Re: What Are You Working On?
Originally Posted by
sjwano 
I am working on my back swing, and have been all year.
Kind of a long story, so I'll summarize. Took a few lessons as a kid, but didn't really play till after high school. Just went by feel, being a fairly athletic person I didn't know about the fundamentals, just tried to hit the ball. As a result, I always had a "dip"/wing type swing, where I would not hinge my arms at all, but tilt my left shoulder down and my right elbow would fly out. I would also use a super closed club face (tilting the club) due to my grip, and used to be really hunched over the club. Since then I have adjusted my grip (although still very strong, it is no longer as closed), and worked on my stance. The past few years when I am in groove I could be pretty precise with my irons but I was too inconsistent. My natural shot was a low to mid height draw, but I would tend to hit a lot of pulls left or a bad slice if I was in a funk. So I got a couple lessons and began trying to eliminate the dip and actually hinge my elbows, something I never really did before. This has helped a bit but I am still hitting a lot of my irons left and now have been slicing my driver which was always a draw too, and I still have some of the tilt. Recently watching the pros I noticed how straight their left arms stay and how they tilt their wrists on the back swing. I really didn't do this before, but have been trying to do it lately. I noticed I can generate a lot more speed and get more consistent results with shorter back swing and less wild approach. I've took a couple videos myself with a driver and my "old" swing compared to the "new" swing. I don't have my "old old" swing videod, but my post lesson "hinge but still stilt" swing taped. What do you think? Still lots to work on I am sure but any other advice? Thanks in advance...
Good job using videos. That's the first step. The three biggest points I would mention in order you must work on them:
1. Firm up your right side. You slide quite a bit on the way back. Let the left knee kick in some and turn your hips, emphasis on the TURN. You should feel a lot of tightness and effort on the front of your right hip around your right hip pocket. If that muscle is weak, you will slide instead.
2. Do some research on "Reverse Pivot". That's one reason your hands are so high. There is quite a bit of "tilt" in your backswing like you are curving your spine to the left and pinching your left shoulder and left hip together. That makes it easier to get your hands high. Try to imagine that the distance between your left shoulder/left hip bone, and right shoulder/right hip bone stays the same. This ensures that there isn't any tilt in your turn and only TURN. Turn is what gets you on plane. You have a slide. I know because my swing looked quite a bit like yours.
3. When you turn back (Must get #1 and #2 right first) start turning through with the lower body first. When you get to the top, think "turn" until your hands are a little above parallel with the ground. Then swing through hard. Make sure you stay smooth and easy all the way through the transition. Only then should you pour on the power.
My 2 cents. Good luck.
) which I need to work on avoiding! Still, definite potential; need to see if the improvement sticks around more than the odd bag of balls.
