Casting..Sway And Reverse Pivot

I'm a descent golfer...been playing for about 2 yrs now. And my handicap is now a +1. I'll be playing the AT&T prequalifier in 2 weeks. I play pretty consistently with the swing i have now most of the time and when i'm off i'm really off. I know what my faults are. I have a lil biut of a reverse pivot and i sway alot on the downswing. And as a result of that i cast the club early with no lag. But i'm a pretty strong guy so i'm averaging about 295-310 off the tee, 4iron bout 205, sand wedge bout 110 so distance is not a problem for me. But i'm very good at compensating for the early release of the club so i hit alot of solid shots. Now i'm on a quest to have a better swing. Alot of people have told me if i had a lil bit of instruction, i'll be a great player....but i wanna do it on my own. i've tried the Pump it drill but doesn't really work for me. i've tried not swaying...but when i practise on the range it feels like i'm not. But i always put my self on video and i can see that i sway all the time. i know i have a very stong grip...been trying to get rid of it and i cant. Sometimes i feel like i can, taking the club back but on the way down, i grip it tight again. i think i lunge at the ball most of the time. So i need a drill i can do that will help me SHORTEN MY SWING so i can get rid of the reverse pivot and another Drill for me so soften my grip and create lag in my swing. And can anyone suggest a link where i can post a video of my swing for free so u all can see it.

Hi Entra,

Sounds like you play a decent game and best of luck to you. Anyway, my help to you is related to your grip and the overswing. i have just made a few changes to my swing which concerns the grip and body set up. OK, what have I done? Well. regarding the grip, which was a big change, I brought it back to two knuckles. For the first few days of practice, I thought is it worth it? Well, now after one week plus I am not going back from it. It is definitely a serious change which is giving the results. By coupling this new grip with one set up change, I now have a consistent powerful swing with great distance. To elaborate on the set up change, here is what I have done. When I adress the ball, I make a conscious move of my right side to be lower than my left. At the same time, I play all irons from wedge down to 6 in centre of stance. Very important is that the shaft is positioned in the centre of my body, just below centre of my stomach. If you position yourself correctly and apply this drill you will have to get the result you want. perseverance is the key here. Any change in any department of swing or set up, is going to be a challenge for a few days, but if you come to make progress it is well worth it. I hope this gives you some help in your quest and would be interested to get feedback on your progress, assuming you try the above changes!!!

Cheers,
Robert

__________________
"Play to your ability, not your expectation"

Distance is not a problem. What about accuracy, is that a problem? In other words, can you select the 4 iron and aim at a target 205 yards away and be confident that you will hit it? Ask the same question for all your clubs, even the putter, just use the appropriate distance for the club you select.

Moe Norman, Jim Furyk, John Daly, J.B. Holmes, Colin Montgomery (sp?). Just the names evoque images of weird looking swings, don't it? Yet it appears, by the looks of the statistics, that each of those players have had success except perhaps J.B. Holmes but you get the point.

So you want a better swing. To do what? To strike the ball better? How about you stop working on your swing and start working on striking the ball better? It's quite obvious that you have a very powerful swing, now's the time to have a very accurate stroke. Stop me when I stop making sense.

If you want to qualify, you'll have to be accurate enough to send the ball to your target more often than the other guys. Everybody can send it far, few can send it close. Let's do some math. If the only thing you could do was send the ball 200 yards but always on target, what score would you do on any course of your choice? Allow one putt per hole: You're always sending the ball to your target after all. When you're done, allow two putts per hole. Just for fun. Then average the two scores and try to qualify with it.

Let's put it differently. Can you, with any club in your bag, select a target, put the ball down, strike it and send it to that target every time? If the answer is no, you now know what you must work on. It's not the swing.

Let's put it differently. Again. What if you had to cast, reverse pivot, come over the top, slide your hips, in order to send the ball exactly where you wanted, would you do all those faults?

Let's put it differently. Yet again. If you want to compete, you must be ready to try everything including faults and otherwise, keep what works including faults and otherwise, discard what doesn't including faults and otherwise, for the sole purpose of sending the ball to your target using the club. Otherwise, you're not playing golf. And if you're not playing golf, you can't compete.

