Guru,

What is an easy drill to become a better ball striker? My ball striking is good one day and poor the next. Anything I can work on?

I reckon good ballstriking comes from a good understanding of the fundamentals of the swing. Learning about rotation and the role of ‘educated hands’ (Guru et. al, 2008) are important. Also knowing about planes through the use of the flashlight drill are important as once you know what you are supposed to do, it becomes alot easier to execute them consistently.

BundyBear: good to see the pink came out in the wash:)

Solid ball striking comes from knowing “where” the club has to be delivered and “how”.

I would hazard a guess that your inconsistency will be coming from a vague idea of both of the above, not because you are not trying your heart out but because each day that swing is a guess. You are swinging with your perception of what is correct rather than with the correct info in your head first.

So fire up the Golf School articles and read from the oldest to the newest article and see just how close your ideas are vs a bit of a scientific approach.

Then come back here and tell us what little light bulbs have fired up and we will help you remove the foggy bits.

After a decent set-up, is lag (late release) the key to consistent ball striking?

Guru,

I have already rebuilt my swing over the last week using the principles learnt in the golf school and it is much more consistent. I was guilty of the ball being the centre of my swing rather than a result of a good plane. I am definitely benefiting from the FLW and BRW ideas, it just seems at the range I take the mat a fraction before the ball some of the time. I think I need to move the ball position back a fraction more (maybe?). Any thoughts?

Mr C,

I appreciate the comments. As I said above, I am working towards the consistency. :)

The problem Muntz is that the majority of golfers do not have the best of set-ups. This is evident in most golfers you may play with on a weekend comp. Thinking about lag or having it created during your swing is a thought best left for a while. A good key for golf is solid fundamentals and the rest sort of takes care of itself in a way. Go and have a hit with a person who is a scratch golfer or low marker and learn from what they do and how they swing it. It will put things in your head that are positive and give you some get up an go.

Yea I found when watching videos on youtube about golf instruction when I first started, the best advice I got was to let the club go to gravity. By that I mean don’t fight the club on the way down, just let it go down and strike the ball as it should. Worked well at the time, but now that I know more, I find it better to know what is going on (to a certain degree).

Bundy, read Thommos’ Hitting it Fat article.

What are “solid fundamentals?” This sort of statement is kinda obvious but people read here searching for ‘what a fundamental is’.

Ask many low handicap players to define them and they will not have a clue.

So the floor is open to shed your light.

Thats a good point Guru, it kind of becomes a bit of a throw away statement at times. I’ll think on it a bit before embarrassing myself :-)

Twas not aimed at you Mr C:)

Prang mentioned ‘them’ and a ‘good set up’ without saying what either were.

After a decent set-up, is lag (late release) the key to consistent ball striking?

Reverse every natural instinct you have and do just the opposite of what you are inclined to do and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing. – BEN HOGAN, POWER GOLF

First things first, lag and a late release are 2 different things.

Lag is very helpful in good ballstriking, but prefer the more general educated hands.

A late release is definately a requirement for good ball striking…Tom Watson had a sweep release and struck it pretty well!

what is the flash light drill? seen people post about it, where do i read about it?

In the golf school section under golf instruction. Find the articles with the word plane in them, there are four. Sorry I can’t remeber the name offhand.

Guru,

I have already rebuilt my swing over the last week using the principles learnt in the golf school and it is much more consistent.

How did you manage that…have been working on rebuilding for years and it still seems to be a work in progress!

Guru,

I have already rebuilt my swing over the last week using the principles learnt in the golf school and it is much more consistent.

How did you manage that…have been working on rebuilding for years and it still seems to be a work in progress!

down and out…did ya get that?

I must admit I had a similar thought Toolish

hehe. I am sure Bundy has made some progress away from his old swing type which may well have been a total rebuild! Its just the start there Bundy:)

I must admit I, only tonight got my swing back to a level I am very happy with and it was naught but 2 weeks ago I was having all sorts of trouble. I think I am in the same boat as bundy, but think it was more a recondition then a full rebuild! For me it was more a matter of identifying, remedying and practicing as opposed to looking at “the fundamentals” and starting afresh :-P

Guru,

I have already rebuilt my swing over the last week using the principles learnt in the golf school and it is much more consistent.

