This season's work (driver swings)

[Valtiel]

Working on some fundamentals in an effort to make sure i'm practicing what i'm preaching around here, hah.

I feel like i'm about 75% of the way through a process that has taken a couple years on and off (don't get to play much these days). This is the tee'd down fairway finder cut swing where I choke up slightly and try to keep things very "in front" of me. Things I want to work on:

1) Straighten up posture a little but at address. Not more upright, but a little less hunched.
2) A little more depth in the hands at the top. My shaft shallowing move is more of the "hands out" variety which I need a little more room for I think, a little too over plane.
3) Try to maintain spine angle a little better. I've always had a tendency to come up and back just slightly in takeaway with the need to get back "down" in terms of tilt later in the swing.
4) An extension of #2, more side bend through impact. I think I need to get off my toes and into working "back" a little earlier with the lower body. Maintaining slightly more lower body depth is part of that.

There was a stiff breeze out of the right so this ball staying pretty straight would have probably been a 20y cut otherwise.
 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Valtiel

[ezra76]

Looking good. Your # 1 is exactly what I did as well. I try to picture Fred Couples setup and tempo in my preshot. I got too hunched over for a while and didn't even realize. It's like a game of opposites. Taller on backswing gets to comfortably lower on downswing, good. Hunched over lower in backswing, taller on downswing, bad. 

[slytown]

10 hours ago, Valtiel said:

Working on some fundamentals in an effort to make sure i'm practicing what i'm preaching around here, hah.

I feel like i'm about 75% of the way through a process that has taken a couple years on and off (don't get to play much these days). This is the tee'd down fairway finder cut swing where I choke up slightly and try to keep things very "in front" of me. Things I want to work on:

1) Straighten up posture a little but at address. Not more upright, but a little less hunched.
2) A little more depth in the hands at the top. My shaft shallowing move is more of the "hands out" variety which I need a little more room for I think, a little too over plane.
3) Try to maintain spine angle a little better. I've always had a tendency to come up and back just slightly in takeaway with the need to get back "down" in terms of tilt later in the swing.
4) An extension of #2, more side bend through impact. I think I need to get off my toes and into working "back" a little earlier with the lower body. Maintaining slightly more lower body depth is part of that.

There was a stiff breeze out of the right so this ball staying pretty straight would have probably been a 20y cut otherwise.
 

 

 

Nice to finally see your swing. Looks like you have good control of it. I think withou that pronounced sitting move in transition, it would be OTT, but the clubhead shallows nicely. Only thing I see is that you backup from p1-p2, which is probably the reason you move onto your toes in transition. The right knee kicks out quite a bit in transition.

[Valtiel]

11 hours ago, slytown said:

 

Nice to finally see your swing. Looks like you have good control of it. I think withou that pronounced sitting move in transition, it would be OTT, but the clubhead shallows nicely. Only thing I see is that you backup from p1-p2, which is probably the reason you move onto your toes in transition. The right knee kicks out quite a bit in transition.

Agreed, being OTT for reasons you're partially touching on here is my old pattern. That old pattern working backwards from this swing involved crowding the ball a bit more with a more pronounced "butt out" kind of posture, a takeaway that was more inside, a bit of a wrist breakdown and flying right elbow at the top that sent the club a little across the line (left wrist cupping, right wrist flattening), and a poor pivot that caused a lot of depth loss. A lot of that was just bad stuff that needed fixing, but other things just needed to be tightened up as I figured out what my ingrained patterns are....what to keep and what to drop basically. The lower body pivot stuff wasn't actually that difficult to physically change, but it was understanding the how and the why since it's really hard to explain. The address position stuff automatically addressed some of the swing plane issues and a few grip/wrist things helped with the breaking down at the top.

I'm basically left with a few core "match ups" that I think I need to focus on, because my ingrained shallowing move has long been pretty similar to this. Address position and posture is the big one, because you can't crowd the ball AND have a shallowing move that involves the hands coming out without starting to run into space problems and thus path problems. Especially since another tendency is to get the club too "up" and less around leading to a depth issue that means hands coming out = way over plane and across the ball. Last is the lower body as it relates to maintaining tilt which i'm losing a touch of. I'm staying against the "wall" just fine, but i'm squatting/crunching down a lot to get there at the moment and i'd like less of that vertical movement. It really becomes a "best out of 3" kind of situation day to day. If my address position/distance is good and my hand depth is neutral then I can afford a small amount of EE. If any one of those components start slipping into older patterns then I get in trouble.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Valtiel

[Ethan DelGrosso]

Definitely seems like your arms get going again before your shoulders complete their full turn. This leads to the over the top look. If you can think about not rushing that turn and use a slow rehearsal where you let hold that top of back swing position then begin the downswing it might be just what you need to regain that little connection and get less over the top. Very nice swing though! Keep up the good work!

[elephant15]

Valtiel,

   First and foremost, I’m very grateful to the helpful comments you‘ve given to golfwrx members needing help with their swings. Your comments helped me diagnose my own swing as well.

   I actually am working on the same item 3 you mentioned. FWIW, what helped me rectify this was to shift my weight towards my left heel instead of just to the left foot. It feels a little easier to get back “down” when the force is applied mostly on the left heel

when pivoting.

