I just read/watched this entire thread and you should be proud of your desire to get better. Great job!!! Your swing has changed dramatically in a short period of time. Kyle seems to be spot on with his analysis of your swing. I would like to add that you seem to control your tempo well, which is hard to do for guys just getting back into golf. Keep working at it and keep updating this thread. It is a lot of fun to see you improve.

FWIW I noticed you don't turn your right wrist between 75%-90% to start your backswing. I always look for this because that's one of the mechanics that I was taught(in my case it's my left wrist to start my backswing)left handed obv. Ever since I started wrist turn at 90 degrees and more shoulder turn it upped my consistency with irons.

I like that

Ya, I'm going to start strengthening myself. Thanks for being vigilant about that and bringing it up. I am not in any kind of shape one could call respectable. I'm going to start with the yoga before any kind of strength training. On a scale of 1-10 on flexibility I'm like a 0.8. Don't want to hurt myself lifting and then not even be able to practice my putting!

Speaking of putting, I've been practicing "the ultimate practice routine" with a 2 hour time limit and I have never gotten past the 30 footers Some day I'll get to practice my chipping. Some day. Getting pretty good at 3 footers though!

Thanks much for this post. I'm very glad that you are getting some enjoyment out of it. I don't want this thread to be a completely selfish endeavor. You may be having fun watching me improve, but I bet I'm having more fun improving!

Also I formally issue a challenge to UCBananaboy!!! He told me I should stick to poker, so I am now forced to whip him into submission for trying to tell me what to do! He recently shot a 75 at cog hill, and I probably couldn't have broken 90 two weeks ago, yet I will still overtake him!!!

To take place this summer, one round match play, one round stroke play, and in the event of a 1-1 split, final round tiebreaker at the par 3 course. I'm sure it won't be necessary, though, I'll probably just finish you off 2-0

First of all I think it's great that you are determined to improve and working hard on your game, so congrats on the improvement you have made so far.

I am not a teacher but I will still give my uneducated advice

The two things I would start out working on would be setup and takeaway.

I agree with Kyle that you are standing too close to the ball and you have your weight on the heels, this could contribute to you falling away from the shot. Your balance is not good when standing on your heels like this. Maintaining balance through the swing is really important and this starts at your setup. If you have a picture of your setup you can check your distance to the ball at setup by drawing a vertical line from your butt to the ground and another vertical line from the front of your shoulder to the ground. You want your feet to be approximately in the middle between these two lines (hope this makes sense) and you should look like if someone gently pushed you from either the front or the back you would be able to keep your balance, to me it looks like if I came along and pushed you from the front you'd have to take a step back not to fall.

Your stance also looks a bit wide to me and it looks like you have the ball a bit too far back in your stance.

As has been talked about a lot already the shaft is too flat in your takeaway. I know how strange it feels to change this as I am struggling with this myself. The practice swings look quite good to me, but here are some things for you to try to do to help you get the shaft steeper in the takeaway. You cold try to take the club back by turning your upper body and keeping the arms more passive during the takeway. It looks to me like your left arm is disconnecting from the body a little so if you try to keep your left upper arm tucked in to your chest more tightly while working the clubhead away from your body maybe this will help you. Oh and I just remember a really great drill from dagolfdoc for this. I don't remember the exact wording and hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong. Try taking your normal stance but grip the club using only your thumb, index finger and middle finger on each hand. From here you take the club back until your arms are about horizontal. If the arms, shaft and clubhead are moving correctly the club should feel pretty light but if you are doing it wrong the club will feel heavy and you will struggle a bit controlling it using only six fingers.

By the way I like to use the free version of V1Golf to do some analysis and I think that or a similar program could help you as well when you are tracking your progress.

Sorry for rambling. Hope some of it was helpful.

/Michael

Consider your challenge accepted.

Late to the party here, but I will make a couple of comments.

