On a difference subject : your stance ?

When my legs are very "quiet" , i.e. both feet adhere to the ground on the back swing, I hit my driver better, could be way better. Not sure why because it sounds against a golf textbook ??? any explanation Pros ?

Probably less tendency to sway off the ball during the take-away. Keeping your left foot down may be costing you some distance but you should be more accurate by leaving it flat on the ground. Its probably been more than five years since any part of my left foot left the ground on any shot.

Perhaps I should make it clearer... Not only that my left foot was down, my left knee also has very little bend or no bend at all... and I pound a ball very well. That's why I said it's against a text book , totally against all golf teaching that I've read , fukkkkkking strange

With few exceptions, the golf textbooks are written by guys who could not make a living playing professioal golf.

My stance? Pretty much a conservative, must be why my ball mostly goes to the right  

jt1135 wrote:My stance?  Pretty much a conservative, must be why my ball mostly goes to the right  

Same here. In fact, any of my clubs that go left unintentionally i remove from the bag to alter in some way like removing the head from the shaft or building up the grip more. In other words, reprogramming. When they go right its OK because I usually aim at the left like I would with a rifle or MANPAD knowing the shot will end up to the right. Scares the hell out of the left, though.

For me, weight shift has been a confusing topic. I've never had any issue shifting my weight back or forward, but I think I didn't understand it until recently. I try to make a very little weight shift, and I never want my to slide my weight past the back foot in the backswing or past my front foot in the forward swing. I like to kick in my right knee and bit like Nicklaus and feel like I have shifted my weight to inside of my right foot on the backswing. I've taken a page out of the stack and tilt book for my irons, especially wedges. I'll keep my weight forward throughout the swing and move it more forward as I hit the ball. Very clean, repeatable contact that flights the ball a bit lower.
I used to slide way out over my back foot and way past the ball on my downswing. I could destroy the ball when my timing was on, but I also lacked a consistent strike and my misses could be off the planet when my timing wasn't on.

I keep my weight mostly forward on all full swings from driver to wedge. Trying above all to avoid the dreaded lateral slide right. I also kick in my right knee which I started doing in the mid 80's just like Jack. It worked great back then because we could all wear metal spikes. With these damn platic things, I've got to keep more weight left and just have to live with it. So in order to generate my max club head speed, I have to hold my left side pretty still and coil my upper body on the take-away. I know I've done it properly with my full iron swings when I get that sharp noise of the shaft ripping through the air on the downswing. What's been killing me since the start of the season is when the ball is above my feet. Really bad news. I am tempted next time I have that lie to just take a couple of more clubs and hit the ball with a baseball swing. I have had no problems with ball below my feet.

Horseballs wrote:For me, weight shift has been a confusing topic.  I've never had any issue shifting my weight back or forward, but I think I didn't understand it until recently.  I try to make a very little weight shift, and I never want my to slide my weight past the back foot in the backswing or past my front foot in the forward swing.  I like to kick in my right knee and bit like Nicklaus and feel like I have shifted my weight to inside of my right foot on the backswing.  I've taken a page out of the stack and tilt book for my irons, especially wedges.  I'll keep my weight forward throughout the swing and move it more forward as I hit the ball.  Very clean, repeatable contact that flights the ball a bit lower.  
I used to slide way out over my back foot and way past the ball on my downswing.  I could destroy the ball when my timing was on, but I also lacked a consistent strike and my misses could be off the planet when my timing wasn't on.  

I heard that Wt.shift is good, Sway is bad,,,, My boy Freddie is probably the best in "Wt.Shift" , he could easily "shift" 4"-6" from right to left during his swing (I think he has an open stance, I think he said to clear his left side easier). Man, I love his swing... Who does not   

I'm a 'swayer'(not a swisher  ). I can't seem to rotate back without my left knee pushing back to the rear. My feet remain completely flat, but my knee rocks inward. Another reason I developed arthritis in it.
Whenever I try to keep my knees quiet, I can't hit the ball worth a damn. I need this motion, but it's killing me physically.

I'd post a vid but i can't download it off my phone.

Google "Ross DuPlessis Golf" and you should find the link to his website where he teaches what is perhaps the easiest golf swing in the world. By watching his videos--there are many of them on YouTube-- you'll figure out how to leave that left knee in place and still be able to beat the sheet out of the ball. Its basically what my swing has become. I have a weak back and fragile knees and have no almost no pain since I started to copy his swings a little over a year ago.

