Ok; I’ve decided to keep a log of my rants in the hope that I might learn from all the nonsense I keep doing again and again.

As a bit of a background, I used to play golf many years ago and due to work and study, I stopped and recently started again. I got myself a decent set in the hope that either through sheer guilt or inspiration that I would hang in there and try and at least get half decent.

So after 3 months of trying it out on my own I went for my first lesson. Immediately saw how flat my swing was that I kept coming over the top – and I could not hit a bunker shot to save my life.

That was 2 weeks ago and since changing my swing to be more upright I have tried to incorporate the in-out motion by dropping my right hand towards my body on the downswing. So there was some improvement in this regard over the last two weeks. Which leaves me to my rant today:

Last night’s practise session was the worse I have ever had in a very long time and I thought I knew exactly what I needed to do to avoid coming over the top and hitting the ground etc etc etc…Nothing worked – all the shots were near the heel of the club and some even shanked (I haven’t done that in months!!!!!) Man how is that possible? I’ve improved over 2 weeks and tonight I just erased everything…At my last practise session I was trying to swing in to out a little and I could actually see the swing path and also I was having baby draws on my irons…but today I could not get anything in the air and my woods might as well be sent back to the factory….

So what was the problem? I think I have an idea and any comments will be appreciated
• My right leg kept moving in front and my right shoulder kept dropping down and hitting the ground – why? Because for the last 2 nights, I was swinging the club at home on my carpet and I wasn’t wearing shoes and paying attention to how my lower body was moving.
• Next I kept moving up on my shot – again is it due to the lack of solid base for my swing?
• I could not keep the club to come from the inside – because my right shoulder kept moving forward and hence no way to come from the inside? I really really hate coming over the top!!!!!!!!
• I’m not sure if I moved my hands/shoulders far enough on my backswing in the parallel position as I think the tip is to have your left had across your body then complete the turn to have a wider swing arc? I’m not sure I did that well last night….

Because of this I stayed up last night thinking what went wrong and trying to see if I could do anything to fix this. How does this even crop up when for the last 2 weeks I could hit everything???? I hate myself.

• I’m pretty sure simply swinging the club at home without taking stock of all the fundamentals is BAD.
• I need to always keep a strong base – keeping everything on plane is one thing but if there’s no support then I’m screwed big time.
• My left leg has to be a braced and my body more like a reverse C position on finish
• The only way I can do the two points above is to bump my right knee in and not focus ANYTHING at all on my left side. When I bump my right knee in my hands tend to fall down and I keep my club head square and coming from the inside. The other thing is that my left leg then becomes a post because I don’t move it at all (well not much any way but I do feel weight shifting to my left side and then up to my thigh and then my leg gets straighten). This stops me moving forward laterally and falling over because usually my weight falls to the outside of my left foot due to excessive rolling…

This morning I set up my practise net and hit a couple of shots with my 6 iron (I hate this club; I can do 7 iron and 5 iron but the 6 is just a nightmare!!!!) and a slow swing and the contact was good. Club head square – not as descending as what I would like as I tend to want to sweep my 6 and 5 irons rather then coming on a more descending motion…hate myself!!!

Back on the range on tomorrow night to try this out. And in the mean time I would appreciate any comments/thoughts/similar experiences that I can learn from….

And apologies for the looong post.

Welcome to the forum and you will find you are in good company.
Hit up the Golf School section and keep reading from the oldest to the newest articles and you will find helpful ideas there which you can slide into your building process.

Was just going to post that..lol

Welcome WTM from me also… Guru’s Golf School articles will assist you no end… HERE

I hope you enjoy the journey of better golf with the information offered from the brains trust on this site – when you have a minute or 60, have a read of the thread in this forum called Let’s Talk Golf Machine (currently on page 2).

Thanks. I’ve read most of the articles there. Very informative and handy. I believe golf is a self discovery thing. One day could be great but the other day so bad that you want to crawl into a hole and never see the light of day. I’m just trying to find out why and what I keep doing wrong in the hope that i can limit these and maybe all those other guys out there on the same discovery pathway can share some of their experiences…

assisted self discovery is much quicker WTM!

