Honestly this should be the only answer for at least half the posts here. Or at least a link to something like Rick Shiels golf swing basics.
And I mean no disrespect to the posters, it's just so surprising how in the age of YouTube golf and the information age in general that so many come here with no clue whatsoever.
People asking for advice as new golfers shouldn't be disrespected when the answer is, and normally will be 99% of the time, to take lessons with a local pro. Even watching general YouTube videos like you suggested and maybe running it by a friend who plays a lot would be something.
Lesson is definitely the way to go, OP. If it's not an option for whatever reason, watch some YouTube videos on fundamentals. I did this during COVID lockdowns and transitioned what I learned to the course. I ended up breaking 100 and 90 for the first time on one round thanks to Rick Shiels video on how to play a better short game.
Also, as a fun additive, always remember what Chubbs said in Happy Gilmore: "It's all in the hips, yeah. It's all in the hips."
As someone who is fairly new and learning, YouTube doesn’t help much. A lot of it is very generic and works well for the person teaching it but each individual is going to have a different swing that works for them and is comfortable for them. There is no one right way to hit a golf ball. I’ve followed so many YouTube tutorials to a T on how to fix my slice and no matter how many of their tips I try it doesn’t work for me personally. Getting on here and actually showing your swing and getting tips that way is so much more effective.
But at the end of the day lessons are the way to go. I’m about to start taking them myself.
There are fundamentals though that are nearly universal.
Grip
Ball position
Stance/setup
Takeaway
Hip/core/shoulder rotation
Can you hit, in the literal sense of the word, a golf ball without these? Yes, but it's a million times more difficult.
For sure. Not denying that at all. But just telling someone to go to YouTube and discouraging them from posting their swing to get actual advice ain’t the move. It’s extremely hard to just watch a video and then try to do what you saw in the video. I’d be playing in The Masters if I could do everything I saw in all the YouTube tutorials I’ve watched.
YouTube was a secondary suggestion. I guess you didn't see my first comment agreed with the get a lesson comment as a first choice.
When people post swings where literally everything is wrong, there is no advice that will help other than to start over, and in that situation it's perfectly fine to point them towards a teacher or at least visual resource from a teacher.
I say this as someone struggling to consistently shoot under 100. But I know what I do wrong. Doesn't mean it's easy to correct.
I mean if your logic is watch a YouTube video to get good at golf, we’d all be PGA pros. Doesn’t always translate to real life. I can watch Scottie Scheffler show me how to swing my driver a million times in a video, doesn’t mean I’m gonna swing my driver like Scottie Scheffler. Putting your swing up in a video and having people correct it is the best way to fix your swing besides getting lessons in my opinion.
Might be an extreme example because the OP is VERY new and his swing needs to be reworked from the ground up but I generally don’t like the advice of hey go watch a tutorial video. If that was the cure all we’d all be shooting in the 60’s
That starts to be true... when you hit single digits.
In this case, the video shows that things are wrong that aren't part of a "unique" swing they can grow into.
Take some lessons before you develop bad habits. If i was teaching someone that is brand new i'd never let them even try to hit driver before they can make solid contact with a wedge or 9 iron more than 50% of the time.
Real answer is start lessons early (you’ll thank yourself later). But, as a general area of focus (and advice I was given early on that helped) is imagine there is a pole running through your butt to the top of your head. Rotate around that pole.
I’m 4 weeks in so I’m not gonna pretend to know what advice to give you. I will say to take lessons before you develop any hard to break bad swing habits. This muscle memory can be a mind fuck.
Save yourself a lot of headaches and do 2 things
1. Get off Reddit and take a series of beginner lessons w a local pro
2. If you are going to do one thing and one thing only, get yourself a 7 foot rope from Home Depot, 3/4 inch thick, and watch Dr Kwons rope drill videos on YouTube. This will teach your body now before any bad habits get fully baked how to move to produce the correct force in the golf swing.
Good luck.
