golfrewind.com

Hi folks:

About 5 years ago I had a whim to take up golf. Up until then, my thoughts on golf could be summarized in one word - boring. Well, I got the usual gear, some books, and an instructional video by Jack Nicklaus. After 3 month of daily practice, I made some pretty good progress with the various clubs. Then I started to make heel shots when using the iron. No matter how hard I concentrated, I could not control the sporadic heel shots with the iron. It was the most frustrating experience ever. Seeing how dangerous a straying golf ball can be as a result of a full-swing heel shot, I basically threw in the towel after only a few months of golf.

After 5 years of not swinging a club, I can still feel the swing in my body and see it in my mind. I'd like to give it another try. If anyone can offer some insights on how to overcome heel shots, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Welcome back to the sport!

When I get so jammed up (on anything, sport or work) that I can't work it out, I buy an hour of an instructor's time and let them tell me how to fix or overcome the problem. Small pittance to avoid a lot of aggravation.

to Golf Rewind.

Have you confirmed that you are still hitting heel-shots now? If not, put that issue out of your mind immediately, and start swinging again as if you never had that problem.

You're too close to the ball. Take a half step back. Keep your eye on the ball until impact. Also, shorten your backswing until you've ingrained your swing into your muscle memory. When you constantly shank, you're conditioning your body to repeat THAT swing.

As I recall, I did try to adjust my distance, but that did not help. As you may know, the laws of physics says that when something is swinging around a pivoting point, a centrifugal force is generated. I am thinking that this "pull" from the centrifugal force is pulling me into the ball resulting in a shank or heel shot. I never thought about it in this way, but I think I will keep this in mind when I go out to the range.

When I watched Jack Nichlaus in slow motion, I noticed that he actually pulls his shoulders back in an attempt to better anchor himself right before the strike. I kind of ignored this because I wanted to eliminate any kind of "adjustments" in my swing to help consistency. Perhaps, I was just too rigid about the whole thing.

Welcome back to golf. A heart second on seeing your local pro to get the basics right.

Don't hit the ball on the heal....that's great your consistant.....you hit the heal all the time......so address the ball standing 1" further from the ball and hold the club face toe to ball and start your back swing....now you will consistantly hit the sweet spot and get good direction and distance!

You may be moving your head up or down. it is throwing you off plane.

I got the clubs out today and did some practice swings in my backyard. It felt pretty good. I'll try to get out to the range this weekend. I am gonna try to enjoy myself, and not be so uptight about everything.

I hear all you suggestions. The one about keeping the head still is extremely important. I know. One thing I am going to do a little different this time is to find my own natural posture and placement of the ball -of course maintaining the fundamentals.

Well, I decided to go out to a driving range not too far from my home on Friday evening. It was a blast. My first swing was with the 7 iron, and much to my surprise, it met the golf ball very nicely. Overall, my second stab at golf turned out very encouraging. I must have hit about 200 golf balls. I was fatigued afterwards, and sore the next day.

I can't get over how relatively well, I hit that night. I have been working out with weights for about 4 month now. I am thinking that might have something to do with my performance. I think about 70% of my shots were solid hits, but only about 40% of them went to the area I was aiming at. Still need a lot of work, but I think it will be more pleasant this time around.