Struggling with Consistency

[clubtwirlz]

I struggle with consistency. About a 2 handicap and this is a 7 iron. Main miss is an over cooked draw.

[clubtwirlz]

DTL view

[Valtiel]

I'm seeing the combination of a long-ish backswing, a lot of lag being held, and a very big flip at the bottom due to too much sliding in the downswing and not enough posting/pivoting which explains the overdraw:



Starting from the top i'd argue your backswing is probably too long/much. Your shoulders are beyond 90* and the club is all the way to parallel, definitely a lot more than most pros are swinging a 7i. You're then holding a LOT of lag while making a big lateral hip move that is getting you out of sequence and primed for a flip:



Down into impact we obviously see the hands still trailing the lower body more than is ideal, but more critically we see the continued lateral sliding of the lower body without ever fully clearing the lead leg. Note the angles at impact, that left side is staying bent and your knee gets way outside your hip/ankle. It *looks* like you're trying to release your right side through the ball while restricting your left which is not what you want. The byproduct is the flip:



A huge rolling over and breaking down of the wrists which is basically the smoking gun for all the aforementioned stuff. Your left leg is still bent through impact, and in fact you don't actually get it "cleared" until here:



Only at this point does your left side resemble what it should at impact. I'm harping on this because it's the main thing you're going to need to work on, so lets start there:



You don't really make a lateral shift off the ball and instead stay extremely "centered" in your pivot. This is alright IF you then stay more centered in your downswing, but you don't per the big lateral shift detailed above. As a result i'd recommend trying the following:

1) Feel a lateral bump in your initial takeaway.
2) Shorter backswing/less shoulder turn
3) An emphasis on posting up and clearing your left hip after you've "re-centered"

IMO this initial hip move you're making that is keeping you not only centered but actually moving towards the target with the lower body quite a bit is causing you to make this big exaggerated slide in the downswing to "catch up" with the momentum you're setting up, and if you were to just try to post up from your current position that it would be difficult, hence recommending a bit more of a bump away from the target in your takeaway.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Valtiel

[clubtwirlz]

15 hours ago, Valtiel said:

I'm seeing the combination of a long-ish backswing, a lot of lag being held, and a very big flip at the bottom due to too much sliding in the downswing and not enough posting/pivoting which explains the overdraw:



Starting from the top i'd argue your backswing is probably too long/much. Your shoulders are beyond 90* and the club is all the way to parallel, definitely a lot more than most pros are swinging a 7i. You're then holding a LOT of lag while making a big lateral hip move that is getting you out of sequence and primed for a flip:



Down into impact we obviously see the hands still trailing the lower body more than is ideal, but more critically we see the continued lateral sliding of the lower body without ever fully clearing the lead leg. Note the angles at impact, that left side is staying bent and your knee gets way outside your hip/ankle. It *looks* like you're trying to release your right side through the ball while restricting your left which is not what you want. The byproduct is the flip:



A huge rolling over and breaking down of the wrists which is basically the smoking gun for all the aforementioned stuff. Your left leg is still bent through impact, and in fact you don't actually get it "cleared" until here:



Only at this point does your left side resemble what it should at impact. I'm harping on this because it's the main thing you're going to need to work on, so lets start there:



You don't really make a lateral shift off the ball and instead stay extremely "centered" in your pivot. This is alright IF you then stay more centered in your downswing, but you don't per the big lateral shift detailed above. As a result i'd recommend trying the following:

1) Feel a lateral bump in your initial takeaway.
2) Shorter backswing/less shoulder turn
3) An emphasis on posting up and clearing your left hip after you've "re-centered"

IMO this initial hip move you're making that is keeping you not only centered but actually moving towards the target with the lower body quite a bit is causing you to make this big exaggerated slide in the downswing to "catch up" with the momentum you're setting up, and if you were to just try to post up from your current position that it would be difficult, hence recommending a bit more of a bump away from the target in your takeaway.

Thank you! This is awesome.  I really struggle to not get "stuck" etc. like you mention and it's hard for me to correct it by just thinking about rotating through the left side.  Do you have any drills or anything that you would say would be good to help clear the left hip?

[tthomasgolfer605]

Put a beach ball between your knees. Gives immediate feedback. 

[Valtiel]

8 hours ago, clubtwirlz said:

Thank you! This is awesome.  I really struggle to not get "stuck" etc. like you mention and it's hard for me to correct it by just thinking about rotating through the left side.  Do you have any drills or anything that you would say would be good to help clear the left hip?

Cheers! Yeah the "stuck" comes from the combo of all the above stuff, but the lower body/left side stuff primarily. *Minor rant about drills incoming, hah*

There are drills that can give you feedback when you're doing something wrong, like the beach ball one that thomas mentioned, but honestly I don't really like them for things like this. Understanding what you ARE supposed to do is 10x more valuable, and drills are often a distraction from that and usually do more harm than good. I feel like i've seen drills ruin more swings than help them because the drill itself often requires it's own little self contained understanding of what it is or isn't doing and it's just another layer to complicate things IMO. Here is how I would approach it:



Feeling like you are driving your knee along this straight line, red line = backswing and orange line = transition/downswing. It won't actually look like this once pressure shifting and rotation are added, but all you'll want to be focused on is getting the left side in a position to drive it back in transition, away from the ball and target.

[slytown]

Agree with @Valtiel as usual. I would add that you need to exaggerate to fix the two issues of a long backswing and too much lateral shift in the downswing. To correct these things, you need to feel like you are doing half backswings and stay on your right side for the downswing.

Edited August 2, 2023 by slytown