Looking for some swing feedback (video)

**slinkee** · September 22, 2008

Hey guys I just found this Swing Academy website and slapped a video up there of my swing (facing down the target line).

It's just me in my front yard with my wife holding the camera hitting a little yellow practice ball, but maybe you could tell me where abouts I'm going wrong. I tend to do either a soft push, fade, or slice, and one out of every 15 or so will go straight.

Some information about me:
I started golfing Oct. 2007
I've been averaging in the low to mid 90's, though I had 2 lessons within the past 2 months but haven't been to a real course yet. (By that I mean there's this crappy little 4200 yard par 67 course that I'll go to because it's very cheap as I'm a student and I've shot a 74 there about 2 weeks ago, but being it's 2000+ yards shorter then a regulation course I don't count it).
I've been going to the driving range ~3 times a week. I'm extremely passionate about this game and been working very hard to have a smooth, balanced, sexy looking swing like these guys on TV.

If you can help, thanks so much! If you need any additional information from me, let me know here and I will edit this original post to include it.

Here's the video: http://www.swingacademy.com/swingana...l.aspx?id=1797

**jjb333** · September 23, 2008

You're gonna need to post the video.

**slinkee** · September 23, 2008

You're gonna need to post the video.

haha /facepalm

**Petden** · September 23, 2008

The swing looks pretty good, IMO. It might be that you are rolling over your wrist too quickly and leave the face either open or close it too much.

**slinkee** · September 23, 2008

The swing looks pretty good, IMO. It might be that you are rolling over your wrist too quickly and leave the face either open or close it too much.

Speaking of the wrists, one thing I do notice is that my right hand tends to gravitate from on top of the club (where I start with a neutral grip) to down the right side of the club (more of a strong grip) when i approach impact, thus leaving the face open. I cannot seem to keep my hand on the club and that's something I've been working hard on.

**dragonflyin** · September 23, 2008

I think you've got a solid swing there. Hard to believe that only 1 out of 15 shots are straight. Since you only posted a down the line view, it's hard to say. Given your finish position, you may have some "reverse C" action. You're not really coming over the top of it, so that rules out the typical swing fault. Getting the right weight transfer and proper club head release will get that club head square.

Good luck! You'll improve dramatically once you get that fixed!

**slinkee** · September 23, 2008

I think you've got a solid swing there. Hard to believe that only 1 out of 15 shots are straight. Since you only posted a down the line view, it's hard to say. Given your finish position, you may have some "reverse C" action. You're not really coming over the top of it, so that rules out the typical swing fault. Getting the right weight transfer and proper club head release will get that club head square.

Hold that thought ... I have a front view coming up right now. :)

Edit: Here it is http://www.swingacademy.com/swingana...l.aspx?id=1798

**dragonflyin** · September 23, 2008

Ahh, this is much more revealing...

Still, a good swing. My $0.02 would be that your position at the top is little awkward with your hip. I think this is mostly caused by your rotation up to the top using your legs more so than your hip. If you watch in slow motion, your rotating axle is all based on your left leg. I'd work on having that more as a combination of your waist/hip and your shoulders (which actually rotates nicely).

Your impact position is decent, hands ahead of the ball, creating good lag with the club. However, a few things I noticed.
1. Your hands don't release properly. I think this is not caused by the proper "flip" of the hands, but rather your weight balance is more evenly distributed at impact as opposed to a majority of your weight on your leading (left) side.
2. Related to #1, I imagine you lose a ton of stored energy because your hips don't really come into play as much in rotating your body through impact. A lot of your speed only comes from your arms, hands, and shoulders. Power really comes from the hips. For a guy of your stature, you seem very flexible in the shoulders and hip. Take advantage of it!

Again, I really don't think you're too far off. A lot of what's stated above is about timing. You have all the right pieces, once you get the timing right of when to transfer weight, and when to fire the hips, you'll be blasting them far and straight!

**TinCupTampa** · September 23, 2008

From what I can see... you have a very solid swing.

I did (at least I think I did) see your top hand coming underneath at the point of impact.

Take a stronger grip and see if that helps.

When I first started playing I would always slice the ball. I tried everything from my grip, takeway etc and nothing worked... until I realized I wasnt turning my wrists over properly.