  

 

 

 

[Golf_Goof]

Nice swing - if you’re lucky, @Valtiel will chime in here with his usually great analysis.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Golf_Goof

[slytown]

On 5/7/2023 at 10:24 PM, Valtiel said:

Agreed, being OTT for reasons you're partially touching on here is my old pattern. That old pattern working backwards from this swing involved crowding the ball a bit more with a more pronounced "butt out" kind of posture, a takeaway that was more inside, a bit of a wrist breakdown and flying right elbow at the top that sent the club a little across the line (left wrist cupping, right wrist flattening), and a poor pivot that caused a lot of depth loss. A lot of that was just bad stuff that needed fixing, but other things just needed to be tightened up as I figured out what my ingrained patterns are....what to keep and what to drop basically. The lower body pivot stuff wasn't actually that difficult to physically change, but it was understanding the how and the why since it's really hard to explain. The address position stuff automatically addressed some of the swing plane issues and a few grip/wrist things helped with the breaking down at the top.

I'm basically left with a few core "match ups" that I think I need to focus on, because my ingrained shallowing move has long been pretty similar to this. Address position and posture is the big one, because you can't crowd the ball AND have a shallowing move that involves the hands coming out without starting to run into space problems and thus path problems. Especially since another tendency is to get the club too "up" and less around leading to a depth issue that means hands coming out = way over plane and across the ball. Last is the lower body as it relates to maintaining tilt which i'm losing a touch of. I'm staying against the "wall" just fine, but i'm squatting/crunching down a lot to get there at the moment and i'd like less of that vertical movement. It really becomes a "best out of 3" kind of situation day to day. If my address position/distance is good and my hand depth is neutral then I can afford a small amount of EE. If any one of those components start slipping into older patterns then I get in trouble.

 

You did something I worked hard on, which was I felt I had to really squat excessively to keep my butt against the wall. It worked OK for wedges and short irons, but I got SOOO stuck with longer clubs. My strategy instead has been to get deeper hip rotation in the backswing and simply work the left knee around more in the downswing. That way my butt stays back and I don't have to get so low. I'm seeing the same amount of hip depth, but I just don't have to work so hard to get there.

 

I did learn from this though that if I need extra speed, I have the ability to squat and extend, but still find the clubface. it's just not something I'm comfy with in long irons or woods.

[phizzy30]

Nice swing.  And all this time I thought you were an old man!!!

[ALIF]

Really nice move!!!!!

[BraxtonFullerton]

On 6/3/2023 at 11:03 AM, phizzy30 said:

Nice swing.  And all this time I thought you were an old man!!!

 

He is, it's just a hat and a wig...

 

[ac6]

On 5/8/2023 at 6:15 PM, Golf_Goof said:

Nice swing - if you’re lucky, @Valtiel will chime in here with his usually great analysis.

 

I am waiting patiently for the Adam Scott side-by-side 😂

[aenemated]

On 6/4/2023 at 5:21 PM, BraxtonFullerton said:

 

He is, it's just a hat and a wig...

 

 

 

Stellar move, dude.

 

 

[Valtiel]

On 6/3/2023 at 8:03 AM, phizzy30 said:

Nice swing.  And all this time I thought you were an old man!!!

 

On 6/4/2023 at 4:33 PM, ALIF said:

Really nice move!!!!!

 

On 6/6/2023 at 4:29 PM, ac6 said:

 

I am waiting patiently for the Adam Scott side-by-side 😂

Hah thanks guys, I won't subject myself to the Adam standard yet though 😆

I did however make some changes based on the first vid mostly related to hand path/depth. Haven't touched the lower body/spine angle stuff yet.
 

 

 

 

Compared to the original i'm happy with a few things:



This feels much more "loaded" at the top which was a tendency I had before, to get a little "float loady" with a wrist set happening too late and to get too "up" and not enough around. Hands/arms are definitely deeper now and feeling a lot more neutral, I don't have to squat/jump nearly as much to manage the first swing which was too upright and over plane. The clubface is also quite shut in the original video, something I wasn't trying to do consciously, and neither is the much more neutral/square face in the newer swing which I prefer. I'd like to get the club a little less across the line/a little more laid off and probably weaken my left hand slightly to feel perhaps a little more "bow" at the top which has become slightly cupped which is something else i've struggled with; strong left hand and cupped wrist.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Valtiel

[Valtiel]

With the club path/hand depth stuff feeling more neutral i'm working on right hip depth as i've long had an issue here:

 

 
 

I've had a bad habit of rocking up towards my toes at the top of the backswing and work on maintaining hip depth has so far only allowed me to *stop* the depth loss after the point above where I rock forward, but I want to work on actually maintaining depth and not rocking forward at all. Focusing on really staying back in my right heel was the goal here:



It's working well and feels more stable but also feels like a bit of a band-aid at the moment. Ideally I want to work in increasing this move and having more "up and back" with the right hip as opposed to a "stall and sit" to maintain depth which is what it feels like now. A move in the right direction though.

[rooski]

I sure wish videos worked on this site anymore. My usual workaround of using Firefox isn't even working after the last update.

 

I look forward to eventually viewing these videos :)

Edited June 22, 2023 by rooski

[slytown]

You might want to try something radical: push the right hip as far back as possible and hold it there until you release the club in transition. It won't necessarily get you stuck. DJ can't hit a draw for his life, but his right hip gets way past the butt line and outside the box. It will feel like you are moving off of the ball a lot and have a more dynamic swing.

Edited June 23, 2023 by slytown