Help Steve with his Swing

[iacas]

Steve's going in for a lesson tomorrow, but I thought we could give him something to work on here first... or to think about.

Here are his videos:

http://iacas.org/asm/steve1.mov
http://iacas.org/asm/steve2.mov
http://iacas.org/asm/steve3.mov
http://iacas.org/asm/steve4.mov

Shot them today with my still camera which, coolly, takes 640 x 480 videos at 30 FPS. I meant to take 320 x 240 at 60 FPS (which it can do) but my wife changed the settings and I didn't notice. Oh well...

I can see what the problem is, but I think it'll sound better coming from y'all. So, pick away. Steve will be on later to see what y'all have to say.

[cold]

He dips down on his down swing (looking at number one), probably in an attempt to help the ball into the air. I did the same thing, although I'm not sure if I was trying to help the ball up subconsciously or if I dipped for another reason altogether. The first one looked like it hurt his hand, his drive not so much :p

[jeffgladchun]

Steve, there're four things I'd like to point out:

You take the club back very much to the inside, this puts you on a very flat swing plane, as evidenced by the line your left arm makes at the top. Then you make a move to correct this by "bumping" your hands over the top. This is the classic banana slice move. To help this part of your swing, take your stance and imagine a line project from the ball, through your neck and out the other side. You want your left arm to be on that line as much as possible during the swing and especially at the top.

This image may help you:


This move has made you make another compensation in your swing, you fail to release the club in order to hold the face open as long as possible. This is very evident in Video 1 as the club head is twisted what looks about 45º open right after impact. To combat this move do a drill Vijay is known to use: put a glove between your left tricep and chest, this will force you to keep that left elbow at your side at all times, making you release the club properly.

The third thing is that you literally jump out of your shoes during your swing. In order to swing consistently, you have to remain balanced and planted during your swing, you can't do this from your toes. Your hips make a very large lateral shift during your swing. I used to make a very similar move and let me tell you: a proper hip turn makes a world of difference. What I did to gain a better hip turn was imagine a line projected from your left knee and through the ball, during your swing try to break that imaginary line with your right knee. This will force you to keep your right hip lower than your left, a move present in all good ballstrikers.

The fourth and last thing I'd like to point out is that there is no room for your right elbow to be where it needs to be in the swing. Your hips get ahead of your right elbow, and there's no room for your arms to release the club after that. That part has a lot to do with the lateral shift I was just talking about. If you get a better hip turn, you will find it much easier to come from the inside and gain distance and consistency.

Things I like about your swing:
You're very flexible
Left arm remains fairly straight from address to the top
You have a nice, high finish.

Good luck and I hope that helps!

[sole wolf]

so what did the instructor say? I am not very good at critiquing others swings so I wanted to see what the instructor said. Also let me know what flaw you were thinking Erik.

[iacas]

so what did the instructor say? I am not very good at critiquing others swings so I wanted to see what the instructor said. Also let me know what flaw you were thinking Erik.

The pro said the same things I'd said:
1) slightly wider stance with better alignment
2) more upright takeaway - get the grip over the shoulder
3) move the ball position a tiny bit forward (happened naturally with wider stance)
4) get the right thumb up at parallel on the follow-through (i.e. release the club, don't "hold on" through impact).
5) a little bit on tempo.

The pro also saw and fixed one thing I didn't see:
1) Steve's left thumb was extended an awful lot, way down the shaft, almost poking out. He loosened up his grip a little and stressed that the thumb should rest under the right hand, not go way down the shaft.

The thing he left for the next lesson is the (bad) weight shift/slide Steve has going.

[sbrl9014]

Hey everyone thanks for the help, this is steve. After my lesson ive been working a lot on getting my hands at the proper position at the top of my backswing. When i do get them to that position i no longer reroute the club on my down swing. Now, some of the main diffuculties is learning a basically new down swing because of the fact im coming at the ball much differently than i was with my swing of a week ago. I have to make sure that i release my wrists through the ball to ensure that i dont hit a massive slice. Learning the tempo and getting a feel for my new swing will take time but i can see that it will pay off in the end. Thanks again for the help.