Driver Swing Path Help, Launch Conditions Confusion

OhYeahPlayer · December 30, 2020

Hi all -

I've been working to optimize my driver launch conditions over this winter, and have a handful of questions about what's going on in my swing currently and what I can do to improve. I don't expect everything to be answered below, but if anyone has any insight as to what's going on here it would be appreciated!

Equipment: Ping G410LST, 9 degree head set to 10 degrees, Ventus Velocore Blue 6S

Launch conditions in video (I'll save you from zooming in on the screen):

Club speed: 102

Ball speed: 155

Club path: 4 degrees out-to-in

Face angle: 1 degree closed

AoA: 6 up

Launch angle: 10 degrees (I average 14-15 usually, more details below)

Backspin: 1900rpm (average: 2400ish on good strikes)

Background: I've fought a right miss all year. When I'm playing well, I play a little pull cut. Moving the ball right to left was not an option unless I really flipped my hands through impact, something I really never did on the course. I wasn't using a simulator during the season, but I would guess I would be a 1-3 degrees out to in and the face angle closed a degree or two and gotten decent results. However, if I wasn't able to maintain control of that face angle, my round would go off the rails very quickly - anything face open would be off the planet right, and trying to close the face would often result in big pulls. I found myself losing control of that little pull cut very quickly at times in a round, and looking to deliver the club on a more neutral, if not slightly in to out path. So, that's the goal - make things more neutral to reduce how far off misses are, especially the right misses.

Questions:

Biggest question: what can I do to bring my club path back to neutral instead of out to in? 3-4 degrees in to out seems to be the average, but it varies from 0 to 6, the worst being near 9. This seems to be causing my biggest misses.
I deliberately chose to capture these conditions and this miss as I see this on the course and it's confusing to me. Launch angle is relatively low (I average 14-15 in the simulator usually) but it doesn't seem to be strike induced as spin stays low. That little low running cut that doesn't seem to spin much.... I don't understand how these conditions are created.
I seem to average about 2400rpm in the simulator (this is Flightscope X2, I see the same thing with GCHawk) at a launch angle of 14-15 and AoA is 6 up. I would think that spin with my clubhead speed, those conditions, and a low spin driver head and shaft, that my spin would be less? I don't think averaging 2400 is necessarily bad or something I'm trying to reduce, but I would think it would be lower. (The Ping driver optimization chart shows at 150mph ball speed and 6 degrees up the ideal numbers are 16.4 launch, 2150 spin.)
I often fight my hips sliding through delivery and this seems to exaggerate my right miss. I notice with my finish that my back is pretty arched and in more of a C shape than seen in this video when I'm missing right. I don't really know what to do to correct this though, I try standing up on my front leg and results seem more variable that way. Not sure where to go there.
I go a hair past parallel at the top of the swing. I haven't had success trying to shorten it. If I pause the video at the top where the club is parallel with the ground it appears roughly parallel with my feet, so I think I'm pretty on plane? I'm not sure though.
Of course, anything I could do to generate more power, I will give it a shot 🙂 I can get up to 159mph ball speed on my best swings, but can't seem to get beyond that. I know there's more power there, I'm just not sure how to unlock it.

Again, I don't expect everything answered here but any help would be appreciated! I'm located in Minnesota and will be using a sim a couple times a week throughout the winter so looking to correct what's wrong and instill better habits going into golf season in the spring.

My Movie 15.mov

Edited December 30, 2020 by arenapoutine

Scottbox · January 2, 2021

Start with your set up- make sure your weight isn’t too far out over your toes. Getting your armpits under the balls of your feet helps with this (the club will feel like it’s too close to your body). Second, you tend to pull your right elbow in pretty quickly, without much upper body and hip turn. This gets your elbow trapped, and then you have to come over the top because you have no room to get back to the ball. It’d be good for you to feel like the tops of your arms stay on your chest going back, and you fold your elbow a bit later and make sure that it’s in front of the seam line of your shirt all the way up (don’t worry about gluing your upper arms to your chest though, it’s fine to let the elbow separate— but do it later). This will “force” you to turn more and keep your right elbow in front. Let your right hip turn behind the heel so it feels like there’s pressure in the heel of your right foot.

