My Swing (Rugger)

I had another thread this with video but it was a bit misleading. I apologize if this is out of line.



I'm looking for advice. I've been making better contact in the last few weeks as I am finally beginning to hit down on the ball as opposed to scooping at it but I am still lost. I can very regularly make downward contact with 7-wedges, 5-6 are OK and 3-4 are very spotty.

Right now I'm focusing on creating lag by swinging with shoulders and hips rather than arms, but I am also trying to focus on my takeaway/backswing so that I am set up for the appropriate swing path.

For the most part , when making good, downward contact, my swing path has been in to out, with the club path moving away from my body, creating a draw to a big draw.

I think improving on these two are equally important, but the swing path and correlating accuracy will help me in the short run. I don't have an official handicap, haven't played enough rounds seriously, but would probably wind up between 25-30 handicap . I've played bogey golf, but typically have a handful of pars, a birdie or two, some bogeys and a few blow up holes. The strokes add up quickly that way. My putting needs work, but my short game is better than my handicap would indicate. I would say a majority of strokes are lost off the tee or with long irons.

I appreciate any and all tips, insight, advice, criticism, insults etc etc!!!!

Note: As someone in the other thread mentioned, it looks like my grip is jacked up. It might be, but it looks like that mostly because I have big hands and sausage fingers.

Played a tough course today(143) and I didn't play great. Putting and tee shots let me down a bit, but nothing was strong. I made some great shots with both long and short irons, including some nice 240-250 4 iron shots. Just can't seem to string together enough positive momentum to score well. Good news is that I was hitting down on the ball all day, bad news is accuracy is still off.

From what I can ascertain you might consider checking your grip, distance from the ball,ball position, posture and aim to begin with. It wont solve all your problems but at least you would be eliminating any setup issues as a cause for your inaccuracy.

your swing is actually pretty decent. the angle isn't the greatest but its smooth.

you should def be better then a 25-30 handicap with that swing. I'd say work on the short game and putting.

I think a lot of those look jacked up because of the angle of the camera. I didn't square up to it for whatever reason. What do you see in my posture, though?

Which angle are you referring to?

i meant the camera angle, not anything swing related. sorry i didn't give much feedback. I really don't know enough about the swing technicalities from this camera angle to be able to point things out. All I know is the tempo was good and you got to your left side by finishing your swing.

Played another difficult course today(147) and played OK, not great. I scored better than I have in a while but I didn't leave thinking 'great round' to myself. I think decent tee shots helped me out a lot, even though I only hit 4 fairways. Par 3s ate me alive, though more practice!

Do you have any videos that aren't the same single swing looped for 46 seconds? This reminds me of the bus passenger loop from

Speed . Look at the two golfers behind you - they're doing the exact same motions on each of your swings. The old guy in the blue shirt is teeing up a ball and the guy behind him is making warmup swings. Very odd.

Honestly if you want the best feedback from people here you should record multiple swings (at least 3) from down the line and face on, squared up camera angles. It wouldn't hurt to have a high fps camera, but the former suggestion doesn't cost any additional money and people here can help you out a lot more.

Yeah, that's probably what I meant - multiple swings filmed continuously.

Biggest things my untrained eye sees/thinks:

1) No hip clear - I just can't figure this out. I KNOW I'm not doing it, just can't make it happen.
2) VERY armsy, seems to stem from #1, lack of hip turn almost forces armsy swing.
3) Almost a reverse pivot - my shoulders lean toward target while hips move away from it
4) Steep swing - 2 or even 3 plane swing

For all that is holy, please help me.

Not a swing expert, but a couple things to get you started:

- Very wristy swing. At impact your clubhead looks like it's 4 inches in front of your left hand. There's no way for you to control the ball with that. - Flat shoulder plane. As you continue your backswing your shoulders get flatter and flatter. You need to maintain your shoulder plane. See this thread . It looks like you have to lift your head for your shoulders to move under, that's how flat you are. - Your right elbow needs to stay closer to your torso. At the peak of your backswing your elbow looks like it's a foot and some odd inches from your hip, like you're trying to get leverage to muscle the swing. Your elbow can leave your side, but it should come back quickly. Watch this video: When his left arm is parallel, see where his right elbow is? Watch your video frame-by-frame and then pause it when your left arm is parallel. See where your right elbow is? Big difference. (Sorry, too lazy to take snapshots of both and post them.) That's all I dare say.

When my left arm is parallel or perpendicular? I don't notice much of a difference in right elbow at parallel, but then again maybe I'm not looking at the same thing.

Parallel to the ground on the downswing. Here's an image comparing the two angles formed under the right armpit.

See the angle difference there? It's kind of difficult because the left arm is blocking the view and the Woods video is dark, but I think those lines I drew are pretty accurate. That actually leads me to another thing: Part of the difference in that angle is an illusion because you are at different angles to the camera. Woods is still much more un-rotated than you are. His body is still faced behind him, your body is closer to facing the camera. Both of your hips are facing the same direction, but your torsos are off by about 40*. You were originally asking about help with your hips. If you want your hips to be doing more work, you need to let them fire first and let your body trail more.

One thing I would do...just me...shorten up that backswing. Also, you seem to be starting your downswing with your shoulders. I have noticed most good ball strikers start the downswing with their hips and keep the midline of their upper body very still. This could all be related to that huge backswing...you have so much torque built up something has to give.

I'm no teaching pro, but it is usually solid advice for us hackers to slow down and shorten things up.

Much appreciated, you two. Both very good points. I will take note, literally!

Keep the comments coming!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my biggest problems recently is the lack of downswing hip turn. This has caused my swing to become upper body and arms oriented.

During practice today I focused on the "sitting in a chair" idea to help me swing from my hips. It certainly helped and the videos looked better than from the past. While my hips are now more open at impact, they aren't very open. Additionally, the hip thrust seems to pause around contact causing my arms to take over...after contact the hip turn continues.

Any ideas for me?

Wish i had your problem. I seem to open too much which has been causing me to pull across the ball.
One idea to open up more is open your front foot out maybe 30 degrees for example. I think I over did it but it sure did make me turn more. Dont forget the lateral hip slide either.