got a front view today

great work!! the shaft plane in the takeaway looks so much better. now if you could just work on staying down through the shot a little longer i think you will really begin to feel the compression of the galf ball. keep those hands forward (or ahead of clubhead) through impact, trying to keep that angle with wrist and shaft, so you can create real lag.

for me- that looks great

one Q for others- doesn't his club lean too much forward at the beginning of the swing ?

depends on what club he is hitting. however, i like some foward shaft lean on all clubs. obviously more as you get into the shorter clubs. at impact you want foward sharft lean, and since you tend to subconsciously try return to your address postion on downswing, its better to start with some. plus the clubhead is never square unless you have the shaft leaning foward. otherwise it will be slightly open and, or the bounce can affect the shot.

if you thin or scull your shots from time to time or are not taking divots after impact on shorter irons, i would add some more foward shaft lean at address.
i think error on the more "foward lean" side is better than to err on little or no lean.

holy ****, skipped from 1st page to here, takeaway, looks SOOOOOOOOOOOO much better.

EDIT 3econds later: lol how many shots have you shaved off your hcap siince OP, swing looks really good!

One thing I noticed in your vids:

It looked like you were just looking at the ball the whole time from when you were standing behind it, untill you hit the ball, you didn't look at the target once (hard to tell cause you were wearing sunnys).

So how are you aligning yourself straight? Seems like a pretty big error to me, alignment is extremely important.

Pick a spot/leaf/divot/something easily identifiable about 4-8ft infront of the ball on the line you want the ball to start, and setup square to that.

today's session at the range was the nuts. the golf gods are rewarding me for my persistence. every single employee was in an good mood for some reason. they must have gotten a bonus or a pep talk or something!

the club pro gave me an extra month on my range card for free because i'm a loyal customer! booooom.

i got out to the range to discover they just got a bunch of new range balls! wooo hooo!!!! no more knuckleballs!

the apprentice pro was doing a lesson right next to me on the range and he was amped up too. every time the student hit a good shot they would high-five, it was hilarious.

mid session, i went into the clubhouse to cool off and get my usual water and orange juice. one of the waitresses brought them out without me even asking! and the hot bartender teased me for ordering a fruit cup. VIP obv.

then i went back out and practiced my 75 yard shots and hit the flag a couple of times.

best day ever!

i don't find looking at the target to be very much help. with the alignment rods i don't need to look at the target at all, but i do my entire pre-shot alignment routine before each shot anyway so i do look at it.

this is what i do, except i just find a spot a few inches in front of the ball instead of a few feet. then once i'm set up, i double check my alignment with the rods. they really are helpful. i'm proud to say that a lot of the other regulars at the range have started using them after they saw me using them.

a lot of shots, i guess. when i posted the first video it's unlikely i could have broken 100. now, i think i will start breaking 80 consistently once i figure out how to stop hitting my driver in the desert.

what have you shot ?

meh, shot 88 on that round

i hit a ton of good iron shots and 3-wood shots but my driver was pretty bad. the course is unique and kind of hard, very short fairways and the desert surrounding each fairway about 20-30 yards or less from the edge. nice greens, though.

i feel like i'll do better at this course on my next try after having a little practice on the tee shots. on three of the par 4s i overclubbed and hit it over the fairway. tons of the fairways end at 240-275 yards. hit a lot of bad drivers too. i'll probably break 80 next time if i hit all the right clubs from the tee leave my driver in the bag.

i hate desert courses. i started par, birdie, par, triple, when it hit it in the desert on the 4th hole

here's a vid from today at the range. 8-iron. the takeaway is not perfect because i was focusing on spine angle. i think that the spine angle is slightly better but still far from perfect. need to start going to the gym. i was hitting it much higher than usual so it definitely improved.

shortening my backswing is a daily battle. on this particuar swing it felt like a 50% backswing but as you can see it's nearly full! frustrating!

Don't feel too bad, Badlands is brutal, that course you are playing and it seems like it shouldn't be that hard, but you just end up in crappy spots over and over.

Augie I am no expert this looks infinitely better than the earlier ones.

Hands still moving a little away from body on take away but staying inside the clubhead at least....this helps prevent sucking the club inside.

Bisects the arm pretty nicely...

Flat to slightly bowed wrist at the top which is fine ....sure still a little run off at the top but barely...

You seen to drop into the slot decently enough in transition and you have a pretty good attack angle on this one also.

wow, you seem to be improving rapidly. i can definately notice you staying down and keeping your spine angle much more than previous vids.

also from latest vid your back swing length looks fine. FO would be better to gauge. remember you should go with feel for when the backswing is complete rather than a point your hands reach. you just want full shoulder turn and not just arms. you want to watch out for that left arm getting to close to your chest at top of backswing. there should be some separation.

work on your core muscles at the gym to help keep spine angle during downswing. especially abs

Really need to see the face ons and see sway and impact positions etc.....I know face on brings out the ugliness but u gotta embrace it.

