Well, begger my squirrel nuts

[CrapHacker]

I'm trying to get better - nothing special there.

I've been practising hard - far from unique.

But

All my practising has been based on stuff I was taught / learned / read donkeys years ago. As far as I was concerned the basic skills are pretty much the same as they have been - get the club back into the right position, swing it through to the correct finishing position, and hopefully beat the bejesus out of the wee white bally somewhere in the middle.

But I've been getting nowhere. Literally. Just about getting it past the ladies tee, and all that.

So I got my meagre savings out and went for a pro's evaluation, and have just followed that up with my first lesson.

When I went to see this guy I told him I didn't want a total swing change, but to tweak it and gradually improve it. No problem, says he. He doesn't change people's swings, he gives them drills to improve what they've already got.

Anyway the analysis, a couple of weeks ago. Poor posture, Very good backswing. No 'zing' through the strike zone.

So I've been working on the posture bit. Still a way to go, but getting better.

And now to the nub of the problem. I had the lesson yesterday.

He watched me hit two balls, and decided I'm hitting too early, and not using my body to maximise my distance - it's all hands and arms. Fair enough.

He didn't change my grip or set up or posture ( although on video, it still looks pretty bad to me ), but my back foot tends to splay out a bit, and my front foot is very square. So he got me to move the rear foot to square, and splay the front foot a bit. Feels a tad strange, but ok, and long as I double check I'm not setting up open.

Then he says I'm not setting my wrists on the backswing, so he wants me to work on setting them to 90 degrees by the time I'm half way back. So a complete backswing change - I've always been a one piece takeaway kinda guy. The problem I've always had with setting the wrists is it makes me bring the club back in a very flat plane. But ok, I can work on that.

Then the drill.

I need to keep the wrists set on the downswing, and hit an imaginary plank of wood leaning on my left side, with the butt of the club handle.

Then rather than hitting the ball, swing my body through concentrating on my chest movement, to make sure I finish the swing looking slightly left of target. By concentrating on the larger muscles movement, the arms and legs will have to follow suit.

So a new stance, backswing, downswing, and followthrough.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm sure this pinpoints my swingfaults, and will help me improve, as long as I put the hours into implementing it.

My questions, now.

But what the hell do I do on the course in the meantime ? I don't get the time to play enough as it is, so I'm darned if I'm going to deliberately sacrifice the next year's play.

How can you work on swing changes in practise, then go out and do yourself justice on the course?

The stance changes are minimal, and easy to live with.

But I can't just walk out onto a course knowing I'll embarass myself.

If my old backswing was so good, why do I have to change it?

Can I not just keep with that, and still do the drill I was given ?

If this is how this pro does his teaching, am I better off staying with him ( He's pinpointed my weakness ) or better off going off on my own, and practising in the park ( He wants to totally change my swing )

Sorry it's such a long rambling post, but it's a tricky one for me, and I want to get it right.

All help greatfully received.

 

[backwoodsman]

Don't know if I'm being dim and missing something here. But the nub seems to be he's changed some things & given you a drill?

So you go to the range and practice it - and hopefully see some improvement. And when you go to the course, you try to remember to keep doing it? (For me that's the hard bit. On the range fine; on grass, memory turns to mush & I just welt it)

I know that's reduced a long post to a very short answer but seems to me you just give it a go.

 

[bobmac]

I think your pro may have given you a bit too much for one lesson.
If you want more distance, check the position at the top of your backswing. Is it like the picture below on the left or right.

Try and get a right angle set between your left forearm and club shaft. (assuming you are right handed)

 

[Smiffy]

Just after I first started playing I went through a stage where I couldn't hit through the ball for toffee, no matter how hard I tried. It was a mental thing. If there was a pine cone or similar on the ground I could swish through that beautifully, but put a ball down and ask me to hit it and I just became a gibbering wreck. I almost gave up the game, it was that bad.

I went to see Mike Travers the pro at Lamberhurst (we sponsored him with a free car at the time) who was a great guy. Scottish, called a spade a spade, but I knew that if anyone could help me he could.