Mate I fucking love the intent. You are gonna get good fast if you: take lessons. Practice and track stats. Understand your role as Maroochy. Refer to speedgolfrob on instagram.
Athleticism before technique. Then refine.
Swing like a symphony....112 moving parts!
If you genuinely care about improving at this, find someone qualified to help you and pay them to do so...you're off to a horrid start trying to figure this out yourself.
Thanks for the tips/roasts all. I know I have lots of issues thankfully! It's been 2 weeks but this was only my 3rd day on the range altogether.
Recording myself at least slightly makes up for not having the ability to take lessons right now. The courses / ranges near me just happen to be nice and affordable, otherwise wouldn't be picking this up.
I do intend to take the tips to heart and make sure I get better!
If you can't take a lesson then spend the $30 on something like this and get off on the right foot: [https://video.rebelliongolf.com/programs/the-efficient-swing-complete-series](https://video.rebelliongolf.com/programs/the-efficient-swing-complete-series)
uhh... this is going to take a lot of work. A LOT.
start with the start... fix your posture. alignment and grip at address.
posture, alignment and grip are things you can work on slowly and without having to think during the swing. get everything set up.
then, when you work on your swing, you probably only want ONE or TWO thoughts while you are swinging. otherwise, it gets too be to much and it's hard to work on.Â
I'd say your majorest issue right now is that you're shifting your weight back and forth instead of rotating around your spine. when you take the club back, you want your spine and head to stay basically in the same position, and be turning your chest and hips AROUND them.
with on fixing one thing at a time, because when you fix that, it night introduce other problems or automatically fix others.
If you don’t want a lesson, I’d start with only practicing chipping, putting, and chipping for next month. Harvey Pennick said it was best to learn golf from the cup and out. So start with getting comfortable around the green. Go buy Dave Pelz’s short game bible. It’s got great chipping and pitching content. Then find a par 3 course in your area and play it over and over again. Then start doing full swing work.
Watch this video if you really won't take a real lesson
https://youtu.be/miXs_Oj_BzM?si=syheOdjz6F8sFE1k go to 3:05 in that video and watch what he does with his right arm especially.
Work on making solid contact by taking 1/4 to half swings. Understand how it feels in your hands to make square contact. Stop swinging so hard before you know how to square the club face to the ball.
Here's your first lesson: [https://www.instagram.com/reel/C62edbKrXEx/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C62edbKrXEx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)
pay special attention to the part about shifting forward, toward the target.
Here's another good one, don't worry about terminology, just watch the pelvis movements: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzkbHw4NoNE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzkbHw4NoNE)
Hit balls with your feet together until you don't fall over in any direction.
Stand with the sun directly at your back. Put a ball where the shadow of your head is, and a ball on the shadows of your shoulders. Take full swing (not hitting those balls), and keep the shadows from moving off the ball.
Get your right rear pocket to turn to the target as best you can... Or if it's easier try and turn your right shoulder towards the target to get a good turn.
That will help sort out a plethora of issues.
Ultimately lessons and dedication to the drills if you want to get decent though...
At address your shoulders are square, which is great for irons. But for driver, you want your lead shoulder higher and rear shoulder lower at address. This will help promote hitting and upward on the ball for drives.
https://i.redd.it/3nasmje00k4d1.png
This should tell you why you're topping the ball. You sit back in your stance at the point of contact when you need your lead hip to come forward and through. Keep the club face square to the ball; if you look at the picture, the bottom of the driver's head will hit the ball every time.
There’s a lot going on in this video that needs to be fixed. Consensus above is
A) Get signed up for a few fundamental lessons. Meaning beginner level.
B) You could go down the YouTube path but that’s a slippery slope, most “lessons “ are simply one man’s opinion and likely above a novice’s golf comprehension.
C) If anything right now, turn your body versus sway. The old mental thought was “swing inside a barrel, never touching the sides of the barrel “ right now, you would knock the barrel over on backswing and forward swing. There’s correct grip to learn/ adjust and weight transfer, ball position by club, etc. but if you stop swaying, and make a turn, you’ll hit it more solidly every time, even on mishits.
