How was your range session

Nothing cures a questionable appearance quicker than great golf shots. The funny thing is that your mind gets so used to a certain style or appearance equating to good shots that it makes it so.

Enjoy the new clubs. I'm sure that you'll find them very satisfying.

Fred, good luck with the new golf season. Don't over do it on the practice and mess up your back again!

finally, it was 60 degrees today and I made it my business to work from home. Briefly considered trying to play, but the course only had holes 1-13 open so it must have been a soggy mess. Went to the range, probably the wiser move since the last time was just before Christmas.
Actually hit the ball OK all things considered, reinforced that my biggest problem is taking the club too far behind on the backswing. If I concentrate on the feeling of "pushing" it back to keep it in front of my right shoulder, it helps.

hit the range again on Saturday. I was really sore after my first time out (Tues) but fine after this time. Generally find that first range or first round of the season makes me a little sore.
Working on takeaway to not get too far behind myself, then after mis-hitting irons and switching to hybrid/wood/driver and coming back to irons, realized that my arms were disconnected from my body. I wasn't rotating my upper body back along with my arms (don't have that problem with wedges because of shorter swing). That's why when I tried to hit half swing punch shots I was connecting OK, but falling apart on full shots.
Sheesh, I gotta get it all together before I go to Florida in May!

Michael took a lesson on Saturday, I always record video on my iPad for him to keep as reference. Usually there are a bunch of balls leftover so I hit, but not so many this time (darn it, he hit too many during the lesson). I've been stressed out with my irons, my swing got all screwed up and I was sending everything right. Way right.
I think that I over-corrected on my issue of taking the club too far behind on the back swing and now I'm swinging outside in. It's nuts, I'm hitting driver, 4W, hybrid great and my irons are screwed up (makes it hard to score).

I went to the range for the first time this year Friday. Seems like every time I wanted to hit the range it was cloudy, and since I can't see where the balls go when it's cloudy, I haven't gone in a long time. Friday it was pretty much sunny while I was at the range. I did a lot better than I might have considering how long it had been since I last swung a club. I'm still getting a few HIGH swing speed readings on my SwingSpeedRadar unit that I can't explain fully. Using my 9 wood, my swing was around 95 MPH most of the time. But then out of no where I got a few high readings, 122, 118, 115, 112 and a few more. Did the same thing with my 3 hybrid a few times. Judging by how far the range balls went on those swings, I have no choice but to believe that the reading were correct or at least very close. The guy hitting balls next to me couldn't help but notice how far I was hitting the balls on those high swing speed shots. About the only thing I can come up with to explain the high reading is that on those few swings I got EVERYTHING perfect. Good technique with good timing and the right sequence of events. I really need to either video my swing or take a lesson with a good instructor to figure out exactly what's going on so I can hopefully figure out how to get the high speed swings a lot more often and more consistently.

went to the range for a lesson late Friday afternoon. I had gone the day before for the Ping demo and told my Pro about my iron problems. It was so nice when we started he said he was thinking about it all day and was really concerned, he wanted me to get my head straight and make some progress, fast. It's nice to know the guy does care about his students. So he believes the issue was twofold...dipping into the swing and pushing the handle of the shaft too far forward, which opens the club face. I likely did that in a misguided attempt to hit down on the ball more (all of the ads for training devices seem to show that the shaft has to lead forward...). We worked a drill the whole time with my 9i and what I did was set up, then turn my feet so I was angled about 30 degrees (back more towards the ball). You swing along a straight path, it feels like hitting punch shots. Hitting with half swing, I was consistently 75 yards (normal 9i for me is 90 yards) and dead straight. After he left, I finished the bucket and took a couple of full swings with still using a modified stance, hit some good shots. The concept of this is to get the feel of hitting against a firm left leg. Obviously I am not doing this with the woods because of the longer shaft and the swing for me is different, I keep my shoulders more level and legs more stable.
Went over to the practice sand bunker and hit around 8 balls out. Got all of them out, it's crazy I can't do it on the course.
Going to hit more balls today and playing tomorrow.

went to the range, mostly worked the drill from my lesson. Still not hitting irons properly if I go in to a "normal" stance, but if I can hit with this modified stance (albeit, about a club short on distance) I'll deal with it for now.
Hit a few with driver, hybrid and 4W just to make sure I hadn't messed anything up with them. Still good.

In my round today, I hit some really good iron shots (hit some bad too, but more good than bad). Back 9 started transitioning to a more normal stance, still trying to keep right foot a bit open, but thats not bad because it promotes a draw. I hit some really nice high, soft shots and wound up over clubbing a couple of times, but I have no prob hitting a good shot too far. Having faith in the instruction and accepting that one step back will eventually make two steps forward.

went to the range on Saturday, skies were threatening and sure enough 5 minutes after we got there we had to dash into the main building to escape a squall/thunderstorm. We had gone into the covered/enclosed stalls in anticipation so the bags didn't get too wet...since the wind had kicked up like crazy for the storm, laid the bags on the ground so they wouldn't get knocked over, it was intense for about 20 minutes. Everyone checking radar on their Smart Phones to see how soon it would pass...
Anyhow, afterwards got back into the stall and hit away. I still have to use that modified stance (right foot/leg angled back) in order to hit consistently, but it works. When I took more of a full swing (instead of thinking of it as a punch shot) I hit some really nice high shots. So I'll get over the fact that it probably looks strange if it allows me to hit solidly. I guess the idea is that over time I can reduce that angle to eventually get back into feet aligned. Don't need to do it with hybrid, wood, or driver, still hitting them fine with "normal" stance.
Playing on Sunday...so report to follow.