1) I don't think you are too close to the ball at setup. I mean, maybe a shade, but not a huge issue.

2) The reason your takeaway looks funny is because the wrist action is wrong. The wrists can work in 3 different ways. Hold a club straight out in front of you. Now the wrists can either **** (so straight up and down), side bend (left or right bend), or roll. You have too much side bend and roll, not enough ****. Watch this video over and over. When the club is parallel to the ground look at where the logo on each of your gloves is facing. Make yours look more like that.

3) Shoulder tilts are off. Your left shoulder needs to work down much much more. That Fowler video works here too. Even with driver his shoulder tilts are pointing nearly at the golf ball.

Wow, last swing looks decent. Just try to relax a bit.. get your set up correct, but relaxed and you'll be hitting it a ton. You have about 5 years until you can beat UCB, though, no offense.

Yes, you are improving, but let's not jump into the shark tank without a cage just yet. Two words for you Augie---GET STROKES!!!

Seriously though, good job and please keep updating the thread.

I'm so confused right now

what's a good position at the top for a left wrist ? (for right handed)

Depends on the grip imo. Neutral grip will have a flatter wrist, stronger grip will be more cupped.

just bought a white hot 2-ball for $45 off of a guy on craigslist! another nail in UCB's coffin. once i get golf shoes, he's done for.

boss, thanks for the tidbit about wrist-c0ck, it just gave me an epiphany of sorts...i've been trying to bring the club back to the right spot where the shaft is parallel to the ground...but that will just automatically happen if i take the club straight back and c0ck my wrists right away...wow...this is a real breakthrough. i seriously feel like i just had a religious experience. i have a feeling tomorrow's videos from the range are going to be a big difference. thank you.

verno, nobody ever achieves greatness by aiming low. when i take down UCB it's going to inspire an entire generation of washed up 26 year olds to get back on the range and video tape themselves hitting golf balls and then post it on the internets.

beermoney, dog years maybe! give me 200-1 on the match and i just might make a wager!

No problem, glad it made sense to you. Looking forward to your next round of video's, you've made a lot of progress so far.

IMO the biggest thing you should be working on are getting your tilts better. You turn much too level right now, both with the shoulders and the hips. At the top of your swing your left shoulder and left hip should be significantly lower than their right counterparts.

The left shoulder has to work down towards the golf ball. That tilt (and back extension, which you do pretty well) is what gets the club to ascend. Right now you get the club high with arm lift. In conjunction, the left knee flexes towards the golf ball, and the right knee straightens. A feeling that sometimes works for people is that there right hip goes "up" and "back" and not around.

That's kinda the short version, does that make sense?

ya, makes sense. i think it will get a lot better as i get more flexible. i'm comically inflexible. my muscles are like those rubber bands you put on your braces.

today is day 2 of yoga, i actually quite enjoy it. and it's already helping my movement a bit. i think that it's really helped my posture too already.

last video:



today:

WOW

2nd is so much better. One thing that might help with what Your Boss is trying to help you with(how your left shoulder should be lower than your right at the top) is to just think about maintaining your spine angle that you have in the 2nd image.

If you just reached into that image and rotated your upper body 90* think of how your shoulders would look. The backswing should just be you rotating around your spine.

Yea 2nd is magnificent...

First one it looks like you're asking yourself, "is this right?"

Second one looks like you're totally in your comfort zone.

Small samples size and whatnot, however your fundamentals are improving tremendously and if you keep on practicing 3+ times a week and doing the ultimate short game routine You will break 80 this year.

Yoga's gonna help so much too... I think it makes you comfortable swinging the golf club sooner.

The one thing you have to avoid is driving range fever(hitting golf balls past the point where you've worked on the things you set out to work on, trying to fix things that aren't broken, trying to play golf shots that don't fit your swing). Once swinging a golf club stops being mentally draining, go play Golf: Pick a target, hit the ball there, and if you miss then just move to your next shot.