Iron Golf Swing Comments

stevewoods · September 19, 2014

Hey guys, I uploaded a video of me swinging a 7 iron. About a week ago I noticed I was swinging way too much outside-in, and I had a fade on a lot of my shots. I've been working on a more inside-out swing to draw the ball. Any type of comments/criticism/ways to improve my swing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

deserter · September 19, 2014

Make sure that your hips move to your left as well as just rotating them (in the downswing). It's hard to see from this angle but my first impression is that this might be a issue for you.

Reasonability · September 20, 2014

Steve,

Hope you're enjoying WRX so far. Hey I can share a thing or two I would do if it were me in hopes at least something I spot turns out to be of some use to you. I like how you seem to want to keep a basically still head which is "can" be a good thing. What can get a little hairy sometimes for golfers is what is happening with the arms and body. In your case I notice about three things which are probably interrelated. One focuses on the knees and hips -- and the other is related to your right elbow.

Specifically, I notice in the backswing that the right hip sort of stalls as your arm flow continues and the lead knee wants to wander well out in front of you toward the ball. Meanwhile as you finish the backswing you arm flow keeps rolling up ever higher and the right elbow likes to fly high and away from the body. From that position at the top, You are forced into a little steeper shaft plane coming back down, and your spine goes vertical at impact.

If it were me Steve, I would focus on letting that trail hip inching back from the toe line gradually and keeping the hands and handle in front of the sternum deeper into the backswing. You can't keep it in front of the chest ALL of the way up -- but it can stay there for most of the trip. With that, the right elbow doesn't need to be pinned against the body going back -- in fact that would actually create its owns swing problems -- but it doesn't need to wander more than about 6" away from your side either. I am including a pic for you to look at. It creates some really good imagery when it comes to the arms and wrist structure. Notice how the right elbow is a little more under the club and how the lead wrist is fairly flat while the trail wrist is cupped? A golfer gets to this sort of structure by gliding his hands/arms/club from address to this point in a nice smooth wide backswing arc. Then he swings (not rips) that trail wrist all the way down to the ball -- and let the wrists unhinge which delivers power with very little effort.

As to the knee work -- if the hips turn rather than stall out or drift over the trail foot -- and if there is a reasonable grip... the lead knee will move a "little" outward, but will likely float more toward the trail foot than the ball. Then in the downswing -- the knees separate just a bit as the hips start to turn. Since that right elbow starts back down from a better place, it travels in front of and with the right hip through impact rather than getting pinned behind the hip. When its pinned behind -- you will standup and drive the hips toward the ball making ball striking very inconsistent.

So, cutting through all my talk here -- I would swing the club in front of the chest deeper into the backswing getting more to an arm structure like we see at the top. I would make sure the hips don't stall, and keep the knees from working over the toes at any time. You want to leave the tush line back over and stay in-posture more going back and through so that the hips can turn and let the right elbow pass in front of the right hip in the downswing.

There would probably be more learned from a face on view and if you're struggling with all this in the coming weeks - you may want to post that face on view to get even more help coming.

Good luck and here are is the pic I promised:

stevewoods · September 20, 2014

[quote name='Reasonability' timestamp='1411222394' post='10152539']
Steve,

Hope you're enjoying WRX so far. Hey I can share a thing or two I would do if it were me in hopes at least something I spot turns out to be of some use to you. I like how you seem to want to keep a basically still head which is "can" be a good thing. What can get a little hairy sometimes for golfers is what is happening with the arms and body. In your case I notice about three things which are probably interrelated. One focuses on the knees and hips -- and the other is related to your right elbow.

Specifically, I notice in the backswing that the right hip sort of stalls as your arm flow continues and the lead knee wants to wander well out in front of you toward the ball. Meanwhile as you finish the backswing you arm flow keeps rolling up ever higher and the right elbow likes to fly high and away from the body. From that position at the top, You are forced into a little steeper shaft plane coming back down, and your spine goes vertical at impact.

If it were me Steve, I would focus on letting that trail hip inching back from the toe line gradually and keeping the hands and handle in front of the sternum deeper into the backswing. You can't keep it in front of the chest ALL of the way up -- but it can stay there for most of the trip. With that, the right elbow doesn't need to be pinned against the body going back -- in fact that would actually create its owns swing problems -- but it doesn't need to wander more than about 6" away from your side either. I am including a pic for you to look at. It creates some really good imagery when it comes to the arms and wrist structure. Notice how the right elbow is a little more under the club and how the lead wrist is fairly flat while the trail wrist is cupped? A golfer gets to this sort of structure by gliding his hands/arms/club from address to this point in a nice smooth wide backswing arc. Then he swings (not rips) that trail wrist all the way down to the ball -- and let the wrists unhinge which delivers power with very little effort.

As to the knee work -- if the hips turn rather than stall out or drift over the trail foot -- and if there is a reasonable grip... the lead knee will move a "little" outward, but will likely float more toward the trail foot than the ball. Then in the downswing -- the knees separate just a bit as the hips start to turn. Since that right elbow starts back down from a better place, it travels in front of and with the right hip through impact rather than getting pinned behind the hip. When its pinned behind -- you will standup and drive the hips toward the ball making ball striking very inconsistent.

So, cutting through all my talk here -- I would swing the club in front of the chest deeper into the backswing getting more to an arm structure like we see at the top. I would make sure the hips don't stall, and keep the knees from working over the toes at any time. You want to leave the tush line back over and stay in-posture more going back and through so that the hips can turn and let the right elbow pass in front of the right hip in the downswing.

There would probably be more learned from a face on view and if you're struggling with all this in the coming weeks - you may want to post that face on view to get even more help coming.

Good luck and here are is the pic I promised:
[/quote] Thank you very much for your descriptive comment. You've brought my attention to parts of my swing that I have not considered. I see what you mean about cupping the right hand under the club at the top of the swing and keeping my left wrist flat. The picture attached is a good visual for this as well. I'll also work on keeping the swing in front of my chest longer throughout the back swing. I'll try these out on the range and get back with another video.