25 years and a million balls later . . .

[Gautama]

And I'm still too steep at the top and prone to hitting off the toe. Dear god, someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong and what I can do to get on track!

 

http://youtu.be/uB18LIXpcOE

[Bellini4]

Takeaway looks good, but club gets layed right off at the top. Root cause seems to be your leg action, trouble getting loaded into the right glute causing your shoulders to shallow and head to come up. The root cause of this seems to be your feet being open like you want to hit a draw, but body and club face aligned correctly at address.
Take some tour sticks or a club, line up to a 100 yd. Target at the range and lay the club across your toe line. If you consistently line up right of the target, then this is the issue.
Assuming this is the issue, your first solution will more than likely be to get more weight on the front foot at address. This will help with the sways and lifting of the head and you can work on pivoting/loading into the right glute.

[Bellini4]

Takeaway looks good, but club gets layed right off at the top. Root cause seems to be your leg action, trouble getting loaded into the right glute causing your shoulders to shallow and head to come up. The root cause of this seems to be your feet being open like you want to hit a draw, but body and club face aligned correctly at address.
Take some tour sticks or a club, line up to a 100 yd. Target at the range and lay the club across your toe line. If you consistently line up right of the target, then this is the issue.
Assuming this is the issue, your first solution will more than likely be to get more weight on the front foot at address. This will help with the sways and lifting of the head and you can work on pivoting/loading into the right glute.

[Gautama]

Thanks, great insight into the right glute. I actually have a lot of internal pain from an old injury in my right hip that I think sort of limits my pivot at some point and no matter what I try to do I seem to raise up to work around it. Just experimented with setting up a little more weight forward (standing in the middle of my office) and it does seem to help - I'll get to the range this evening and let you know how I make out with it!

[Gautama]

Didn't get a chance to play until this morning...really making much better contact through the whole bag, and no pain at all in that right hip. Ballstriking is like night and day for now, thanks! I'm curious to see what it actually looks like in video - ll try to get some taken for posterity's sake before I overcook this swing thought into a reverse pivot!

[Bellini4]

Haha, great to hear!