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I videotaped my swing last monday, a sobering experience. But even to my untutored eyes, a few things were obvious. The two most obvious were (1) my head moves a lot; (2) my left arm bends more than I think in the backswing, especially at the point of transition. And my overall impression is that my swing is stiff and rushed.
So I decided to work first on my swing rhythm, without even trying to hit balls. So each day this week I've gone to a secluded spot with an old 5 iron and done just that. In particular, I've tried to slow it down, which turns out not to be so easy. But gradually I managed to do it, so that my swing feels slower and smoother. And I didn't hit a single ball all week.
But tonight my curiosity got the better of me. I wasn't going to make a special trip to the practice range, so I decided to hit rocks. I chose small rocks, half the size of a golf ball or less. And I played them off flat dirt. If you top a rock, it doesn't roll anywhere much, so you get feedback. If you connect, it sails 15 or 20 yards, so you get to see the trajectory. But you have to get it just right to connect. I was pretty pleased with this experiment. My slower swing was not causing the rocks to push to the right, so apparently I wasn't leaving my hip behind.
The price was right too.
So I decided to work first on my swing rhythm, without even trying to hit balls. So each day this week I've gone to a secluded spot with an old 5 iron and done just that. In particular, I've tried to slow it down, which turns out not to be so easy. But gradually I managed to do it, so that my swing feels slower and smoother. And I didn't hit a single ball all week.
But tonight my curiosity got the better of me. I wasn't going to make a special trip to the practice range, so I decided to hit rocks. I chose small rocks, half the size of a golf ball or less. And I played them off flat dirt. If you top a rock, it doesn't roll anywhere much, so you get feedback. If you connect, it sails 15 or 20 yards, so you get to see the trajectory. But you have to get it just right to connect. I was pretty pleased with this experiment. My slower swing was not causing the rocks to push to the right, so apparently I wasn't leaving my hip behind.
The price was right too.