks ago I started to do some stretching exercises every day. I feel better for it but it’s too early to say whether it will benefit my swing. Next up is some strength exercises.

 

[Whereditgo]

Almost certainly yeah! I've never been a good ball-striker. But how on earth do you fix that other than hitting 300 balls a week??

By finding what your tendencies are and then biasing your practice around that.

For example, you discover that your are a heel striker....start trying to hit it off the toe, then 10mm from the toe etc.

 

[Orikoru]

By finding what your tendencies are and then biasing your practice around that.

For example, you discover that your are a heel striker....start trying to hit it off the toe, then 10mm from the toe etc.

I thought you were saying that the strike was inconsistent, i.e. heel one minute, toe the next - that's what I was agreeing with.

 

[sjw]

Almost certainly yeah! I've never been a good ball-striker. But how on earth do you fix that other than hitting 300 balls a week??

My ball striking is much improved over the last few months. I've tried to imagine literally hitting the ball into the ground, with this point on the face:



Impossible, obviously. But you get that nice squeezy compression feeling

 

[Whereditgo]

I thought you were saying that the strike was inconsistent, i.e. heel one minute, toe the next - that's what I was agreeing with.

Doesn't matter even if it is one then the other - differential practice will get you better at controlling where the face contact is. i.e. learning to intentionally hit it off the toe and/or heel will help you centre the strike.

 

[garyinderry]

I just see a real lack of any depth in the swing.

 

[Orikoru]

I just see a real lack of any depth in the swing.

Never heard it called 'depth' before - is it the same as 'width'? He does do a great impression of my backswing near the start of that video though, haha. It's one of those that doesn't even look bad to me, until he shows the example afterwards of what good looks like.

It does seem everyone is broadly saying the same or similar things, which is good as it means just one thing to think about and work on really. And it ties in with the lesson I had. So at least my head isn't a muddle of thoughts right now.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

You think you’re bad

Hold my beer

 

[jim8flog]

In all the videos the swing looks fine for the first second

 

[harpo_72]

If you want to slow the session down place the balls further away.
If you find the range boring introduce a game.
If that doesn’t work, just play and be happy .
I love the range, I often stay till the sun goes down … maybe too much to my own physical detriment.

 

[sjw]

Also, you'll feel like a better player if you use only your club to move the balls around, rather than your feet. Don't question it, just trust me.

 

[SteveW86]

Also, you'll feel like a better player if you use only your club to move the balls around, rather than your feet. Don't question it, just trust me.

This! true players also scoop up balls with their wedge rather than picking them up

 

[gopher99]

Just went to a driving range at lunch and I set up a little clip-on phone holder so I could take a bunch of videos. Granted - for the 5 wood and driver ones I'm not completely in frame because I didn't check as I went along.

The hybrid video is longer because the first part was so bad I had to take a breather before continuing.

The 7 iron video does include a shank for your viewing pleasure.

My problem lately was fatting everything, so I saw a video by Peter Finch about 'squashing the peach' with your left heel to shift weight forward and get a better strike - so I had that in my mind for much of this. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. After the first couple of vids I started tapping the mat with my club to indicate that it was fat, just in case that wasn't visible.

With driver I've been hitting a lot of straight pulls recently, although I don't think any of them actually occurred here - just one hook and the rest fades. 9 iron video was probably the least crap set of shots. But then it should be the easiest club of the lot to hit really so that makes sense.

Oh one more thing, I was hitting straight into a strong wind so that might have exacerbating the bend on the flight (if you can even see the flight on the vids).

Anyway, fire away, what the hell am I doing wrong that this swing shot 96 at the weekend?

7 iron

Hybrid

Driver

9 iron

5 wood

Sorry in advance I couldn’t resist, I think the issue is not wearing Sketchers.

 

[Peter Alliss]

Your swing looks like a thing of beauty.

Majestic.

 

[garyinderry]

Never heard it called 'depth' before - is it the same as 'width'? He does do a great impression of my backswing near the start of that video though, haha. It's one of those that doesn't even look bad to me, until he shows the example afterwards of what good looks like.

It does seem everyone is broadly saying the same or similar things, which is good as it means just one thing to think about and work on really. And it ties in with the lesson I had. So at least my head isn't a muddle of thoughts right now.

They are not the same but related.

Good short video here.

 

[Crow]

Swing looks pretty decent to me, much better than many you'll see on the average course.

You said you had a lesson recently, have been looking for tips on YouTube and are now asking for help here on the forum.

My guess is that you have far too much going on in your head. John Jacobs summed up the golf swing better than anyone; two turns and a swish, ie turn back, then turn forward swishing the club in the middle. My guess is that you're changing things on a weekly basis trying to improve. (Have you tried squashing a slightly overripe avocado with the left heel? Much better results according to Danny Maude)

When you're playing just think about your target. And if you have to then just one swing thought, at the absolute maximum.

 

[Orikoru]

Swing looks pretty decent to me, much better than many you'll see on the average course.

You said you had a lesson recently, have been looking for tips on YouTube and are now asking for help here on the forum.

My guess is that you have far too much going on in your head. John Jacobs summed up the golf swing better than anyone; two turns and a swish, ie turn back, then turn forward swishing the club in the middle. My guess is that you're changing things on a weekly basis trying to improve. (Have you tried squashing a slightly overripe avocado with the left heel? Much better results according to Danny Maude)

When you're playing just think about your target. And if you have to then just one swing thought, at the absolute maximum.

Yeah, normally I'm very much someone who focuses on the target and nothing else. Having the lesson has temporarily changed me. Just hoping I can get back to something that works - hopefully a little better than what I was doing last year - and stop thinking about it.