Beginner Driver Swing

[RoberTX]

Sorry I only have down the line views. I have only played occasionally this summer, but I have started going to the driving range twice a week often. My results with the driver are very inconsistent but occasionally I can hit it straight and 180-200 yards. So I was not surprised to see that my swing is not very consistent in these videos.

 

I'm looking for comments on my swing - What are the biggest flaws / inconsistencies you see? How should I work to improve? If I'm doing anything right maybe point that out too :).

 

[Taylor13]

I'm no swing coach but you don't look like your in a comfortable stance at all. Get your chest closer to the ball by bending at the hips, feet a little wider, drop the hands a bit, weight on the balls of your feet. I could be wrong but to me it looks like your weight is on your heels.

[ElMacho]

I know nothing...

(Nevertheless)

I like it, I think it would look natural and great if you kept your hands as far away from your body as possible from start to finish. Also try to be sure your left elbow doesn't squeeze back in - I hurt my back that way. You can achieve this by keeping your left elbow over your left shoulder level on the follow through. That will suddenly change your whole swing.

[dudewheresmypar]

Definitely look at your setup. You need to bend way more forward at the hips. This promotes a steeper shoulder turn too as now you are WAY too flat and swing too much around your body. Try to correct your setup and make your left shoulder point at the ball at the top of the backswing.

[Reasonability]

Rob,

Actually, to my eye there is some major potential in your swing. Some have a terrible set up.... yours needs a tweak or two. Some never land the lead arm at the top with it crossing right through the line between the shoulders... you do. Some never get the left wrist and arm flattened out at all. You do.

There are two or three things that will, IMO, make a huge difference. They sound fairly simple on paper and may take getting used to... so the ball may spray everywhere for a while but I think if you knew what they were, how they interrelate, and why they matter... you would ultimately get where you need to be.

At setup... you actually do a lot of things well... save two key things which you can fix with one or two fairly simple ways. Place the club shaft at address horizontally across the front of you just about where the tops of the front pants pockets are, and push backward as your chest points from where it is now, to just about at or very slightly outside the line that would run right through the ball to the target. This will add a touch of rear end counterbalance as your sternum points more down and toward the target line. Your knee flex and other good things are ok so this one setup technique will largely help your posture. Secondly, I am guessing from what I see in your swing... but you appear to need a secondary spine tilt. This is achieved by basically bumping the lead hip toward the target at address without pulling the head along with it. The lead hip and knee would land just about over the lead foot instep... Remember to not pull the head and chest along with this action. Lastly when it comes to setup... make sure your trail foot is spaced back from the lead foot enough that in a finish pose... the knees would land about 6 inches apart in that pose at the end for driver... we are talking about the complete finish of the swing where the trail foot is up on its toe. For driver the knees will have this spacing, so if you unwind from the finish and replant the trail foot this would be the stance width for driver, You can do the same thing with wedges and shorter clubs... only in this case the knees would touch or nearly touch at the finish pose. So unwinding back to address would indicate the proper stance width for those shorter clubs.

With all of this setup stuff... the trail knee will start of flexed and may slightly stiffen, but it needs to do all of its work by working just over the instep of that foot. So at address its good to flex that trail knee slightly inward so that it is just inside or over that instep and then as you make your backswing, that trail hip can drift back from the toe-line as that knee stays inside -- NEVER OVER the trail foot going back.

So everything we have talked about is inside your setup. Now comes the thing about your backswing that needs to go with this new setup.

As others have mentioned, your shoulders are turning with the horizon. In part because of your setup. Your chest has been pointing well above the target line which will now be "fixed". But this strange (at first) feeling of the secondary spine tilt will really pay off during your backswing from this point on. Using a closet mirror, make practice swing with the lead shoulder passing under your chin and the trail shoulder rolling higher. In the mirror (down the line) that great job of getting the lead wrist flat and getting that lead arm to run right through your shoulder line....KEEP doing that. The idea is to get the shoulders turning at 90 degrees to your NEW and better forward spine tilt at address.

When practicing, be nice and gradual with the takeaway. LET the shoulders, the hands, and the handle of the club travel TOGETHER as one unit in the initial takeaway. Take the club back nice and smoothly. As that trail knee lives where it is supposed to, your swing swill feel like it gained a wider arc in the start of the swing, and by keeping the handle in front of the chest deep into the backswing you will feel coiled a little at the top. That secondary tilt will cause the upper spine to land just a bit farther than the tailbone from the target as seen in face on videos and when you practice in front of a mirror.

To start back down, you need to start thinking about a mere moment where the hands and weight are basically still and quiet (for a mere moment) as the hips open back up. During this transition moment, the hands and arms don't get thrown and nothing really tenses up. But that moment touches of the chain of events where your hips continue to open. You will want to get the trail elbow traveling in front of the trail hip and just let the hands/arms "unit" roll right back down the plane. Let the wrists unhinge as that trail elbow moves through the strike more off of your still opening hips. If you stay in that address posture for as long as you can, the arms will actually extend PAST the ball. The first time both the left and right arms are fully extended,... is a little AFTER impact. So through the actual strike that trail elbow is more in front of its hip and still slightly bent.

So this was very deep and detailed. To simplify it...

1. A tweak to your setup here and there primarily targeting where your sternum is pointing and adding secondary spine tilt....
2. A smoother gradual takeaway move where the club, arms, and chest travel as a "unit" well into the backswing.
3. Using the secondary spine tilt AND better forward tilt to turn the shoulders perpendicular to the spine versus the horizon.
4. From an improved position at the top... a little more rotation of the hips to start the downswing resulting in the trail elbow flowing in front of the trail hip through impact.... which will lead to extension of the arms up the follow through plane.

There are about a ton of "feels" that go with all this. You can tackle the issues one at a time and as you start with the better setup... things will incrementally start to go your way.

Best to you.

[Coat Jones]

I would suggest a lesson on chipping techniques so you can begin to feel what happens during shaft and mass change of direction and how the set up may, or may not, assist with the process. Even with chipping there are some, although miminal, load variables to consider and those variables will also make a command appearance with a Driver in hand rest assured.

The forces within the swing need to be balanced out and worked against at all times and at the moment that is not happening WITHIN your swing to the extent that it should and you therefore have too many things going in the same direction at the same time. If everything goes forward does anything really go foward.

Good luck.