Swing help

[Zig31]

Having swing troubles. Swing plane is over the top at times and am having inconsistent contact. Also have noticed thatI get pretty far on my toes in my downswing. Thoughts?

 

[Valtiel]

You're correct on both the "over the top" and "up on the toes" observations. These are being caused by a combination of takeaway/club path issues and likely a simple lack of understanding as to what forces you're supposed to be creating with the lower body in transition. I'll do a break down this evening with gifs showing you what is meant by that and what to do to fix it.

[Valtiel]

@Zig31 Sorry for the delay, holidays stuff!

Starting with your takeaway:



You have the typical "low/slow/inside" move where you immediately get the club working around behind you. You have no radial deviation in the wrists (hinging upwards) and this gets the club started on a path that often leads to the reverse loop of coming out and over the top in transition to get the club back out in front of you. Note how Adam (and most pros) get the club working up and in front.



As a broader visual, your inside takeaway (red) loops behind causing your downswing (yellow) to loop back over. Adam's neutral takeaway allows for a neutral return of the club back down.



We see this "reverse loop" here with your hands reaching the top and then needing to come out and over the top. This move often combines with a shift towards the toes as a sympathetic reaction to the need to reroute and is what gets you steep and cramped coming into impact. You *can* make the inside takeaway work, some pros do, but it requires the consciously resisting coming towards the ball like this via correct lower body forces. Like the reverse loop swing path, the shift up towards the toes like this is a bit reversed as well. Lower body forces should always be driving diagonally *away* from the ball, not towards it:




Notice the left foot, hips, and overall spacial relationship to the ball and how *nothing* gets closer to it from address to impact. Getting your swing working more up and in front of you will help, making sure you're creating the right lower body forces working away from the ball will drive that home. You start with a pretty decent lower body move in the backswing, but IMO that inside to over the top loop is what is pulling you towards the ball, so i'd look at that first.

[Zig31]

7 hours ago, Valtiel said:

@Zig31 Sorry for the delay, holidays stuff!

Starting with your takeaway:



You have the typical "low/slow/inside" move where you immediately get the club working around behind you. You have no radial deviation in the wrists (hinging upwards) and this gets the club started on a path that often leads to the reverse loop of coming out and over the top in transition to get the club back out in front of you. Note how Adam (and most pros) get the club working up and in front.



As a broader visual, your inside takeaway (red) loops behind causing your downswing (yellow) to loop back over. Adam's neutral takeaway allows for a neutral return of the club back down.



We see this "reverse loop" here with your hands reaching the top and then needing to come out and over the top. This move often combines with a shift towards the toes as a sympathetic reaction to the need to reroute and is what gets you steep and cramped coming into impact. You *can* make the inside takeaway work, some pros do, but it requires the consciously resisting coming towards the ball like this via correct lower body forces. Like the reverse loop swing path, the shift up towards the toes like this is a bit reversed as well. Lower body forces should always be driving diagonally *away* from the ball, not towards it:




Notice the left foot, hips, and overall spacial relationship to the ball and how *nothing* gets closer to it from address to impact. Getting your swing working more up and in front of you will help, making sure you're creating the right lower body forces working away from the ball will drive that home. You start with a pretty decent lower body move in the backswing, but IMO that inside to over the top loop is what is pulling you towards the ball, so i'd look at that first.

Ok, that makes complete sense. I’ve noticed that little loop in my downswing for a while that starts my over the top move and have wondered what causes it. Also makes sense in how it ties in to me getting on my toes. Thank you very much for the input, will start working on that tomorrow.