Losing posture

[GranEnemigo]

Hi all, long time lurker here on the boards, but it is finally time for me to register and post! I have been struggling with my swing lately, specifically losing my posture on the downswing. I've looked at my swing a dozen or more times on video and even taken three lessons (with different pros), but I can't fix it. The miss is high and on the toe, with a weak/leaky ball flight. If it matters my driver speed is right on 105, and I am a 9 index.

 

Edited to add: Sorry the video quality is not the greatest. Hopefully I can get a better one soon.

Edited May 25, 2021 by GranEnemigo

[Valtiel]

Welcome!

If you check through some of the other threads here you will see tons of people struggling with different versions of this same issue. You have the pretty standard loss of hip depth due to improper rotation which leads to a steepening of the shaft plane in the downswing, a flattening of the clubhead lie angle, and a loss of spine angle. All of these things occur because of the improper rotation (link at the bottom for a video on this topic). 



You have a lot of great looking lines and the makings of a really solid golf swing, so i'll just highlight the hip depth issue for now since it is really the main issue. Also the 1996 Texas Instruments calculator you filmed this on doesn't give me much else to work with. 😛

Your butt should more or less stay up against or quite close to the red line since this represents the space you have created at address, space you need to return to the ball in plane with a "normal" golf swing. Some players with more upright swings get away with losing a little depth, but your swing is quite neutral in that regard. We see the beginnings of the issue really appear clearly at the top of the backswing, because it is at this point that our body will try to seek a balance/center and it is where we see your pelvis start to transition away from the line. As you swing down to the ball, your pelvis thrusts away from that line closer to the ball. Once your center has shifted and the space you needed is gone, you get the chain reaction of the club steepening and your spine angle being forced to straighten/change in help manage your contact (a steep club will naturally want to dig into the ground without additional compensation). Your average golfer doesn't compensate for this very well and will tend to get lots of heel misses and shanks, while the better golfer compensates for this but will tend to miss more out of the toe. For everyone though, you get the hump:



We can clearly see the difference here in lower body positions with you vs Adam.

The fix is to rotate properly and maintain hip depth throughout the swing the help eliminate all the other downstream compensations. For that, watch this video and note how similar what you are doing is to what their "Am" is doing and how Scott is mimicking their "Pro". Everything else looks great though, and assuming decent putting and short game I don't see this swing stopping you from getting to scratch or better. 
 

 

[GranEnemigo]

Amazing, thanks for the detailed analysis - this is better than any of the lessons I took!

 

I am going to try to work on the hip movements described in the AMG video. Unfortunately due to work and family obligations, I can only play/practice on the range once every week (at best), but I do have time to do dry drills in the living room 😂