Swing analysis - wedge and driver vids. Early extension + flipping + bent left knee at impact

Hey folks,

Below you'll find a video of a few full wedges along with a video of 2 drives. I struggle with low ball flight, low spin, and inconsistent shape. I used to play a pretty nice looking push-draw, but some small swing changes have turned that into a fade. I'm fine either way.

Some things I am working on:

1. Keeping my right heel down longer. My last wedge shot in the wedge video looks pretty good. The last drive is decent I guess, but I'm having a hard time not extending too early with that club in particular, which I guess is typical. A super early right heel left has been something I've done all my life.

2. When I reach the top of my backswing and transition into my downswing, I make one very small over the top move. I had eliminated that before (when I was hitting a draw), so I am going to put some work in on that.

3. I'm a huge flipper of the clubface. I don't know how to stop.

Wedge:

Driver:

Thanks everyone.

Removed.

> @syenkoc said:

> This is a solid, athletic motion. In terms of your bullet points, I would say:

>

> 1. Honestly, I would not worry about this. It means you have a good weight transfer and hip rotation. I would much rather see the right heel up too early, than staying stuck to the ground.

> 2. This I believe is due to a small static/set up issue: You are bit too bent over, with your weight very much your toes at address. You body "knows" this, and so you can see that your first move is get your weight properly centered and stand taller, in the backswing: At the top, you are perfectly balanced! This is a natural reaction. And then there is the re-re-action: In order to get the club back to the proper position/plane at impact, you again transition your weight on to your toes and dip forward a bit. This is causing the slight "hitch" at the top. Conceptually, this should be an easy fix: You just need to set up with your weight a bit more centered, and standing a bit taller. I would definitely recommend using a Boditrack mat, if your club or pro has access to one. Using it you will visually be able to see what proper setup at address is, and correlate that with a feel or thought. This static fix should help you get more the weight transitioning into the left heel/"zipper away" movement from the top.

> 3. I am not seeing much flipping in the important part of the swing - up until impact. The video is not high-speed, so it is hard to say with 100% certainty, but the club looks basically square to maybe only slightly shut until well into your release. You do get the clubface closed into the finish, and this appears to be caused by not releasing your eye/head - you are staying down a long time after impact. It may be aesthetically displeasing, but there is nothing bad about it. If you want to eliminate this, watch how tour players "release their eyes" at impact. Stenson is probably the best example of this - he almost follows the ball with his eyes. This will give you a more rounded release.

Thanks for the feedback. Definitely see what you're saying on #2... my armpits are out past my toes. As far as the flipping goes, you may be right that it isn't hurting me, I'm not sure. I've seen it on a high speed camera, and the instructor said it didn't seem to hinder me. I'll check out releasing the eyes.

Another thing I noticed when I compare my impact and post-impact positions to tour players is that their right shoulder appears to rotate seamlessly past and around their chin to the left. Mine seems to just run into my chin and then I come up and out of everything instead of fully rotating to finish the swing. As a result (or the opposite), my arms seem to finish a bit higher/right rather than around my body to the left. Do you have any thoughts on that? I was thinking that working on this may also help with the post-impact flipping. I've seen some drills that looked interesting like covering the ball with my right shoulder through impact which seemed to produce some nice rotation when messing around with a club in front of a mirror in the house.

Delete.

> @syenkoc said:

> > As a result (or the opposite), my arms seem to finish a bit higher/right rather than around my body to the left. Do you have any thoughts on that? I was thinking that working on this may also help with the post-impact flipping. I've seen some drills that looked interesting like covering the ball with my right shoulder through impact which seemed to produce some nice rotation when messing around with a club in front of a mirror in the house.

>

> I believe a better release of your eyes/head will allow your shoulders to continue turning post-impact, which should round out/flatten the release. Your shoulders are stalling because your head is still looking at the ground - if they didn't stall, you'd have a nasty neck strain! Here is a blast from the past - Hunter Mahan - who does a great job of release his head/eyes, and as a result has a very (some would overly) rounded release:

>

>

> The old adage of "keep your eye on the ball" is actually correct in this case. You want your eyes to start following the ball as soon as you impact it.

This feels promising after some practice swings in the backyard. While paying attention to what my eyes normally do in my swing, they seem to gaze off towards the right for a while until my shoulder comes around and moves it. When I instead free it up to look up to my target after impact, my follow through seems to have more mobility. I'm going to work on that and standing a little upright. They seem like pretty solid recommendations that are easy to incorporate. Thanks again.

I certainly welcome more feedback!

Your weight is towards your toes too much (feel it under the arches). You let the club shaft get sucked inside, which pulls your arms in too far behind you, so you're stuck coming down. This makes you instinctively get steep with your shoulders and club. Because you're a good athlete, you raise up and lose your spine angle to shallow the club shaft out. But because you have no room, you can't rotate your body (if you did, you'd shank it), so you're forced to stall your pivot and flip at the bottom.

Thanks everyone. I've attempted to make some adjustments and have posted a new video below. I believe I have made very subtle improvements in most of the areas suggested. My posture is certainly improved, and I believe my takeaway is more on plane (although I screwed up the camera angle). I think my downswing is a little shallower as well. Is anybody else able to confirm that they see improvements as well so that I know I am on the right track? I shot my best 9 of the year, 38, on Tuesday. Ball striking certainly feels improved.

Trail arm and right hip way out of sequence. Elbow needs to get more forward on downswing with right hip not moving out toward toes, your hip goes out which blocks the way of an arm that is already blocked on its own cuz it's not folding properly going back. Still crowding the ball a bit.

> @"Ping's Duck" said:

> Trail arm and right hip way out of sequence. Elbow needs to get more forward on downswing with right hip not moving out toward toes, your hip goes out which blocks the way of an arm that is already blocked on its own cuz it's not folding properly going back. Still crowding the ball a bit.

Could you please explain why my sequence is incorrect and what the proper sequence is? I think I understand the positional aspects of what you said, but need some help on the sequencing. Are my hips too fast? New swing video below:

Basically not turning-rotating properly having arms and body in concert- your arms are leaving you. Issues can be fixed fairly quick live, but in writing, or on-line, more slow going. If you can find a good pro have him/her show what Hunter is doing going back and you'll be off to the races most likely. Not the best angles on your shots, but on takeaway when club reaches first parallel and from YOUR point of view is the club outside the toes of the trail foot, even with the tip of the toes on that foot, or inside the toes of the trail foot maybe back as far as the little toe mound? Compare the height of the shaft at that first parallel point with Hunter's shaft height in the same location. Can't go wrong with Hunter's leg set at address either.

Just a common expression to say the outside is going out and around instead of in and up. Not going deep into the weeds about what moves what, but I understand your point, obviously OP's arms are not actually leaving him.