ErikG15

71 - 32 39 - 72.1 rating 126 slope First time I've broken par in 15 years. Should've been 6 under on the front, but I missed 2 short putts. I was trying to break 70 (I've never done it), but I just couldn't hold it together. A single and a double on the back did me in, even though I gave myself at least 4 legitimate additional chances for birdies down the stretch. Can't wait to try again!

mvmac, All good points. Obviously he would be able to explain it better than I could, but from what I gather he avoids attempting to explain his methods in written word because of misinterpretation, which is entirely possible in this case. However, I'm pretty sure I did understand it correctly regardless of the vague description. Do you believe that there is a difference between being ball focused and target focused? Do you believe there is a difference between hitting at the ball instead of swinging through the ball? Do you believe that a ball focus might contribute to flipping? Is it possible to get your weight forward properly, but still flip? I know that whats good for the goose isn't always good for the gander, but when I do this (in my minds eye) I feel like I'm aiming for a spot about 4 inches away from my toes in the 3 o'clock direction on the toe line. Basically 4 inches from smashing my toes with the club face pointing to 12 o'clock. When you include moving the weight forward and the pivot (if sequenced properly) this low point is in front of the ball, and the club face is now pointed to 9 o'clock down the target line. I don't want to say that I have super coordination powers or anything, but I can absolutely retain the left wrist cock until what I perceive is the last second, I try to get the butt of the club past the ball and then down-cock but retain hinge all while transferring weight and pivoting. I feel like I can manipulate the grip pressure as well. In fact, if I do this, I don't have a choice but to get my weight forward and pivot or I'll be digging trenches behind the ball. It's working for me, and I've had a hard time taming the flips. This practically cured it.

mvmac - you've actually helped me with my swing in the 'Member Swing' section of the site. Thanks again BTW. Lower body work is paying off, and I'll be posting new video there soon. I need to post more, its just hard to find time. I don't have any video or pictures of what he's talking about, but I can certainly make one. However, I'm a little apprehensive because I don't want to step on Mr. Waldron's toes. He did put this information on another site, so I guess its OK for public consumption. mvmac, you are a member of the aforementioned site, as I've seen you post there but I'm not sure how often you visit. The thread on that site I'm referring to is rather old so... What is your gut feeling on me making a video with my interpretation of his method? I don't know him, never met him, and he does charge a pretty penny for week long sessions.

I know there are plenty of threads about stopping the dreaded flip at impact so I hope it's OK to start another one. I read though a thread on another site regarding Jim Waldron's arm swing illusion. While the thread was mainly focused on the arm motion in the back swing (which I thought was excellent), there were some tidbits about flipping the wrists at impact and it being caused by the hit impulse. I'd like for this thread to be focused on that. What I believe he is saying is side to side arm motion vs. up and down arm motion is what causes golfers to flip at impact. He believes that side to side arm motion is caused by a hit impulse. Hitting at the ball vs. swinging through the ball. He goes on to say that to fix the hit impulse you have to see through the arm swing illusion, and clearly define wrist hinge and wrist cock. In general, hinge is primarily done with the right wrist, and cock is primarily done with the left wrist in a right handed swing. Both elements occur in both wrists, however these elements are more pronounced in one vs. the other. I know that arm motion is important, but I'd like to focus on wrist action once the hands get to waist height in the downswing. What really stood out to me was his explanation of what should happen at this point in the swing. Lets assume that a golfer can reach this position correctly with the arms and wrists (left wrist up-cocked, right wrist backward hinged). All the golfer needs to do at this point is down-cock the wrists and maintain the right wrist backward hinge while turning through the hitting zone. He says that if the golfer reached this position and did not turn through the hitting zone, the aiming point for the club head would be on the ground along the toe line. He says that all of this is compromised if there is any lateral arm movement, and that lateral arm movement should only occur well after the ball is struck. This made a lot of sense to me because you're not forcing a wrist position, you're setting up a wrist position once you get to the top, and then maintaining it (with the exception of the down-cock). There is a strong timing element in this (many aspects of the golf swing are), but he says that the low point can be manipulated by grip strength. Thin contact, very slightly increase grip pressure, fat contact, very slightly decrease grip pressure. I've had a flipping issue with my swing for quite some time, so armed with this information I gave it a shot. In previous swing videos I'd be lucky to get to 1* forward shaft lean at impact, and after impact my LEFT wrist would be hinged backwards. In current swing videos I'm getting about 4 to 5* of forward shaft lean at impact and I'm maintaining the right wrist hinge for approximately 6" after impact. I went from slight fade to slight draw, and it's working for every club in my bag. I've had about 5 or 6 range sessions since discovering this, and while it needs to be honed, it has held up better than I could have imagined. I'm curious if anyone else has seen this, tried it, and had success (or no success). Also curious if this makes sense to any of the instructors.

