Stalling and Adding Loft

[Jclenaha]

Was feeling good about Monte No Turn Cast downswing feels about a month  ago. I’ve completely lost my feel. Can’t take a lesson with Monte for a few weeks due to him qualifying for US SR Open. Can anyone help me out with what I am doing wrong?

 

 

 

[Valtiel]

You're aggressively pivoting into your front side in the backswing like an extreme Stack & Tilt type of move and then pivoting/sliding forward again in the downswing. Your hands have no choice but to get left behind because of this double move towards the target:



Correctly pivot/load into the rear leg and then literally do everything else the same.

[slytown]

You would benefit from less turn, yes. I would even get the feeling like you are sliding in the backswing so you get your weight over your trail foot. Stack and tilt requires a lot of fast rotation and timing the release. It's probably why you lost your feel. Stack and tilt can help some players, but I think its generally a difficult way to swing. Monte advocates for sliding in the backswing for players like you. It helps get the weight on your trail foot and can help you generate power in the downswing. Just keep in mind that all of the great bombers and even the shorter hitters have lateral movement in the backswing. A good test is see if in the backswing your head stays behind the ball at the top. I would not be opposed to even presetting your weight on your back foot like Henrik Stenson does with his 3 wood. 

[Jclenaha]

Thanks for the replies. Not necessarily trying to stack and tilt. Just kind of what’s happening right now. I don’t know why I got so worked up into getting weight forward. Going to try and work on some lateral shift back. Widen my base I feel like that is also making my hips turn way too much.

[Valtiel]

14 hours ago, Jclenaha said:

Thanks for the replies. Not necessarily trying to stack and tilt. Just kind of what’s happening right now. I don’t know why I got so worked up into getting weight forward. Going to try and work on some lateral shift back. Widen my base I feel like that is also making my hips turn way too much.

Yeah it is a balance for sure with one of the goals being to realize when you're starting to drift out of bounds. The "just kind of what's happening right now" sorts of things will give you fits if left unchecked.

I've struggled with this problem myself and it's important to plant some markers for yourself, both ones that you can feel when swinging the club and ones that you can see when looking at video. Here is a collage of takeaway "bumps".

 

We can see a variety of moves here. Adam, Tiger, and Morikawa have small moves back, Rory slightly more, Hovland and Xander have the biggest, and Cam Smith and Cantlay have the smallest. There are tons of reasons why these variations exist and they have to do with various match-ups (tempo, swing length, transition time, hip speed, leg strength etc). Xander and Hovland look like they shift a ton, but they both do that very early and then stop there choosing to remain posted on that leg for longer, whereas Smith and Cantlay who appear to not shift at all have slightly more shift happening after this point. Then you have extreme examples like Stenson:



He literally does his entire shift before the swing even starts and begins posted on that back leg basically feeling like he's very "centered". This is one of the reasons he was such a lethal 3-wood and iron player at his peak (covering the ball, lots of compression) but struggled frequently with the driver.

However you do it and whatever it looks like, the end goal is always the same; the trail leg needs to stably support your body as you make your backswing and serve as a base to neatly and efficiently move into your front side with a bit of momentum. I struggle occasionally with a less severe version of what you're doing in that I start pushing the right hip back a little early, before i've properly "bumped" and then my right hip stalls and I can't complete my turn back. What I try to feel like is exactly what Rory does above, moderate shift over to the trail leg first. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Valtiel

[Jclenaha]

@Valtiel

what are you seeing here. Beyond frustrated with my impact position.

[slytown]

Hard to tell without a down the line video, but looks like you get very steep in transition and slide toward the target. Not much room for rotation if you are steep. Work on staying more on your right side in transition and getting the arms down faster. That way you get the club in the slot so you have room to rotate through the ball.