Interested in your thoughts

I am posting this video to hear your thoughts on the progress of this swing change.

I welcome any critique or comments, but with any of these, can you say why you think so?

Your lower body and hips look a little weird. I don't know what it is exactly, but to me it doesn't look right. Like your lower body is going too late maybe? I could be wrong, so wait for some other responses before listening.

Good looking swing… the only thing I noticed is a little slippage off of your back foot, and this could be due to the fact that you are hitting off of a mat.

Dress shoes with smooth bottoms. Given that, I think the legs and feet are working well.

It appears as if he is posting too much on the back leg - almost as if the weight of the back leg is on the heel just before the downswing.

I justed looked at the video again. It was his back foot that made it look weird. His lower half does go before his upper half.

What is your handicap?..i would guess about 8?

The swing is quite classical with a nice finish- I would say that you fade the ball judging by the swing path on the downswing. Without wanting to pull the swing apart completely I would say that you should work on NOT coming over the top of the ball. Perhaps you should get an axe and chop a few trees down to get the sensation of hitting from the inside as it seems that your action is more like you re casting a fishing rod- which actually is not a bad thing!...In fact your downswing reminds me of that of Miguel Angel Jimenez, the way that his swing path changes at the top of the swing.

Maybe you should:
1) try to rotate your shoulders more rather than using your arms to move the clubhead.

2) Move the ball position back more to allow you to collect the ball earlier on the downswing- this will discourage you from moving over the ball on the downswing, as it seems to me that you could be reaching for it a bit.

3) Practice hitting shots with a very shut stance and try to snap hook a few shots- a bit like chopping a tree down with an axe.


Hope this is useful.

There's definitely pressure on my back foot and it stays there until my hands pass my feet. The foot slipping is letting go of the pressure and it slips just at impact. I think that's pretty cool that right at impact, all my weight is forward. At the top of the swing, the pressure is highest between the heel and the ball of the right foot. The natural ball flight is a draw with an open clubface and a slight in to out swing path. When I swing my long driver (48" Ashton XD1) I swing it with the clubface less open and it feels like a pull, but its not. It goes dead straight. Helped me win an event with 363 in -3 degree weather.

The changes are working increasing speed and a different hinge after impact to get the club moving left a little faster.

I hit this shot after working on the impact bag. The top of my left arm was a little sore from it being catapulted off my chest but I find this is a good feeling going into the ball. I try hard to keep my chest pushing on my left arm.

Other than the slipping right foot (pretty sure it is from the mat and shoes, not swing), the swing looks pretty good!

Here are some random thoughts, of dubious value...

Very strong swing, nice balance, good tempo. Can't see your grip but I'm guessing it is very solid.

I think right at impact you could use a more open hip line (I don't see your left hip pocket) and this would straighten your ball flight or diminish the draw. For sure you could add a few mph swing speed (which you apparently don't need if there is such a thing.) There is a complication with this observation. Your toe line hints at being closed and as best I can tell the ball impact on the net appears to confirm this. Nothing wrong with that, but it does lead to the hips appearing to being less open at impact. After saying all that, there are not enough frames per second to really catch the exact moment of impact, so I could be wrong. I can get one frame at impact, but there is a little blurring with another frame. Your upper body worked great. I especially like the more modern look of being slightly laid off at the top. It seems to me that the evolution of the modern swing is moving toward this position, but there are still classic views that would disagree.

You have a nice extention on the backswing, but a very slight hint of a closed clubface. At the top, there are a few degrees of closed clubface since the angle of the face has the toe more up than your arm (but this is very small.) A lot of powerful swingers keep the clubface more in line with the spine angle than the traditional more open look (or if you prefer a more toe down position at the top.) If you ever fight a hook, try getting the toe pointed a little more down at the top. I only mention this because my own swing demon is getting that bowed left wrist look at the top and invariably the draw starts turning into a hook or a pull if the legs get lazy. If your can drive the turn back into the ball really hard, you can knock the crap out of it but occasionally it will get away from you.

Downswing locks right on the shoulder and you have really made a good swing. I like your "going left after impact" move. I assume grass and golf shoes would fix what some others have noticed.

So, I don't really know all that much, and don't claim to, but that is what I see after starting and stopping your swing dozens of times -- slow motion would be a lot easier to analyze. You asked for opinions so these are mine. Toss them in the waste basket and watch your ball flight -- if it is what you want, you have a very solid swing.

Oops... I just saw a static frame just slightly before 3:00 o'clock in the backswing, and the clubhead was already behind your body line while the hands are in front. So you are coming inside very quickly on the backswing, and that explains the impact position. You really have to rev up the upper body to recover so you can get back to square at impact. Still, I would call it a good swing, but if you can stay parallel to the target line or even ever so slightly have the shaft pointing left of the line at 3:00 o'clock, you will have the club more in front of you and you can turn into a good left side more quickly. If you try that and it works, then great, but remember reproducible ball flight is what we all want so I hope nothing I say messes you up. It is all just so many words.

Great info. My coach has talked about the same thing. I have a tendency to keep a closed toe line which reduces hip turn through the ball.

I think the clubface alignments might be a camera misperception as my grip is neutral on the strongest of days.


Thanks for the feedback and the explanation of why it should happen. Great advice.

I think i detect a slight wrist cock too early in the backswing, i had this problem and it can make the club get behind yourself a bit and make it harded to get your clubface back to square on the downswing.

I try to load the club early in the backswing for many reasons, mostly because it's lighter going up, meaning I can control it more. I do not want to deal with any other delayed wrist set as I don't want to create clubhead speed at transition. I want to delay this until later in the downswing. This move does help get the club falling more 'behind' me but in order to get it moving on a flatter line on the way into the ball, I will need it more behind and to the side (from down the line). I don't want it behind me on the way up but I'll take it Way behind me on the way down. With my pivot driving forward, that club will be really moving through the ball.