waldo, I'm running mine on the Droid OS so I don't have ITR yet, but it sounds like ITR will get these numbers closer to legitimate which is promising. I tested it against Flightscope back in October, and it was off, way way off. Its a shame the company used ITR as a selling point back in March, and they have yet to release the gold version of the 2.0 app (for Android). I have the beta, and the video sync leaves a lot to be desired. All you can do is play the entire swing, you can't stop it at 1/4, 1/2, etc. You did say that you're seeing numbers that are in line with Trackman. Are the numbers still based on Swingbyte's data capture points, or did they finally give in and give us numbers that are closer to Trackman and Flightscope? You could do a lot with Swingbyte if its accurate, but I must say that a lot of their decisions have been head scratchers.

mvmac - Thanks again for you help. If you could summarize the contents of that thread. Would it be: 1. Tuck your tailbone in or point it down (straighter lower back) 2. Bend from the mid back 3. Shoulders slumped 4. Tuck your chin ??? You did mention that you believe that part of my plane issues are a result of the arms continuing to rise. Lets say I fix that aspect of my swing. What do you believe are the other contributing factors?

mvmac, We've had an unusually warm week, and luckily I have a range at work so I was able to get a couple sessions in this week. These are all snapshots of the videos, so I do have the actual video footage if you'd rather see that. Overall I think the knee positions are much better. I'd say that left knee is only coming in about an inch, and some swings it'll be closer to two inches with poor execution. I'm pretty confident that I can do this with consistency, but I will continue to monitor it. My wrist is flatter than it was with the first videos but I'm still breaking down because I can tell my right wrist is flat as well. FO Address FO Top FO Impact I'd really like to get your input on how to shallow out this plane. If we're using the picture of Zach above as a guideline for shaft steepness, I'm definitely closer to the green line than the red line. I cannot figure this out, and it's extremely frustrating. DTL Address DTL Backswing 9 o'clock DTL Top DTL Downswing 9 o'clock Same position as Zach, but significantly steeper plane. DTL Impact Is it because my arms continue to rise when my shoulders stop? When I get to the top I feel like I can't shallow out the plane at all. I feel like I don't have any freedom of movement at the top. The only way I can shallow it out is if I shallow my backswing, but if I shallow my backswing I come inside and get stuck. Am I correct in thinking this is one of the hardest faults to correct? Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to fix it?

mvmac, The drill I was referring to was the drill where you highlight Kuchar raising the club off of ground before he starts his takeaway. I have more questions when you have time. You mentioned the tee under the left arm to help with the takeaway. Should the tee be placed at the lowest point where the upper left arm makes contact with the chest or do you mean closer to the arm pit? Can you think of anything I can put inside my left knee so that I can feel when I'm bringing it in too far? Would a beach ball or a kick ball between the knees work? At address, do you think I could bend a little more from the knees to get them a little more over my feet? Can I squat a little bit on the backswing to maintain the space between my knees and get more stability? At address do you feel like you have more weight left, and in your backswing you keep it left? I'm assuming I kick that left knee because I'm not completely balanced. As for the steeper path on the downswing. Is the path I'm coming down on acceptable or should I work on shallowing it. It's not significantly steeper, but it is steeper. This is obviously a product of standing up, and I'm curious if there is anything I can do to shallow it out. I read a post of yours about shallowing, and basically you indicated that keeping the right arm below the left arm would shallow it. From what I know, over plane is better than under plane, I'm just concerned that I'm over too much. Thanks again for taking a look, and for your help overall. Hopefully in another week I'll make more progress.