He took a look at my swing and was brutal with me. Big changes had to be made, but he assured me he would have me hitting the ball properly within a couple of lessons.

What he did was get an old tyre off of one of the green keepers tractors. Not the big one off of the rear, but the smaller front tyre. He put the tyre down on the ground and got me to hit into it. My first attempts were pathetic, I was frightened I was either going to break my wrist, or worse still, break my 7 iron! But he was adamant that this would work. There was no way I could do this properly without keeping my left side firm and really releasing into the impact area. I had to hit it until I moved it. If it didn't move, I did it again. And again. And I kept doing it. He would fetch the tyre back, and just say "again" over and over.

Then he put a ball down where the tyre was and said "do the same"....bloody hell, the ball went miles. You would not believe the difference this made to my ball striking. And it was impossible to do it without a "firm left side" and it also gave you a perfect feel for the position you should be in through impact. Your hands can't get too far ahead as that's when it would do your wrists in. You had to time the "release" perfectly and this practice method got you feeling exactly where and when that moment should be.It is IMPOSSIBLE to "spin out".....which was one of the things I was doing (as well as decellerating (sp?) through impact.

Now this wasn't his original idea, I wasn't aware at the time but this was a drill that had been carried out for years and I think one famous player (could have been Henry Cotton I can't remember) advocated as part of his own practice session when he wasn't striking the ball correctly.

I know this sounds a little extreme, and possibly hard to imagine. But believe me, it works.

Edit. If anyone feels like trying this (and trust me, it will improve your ball striking better than anything else) please make sure that you remove the tyre from the wheel. It's the tyre only you should be hitting!! The tyre on it's own (as long as it's the small one off the front of the tractor) is the ideal size and weight to move when you hit it. Try it with the wheel in situ, or the bigger rear tyre and you will break your wrist!

Or, instead of an old tyre you could buy an "impact bag" (shown below) which will certainly help with your distance problem....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePerym7ksZM

 

[CliveW]

My advice would be to wait until the winter to carry out any radical swing changes rather than make them in the middle of the season. This gives you an opportunity to become accustomed to the changes before the season begins.

 

[CrapHacker]

Don't know if I'm being dim and missing something here. But the nub seems to be he's changed some things & given you a drill?

So you go to the range and practice it - and hopefully see some improvement. And when you go to the course, you try to remember to keep doing it? (For me that's the hard bit. On the range fine; on grass, memory turns to mush & I just welt it)

I know that's reduced a long post to a very short answer but seems to me you just give it a go.

Basically, to put it in a nutshell.

Yes

But if I implement all the changes at once, I have got a brand new swing. Which was what he told me he wouldn't do.

Dunno about you, but my muscle memory has had years of traing, and forgetting, and retraining, and forgetting, and retraining, to naturally do what it does at the moment.

For my body to forget all that and start doing it properly will take more than a couple of 40 minute sessions down the range.

So when I go out on a course, if I try to take a new swing with me, I'll get nowhere. It'd be unrealistic to expect to be able to hit it consistantly with a two day old swing.

So I play, and score, crap. Thus not enjoying it.

How do I best work on my swing, but still keep enough of the old one ( it may well be a rubbish swing, but it's mine, for better or worse ) so that I can pop out there once every week or two, and still do myself justice, still score somewhere near my 'norm', yet not forget about the swing changes.

Even on the range I'm getting 'rabbitintheheadlights' syndrome. On the course it could get very messy.

See, even my short answers get long and messy.

I also get very confused very easily.

 

[CrapHacker]

My advice would be to wait until the winter to carry out any radical swing changes rather than make them in the middle of the season. This gives you an opportunity to become accustomed to the changes before the season begins.

Simple but great idea.

So I put the whole new swing on the back burner for a while. ( Which was roughly where my thought process was taking me ) But what can I do with my swing faults at the moment, to keep the good stuff, but improve where it matters ?

