Video: Driver Swing - Comments Please

Hello everyone,

I've become a frequent visitor to the site, but I haven't posted a video yet. I finally got around to it, so here's my driver swing from 2 days ago. Please lemme know what you guys think.

Thanks!

You have a very nice swing. All i can see is maybe a little more knee bend. Not sure if its just me also, but it kind of looks like your taking the club a little to the inside.

Could be just an illusion.

Other than that it looks like the ball went fairly straight from the camera view.

nice swing, just curious, how far does a fellow like you smack the ball?

Look like you have an aesthetically nice golf swing, but it's too hard to tell since it's not in slow motion and you don't have an angle face on. Thus, it's impossible to tell where your clubface is angles throughout the swing, what your grip looks like, hip movement, etc.

You do seem to have a nice address position. I wouldn't mess around with flexing your knees more as they are flexed enough (they may not look like because you're wearing jeans). If you want to get better opinions of the golf swing you should get a video camera with the sports mode feature, get both shots down the line and face on, and wear shorts (so you can see how your knees are thru the swing).




3JACK

Good set up. It appears that in the first few inches you start the club sightly outside which would set you up for a cut. Hard to tell without slowmo.

Put that video on swingacademy.com

It has slowmo

Thanks for all the comments.

I've taken you guys up on posting the video on swingacademy so you can see the swing in slowmo. here's the link:
http://www.swingacademy.com/SwingAna...ol.aspx?id=482
Not sure why, but swingacademy's video of me has some crazy timing/rhythm problems so refer back to the youtube video for my real swing rhythm. (how many forum junkies can spell "rhythm" correctly??)

Ganja - my driver usually carries about 250-260 with a clubhead speed of 108 average. I'm no long ball hitter, but I can usually get home in two on your every day par 4s with a comfortable short iron.

TourSpoon - good eyes. I do usually start a few inches outside of the ball. I'll look into bringing it back on-line, but when I used to do that I had a tendency to come across the line at the top.

Thanks again for taking your time to view my video.

Looks good on SA to me.

Swing looks good to me. The one thing I would say is that you didnt seem to have a waggle. It might help you loosen up a bit and that may give you a little more distance.

The swing on SwingAcademy helps out quite a bit. In your setup, you're very upright. Most professionals have more angle with the upper body as this allows them to have a more room for their hands.

When you look at your swing at the spot just before and past impact, you almost have to move your body away from the ball to have room for your hands to move past your body. I believe this is creating a power leak and could be creating inconsistency.

BTW, in terms of your current swing, it does look effective and you really finish well.

Have fun!
JG

Setup - Hands are below the chin, which is what you want. Appear to be aligned correctly. You're pretty upright. You probably want your back bent about 35 degrees. You're only bent about 20 degrees


Takeaway - Definitely take it outside. Aligning your takeaway with the white box shows that as your club goes slightly outside of the box whereas the optimal spot is just inside that white box behind the mat. Still, not a big problem if you're trying to hit a fade which can be an extremely effective shot, IMO. Can't tell much after that because I can't see the angle of the club, even with SA's slow-mo.


At the Top - Can't tell where the club is point, so it's hard to say too much. Great arm position at the top, forming the triangle perfectly. Left wrist is perfect, no cupped or laid off. Knees pretty good and still flexed properly. Retained spine angle pretty well.

First move downward - I'd assume you hit a cut here given the position of the golf shaft in relation to your arms. Problem area starts to arise in that your hips need to start opening more at this point. From here to impact, your hips are barely open. Here's a pic of Tigers' position at impact in 2002 and 2005.



Your hips are probably about 10 degrees or less at impact whereas Tigers are probably about 45 degrees. The lack of opening of the hips hurts power and accuracy as it hurts clubhead speed and also causes players to flip their wrists thru the ball. You also start to lose your spine angle. My guess is that you hit more thin shots over fat shots because of your spine angle at impact. You want that belt buckle to start facing the target at impact.


Finish - Promising, although you are a little off plane.


My suggestion would be to work on the setup. You've got that back pretty flat which is good, now you just want to bend from the hips a little more. That may call for you to flex the knees a tad. As always, be careful not to overdo it.

