Swing "Too Flat".......

I've been having huge problems hitting my driver and fairway woods lately, and it's been killing my handicap.  Slowly bleeding it away.  My irons have been great, but it's hard to score well with crappy drives.  I've been told by a few people that my swing is "Too Flat", but never really understood what they were talking about.  After 2 months of horrible driving, I finally scheduled a lesson with my club pro yesterday.  The results were great.  I have never had a lesson on the driver, just irons in the past, so I had no idea what he would say about my crappy swing.

He had me warm up a bit and then take about 4 "normal" swings so he could see what was going on.  Guess what?  "Your swing is too flat".......  To which I responded "I know that, but I don't know what that means, looks like, or how to fix it."  He took a look at my posture, grip and setup and said everything was pretty good, but I should move the ball back in my stance just a bit.  He asked why I played it so far forward, and I told him it was the only way I could get the ball up in the air with my driver.  So he had me move it back and take a few more swings, and I hit low line drives.  "Still way too flat, so lets fix that before anything else"

He took a quick video on his ipad and showed me my swing next to a few good driver swings and I was floored with how horrible it looked.  It sure didn't feel like that....  It was instantly visible that I was keeping my shoulders level throughout the entire swing and just spinning them around my body, keeping them flat all the time.  With a few adjustments, one being a more braced right leg and 1 new swing thought, being the feeling that I am lifting my left shoulder instead of turning straight around, I was hitting the ball high, but with about a 25 yard fade.  I was worried about the fade initially, but he wants me to stick with that swing until I am getting the proper shoulder turn without having to think about it, and then he said he can turn that fade into a draw with one 30 minute lesson.

The most important thing that I need to work on is my shoulder action through the swing.

He took me out on the course for 3 holes afterwards, and of course I was completely screwing up with my driver, but he was surprised at how well I hit my irons and wedges.  He asked "How does someone with a completely relaxed, natural and good iron swing completely jack up with a driver?".....  I just laughed and put an 8 iron shot 4ft from the pin from 156 yards.  Made me feel pretty good to show the pro that I at least had potential to be a decent golfer.

So today after work, I went to the driving range to work on the drills he gave me.  It started off pretty rough, but after about 10 balls, the feeling he wanted me to feel came back and I started hitting the nice and high with a slight fade.  Now it's about 15 yards instead of the 25 that I had yesterday.  After 2 days, the swing is starting to feel more natural and relaxed to me.

The lesson for all of this:  If you're struggling with a certain part of your game and just can't seem to work it out, don't try to work through it for too long before you ask for professional help. I have been very irritated for the past couple months.  Everyone telling me "Don't worry, it will come back".  It never came back.  If I would have went and got a short lesson 2 months ago, I would be back to shooting decent scores, instead of being a hard-head and thinking that I could fix it on my own.  I had no clue what I was actually doing wrong and without a pro, I still wouldn't.  I'm not healed yet, but things are looking up at least.

Good advice! Im just about there to do some tuning up. My driver has always been my best asset but lately i have been duck hooking and opening up too soon. Good luck on your improvements.

This vid by Martin Hall is generally what I try to do with the driver. I have to fight coming in too shallow and too far from the inside. Two swings to make my game work right :).

Just curious if you tried video-ing your swing and looking at it yourself before going to the lesson.  I agree totally that a lesson from a good teacher can help 100% - but I have also noticed that looking at my swing on video is amazingly helpfull, too . .even if I am the one who took it and drew the lines.

I had my first video analysis done about 2 months ago and, since then, have been videoing my swing regularly.  I will definitely go back to my instructor when I see something on video that I need help to fix . .but so far, so good.

I can video my swing and look at it and tell something's not right, but had no idea what was actually wrong or what I needed to do to fix it.