Basically, although he said initially I've got a good backswing, it's oldfashioned, and doesn't set the wrists quick enough. Well, as long as they're set by the top of the backswing, does that really matter ? Can I not just get there, and do the drill from there ?

My basic fault ( apart from the static faults with my setup, which I can happily work on, no problem ) is

a) releasing the clubhead too early on the down swing

b) not using my body enough.

I don't really see why a whole new swing is necessay anyway, unless that's how he teaches all his pupils, and it makes life easier for him, rather than for me.

Like I said, if I could just switch my swing into what he's advocating, I'd do it tomorrow. But it's never that easy is it ?

 

[CrapHacker]

Bob

I think I get a reasonable rightangle at the top of my backswing naturally ( when I played 9 holes a couple of weeks back, my playing partner - I guy I've never met before who plays off single figures - said my position at the top of the backswing was fine ).

It's the downswing where it all goes wrong. Too early a release being the major fault. That and returning to my setup position, rather than getting into a more dynamic impact position.

By trying to get set halfway back, I think I'll be prone to letting my body drift back into it's old, flatswing tendencies. By using the one piece takeaway, I can check my swing easily halfway back, and ensure I'm not too flat.

My normal swingthought on the course is 'slow and low' on takeaway to try to make sure I don't hurry and snatch at it ( doesn't always work ). If I pick the cluhead up straightaway, that swingthought goes out the window, so what should I replace it with.

Smiffy

Now you mention it, I remember that back from the 70s. There was a top pro who used it at his academy, or whatever they called it then. Properly supervised, I can imagine it working wonders. But uncontrolled, I can see me wrecking my back with it. And tbh it's slightly unpractical as well. I don't have a tractor tyre. And if I did I have nowhere to put it, and nowhere to pracise either.

All my practise is on the range.

If this guy is still around, then where do I find him ? Or is there anyone else round here that can offer similar facilities.

I like simple, easy to visualise drills. And beating the bejesus out of a static tyre sounds right up my street.

 

[Herbie]

What you need is a couple of coloured marker pens, once you get those lines down your arms, youve cracked it . Dont draw the lines yourself or have a drunken buddy draw them, get a pro to draw them as they usually have a steady hand, and put them in the right place.

 

[CrapHacker]

What you need is a couple of coloured marker pens, once you get those lines down your arms, youve cracked it . Dont draw the lines yourself or have a drunken buddy draw them, get a pro to draw them as they usually have a steady hand, and put them in the right place.

Coloured lines may be fine.

but

White lines - don't do it !!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have had a tendency to get the club trapped on the downswing which has led to me getting very active with my hands to try and get it back square at impact. I was standing with bot feet square but I've recently just opened my front foot a little and its given me so much more room to get everything through. I'm hitting better than I have for ages. I'm getting an extra few yards (carry) and I'm not hitting as many big hooks as there is time for everything to work.

My advice would be to try to open the stance a bit as this will give you the chance to naturally get into the follow through position he talks about. I'd perhaps focus more oon the backswing but the only real answer is to get to the range and try and get in a position where you can trust it

 

[CrapHacker]

Getting to the range is easy. I'll do that two or three times this week, easy.

But I've got the biggy on Thursday week. I've got to go and and show my swing in public.

There's no way a new swing will be working by then.

I'm beginning to wish I hadn't opened the box, and just stayed in my quietly blissfull ignorance.

All I want is a swing that'll get me round Chartham ( for the time being at least )

 

[HomerJSimpson]

As I see it you have two options.

1) Ditch what you've been told to date and keep the old swing and get it round Chartham as best you can

2) Practice down the range and try and get comfy with it but trust it at Chartham and stick with it regardless.

It sounds like you are making the forum meet into a big thing. These are actually very good fun and the emphasis is actually more on the fun than the golf. Stop worrying about showing yourself up and enjoy the day.

Personally I'd probably go with option 1 and make a conscious decision after Thursday about how far you want to pursue these swing changes at this stage of the season