My Swing (Son of The Flush)

[The Flush]

I've been Playing Golf for: This is my almost 16 year old son.  He has basically been playing for 1 year although he has had clubs for a while and would play a couple times a year until he started playing more often last year.  He wants to play on the high school golf team this fall. He has a medical condition that has him on blood thinners and his doctors won't medically clear clear him to play contact sports like soccer and football that he usually plays in the fall. He will make the team as high school golf isn't high level around here, but he wants to be as competitive as possible. I think he could be a bogey golfer just with a lot of practice with his current swing, but he probably needs more changes if he wants to get closer to ever breaking par. He is also a baseball player, so most of his golf swing comes from there. 
My current handicap index or average score is: high, due to inconsistency.
My typical ball flight is: High
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Seems to vary from straight push on woods to straight pulls on irons.

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Videos: Here are some videos of him hitting a 5 wood and a 7 iron.  He had left the his driver in the car because we can't fit 2 sets of clubs in the trunk without taking the driver out of the bag. 

 

 

 

[Tryin]

He takes a full rip at it!  I bet he will surprise you if he really puts the work in, he's probably going to have to back off a little if he wants consistency though.

[Adam C]

He's got what they used to market as the stack and tilt movement where he stays directly over the ball without much weight shift through the swing. That can work and be very consistent, however he needs to either shift his weight back during the backswing or keep it more on his front side over the whole swing. Right now he moves it to his front side on his back swing which will lose power and consistency.

Only other glaring issue is that back leg locking out in the back swing. Really want to keep your knees consistently flexed just a little throughout the entire swing. 

[DeadMan]

Two things that jump out at me are his posture/address position and his head movement throughout his swing.

With his posture, he needs to stand up a bit taller. I wonder if he's standing like he is currently because his clubs are too short? It looks better in the 5W shot than the 7 iron shot. Just a thought. Anyways, here's a good thread on posture:

On the head movement, if you look at his head, it moves forward and up in the backswing, and then he has to compensate by moving it down and back in the downswing. I think this is because his hips are moving towards the target in the backswing, when they should be more centered. This thread is sort of what I'm talking about, but it comes at it from a different fault than what your son has:

I would recommend having him make a turn with his front hip against a chair/alignment stick/golf bag/etc. He should try keeping his hip touching that item without pushing against it at all. He could also try moving a few inches off the item to exaggerate that feel. Just a few inches though. This is also something he can practice without a golf club. Just grab a chair, or put his hip against a table, etc., and make a backswing.

Doing that will make his head much more steady throughout the swing, which will result in more consistent contact.

[The Flush]

1 hour ago, DeadMan said:

Two things that jump out at me are his posture/address position and his head movement throughout his swing.

With his posture, he needs to stand up a bit taller. I wonder if he's standing like he is currently because his clubs are too short? It looks better in the 5W shot than the 7 iron shot. Just a thought. Anyways, here's a good thread on posture:

On the head movement, if you look at his head, it moves forward and up in the backswing, and then he has to compensate by moving it down and back in the downswing. I think this is because his hips are moving towards the target in the backswing, when they should be more centered. This thread is sort of what I'm talking about, but it comes at it from a different fault than what your son has:

I would recommend having him make a turn with his front hip against a chair/alignment stick/golf bag/etc. He should try keeping his hip touching that item without pushing against it at all. He could also try moving a few inches off the item to exaggerate that feel. Just a few inches though. This is also something he can practice without a golf club. Just grab a chair, or put his hip against a table, etc., and make a backswing.

Doing that will make his head much more steady throughout the swing, which will result in more consistent contact.

I don't think the clubs are too short.  He is about 5'8" and these are not junior clubs. They are a box set of Strata clubs. Maybe I will measure them just to check.

His swing is mostly just his baseball swing. I will have him read the threads on posture and hip centered turn. I also had noticed his head movement when I looked at the video. We will work on less movement of the head and hips.

At the range last night he really crushed a lot of shots, but there is too much inconsistency that the excess movement probably contributes to.

[The Flush]

We have tried to work on posture, but it still doesn't look right.  He has the toe of the club off the ground with most clubs.  Does he need to stand closer to the ball and have the club pointed more at his belly button than his zipper?

His golf shoes were in the car his mom drove today and the shoes he had on are worn out, so he hit barefoot.  I don't know if that is why he picks up his back foot on the downswing or not.

 

 

[The Flush]

Here are his latest recorded driver swings.

 

[mdl]

Birdie balls!

 

[The Flush]

Ben is playing high school golf for the first time. While he did card his best ever round yesterday, he reported that he has hooking a lot of shots, particularly with irons.  I wonder if it is related to his 10 finger baseball grip (he is a baseball player). He says an overlap or interlock grip is uncomfortable to him. He is also stubborn and resistant to change, or at least changes suggested by me. His marginally effective solution to so set up with the club face open, but that also creates a lot of pushes.

Is there anything you can tell from this driver video that might explain him hooking the ball with shorter clubs?Unfortunately I didn't record him hitting irons last night as I was hitting at the same time.  He was hitting his driver really well last night. 

 

[The Flush]

High school season is over so now is the time to work on his swing.  Here are a couple of his better driver swings from last night.  His better drives carry over 250, but obviously his average is less than that, as per his Mevo data from last night below.

Shot		Ball Speed (mph)	Club Speed (mph)	Smash	Carry (yds)	Launch Angle V (°)	Spin (rpm)	Height	Time (s)

Avg

146.2

101.7

1.43

236.6

16.9

2852

120′5″

7

He wants to make changes, but he is kind of stubborn and doesn't want to take lessons.  He wants to experiment and figure it out on his own.  If he won't take lessons, maybe I can offer suggestions for his experiments.

So I am looking for suggestions here on what he needs to prioritize in order to be more consistent. His misses are typically a low pull hook when he either yanks his hips through too quick and/or turns his hands over too quick.  He sometimes hits the power fade as well. Other times he sets up right of target for an intentional fade and hits is dead straight, which puts him way right of target.

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by The Flush