start of throughswing. help!

hi all,
any of you guys got any drills or swing keys for correct way to start the throughswing? my problem seems more apparent with driver and 3i my hands are always lagging behind making it hard to square clubface at impact. putting plenty of practise in but really struggle to find good tempo with these clubs.
your advice would be appreciated!

Where is your club in your finish position? To get the throughswing correct, you need to get the finishing position correct. Once you have that, you simply move from the impact position to the finishing position.

If, for example, you have a really low followthrough, you would have to turn your wrists over really hard and fast after impact. This usually results in a draw or hook. If you have a really high finish, you are holding your hands open to get into this position which usually results in a fade or slice.

hi gord,
i dont have a "world class finish" position usually ends up just above hip height. i have reasonably good weight shift with all other clubs other than these.

So in addition to what I posted, what are you looking for??

I'm confused. gord962 seems to be talking about the finish position re the club and hands being high or low. To state that a finish position at hip height is not a "world class finish" may be the biggest understatement of the year!

Only time I finish at hip height is when I'm skimming stones at the beach! And I don't do that with a golf club!

N18

hi neil
we are both confused! btw i was sending myself up with the world class finish comment! i am just trying to find a lasting cure for slicing just as i think ive got it right it creeps back in. as a newish golfer i dont know what to try next. grip,setup and alignment seem okay so it has to be something to do with the swing

Apologies! Humour interpretation can be lost sometimes in writing!

I have struggled for what seems like an eternity with slicing. After 2 years of continuous work, it only now seems to be edging its way out of my game.

You say that grip alignement and set up are all fine but, without wishing to sound patronising, are they really? So many times golfers vision of what they SHOULD be doing is warped both by what they ARE doing, and a mixture of advice given from all four corners of the globe. I know. I've done it. You look, but you don't see. That's dangerous and leads to further trouble because you end up making far too many compensations to correct yourself and hit that bloody ball where you want it to go.

Now, without seeing your swing I can only hypothesise, but I would suggest picking a coach. Leadbetter, Haney, Harmon. One of the top ones. Get some literature/ a DVD and use ONE coach with ONE set of ideals on basics and use that and ONLY that. Stop picking up magazines. Stop listening to people when they offer well-meaning advice and build your own swing from one set of ideals.

It all starts from the basics (grip posture etc) so study your chosen coaches ideas diligently and MASTER THEM. Once you've got that, move onto the swinging motion itself. At this point you can start to feel free to experiment a bit based on your coaches teaching, as whatever is in a textbook may well not suit how you feel like swinging it. But however you experiment with the swing, keep referring back to those basics and keep them the same. If you have good strong foundations, you'll build a swing that won't fall down.

Be patient. It takes time. You'll go backward before going forward, possibly for months. But keep going. Trust that what you're doing is right for you and eventually, on some distant day you'll start to click, and that's when the real fun begins. Nobody gets good by practicing different things. Practice the same thing, and you'll get used to how to use it.

N18.

cheers for that neil,
i think you have hit the nail right on the head i get the golf magazines every month i have a number of leadbetters dvd's and thought any advice recieved would be good for my game but i think its becoming counterproductive. im lucky that in a short space of playing time my short game is already quite good so i need to concentrate on my longer clubs. i might just shelve all literature and shell out om some coaching that'll please the missus lol
thanks for your honesty mate!

And remember, one of the best training aids you can get is a full length mirror. Seeing what you are actually doing will significantly increase positive feedback. Matching your visual image of yourself to the actual image to yourself will clear up any remaining problems.

If your hands and arms are lagging behind into impact it may be that your backswing is too long and arms led making it difficult for you arms and body to synchronise on the downswing. When you arms seperate from your body at the top thenon the way down your body turn will outrace the arms making it hard for you to square them up. You then have to compensate somehow with the hands and that will spell trouble in the long run.

Try and feel as if your arms stay more connected to your chest in your backswing and drive that backswing more with the torso than the arms and hands. It will probably feel a lot more compact than you are used to but when you swing down your body and arm turn will be much more together through impact which is what you are looking for. Making halfswings back and through with a heacover under your left armpit is good for this

thanks pnearn i will give that a go guess thats what they mean by a connected swing? will it ever stop snowing!

Well I recently moved to just outside Edinburgh and we had 8 inches over the weekend. Needless to say my sunday morning 4ball was called off

Yes, that it is what is meant by a connected swing. Golf is a game of opposites I think. Swinging long and away from yourself with your arms on the backswing 'feels' powerful but its quite the opposite. You need to learn to rotate/turn the shoulders away from the ball in a circle with your torso leading the triangle. A great way to feel this is to imagine the butt of the club pointing at your belly buttom/sternum as you turn with the upper arms staying close to the chest

Its also vital when you do this to be in a good setup position with a straight spine angle and correct distance from the ball (and hands from your belt buckle). Try and feel as if your shoulder blades are almost pushed backwards and not slouched and you head is up off your chest. The do this 'turn' of the torso until the club is parallel with your toes. It will probably feel as if you are coming a long way inside if you have been used to swinging wide with your arms but this is right, as your shoulders will take the club back on plane naturally. From there just turn back through trying to initiate this turn with your hips. Only when you can hit balls well with this half swing, start buliding it up. You'll actually be amazed how far the ball will go with say a 7i or driver with a proper connected half swing (i can hit a half swing driver 220-230). From there you can build up slowly to a full swing by turning those shoulders back a bit further each time until you start to lose control

What Neil said about practice and patience is so very very true. Dont be despondant if this doesnt work the first time you try it on the range. Its so easy when trying to change to go back to that comfortable swing you know works but isnt reliable. I have spent a year rebuilding my swing and only now am I really starting to feel happy about it but to get there i spent many hours on the range about ready to throw my clubs away. One day it will click and all that patience will have been worth it

hope this helps

thanks mate,
think i misunderstoood tips and drills in the magazines when i first started playing. i was trying to takeaway low slow and wide and now i realise where the problem is the club is long so the arc will be wide anyway.
only problem now is what to do! leave things as they are now as i have works comp in 2 weeks or get stuck in and see how it goes. i like the sound of your advice so this year im going to spend more time at the range learning to do things right rather than being too eager to play full 18 holes badly!

__________________
cheers slats
"Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle"

Slater

Thats the $64k question mate! I wish now in hindsight that I had stayed off the course a little more while i nailed down the swing changes but thats just my experience. I found when my new swing changes werent working out on the course i would go back to my long arms/hands type swing just to get me round in the mid-high 80's. It kind of shoots your confidence in the foot and i found myself asking did i want to play for fun and be happy playing off 20 odd or did I want to get better. I wanted to get better so thats the road i took

You'll have days on the range when you want to give up as you cant get it down at all. You'll buy more buckets of balls in the hope of hitting some good ones before you go home. You'll then come back refreshed and find it clicks. Also have a plan and stick to it. Only work on a few things at a time. For example only do that halfswing drill for 2 or 3 sessions. Dont do what i did and read something about your left wrists and then get bogged down in that as well

It will all be worth it in the end when you find effortless power. Its magical when you get it and understand how

hi pnearn,
sorry to bug you mate.just got one last query!
went to range tonight to try out what you advised me to do and hit some real sweet iron shots the distance was pretty good and more accurate than ive ever been but struggled again with driver slicing and fading nearly every time just wondering how far i should be setting up from ball with driver could it be im too far away so im reaching for and swiping across the ball?