My Swing (With Pace)

Hey all,

I'm new to the Forum and I thought I's post a video of my swing here to see what you all thought.

I always seem to follow through drastically to the left of the target rather than extending my arms outward toward the target, I think it's because I'm trying to square the club up. Whatever it is, its not anything like the follow through the pros or other better players have.

I also have a very upright swing, which I would like to get people's thoughts on, particularly in light of the fact that I often hit the ball extremely high. I can hit a 4 iron the height some hit a wedge, but I lose a lot of distance that way and would like to get less spin on the ball.

The video quality probably isn't the greatest, but it's taken with the best camera I have!!!

Cheers,

With Pace.

Not a bad swing, however to my eye I see one big thing that could ultimately result in more consistent ball striking. Right away when you take your club away, you bend over what seems at least in this particular swing. I'm not swing genius but I've had (still have) a similar problem. To combat this I would just work on keeping your head steady and level throughout your swing. Perhaps practice looking at a mirror just "swinging" in the bathroom or something to give yourself and idea of how it feels to have a quieter head. Unfortunately I cant really pick out a particular reason in your swing for your high ball flight, but maybe you'd want to look at getting fit as your current clubs may not be near what you need for your swing. But overall it has pretty good timing and I like the follow through, just work on keeping that head quieter throughout the swing and I could see that handicap dropping!

Best of luck!

I'm certainly no expert but you are really dropping your entire body as soon as you start the backswing.  Also think you are standing way too close to the ball with too much movement in your left leg.  Cannot quite tell but your high ball flight may be because of playing the ball too far forward in your stance.

I also fight "pulling in" and failing to properly extend and release.  There are some simple drills using a water bottle or tees that help encourage proper extension and release; simple in concept but a bit difficult to explain without pictures.  Standing further away from the ball can help encourage extension and release, whereas standing too close will encourage "pulling in" in order to hit the ball.

A head on video of you would help a lot.

Thanks for the comments guys!! I'll post a head on shot below.

Losing my height has always been a problem in my swing. When I try to stand up straighter throughout I seem to lose a lot of power or something. I also fell like I'm reaching to get down to the ball on the downswing. It's probably because I've been so used to swinging the club this way.

In relation to the arm swing, I've been told by my pro that I should swing my arms quite vertically up but turn my shoulders around flat (i.e. not to tilt my shoulders). I would be interested to get anyone's thoughts on this. You'll notice from the video I already posted that my shoulder and arm plane are markedly different from each other, with the arms being far more vertical. Some players (pros and other good players) shoulder and arm plane are almost identical.

I've tried swinging the arms a bit flatter before, but I seemed to lose power doing that and felt I didn't have as much wrist action to work with to generate power through the ball.

I was trying to do what my pro had told me, but it doesn't seem to be helping the lack of power in my game and the excessive spin I get on longer shots. I can hit a pitching wedge as far as anyone, but when you get into the 5/6 iron upwards I seem to lose distance. Like I could almost hit a 6 iron as far as my 4 iron at times. I'm trying to get a more penetrating flight on the longer clubs.

Finally I also think my extension through the ball is poor, as I don't think I get turned through the ball enough to square the clubface.

Anyway, that's the end of my essay!! If you have any comments on the swing videos posted above and below or my comments here I'd be glad to hear them.

Cheers!!

With Pace.

Hi Pace

Looks like you are not doing too bad, moving the ball well anyway :) Just a few little tips on you journey creating a swing. A swing is a sequence of events starting as soon as you address the ball . Some times when we look at a swing we notice faults, and in turn try to fix them. But as hard as we try to fix them the solution seems elusive. That is because the fault is part a chain reaction and it's a previous part of the chain that is the problem. That's why pros and teaching pros always talk about the fundamentals, because if the fundamentals are right everything else just seems to slip into place a little more easily.

I think if you look at your number 2 fundamental (after the grip) you will go a long towards improving you swing. The number 2 fundamental is setup, when you address the ball you just don't get enough of an inclination to the ball. You stand too close and then have to stand far too up right. From this position your body dose not have enough room to rotate in the back swing and hence the movement.

Stand back some, stick you backside out. Sounds simple but it's pretty hard to get used to after swinging up right for too long (had to fix this fault myself), but I gauerntee you it will get you swinging a bit better.

Also don't worry about getting the power, it's the last part in the chain. You get all the bits right that come first and the power will come .. :)

Thanks very much for the stills mvmac, they really show a lot about where my backswing is going wrong.

I wondered did you or anyone else have any thoughts on the release through the ball. I've struggled to release the club before and I am never sure how much of this should be through the hips turning through the shot and how much should be the arms/wrists turning over.

Maybe the release of the club would be easier if I had a back swing more like Grant in the picture above though?

Thanks again for the help.

With Pace.