The Golf fix...I'm needing one :)

[midweston]

Video Embedded (included)

Hey guys!

I finally got a video up of my swing. I've been playing very sporadically for the past 5 years or so, completely self taught. My all time low for nine holes is just under 50, and I need some help. I would appreciate any feedback and any drills you would encourage me to try out. Just looking to get more consistent!

I particularly get wild with my long game. I shot 52 for 9 the other day with an 8 and a 10 on the par 5's. The other holes were fairly solid comparatively.

Some things I know I need to work on:
-Cut down on the backswing/limit lower body movement)
-Make sure my left arm stays locked out through the swing.

Let me know! Thanks in advance!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFYVaFLHqYM

[jjbee614]

Cut down on the backsing, yes... limit lower body rotation, not so much. With my swing (mostly self taught with help from a few friends that are scratch golfers), I have been encouraged to get a full hip and shoulder turn, because that is where your power comes from. However, if you allow the clubhead to travel too much, it will mess up timing on your downswing and at impact. One of the drills I do for hip/shoulder turn is [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnbEsxM4sfw"]this one[/url]. Then to help with arms staying straight, I do the drill where you hold a clubhead cover under your armpit.

[midweston]

Thanks for writing! I took a look at the drill, looks useful. I feel like my swing plane is a little too vertical too. That should help a little on the distance, which I'm not actually hitting very far for a 6'3 guy.

[russc1597187869]

[quote name='midweston' timestamp='1302748582' post='3151857']
Hey guys!

I finally got a video up of my swing. I've been playing very sporadically for the past 5 years or so, completely self taught. My all time low for nine holes is just under 50, and I need some help. I would appreciate any feedback and any drills you would encourage me to try out. Just looking to get more consistent!

I particularly get wild with my long game. I shot 52 for 9 the other day with an 8 and a 10 on the par 5's. The other holes were fairly solid comparatively.

Some things I know I need to work on:
-Cut down on the backswing/limit lower body movement)
-Make sure my left arm stays locked out through the swing.

Let me know! Thanks in advance!!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFYVaFLHqYM[/media]
[/quote].You have a remarkably good swing for someone who shoots the scores that you do.I would not worry about your left arm,which can range from straight to fairly bent and still be in the acceptable zone.Your backswing is way too long and you probably have a considerable amount of runoff.Runoff is the the amount your arms move after the shoulders have stopped turning.You are certainly rotating your hips too much going back as indicted by your left knee moving towards the ball on the backswing. One of the cures for this is to brace your right knee at your setup and maintain much of this brace all the way to the top of your backswing,but I would like to see a front video view to confirm this.
IF you can cut down on the length of your backswing and acquire a good shot game ,you could could easily be a low single digit handicap

[midweston]

First off, I really appreciate the feedback!

I've been working on it all day, and I can definitely say as fact,i t is really hard to cut down that backswing!! I've been video'ing myself and even when I feel like i've made it ridiculously short I haven't even got back to parallel yet. It isn't that I'm super flexible, (as I've been reading) but that I do allow my arms to bend (runoff) on the backswing.

I actually putted pretty well the other day, only one 3 putt off a 60 or 70 footer. I chipped pretty well, and one of my bogeys was so because I had to hit 3 from the tee! I think my scores will drop tremendously if I can just put the longer clubs in the fairway!!

I've been thinking about getting a swingyde to help me for a better position at the top...I also do a little casting it looks like and I would love to get rid of that, and see that I could use the swingyde for that too. Again, I'm really appreciative of your feedback!!!

[danalihd]

I think your first move is with your wrists and you take the club outside. Swing looks pretty darn good but maybe try the Martinez approach and get the club moving a little more inside

[Lefthook]

It would be useful to know a little bit about where your ball goes, your typical misses, your good shots etc. Also a face on video would help.

[midweston]

Thanks for posting! I will get up some new vids soon. I've been trimming the backswing down and I've seen some good results!

My main miss is to the right with the driver...sometimes a hard fade to straight...but I'll get some better vids up to look at.

[Lefthook]

[quote name='midweston' timestamp='1303869361' post='3188770']
Thanks for posting! I will get up some new vids soon. I've been trimming the backswing down and I've seen some good results!

My main miss is to the right with the driver...sometimes a hard fade to straight...but I'll get some better vids up to look at.
[/quote]

I agree that you have a good looking swing for your handicap. It's a good platform for refinement.


The video show that you roll your wrists and clubface open the first instance in the back swing. This can make it difficult for you to square the clubface in a controlled manner going down. It is perhaps also a sign that you don't monitor all the right things in your swing.

FIrst of all, you should start paying attention to your hands. Monitor the hands.

You want to return to the ball with a club face that is roughly pointing down the target line - and with lag pressure intact. That means that the back of your left hand must close to vertical and flat. The clubhead and the clubface will do what the hands do. So if you know how and where you want to have your hands at impact you can simply aim your swing at getting them there and let the clubhead be an extension of your hands.

Pressure Point #2: The two middle fingers or three last fingers on your left hand. Get a feel for the correct pressure at address (or better: impact fix) and aim to recreate that at impact.

Pressure Point #3: The point where your right index finger pushes on the grip. At address and impact this pressure should trace the plane line (which is usually the same as the target line). Pretty much in the same way as you would do if you were to throw a small stone underhand down the target line.

The challenge of the deal is this: You need to rotate the club with the forearms in your back swing to create a proper turn, set your wrists etc. Your left wrist will almost be on plane and your right elbow will be under plane at the top. This rotation shouldn't start at takeaway but later. You can start to fan the clubface open in the takeaway with shoulder rotation if you prefere, but you need to wait with forearm rotation until later in the back swing. That is; Your pressure point #3 pressure should be tracing the target line during the takeaway. You can start to rotate the forearms later and you can also do it really late if you wish.