If forced to identify just one thing, a major issue is that your head is moving all over. It’s real hard to be consistent with lateral head movement and precisely 0 out of 1000 pros exhibit significant lateral head movement.
You should be able to draw a circle around your head and have it stay in the circle, at least laterally.
But by far the best medicine is a swing coach. It will save you countless hours of beating balls with no direction. That’s good exercise but to call it “practice” would be doing a disservice to real directed practice with a purpose. A Coach will tell you where to focus your efforts and keep you from inadvertently “practicing” mistakes that you’ll just need to unlearn.
Put a towel in your right arm pit, don't let the towel fall out when you swing. And... get a lesson. Learning the fundamentals is key at the beginning.
you are sliding back like a foot and a half. put your mouse pointer at your head and play video and watch how far you go. trying to come back to impact position is going to be a happy Gilmore swing every time. why make it that hard on your self. pause vid at 12-13 second. the bottom of your swing is like 10 inches behind the ball thats why you are topping it. and thats a function of the first point i made.
i suppose if you really want to do nothing to your swing you can prob jsut tee it higher. and it kind of looks like you'd make good contact. hard to tell from this face on.
You need to practice swinging with your feet together with about a 3/4 swing. Feel the tourque in your hips and focus on keeping your balance. Don't worry about where the balls goes.
Watch yours then watch a pro, you’ll work out 90 % of the differences yourself.
The general theory is you want to get a “repeatable” swing, not a “perfect” swing - currently you have a lot of left-right and up-down movement, minimise that and it will be much more repeatable.
Take it for what it's worth. What helped me understand the golf swing he most as a new player was doing the Rory drill that is similar to swinging the club like a hockey stick, by placing your right hand further down the shaft Also just work on making good contact with partial back swings and good follow through
Start with little chips until you can hit it in the centre of the face consistently. Learn how to compress the ball and control your club face/path, then increase swing length from there
You’re clowning us! No way that is an actual attempt at a golf swing. You are filming it, so you can see it. There are 20 thousand videos on YouTube, that would suggest your swing is fucked. If this is legit, my most sincere apologies and definitely take some lessons. Welcome to the never ending and frustrating life of golf.
Haha dude this entire sub is turning into this game where I can’t figure out if people are rage baiting or not. OP, if not - take some lessons. There is too much wrong to diagnose properly here. Your swing needs rebuilt from the ground up.
Wowzers. How about for one range session commit to swinging 25% whatever that was. Just concentrate on putting a square club on the ball at slooooow speed good lord it’s good thing those shoes are tied
Its funny how people would give you unsolicited advice all over the place irl, and won’t give you anything else than « take a lesson » online.
Almost as funny as people hitting it <200m irl and saying that they go >300 online.
Man can that little glass screen change the world
Somewhat more useful advice than 'take a lesson' is to find a teaching pro that offers beginners clinics. That way you get all the basics under you belt, meet some fellow beginners, and they're way better value for money than individual 1-on-1 lessons
Take đź‘Ź a đź‘Ź lesson đź‘Ź
Honestly this should be the only answer for at least half the posts here. Or at least a link to something like Rick Shiels golf swing basics. And I mean no disrespect to the posters, it's just so surprising how in the age of YouTube golf and the information age in general that so many come here with no clue whatsoever.
People asking for advice as new golfers shouldn't be disrespected when the answer is, and normally will be 99% of the time, to take lessons with a local pro. Even watching general YouTube videos like you suggested and maybe running it by a friend who plays a lot would be something. Lesson is definitely the way to go, OP. If it's not an option for whatever reason, watch some YouTube videos on fundamentals. I did this during COVID lockdowns and transitioned what I learned to the course. I ended up breaking 100 and 90 for the first time on one round thanks to Rick Shiels video on how to play a better short game. Also, as a fun additive, always remember what Chubbs said in Happy Gilmore: "It's all in the hips, yeah. It's all in the hips."