Wow. Really impressive progress.

even though my backswing is an acceptable length, i want it to be shorter. or maybe a better way to put it is more compact. dufner is my swing idol right now. it frustrates me that i can't emulate him!

i've made a lot of progress in keeping my right elbow down but it's still higher than most PGA tour players. the people who have a right elbow as high as mine are known for having kind of a wild swing.

i want to keep my elbow down like dufner does but i can't seem to figure it out for some reason. i think the vegas heat overheats my brain too quickly and i forget what i'm working on.

compact is def good. a 1 piece takeaway helps promote a tight swing.

in regards to keeping the right elbow down, something i noticed at set up.(set up fixes are the best because you dont have to alter your swing, just your address) at address in dtl view, take a look at your forearms. its a little hard to tell from this angle. (when setting up camera next time make sure it is sitting between your feet and ball. the last vid seems like its right behind your feet.)

but from that angle you should be able to see the top of your left forearm. it seems from this angle that your right forearm is higher and blocks out any view of your left forearm.(might be exaggerated by angle of camera) to fix this, at address have your right elbow bent and the back of that right elbow tucked into your ads to start. then you can take the club back and it will promote that elbow staying down.

teaching pro at local muni showed me that a while back.

cool, nice tip, i'll give it a go at the range tomorrow.



today at the range was hella annoying. i was so excited to get there and put in work, and i only got 4 swings recorded before some ranger i'd never seen before told everyone to move to the mats because it rained a lot yesterday. the turf was in perfect condition! grrrr. so i went to practice chipping of course.

one interesting thing i've noticed is that if i take a day off from practicing i'm often better on the range the next day than if i practice several days in a row. hmmpfh.

because by then, you have forgotten everything you were supposed to remember about the swing, and now thinking of nothing. perfect mindframe for epic striking!

this turned out to be an amazing tip, thanks a million. really helps me keep my arms out of the swing.

spine angle getting a little better each day.

just wish i could stop my backswing here:



instead of here:



sooooooooo hard...next range day is going to be "shorten your backswing" day!

i am bumping this thread to show everyone my new hat.



also, i spent 5 days on my short game, didn't hit a shot that went more than 6 feet off the ground.

when i got to the range this morning, i was putting a fade on everything.

i'm not really concerned about that, but what that this tells me that when i'm pitching and chipping i'm coming over the top. is that ok?

i feel like it might actually be a good thing because i'm putting more spin on the ball and really unlikely to chunk it. but i don't know much about chip shots so i thought i better ask.

Nice hat.

-ZIMA

coming over the top can never be good i think. you can have an out to in swing without coming over the top. to me, over the top move is more of your lower body not moving while you upper body does all the swinging. when pitching, some lower body movement is needed. however you can start with more weight on your left side so its less likely to come over the top.

what can be a reason for that ?
I'm exactly like that and don't know why

ok, by over the top i just meant out to in. i guess i should make a video of chip shots because i don't know how severe it really is. but a lot of the time the ball hops right on the first bounce so i must be putting a lot of fade spin on them.

again, i don't really mind it, from reading ship it's posts he thinks a fade is optimal for the full swing and i see no reason to disagree with him. might as well put the same spin on my chip shots too, right?



in other news, does anyone have a good drill to help maintain wrist angle? for the last two days i've been trying to hold off my release and the results vary from dead shank, to low burning mega slice, to taking an enormous divot and not being able to swing through the ball. here's the best swing i managed today:

what i meant is that the path of your swing being "out to in" or "in to out" is relative to the target line.

someone who has a very natural in to out swing path when set up straight down the target line can adjust his stance (and grip) to create a out to in swing path relative to the target line. thus creating a fade. and vise versa. i believe that is what all this trackman and new ball flight laws are showing us.

so basically to make it more visually extreme: suppose you have someone with a very over the top, amatuer swing. however he owns that swing so he can hit 30 yd fades on command. he knows exactly where the bottom of his swing is and can consistantly repeat it. his swing is producing a out to in swing path relative to the target line.(and his club head should be slightly closed to target if he wants to fade it back from left of target.)

well in theory if you point this guy far enough right of target, regardless of his over the top swing, his path should eventually become "in to out" relative to target line.(albiet he might be aiming 90 degrees right of target.)then if you change his grip so the clubface is slightly closed to his swing path he should hit a draw or hook.

now i dont know how wise it is for someone to have to aim at the ball cleaner right of teebox with a closed club face to produce a right to left shot but in theory it should work.