Alabama
"Any shot going left and low for a right-hander is
shutting the club face down and swinging to much inside out. Get a
golf club box and place it 2" from the ball and practice
swinging down the line."
- Gene
Diamond, Teaching Professional
|
California
"Steven - Unfortunately, this is a problem with teaching
aids that do not have the aid of the watchful eye of a
professional. Also, you need to have the feedback of ball flight
to give you some idea of what you are grooving in your swing. The
momentus encourages you to roll your hands over too much at
impact. I am a great fan of proper teaching aids of which
this one is not as it does not give you the proper motion you need
in your swing. You will have a way to go to re-learn the
proper path. It is really
difficult to give you a proper diagnosis to correct the problem as
you might not have needed to shorten your swing before. You
probably were not turning and only lifting your arms which appears
to be an over swing. So, you still have that issue now compounded
with the momentous error. Make sure you always finish in a
balanced finish with your back knee touching your forward one and
being able to hold that for 3 seconds. Check your ball flight at
that point but only after you have been successful in this for
many
buckets. If you are topping, put the ball on a tee (use a 6
iron) and focus on knocking the tee out rather than hitting the
ball. If the ball is not going straight, make swings the opposite
direction. Aim at 2nd base, hit to first, then third, then short
shot all the while being aware of your finish position. Your goal
should be to hit to short stop. Try to find an instructor who is
simple and direct and teaches solely for a
living and has done it for at least 15 years - man or woman. They
will help you. Good Golfing."
- Kati
Biszantz, Teaching Professional
|
Florida
"Steve:
The
problem with teaching aids is that they don't all work for
everybody. It sounds to me like you have learned to overuse
your arms and under-use
your chest. Try to make sure you turn your chest to the target,
lead your arms with your chest. The grounders and hooks are caused
by your arms crossing your chest. Concentrate on the torso through
the ball and face your target, that should help."
- Mike
Dopslaff, Teaching Professional
|
Florida
"Hi Steven: First of all I would try an locate a competent
instructor. Look around your area and find out who is the
instructor that people think is a good instructor. I believe that
you may want to look at your swing path and plane. You may be
taking the club back to far on the inside on your take away,
causing your swing to be to flat. Your target arm should be
parallel to the ball flight line in your back swing. You also may
need to take a look at your clubs and make sure that they are
suited for you. Have you change clubs recently? Trying to fix
your swing on your own is a big undertaking. Couple things you can
do is to make reference lines so you can see the target line in
front and behind your ball. Check your target arm on the take away
to make sure it is parallel to the ref line on the swing through
make sure the head of the club swing along the outside of the ref
line (do not stop - complete the finish). Hope this helps. Good
luck!" - Joanne
Bellemore, Teaching Professional
|
Florida
"Steve:
Sounds like you over practiced with that heavy club. If you are
closed at the top of your back swing as your local pro indicated,
your snap hook is the result of that as is a dead push to the
right. You should probably find a good golf pro that lives
in your area that you would be able to work with for a while.
Someone that you can build rapport with. In the short term though,
I would check to see if you are fully turning your shoulders and
try to time myself a little better. You sound like you are getting
ahead of the ball. I have a similar student that is in the same
situation, we have been working on his position at the top of the
back swing and then making sure he is releasing through the ball.
It has been a slow process but he is making progress. Don't give
up and try to get your mind on the positive that you are going to
have to re-learn and recreate your swing. It takes time but
eventually you can get back into the 80's and below." - Mary
Hafeman, Teaching Professional
|
Florida
"Steve, my first question is
"why did you try to make your back swing shorter? I
have a feeling you are releasing the club with your left hand
(if you are right handed) on the back swing. The club can go
anywhere when you do this. Hand onto the club and you
will notice a big difference. Also, if you are
releasing the club at the top you will automatically regrab
the club on the forward swing and this could be
disastrous. When the hands are active on the forward swing,
hooking, etc., usually results. The only way you can make a
ball go left is to have the club face closed when you start or
close it when you swing; i.e., hand grabbing. If you do hang
on to the club, the swing will feel very short compared to
before. Try this!" - Pat
Kimball, Teaching Professional
|
Hawaii
"Aloha Steven! The hands and
arms create hooks. The body rotation keeps the club face open
to square. By working with the weighted club you developed
hand, arm and and upper body muscles. You need to work on
getting the lower body caught up. Start by working on your
hips and legs. The left knee needs to start straightening
which will drive the left hip back out of the way. then the
right side of the body can drive thru. Tiger said to hit a
golf ball he lets his arms drop from the top then snaps his
left knee back as hard as he can. This lets the body precede
the arms in the swing. If you have played other sports you
know this is how a baseball is hit or a how you hit a tennis
ball or even how you through a ball. Hope this is
helpful!" - Mark
Jackson, Teaching Professional
|
Illinois
"Steven, it very well could be
caused by the Momentus. That training aid requires an opening
and a closing to the clubface during the swing. I would be
willing to bet that you are taking the club back way to the
inside and then coming over the top on the downswing. Your
finish must be low left and into your body. Your right palm is
facing the ground at impact. Try to set up to a target and make
a high finish out to the right with your right palm going more
to the sky. Make sure your right shoulder comes more
underneath and not so much around. Also hang on a little firmer
with the last 3 fingers of the left hand, and very soft, passive
if you will with the right hand. Good luck!"
