Please analyze my swing!!

[jmmiller7]

Hi all! Happy beginning of the season (to those in the arctic!)

 

I have been out on the course several times already, and my game had been pretty spotty. Of course, I don't expect to be 100 percent at the beginning of the season, but I can tell there is some aspect(s) of my swing that still seems to be on winter break!

 

I had a few good rounds, low 80's, almost shot one in the 70's an unlucky bounce from the green into a pine tree which threw my score off! In these rounds, my game was pretty much as normal... However, the other few were dreadful to keep score, and my game was terrible!

 

My "symptoms" are as follows:

 

- With my driver, the contact is mainly on the upper part of the face, and usually towards the toe. Ball flight is either a snap hook, or a semi-decent drive down the middle, but 20-30yds shorter than usual.

- 3 wood is drop kicking off fairway and chunky off the tee.

- Irons have also been towards the toe, and often times I am hitting chunky fat shots. There are occasional click shots or stingers as well.

- Wedge shots aren't terrible, but I am taking deep divots, which is telling me that I'm coming in steep.

 

This video is a drive on the 6th hole at my local course... the resulting shot wasn't too bad, it was a drive up the gut with a slight draw ~230 yds.

 

One thing that I noticed is I am picking up my left foot on the back swing, which is a bad habit of mine, because it adds too much noise to my swing. Other than that, I am at a total loss as to what I'm doing wrong.

 

Please help!!!

 

[Reasonability]

Video is marked private. Sorry - looks like you're the only one who can view it.

[jmmiller7]

Reasonability -- thanks for pointing that out! It should be working now...

[Reasonability]

JM

There's a lot of ways to swing. So many ways in fact it gets really confusing. The good news is there are so many swing philosophies around and easy to read about online you can almost never stop learning. The bad news is its really hard to figure out what to believe and who to trust.

If it were me personally - I think I'd take note of something known as arm "run-off". The signal for it is when the belt buckle and chest move late or very slowly compared to the hands and handle. In your case you will notice how stable your lower body is from the waste-down until very late in the backswing. The hands, handle, forearms sort of form a "triangle" at address and that triangle tends to get quickly out of shape very early unless that triangular "unit" moves right in front of the chest and sternum really deeply into the backswing.

The effect of an inactive lower body and arm run-off is that it makes it a little harder to finish that last half of the backswing. You are flexible enough to pull it off but if you notice that in your case to finish the backswing your hands need to elevate really higher and higher and your shoulders begin to turn more level with the horizon versus the slightly steeper plane they (your shoulders) would turn on if they just rotated around your address posture. Your hips begin to open up going back once they have to... which is very late in the backswing. That late hip involvement, vertical hand and arm action, and more horizontal shoulder turn then tends to point the shaft of your club to left field quite a bit at the top of your backswing.

So at the top, your address posture is going a little vertical because it has to. Then once its lost, there is no good way of getting the club back down without slipping the hips more forward toward your toe line. This is why you're hitting the ball out on the toe of the club...

To simplify all this -- take a look at your impact position by stopping the video right there. Then back up to the address position right at the beginning. Notice how your posture went vertical. When you go vertical like that the hands are much higher at impact than they were at address. When that happens the heel of the club lifts off the ground and the toe of the club is the only thing left to make contact with the ball and the ground.

This forces the hands to flip hard through impact... meaning there will be some hooks... and with irons there will be some weaker shots out to the right because the toe of the club is making the divots which opens the clubface up through impact. The hand-flipping is your way of offsetting the weaker shots to right field.

Here is what I would do if it were me....

I would capitalize on what appears to be a reasonable setup posture and be sure that there is a little secondary spine tilt at address. I will include a link for you to study the address and setup a little more. Then, I would move that triangle as a unit right in front of the sternum. Let the hips naturally get pulled into action under the shoulder turn - and let the trail hip drift just a fraction back behind the heel underneath that hip pocket. Your arm flow will be a bit wider this way so that the hands land farther away from the target and your head versus being so high. From down-the-line, your lead forearm will appear to land just above the trail shoulder. And from the down-the-line you will remain in your address spine posture all the way to the top.

From that brand of backswing and position at the top you will be able to quiet the hand action and just let the wrists unhinge through impact. You will be rotating more and throwing the club "at" the ball less. You might be amazed at just how little actual hand manipulation is needed to blast that ball. If it helps you can assemble these bits and pieces which in review are

Address (check for things against the link below and add a hint of secondary tilt if need be)
Hands moving back in front of the chest
A little deeper hip turn
Lead arm plane landing just above the trail shoulder
Let the wrists unhinge and think of quieter hands

All this can happen a little at a time by starting with half swings and shorter clubs - and then work your way up to longer clubs and longer swings.
If you're able to stay in posture longer, there will be room in front of you for the arm flow back down, and the handle will not stand up so much through impact. That will end the contact with the high/toe side of the clubface.

Here is the link I promised. Hope something inside all of this is found useful to you. A really good pro would no doubt be ten times more beneficial than I can online -- so hopefully one is or soon will be in the cards for you. Best to you and good luck!

[url="http://perfectgolfswingreview.net/AddressSetup.htm"]http://perfectgolfswingreview.net/AddressSetup.htm[/url]

[jmmiller7]

Reasonability --

Thanks for getting back so quick! You're always a great help to myself and everyone else in the forum!

Your advice seems on par *no pun intended [url="http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?&app=forums&module=extras&section=legends#"][/url] * with what I'm doing wrong. I will keep these in mind next time I get out to the course. The next couple weeks are busy with end of the semester finals, so I'm not sure I will be able to get out anytime soon.

As far as talking to a pro, I work at my local golf course, so I'm always available to get insight from a pro. I haven't started work yet for the season, so I haven't been able to connect the pro yet.

I will try to post an update the next time I get out... Thanks again!

[jmmiller7]

Here's an update!

Reasonability, you were almost right on with the flaws that you pointed out. I finally had some time to meet with my pro as well as hit on the range and course. The biggest issue was that I was losing my spine angle on the follow-through. I'm coordinated enough that my arms were making up for the change in spine angle, which is why i wasn't topping the ball, but I was hitting way out towards the toe. The other issue is I was picking the club up on my backswing and letting my right arm get too far away from my body. This was fixed by flattening out my swing as well as emphasizing keeping the club hovering over the ground longer when starting the backswing.

By fixing these couple of issues, my swing is getting back on track! I shot a 39 in men's league last night with a triple on a par 5!

[Reasonability]

Great news! Love hearing about a true teaching professional getting right there with a golfer live and in person. By far that's the better medicine. Great work and best to you out there!