Open Face post impact - toe strike/gear effect or bigger problem?

[dfeldss]

Curious about this. This was definitely toey but wondering if there’s something else going on. Also open to other criticisms

[Valtiel]

If you're referring to this:



That is definitely product of a toe strike that is torquing the face open, nothing else really. WHY you're hitting it out of the toe is the question to answer, and i'd argue its due to your setup combined with how your position to the ball changes throughout your swing (all pretty common stuff).



We can see by the time you've made contact you'd moved noticeably closer to the ball (lefty Adam for comparison). IMO this is compounded by the fact that at address your hands are quite close to your body. Notice the relationship between your hands and your left thigh, both at address and at impact. They basically trade places whereas we can see Adam has all the space in the world there, both because he gave himself that space at address and did not do anything with his lower body throughout the swing to encroach on it. Lets look at why that is happening on your side (the camera position changes drastically at the beginning of the vid so i've done my best no line everything up, but there will be a little wonkiness):



Your initial takeaway sees you rocking away from the ball quite a bit. Not a huge deal on its own, some pros do this to one degree or another, but it IS a problem if it unbalances you, which i'd argue that it does a bit based on what happens next. Rocking back a bit on your trail side is fine, but you don't want to do that with your lead side because it needs to stay ready to drive back in transition which you can't do from your heel. I'd argue this is part of the problem we see next which i'll explain:



Noting your head and butt positions combined with your feet clearly rocking from heel to toe, you shift significantly back towards the ball as you reach the top of the backswing. As you can imagine this is a problem with an already cramped address position that you're now leaning into even more, and despite that fact that after this point you sequence and rotate quite well, you're doing it from a position that has shifted too close to the ball and will have to compensate heavily to get the clubhead to the ball now. Those compensations will lead to inconsistent strikes, including heel balls when you don't do it enough and toe shots when you do it too much. I'd argue that this is because you need weight towards the front of your lead foot in order to properly leverage it to clear your lead hip back in the downswing, but since you rocked backwards on to your heels going back you now HAVE to rock forwards to get that weight in position to properly fire your lead side, and this rocking forwards shifts your position in a bad way.

Addressing this heel/toe shifting is the first place to start. I'd start by giving your hands more room in relation to your body at address like Adam above and focus on not rocking away from the ball so much initially to hopefully reduce the amount you then rock towards it at the top. Check out this Patrick Cantlay Pressure Plate video so you can get a visual of what i'm referring to here. Notice how he gets towards his trail heel in the backswing but critically stays very balanced with his lead foot, never getting back towards the heel until at/after impact. Keeping that lead foot in a more balanced position ready to fire in transition hopefully allows you to resist coming towards the ball.

Good luck!

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

[dfeldss]

Awesome tips, I appreciate it. 

9 hours ago, Valtiel said:

Addressing this heel/toe shifting is the first place to start. I'd start by giving your hands more room in relation to your body at address like Adam above and focus on not rocking away from the ball so much initially to hopefully reduce the amount you then rock towards it at the top. Check out this Patrick Cantlay Pressure Plate video so you can get a visual of what i'm referring to here. Notice how he gets towards his trail heel in the backswing but critically stays very balanced with his lead foot, never getting back towards the heel until at/after impact. Keeping that lead foot in a more balanced position ready to fire in transition hopefully allows you to resist coming towards the ball.

Good luck!

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

I appreciate you taking the time to write that up! That’s something I didn’t really notice, but it definitely checks out. 
 

I do struggle with heel strikes with the driver and get the shanks with my irons on bad days, and it sounds like working on this should help alleviate that. 

[Rosco1216]

Damn @Valtiel, I need you to do one of these for me! What is the app/software you used to make the markings to identify position changes?

Edited September 2, 2022 by Rosco1216

[dfeldss]

1 hour ago, Rosco1216 said:

Damn @Valtiel, I need you to do one of these for me! What is the app/software you used to make the markings to identify position changes?

 

I'd like to know too. Awesome tool

[596]

I didn't know Adam Scott was a lefty?  🤪 

[Valtiel]

13 hours ago, Rosco1216 said:

Damn @Valtiel, I need you to do one of these for me! What is the app/software you used to make the markings to identify position changes?

 

11 hours ago, dfeldss said:

 

I'd like to know too. Awesome tool

All manually done in Photoshop! I take screenshots of the video frames I want, align them in PS, add layers for whatever markings i'm looking for, and assemble that into a GIF with the Frame Animation tool. Basically just an extension of graphic design/photography work I have done, so if there is a better or more golf-centric tool for a similar purpose I unfortunately don't use it, hah. 

@Rosco1216 PM me if you'd like me to take a look! I can't imagine I have a *ton* to offer a +2.7 that can crank out 130mph clubhead speed with a driver, but i'd be happy to take a look and maybe offer some suggestions based on misses or things you're trying to change. 👍

@dfeldss What I broke down above would certainly explain heel misses/shanks, yes. The more volatile your special relationship to the ball via excessive forward/backward or up/down movements the more dependent you are on split second hand-eye coordination compensations, and since your main issue is the way in which you come *towards* the ball, your tendency will trend towards heel strikes on the shorter clubs and toe strikes on the longer ones given length of swing and time to employ compensations. Stabilizing that relationship then removes the need for such drastic compensations and improves strike quality and consistency.