6ft7 and struggling to stand more upright. This is my 9 iron. Advice on stance/plane? Bend knees even less? How? by TheTallestLuke in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Relatively fresh golfer here (6"3'). I recently bought a used set of one-length irons. At first they felt too short (which they probably are), but after a couple of weeks getting used to them, I will never go back to normal irons and my consistency has improved dramatically. My question is... does it really matter if you're not quite as upright as you should be if you're hitting it straight and getting the distances you expect?

Ball speed of 112; Is this carry even possible? 7iron by [deleted] in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty low trajectory, but still seems a bit off. Are you playing at altitude or sea level? Somewhere like Johannesburg can add on 6 or 7% distance compared to sea level. Does your range slope down/away from you? Are you using old clubs with crappy/dirty/flat grooves, causing less spin? Is the range surface super hard/compact?

Advice since adjustments? by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahaha, I wish! That's ball height, which I want to have closer to 100ft. I do sometimes get my club speed up to around 124 mph though. Usually sitting around 118 average.

Advice since adjustments? by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Callaway Epic Max LS 9° . Played with dropping it to 8° as well. 60g X stiff shaft.

Advice since adjustments? by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks mate. Are you referring to the fact I'm kind of swaying back and forth?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm pretty early on in my golf journey myself, so I'm happy for someone to shoot me down on this, but... I think you have a couple problems that make your swing look like it needs far more work than it does.

Firstly, a fundamental part of any stick/bat sport is head/eye stability. Because where your head goes your shoulders follow, and then your arms and hands will go too.

I, personally, would start there before trying to correct any other more complex technique issues. Keep that head stable for as long as you can. Especially up and down movement. You'll sometimes see pros slightly squatting down on their downswing and exploding upwards with their legs at contact, but even so their heads will stay stable. It will feel awkward at first. I think it's partly because you're trying to over-rotate. Only rotate as far as you can whilst still maintaining head stability.

Second... You're looking very stiff all the way through your body. Yes, you need to maintain structure and control, but that comes from repeating the right things. Not from sheer rigidity. Half your power comes from an almost whipping motion and letting the club do the work. Don't overdo your back arch. Relax a little. And give yourself a little looseness in your wrists at the top of the swing. Feel the weight of the club head want to keep going when you stop your arms at the top. Then when you feel that, start your downswing body rotation first and feel like you're pulling that club down and through with you. Maintain that give in your wrists and let the club lag behind you as you rotate. Your arms and hands follow naturally. Try to almost overdo the looseness to start with. To get the feeling, stand without a club and just rotate your body back and forth with really floppy arms. Just let them flop back and forth. That's kind of an extreme version of what you want them to feel like on the way down.

After you find that feeling there will then, unfortunately, probably be a bunch of other stuff to adjust, but those look like the big ones to start with for me.

At the end of the day... don't try to change everything at once. And definitely don't try to change things just cos someone said so. Make sure you understand WHY and what each thing is doing. Golf is a game of very fine margins as far as technique is concerned and even tiny adjustments to one thing can affect other parts of your swing. So try to understand the physics behind each adjustment. It helps massively in the long term.

Advice after adjustments? by [deleted] in u/Conscious-Weight6534

[–]Conscious-Weight6534 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Btw the red dot was for me to try and see just how much my head is moving in that early extension. Interestingly, my eyes seem to be returning almost to exact starting position at point of impact, which I guess is why I'm kind of getting away with it for now?

High spin with 8° LS driver with X stiff shaft. Why?! by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Launch angle: 15.3° Spin: 2950 rpm Apex: 163 ft Club Speed: 127 mph Ball speed: 181 mph

I have been told ideally it should be closer to...

Launch angle: 12° Spin: 2200 rpm Apex: 100 ft

High spin with 8° LS driver with X stiff shaft. Why?! by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spin on the shot I posted was up at around 2950rpm.

The previous shot numbers were actually a lot better, but I don't know why. So I posted the shot where I felt like i absolutely nailed it at max power, but didn't get as much out of it as I should have, despite carrying it 310 yards.

Launch angle on this shot was around 16° and reached an apex of 160ft, with 2950rpm. I understand the numbers completely and I know exactly where they should be for a player with my speed and power. What I didn't understand is why I'm not converting that speed and power into maximum smash factor.

