Inside drop problem

[magimag]

Hi guys,

I have been trying to help my friend with his golf swing. First we tackled his backswing, which has changed from being very inside to more upright. In my opinion the backswing is at a very good spot now. Now the problem is that he drops the club a lot inside and leaves majority of his shots to the right. Any thoughts that you guys have to fix this?

 

[deserter]

Ït looks to me like he makes a lot of effort to tilt his shoulders in the downswing rather than turning them and that's what drops the club on the inside path. The swing itself looks pretty good to me so if the backswing change is new then he could consider playing with what he has, just drawing the ball back. The angle of attack he's getting from that swing may be a little on the low side which could be detrimental to his game.

If he's after more neutral impact conditions, then I'd first try to simply think of exiting more left. If that's not enough then conciously trying not to drop the right shoulder so much from the top while the hips fire should keep the club in a more neutral position.

On another note, WTF! Is he really jumping backwards at the impact? That's not something you see every day. Is he always swinging with that ferocity? I at least get a feeling of making a huge effort to hit it hard and usually that comes with a cost on control. But maybe it works for him, Bubba does that on his drives at least.

[Golf nerd]

Superb swing motion!
He only has to bow/flatten his left hand at P6, so that the club is more closed at this position.

[Reasonability]

Mag,

Your friends swing is really good to my eye and you have helped him out a lot. To my eye there are a few things I would have him work through by way of fine tuning. I'll suggest the drills that may address the things I personally would tackle were it me.

1. First at address, I would ask him to not really raise up his head as much as have him tuck his chin in closer to his adam's apple just an inch or two. If you notice, he likes to start with his head down and chin out and it wants to keep that orientation (and at times worsen) until post-impact. This can drive his posture downward so much that he needs to almost spring up with the knees through impact. Also if you notice his divot is showing a slightly fat shot -- or dangerously close to it. I would have him imagine longer shallow divots that start after the ball and this head thing is sort of part 1 of that effort.

2. Next, if you have him look and the couple of frames going into impact -- have him watch his lead foot, posture, and knee work in those last three or four frames before contact with the ball. Notice how his lead foot pops back from the toe line and his hips have advanced toward the ball? To me that one comes from the fact that his hip turn needs to be just a bit deeper in the backswing. If the trail hip moves back from the toe line a touch more, then the lead hip isn't swinging out in front of the body so much. The result of deepening the trail hip turn in the backswing is that the lead hip doesn't have so far to travel in attempting to clear. The drill I would do for that one is to hold the club well down the shaft with the butt end of the handle pinned against the lead hip. Taking little half swings, with the club against that hip would allow him to literally push that lead hip back from the toe line on the downswing and get that feeling of clearing. If he deepens the hip turn going back and develops that feeling of clearing gong through -- then that little last minute pop-out of the lead foot born of the hips driving toward the ball at the last second will dissipate.,

3. He does a great job of laying the shaft down through his trail forearm halfway down from the top. BUT if it were me, I would have him put a tee in the butt end of the handle and practice in a mirror -- making sure that tee is always pointing along the target line in the last half of the backswing and first half of the downswing. He stands the shaft up vertically at points in that top half of things as he will see when he watches for it. This makes the "loop" he makes at the top fairly pronounced -- to the extent he may have troubles at time controlling the shot.

If he has any face-on videos -- we see some things there too which are almost undetectable in the DTL view. I notice his lead wrist is a little cupped deep into the backswing which by itself is not a huge issue per se, but there may be some things noticeable in the front view which need to be addressed and that motion of the wrist signals a "maybe" on that front -- as does the potential for fat shots.

And lastly, I do NOT discount what the previous fellas had to offer one bit. After watching you swing and listening carefully to their inputs -- I didn't hear a word they said I would personally take exception to.

I do hope all of this is taken in the spirit it is given. I was being unusually critical and looking for the finest and small nuances. Its a good swing and my suggestions are only intended to help since it does NOT deserve to be damaged. Good luck to you and your friend. Take care.