Iron Swing Critique

[MikeGSoCal]

Hello,

 

I just joined up here after getting the bug to get back into golf. Here’s a video of one shot from my last range session. Most of my iron misses have been left (starting a little left and drawing farther left).  
 

I just got a tripod for my phone to start recording some swings and getting back into the groove. 
 

Any help with figuring out my irons will be much appreciated. 
 

https://youtube.com/shorts/E2B_H3xLJXU?feature=share

[Valtiel]

The main issue here is a severe loss of hip depth causing you to come over the top and very steep, which is leading you to have tons of clubhead rotation at the bottom which is where your lefts are coming from. I'll break it down:



Your first move back has the club going a little inside and shut, not necessarily a problem since you get steeper for your next move, but the big issue is your rotation. The line behind your butt represents the depth you have established at address and you should be maintaining the depth throughout the swing. Guys like you with more upright swings can get away with a little loss in depth, but yours is pretty extreme. You're swinging your left hip out and your right hip is not really moving at all. This is pulling you towards the ball (as we can see from your head movement) and away from your depth line. This is a trend that will continue throughout:



Your next move is more of the same; left hip continues moving towards the ball, as does your head. You have steepened the shaft though which is good going back, but we can see the main problem developing further. The red dot is where your hands were at address, which is ideally where they will return, but your lower body is rapidly taking up all that space with this bad rotation move. 



Up to the top of the backswing and you've moved off the line pretty far, and it seems like your weight actually shifts a little forward when you reach the top. That weight should staying back and only shifting towards your front leg to start the transition. This indicates that your backswing may be a bit too long as it is pulling you towards the target early. 



This is where we see the hip depth problem compound. On the way down your hips thrust way out towards the ball and all that space you needed to come down on plane is gone. You've brought the club down extremely steep and way over plane because you basically had to in response to the hip depth problem. This is the path of someone that is trying to chop wood, not hit a golf ball. 



Coming into impact you basically have to stall your hips and flip the clubhead at the ball with TONS of clubface rotation. You can see immediately after impact how shut the clubface is. This is nightmare to time up and has "hook" written all over it. If we compare your follow through to someone like Morikawa...



...we see the clubhead is almost coming at you backwards because of how shut it is. That is nearly a full 90* of rotation more than Collin. 

Now comparing your hip position to a pro we can see how severely out of position they are. 



This video covers exactly what you're doing and what you should be doing, so this is definitely where I would start:
 

 

Edited July 9, 2021 by Valtiel

[indianagolf2]

That is beyond superb analysis....wow

[MikeGSoCal]

Thank you very much for the breakdown! I’ll be working on drills to start clearing my hips correctly.

 

One thing I’ve already noticed is that my back and hips are really tight… Looks like yoga and foam rolling are definitely in my future along side these drills.

[596]

Holy cow... What a great analysis!  I love the gifs. Makes everything super clear. I've always liked that video.  It helps me a lot with the same problem.

 

Great response 👍

[Valtiel]

5 hours ago, MikeGSoCal said:

Thank you very much for the breakdown! I’ll be working on drills to start clearing my hips correctly.

 

One thing I’ve already noticed is that my back and hips are really tight… Looks like yoga and foam rolling are definitely in my future along side these drills.

No problem! Be prepared for a little frustration as it will probably take some reps to unpack everything. Swing faults and compensations go hand in hand and removing the fault also requires a conscious removal of the compensation. If you were to keep your hips back and rotate correctly but still release the club the same way you are now, you will get some BIG lefts. Loss of hip depth and a steep path coming down are very commonly linked, but which one feels like it is coming first will determine where your focus should be. Since you're losing hip depth so early in the swing, my feeling is that should be the first focus, but it may not necessarily feel that way to you. If you can posted some follow up videos of what you're trying I would be happy to continue weighing in. 👍

EDIT: Additional note, at address you set your hands fairly close to your body, which is perfectly fine, BUT this places a premium on maintaining hip depth throughout the swing, so you may also consider raising your hands slightly at address while you work on this stuff. 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Valtiel

[MikeGSoCal]

1 hour ago, Valtiel said:

No problem! Be prepared for a little frustration as it will probably take some reps to unpack everything. Swing faults and compensations go hand in hand and removing the fault also requires a conscious removal of the compensation. If you were to keep your hips back and rotate correctly but still release the club the same way you are now, you will get some BIG lefts. Loss of hip depth and a steep path coming down are very commonly linked, but which one feels like it is coming first will determine where your focus should be. Since you're losing hip depth so early in the swing, my feeling is that should be the first focus, but it may not necessarily feel that way to you. If you can posted some follow up videos of what you're trying I would be happy to continue weighing in. 👍

EDIT: Additional note, at address you set your hands fairly close to your body, which is perfectly fine, BUT this places a premium on maintaining hip depth throughout the swing, so you may also consider raising your hands slightly at address while you work on this stuff. 

Thanks again....today’s session at the range was definitely frustrating!  
 

I’ll probably spend most this month just doing drills and working on flexibility with yoga and stretching while hitting very few balls. Like you said I e got a lot of bad habits to unpack and renovate this swing. This will all be worth it once I become consistent with new mechanics. 
 

I’ll post up a video once I start to get these new mechanics going.