Horseballs wrote:For me, weight shift has been a confusing topic.  I've never had any issue shifting my weight back or forward, but I think I didn't understand it until recently.  I try to make a very little weight shift, and I never want my to slide my weight past the back foot in the backswing or past my front foot in the forward swing.  I like to kick in my right knee and bit like Nicklaus and feel like I have shifted my weight to inside of my right foot on the backswing.  I've taken a page out of the stack and tilt book for my irons, especially wedges.  I'll keep my weight forward throughout the swing and move it more forward as I hit the ball.  Very clean, repeatable contact that flights the ball a bit lower.  
I used to slide way out over my back foot and way past the ball on my downswing.  I could destroy the ball when my timing was on, but I also lacked a consistent strike and my misses could be off the planet when my timing wasn't on.  

I was just reviewing weight shift on youtube last week. I found this video that is a bit dry but clears a few things up for me.

My stance changes depending on the shot. After doing some reading in Golf Digest, actually learned how to hit a draw. Always had the fade thing going for me but it is nice to actually shape a shot. Sometimes I feel like The Babe calling his shot.

Mongrel wrote:Google "Ross DuPlessis Golf" and you should find the link to his website where he teaches what is perhaps the easiest golf swing in the world. By watching his videos--there are many of them on YouTube-- you'll figure out how to leave that left knee in place and still be able to beat the sheet out of the ball. Its basically what my swing has become. I have a weak back and fragile knees and have no almost no pain since I started to copy his swings a little over a year ago.

I checked out all his vids yesterday. Some helpful stuff. Then I went to the range with a headful of his stuff and still I sway away.
What I need are lessons with a real instructor.

But I was hitting the ball really accurately!

When I first stumbled upon this guy's website around late December of 2012, I started to do his simple drill inside my house in the basement. Then when the ground was relatively dry, I took a wedge out to the closest grass field and practiced his swing. Mainly short pitch shots. Then worked up to full swings with PW, 9, 8 7 etc. Then I would go into the Golf Galaxy on deserted weekend winter afternoons and hit various irons in the launch monitor and check out my clubhead speed, carry distance and backspin. I did this with all different kinds of irons with shafts ranging from senior to rebar X flexes. After awhile, I found that I could hit the rebar shafts almost as well as the more flexible and lighter ones. What was weird was when I tried his swing with driver but after about 50 balls at the rubber mat range, I pretty much had it dialed in except for ball position which is still a bit of a work in progress. I have several gamer drivers that I cut down to about 43.75" with stiff shafts and they seem to be working out the best with the Ross swing.

The best things about the swing is that I could hit a thousand balls and not hurt my back or knees and my accuracy is very good from wedge through driver.

I am very self taught, to the point where I think about different aspects of the swing in my own terms. It makes it hard to comprehend instruction because what you feel and what is reality are often not the same. I only deal in feel, and there is a lot lost in translation when I watch instruction. I can certainly watch how a good player hits the ball and take away cues, but from there it is in my own internal language.
I'm going to have to be pretty desperate to ever view my swing on video again, or take formal instruction.
A hacker friend of mine recently went to a 3 day golf school in Orlando. He was a hacker before, but he is dreadful now. He had a decent looking swing and could hit great shots on occasion, just not very regularly. Now, his swing is very short and mechanical. He can hardly hit it out of his shadow. I think the golf swing is a more athletic move than people think. If someone told you to hit a baseball off a tee to center field, most people could do it instinctively. With golf, people get so caught up with mechanics that they have removed every last ounce of instinct and athleticism.

Horseballs wrote:I am very self taught, to the point where I think about different aspects of the swing in my own terms.  It makes it hard to comprehend instruction because what you feel and what is reality are often not the same.  I only deal in feel, and there is a lot lost in translation when I watch instruction.  I can certainly watch how a good player hits the ball and take away cues, but from there it is in my own internal language.  
I'm going to have to be pretty desperate to ever view my swing on video again, or take formal instruction.  
A hacker friend of mine recently went to a 3 day golf school in Orlando.  He was a hacker before, but he is dreadful now.  He had a decent looking swing and could hit great shots on occasion, just not very regularly.  Now, his swing is very short and mechanical.  He can hardly hit it out of his shadow.  I think the golf swing is a more athletic move than people think.  If someone told you to hit a baseball off a tee to center field, most people could do it instinctively.  With golf, people get so caught up with mechanics that they have removed every last ounce of instinct and athleticism.

