My ****py iron shots

My iron shots are rubbish. For a time in the past, I was able to hit 140-150 with my 7-iron. That's when people told me I used too much arms to swing. I reformed my swing a bit, trying to really swing and not hit with my arms. Now my 7-iron shots are just around 120 yards. My longer iron shots are even worse...I can hardly see an obvious difference in terms of distance when I use longer irons.

I'm sure my swing has a fundamental error, but most people who saw my current and previous swings think the form now looks better. Not the result though for sure.

The strange things about my swings and the results are:
1. Extremely high (even for long irons) and no distance
2. Balls don't roll or bounce much after landing (from a physics point of view this is normal because the balls just seem to free fall from the highest point)
3. Not much difference in distance from 7-iron up

Some of you will ask me to go see a pro. But for some reasons I can only do this two or three weeks later, but I'll still go to the range before that time. I wanna try things out if there are some nice suggestions.

Cheers.

One more thing

I was recently trying another thing out: try to use half swing instead of three-quarter swing or full swing.

I found out that again 1/2, 3/4 and full swings don't have a lot of difference in terms of distance. Sometimes a half swing can get the ball further, which is absolutely ridiculous.

HELP!!!

Are you shifting your weight properly.by the way you are describing it seems you are leaving your weight on your back foot and scooping at the ball with your hands and making you loose vital power.at the half swing you are already in a position to release the hands where as with the 3/4 you could be casting(releasing too early)try to maintain your wrist cock as long as possible.This is important with the irons as you want to hit them with a more descending blow.Ihope this makes sense.good luck

Thanks Cabbie.

I think I am doing my weight transfer alright. In the past I'm using my hands to swing now I initiate the downswing from my lower body.

Anyway your suggestion on the wrist cock is good and I'm gonna try that out. I start to cock my wrist when my left arm just becomes parallel to the ground...so I suppose I should release at this same position....or ever later?

I have had the same problem in the past. Exactly. Pretty happy up to the 7 iron and then blammo. Getting a nickel's worth of difference from 7 down.
Back in June I took a lesson from a decent pro who had me get on a machine and take swings. It is set up with two cameras giving me a front and target line view real time. First she had me take my normal swing a few times and then showed me a videotape. I have seen enough good swings on TV and in print to immediately spot at least three areas of my swing that were flawed and I had no idea I was doing those things. They were:
1) Overrotating my hips to get a fuller backswing
2) "breaking" my wrist in order to get back farther
3) Going past parallel in backswing.
4) Going too far "in to out" resulting in low hooks especially with woods and drivers.

In addition to inconsistent results I was wearing myself out trying to get distance. This swing was built myself from practice trying to get rid of a slice, which I accomplished. Unfortunately I went too far the other way.
Basically I had to rebuild my swing. The Pro's input was a help but in retrospect most advice was a band-aid solution. She had me weaken my grip and suggested thicker grips for instance. Not that there's anything wrong with that but they really were band aids.
The best thing was she allowed me to drop in anytime and use the video stuff when it wasn't otherwise being used. I cannot estimate enough how great a help that was.
Another big help to me was Dean Rheinmuth's "Tension Free Golf" book. I could go on about it but it just helped my finalize the lessons I kept relearning about letting the club do the work and not trying to muscle it. I think some people could read it and it would do almost no good but for those who really pay attention and internalize the message it is very worthwhile.
Lastly and most important I had the will to incorporate those changes and give those lessons time to take hold. Anytime you make swing changes it feels weird and awkward. Unfortunately sometimes you just have to do it and accept that until you've done it enough times to feel natural it can take months, as it did for me. I am glad I did it. Oh, another thing about equipment get rid of long irons altogether. I am using a 7 w instead and like that a lot better than messing about with the 3i. I don't claim to be a mindreader and don't want to offend but sometimes other people's input on your swing means squat. When my swing was even more hideously flawed than it was later I asked a friend who was good for input about my flaws. He must've known about 100 things I was doing wrong but he wouldn't say a thing. Long story short feeling than your swing looks decent and having others say so only means something if you're hitting good shots most of the time. The proof is in the pudding. If you are getting these results there is a flaw and if you really want to get better you need to find it and fix it.

Great post poopla,

Most people don't know their swing is flawed or are willing to play with band-aids and accept that their swing is thiers but are unwilling to improve it.

I made two major swing changes over the spring and summer along with stiffer shafts and am just beginning to see the benefits. Three years ago I rebuilt my swing from the ground up, my hcp went from a 2 to about 12. My back hurt constantly from the torque of the old swing where the new swing I can hit all day and not hurt. I have finally got it respectable at a 3 but it took time to do it. After the changes, I also gained accuracy with the length. Much better than hitting bombs in the woods. I think you truely understand your swing when you undertake such changes.

If you want to post a before and after video in the photo gallery it may benefit some members. Sometimes seeing is believing.

GolfBald

__________________
The guy in the white hat!

It was great to read the reply above and I really identify with the original thread, I'm sure there is many that would.

I too am fit, physically strong and have played casually for many years with what would be about a 20 hndcap if I played club golf.

My rythm and contact with my shots varies far too much round to round. On average for my physique I underclub up to a club on most shots, even when hitting well. I.E Hitting a six iron 140mtrs & a driver 210mtrs, my longer irons don't do a lot better than my six iron maybe 20mtrs at best.

I don't consicously muscle the ball and from lessons I had with the local pro (Syd,Aust) his quite happy with my swing, I've been video-taped most lessons and the fundementals look pretty good.

Last lesson we worked on getting down & through the ball (trapping it similar to the right hand drill on this site) I gave the practice a good shake and eventally couldn't workout what I was trying to achieve, if the results were coming? Certainly playing became more frustrating with my most common flaw drop-kicking(hitting ground first) coming up too regularly.

My short game (putting aside) is pretty solid, anything shorter than a 6 iron I have fairly good control and accuracy with.

Watching good players practice I notice they rarely over hit(muscle) and have a very fulid rythm. It is all too simply a question, but if anyone has advice for getting my mid-game together I would love to hear from you. I can't practice or play much more than once a week.

Sparky,

Submit a video in AVI format to the photo/video section. I'll have a look. Maybe it's something simple.

GolfBald

I read about a nice cource in Japan (of course) that had Cams and Digital recorders in the driving ranges.

You go in, put a $1 into the device.
I belive its voice activated. The translation was a bit poor.
You get like 6 swings recorded for $1.
You line up, do a couple of practice swings, then when your ready to smack the ball. You say "go" or "ready" then go for it.
The cam records around 5 seconds of high speed digital and stors it on a chip. you can do this around 5 - 6 times.
Then you take the chip / disk / tag or whatever into a lounge and insert it into a TV Unit. There you can see your swing, play, slowmo, reverse and so on. Then if you wana keep it, you have to pay to have it put on a chip for you. Its like $20, but you can keep the 5 vids as long as you want and bring it back when you want to review it.

Awsome huh?
I belive its ony from one angle though. Side.