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A couple questions for Freddie/others

93civiccpe

93civiccpe

#LunaticFringe / "Hips Don't Lie" - Shakira
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First of all, I want to thank Freddie, Mike, Chris, & Dustin at the Ultimate fitting for giving me tips to try to get my driver in play because it was a mess.

Since that weekend I've been working on my game and there's a swing flaw that I've had for quite a while that keeps creeping back in. It mainly happens with my woods and occasionally my irons when I'm nervous but I instinctively try to guide the club-head instead of releasing it naturally. This is easy to spot in videos of my swing as my left (lead) elbow is bent/pulled in at impact. Even if my path starts from the inside I get weak glancing strikes resulting in huge slices going way right out of play. Do you have any drills / swing thoughts / etc for me as I'm looking for something to help me work through this and extend through impact. On rounds where I hit a couple good drives and am loose and releasing it well I tend to score well. The rounds where I'm tight, it goes from bad to worse and I have to put my driver away.

A second question I have is about a training technique I've used for a while. I have always loved the look of bladed irons but I'm not near good enough of a ball striker to utilize them. I do have a few that I keep and when my strike has been off I will use them at the range. I do this as it punishes me on bad strikes/mechanics and I get feedback at impact where on the face I've hit the ball. Utilizing this I feel my strike has improved but I'm curious if there's any downside as the swing weight is different from the Titleist AP2/AP3 set I play. I just want to make sure I'm not introducing anything that hurts my game.

Thanks in advance for any input/help! (I will try to get some videos up once the snow melts and ranges are back open.)

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i'm not qualified to offer any swing tips to you, but my thoughts on your second question is that it comes up often and people certainly have different opinions. i'm of the opinion that you train to perfect performance, so why would you train with something you won't be performing with? if you're trying to ingrain a certain move to help your quality of strike, i would think all of the idiosyncrasies about your gamer club and the way your body reacts to that club during the swing should be a part of the range work.

it's just weird to me that we hear this often with irons, yet rarely do people talk about practicing with a tiny driver head or fairway wood head or tiny putter. wouldn't the same principles apply?

keep flushing those beautiful 718s!
 
Sorry for the delay in responding.

To get that left on to extend down the line, you might want to try to bury the knuckles of your left hand into the turf and impact. this gets the total of the clubhead moving left and down which in turn will extend the left arm through impact.

Another good drill is to place the ball out in front of your left foot. This will make you chase after the ball through impact. If you draw that left arm up during this drill you will miss the ball completely.

I’m not a big fan of practicing with blades to hone your swing. But if that something you feel confident doing and it helps your game keep at it. It really can’t do any damage.
 
A couple questions for Freddie/others

Tadashi70 said:
Another good drill is to place the ball out in front of your left foot. This will make you chase after the ball through impact. If you draw that left arm up during this drill you will miss the ball completely.

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Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of that drill. An instructor that I improved the most working with used it with me. He said I might hook a couple right off the bat....and I did. But after a few I flushed a couple 6 irons 180 yards with a nice high draw, when my normal 6 at the time was 165 ish with a fade.

I need to go back to that more often.


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My input to you. I had the same issue in the past and have been fighting it here and there. One thing I tried to do was to keep both arms stiff and swing 50% at driver when on the range. Do that for a few, the swing normally. Trains the muscle memory and allows for proper lines in the swing. Another thing I’ve done is to think of swing plane. Think on the down swing, down- out and up. Want to swing from the inside while coming down which takes the club out to impact. Then up, which brings you thru impact and to your follow thru


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c.a.eleric said:
i'm not qualified to offer any swing tips to you, but my thoughts on your second question is that it comes up often and people certainly have different opinions. i'm of the opinion that you train to perfect performance, so why would you train with something you won't be performing with? if you're trying to ingrain a certain move to help your quality of strike, i would think all of the idiosyncrasies about your gamer club and the way your body reacts to that club during the swing should be a part of the range work.

it's just weird to me that we hear this often with irons, yet rarely do people talk about practicing with a tiny driver head or fairway wood head or tiny putter. wouldn't the same principles apply?

keep flushing those beautiful 718s!
Click to expand...
That's a good point Chris and that's why I was asking. It might be my own knucklehead thinking if I can hit a blade I can hit anything. It also lets me know immediately if you haven't found the center. It is a good point about smaller devices for other clubs as I've never thought about that for driver/putter. Usually I'll hit a couple dozen shots with a blade before moving to my gamers. I might faze this out and just use impact tape on my gamers going forward.

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Tadashi70 said:
Sorry for the delay in responding.

To get that left on to extend down the line, you might want to try to bury the knuckles of your left hand into the turf and impact. this gets the total of the clubhead moving left and down which in turn will extend the left arm through impact.

Another good drill is to place the ball out in front of your left foot. This will make you chase after the ball through impact. If you draw that left arm up during this drill you will miss the ball completely.

I’m not a big fan of practicing with blades to hone your swing. But if that something you feel confident doing and it helps your game keep at it. It really can’t do any damage.
Click to expand...
Thank you Freddie, I'm going to try both of those drills at the range. I also had another golfer look at my swing and is recommending some major changes to my swing in the off-season. My previous golf coach was a previous competitor on the senior PGA tour and European tour. He advocates a swing where you get behind the ball then pull down and rotate the forearms. This always felt wrong to me as it was so based on timing. I end up thinking too much about my hands/arms and too many swing thoughts. The recommendation given by the other golfer was to utilize a rotational swing where I get into a good position at the top then rotate my body through the ball and not think about my hands / arms /club. This feels foreign to me but I hit some great balls and didn't have the issue with pulling my lead arm in and the club moved around my body much better. I'll be trying this a little more and see if I want that total overhaul.

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I have always heard a good pro will work with the swing you already have instead of trying to completely change what you are doing. I could be way off on that but it seems to me it would be like learning to do anything all over and completely different. I think if anything it will make you regress in stead of progress.
 
Stryker said:
I have always heard a good pro will work with the swing you already have instead of trying to completely change what you are doing. I could be way off on that but it seems to me it would be like learning to do anything all over and completely different. I think if anything it will make you regress in stead of progress.
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I agree. That is why I'm hesitant. There's always the choice of getting my current swing refined versus rebuilding from the ground up. If I try to rebuild I know I'll get worse before I get better which is why I'm conflicted. Then again, if I can simplify my swing thoughts it might help in the long run. I've done a good bit of work on my swing over the last couple years and each change feels like one step closer to where I want to be. I also shouldn't compare this to a complete rebuild because my backswing and top position are fine. It's more a change in the downswing sequence. If I take the plunge I'll try to document it in a thread.. Both the good and the bad for anyone else considering a similar change. Thank you all who have given advice and input. I am looking forward to implementing these drills in my practice sessions.

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