Agreed…I just need a hammer and some nails so that i can nail what i learn to my thick skull!

hmmm I have the same problem – repetition is the answer for me.. I read and hi-light then read the hi-lighted again at the end of chapter then read the whole book’s hilighted areas – on the range, repetition concentrating on one thing… Homer says if you learn at least 1 thing a month you’re in front, even if it takes a year – what if!

That’s right. Tonight my focus is this glass plane concept and keeping my downsing relatively smooth initiated by a slight right knee bump. I am beginning to be able to visualise the swing plane (that wheel thingy) in my mind as I swing back my irons but it doesnt work as well with my woods yet…slowwwwly does it.

Key point to remember tonight – start with chipping then picthing then 3/4 then full swing. Unfortunately I can’t stay at the range all night (or can I) and I’m hoping after 40/50 balls or so, I can move on from my shorter clubs…

Post the results tomorrow.

Welcome WITM, you will find a great bunch of golfers here. Certainly lots of opinions and mostly well meaning. You certainly seem to be going about your golf in an organised way. That’s a great plus and I am sure you will benefit from that. Don’t get too hung up when you find yourself going backwards. This is necessary for you to learn and it will help with future self analysis and diagnosis. The fact that you are keeping a log of everything you do and experience will be invaluable for your progress.

Love your blog, look forward to reading more in the future.

Good luck.

Last night was another disaster…and i feel that this has happened before many years ago when I first started playing golf. I found the only way I could hit a ball is to have this massive tilt at address; that sucks..my swing path is from in to massively out – I think my swing plane is stuffed (too flat). I want to set up like my 7 iron is tilted open and swing like i’m tilted to one side…rats. I’m seeing my coach tomorrow and hopefully she can fix this. In the beginning I shanked everything…then with that adjustment above I started to hit the ball quite solidly but that is not how I have been setting up and hitting balls so all my feeling from backswing to downswing and feeling where the club head is – all gone. Oh yes and i started having a stronger grip as well – almost 4 knuckles showing on my left hand. How quickly has the wheels fallen off???

I think my mind has visualised the wrong swing plane as well. Too flat. And I’m pretty sure I’ve lost spine angle as well.

I need to start working with flashlights. Will post again after tomorrow’s lesson.

slowly slowly – in the thread “let’s talk golf machine, Lag addresses some of the issues you have re the swing – I think you’d have read it anyway.

Also, hopefully the Brainstrust will get onto this thread and assist you with some good advice soon…

My biggest problem is I lack patience – I read a chapter in the TGM book and expect to go out and birdie every hole – In my mind I know I can but my actions don’t show it yet..lol Keep at it!

Thanks for the encouragement. I agree with the slowly concept. The onlything my coach fixed on my swing 2 weeks ago was backswing plane – steeper. Everything was ok -though the contact may not be solid at times but I wasnt focused on legs, body etc etc etc so once I was on plane I hit the ball everytime. Then I decided (being the smart alec that I am) to try work more on the inside out swing and dropping my hands on the downswing but without someone telling me if its right or wrong. It looked fine and felt fine for a week but then this week I couldnt hit anything so all my old mistakes must have started creeping in again but without a good pair of eyes telling me what went wrong I got myself up in knots!

I will be working with my training wheels on today (my hinged 5 iron) at least I will be on plane – and here I thought i never needed to use it again. sigh

Oh Edwin there is one teacher who can help you, and his name is Gary Edwin. You need to learn a simple effective pattern, before the maze of TGM information will make any sense at all.

Do a search on “Gary Edwin” and check out his right sided swiing. If your coach can’t help you look like Rod Pampling everytime you address the ball, then find another coach!

GE-C how simple is a chip shot? How simple is a pitch? Surely any good golfing teacher can set a simple pattern to get a player to do that? Great engineering and you do not have to use big words to get it to work. The teachers certainly don’t have to.

