My swing as promised

I would welcome any help thanksMy game has gone bad lately.

You have a nice swing, well done. Why do you take such a strong right hand grip though? Is your ball flight OK?

If your game has done bad, you would welcome any help. You're 13 years old, how can your game have gone bad at such a young age? If you were 60 years old or something, I'd believe you. But at 13, I think there is no such thing as a bad game. But perhaps you believe that your game has done bad so I'll work with that.

It's simple, really. Practice is the only way we know to improve. Practice is also the only way we know to maintain our skill level. The more of it you do, the quicker you improve and the better you become. The better you become, the more difficult it is to improve further. But the better you become, the easier it is for you. So when it seems like it's really difficult to do it, check what you're trying to do and compare it to what other players try to do. Check the difficulty level.

Checking the difficulty level is important once in a while. It allows us to determine if what we're trying to do is really necessary. An example. Have you ever seen clips of Tiger Woods with a wedge and a ball, juggling the ball like he was in a circus and then finishing off by striking the ball on the fly and sending it down the range? It looks really cool and fun and very difficult. Now have you ever seen Tiger Woods on the range strike ball after ball to the same target 50 yards away with the same club for hours on end? It looks boring and not fun at all and very easy and simple.

Which of the two do we see most often? Which of the two helps Tiger win tournaments? Which of the two does Tiger do best, the simple and boring or the difficult and cool? We don't need to make things more difficult, we only need to do the same things better.


I noticed that you wear glasses. Since you're 13 years old, I'll only recommend that you ask your parents to have your glasses checked for optical defects. Glasses can affect our depth of field and thus introduce errors in our perception. This error in perception will force us to make corrections. Otherwise, we'll frequently miss the ball or strike it badly with obvious results.


A few drills for you to practice.


The chipping contest.

On the chipping green. Take about 50 balls. From 25 yards away. Send ball after ball to the green. Strike them so they stop on the green. Then when you become good at that, try to send them:
On the green in front of the pin
On the green behind the pin
On the green left of the pin
On the green right of the pin
Then when you become good at that, try to strike the ball so that it strikes the pin and/or falls in the cup.


The putting contest.

On the putting green. Take 3 balls. Past the hole, stick one tee one step from the hole. In front of the hole, stick one tee 5 steps from the hole, this will be your teeing point. Rules:
Ball doesn't reach the hole: -1 point + can't second putt
Ball passes the hole and back tee: 0 point + can't second putt
Ball stops between hole and back tee: can second putt.
Ball drops on first putt: 2 points
Ball drops on second putt: 1 point
No third putt allowed
Count points, make it a game between friends, play 3 balls each, pick up your balls when it's the other player's turn, repeat until there is a winner. Or just practice like that for hours until you can stop all your balls between the hole and the back tee and/or drop all your balls in the hole. When you've become an expert at it, change the teeing distance.


The range contest.

On the practice range. Select a target down the range. Strike a ball to try to hit the target. Repeat.


Have fun.

Firstly thank you all for taking the time to reply.When i say its gone bad this is what i mean.I started the season at 21 handicap and regularly shot 40 points(we play stableford in our junior comps).I became theyoungest player ever at my club to make the junior team where the rest of theboys are 17-18 year olds.Out of 8 games on the team i won 5,halved 2 and lost 1(on the last hole)and my handicap has come down to 14.But the last few weeks i have lost the consistency which i have had.Sometimes i hook,slice,thin,fat and i dont know why.On the practice field i hit the ball ok but on the course i have lost the plot and my confidence is shot.

looks good, a nice swing.
May be a bit more weight shift to right on back swing, and a slight out to in down swing.

At 13 you have a great base to build on.

Sometimes you play ****, thats golf, dont get to hung up on a few bad days. The good days will return.

Do the drills. Build your confidence on the range. Not on the course. You may think that you lost your confidence on the course when in fact you lost it on the range. That's where you're supposed to build it. That's what practice is all about. It's intended to improve your skill. As you improve your skill, your confidence must go up. If you say you lost confidence on the course, then perhaps you didn't have any to begin with. Perhaps you didn't practice as you should.

When you tee off, if you don't have the skills, you won't find them down the fairway either. You acquire and improve skills on the range through practice. You maintain them on the range through practice.

When you play badly, it's difficult to maintain a high confidence in yourself. It's even more difficult to bring it back up. The course is not the place to fool around with your confidence where it must be high to begin with and remain high to the end. The only way you'll get it high in the first place is to practice until you are confident that what you practice, you're doing correctly and you are good at it. Then, take that game to the course. Not one moment before.

A good way to maintain a high confidence is to use only the clubs you are comfortable with and are skilled in their use. Don't worry, even if you play with only one club, you're still playing golf and perhaps you'll play better than if you were using more clubs but can't use them all properly. Bring the clubs that you practice with and only those you practice with. The course is not the time to experiment with unknown clubs only to have them destroy your confidence at the first bad hit you make. Select one club, become an expert with it, take it as your "go-to" club. Mine is my 8i and it works very well thank you. I am almost deadly with it.