How did you manage that…have been working on rebuilding for years and it still seems to be a work in progress!

down and out…did ya get that?

It’s all relative… if BB’s like me i’m aiming for 100 as you going for scratch if you not there yet, I rebuilt my swing after reading golf school 4-5 months ago and haven’t had one air swing and shanked once… still slice though it’s getting straighter :-)

Really try to relax I as a beginner always seem to tense up before I hit it in an effort to belt the crapper out of it… read big slice. Now after a trip to the range I really focus on keeping a relaxed grip and smooth swing, not tensing every muscle in my arms, and I seem to strike it better and get a much better ball flight.

Tool and AB,

If you start with swing A and completely start over, and now have swing B. Does that not mean it was rebuilt if I started from scratch again? I don’t remember saying that I was finished working on my swing! Hence the questions. Great place to learn Guru. It’s ashame forums still have people that like the glass half empty….....

Bundy

BB, it was a throwaway semi-sarcastic line, don’t take it as glass half empty.

The problem I have is I started with A, went to B, then to C, occasionally a B still pops through, then onto D. Continuing the search to find a way to nail the fuindamentals…I am getting there for sure, but practice time is getting limited lately so progression has slowed.

Good to hear you are rebuilding following the articles…they are a great starting point.

Bundy:

I think you are being a bit oversensitive (I am guilty of this too). I am so happy that you are on the road to improvement and are hitting the ball more consistantly.

Saying “I have already rebuilt my swing over the last week” is a statement that will naturally raise some eyebrows from those of us that are a little further down the track (like 10+ years). Understand building a swing that is repeatable and dependable especially in the heat of battle is a long term proposition.

I am competiting in high level competition and am desiring to take an international jump so I am still refining technical issues. I have no doubt that over the next few weeks when I meet with members of “the brains trust” a further rebuild is going to be in order. Even those at the top of the sport are still rebuilding swings, this is the only way to get that little bit extra from your golf game. Experts will always spot something that can be enhanced.

Please don’t take offence, it was a tongue in cheek statement. I hold nothing but admiration that you have had the courage to undergo a total swing transformation and I wish you nothing but the best in future improvements. As the weeks turn into months you will understand where we were coming from as you reach new levels of profiency. Good luck

AB

Toolish and AB,

Thanks for the clear up. Forums are funny places and sarcasm is hard to portray in text format. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

I had a horribly weak swing before and always faded or sliced the ball from coming outside – in. Now I’ve started to rebuild, I am getting a 5-10m draw and much more distance. The one thing holding me back is hitting the ball cleanly. Hence why I asked the question about ball striking. I understand it is a result of the set-up and swing itself, but I have never been a good striker anyway.

Seeing a solidly struck ball draw 5-10m is exciting to me, because I’ve never been able to get the ball going that way. I just want to see it more often. :)

Man, I’ve got sooooo much to work on. I think it’s time for a couple lessons to fine tune the thoughts running through my head. It’s hard to get feedback when I don’t know what a good swing feels like anyways.

Thanks for the clear up fellas :)

Tiger Woods tought me a good drill to help feel and impact through the ball (on one of those golf shows on Foxtel :)) which was to take a driver, setup as if you are going to hit the ball, turn it around so you are holding the head end, with the grip end pointing at the ground where the ball would be. Take a normal swing. 90% of golfers will hear a “swoosh” sound about half way through their downswing. Now what you do is try to make the “swoosh” sound start just past where you would normally hit the ball on your downswing, and make it continue through the follow through. This will get your power release smoother on your downswing, and help with impact / ball striking.

You could also read up about “drop and pop”, there are a few articles about it on the net.

Praningka has the slant a lot of good players have. “If you just get the right stance and grip, a good shot is assured” ; Ken Venturi, Harry Vardon to name a few. Just because they can play, they think they know how they leared in the first place. They were lucky they fluked it.

The simple truth is they guarantee nothing. You need to know how to swing before you have a hope of setting a grip and stance correctly

The “correct” grip and stance make them feel lost because they don’t know what to do next.

The first trick is lag loading, a smooth steady pressure on the action like dragging you kid brother on the ground, with any grip and stance.