battling a push/ push-fade

[efriedmann13]

Hey guys,

 

Been golf for just about a year. Never had any professional lessons, just tried to pick up on stuff from watching golf. I feel like I've hit a plateau with my swing. I hit a lot of pushes and push-fades, not slices. Occasionally every so often a straight pull or a duck hook will sneak in there.

 

As mentioned, new to the game, so I'm not quite sure what I should be doing or should be looking for in my swing.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8vSvzbFHTg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-FQQAC8xI

 

here's some mini driver swings

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yz0OR7nWvY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dusLEzeRWiY

[Reasonability]

That's an amazingly sound swing to be around one year old and self taught. In fact I would go as far as saying that may be the best one-year old swing I've ever seen.

Golfers often struggle to avoid letting the trail (your right) knee drift out over the right foot going back. Many cast away the angle between the left arm and shaft in transition. Your DTL setup looks very good. Your balance is fantastic. And for sure you are no stranger to letting the club fly through the hitting zone - no hold-back there for sure. You don't over-swing by getting the hands up too far above the head going back nor do you pull the arms and hands way behind the head while bending the left arm (seen in many newer swings). All in all that is just plain amazing.

The things I would do if it were me personally are as follows:

You do something very interesting. If you have studied the secondary spine tilt (a slight upper body lead away from the target at setup)... then that's great, but if not... you actually add it as a swing trigger....just before takeaway. Having that fractional tilt allows the swing to flow around the address spine angle and has a number of positive effects such as helping the golfer stay in-posture allowing room for the arm-flow back down from the top and through the shot while remaining in-posture. So you add that just ahead of takeaway. That's fine that you do that albeit a little unusual. All I'm suggesting is that if you have never studied secondary spine tilt - it may be worth it for you.

Where I tend to think you might get in a little bit of trouble is seen DTL. Take note of your chin as the arms flow back. Your body and arms are working pretty well indeed - but your chin is on its way down to put a block into the path of the on-coming left shoulder. What ends up happening is your shoulder turn is forced to be a little bit abbreviated. What I personally would do is to imagine the chin sitting on a shelf or something stable during the backswing and basically do what you do...

At the top of the backswing your upper back might turn just a fraction MORE.

Because the backswing is just slightly abbreviated, you seem to look for explosive power in a relatively shorted span of time and space. Its as though you are trying to apply full power to a 3/4 backswing. In doing so you STILL do so many things right that a lot of good things happen inside your swing. But if it were me - I would get that chin sitting up and in a bit more - allow the shoulder turn to deep just a bit more and then... think in terms of a FLOWING / LONGER / WIDER / almost more "U" shaped downswing versus driving the club down so hard and steep in such a short span of time.

You might also notice how through impact your left knee goes dead-locked straight and you come up on the left toes. This is again (IMO) because that chin touched off a chain reaction where the arms and hands are forced to compensate for an abbreviated backswing as the head sinks lower. Its as though you found a way to close in on the space between you hand the ball (with the sinking head) and so the lead leg and foot are trying to offset the difference to keep you from drilling the club into the dirt and hitting it fat.

Whenever a lot has to happen in a short span of time and space in the golf swing - then the hands get caught-up having the flip the clubface closed through impact. When you time it perfectly its a beautiful thing. When its a little late - your going to see those pushes and push fades. When its a little too much of a hand-flip your going to be visited by those occasional snap-hooks. What I'm suggesting spreads the time and space out for you and allows the club to stay squarer for a longer span of time....which will allow you a much wider window of control over the clubface without having to perfectly time your release. There is very little margin for error in your current release at the bottom of the swing.

Maintaining the distance between your sternum and the target line is hard to do for most golfers. You are very close to mastering that and while I could be dead wrong - I honestly think it centers around the way you drop your chin into your backswing motion.

Hopefully there is or will be a good teaching pro in your future. If that is what you're capable of by working on your own... God knows what you might have in your golfing future with the help of a good instructor. VERY well done and good luck to you out there!

[efriedmann13]

thanks for the input. I appreciate it. I do feel like my swing is heavily based on timing. When it's all in sync, I play well. But when the timing is off, it falls apart quickly. I know rhythm is a huge factor in the swing, but I know it should not be make or break for me.

I will definitely work on keeping my chin up/level to allow for more space for a more stable release. Also, gonna start digging into secondary tilt. When I watched my video, I do notice the slight move off from the ball, but never notice or feel it out on the range or course!

thanks again for the advice!