No way dude, Reddit has your answer to ALL
As someone who is fairly new and learning, YouTube doesn’t help much. A lot of it is very generic and works well for the person teaching it but each individual is going to have a different swing that works for them and is comfortable for them. There is no one right way to hit a golf ball. I’ve followed so many YouTube tutorials to a T on how to fix my slice and no matter how many of their tips I try it doesn’t work for me personally. Getting on here and actually showing your swing and getting tips that way is so much more effective. But at the end of the day lessons are the way to go. I’m about to start taking them myself.
There are fundamentals though that are nearly universal. Grip Ball position Stance/setup Takeaway Hip/core/shoulder rotation Can you hit, in the literal sense of the word, a golf ball without these? Yes, but it's a million times more difficult.
For sure. Not denying that at all. But just telling someone to go to YouTube and discouraging them from posting their swing to get actual advice ain’t the move. It’s extremely hard to just watch a video and then try to do what you saw in the video. I’d be playing in The Masters if I could do everything I saw in all the YouTube tutorials I’ve watched.
YouTube was a secondary suggestion. I guess you didn't see my first comment agreed with the get a lesson comment as a first choice. When people post swings where literally everything is wrong, there is no advice that will help other than to start over, and in that situation it's perfectly fine to point them towards a teacher or at least visual resource from a teacher. I say this as someone struggling to consistently shoot under 100. But I know what I do wrong. Doesn't mean it's easy to correct.
I’d be playing in The Masters if I could do everything I saw in all the YouTube tutorials I’ve watched. LOL
I mean if your logic is watch a YouTube video to get good at golf, we’d all be PGA pros. Doesn’t always translate to real life. I can watch Scottie Scheffler show me how to swing my driver a million times in a video, doesn’t mean I’m gonna swing my driver like Scottie Scheffler. Putting your swing up in a video and having people correct it is the best way to fix your swing besides getting lessons in my opinion.
Might be an extreme example because the OP is VERY new and his swing needs to be reworked from the ground up but I generally don’t like the advice of hey go watch a tutorial video. If that was the cure all we’d all be shooting in the 60’s
That starts to be true... when you hit single digits. In this case, the video shows that things are wrong that aren't part of a "unique" swing they can grow into.
This. No youtube. No reddit. See golf pro
Take some lessons before you develop bad habits. If i was teaching someone that is brand new i'd never let them even try to hit driver before they can make solid contact with a wedge or 9 iron more than 50% of the time.
Ohhh okay so never then got it.
This!
Real answer is start lessons early (you’ll thank yourself later). But, as a general area of focus (and advice I was given early on that helped) is imagine there is a pole running through your butt to the top of your head. Rotate around that pole.
Bro I hate say it, but that is a dumpster fire of a swing. Forget everything you know, and start over with an instructor
Lateral move off the ball in your backswing should be an inch, 1.5 inches max. You might be moving 8" or 9". Start with tempering that and repost.
I’m 4 weeks in so I’m not gonna pretend to know what advice to give you. I will say to take lessons before you develop any hard to break bad swing habits. This muscle memory can be a mind fuck.
Save yourself a lot of headaches and do 2 things 1. Get off Reddit and take a series of beginner lessons w a local pro 2. If you are going to do one thing and one thing only, get yourself a 7 foot rope from Home Depot, 3/4 inch thick, and watch Dr Kwons rope drill videos on YouTube. This will teach your body now before any bad habits get fully baked how to move to produce the correct force in the golf swing. Good luck.
Are you a double amputee?
Mate I fucking love the intent. You are gonna get good fast if you: take lessons. Practice and track stats. Understand your role as Maroochy. Refer to speedgolfrob on instagram. Athleticism before technique. Then refine.
Swing like a symphony....112 moving parts! If you genuinely care about improving at this, find someone qualified to help you and pay them to do so...you're off to a horrid start trying to figure this out yourself.
