Struggling with pull and pull-hook shots

[norfside]

Started hitting pulls with my iron shots and pull hooks the odd time. Its been a few weeks now and Im really not sure how to remedy this. I can turn the odd one into a draw but I feel that is just luck of the timings working out. Any advice or drills to work on to remedy this?

[norfside]

I seem to have fixed the pull issue. Due to my stronger grip, my club face was shut at address. I added some non excessive lean to my shaft to square it at address. Started hitting draws now but 50% of them seem to be over draws by 10-20 yards

[Valtiel]

5 hours ago, norfside said:

I seem to have fixed the pull issue. Due to my stronger grip, my club face was shut at address. I added some non excessive lean to my shaft to square it at address. Started hitting draws now but 50% of them seem to be over draws by 10-20 yards

The main issue aside from small tweaks like this is a complete absence of proper wrist setting leading to a pretty drastic overswing/arm overrun:



Part of this will involve alignment which i'll mention after, but generally at this position (left arm parallel to the ground) the shaft should be somewhere between a full 90* (12 o/clock, perpendicular to the ground) and 45* (approx 10:30). I made a collage here of the range you'll see on tour, and you'll notice you have far less angle created here than even the least "set" of the pros, and this is a problem. You're also dragging your hands back quite inside (along your foot line which is quite shut compared to where the ball goes), and this inside takeaway without proper wrist set sets you up for this:



Rotationally speaking your backswing is done here. This is a full shoulder turn and arguably too *much* hip turn, but that is a different topic. The problem is that your wrists are *still* completely unset, you have no power or leverage in your hands right now so if your backswing stopped here you wouldn't be able to produce any speed going down, so now your body contorts to swing further:



The first gif shows that you're roughly able to maintain your spine and shoulder angle within this "full turn" part of the swing, but because your wrists aren't set and you now have to swing longer, the second gif shows how much you come out of your posture and flatten your shoulders. From here if you were to swing normally without compensations the clubhead would be about a 6" above the ball at "impact". So hopefully that illustrates the knock-on effect of fundamental swing issues. Because you didn't properly set your wrists and your path was excessively inside, you're forced to over swing to compensate and from a position where your hands are too far behind you, and in overswinging you lose your tilt and your whole position in relation to the ball has changed.  

I know that sounds like a lot, but all you need to do is go to the source and start by leaning to use your wrists correctly:

1) Wrist preset dills like Faldo's Drill and the Split Hand Grip Drill are good places to start. The split grip drill in particular is a good starting point to force the correct takeaway position which is important for people like you that get the club too for inside and get stuck, hence why Mcilroy uses it as inside/stuck is a problem of his too. The Faldo drill help pick up the Split Grip idea but with the hands together, I highly recommend doing this in front of a mirror or a window so you can see your club position going back. If all of these are done correctly and implemented your swing should *feel* much shorter, but that's just because you'll get your wrists set and working in conjunction with your shoulders instead of having to way overcrank said shoulders to get leverage. You aren't going from a 100% swing to a 50% swing like it will feel like, you're going from a disconnected 150% swing to a connected 100% one.

2) Alignment. As part of all these moving parts above you've gotten pretty misaligned looking based on where the ball starts. I'm not sure where your intended target is, but your feet are aligned 50y+ right of where the camera is pointing (and where the ball goes). Sneaking into a very shut alignment is common with all the aforementioned swing issues, so get some alignment sticks and pick a target to orient yourself to. Check your shoulder alignment as well as it should roughly match your feet to start with (here your shoulders are more open than your feet).

Start with those and check on video + follow up if you can.

[norfside]

On 1/12/2024 at 6:12 AM, Valtiel said:

Start with those and check on video + follow up if you can.

 

 

 

 

I really appreicate you do doing an anaylsis of my swing. I worked on those two drills and have been to the driving range twice since. I feel I am hinging the wrists correctly now and getting into an ok position at the top but still pulling shots. I think it may possibly be a tempo thing and Im swinging far too hard with my arms? Ive attached a video that is just a raw file of a few swings in normal speed. (My feet are both alinged straight down the target line. It just seems they are not because of the video angle).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRqIepi4eKI

Edited January 14 by norfside