B
birdieman
Guest
I spent 2.5 hours on Saturday and 1.5 hours on Sunday practising off grass which I have to say gives miles better feedback than range mats. At this time of year I have no mileage in the golf muscles and no strike consistency so this year I want to hit the new season in April stronger and with a more grooved swing, rather than taking until June to get my swing going!. Without getting buried in swing thoughts these are the swing problems/issues that I have to address when practising-
• Shoulder turn can be poor with a tendency to lift arms to compensate for the poor turn. Probably not helped by colder weather but I have to really focus on making a full shoulder turn i.e. back facing target.
• Need to keep my chin up to allow a better shoulder turn (always think of a pic from Tigers book with Butch Harmon holding Tigers chin up with an outstretched club)
• Downswing can get started by hands, this is a terrible intermittent flaw and I have to concentrate on leading the downswing with the body weight shift i.e. body leads arms and hands not t’other way round. Also have to watch getting too quick from the top, transition from backswing to downswing needs to be slow and controlled.
• Club takeaway can be too far inside leading to it getting loopy coming back down outside the line. An object placed 18†behind the ball on the target line helps me guide the club back correctly.
• Right hand grip gets too lazy and loose and I don’t fire through the right hand to turn the club over through impact, results in a power loss and weak fade. Gotta grip better with right hand and less with the left.
• Sometimes tend to stand too far from ball with straight legs and over-reach, gotta flex those knees a little and think about remaining more upright.
• A problem I’ve always had is I take my eyes off the ball for the first foot or so of the takeaway (I actually follow the clubhead for a split second then revert my gaze back to the ball), I must keep an eye on the back of the ball for the whole swing despite how weird it feels.
• With lob wedge pitching practice (no other clubs thankfully) I shank a few, caused I think by my head moving down through the shot, gotta keep my chin up, get the takeaway right and not sway through the strike.
When I get all of the above working I actually started to hit it pretty well and my mid iron shot shape goes from a horrible low fade to a great high flying draw. Feel it was time well spent partly due to great weather and granny babysitting.
A point of interest is that when I’m going through a pre shot routine for each shot I can’t carry 5 or 6 swing thoughts per shot, I can manage about 2 of the above swing thoughts per shot – I am a thicko or is that normal?
I’m sure we all have our swing concerns but those are mine (at the moment!) for what it’s worth. Looking forward to Blairgowrie Rosemount on Friday; it will probably find me out – 8 degrees, wind and rain/sleet – lovely but at least I’ve managed a bit of practice for this one.
Anyone’s thoughts on any of the above (where I'm going right/where I'm going wrong etc) are most welcome and I would be interested to hear what you are 'working on' over the winter with your swings.
• Shoulder turn can be poor with a tendency to lift arms to compensate for the poor turn. Probably not helped by colder weather but I have to really focus on making a full shoulder turn i.e. back facing target.
• Need to keep my chin up to allow a better shoulder turn (always think of a pic from Tigers book with Butch Harmon holding Tigers chin up with an outstretched club)
• Downswing can get started by hands, this is a terrible intermittent flaw and I have to concentrate on leading the downswing with the body weight shift i.e. body leads arms and hands not t’other way round. Also have to watch getting too quick from the top, transition from backswing to downswing needs to be slow and controlled.
• Club takeaway can be too far inside leading to it getting loopy coming back down outside the line. An object placed 18†behind the ball on the target line helps me guide the club back correctly.
• Right hand grip gets too lazy and loose and I don’t fire through the right hand to turn the club over through impact, results in a power loss and weak fade. Gotta grip better with right hand and less with the left.
• Sometimes tend to stand too far from ball with straight legs and over-reach, gotta flex those knees a little and think about remaining more upright.
• A problem I’ve always had is I take my eyes off the ball for the first foot or so of the takeaway (I actually follow the clubhead for a split second then revert my gaze back to the ball), I must keep an eye on the back of the ball for the whole swing despite how weird it feels.
• With lob wedge pitching practice (no other clubs thankfully) I shank a few, caused I think by my head moving down through the shot, gotta keep my chin up, get the takeaway right and not sway through the strike.
When I get all of the above working I actually started to hit it pretty well and my mid iron shot shape goes from a horrible low fade to a great high flying draw. Feel it was time well spent partly due to great weather and granny babysitting.
A point of interest is that when I’m going through a pre shot routine for each shot I can’t carry 5 or 6 swing thoughts per shot, I can manage about 2 of the above swing thoughts per shot – I am a thicko or is that normal?
I’m sure we all have our swing concerns but those are mine (at the moment!) for what it’s worth. Looking forward to Blairgowrie Rosemount on Friday; it will probably find me out – 8 degrees, wind and rain/sleet – lovely but at least I’ve managed a bit of practice for this one.
Anyone’s thoughts on any of the above (where I'm going right/where I'm going wrong etc) are most welcome and I would be interested to hear what you are 'working on' over the winter with your swings.