Too much movement?!

[jowhee13]

Swing review

Hey,

have been playing for about 20 months and am totally addicted! :) Mostly self taught Im playing around an 18 handicap. Have played several 9 holes stretches around +4-6 over but never a good full 18!
Just struggling with overall consistency. Distance is not the issue. I usually try and analyze one part of my swing and work on it till im content with it then move on.


7 iron:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBd1fICIGk4&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj8COyno5z8&feature=youtu.be

Would REAAALLY appreciate any input! Just by the look of it, it seems like my body is just moving way too much.. especially my hips on the DS. Would shortening my BS make the swing look smoother?
really interested in some outisde opinions!

thx alot in advance!

[tfish]

the good news is that you're swinging exactly the way you're rehearsing. the bad news is that you're rehearsing an armsy, swaying, stuck golf swing.

your biggest two issues are swaying your hips to the right in the backswing and standing up
and then early extension/not turning deep in the throughswing....which is likely the result of trying to 'drop the club' inside and swing in-to-out....because as amatuers its what all the golf instruction tells us to do, to avoid a slice. you can see you really dive that right shoulder under you and it basically crashes against your ribs. and then in order to make contact with the ball you gotta thrust your hips straight at the target instead of turning around a pivot point with a deep left hip (which is what actually creates room to swing)

visually...
in the 3rd image, the green line to the right of your left hip was your left hip and quad at address. to coil correctly and put yourself in good positions for the downswing, that left hip needs to stay where it is at address. you still want to load some weight into the instep of your right foot and feel a stretch in your hips, but you do not want to sway at all to the right to get weight over there.

2nd image, the green line to the left was your butt at address. in virtually all good players, and especially tour players we see in the backswing that their right butt cheek breaks through that address line at the top of the backswing. meaning they've coiled deep, stayed in posture and given themselves room for their arms to come down in the throughswing. you're standing up a bit, and the weights probably moving toward your toes. so left hip needs to stay where it is laterally....and right hip needs to turn back deep behind you. easy thing to stand in front of a mirror and rehearse. feeling like your left shoulder is under your chin, weight on the right instep, stretch in your right quad/hip.

1st image...what's bound to happen after the positions at the top. butt comes even further off the line, weights probably way on your toes (as we see you fall forward towards the end of the followthrough). hands are going outside where they were at address, since your hips have moved towards the ball and they no longer have room to come through. and then right shoulder comes down, trying to hit it from the inside.

so.....couple things i'd work on.
those backswing positions i mentioned before, in a mirror, at the range, in practice swings...etc. whatever makes you do them correctly.
swing with your feet together. start small with wedges until you get good at it, can even swing 3/4 or so and a good percentage of your current distance. this does a great job preventing the swaying with your hips off the ball, and then big thrusting sway forward in the downswing....as you can't do it without falling over. and in turn it'll help the butt/hips to work deep to deep instead of towards the ball.
also think your initial move in the takeaway should have the hands coming in towards your right pocket more (with the clubhead staying outside). there's a lot of lifting of the hands going on (which you're also rehearsing)....and it puts your arms on a plane above your shoulders at the top. harder to recover from and hit from the inside. ideally the arms will be more across the shoulders at the top, and the right elbow will be out in front of you instead of flying behind you (can strap a foam volleyball between your elbows to get this feeling, or simply feel your right arm being straight out in front of your chest throughout the swing).

good luck. post some followup vids.

not bad for a year and a half.....and i'm sure you'll see marked improvement and be knocking down 80's door if you can do those above things and get your body out of it's own way.

[kellygreen]

[quote name='jowhee13' timestamp='1332328607' post='4548756']
Hey,

have been playing for about 20 months and am totally addicted! Mostly self taught Im playing around an 18 handicap. Have played several 9 holes stretches around +4-6 over but never a good full 18!
Just struggling with overall consistency. Distance is not the issue. I usually try and analyze one part of my swing and work on it till im content with it then move on.


7 iron:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBd1fICIGk4&feature=youtu.be"]http://www.youtube.c...eature=youtu.be[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj8COyno5z8&feature=youtu.be"]http://www.youtube.c...eature=youtu.be[/url]

Would REAAALLY appreciate any input! Just by the look of it, it seems like my body is just moving way too much.. especially my hips on the DS. Would shortening my BS make the swing look smoother?
really interested in some outisde opinions!

thx alot in advance!
[/quote]

For someone who has only been playing for about a year-and-a-half, you have a nice athletic motion.

What you need to do is get your arms and body moving in better synchrony, and that will help make your swing more compact and more repeatable/consistent.

1. You want to tighten up your lower body motion. A good image to work from is imagining that you are up to your knees in wet cementm as you start your backswing. That way your lower body only moves when the rotation of your upper body pulls it around. Players with the sort of long arms and legs that you have will always have to be mindful of what their lower bodies are doing...since they have a tendency to want to sway.

2. Your swing plane is a bit steep and disconnected. You CAN play like that....but unless you are Jim Furyk...it is really hard to time that motion with enough consistency to play good golf. IOW, the more you move away from the fundamentally-correct positions...the more timing-dependant your swing becomes...and more accomplished the athlete you have to be to play consistently well.

Two things to help with that.

a. Left arm connection. You want to keep your left upper arm pressed lightly against your chest (I call it "keeping your armpit closed") so that your chest turns in time with the swinging of your arms. A good drill to teach you the feel of left arm connection is to put a headcover or a washcloth into your left armpit, and hold it there. Then swing while holding it in your armpit, and don't let it fall out until well into your follow through.

b. Stop your armswing when you shoulders stop turning. That is the top of your backswing. Any attempt to swing back farther (if your are a middle-aged guy like me) leads to arm bending or (in the case of a young guy like yourself) arms becoming disconnected from the body rotation.

Otherwise you have a pretty sound "two-plane" swinging motion for someone who has only been playing this game for a short time.

[jowhee13]

wow thx soo much for the effort already guys! was out there all afternoon working on those things and started to get the feel how i believe my body is supposed to move! basicly trying to eliminate any movement in the left hip helps a ton already! then just really get the left it out of the way on the DS instead of throwing it towards the target!
I did those exercices for about 2h but still didnt really get comfortable with the changes... only to go finish up doing some short pitches in the short game area afterwards and hit those as crisp as ever so i moved on to longer wedge swings from there and hit the smoothest shots ever! I think the feeling of being able to keep my whole left foot on the ground during my DS is crucial for me to be able to implemate the changes you mentionned!?

Ill give it a few more days and show ou guys some follow up videos!! again thx so much for the help so far tho! really appreciate it