My Swing (Mordan)

This is the second time I've videoed my swing, and the first time with a high fps camera. I didn't quite get the angles right but hopefully it's good enough to get some feedback.



Until joining this forum and actually doing some reading about how to swing a golf club I was a swayer. While I never videoed it I'm pretty sure I was going back about the same amount on my backswing as I was going forward on my downswing. That meant for for any shot that thin, fat, top, blade, slice and hook were all possibilities as I was relying on wrists and timing to try and rescue swings. I think I've mostly managed to eliminate that by concentrating on keeping my head on the ball and leading with my hip on the downswing.

My swing looks better to me than I thought it was going to, and I'm not sure on what I should be looking at next. I've noticed many of my divots seem to be deeper at the toe than the heel of my club, am I too close to the ball? Or do I need to get my clubs checked?

Re: My Swing (Mordan)

Thanks to everyone who has taken a look. I seem to be able to repeat this swing fairly consistently on the range but I'm not doing it consistently enough on the course yet. 2 months ago I was still doing a big sway back on my backswing and no real forward hip move on my downswing.

I've long been a 10 or 15 rounds a year player, always hoping that just a few more rounds would lead to consistency and better scores. Then I'd stop playing for a while and lose any progress I'd made by the next time I dragged the clubs out. I've now joined a club so I can keep playing year round and have realised that just repeating the same bad moves over and over isn't miraculously going to make them into good moves.

Unfortunately I seem to have all the touch and finesse of an elephant at the moment. I shot 94 this morning. I hit 50% of fairways (and only one of the misses was a bad one that left me without a decent second shot) and had 30 putts, so there's a lot of shots gone missing between my second and getting on the green. Many of them flubbed chips or bladed shots leaving me no closer just over the other side of the green.

Thanks uttexas. I can see a bit of a kink in my elbows during the follow through, is that what you mean by not maintaining my arm extension?

I'm taking a really deep divot, which would indicate hitting down too much. How do I control that? And what is the difference between alligator arming and maintaining the flying wedge?

If you'd asked me if I moved my left foot during my swing without me having seen it on video I would have said no. I think it's part of the bigger problem of my legs being over-active. I think I need to concentrate on keeping my whole lower half much quieter during the backswing.

I'm taking such a deep divot that my club head is almost stalling completely at the bottom, I'm guessing that without that the club head might get ahead of my hands quite a bit quicker during my follow though.

My bad miss with my driver is when I don't shift my weight forward (at all) and do a huge flip at the ball just to make contact leading to a high and wild slice that heads at least one fairway right. It's much less common since I've realised what I was doing wrong but it's pretty much been my biggest problem off the tee for as long as i can remember.

Zeph, really appreciate you taking the time to take such a detailed look.

I noticed the bend in the left arm, I think I just run out of flexibility in my back and my shoulders stop but my hands keep going a little further meaning my left arm bends. I think it's probably just a matter of being aware of it and concentrating on keeping it straight.

I think the weight shift back is a pretty big improvement on what it used to be, I never videoed it but I'm pretty sure it used to be worse. I'll keep working at it.

With the left knee, when you say move forward rather than back, do you mean forward as in over my toes rather than forwards towards my target? I've been feeling like I've been putting too much pressure on my left knee, and looking at how it moves during my swing I'm not surprised it hasn't felt right.

It seems that impact position is something that a lot of people struggle with, so I'm very happy to hear that mine looks good. I can't say it's something I consciously worked on, just seems to be a happy accident of the change to get my weight forward.

I read somewhere that the lower body should really be passive in the swing and only do what it needs to do to allow the upper body to do it's work. I think that's what I need to work on, a more stable base will hopefully lead to a more consistent swing.

Now that I've joined a club I will get the pro to check my clubs. I'd say they sit pretty much flat at address, I can see how they droop during the swing. They were an ebay purchase (Mizuno MX-17s with stiff shafts) and I've no idea how they were setup originally.

I position the ball in the middle for my irons, about 2 inches further forward for hybrids, a little further forward for my 3 wood and just inside my left heel for the driver. I'm struggling to find a comfortable set up at address for my driver at the moment, but I watched the golf evolution youtube video and tried to copy that set up today and hit the ball really well so hopefully I'm on the right track there.

Again thanks to everyone who has taken a look and given me some suggestions. Cheers.

Re: My Swing (Mordan)

I spent some time this evening working on not shifting my weight back on the backswing, and eliminating the sway in my legs.

Below are three swings, the first I caught it thin and had a flip at the ball. Did I flip because I wasn't in a position to hit the ball cleanly and tried to compensate, or did I flip thus causing the poor contact? Or is that a bit of a chicken and the egg question?

The other two were towards the end of the session and I'm starting to do much better at stopping my left knee moving backwards. The last one I seem to rotate pretty well around my centre, even though there's a small kink inwards with my left knee.



I hit some lovely shots but there were still a few horrible hooks, one slice, some thin shots, some fat shots and one that only just made it 30 yards. Is that unusual? Most people talk of being hookers or slicers but I just don't seem to have a consistent miss.

Update to My Swing (Mordan)

I had a chance today to take some new videos during a practice session. The things I've been working on have been eliminating my sway backwards during the backswing, being consistent with my ball position and recently trying to roll my back foot inwards rather than lifting the heel during the downswing in the hope it will promote more slide and less spin of my hips.

On the whole I'm making progress, I had what was probably my best round so far a few days ago with an 83 (and finished bogey, triple bogey, bogey too).

The really wild shots are less common, my most common miss now is the fat shot.



Any comments?

Re: Update to My Swing (Mordan)

Looking back at previous videos, my left arm seems to have more of a bend at the top now than it used to and my hands move higher at the end too. I think that's probably my next thing to look at, along with keeping my head still or at least not letting it move foward.

My handicap is my current official handicap, but it's only based on 4 rounds (3 to get my handicap and 1 qualifying competition on a frozen course) as the UK system only counts competition scores towards your handicap. My last 6 rounds have been 86, 96, 91, 88, 83 and 94 so it should start to come down as I play more competitions.

My putting is pretty solid, I just need to get a little sharper with the short game and I think I will be able to start shooting pretty consistently in the 80s.