At the top of the back swing your right forearm will be under the swing plane, supporting the weight of the club. And your pp#3 pressure will have been rotated. It is not on the aft of the shaft anymore, but on top (the toe side) of the shaft. And it is by no means aiming downplane towards the ball. It is aiming stright up, holding the weight of the club. Remember the toe is no pointing towards the ground.

Before you start your down swing you need to have a "plan" of how to rotate back to square at impact. Actually you should have that plan before you start your takeaway. Having a vivid image of the pressure point alignment at impact and swinging the hands can work really well.

Another part of the plan is the "finish swivel". The finish swivel is a roll with the forearms that happens after impact, after low point and into the finish - where the forearms are rolled anti clock wise so that the club face faces the ground. Even if you only think of the finish swivel as something that happens after impact you will prepare for it early in the down swing. And this preparation will help you to square the club face and keep on driving hard through impact. The clubface faces the sky in the down stroke. After the finish swivel it will face the ground. Somewhere in the middle - preferably at impact - it will facing down the target line. If you don't prepare for a finish swivel, you will enter impact with your left hand on top of the right and an open club face....

There's a timing element in squaring the clubface, but if you when you get the finish swivel under your skin it will become a part of your down stroke rhythm so that it happens automatically. But you still need to know how and where you want to have your hands at impact and your hands' pressure at impact.

So start monitoring and swinging your hands.

[midweston]

Thanks for writing. I downloaded and read up on Geoff's Texarkana PDF, which I found somewhat useful. I've been getting my body MUCH more involved in my swing and i'm seeing some dividends from that. I went to the range today and early on went pretty straight and as it went on I started to overswing a little and get out of sync and run the ball to the right. I definitely will take away from your message the opening of the clubface too early, I think that is really a good tip. Some of the other lingo in there and description was a little hard to follow...

I do lose lag sometimes and can't really "feel" the lag pressure points in my hands. Eventually I'll have to get some lessons or something. However, my drives weren't crazy balooning today, but I had a nice tailwind behind to help with that. I know that I hit my wedges and 8,9 really high though, so i'm sure i can do a little better with a little more lag. I'm planning on getting it by using my big muscles more and allowing that to move the clubface instead of trying to time out my hands and arms.

Anyways, I took some video today, but my head was cut off, so I can't really see much of my hands and club. I do have my backswing pretty close to parallel to the ground now, and my lower body is somewhat quieter for sure. I have no doubt consistency is going to go through the charts compared to where i've been.

Thanks again for writing, I'll post an "updated" swing video here pretty soon.

[Lefthook]

[quote name='midweston' timestamp='1303955484' post='3191978']
I definitely will take away from your message the opening of the clubface too early, I think that is really a good tip. Some of the other lingo in there and description was a little hard to follow...
[/quote]

I didn't say open the clubface too early. I said: that you roll it open too early with your forearms. You can fan it open early . That can work really well, depending on what you do later on. The difference between opening the face backwards, like a door (fanning) and opening it upwards as you do if you roll your forearms - is huge.

But this is nevertheless a small detail in the big scheme of things.

Your swing looks far better than your score. This is an indication that your feel is underdeveloped.

It is important to have a good feel system that covers basically everything you do with every body part throughout the stroke, but the hands are more essensial than the rest. They pick up a lot of signals from the club as well as the ball and you can also command your hands to do what you want them to do. For instance to arrive at the ball with shaft lean and a slightly closed club face for a draw - if that's what you want.

About 90% of you practice should be spent in "awareness mode" where you really try to increase your awereness of what you're doing and what you're feeling. Where the ball goes is less important than how it gets there. If you start to slice the ball at the range, spend some time to monitor and feel how the slice is produced instead of looking for a quick fix to eliminate it right away.

When it comes to feel & mechanics I get best results from working on the short game, aroound the green - and with wedges inside 100 yards. Some people practice full swings in slow motion as well. This used to be one of Fred Couples' favourites. Perhaps it still is. Full swing with full power tend to shut down the feel rely on short term muscle memory that doesn't make it from the driving range to the course.

I recommend Fred Shoemaker's book: [url="http://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Golf-Art-Possible-Perigee/dp/039952276X"]http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/039952276X[/url] This isn't a very technical book. The main message in it is that, instead of trying to fix your swing all the time you should try to feel it. When you feel it, it will almost fix itself.

[midweston]

Hey guys, Part II. The wind will be a little annoying, but other than that, let me know what you think. I shortened the backswing. Still more to do with it though! Also shot a 58 for 9 holes the next day (in similar winds).

There are 3 regular swings followed by one slow mo. I'm still missing right when missing. I did hit the fairway more than in the past though! Just need to work on keeping it consistent. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NSaXfrHRLc[/media]

[russc1597187869]

One new thing and one reiteration from my former post

It looks like you are playing the ball too far back in your stance for a driver.The camera angle may be distorting this so I am not sure.
At setup you should tilt your spine SLIGHTLY away from the target resulting in your right shoulder being slightly lower than the left, while at the same time pushing your right knee in slightly towards the left.This movement by the right knee will also lower your right hip vs the left hip.The braced right knee along with the spine tilt will make it easier to make the proper backswing.
The main issue that you have is that you go through this brace of the right knee early in your backswing.This in turn creates a chain reaction of incorrect moves ,among them a slight reverse pivot and too much hip turn on the backswing.Note that pros have very little lateral movement from their hip on down on their backswings,but rheir hips do turn going back.
So in order not to complicate things too much at this point,Try this setup and MAINTAIN the brace of the right knee all the way to the top of the backswing..You will feel tension in your right inner thigh,but that is good.If it feels comfortable,you are probably not doing it correctly