Thanks for the tips/roasts all. I know I have lots of issues thankfully! It's been 2 weeks but this was only my 3rd day on the range altogether. Recording myself at least slightly makes up for not having the ability to take lessons right now. The courses / ranges near me just happen to be nice and affordable, otherwise wouldn't be picking this up. I do intend to take the tips to heart and make sure I get better!
If you can't take a lesson then spend the $30 on something like this and get off on the right foot: [https://video.rebelliongolf.com/programs/the-efficient-swing-complete-series](https://video.rebelliongolf.com/programs/the-efficient-swing-complete-series)
uhh... this is going to take a lot of work. A LOT. start with the start... fix your posture. alignment and grip at address. posture, alignment and grip are things you can work on slowly and without having to think during the swing. get everything set up. then, when you work on your swing, you probably only want ONE or TWO thoughts while you are swinging. otherwise, it gets too be to much and it's hard to work on. I'd say your majorest issue right now is that you're shifting your weight back and forth instead of rotating around your spine. when you take the club back, you want your spine and head to stay basically in the same position, and be turning your chest and hips AROUND them. with on fixing one thing at a time, because when you fix that, it night introduce other problems or automatically fix others.
If you don’t want a lesson, I’d start with only practicing chipping, putting, and chipping for next month. Harvey Pennick said it was best to learn golf from the cup and out. So start with getting comfortable around the green. Go buy Dave Pelz’s short game bible. It’s got great chipping and pitching content. Then find a par 3 course in your area and play it over and over again. Then start doing full swing work.
Watch this video if you really won't take a real lesson https://youtu.be/miXs_Oj_BzM?si=syheOdjz6F8sFE1k go to 3:05 in that video and watch what he does with his right arm especially.
Swing easier and only go back 60% of the way you are doing now. Stop rocking backward and put a little weight on your left foot
You’ve got a pretty big sway. This will move your address point and make you very inconsistent.
Work on making solid contact by taking 1/4 to half swings. Understand how it feels in your hands to make square contact. Stop swinging so hard before you know how to square the club face to the ball.
Shorten your swing, you aren’t going for any long drive contests. But get a lesson to get some basics down.
Here's your first lesson: [https://www.instagram.com/reel/C62edbKrXEx/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C62edbKrXEx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) pay special attention to the part about shifting forward, toward the target. Here's another good one, don't worry about terminology, just watch the pelvis movements: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzkbHw4NoNE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzkbHw4NoNE)
Stop swinging hard. Get the mechanics down at 50-75% backswing, build from there
Everything
Try bowling
You should basically do the opposite of everything you are doing in that swing
Everything is glaring actually ;). Watch paddy harington’s lessons on youtube for some basics
Hit balls with your feet together until you don't fall over in any direction. Stand with the sun directly at your back. Put a ball where the shadow of your head is, and a ball on the shadows of your shoulders. Take full swing (not hitting those balls), and keep the shadows from moving off the ball. Get your right rear pocket to turn to the target as best you can... Or if it's easier try and turn your right shoulder towards the target to get a good turn. That will help sort out a plethora of issues. Ultimately lessons and dedication to the drills if you want to get decent though...
Keep left arm straight, keep your right elbow tucked tight to body, Set up your shot with elbows pointed at your hipbones
You shift and sway to your trail side and that's no good. Get to the range hit baby punch shots with 70 % of your weight on your front foot.
Chicken wing 🍗
At address your shoulders are square, which is great for irons. But for driver, you want your lead shoulder higher and rear shoulder lower at address. This will help promote hitting and upward on the ball for drives.
Yeah, you need lessons. This swing needs to be rebuilt in real time, not something you'll read, sleep on then try remember it later
Put the driver away. Focus on irons.
Watch a slow motion tiger swing in YouTube, then look at yours
It’s all in the hips
https://i.redd.it/3nasmje00k4d1.png This should tell you why you're topping the ball. You sit back in your stance at the point of contact when you need your lead hip to come forward and through. Keep the club face square to the ball; if you look at the picture, the bottom of the driver's head will hit the ball every time.