Another range session this afternoon. I apologize for the poor video quality. I'm using a Galaxy tablet to record my swings and I either screwed up some setting in V1 or the tablet didn't appreciate the mid 30's weather. I'll figure it out. Eyes are down, and shoulders are more slumped. It's hard to tell but I can see that my hips are a little more open than last week at impact. I'm getting a flatter left wrist at impact, but I don't think I'm where I need to be. I'm still standing up a little bit, and my head is moving back slightly. If I had to guess I'd say I'm adding roughly 5 degrees of shaft steepness at impact relative to my address position. The video quality here makes it difficult to see the wrists, but if the ball flight is any indication it has to be much better than it was last week. The flight overall was lower than I'm used to. Last week when my shots hit the ground they would visibly bounce 2 or 3 times. Today, they would bounce once and stay on the ground. It was 10 degrees colder today than it was last week so its not like the ground was any softer. If anything it was harder. I didn't hit them all perfect, but I'd say I only had 10 bad shots out of 120 or so for the entire session. I can't say that about any range session I've had all year. My hips are steadier, my knees aren't flopping around as much, but it still needs a lot of work. My head feels steadier, but close to and at impact my head is still going away from the target which is a problem I need to correct. I don't think I'm staying on my left side as much as I should be. I already feel like I'm staying far left, and going even further is going to be difficult. This is going to take some work. mvmac - I do have more questions if you would be so kind. 1. Will staying further left in my backswing left rid me of standing up or do you see something else that might be causing it? It looks like I'm trying to keep my shoulders down, but my lower back is straightening. Is that strictly a weight distribution issue? 2. I've seen your drill for the on plane backswing. When I start with the club waist high I can do it right every time. My problem is getting to waist high properly. My takeaway feels wrong. In order for me to start the club on plane in the backswing I feel like I have pull the club up with the front of my shoulders, almost like I'm trying to make a 45 degree angle with the shaft relative to my chest and THEN start my turn. I was actually taught to do it this way, but it doesn't feel right. 3. When I'm getting close to the top, in order for me to not cross the line I have to do a move that feels like the palm of my right hand is facing the target. This feels powerful but I'm not 100% sure if I should be doing this. Could this be an over swinging issue?

@mvmac - Thank you for taking a look. I have a couple of questions for you. 1. When you've completed your backswing, should you feel tension in your right hip? When I practice your suggestions without a club, I can definitely feel more tension there than I'm used to. Should I be feeling like I'm trying to stay more on my left side, or keeping my left side stationary and turning against it? My assumption is that if you're flexing your left knee over your left foot, your right leg will straighten a bit, and you should feel more tension there. 2. At address, I'm assuming that my upper back should be more rounded and relaxed while I tuck in my chin. Should you also pull your shoulder blades down and back, while keeping the middle of your back relaxed, or should the shoulders be completely relaxed as well? Thanks again for your help. I should be able to get back out to the range sometime this week. I'll incorporate your suggestions, take more video, and post it.

I've been Playing Golf for: 25 years My current handicap index or average score is: 6.7 My typical ball flight is: Pull or High Fade The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: High Fades and Snap Hooks It's taken me too long to get these up, and I hope someone can help me out. In the DTL video it looks like I stand up a little in my downswing which is getting me a little too steep, and sometimes I get slightly under plane. I could probably have a flatter wrist at the top. In the FO videos I notice a lot of lower body movement, probably too much. I also notice a bit of scooping even though I'm trying hard to achieve a flat wrist with hands in front of the ball. I can also see a ton of flex in the shaft at impact. I recently used the Mizuno shaft optimizer and it reported x stiff in True Temper and KBS, 6.5 for Project X. I was originally fitted for these irons over 10 years ago and they're TM 300 heads with stiff rifles so that probably explains it. Any insight anyone could probably would be much appreciated. Oh, and I apologize in advance for the belly shots in the Face On videos... Videos: DTL: FO1: FO2:

Sean, I know what you mean about the video. I actually do have the video, but I don't think it would help much with this question. The reason is because almost every bad thing I was doing in the before video was corrected with these three fixes. I need to get some new video and analyze that. I'm getting a new camera soon so I should be able to upload some video. What's the easiest way to do that? Youtube? It did take some time for me to incorporate them into my swing before it felt natural. I agree he was definitely trying to make me feel something, I'm just not sure if what I'm feeling is what I'm supposed to be feeling, but that might be different feeling for people. But I think you answered my question. My hands definitely feel passive during the backswing, and really, my wrists do too. I'm just hinging (lightly pushing) them down instead of neutral and holding it in that position throughout the swing. I think if there was tension or any forced positions, my wrists wouldn't naturally hinge and then unhinge, but I could be wrong. Before I made these changes, I thought the correct procedure was to have the left wrist hinge up in the backswing, but the way I was doing it was forced and I never felt like the right wrist hinged back, it felt more like the right wrist hinged up with the left. It feels like it's a powerful position but it's really not. I could never "release" from that position properly. Now it feels like the left wrist hinges up and at the same time the right wrist hinges back. I was reading through the the "PA5" thread and that sheds some light. What I'm trying to describe is what I'm seeing in the stills in that thread. The right wrist hinging back and through.

