Putting in the work on the range. How does it look?

[Taylor13]

Constant fighter of the sway. Focus has been keeping right heel on the ground until impact and keeping weight on inside of right foot in backswing.

 

Any critique given is appreciated

 

[Taylor13]

No feedback?

[Reasonability]

Hey there fella --

Sorry you've been a little stranded here.

I think part of the issue with getting responses is the whole camera angle thing. If you get a chance over the weekend -- were are gong to need a couple of things from you.

1) the front on shot needs to be dead face on - about belt high -[u][b] level [/b][/u]- close enough to hopefully see the grip (but far enough back to see the entire club motion all the way to the top and through. As it is -- this one is going to be a little tricky since the camera angle is low, far away, and at less than a pure dead face on view. If you have the option when sending up through YouTube to allow FULL SCREEN - click 'yes' on that one. There are tiny nuances that can be picked up that way... (You might be surprised what tiny details old Reasonability sees when he gets the chance - LOL).

2) Its always good to also have the down-the-line shot too. Same thing -- about belt high - shot right down the toe line - camera level - just far enough back to capture the entire motion of the club all the way up and through. You do set up with that hint of secondary spine tilt. GOOD JOB. You do have your feet wide enough to support a full driver swing - GREAT. You do NOT pin your right elbow to your rib cage going back which offers you a nice wide arc in the backswing - FANTASTIC.

But what you need to be careful of is getting the rear end back behind the heels enough at address and then deeping the hip turn going back such that the trail knee and hip do not drift laterally. The trail side hip inches back and away from the toe line. If it stalls or drifts to your

So here is what I will do... I am going to take a "whack" and giving you a little boost here. If you would return the favor by getting some slightly better video posted -- then I will gladly respond with even better "stuff" from me to you.

So lets start with a few good things first:

I realize your fighting the sway. I relate. I thought for years I would start a club called "swayers anonymous". I had it so bad that I began to think I would never get over it and it looks like you're well on the way. I also love to see both arms extend PAST the ball like that versus "at" the ball. Great job of posting up over the lead leg with the right heel up and toe down. INCREDIBLE job of getting your back to face the target at the top of the backswing -- no lack of making a full upper body turn there whatsoever.

So going back to your battle with sway and some things to consider.

The sway-hitter normally has two or three main causes of his sway. And because he has a little too much lateral in his motion versus rotational motion -- he tends to fight blocks our the right - and snap hooks. His sway in the forward swing in effect moves the ball backward in the stance -- the ball didn't move -- but in effect he has. Because the club has to find a ball that's too far back in the stance at impact, the sway golfer compensates by getting too steep in his angle of attack. The club is diving downward hard at the ball. The club coming from the inside will block to the right. If he gets flippy with the hands through the strike - he will tend to hook it. If his hips advance toward the ball as well as moving laterally - then his spine angle through the shot rises up until his chest if pointing at the horizon and from this vertical spine through impact the handle rises -- which in turn causes his divots to be deeper on the toe side. Deep toe divots cause the clubface to twist open during contact with the ball sending more shots out to the right. SO... he trains himself to get more flippy with the hands introducing more hooks.

All this energy (half of it subconscious) to manipulate the hands and getting too steep actually causes some lost transfer of energy from the clubface into the back of the ball. SO... many golfers respond to that one by... you guessed it... hitting it ever harder with the arms and hands.

I have no clue if this describes your battle with the sway exactly to a tee -- But I will tell you as a former swayer -- this or something close to it is very common. Like you -- I sort of fixed my sway -- but the old bones and shadows of my swaying days left me swing a little harder versus a little better. That one took awhile to sink in for me. There is tremendous clubhead speed available through a more controlled and fluid swing. If you've ever have seen a pro or really good ball striker -- it looks effortless. The better word for might be efficient. This is what I want to help you with this evening. I would like to point out things in your swing you may have (consciously or subconsciously) added over time to add power to your swing when the sway was really haunting you. You may be able to hit it a country mile already. All I'm suggesting is that you might actually get it to go a mile and a quarter with just some subtle "stuff" - and control the ball flight a little more while you're at it.

Here we go....