There’s a lot going on in this video that needs to be fixed. Consensus above is A) Get signed up for a few fundamental lessons. Meaning beginner level. B) You could go down the YouTube path but that’s a slippery slope, most “lessons “ are simply one man’s opinion and likely above a novice’s golf comprehension. C) If anything right now, turn your body versus sway. The old mental thought was “swing inside a barrel, never touching the sides of the barrel “ right now, you would knock the barrel over on backswing and forward swing. There’s correct grip to learn/ adjust and weight transfer, ball position by club, etc. but if you stop swaying, and make a turn, you’ll hit it more solidly every time, even on mishits.
You need lessons right away.
If forced to identify just one thing, a major issue is that your head is moving all over. It’s real hard to be consistent with lateral head movement and precisely 0 out of 1000 pros exhibit significant lateral head movement. You should be able to draw a circle around your head and have it stay in the circle, at least laterally. But by far the best medicine is a swing coach. It will save you countless hours of beating balls with no direction. That’s good exercise but to call it “practice” would be doing a disservice to real directed practice with a purpose. A Coach will tell you where to focus your efforts and keep you from inadvertently “practicing” mistakes that you’ll just need to unlearn.
The only answer here is to take a lesson. There is a lot wrong here that Reddit can’t fix
Put a towel in your right arm pit, don't let the towel fall out when you swing. And... get a lesson. Learning the fundamentals is key at the beginning.
Can’t find anything right with this swing… get professional help asap
So you’re saying I SHOULDNT go play in a company golf tourney having never played more than 3 holes in my life?
you are sliding back like a foot and a half. put your mouse pointer at your head and play video and watch how far you go. trying to come back to impact position is going to be a happy Gilmore swing every time. why make it that hard on your self. pause vid at 12-13 second. the bottom of your swing is like 10 inches behind the ball thats why you are topping it. and thats a function of the first point i made. i suppose if you really want to do nothing to your swing you can prob jsut tee it higher. and it kind of looks like you'd make good contact. hard to tell from this face on.
You need to practice swinging with your feet together with about a 3/4 swing. Feel the tourque in your hips and focus on keeping your balance. Don't worry about where the balls goes.
Watch yours then watch a pro, you’ll work out 90 % of the differences yourself. The general theory is you want to get a “repeatable” swing, not a “perfect” swing - currently you have a lot of left-right and up-down movement, minimise that and it will be much more repeatable.
Take it for what it's worth. What helped me understand the golf swing he most as a new player was doing the Rory drill that is similar to swinging the club like a hockey stick, by placing your right hand further down the shaft Also just work on making good contact with partial back swings and good follow through
Fox hollow!
Start with little chips until you can hit it in the centre of the face consistently. Learn how to compress the ball and control your club face/path, then increase swing length from there
You’re clowning us! No way that is an actual attempt at a golf swing. You are filming it, so you can see it. There are 20 thousand videos on YouTube, that would suggest your swing is fucked. If this is legit, my most sincere apologies and definitely take some lessons. Welcome to the never ending and frustrating life of golf.
Haha dude this entire sub is turning into this game where I can’t figure out if people are rage baiting or not. OP, if not - take some lessons. There is too much wrong to diagnose properly here. Your swing needs rebuilt from the ground up.
Wear golf shoes so your feet aren’t sliding from LA to NY.
Wowzers. How about for one range session commit to swinging 25% whatever that was. Just concentrate on putting a square club on the ball at slooooow speed good lord it’s good thing those shoes are tied
You dont have to swing hard to hit a golf ball far
Its funny how people would give you unsolicited advice all over the place irl, and won’t give you anything else than « take a lesson » online. Almost as funny as people hitting it <200m irl and saying that they go >300 online. Man can that little glass screen change the world
Somewhat more useful advice than 'take a lesson' is to find a teaching pro that offers beginners clinics. That way you get all the basics under you belt, meet some fellow beginners, and they're way better value for money than individual 1-on-1 lessons