Yap, I get what you are saying. One thing I like about EA's site is he shows multiple ways to swing the club. Knowing the basics can help validate what your doing is correct or incorrect.

BTW - Who said anything about taking a lesson? Learning about the swing is often enough to identify why certain things work and others don't.

I too have many friends, some are retards like the one you shared. Taking a three day marathon class is beyond a waste of money and time. All the instruction I've gotten over the years, it's more like 30 minutes on the full swing and I have enough to practice for a week. Unfortunately, unless you are beyond exceptional athletically, it takes time and practice to groove a new swing, weeks or even months. Most of the time you get worse for a few weeks before you get better. I'm not sure how you are going to continue to improve if you take 3 days of intensive instruction and the do nothing more. I would think 20 hours of instruction spread out over a season would be much better. If you have an instructor worth their salt, you certainly can shave strokes.

Poe4soul wrote:

Yap, I get what you are saying.  One thing I like about EA's site is he shows multiple ways to swing the club.  Knowing the basics can help validate what your doing is correct or incorrect.  

BTW - Who said anything about taking a lesson?  Learning about the swing is often enough to identify why certain things work and others don't.

I too have many friends, some are retards like the one you shared.  Taking a three day marathon class is beyond a waste of money and time.  All the instruction I've gotten over the years, it's more like 30 minutes on the full swing and I have enough to practice for a week.  Unfortunately, unless you are beyond exceptional athletically, it takes time and practice to groove a new swing, weeks or even months.  Most of the time you get worse for a few weeks before you get better. I'm not sure how you are going to continue to improve if you take 3 days of intensive instruction and the do nothing more.  I would think 20 hours of instruction spread out over a season would be much better.  If you have an instructor worth their salt, you certainly can shave strokes.

I'm not singling out you, Poe, or even instruction in general. I've just figured out many things about the golf swing on my own. These breakthroughs have become internalized and aren't in the language of instructors. I don't think I'd enjoy getting lessons from Pingman. Our head pro has a very good reputation as a "horse whisperer" of sorts with higher caps at our club. Instruction certainly works for these types.

A good friend of mine was the absolute worst chipper and bunker player I've ever seen, for someone of a semi-respectable handicap (10-13). His setup for chips was identical to his full swing and he was all arms with a decelerating stroke. He used the same technique and tried to pick it clean from every bunker. Just awful. I've played hundreds of rounds with him, he's played with hundreds of others who play the shots properly, and he's probably seen hundreds of hours of golf on TV, but never figured out he was doing something wrong. He takes a short game lesson from the pro, and he's instantly better.
I've always been more inquisitive. If I see someone hitting a shot well consistently, I'll try to copy it. Always have.

In the old days, I'd spend hours at various ranges hitting some balls and then sitting down behind the best ballstrikers and watching them hit balls. Sometimes I'd notice some things about their swings that I would incorporate in mine and I would get a little better. Nowadays, I spend time watching some very good players on YouTube hitting certain shots I have trouble with. Watching Luke Donald hitting pitches and bunker shots and being able to stop action and rewind has made my pitching and bunker play a bit better.

Then there are the magazines. I've been reading various golf magazines for decades and have about all the Golf Magazine copies since around 2005. Every once in awhile there's a half page or so lesson on some sort of shot that I will try out and it sometimes helps me out.

Of course when you are trying something out, there is no substitute for practice. And more practice. And then even more practice.

The great thing about putting and chipping practice is that I can do it in my basement family room off the carpet. Four seasons, rain, sleet, snow or shine. During commercial breaks.

Horseballs wrote:

Poe4soul wrote:

Yap, I get what you are saying.  One thing I like about EA's site is he shows multiple ways to swing the club.  Knowing the basics can help validate what your doing is correct or incorrect.  

BTW - Who said anything about taking a lesson?  Learning about the swing is often enough to identify why certain things work and others don't.

I too have many friends, some are retards like the one you shared.  Taking a three day marathon class is beyond a waste of money and time.  All the instruction I've gotten over the years, it's more like 30 minutes on the full swing and I have enough to practice for a week.  Unfortunately, unless you are beyond exceptional athletically, it takes time and practice to groove a new swing, weeks or even months.  Most of the time you get worse for a few weeks before you get better. I'm not sure how you are going to continue to improve if you take 3 days of intensive instruction and the do nothing more.  I would think 20 hours of instruction spread out over a season would be much better.  If you have an instructor worth their salt, you certainly can shave strokes.