KISS is good for golf based on a solid foundation.

Pretty sure my coach can. If she could spot the initial error in a minute she can spot this one in a flash. I just decided to run before I could walk properly and as a result I’ve fallen down in a heap. Now I need to mentally regroup myself because I know I can get better at this. Giving up is not an option for me…

WtM, any chance you can post a video of your swing for us?

Unfortunately I dont have a vid camera. Actually I do but my significant other who’s away at the moment until Dec has it! If I did, I would have posted a swing online. But rest assured once i get it back – there will be a swing video. In the meantime I decided to look through peter croker’s online training videos. I must say; i’m doing many many many things wrong. I wish there were better golf schools here in Sydney – I dont mind spending a couple of days just working on building a good swing with a good teacher. That said the online lesson has already helped quite alot. The forward press to initiate the takeaway is PRICELESS in my mind. Worth the admission fee alone.

Terrible rain outside today – no way I’m going to have a lesson today. But on the flip side; I’m going to buy an indoor net and start chipping!!! Lots of things to be learnt there. It’s quite interesting to note that most instructors start with the full swing but I see the immense merit in starting with the chip shot first.

Terrible rain outside today – no way I’m going to have a lesson today. But on the flip side; I’m going to buy an indoor net and start chipping!!! Lots of things to be learnt there. It’s quite interesting to note that most instructors start with the full swing but I see the immense merit in starting with the chip shot first.

Only wish I had realised the importance of starting with Basic (chip) Motion followed by Acquired Motion (more of a pitch) and then, only when they were mastered, Total Motion.

I mean what infant starts off by running before he has learned to crawl and then walk!

Start with Total Motion and you are almost guaranteed to completely ignore the Basic and Acquired aspect, thereby condemning yourself to golfing purgatory.

Agreed…so I have to be patient – that’s a small price to pay for consistency. Also I like understanding what my hands are doing. I had instructors say passive hands – dont use your hands during the swing etc etc; how wrong is that??? I think it was lagpreassure who said “educated hands”; that’s the way to go. I used to play a fair amount of racquet sports years ago so I am by nature someone who needs to understand the hand actions in everything. Was up till 3 this morning hooked on video training – i can say its all quite revolutionary (in terms of my thinking).

I’ve only been playing golf for 5 months now so I can definately relate to what you are going through.
Here’s a bit of a ramble on my progress that maybe you could get some ideas from.
Firstly went to our local country golf course with a pro mate of mine, procceded to watch him basically hit the ball any where he wanted it to go, thinking to myself how hard can that be…. hmmm.
Obviously I hacked the ball around the course, not even able to get it off the ground. I had taken the bait though and now was obviously hooked.
Next I started playing midweek scroungers (got 13 points for 9 holes off 27).
The next week I joined our local country club (York, great club too.)
and played on the season open day where things went horribly wrong…. it was p@#$%ing down I had no brolley or wet weather clobber, It was tough enough for the good players let alone me !
Anyway I ended up with 13 points for the 18 holes, and this was one of the games that went towards getting my handicap which ended up being 30.
I was by no means hitting the ball consistantly so decided to go get some swing lessons.
The lessons were in a golf shop with a practice net.
This tought me the basic fundamentals of the golf swing and definately helped.
For the next 3-4 months I basically muddled my way around the golf course with the limited knowledge that I had. my handicap was going nowhere though and therefore I thought I needed to get some expert advice.
I have been reading the forums and golf school stuff on this site since I started but couldn’t completely grasp all of what was being put forward.
I get a far better understanding from the hands on approach, so I contacted the guru to see if he could help, which he gladly did..
He showed me how to set up with the correct grip (for me), then we worked on chipping for the rest of the morning.
It turned on heaps of lights for me and I now understood some of the most important parts of what its all about, ie setup, grip, flat left wrist, bent right wrist, right elbow in close to my body etc etc.
In the 2 weeks since my visit to the Guru my game has become a lot more enjoyable.
The results so far…30/40 metres extra on most clubs, 61 points from 27 holes at our local clubs big open day, then this week I got 49 points off 18 holes (89 off the stick).
In 2 weeks I’ve gone from 31 down to 27.
Sorry if this craps on a bit, but my point is you have to work on those basic things incorperated into just chipping to start with, and the rest will happen a hell of a lot easier.
These basics tought me where the club should be at impact, you can’t do much good if the golf club is all wonky at impact.
Every one loves smashing the ball a long way,but that won’t happen to a great extent if you havn’t mastered the basic ingredients for the short game.
Hope it all comes together for you mate.