After you get that, I would then suggest moving on to working on your hips at the downswing. Find a pro that knows what he's talking about. And as always work on your short game.





3JACK

3Jack,

Wow... thanks for the in depth play by play. I apologize for the film quality - I'm using consumer grade equipment, so we don't exactly have the Phantom v5 at my disposal, so...

Allow me to address a few of your comments. First and foremost, your comments are unbiased and objective to a T. All the things you point out I see in my own swing.

Setup - I've tried many spine angles in the past. What you see in the video has worked best for me. It's been pointed out that my lower back makes a 'S' which subjects me to lower back injury in the long run. I'll be trying to modify that so as to not injure myself. As for the actual spine angle, with my current set up the lie of my irons are dead on. With my anatomical proportions, if I were to lean forward and bend my knees any more than they are already, I'd have to mess with getting my lie angle changed, but not before hitting some pretty bad pulls. (Greater spine angle -> greater knee bend -> club toe up -> "normal" from clubface would be left of target line -> pull) I figure this set up works and I'm still able to swing athletically through the ball, so there's really no reason to change it. If you watch Tiger swing his driver nowadays, his set up is fairly upright as well, but that all changes during his transition to the downswing where he hits Mach 3.

Top of Swing - I've worked hard to reach this position consistently. My left wrist used to be cupped because I was one of the beginners who thought I was hinging the wrist by cupping it. Also, I used to be on a very flat swing plane, but that's since been changed.

First move down - This is a very recent change to my swing. People would say that I'm lunging and casting the club which I didn't feel at all. I started to experiment and it turns out that the sensation that created the correct path is really deceiving. I feel like I'm making a very very minor loop behind me as I'm turning my hips. Simultaneous with this loop is the turning of my hips. I understand that if I were to overdo this loop action that I'll pull the ball waaaay left, but if done right, this creates a sensation of a charged clubshaft I've never felt before.

Let me address my hips now. If the critics had to nitpick at Tiger's swing, and believe me, this is only what they're saying - I'm not saying anything of the sort (Tiger, in the 1 in a million chance that you're trolling this forum and the 1 in a billion chance that I make it on tour, I'm not bagging on your swing AT ALL - I'd hate to be on your black list even before making it on tour) - they'd say that Tiger swings better when his lower body is in sync with his torso. It's when his hips outrace his shoulders by a gross amount that he starts to lose a little of his accuracy. Now magnify that 1000 fold and you've got my situation - now THAT is true Army Golf as Tiger would say.

Tiger's swing is a combination of Indiana Jones' skill with the whip, the accuracy of an electron microscope and the ballsiness of Phil Ivey at the WSOP Main Event. My swing is that of a scratch golfer (hit the ball, scratch head, ask "did you see my shot? where'd it go?") so I prefer the consistency of a more pendulum like motion that still exerts enough force into the back of the ball than that of a whip.

I understand that I'm losing some power by not clearing my hips more, but I'll take consistency over power. Afterall, a 170 yard 7 iron and a 290 yard (with roll) driver is long enough to hang with the big boys out on Tour.

I plan to hone my short game, dial in my putting and watch what I say and write about Tiger on the internet and with any luck, I'll be playing alongside some of the greats of our time when they graduate to the Sr. PGA tour. :)

Thanks for the spot-on critique!

-Gabe

Whether you agree with Tiger's swing critics or not (I disagree with his hips firing too fast), your hips are not open enough. That's what helps cause you to cast the club. I suffer from the same thing.

Essentially what happens is with your hips at almost 0 degrees at impact, something has to give because your forearms and wrists don't have any place to go. If you were to sustain the lag properly with your hips at the current position, you would likely shank or block stuff.

Think of your chipping/pitching technique. You should start with an open stance because you have little time to get your hips open at impact. And if you don't have those hips open when you're chipping/pitching, you're going to start flipping your wrists in order to square the club at impact.

I could go on about what I think Tiger's weakspots are and how his hips aren't the problem, but there's no doubt in my mind that if you got those hips to open only 25 degrees at impact, you would see gigantic rewards and put on at least 20 legit yards in distance and you will be much *more* consistent and accurate.



3JACK