First - keeping the back heel down longer is a way to fight the sway. You are clearly getting it tamed. But take a peek at your video just watching your trail side (right) knee and hip. Watch those two puppies drift just a little toward and eventually land over your back foot. I can almost tell you right now without seeing that down the line video that part of the reason you were swaying so much on the downswing -- was a response to swaying on the backswing. Lateral sway in the backswing means one or all of several things are happening:

A) The address posture doesn't include enough rear end counter-balance back behind the heels.
B) The hips fail to actually rotate in the backswing.... either they just plain stall... or the trail side hip is more or less locked with the lead side hip swings open like a barn door.

To "add power" the golfer slides away from the target laterally in the backswing -- may not even be away of it. His body is already doomed to not be part of the downswing equation so he slides back (usually too far) and gets steep and flippy. The key thing to know is that an inactive body causes over active hands and arms. Your true power comes from a rotational swing (including the hips) and trusting that your secondary spine tilt will allow you to transport your trail elbow down in front of your trail hip with a cupped right wrist and just LET the wrists remain relaxed from the top down and unhinge naturally. THERE is where you would pick up that extra distance AND control.

So - I would go ahead and use that nice setup you have and MAKE SURE the rear end is back behind the heels enough right from the start. Now you don't want to go ape-crap about it and get so far onto your heels at address that you ruin your swing.... but remember (A) above is a potential leftover from your swaying days. Yes keeping the back heel down longer certainly helps. Making SURE that rear end is back behind the heel enough is also part of fixing sway. Your forward bend from the waist should offset that rear end being back there. You should feel like the weight is neither in the heels or the balls of the feet at address... just right in between. If I walked up behind or in front of you and have you a little shove around the shoulders - you should not be knocked off balance. Golfers can "think" this one is no big deal -- but swayers need to look into it pretty deeply and make SURE this one isn't part of the problem.

Next - the feeling of the trial hip inching back from the toe line in the back swing. Just imagine a bungee cord being on the trail hip pocket almost deepening that turn... again no need to go ape-crap over doing things here -- but in response to that nice wide arc backswing and shoulder turn you make already -- the hips are going to respond anyway, right? Just let the trail hip move back and away from the toe line. This will completely kill that slight drift over the back foot. Your back knee can float a little in this process -- it just won't drift over the back foot. All you have done here is simply trade one little motion in for another.

In transition - all you need to do is take it easy! Let yourself slow a little just as you get to the top. You can even insert a little mini-pause up there. No need to tense up or add extra grip pressure. The very first move is nothing more than a gentle little separation of the knees or perhaps a subtle little opening of the hips -- hands and arms and club still up there - weight still on the back foot for just a mere moment there... and that will all by itself get you started well.

You made a simple turn around your address spine going back and once that subtle little move happens you can turn back through. Now your LEAD hip can clear easier! Why? Because you started with the hips back - you turned the trail hip back a little more, and NOW there is all this room right in front of you for the arm flow coming back down. NOW you can get the trail elbow to pass right in front of the trail hip. NOW you can transport that bent (cupped) trail wrist all the way down and just unhinge the relaxed wrists FREELY. That whole club/hands/arms "unit" can almost just go for a ride as you turn. You will be surprised how this subtle nuance in the set up and the little bit deeper hip turn going back frees you up to swing smoothly and just let the wrists unhinge. That ball will SNAP off the center of the clubface more consistently because that bend in the back of the right wrist travels farther down and deeper into the release -- so far so that there is a touch of this elusive forward shaft lean everyone seems to crave for iron shots. And for driver -- there ball is more forward in the stance so the there is less forward press at address and the handle and clubhead line up a little straighter through impact meaning you hit it a little more on the upswing... but still the mechanics here are the same regardless of the club in hand.

OK my friend -- all this babble comes down to a little check on the rear end counter balance at address - check the depth of hip TURN going back -- allow your transition to smooth out a little and transport that cupped trail wrist down into the a relaxed unhinging wrist release.

When you can -- throw us up a little bit clearer and better video and if you can include a down the line shot. This is where I think you will get much better help and responses.

EDIT: Forgive and train wrecks on my part spelling/grammar wise. I will recheck and clean up this post tomorrow as need be. (getting late here).

Take care!

[Taylor13]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to look at my swing and shareyour knowledge with me. It's late here but I will get to work on these things tomorrow. I have played golf on my toes or by leaving my weight on lead side (my own version of stack and tilt I use at times) for so long that the whole get your butt behind your heels is encouraging. I have pretty much fought a snap hook my entire golfing career. I haven't taken a lesson in 15 years (I'm 31 now)

I will get those two camera angles up ASAP. Thanks again for the help

[Taylor13]

http://youtu.be/RgXXDLgQBMA

[Taylor13]

http://youtu.be/pGa3NsF7uNk

[Taylor13]

http://youtu.be/RcUqBNTvU8E

[Reasonability]

OK - great stuff!

