Keeping my right foot down and going past parallel

[dms181]

I seem to have trouble with keeping my right foot down and I also feel like I overswing. There are many times when I feel like I lose distance b/c of this and it also makes it harder to strike the ball solidly. Anyway to solve this with some practice drills?

[dms181]

Btw...videos arent uploading on my phone. My youtube channel, pgadsuds97 has swing vids

[Lord Helmet]

I cannot find the videos (I suck at the internet) but what I do is this. Hit balls with feet together. This keeps me centered, on balance, and promotes good footwork. I warm up with this thru the entire bag. This also promotes a feeling of a connected and smoother swing. You would be surprised how far you can hit the ball. Nothing beats center faced contact.

Best of luck. (I am not a teaching professional, just an average joe)

[dms181]

Great. I'll give that a try. It's nice to hear some different drills. Btw, I'm a 3 handicap but its my iron ballstriking that I really feel like is holding me back from scoring low.

[dms181]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz3BxdNDT8Y

Can someone check this out, lmk what you guys think

[Lord Helmet]

I am no expert, but to my novice eye that looked pretty good! How was the result of the shot? Feel at impact?

[Reasonability]

It looks like you titled the video "punch wedge" shot. That may not have been meant for my to infer anything at all (you had to call it something so why not that, right?)

But if the intent actually is a punch-wedge shot... I am with Lord H... no complaints here. It's hard to pick it apart critically and it looks good on a lot of levels. These kinds of shots are a little harder to offer deep critiques on when it comes to your right foot staying down and some of the things mentioned in your original post.

If you want some good news... many do not turn the shoulders perpendicular to the spine. Many do not land the club at the top with a straightish lead arm and a flat lead wrist with a clubface that parallels the lead arm. So many golfers can't/won't get the trail hip to back away from the toe-line in the backswing, and as a consequence of all the above, there is a habit many golfers have of losing their address spine angle going back. You have none of these issues. You have a lot of classical two-plane movements in your swing including the way the shaft lays right through your trail forearm about halfway back down. That almost imperceptible "roll" to the inside of your right foot in the downswing indicates you are staying on the inside of your trail leg as you coil at the top.

The harshest thing (and again its a little bit of a stretch) I can come up with is that if you watch very closely, there is a little sinking "down" of the chest in the downswing. This is actually not at all uncommon in a two-plane swing. Then you go vertical with the legs and spine IMMEDIATELY after impact. It is the amount of "down" you will need to be mindful of as well as the timing of your spring back up post-impact. In that swing, you are fine. But imagine if your knees flex and chest were to sink a little too much and in the downswing and your legs stiffened and back went vertical at the instant OF versus instant AFTER impact..,. your clubface would struggle to find the ball. So as is, you are fine. With a longer club... that one could sneak up on you. A mere touch of stable knee flex in the downswing and a mere additional lasting of the way you retain your spine angles a bit deeper into post-impact wouldn't hurt. This at least would add a little insurance policy to a good swing. With longer clubs, if you find it difficult to avoid hitting fat and thin shots... the issues I mentioned might serve you well.

Also in the for what its worth category. I happen to be a believer in getting the triceps resting on the outer edges of the pecs at address. Its the same sort of connected feeling you get from the towel drill, but its not about "pinching" the arms against the sides, nor is it about letting the arms just hang disconnected. For me its about actually getting the elbows pointing a little more down toward the hip bones and having the triceps rest against the outer edges of the chest wall a little... not pinned there...just resting there. This takes the roundness out of my back at address and gets my chin and head from drooping down a bit too much. This is all explained in Ben Hogan's book in case you're interested in having it explained in better words. But that's me. Your swing seems to do well without your setup.

I personally happen to be a shallow angle of attack kind of golfer. The club and shot you are sharing is probably not the best time and place to go into that. But it so happens that I practice as little "up and down" per the above comments as I can (there is some, don't get me wrong, I just try keeping it to a minimum)... and my divots are shallow. I just maintain the knee flex a lot back and through and focus on the distance from the sternum to the target line back and through. If I do that and get the trail elbow working in front of the trail hip through impact... the divots are shallow enough and I manage to catch the ball before the turf.

Well that's about all I can dig up for you. Best to you!