- Scott
Mayer, Teaching Professional
|
Indiana
"Try
working on path and clubface issues. Try swinging the club to a
toe up position when the shaft is parallel to the ground to a
similar position on the target side of impact."
- Bruce
Cohen, Teaching Professional
|
Michigan
"#1. You must use a NEUTRAL grip...put your left thumb on
top of grip (with blade perpendicular to target line). BOTH hands
must hold the handle DIAGONALLY (you should feel your thumbs
pinching the club...directly equal with the underneath fore
finger)...your right hand's "life-line" should totally
cover up your left thumb. Both "V's" will point to your
right shoulder (if you are right handed).
#2. Now, with a square aim/alignment,
making sure you are not aiming to the right, you must swing aggressively
with your wrists flipping (as they would when swinging a baseball
bat).
#3. Make sure that you shift your weight
quickly to the target during swing and complete your finish (in
balance) with 95% of your weight on the front foot. Good Luck with
these pointers Steve.....It is imperative that you learn the
proper grip." - Diane
Patterson, Teaching Professional |
New
Jersey
"Steven: Make sure that your right elbow (for
right-handed player) returns to your right hip on the downswing
and that your right shoulder goes "DOWN" and
"FORWARD" (towards the target). Don't keep the right
side of your body back. Keep it moving "down &
forward"!!! This will keep the ball straight
even if the clubface is a little closed on the back swing.
Remember "down and FORWARD" not just down." - John
Lubin, Teaching Professional
|
New York
"You
used the Momentus, which will keep the muscles stretched but I am
certain that what you're experiencing is a breakdown of your lead
wrist just prior to impact. Have your PGA pro video you face to
the camera, and I'm sure you'll see your trail hand passing your
lead wrist at or just past impact. Remember "hands equal
clubface" and spin comes primarily from face position at
impact. If your breaking down, trying to correct path won't help,
so get that video."
- Mike
Wade, Teaching Professional
|
North Carolina
"Before
answering the question, I would like to know more about your shot
patterns before you worked on shortening your swing. Many times
when golfers shorten their swings, they reduce their body rotation
as well which is bad. The swing becomes too hand oriented, instead
of body. Turn your back to the target, to shorten just reduce
wrist cock." - James
Piercy, Teaching Professional
|
South Carolina
"Sounds
to me that the Momentus
club has you using your hands and arms because of the weight of
the club. Check to see if you are facing the target upon
completion of your swing. If you are not, your hands are
passing your stomach forcing the club to close. Hands never stay
behind the club head. Hands are always in front of the
clubhead. Hope
this helps. Just remember to turn!!!"
- Joe Bernat, Teaching Professional |
South Carolina
"Steven: The swing trainer is a heavy club designed to
teach the golfer that the body sends energy to the club head not
the hands. Go back and read the directions or see a really good
teaching professional that teaches what is today called the rotary
swing. Best of luck...of course, you could come and see me."
- Michael
Lucas, Teaching Professional
|
Texas
"First, from one Jersey boy to another (Manasquan) get
out of there. Find a place where the taxes aren't bad and the air
your breathe isn't killing you too. Find a place down in God's
country (anyplace in the South where you can play year round from
the Carolinas down) where you can hit it year round. The swing
trainer you mention is great if you are swinging in slow motion,
basically working on position. Go to a solid PGA Pro, pay a couple
of dollars, particularly one who stresses using the body and
letting the club square up naturally, and also releasing
naturally. Teaching aids are great if used properly, but there is
no substitution for a good professional. Outta there will help
too..."
- Bob
Hasbrouck, Teaching Professional
|
Texas
"Steven: Avoid the confusion.
All info in golf instruction is categorized into laws, Principles,
preferences. Laws are things we can't control. How every golf shot
starts is according to the path that the club head travels on.
This is controlled by posture and alignment. Perfect your posture
and shots will start straight. There is a great article by Martin
Hall in this month's Major Series magazine. He analyzes Retif
Goosen's posture and shows how it insures great path. Read it. How
the ball then curves is totally a matter of clubface angle at
impact. The hands are the only body parts that affect the face.
Perfect your hands on the club and slices and hooks go away. Do
yourself a favor. Don't confuse the two. they are independent.
Your push is an outside to out path and a square clubface to the
path. We want a square path and a square clubface to the target.
Shots start straight and have no curve. I don't know about you but
that's the ball flight I want. Then we can learn to work the ball
with alignment adjustments for certain shots." - Dave
Baron, Teaching Professional
|
Wisconsin
"Steven: The golf swing is like driving a standard
transmission. The arms being the accelerator and the wrists being
the clutch. If you hit the gas (speed the arms) you will
"pop" the clutch (release the wrists). Make sure you
completely set the wrists at the top of the back swing and make a
smoothly timed transition to the swing's complete finish" - Craig
Waryan, Teaching Professional
|
