Yes that all makes sense. Too many swing thoughts even to many set up thoughts. When I get target focused things go well. Many of the topped shots were ball focused chops. It will happen. Thx
Oh got it, that wall. Some instruction has a wall behind you that you take your shoulders back and touch with the club against the wall before the downswing. Many years ago personal instruction from Mike Bender who is from my area 2nd lessons I ever had. Your talking about the wall for you hips to bread thru on the downswing. Had first real time out testing the swing by actually playing this weekend. Some really bad swings/ results and some really brilliant shots. Must not be ingrained yet. I have a tendency to get the ball too forward in my stance. When I did get it right the ball carry is closer to what it should be. Driver is still an issue, for some reason pushing everything right..
There has been quite a bit of dialogue in the Members' Forum of my online school on the topic of how to transport "Ranger Rick" to the golf course. We all experience that! All I can tell you is that it is part of the process, and when your practice mode starts delivering consistently solid results then it's just a function of time in terms of when/how that will translate itself to the course. As confidence in your swing grows you should find more and more that you are playing "golf" instead of "golf swing" on the course, at which point your mechanical thoughts will be reduced to one or two at the most, and you will be nearly entirely focused on your target and not your swing. An excellent book that may help you with this is "Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game" by Dr. Gio Valiante.
It's quite normal for driver performance to lag behind the irons. Oftentimes when golfers are hitting everything well except for the longer clubs it can be attributed to one of the following:
1) They don't start with - or maintain - enough weight on the front side. In general with the longer clubs we should add a little more front weight load at address - more like 60/40 instead of the 55/45 prescribed for the other clubs. This forward weight should gradually increase to the top of the backswing (70/30) and build further on the downswing - approximately 80/20 halfway down, 90/10 impact, and 95/5 finish.
2) Their hips are not continuing their lateral slide through impact. This is common with the longer clubs as the wider stance means that the hips have a greater distance to travel. If the hips stop moving laterally towards the target on the downswing then their rotation takes over, changing the low point and rerouting the club. This can produce a variety of undesirable results including fat and thin contact, topped shots and popups, straight pulls, and “banana” slices.
3) They are not allowing the length of the club to dictate the backswing path and are getting too steep as a result. The shaft length of the longer clubs encourages more of an around the body backswing as established by the shaft plane at address. It may "feel" flat as you take it back along the shaft plane for the first few feet, but as long as you maintain the "weight forward, shoulder down, and hands in" components while allowing the club to work around you, it should put you in the proper position at the top so you can attack the ball from the inside.
Also, if you're hitting straight pushes with the driver and not fades or slices, then it could potentially be that your ball position is actually too far back. It ought to be even with the inside of your lead heel for this club.
Anyway, this is a common issue that I am regularly asked to fix, so if yours doesn't relate to any of the above causes - or if it does and you are experiencing difficulty resolving it - we can always arrange for an online lesson or a V1 swing video analysis to pinpoint the culprit and offer an appropriate solution.
@craig - The "feel" of keeping your lead shoulder - not both shoulders - against a wall is all about preventing the golfer from swaying to the trail side or tilting too forward (i.e.: the shoulder moves closer to the target than the lead hip). The image of a wall helps us to keep our weight forward and our swing center intact as we tilt, turn, and extend.
Yes that all makes sense. Too many swing thoughts even to many set up thoughts. When I get target focused things go well. Many of the topped shots were ball focused chops. It will happen. Thx
Oh got it, that wall. Some instruction has a wall behind you that you take your shoulders back and touch with the club against the wall before the downswing. Many years ago personal instruction from Mike Bender who is from my area 2nd lessons I ever had. Your talking about the wall for you hips to bread thru on the downswing. Had first real time out testing the swing by actually playing this weekend. Some really bad swings/ results and some really brilliant shots. Must not be ingrained yet. I have a tendency to get the ball too forward in my stance. When I did get it right the ball carry is closer to what it should be. Driver is still an issue, for some reason pushing everything right..
@craig - The "feel" of keeping your lead shoulder - not both shoulders - against a wall is all about preventing the golfer from swaying to the trail side or tilting too forward (i.e.: the shoulder moves closer to the target than the lead hip). The image of a wall helps us to keep our weight forward and our swing center intact as we tilt, turn, and extend.
Tom