Let's put it differently. For the last time. What is the only thing you can't do badly if you want to send the ball to your target using the club? The answer is so obvious, we take it for granted. Contact. Or impact. Or whatever you want to call it, it's the interaction between club and ball. It's the only thing you can't do wrong, otherwise, you're not sending the ball to your target using that club.

"Excuse me young man, would you be so kind as to tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?"

"Practice."

Perhaps what you need is not swing advice but focus advice. You are not focusing on the right thing. Or if your prefer, good on you to have focused on that swing for so long but now it's time to switch your focus to something that will produce results. Focus on making proper contact. Focus on sending the ball to your target using the club. If you do anything that prevents you from making proper contact and subsequently sending the ball to your target using the club, stop doing that thing.

Seriously.


www.youtube.com for the video

Keeffe,
And in reference to the grip, i do have a two knuckle grip. I should have said i hold the club TOO TIGHT. Which means my hands aren't as fast through impact as it should be.

Levac,
With any club in the bag, i can send it to the target 85% of the time. Accuracy is'nt much of a problem. But when i'm off, i'm really off. i just want to have more lag and the right impact position to be more consistent very often.

I don't need to know what you can do. You need to know what you can do. You need to know what you must do in order to qualify for the tournament you're about to try for. Now that you know that you are 85% successful, ask yourself if it's sufficient to qualify. If it's not, ask yourself if having more lag and/or having the right impact position will improve on that 85% success rate. If not, ask yourself what will?

Is accuracy not much of a problem or not a problem at all? If it's not much of a problem, it's still a problem. Get your accuracy to 100%, then it will not be a problem at all. Do you mean that 85% of the time, you send the ball exactly to your target? Or instead do you mean that 85% of the time, you send the ball somewhere around or near your target? Do you frequently hit the flag when you practice at the range? Remember, I don't need to know this, you need to know this.

Put your numbers on the table and look at them. Hard. Then ask yourself if having more lag and/or having the right impact position (or any othe technique for that matter) will help those numbers even one tiny bit. Once you're done, ask yourself if striking the ball properly will help you improve those numbers. Then ask the same question about practice. If I practice, will I improve?

There is no single technique that will guarantee any performance whatsoever. What you wrote there presumes that having more lag and/or the right impact position will automatically produce the result you want: More consistency. That presumption is, euh, presumptuous. Don't believe me? Ask the question: Is there any trechnique that will guarantee the performance that I want?

Whatever your technique, practice is what will produce the result you want, in this case, consistency. Don't believe me? Don't practice and see where it puts you in the qualifiers. Just like any other activity, practice is the only way to improve. Oh sure, there are a few techniques that are known to help but even those don't offer any guarantee whatsoever.

Seriously, you ask for a swing tip when you are about to qualify for a sanctioned tournament. I'd love to chat with Woods but he certainly would not ask for my advice and if he did, I'd tell him he's in the wrong place. No matter how hard you look at your swing, it's not going to make you a champ if that's all you got, a swing.

Do you want to swing beautifully or do you want to score low? Which is more important to you? Which will qualify? You know Ernie Els, he has one of the, if not the most beautiful swing ever. Yet, that alone does not guarantee results. You know Jim Furyk, he's got one of the funkiest, if not the most funky swing ever. Yet, he's second in the world rankings. Even then, his swing is not what guarantees results.

I'll take Jim's swing over Ernie's any day of the week.

what is your predominant shot shape? do you like fade, straight, draw? your misses tend to be?
do you have a consistent set up routine?

Shootin4par,
My ball flight is consistently a draw....and as expected when i do miss shots, i push them to the right as a result of swaying.

Levac,
Right now i'm very satisfied with the scores that i shoot. but i donot want to be consistent doing the wrong thing. i have to leave room for improvement. "ALWAYS". My biggest problem right now that i really want to change is having a Straight LEFT hand at impact(its a lil chicken wing). I'm not goin to change my swing in 2 weeks. i'll try to qualify with what i'm good at right now. But in the long run i'll love to get rid of that.