As noted in another thread, worked at home today and it was quiet so I went to the range late afternoon. Wanted to hit the new (preowned) #5 hybrid (it works) and continue my swing therapy. Seem to be able to hit wedges with a "normal" stance, but still using the modified stance (right foot angled back 45 deg) for everything else. So I'll probably just soften up the angle on my foot (more like flared out) for the wedges to keep things somewhat consistent. Spoke to my instructor and he confirmed that basically as I feel more comfortable, over time, I should just slowly reduce that angle. Part of it is mental, this is to help me get my confidence back, which it is doing.
Hit a couple of sand shots, confirmed that I may have been putting ball too far forward since I always took a lot of sand and then hit the ball, so by adjusting I got a couple of nice shots with the "thump" sound and soft ball flight. Then hit a dozen LW and SW shots for distance/directional control off the weeds/grass.

moving the whole right foot/leg back at an angle is to keep my shoulders from opening up and also forces me to hit against the left (forward) leg. Helps prevent too much back and forth weight shift. It is doing something, because when I hit into the greens, the ball is sticking (ie, backspin) so I must be hitting down on the ball more effectively.
Clearing the left side not a problem. I do that too much. When I practiced today, my instructor took a peek at one of my swings (he was giving a lesson a couple of mats down) and said my hips were staying more level.
I like the fact that he tends to pick one thing in the swing and work on that until it is satisfactory, rather than trying to get 3 things corrected, which likely gives you too much to think about. He helped my husband (an ongoing project) for the driver swing, which has always been too upright...focusing on keeping the hands low longer on the takeaway. But he didn't get to this part of the swing until he had corrected other flaws that would have messed up the motion anyhow...so I understand his logic, now.

Didn't have the "A" game...or the "B" game for that matter. For what ever reason, not mentally into it and shot a 97. That is with ESC, since with my handicap the most I can take on a hole is 7...did make some good wedge shots out of challenging lies, so not like there wasn't a single bright spot. But I've noticed when I'm not feeling sharp, I don't concentrate on putts as much, so that part suffers, which is often the strong part of my game. Oh well, the weather was great and I'll get it together next week!

Company picnic today, so I knew the afternoon was shot work-wise, might as well get a lesson in! I wanted to go to my #2 instructor, and he happens to be further north (the direction I was coming from) so it was a perfect wave. He watched my blocked iron shots for a few swings and determined the root cause was crowding the ball (some other minor things, but that was the main one). I was standing too close to the ball with the irons (obviously could get away with the shorter shafts of the wedges) so hitting towards the edge of the heel (not quite a shank off the hosel) with the club still open a bit. Needed to get right arm under left arm at set up (right elbow close to body). Also gripping too tight (not surprising, when you're falling apart with a swing you tend to tense up) so the club face couldn't move properly during the swing. Moved further away from the ball, kind of dropping my right foot back just a hair to ensure my right shoulder stays behind. Keeping grip as loose as I can (don't know how that's going to work first time I'm in deep rough...). Trying to actually start closing the club face during the down swing (earlier than I was). Body and swing not synched yet, so although I hit some excellent shots they would go a bit left because of the earlier release...but they went high and far, so I can work with the timing thing (until that's fixed, just need to remember to aim a bit further right to compensate). If I had to guess, I was previously squaring the club up as it was just behind my back leg. Probably getting to it now when it's about waist high on the down swing. A guess.
He said that is also likely related to why I tend to block the driver, not keeping hands loose enough to square club face at impact. And why I didn't have this problem with fairway/hybrids, I always tended to stand further away from the ball because of the longer shafts, didn't have that mentality of the iron swing with keeping arms in tight to the body.
Still have to work on it, but glad I made progress with "normal" shots rather than just having more drills to work on, the drills can help me reinforce in between.

Hit the range myself today with the objective to see if i could straighten out a couple of issues. I installed swing weight tape in the cavity of each of my new irons. This is the preweighted pieces that add 2 swing weight points each. It's hard to imagine that a few grams can make the difference in tracking the clubhead in the swing, but that appears to be the case for me. I know it helped a year ago when I added one of these to the sole of the driver that I was using at the time after I had shortened the shaft. It helped there so I thought, why not try here.

Contact was much more consistent as I was hitting down more on the ball than previously. I have to be mindful of keeping my swing compact while at the same time maintaining width in the swing. The results are pretty immediate when I concentrate of these things. The other issue with directional control seems to be more or less linked the the more upright lie angle of these irons versus the OTR clubs I had been sing prior. I suspect that my set-up needs to be a bit different with less bend at the waist and more knee flex. The more upright posture had an immediate impact on direction -- straight versus what can at times be a very pronounced pull.

It's going to take some time to work in the swing changes, but I'm confident that they will work and should benefit all my clubs not just the iron play. I was hitting 6 iron and 8 iron today and as I got the changes worked in I noticed not only improvements in distance but trajectory as well.

you have less weight switching from steel shafts to graphite, you probably haven't worked long enough with the new irons to smooth out the swing. I think my husband had the same issue when he made the switch, it took a while to build a new "muscle memory" for the lesser weight.

Thanks for the encouragement, Aimee! I never could understand how some fellows can change clubs every time you turn around while for me it is always a bit of a challenge bringing something new to the game even inspite of testing results that indicate it is clearly superior to what I had been using.