3 Lessons, 3 instructors, All said the same thing

[Myherobobhope]

> @MountainKing said:

> > @Myherobobhope said:

> > I’m not a golf instructor... but who cares how you take the club back if you are in the correct position on impact? If your weight is shifted and your hands are where they need to be, go with that.

> >

> > I’ve found focusing on impact improves your preparation.

>

> Because the swing is often a cause and effect. If you're rolling your wrists going back, unless you make some crazy compensation moves toward the end of the back swing, the only real move you can make coming down is getting steep and releasing early so you don't hit the ground 3 feet behind the ball. With that move, it's almost impossible to get into a good impact position.

>

> Most of the "bad" back swings you see on tour involve the club being way over the plane going back, it's much easier to recover from that and shallow the club when you're outside the plane line. The very few guys on tour who do come under the plane, Hale Irwin being one that comes to mind and he makes a move right at the top that allows him to get away with it.

 

I am not arguing that you can have a bad backswing and make a good swing.

 

What has worked for me is focusing on making good impact... by solely focusing on that, it gets me out of my head on hinging wrists and being on plane, which then helps me have a better backswing.

 

Obviously there have been plenty of drills and what not shared here... i just offered another option.

 

[JStang]

In regards to me coming here for help, I failed to mention that all three of the instructors said I need to set the club sooner but all gave me three different thoughts / drills to fix it. The most recent guy just said set the wrists sooner. He didn't give me any drills but just said to hit balls slowly to really engrain the feel.

 

The first guy gave me a drill similar to the Faldo wrist set drill but he had me setting the club head outside of the hands. I assume this was to over exaggerate the feel I'm trying to achieve. Either way, I'm working hard at it and will check back in after my Thursday league to let you know how it goes.

[Golf Scientist]

I advise you to make sure you are setting your wrist(s) in the correct way. Having your right wrist hinge back (toward the back of your arm) like a door swings is the move you want, not a cocking motion like you'd have when you are hammering a nail. The cocking move is worthless to the golf swing motion. You can find lots of details for why (and lots of pictures how) you want the hinging motion in the books Golf The Winning Formula by Nick Faldo, and Four Magic Moves to Winning Golf by Joe Dante.


 

Here is excerpts from the Dante book someone posted online:

http://www.golf-swing-magic.com/golf-backswing2.html

[JStang]

I got some work in on the range this afternoon and my ball striking was MUCH better. I was taking divots like the good old days. My thought was to get the club head working straight back as long as I could (of course it was still working inside) and hinge from there.

 

I was hitting some big blocks but was definitely finding the center of the face with consistency and ball divot contact was encouraging.

[Golf Scientist]

> @JStang said:

> I got some work in on the range this afternoon and my ball striking was MUCH better. I was taking divots like the good old days. My thought was to get the club head working straight back as long as I could (of course it was still working inside) and hinge from there.

>

> I was hitting some big blocks but was definitely finding the center of the face with consistency and ball divot contact was encouraging.

 

Blocks can come from a number of different things.

Is your left arm separating from your chest at and through impact?

Is your hips pulling underneath your body at impact making you stand up too straight at impact, and your body forcing your arms out to the right since they don't have clearance to swing?

Are you up on your toes and falling toward the ball at impact?

Is your back leg sliding toward the target, and your upper body tilting drastically away from the target in response?

 

Each of those things can lead to blocks, and each can have a different remedy.

If your arm is drastically separating from your chest keeping the upper arm close to your chest at impact and through. (See Greg Norman's golf swing in the mid to late 90's). Lots of pros practice with gloves, towels, or headcovers under their arm pits to reinforce this position.

If your hips are pulling underneath you, or your legs are sliding toward the target work on quieting their aggressive and or jerky movement. Having them instead support and provide room for you to swing your arms. (See Nick Faldo's swing).

If you are falling toward your toes at impact setup with weight over your ankles not the balls of your feet, and feel like you stand closer to the ball with your hips pushed more up and back at setup. (See Erine Els setup and swing from the 90's)

 

You mentioned you were trying to take things straight back away from the target during takeaway/backswing. I see a lot of people get in trouble doing that. I see a lot of the arms disconnecting from the body, and the arms and body working separate from one another and inconsistency develop. They also tend to shift and slide outside their back leg on the backswing, and if they don't then slide back on the downswing they hang back, their body gets in the way stalling, and they block.

[JStang]

I hit the range this weekend and spent some time working on the takeaway. I brought my SkyPro out of retirement and found that on full swings, I am very inside. Now, I know that a lot of you find these types of devices as "toys" or gimmicky but it is pretty darn close to what I see on video.

 

From the start I was seeing most swings in the mid 20's - 30 degrees inside at P2. Toward the end of the 2nd bucket I was seeing anything from 5-15 inside so I made some nice improvement.

 

The eye opening thing was that I grabbed my 58 degree and hit a bunch of 30-40 yard pitch shots. At P2, the most inside I got was 7 degrees and had plenty where the club head was a couple of degrees outside. On average, I was about 3 degrees inside which is great.

 

There is obviously something that I am doing on full swings that is causing me to pull the club inside. The only thing that makes sense to me is that it is tempo related. I have a very quick backswing so I am going to focus on slowing it down a ton. I feel like I can stand there and make practice swings and get the club in the correct position but the second a ball is at my feel I pull it inside.