Hello All, I had a lesson about a month ago and the instructor told me that most of my mechanics and positions were good with the exception of how close to the body my hands were at address and impact. To fix this, he had me stand up a little straighter, set up with my hands a little in front of my shoulder line (instead of hanging straight down), and hinge my wrists down as far as they could go and hold this position throughout my swing. All of it made sense to me with the exception of the wrists. It felt completely awkward at first, but after a few swings I immediately began to make better contact, stay more on plane, and it actually increased my clubhead speed. I probably gained about 10 to 15 yards on all of my clubs, and dramatically increased accuracy (on the monitor). It's the offseason so I haven't had the chance to take it to the course. My question is about his wrist fix. I have no problem holding this position throughout my swing and it's obviously working but is this something that you're supposed to do? When I didn't do this, I would get to the top of the backswing and hinge my left wrist up, but the only way I could get to what I thought was the right position at the top was to round it out and come off plane. I wasn't cupping my wrist, but apparently I wasn't getting to the right position properly. From that position I had trouble coming back down and squaring the face. Now, when I get to the top of the backswing, the weight of the club forces my right wrist to hinge backwards and when I come down I can feel the right wrist slowly unhinging into the ball. I'm assuming my left wrist is ok, but it's a completely different feeling and I just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly and that this is what it's supposed to feel like. Instead of hinging up (forced by me), it feels like I'm hinging back (forced by the weight of the club). Before, my misses were curving right. Now, I have fewer misses but they all curve left. Obviously any miss is bad, but I'd rather have a hook miss than a slice miss. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Sean, many thanks for clearing that up for me. It made sense when I set up that way last night but I wanted to be sure it was correct. I can't believe I've been playing the wrong way for so many years. I really can't believe I was taught to do that. Is there a reason no one really brings this up? I haven't seen any dialogue about this anywhere and it seems like a very important aspect of the set up. I was basically setting up with an open face on the majority of my shots because what I thought what a squared club face was actually open probably 3 or more degrees. I'm a pretty good player but with this insight I have some things to work on and I hope it takes a few more strokes off of my scorecard. Thanks again.

Hello everyone. I'm new to the site and I'm hoping the members can help me out. My apologies if a similar thread on this topic exists. If a thread on this topic does exist, please point me in the right direction. I've read through a lot of 'squaring' threads, blogs, and tips but I haven't found anything that really answers my specific question. This is a bit of a convoluted explanation but here goes: I understand what a squared face looks like at address. The bottom grooves should be perpendicular to the target line and the pros typically prefer it to be open a couple degrees because of the path to the ball and the rotation of the club head through the ball. I have seen many images of what a squared face looks like at address but none of the pictures really show the shaft angle for the progression of clubs. Meaning, the shaft lean for a 3 iron vs. a 7 iron, or a wedge, etc. Ball position obviously plays an important role too. I also realize that the hands should be in front of the ball at impact. Tiger might not be the best person to copy right now but I watched the youtube video 'through the eyes of Tiger' where they attach a camera to the bill of his hat. I noticed that at his address position his hands are just inside of his left leg. He may also have a forward press before he starts the backswing as well, but to me he is definitely setting up with a forward press which I assume is to "fix" his impact position. I was always taught that your hands should be in line with your belt buckle and there are a lot of images of various pros that back it up. Of course there is the possibility that my eyes are playing tricks on me. So my question is this: Is there progressive shaft lean throughout the clubs? More for shorter clubs, less for longer clubs? If so, is it correct to set up to the ball with the butt of the club lined up with the inside of your left leg instead of your belt buckle? I always set up to the ball without the forward press and square the face from there. I've been hitting high fades. After watching the Tiger video I was messing around last night. When I set up with a little bit of forward press, square the club head from that perspective, and then return to (what I was taught) as the correct setup position without adjusting the face, the club head appears to be closed a few degrees. I haven't had the chance to try it out on the range yet but just by looking at it, it seems like I could come into the ball a bit better and possibly get more compression. I believe I have and maintain a good spine position throughout my swing but I wonder if this could be the reason why I'm hitting high fades? Doesn't the forward press hood the club face a bit? Any insight the members might have would be appreciated.