Here is a radical suggestion. You are thinking of how different parts of your body are moving, instead of thinking of the implement in your hands – the golf club. Take an axe and chop down a tree. Don’t think of how your body moves when handling the axe. Simply think of getting the axe head to hit your target spot on the tree at the correct speed and at the correct spot-location. Your body will move appropriately if you focus your attention on the axe head. Then try and skip stones, and only think of the stone in your hand. Afterwards, pick up a golf club and simply try and get that clubhead to swish through the impact zone (ball position) at a smooth tempo so that the clubhead scuffs the ground at the same spot – swing after swing. Put your mind in the clubhead and don’t think of how different body parts (eg, right knee) are moving during the backswing, downswing and followthrough. Get a feeling of releasing the club so that it swishes through the impact zone (which requires loose wrists), and don’t drag the clubshaft into the ball, which often produces shanking.

A swing video would allow forum members to offer you targeted advice.

Jeff.

Terrible rain outside today – no way I’m going to have a lesson today. But on the flip side; I’m going to buy an indoor net and start chipping!!! Lots of things to be learnt there. It’s quite interesting to note that most instructors start with the full swing but I see the immense merit in starting with the chip shot first.

While you can learn off this site and improve to a great extent may I suggest 3 books for you to get as were recommended to me -

You may have them – Obviously one book would be:
The Golfing Machine 7th edition, will teach you the correct way – available from Guru (Paul S)

The other 2 are available off Amazon at ridiculously low prices!

Bobby Clampett’s – The Impact Zone, will assist with understanding TGM (TGM for Dummies if you like) and;

Every Shot Must Have A Purpose by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott,will assist with mental game.

You can chop down many trees but remember it’s the Flat Left Wrist that is the winner

Thanks everyone for the advice – unfortunately I’m an accountant by training and working as an investment banker; the whole feel thing is good to a certain extent but inherently I’m trained to try and grasp abstract concepts by logical thinking of all the moving parts. So I believe understand each pressure point on the hands; how the hands move; how the hips turn etc etc is critical for me to develop something that I can take with me for the next 20 years.

I think I will contact Guru for a copy of TGM and will try and get the rest of the books recommended by Ditty off Amazon. And I totally agree with you Ditty, FLW – critical and actually seeing how it happens in lots and lots of detail as in the training videos has shown me how I can practise the motion to get there; if not then I would have just been doing something totally wrong. It’s all slowly slowly from here on…..

Thanks everyone for the advice – unfortunately I’m an accountant by training and working as an investment banker; the whole feel thing is good to a certain extent but inherently I’m trained to try and grasp abstract concepts by logical thinking of all the moving parts. So I believe understand each pressure point on the hands; how the hands move; how the hips turn etc etc is critical for me to develop something that I can take with me for the next 20 years.

I think I will contact Guru for a copy of TGM and will try and get the rest of the books recommended by Ditty off Amazon. And I totally agree with you Ditty, FLW – critical and actually seeing how it happens in lots and lots of detail as in the training videos has shown me how I can practise the motion to get there; if not then I would have just been doing something totally wrong. It’s all slowly slowly from here on…..

Sound like you would benefit by reading The Golf Manual by Alex Hay.

Step by step building of a golf swing on the lines of TGM’s Basic, Acquired and Total Motion concepts.

But for the date of the publication you could be forgiven for thinking that you were reading “TGM for Dummies”, as told by Homer Kelley to Alex Hay.