If I was a +1 handi which to me is scratch - I would take what got me there and leave it for now like you said......I personally would work on 30 -40 yds in.....I think everybody could benefit more by working on this distance and you never know with those half swings could tie together alot of things for the full swing........

Good luck

You have two weeks to improve. I think it would be wise to try to improve your weak points. Whatever your weakest link is, practice that. The logic here is that whatever you are good at, you will still be good at and whatever you are bad at you can improve quickly because when learning something new, the greatest gains are always made early.

If its consistent then its the right thing.

Hi,

That's some achievement +1 in two years, well done!

These drills may be of help?

To get a better feeling of weight transfer and combat any reverse pivot try this: Set up and address a ball with a 7 iron, now move your left foot in towards your right so that you have a narrow stance with the left foot just behind the ball. Make a full back swing and just before you get to the top take a step to the left with your left foot then complete your downswing and follow through. Do this a number of times and Pick up on the wave like motion as your weight transfers to your left leg, now reproduce the feeling in your normal full swing.

There is no real drill to loosen your grip other than to loosen it. You can use this image to help: Imagine there are very small holes in the grip of your club and a gas is leaking out of them. Grip the club just tight enough to stem the flow of gas from escaping.

I hope this helps you as it did me.

__________________
Best Regards
Brian

________________________________
Funny o'l game!

007 - For the short term, I wouldn’t do much of anything except practice what you’ve got.

For the long term, it’s simple. Fix the major swing faults that are impeding your progress. Good swing fundamentals are just that because they enhance accuracy as well as speed and efficiency. Do you need a swing exactly like Luke Donald, or Charles Howell, or Tiger down to the last nut?. Is there only one way to swing a club consistently? No, but there are some ABSOLUTE fundamentals that are required to confidently shoot consistently below scratch. But then it sounds like you already know this.
I would suggest getting professional help. Not some "Tin Cup" driving range instruction, but a real teacher, PGA or otherwise. You will likely not find such a teacher on the first try. If you insist on working alone, then I suggest that you need a HUGE education in the golf swing and you COULD spend several years sorting through the myriad of differing philosophies and instruction, chasing endless dead ends, before you LEARN enough to be able to effectively "teach" yourself at the level you’re talking about. JMO.

You can keep trying to pound a square peg into a round hole by working on accurate contact of the hammer and the peg, or you can work on finding a round peg.

I agree with the above statement.

If you're so serious about actually participating in a pre-qualifying event, why not hire an instructor to help you out? Is it pride? If I had your distance on my clubs, I would be saving up for an instructor week in and week out; especially if I had the chance to play in tournaments like you. Learning by yourself is great and all, but if it gets you further from your goals then why do it? What was that quote about the definition of insanity again? Oh, doing the same thing over and over and hoping to have a different result.

I mean no disrespect, if you take it that way that would be the farthest from my intention. I just feel that if you really want to be a 'great' player, take the appropriate steps and leave your pride at the door...it'll show up once you win some tournaments..and rightfully so.

I have started taking lessons from a PGA instructor for the same thing/dream that most of us are going for. I plan on playing my club's championship and city championship the next month. I tried my best to learn from forums and online instruction, golf channel - etc...it didn't work - it wasn't consistent and worst of all, I didn't FEEL my mistakes - I let others, who are just like me, analyze them.

My pride is still at the door, it's going to be there till the end of the season.

__________________
IN THE BAG:
- 10.5 deg GX Squared TI w/UST Proforce 65 SFlex (GigaGolf.com)
- Ben Hogan CFT Ti 3i Hybrid, Steel (Used)
- Nike Pro Combo 3-PW/TT DGSL S300 (From LowPost42 on GTO - Thanks man)
- 56 deg SGS "Score Grind Scale" Wedge (GigaGolf.com)
- 54 deg Cleveland CG10 Wedge
- White Polymer Putter Model 692 - Stainless Steel
- TaylorMade TP Red Golf Ball or Titleist DT Solo (Quite the difference I know)

MY GOLF BLOG

matt,
honestly, as a +1 handicap, most instructors would probably just mess him up by trying to change too much. Most instructors cannot help a +1