My Lazy Swing

[iacas]

Gosh darn has my swing gotten terrible lately. I've continued to score well, but it's been a scramble every week. I've attached an image. There's a video out there too (32 MB, 5I swing x 2, 7I swing x 2, Driver swing x 2), requires QuickTime 6 or something).

Anyway, let me blast myself for the heck of it.

Frame 1: Standing a tad too close to the ball. This video was shot slightly right of center, but my alignment is good. Shoulders may be a tiny bit open. Need to stand further back and bend at the hips and knees a little. Not much - an inch or two, max.

Frame 2: Whoa now! Taking the club WAY too far to the inside. This is somewhat recent, as I've been trying to get the club in a better position at the top (not laid off), but this is clearly not the way to do it. Holy cow am I inside. Jeepers! Bad, Erik, bad!!!

Frame 3: Club's still behind me as a result of coming too far inside on the takeaway. Shoulder turn nearly complete against a pretty solid base and minimal hip turn. Arms are a bit low, again a result of the poor takeaway.

Frame 4: Here is where the shitty takeaway really penalizes me. My left hand should be over my right shoulder here. Instead, it's below it. In other words, the club has gotten very far around me. The clubface is a tad closed here (not much) and it's pointing down the target line, so that's good, but my hands are way too low. This leads to...

Frame 5: ...the cut swing you see here. My body knows that there's no way I can get my hands to the inside - they're so far behind me, there's no room for them to the inside. So my shoulders turn hard, I come outside-in, and I hit a weak little cut. The shaft plane is actually okay here - I managed to "save" this particular shot and only hit a small little cut, but it's still a terrible position.

Frame 6: Impact looks good, but you can see I'm still pretty straight. Spine angle matches, but that's about all that looks good here. Weight shift is good. Head has stayed at a constant heights, hands returned to address position, hips are moderately well cleared (though not as much as I'd like, again because my shoulders have to rotate so quickly to get the club down to the ball). Not bad, not great.

Frame 7: Club way inside again because I've come over it a little. Not too bad. Nice calf muscle.

Frame 8: Arms didn't extend through. I tend to collapse my arms a little when I hit a cut, unlike Vijay Singh, and to extend them really well when I hit my normal draw. I'd rather be a little more straight-legged here (left leg), but that's pretty nit-picky.

Frame 9: Decent follow-through. Belt facing target, club high and on a good plane.

As I said, on this particular shot, I managed to save it.

I spent a lot of time today getting the club much higher. Higher hands, higher arms. It really paid off, and surprisingly quickly. Width in the backswing - particularly high hands at the top of the backswing - is power and gives you room to drop back down to the inside and to come down the line. I hit a bunch of little tiny draws today, my normal shot.

But ugh... these swings, and that video...

I'm pretty darn self-taught, and I'll go two or three weeks before I pull out the camera. I want an effective swing, not a pretty one, but there's no denying that the camera allows me to see my swing instead of trying to feel everything.

Apparently, I've gotten very lazy lately. That stupid lazy cut is the result of a terrible backswing, which resulted in a terrible position at the top of the backswing. I had some good scoring rounds like this, but I haven't been striking the ball consistently. Pulls, cuts, and weak shots all around.

Dunno if this helps anyone, but talking about it helps me, so... there it is.

[NCGolfer]

Frame 1:

I think your knee flex is fine. You hit the nail right on the head when you said that you need to stand a bit further back and bend at the hips. It looks like you are reaching a bit with your hands rather than them hanging straight down from your shoulders.

Frame 2:

Yup. that is why you are flat on Frame 3.

Frame 3:

Look at the angle your club is on here compared to Frame 5. If you draw a line from the shaft out the butt end of the club it would be well right of the ball. In Frame 5, the same line is

left of the club. You are swinging flat to steep which usually means inside to out. but you already knew that. This is a different way of looking at it though.

Frame 4:

Those hands need to get much higher and your left arm should be pointing towards the ball and not right of the ball.

Frame 5:

This is that 'cramped' look that I was telling you about when we played together. If you get further away from the ball, I would be willing to bet this would go away. Bending from the hips will also free some space for the arms to swing.

Frame 6:

This looks good. Your hips are starting to clear towards your target. The one negative here I see is that your club and arms don't form a straight line. You will lose power this way. Again...getting a little further away from the ball will help this.

Frame 7:

You are right about your extension...that left arm probably isn't fully straight. A side view would confirm this. I think that the follow through would look a little better with the changes you have identified.

I think you have a good handle on things. The first thing I would do is move away from the ball a bit and bend from the hips. Not only will this free some space for your arms but it will also allow that left shoulder to turn much more easier and not collide with your chin like you see in Frames 3 and 4. I had this problem and fixed it... Good luck. Taping yourself is probably the best thing to do and I would suggest doing it at least once a month...probably better to do it every couple weeks. It is amazing what you will see.

[iacas]

I think you have a good handle on things. The first thing I would do is move away from the ball a bit and bend from the hips. Not only will this free some space for your arms but it will also allow that left shoulder to turn much more easier and not collide with your chin like you see in Frames 3 and 4. I had this problem and fixed it...

Good point. FWIW, on Tuesday and today (79, 77) I really started playing well and striking the ball much better. I've always been more comfortable a tad closer to the ball, but I've gotten my hands (and thus the club) higher and pointed down the target line a lot more lately, and more importantly, when I've made a bad swing I've felt it pretty easily.

It's better to stand too far from the ball than too close, they say, so moving back an inch is the next step. Just gotta start addressing the ball off the toe to back myself up that inch, really.

Good luck. Taping yourself is probably the best thing to do and I would suggest doing it at least once a month...probably better to do it every couple weeks. It is amazing what you will see.

Some say you don't want a pretty swing, you want a swing that hits the ball well, but I'm my only real "teacher," so screw that plan. Sometimes video is important as a way of aligning what I feel and think I'm doing with what I'm actually doing. In this case, why, the fix was really quite simple. Took all of about five holes on Tuesday to get the right feeling, will take a few more rounds to make it an actual habit.

But I had tried quite a few other things before going back to video taping myself. I won't wait so long the next time. P.S. Watch the video, Dave. Front-on views are there. You'll find that they confirm what you thought, so, no real need to watch 'em.

[i2!ch]

i examined the video a lot and i have a few things to say if u dont mind listening to a teenager.
i agree with NCGolfer about bending from the hips more. i've been working on the same thing and its going great for me. i have a lot of room for my hands to clear my hips and run down the target line. if you can run down your target line and produce a long divot, your shots have no where to go but straight.
also, moving a little away from the ball lets you extend your arms nicely and fix that chicken wing/left arm. AND it helps you keep your shoulders square at impact. I watched the video very closely and your shoulders look a little open at impact (i recently fixed that as well).
Eventually, it'll feel like everything's falling into place like it should be

One last thing, you've got some serious speed... while i was watching the video, i noticed your shaft bends like ^%#$ which looks really cool. keep it up

EDIT

finish your swing
your weight shift looks great up til your finish where it looks like you're leaning a bit on your right toes. make sure all your spikes show and dont force your hips to a stop or slow them down. after impact, let the club and hands guide your body to a nice, solid finish where you can almost take ur right foot off the ground for a second. it'll look much better and it'll get a load off your back which could be hurting at this point... but don't force anything i just mentioned. just bend over more from the hips like NCGolfer said and your arms and their blazing speed will bring u up to a sweet finish