You’ll have more room to swing down from the inside. There’s a number of ways to shallow the club, but this is a good start.

OhYeahPlayer · January 2, 2021

36 minutes ago, Scottbox said:

Start with your set up- make sure your weight isn’t too far out over your toes. Getting your armpits under the balls of your feet helps with this (the club will feel like it’s too close to your body). Second, you tend to pull your right elbow in pretty quickly, without much upper body and hip turn. This gets your elbow trapped, and then you have to come over the top because you have no room to get back to the ball. It’d be good for you to feel like the tops of your arms stay on your chest going back, and you fold your elbow a bit later and make sure that it’s in front of the seam line of your shirt all the way up (don’t worry about gluing your upper arms to your chest though, it’s fine to let the elbow separate— but do it later). This will “force” you to turn more and keep your right elbow in front. Let your right hip turn behind the heel so it feels like there’s pressure in the heel of your right foot.

You’ll have more room to swing down from the inside. There’s a number of ways to shallow the club, but this is a good start.

This is excellent! I will do this next time I am in the simulator. Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it!

OhYeahPlayer · January 2, 2021

3 hours ago, laneholt said:

Arenaputine,

Your problem can easily be solved when you understand Human Genetics/ structure . The first move in your DS is the key —- our DOMINANT HANDS are genetically designed to immediately ** ROLL OVER , TURN DOWN and come palms together thumbs facing skyward in front of our chest ! Their number one task in life it - to bring food to our mouths plus many other task in our subconscious mind!
Can’t allow them to turn over as they desperately desire ! Gotta keep the right palm facing upward from the start / top or they will revert to their NATURAL GENETICS DESIGN- which yours are doing ! the torso does the face squaring, not the HANDS. The torso is circling also !
If the DS only takes 2/10 - obviously this task will need to be preprogrammed in advance before you lift the shaft back . No chance to alter , when initiated, in such a short period of time .

Probably 99.9 % of players do the same ! Only natural , but NOTHING NATURAL about the golf swing - TOTALLY UNNATURAL AND FOREIGN TO THE HUMAN .

Good luck !

Thank you!

Valtiel · January 4, 2021

To expand on what @Scottbox said above, a lack of depth and rotation with the big muscles is the source of the issues here. Ineffective hip turn and loading into the rear leg and what looks like a fairly shallow shoulder turn as well. This is setting you up to generate most of your power from your arms which will be less efficient and consistent. When you don't load up your legs going back then you can't lead with them to begin your turn going down and you end up with the classic early extension hump:

The red lines represent where your knees and rear end were at address, this is the "no room/trapped" bit that Scottbox mentioned above. Your arms have completely outraced your lower body and instead of extending/driving forward (towards the target), your lower body is extending towards the ball (early extension) which pushes you out over the top as your arms have no room. To your credit, you are resisting this with your arms quite a bit as most people with an early extension like this have their arms much further away from their body and thus more over the top, but the problem is still there and what is causing your lack of power, swing path issues, and hip sliding issues. In the absence of effective rotation, sliding/tilting often takes it place.

To show you the correct sequence with the same knee/butt lines, lets look at Rory:

With the "correct" sequence here we can clearly see the effects of your early extension. Rory has achieved a similar amount of lower body rotation in panel 2 that you have at impact, and he is not even halfway through his downswing. This means that by the time he reaches impact, the hips and knees have already cleared and created all the room for his arms to come down, and his jumping/extension is happening in that cleared position which pulls him through impact instead of a position like yours which pulls you towards the ball.

It is all about sequence, and in order to achieve the proper sequence you need to set your body up to do it by properly utilizing big muscle rotation (shoulders/hips) and firing them in the correct order to create both power and the space to use it. 👍