Help shallow my driver

rchang72 · December 24, 2022

I tend to spin my shoulders out first. This year could only top it off the tee. My right arm action is way out of whack. Any suggestions to help me out?

Valtiel · December 25, 2022

This is a lower body problem first. Your steep over the top plane is being caused by your hips doing everything backwards:

Note the position of your rear in relation to the red line and then Tiger's. Tiger drops his right hip back and then fires his left hip back. You do the opposite, bringing your left hip forward in the backswing and your right hip straight out towards the ball in the downswing. Two "forwards" in your case only bring you closer to the ball, jamming you up and forcing your club plane out over the top and steep. You can't shallow when your lower body does this, it's a blocker.

Everything in this post is relevant to what you're doing wrong, please check it out as well as the links in it to the AMG video and the previous post with the hip turn graphic.

rchang72 · December 26, 2022

Thanks for looking at it. I am looking at the other post and the AMG videos (love their stuff, but so hard to sort what’s best). You mentioned to the other post to not slam pressure to the right heel. Would the feeling of pushing in the toes posteriorly and lateral to the left help the hip motion? Along the line of the inseam? Seen posts about if no friction under the right foot, it would slide forward on the backswing

Ironman_32 · December 26, 2022

Solid advice.

In the post mentioned, I definitely feel drill of flexing the right leg helped to understand the feel.

Valtiel · December 26, 2022

7 hours ago, rchang72 said:

Thanks for looking at it. I am looking at the other post and the AMG videos (love their stuff, but so hard to sort what’s best). You mentioned to the other post to not slam pressure to the right heel. Would the feeling of pushing in the toes posteriorly and lateral to the left help the hip motion? Along the line of the inseam? Seen posts about if no friction under the right foot, it would slide forward on the backswing

If you're referring to the right toes here then what I would caution against the is the overall concept of trying to utilize your right side for *any* of the big movements here, or rather trying to figure out what active thing you need to do with your right side. One of the big keys in all of this is realizing and learning how to do the opposite; unweighting your right side and make it very *passive* in transition and in the downswing. The right foot sliding forward in the downswing (I assume you meant downswing, not backswing) is not a product of you doing anything with that right side, but rather the effect of the right side having so little pressure on it that it is simply dragged forward by the force created in your left side and the overall shift towards it.

The right foot doesn't need to drag anywhere of course, and you'll see plenty of pros with no movement there at all, but they are all creating the type of force that *would* create that movement if pushed a little further, and critically they are never producing force the other way (out towards the ball). This is why Scottie Scheffler is such a fun example because so many people think "wow he is all over the place but he makes it work!" when in reality his crazy looking footwork is just the same thing everyone else is doing but cranked up to 11 so you can see it. He does have some weirdness for sure in his backswing positions and what he does in transition, but all the leg stuff is textbook "unweight the right side and drive with the left". Learning how to do this is unintuitive and difficult, hence why its easily one of the biggest things that people do wrong. I recommend starting very small as it's almost impossible to immediately start doing it "right" with full speed longer clubs.

rchang72 · December 27, 2022

I was thinking of early in backswing use the right foot push away from the ball and to the left.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CX1zQopJ8bs/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

rchang72 · January 2, 2023

@Valtiel

working on body motion. Getting right butt behind and backing left butt towards target before rotating. How does this look?

RoyalTroon · January 2, 2023

A number of sequence issues to sort through, but sometimes a perspective outlook can start to produce some inroads. I'm sure you might find this player to be hitting a ball considered up in the air out in front of him. If, however, the tee-stick is removed and the ball placed upon the ground couldn't it still be considered out in front of him, or does it now have to be considered as a ball 'below' him.

Edited January 2, 2023 by RonJon