You wrote that on the practice field, you hit the ball ok. Are you sure you hit the ball ok? Or are you just sending the ball anywhere and everywhere? If you send it anywhere, you might as well send it nowhere. This is golf, a game where you must send the ball to a target using a club. The closer, the better. It serves no purpose if you practice sending the ball anywhere using the club. You must practice sending a ball to a target using a club. Once you begin practicing that, you'll know exactly how "ok" you hit the ball then. And perhaps you'll learn that it wasn't as "ok" as you thought it was.

Perhaps you lie to yourself when it comes to your ability to strike the ball well. Making yourself believe that you strike the ball better than you actually do. Don't. Aim at a target, strike the ball, look long and hard at where it flies and lands and accept where it lands as your ability. When you get to the point where you send the ball where you aim every time you strike it, you'll have no fear of losing any confidence at all. Until then, remain humble, practice and take it one stroke at a time.


A bit of advice on proper technique.

So golf is a game where you must send a ball to a target using a club. In order to do this, we must strike the ball properly. In order to do this, we must swing the club properly. When I say "swing the club properly", I mean properly according to you and so that you strike the ball properly. When I say "strike the ball properly", I mean so that it flies to the target. It's a hierarchy. Sending the ball to the target is more important than striking the ball properly which in turn is more important than swinging the club properly. In other words, you can swing the club any way you want as long as you strike the ball properly and you can strike the ball any way you want as long as you send it to the target. Nevertheless, it's easier to send the ball to the target when you strike it properly and in turn that's easier to do when you swing the club properly. A note of caution here, if how you swing the club makes striking the ball more difficult, then perhaps it is not the proper way to swing the club anyway. And if how you strike the ball makes it more difficult to send it to the target, then perhaps that's not the proper way to strike the ball anyway.

Don't worry about specific techniques for now, you'll learn which ones are good for you and which aren't. Try everything, keep what works, discard what doesn't. Even if you've been told that it's not supposed to be done like this or that it's wrong to do it like that. Especially if you've been told that you're not supposed to do it like this. Because whatever other people tell you, only you can determine if what you're doing is right or wrong or if you're supposed to do it like this or that. And finally, watch where the ball flies because it never lies.

Have fun.

That's a pretty decent swing - I like the turn of the upper body and good balance.

cmay's point on the rigth hand grip will help you.

I guess you also know there's a slight tendency to move the club out at the start of the downswing, suggesting you probably pull the odd shot left by coming over the top. Try to get the feeling that the hands and arms move straight down at the very start of downswing. This will get you coming more from the inside (also helps with letting the lower body trigger the downswing).

Thanks again.I have tried to change my grip.Does it look better now?
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...hotos/Grip.jpg

Hello Connor:

Outstanding job with the swing and grip change. The new position of the right hand is perfect ,in fact the whole grip is textbook. You may want to squeeze the area where the right thumb meets the extension of the right trigger finger below the bottom knuckle if you were looking toward the wrist. This will keep you from overusing the thumb and extension of the trigger finger causing casting, overswinging and some other problems. A good drill when practicing your swing is to take a piece of paper or a small coin and wedge it in the area I spoke of and make sure you keep it there throughout the entire swing. This will train you to keep the thumb and trigger finger from being overactive.

As Cmays wisely stated, it can, and most likely will, take some time to get used to the new position of your right hand because it is technicaly a more neutral and consequently weaker position but it is also very correct.
The more fundementals you build into your swing the better and you have many, many very good fundementals working for you at this point.

Best of luck to you.
Tim S

Many thanks for all the help.I am starting to see a lot more consistency and will work hard through the winter(looking forward to getting my new mp60's).if anyone would like to play my course,let me know and you will be made very welcome.
The South Moor Golf Club Website

I'm not that far from you, Redcar in Cleveland.
I play Wilton but am thinking about joining Cleveland again, like the links golf.

Did you get to see the EGU county champs at Cleveland last month?
Some great golf was played.

Good luck with the swing, sure you will be Cat 1 soon .
Cheers.

You have a great looking swing. Part of it could just be confidence. When you get your swing grooved that good, it all comes down to the 6 inch spot between your ears. Just don't think about those bad days too much. Remember ur a 14 handicap, 95% of people that play golf in the world can't break 80. Your on a good path just keep up the good work.

Hi Connor,

I had a quick look at the replies and noticed the focus on your grip, it is a little strong, or was as the case maybe, well done the change looks good, bear in mind Langer has a strong left hand and he was the worlds first number one...!!!

No-one seems to have picked up you swing is back to front:

From behind you take the club inside then back down on the outside, promoting a cut ball flight or even a slice.

My advice for winter would be to work on the inside attack of the ball, try to get the club more on plane going back, then dropping inside coming down, this will happen naturally if you look at your ball: imagine a cross on the top and hit the bottom right corner, or place a headcover, box etc just outside your ball like this:

--------------- Box etc
------o------- Ball

P.s other than this it is great, everything else is fine.


This is a link to my son's swing Liam, if you play it next to yours you will see Liam goes back outside then drops inside.

Hope this helps.

Ian.

__________________
Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

Looks like you are hitting an iron in that first video. What iron? The reason I asked is because your ball position looks like a setup for a driver.

Been working hard with my pro and he built this simple frame which i think is a great idea.it has certainly improved my swing as i hop you agree by the videos.thanks again to everybody.