I'm not singling out you, Poe, or even instruction in general.  I've just figured out many things about the golf swing on my own.  These breakthroughs have become internalized and aren't in the language of instructors.  I don't think I'd enjoy getting lessons from Pingman.  Our head pro has a very good reputation as a "horse whisperer" of sorts with higher caps at our club.  Instruction certainly works for these types.  

A good friend of mine was the absolute worst chipper and bunker player I've ever seen, for someone of a semi-respectable handicap (10-13).  His setup for chips was identical to his full swing and he was all arms with a decelerating stroke.  He used the same technique and tried to pick it clean from every bunker.  Just awful.  I've played hundreds of rounds with him, he's played with hundreds of others who play the shots properly, and he's probably seen hundreds of hours of golf on TV, but never figured out he was doing something wrong.  He takes a short game lesson from the pro, and he's instantly better.  
I've always been more inquisitive.  If I see someone hitting a shot well consistently, I'll try to copy it.  Always have.  

My best lessons I've had were short game lessons. It's amazing how many shots these pro's know. Some of them I'd learned by trial and error but I've always missed a point or two that took it from good to great. Some are just crazy and not instinctive. For example, one I was shown was to literally let go of the club on a bunker shot when the ball is buried into the face. Swing hard and steep but let go of the club at impact. Basically the softish hands you can imagine. The ball pops straight up and rolls out soft. Not that I would have the balls to do it in a round but it gave me the feeling of how soft, soft needed to be for that shot.

Mongrel wrote:In the old days, I'd spend hours at various ranges hitting some balls and then sitting down behind the best ballstrikers and watching them hit balls. Sometimes I'd notice some things about their swings that I would incorporate in mine and I would get a little better. Nowadays, I spend time watching some very good players on YouTube hitting certain shots I have trouble with. Watching Luke Donald hitting pitches and bunker shots and being able to stop action and rewind has made my pitching and bunker play a bit better.

Then there are the magazines. I've been reading various golf magazines for decades and have about all the Golf Magazine copies since around 2005. Every once in awhile there's a half page or so lesson on some sort of shot that I will try out and it sometimes helps me out.

Of course when you are trying something out, there is no substitute for practice. And more practice. And then even more practice.

I guess this is why I like teachers lake EA. He shows you different ways to swing the club. There's no one right way for everyone but there is probably a natural, or more natural, way for each of us. Once you begin to recognize which type of swing works for you, you can engrain players swings that are similar to yours and forget the ones that are not. Almost every style of swing has a pro that has won multiple majors.

My inlaws are generous to a fault. A couple of years ago I mentioned to SWMBO that I wouldn't mind having a couple of lessons. Of course instead of buying me say, 3 lessons, they bought me a 3 day golf instruction course for an exorbitant amount of money. It seemed ridiculous to me and I didn't want to take 3 days off work for freaking golf lessons. So I rang the pro and he was a really good guy. He was quite happy to give me a credit for the full price of the three day course and I used it to buy some equipment and take a series of 30 minute lessons over a period of several months. Worked out really well and I've continued to have lessons with the guy. But I agree with Poe and HB that cramming all those lessons into 3 days is nuts!

As a footnote to this story, an old friend of mine took this 3 day golf course a few years back with his wife. He's a bit of a hack who normally shoots high eighties/low nineties. After his 3 day course Wed-Fri he came back and shot 106 in the club competition on Sunday. LMAO. Too predictable!   

jt1135 wrote:My stance?  Pretty much a conservative, must be why my ball mostly goes to the right  

When my ball goes to the right, I know right away that my left grip is NOT strong enough. My left "V" is now pointing outside of my right shoulder (I am right handed), with 3 knuckle seen, feel funny/uncomfortable at first, but now I am used to it

My grip would be considered extremely weak. My left thumb rests on top of the shaft with the left hand V pointing to the left of my chin. My right hand rests right on top of the left with its V pointing at my chin. With this grip and the clubface square at addrress, a decently timed swing results in a square clubface at impact 100% of the time no matter which club is in my hands.

Mongrel wrote:My grip would be considered extremely weak. My left thumb rests on top of the shaft with the left hand V pointing to the left of my chin. My right hand rests right on top of the left with its V pointing at my chin. With this grip and the clubface square at addrress, a decently timed swing results in a square clubface at impact 100% of the time no matter which club is in my hands.

Different strokes for different folks