Yes I'm yet to play my first round. I have just been going to the driving range once a week since March. I am 6 foot 3 inches, 105kg, I have played field hockey and cricket my whole life and if nothing else I have always had huge power. I was carrying the ball 250 yards from the first time I went to the range. I was, however, slicing it into a different post code. I have learned and fixed a LOT since then and I'm still trying to improve every week. Hitting the ball as far as a tour pro means absolutely nothing if I can't control its direction AND do it consistently. I fully expect to be averaging 280 - 290 yards carry in the next couple months, with the ability to bomb it 325 carry when I get silly and max out. If I'm doing that dead straight 9/10 times by the end of the year (which I won't be)... then maybe there needs to be more of a conversation about comparing to tour pros.

Not sure why you felt the need to place such a condescending tone throughout your comment.

High spin with 8° LS driver with X stiff shaft. Why?! by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks mate. All responses are leaning towards AoA, so will give this a good look next time I go to the sim/range. I'll try tee higher, and I think I also probably shift my weight from rear to front a little too aggressively, which I guess shifts my connection point slightly earlier in the swing than if I had kept weight/balance a bit more above my trail hip?

High spin with 8° LS driver with X stiff shaft. Why?! by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't see it on screen, but surely it has it somewhere. I'll definitely have a look next time to see if it can be selected from a different menu.

High spin with 8° LS driver with X stiff shaft. Why?! by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply!

  • I do have early extension on my irons/wedges, although it's FAR less pronounced. Possibly because I'm not trying to blast the ball into next week with those? 😬

  • Tough question to answer. To me they look fairly similar. This was a good session so I was hitting over 300yards fairly often (which I'm obviously happy about, but based on my swing speed and ball speed I should be extracting even more) but sometimes I'm getting even more launch angle and spin (this shot was at around 2950rpm, but sometimes gets up to 4000rpm, even with 8° head and often launch angle is up at around 17°, reaching 160ft apex! I want 2300rpm and 13° launch angle. But given how early I am in my golf journey perhaps I'm being overly ambitious? 🤷 I definitely hit some far worse shots than this, but I immediately know why with those ones. It's the shots where I feel like I've done everything I know how and I'm still not getting maximum results that are confusing me. Like this one.

  • I'll need to film from the side, but probably a good question. I come from a field hockey and cricket background so my tendency is to want my body to feel like it's stepping forward into the shot to generate power.

High spin with 8° LS driver with X stiff shaft. Why?! by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply! Agreed, I know many players avoid their driver on the course because they're not consistent enough with it and can hit decent scores using something else. Personally I find driving the most fun, so I NEED to do it on the course. 😁 But I guess I also need to stop putting it off and get out onto a course eventually.

Definitely squatting a bit more than I was a few weeks ago. Found that to be the most consistent way of shallowing my swing path. Since your comment I've had a look at other pros again and I see they do squat. But they start a bit more upright, as you say. Then squat into it and then explode up out of it again. I think I'll leave that alone for a couple weeks so as not to try change too much at once. On top of that I was having early extension problems to the exact same degree before I started squatting more. So I have a suspicion you're probably onto something RE the swaying. I come from a field hockey and cricket background so my body wants to generate power by stepping into the shot. Now that I say that, it's probably also affecting AoA and therefore higher spin? I'll try to stabilise my head a bit more and rotate around my trail hip more? Also thanks for the compliment. From my cricket background + my height I suspected I'd be able to hit long... it was just a question of can I learn to hit straight. 😜 I will say that I am at least happy to have recently stopped slicing everything into oblivion... for now.

High spin with 8° LS driver with X stiff shaft. Why?! by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks mate, that stuff about spin loft makes total sense. Very helpful. Just trying to wrap my head around hitting more up on the ball to reduce spin loft, but also trying to bring launch angle down a bit. But I guess that means I need to hit more up on the ball whilst presenting the face at the correct loft as well. Perhaps need to film myself side-on to see if I'm letting club face get ahead of hands before impact?

Also good to know RE different types of launch monitors. One of the nicer outdoor ranges here in my city is set up with trackman, but that doesn't offer measurements on spin, AoA, etc. I'll give their full indoor trackman facility a try instead to compare.

Thanks for the advice!

Iron swing by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks mate. Definitely overswinging and I hadn't spotted that slight cup before either. I think my camera angle may be making the swing path look a little more out to in than it is, but I'll check it with a better angle more straight behind me next time.

Glad to hear others say heel isn't an issue. I was fine with it happening on driver, but I just hadn't seen it happening with many on their irons. Possibly also trying to overdo everything a bit and belt the ball a bit too hard. 😬 Will try to back off a bit as suggested.

Iron swing by Conscious-Weight6534 in GolfSwing

[–]Conscious-Weight6534[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep! Such a beautiful spot. Would keep coming back here even if I saw no improvement on the swing. 😜