I have a little weight that I used to put on the end of my club and I would take a half swing and then swing it to a half follow through at about 50%. I would do this out in front of my body while standing completely upright... kinda like a baseball swing. I did this purely to strengthen my wrists and get the proper feel of the club head turning over at the proper point in the swing.

My slice was gone within a couple days.

**slinkee** · September 23, 2008

Thanks so much for these replies this is going to help. A few questions, however. One, how do you stop using that left leg for a rotational axis? I've been working on "snapping" the left leg on the down swing to get my hips to stop sliding. My instructor told me that my lower body was also out racing my upper body and that this should help. Another question is, do you think my backswing is too far on the inside?

I noticed in the video after taking a closer look just now that my right arms is bent half way back. I pulled out Tiger's book and did some comparisons and he retains that triangle where I'm deforming it. Could this cause my problems of push/fade/slice along with the myriad of other issues I'm facing?

Bottom line...how do you keep it simple? Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with how much I have to work on that instead of going out and enjoying a round of golf I just head to the range. :(

**jambalaya** · September 23, 2008

Thanks so much for these replies this is going to help. A few questions, however. One, how do you stop using that left leg for a rotational axis? I've been working on "snapping" the left leg on the down swing to get my hips to stop sliding. My instructor told me that my lower body was also out racing my upper body and that this should help. Another question is, do you think my backswing is too far on the inside?

Essentially your backswing IS too far inside but not by much. You take it back much better than the average amateur. However, I think you rely too much on arm lift and arm movement to get the club to the top. This is kind of a false shoulder turn. Keep your arms more in front of your body and don't let that front shoulder fold in so much. Concentrate on keeping your right knee flexed and slightly pointing in and use the inside of the back leg as the rotation axis back. In my opinion you have a little bit of an over the top move which is a cause of your slices. Working on a more one piece takeaway would help your cause I think.

**GrahamD** · September 23, 2008

Your swing is very much like mine.

**slinkee** · September 23, 2008

Essentially your backswing IS too far inside but not by much. You take it back much better than the average amateur. However, I think you rely too much on arm lift and arm movement to get the club to the top. This is kind of a false shoulder turn. Keep your arms more in front of your body and don't let that front shoulder fold in so much. Concentrate on keeping your right knee flexed and slightly pointing in and use the inside of the back leg as the rotation axis back. In my opinion you have a little bit of an over the top move which is a cause of your slices. Working on a more one piece takeaway would help your cause I think.

So a major point here would be to make sure I'm dropping the club in on the inside? Perhaps to the point where a divot taken would point slightly away from me?

**jambalaya** · September 23, 2008

So a major point here would be to make sure I'm dropping the club in on the inside? Perhaps to the point where a divot taken would point slightly away from me?

That is one way of thinking about it.

**slinkee** · September 23, 2008

Your swing is very much like mine.

Is your ball flight the same?

**dragonflyin** · September 26, 2008

One practical swing tip that I often use if I'm having trouble properly releasing the club is just taking three quarter swings with my feet together. You can even hit balls like this. Work on getting your left hand turned over and released.

**mm6840** · September 26, 2008

So a major point here would be to make sure I'm dropping the club in on the inside? Perhaps to the point where a divot taken would point slightly away from me?

Hi

I Agree with others - yours swing look very solid for amount of time playing golf. From my point of view you should decide which route your're going (one plane or two plane) Looks more 2 plane

so Left shoulder/arm should be dominating (and closer to the ball, narrower stance,....). From video I can see you left hand is not straight at the time of impact - you should try to straighten yours left forearm/hand a bit earlier. regards,

**Eeryck** · September 26, 2008

Just taking a guess because your swing looks quite a bit like mine with a similar result, I offer something I just realized I misunderstood.

My center of gravity for my body was centered over the balls of my feet but my feet were flat on the ground (even weight distribution over the entire foot). This was causing me to slice quite a bit. So I started to set up trying to focus a bit more with feeling my body weight on the balls of my feet instead. (feeling of heal just touching the ground but not carrying much of my weight at all.)

This change allowed my swing to stay on plane much easier and the slicing stopped.

Perhaps someone who knows a bit more can confirm this is a more correct weight distribution. I would hate to give anyone else a bad habit from my own swing experiments.

-E

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