Now here are a couple of things to experiment with a little - one will take a little while to pay off since it will feel so different. The other might kick in pretty quickly (you can be the judge of course).

There is a fair amount of knee flex (bend) going on starting right from the address. This isn't the worst thing in the world - but it can sort of make getting a nice simple hip actions back and through a little complicated. You of course still want the rear to be a counterbalance and such and all the things you are doing look solid -- its just that a little fraction less knee bend and perhaps as a result a spoonful of bend at the waist - it may free you up a little more once your accustomed to that feel. This is the one that "should" feel a bit strange but then is likely to ease into something you feel actually good about. The overall goal of this and the next item are to allow you to inch the trail side hip back from the toe line and then keep the tailbone between the ankles as you turn back through STILL working around your address posture -- sort of a way of keeping more and more simple (which incredibly makes it more and more powerful).

This next one may or may not take a little more getting used to but is worth taking on after the above. If you turn the lead elbow down to point at your lead hip a little more versus having it just sort of lay there (probably pointing at the target) and even gave a little dose of the same thing to the trail elbow (at least somewhat turned toward its hip) AND you stuck a little tip of a towel in the left arm pit - not pinning that towel down with incredible tensions - just holding it in place while you swing back.... What would tend to happen is you feel like the handle and hands and club move right along as a unit if front of the chest. This is the feeling of being "connected". There is a point deep into the backswing where the hands need to wander away from the chest a little - but its a brief moment there. Then real soon (even before the arm flow is halfway back down) the hands and hand and chest seem to travel together again. The trail side elbow will pass in front of the rotating hips and that "L" formed between the shaft and lead arm will unload only when the butt end of the handle gets at or even barely in front of the ball. The bend in the back of your left wrist will sort of transport down or just go for a ride. If you look at your videos going into the actual release (the bottom half of the swing).... your sort of starting to dump those angles early.... this is "casting" Some cast from the top and some cast just before impact. You have a dose of casting right before impact.

If you're picking up what I'm dropping here -- all these words come down to two things:

1) Looking into a touch less knee bend and to compensate a hair more bend a the setup to ALLOW or LET your hips respond and not stall going back
2) Getting (eventually) into a little more of a connection with a chest that seems to travel more with quieter hands that unhinge freely. All while just staying in-posture.

This all btw - is the exact same stuff you hear the pros working on -- transition, turn, relaxed tempo, not "yanking the handle from the top' -- its all the same exact ball of wax!

Hope you're having fun with it. Its a marathon for sure and not a sprint. Takes a while. Also changes are sort of incremental as you know. There may be little doses of things you don't like to see in your video so much yet the ball flights are settling in. That would indicated maybe all things are as pure and perfect as you want - but the results are telling you that you must be doing something right. Even a one-way miss (whatever - be it a push or a fade or whatever)... a consistent ball flight means things are getting closer and closer to a solution. its those two and three-way misses where you have to go right back to grip and stance again, start with half swings -- and sort of get right back to basics. Those days happen -- LOL -- Mama said, mama said - as the old song goes.

[Taylor13]

Your the man Reasonability! Thanks for the much needed and appreciated info. Great write up......

Honestly, I had a feeling I had my knees bent too much so I'm glad you mentioned that. Seems like I sometimes get my weight stuck back there on my heels, prob from swaying a little at times also I'm guessing. Or my hips just don't turn, either way the ball fades out to the right when i do it. I will work on that tomorrow.

I understand what you are saying about casting also, like swaying it's been another of my golf career problems.

The whole hands in front of your chest thing I've always struggled with. I took a lesson back in the day and for some reason I have always remembered the pro saying to swing around your body. I prob took it out context, but I think that's been a big problem of mine for awhile now.

I will get to work on these things ASAP.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply with a great post!!

[Taylor13]

First of all I apologize for the poor quality of the videos. My camera seems to have some moisture or something in it making it cloudy. But I would appreciate any feedback comparing the previously posted videos and the new uploads or just critiquing these videos. Thanks in advance


http://youtu.be/WwVYyHPouqU

http://youtu.be/bO_UOuUMIGk

[Taylor13]

http://youtu.be/M0DirnY0Wy8

[Reasonability]

Hip action - 1000% Better !!!!!

