Lost right now

[ZGriswold83]

I got a lesson or two at the beginning of this season that sent me down the road of total swing change. I was coming in way too steep and my instructor was trying to get me to shallow out the club as well as get some better shaft lean at impact. I am hitting the ball terribly right now. Honestly lost, I have all misses in my bag right now.

Down the Line

[Valtiel]

Thankfully you have a nice tempo and your body moves well, you just need to correct the all too common "flat to steep" problem and perhaps tighten up a backswing that is overrunning a little bit:

The first problem is the club getting way inside your hands going back:



That club is very flat and very far behind you because you're rolling your left arm over and pulling across your chest, ironically disconnecting your arms in a move that many people do to feel like they are KEEPING them connected, which then has the common knock-on effect of getting too deep and disconnected in the backswing which almost always results in an over the top compensation coming down. Here is a little collage for comparison:



Takeaways and face angle will always vary, even within the same player, but you could draw a pretty small circle around all these hand/club positions. Some club heads are a little outside the hands, some a little inside, many right on top, but almost no one is going to be far away, and no one has their left arm pulling across their chest. The only exceptions come from guys that have a VERY strong reroute/compensation immediately after, think Daniel Berger and JB Holmes. To get this...



...you want to feel like this angle created by your arms and the shaft stays the same as you take the club away. For a vast majority of golfers (myself included) there is this urge to roll over and break this angle to get the club in line with your left arm. It is often a more comfortable feeling, but it gets you into all kinds of trouble right in the very beginning of your swing. Doing this correctly will likely feel weird, like the club is way out in front of you and disconnected, but since right now it is way BEHIND you, that feeling likely means you're actually in a good spot. From there the club will naturally want to work more up instead of around behind you (like it is currently) and this puts you in a far more neutral position that you don't have to come over the top from. 



Currently your arms are getting very deep and disconnected here, this is too much backswing for an iron. Ideally the above changes will get the club working more up, keeping it more in front of you (green line), which will hopefully naturally shorten your backswing as well. Please follow up if you have any questions and post some vids if you can try this out. 👍

Edited October 3, 2021 by Valtiel

[ZGriswold83]

 @Valtiel

I can't say thanks enough, this makes so much sense now. In trying to shallow out I thought it would come easier to start flat. After looking up some drills on how to keep my left forearm from rolling inside, I think I'm back on a good path!

[Valtiel]

2 hours ago, ZGriswold83 said:

 @Valtiel

I can't say thanks enough, this makes so much sense now. In trying to shallow out I thought it would come easier to start flat. After looking up some drills on how to keep my left forearm from rolling inside, I think I'm back on a good path!

 

No prob! Glad that makes sense. That is an equally common issue as well, fitting into the general problem most of us have where we do things too early/in the wrong order when looking for a specific outcome. Two of the more prolific shallowers, DJ and Rory, are quite steep going back. It's the "Chinese finger trap" reality of the golf swing, you need to do the opposite of what you initially think you should to have success. 

My uncle has a really bad version of this at times, he is a big stand up/early extender which causes him to thin/top it frequently. He starts dropping his hands lower and lower at address thinking that is what he needs to do to stay down closer to the ball, when all it actually does is make him stand up more in response. 

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Valtiel

[BrianMcG]

Here’s a great video for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMZWFpMCAHw

[ZGriswold83]

@Valtiel

Thanks again for the assessment, finally got to the range and was making really solid contact, like the best I've had all season. Pulling the ball, but I'm guessing it's either not getting shallowed out still or closing the face at impact. I'm thinking it may be more the face as I'm still in the habit of closing a wide open face at impact.

[Valtiel]

2 hours ago, ZGriswold83 said:

@Valtiel

Thanks again for the assessment, finally got to the range and was making really solid contact, like the best I've had all season. Pulling the ball, but I'm guessing it's either not getting shallowed out still or closing the face at impact. I'm thinking it may be more the face as I'm still in the habit of closing a wide open face at impact.

Thanks for the follow up! I'm glad your contact felt better, please post some follow up videos if you can so we can check in on your positions. A stronger one-way miss is definitely common when sorting this stuff out since a steeper, over the top move into the ball requires all sorts of little compensations that you have to unpack and unlearn as they become less necessary.