Don't know if you love the ball flights yet or not.... but that swing is really (I mean REALLY) coming along nicely! Great work.

...and your little buddy... she's perfect, too!

[Taylor13]

Thanks Reasonability. You were just the man I was hoping to hear from. Swing feels 1000x's better right now and I have definately picked up a good amount of distance. Like you mentioned previously, posture and hip turn have been what I've worked on the most the past couple weeks. Now that I'm getting better at that I feel like I can actually deliver the clubhead through the ball. And by doing those two things I finally figured out what y'all are talking about when I hear "swing sequence" and for me my swing sequence is:
1. Get to the top (turn don't sway)
2. Start the lower body and let the hands follow
3. Deliver the head through the ball

That's it for now. Seems like if I do those things my follow through feels good and it just happens on it's own. So I don't worry about anything post contact for now.



I've noticed It's definately a confidence thing for me. If I feel relaxed and confident I hit a good shot. If I have any thought over the ball other than impact, I hit a bad shot.
Believe it or not, it does on occasion rain in TX and that's what I've been dealing with today and tomorrow. Either way I will try to get better videos tomorrow unless it's a monsoon.Those videos are terrible, sorry.

Just wanted to give you a rundown of what's going on. if you read/see anything you disagree with/should add to/etc I'm all ears. I appreciate your feedback/help and as always it is very much appreciated.

Thank you for my daughters compliment. She likes going to the course

Almost forgot, like you said somewhere above I have for the most part been able to take the left misses out of play. When I miss, it leaks right. A lot easier to play when you can eliminate (for the most part) one side of the fairway

[Reasonability]

You are looking fantastic. I pointed out the hip thing in a moment of responding hurriedly but it really looks good - overall.

There are always - from the first post to the points like now when I want to be careful in suggesting that I can share what works for me. For some what I do, how I language it, what I think/feel/do would not be the best for others to go try. Its really fun for me to share and offer at least a little boost. The point I like to reinforce is.... there are good qualified teaching pros on this forum and out there in the world who can often help in better/faster/more efficient ways that I can. Not trying to run from you at all here.... just want to reinforce there is some heavy artillery instructors who (for the price of a few large buckets) can keep taking you to that next level. You know I will always be in your corner... but it does my heart the most good when someone takes a few hints here and there from me and really converts their talent/capabilities into action in the hands of a good teaching pro. Then I truly enjoy all this the most.

I think you're at that point now where I'm finding harder and harder to criticize and critique is all I'm saying. From here on (to my eye) it would just be a matter of practicing and fine tuning what you now do.

The short game - wedges, scoring clubs, putting..... if you can get those things going with that swing.... you're going to have more fun than you can shake a stick at! My daughter and son used to go out there with me, too.... as I did when young with my Dad. Golf is something in terms of how it can span generations and bond families. I've never once had a hole-in-one. I took my daughter out when she was about 9 years old to a par 3.... She pulls out 5 iron, throws a worm-burner at the hole and sinks it. She looked completely unsurprised when it happened. I asked if she understood what had just happened and she said, "I thought that was what you're supposed to do. Doesn't it happen all the time for golfers?

Had to tell her -- "Well maybe for you kiddo, but not for this golfer!"

Moral of the story.... don't be surprised at what your little one just might accomplish and enjoy every precious moment. My nest is now empty and I would give anything to back up and have those days one more time. Nothing on this planet like being a dad.

[Taylor13]

Sounds good Reasonability. I appreciate you taking the time to not only reply but reply with a good response rather than a link saying go watch this video. I appreciate the feedback you have shared and will continue reading your posts. Thanks again pal

That's awesome about your kids. So far my daughter likes going out there. Sometimes she hits 10 balls or so, sometimes she just fills divots and picks up baskets on the range. She made it through 9 holes a couple weeks ago which doubled her previous personal best. Haha, your daughters response to her hole-in-one is classic. Pretty awesome she made one and special you were with her. My dad and I were watching some tournament earlier this year on tv and somebody hit a fairway wood close from 250ish I'm guessing. I said that was a heck of a shot. She says , it didn't even go in haha........the guys and gals at the course we play at have been awesome about having her out there. They always aknowledge her when we get there and often times give her a golf ball or a free drink or something. It's been a good thing for us and she asks to go often.

Again, thanks for your time. I sincerely appreciate it