My Swing (brianb9986)

[brianb9986 2]

I’ve recently come back to the game after about 2 years off due to frustrations with the game and time/money constraints. I’m 34, 6’, 200 lbs, flexible, and have no major injury history. In other words, I am pretty well set-up for a powerful golf swing, which manifests itself at times. However, I have no accuracy or consistency with my full swing. I can hit my irons fairly well, but I tend to hook my hybrids, pretty severely sometimes. My fairway woods I tend to push/fade, and my driver is all over the map. Snap hooks, push slices, and pure straight bombs. I’ve broken 100 only once over about 20 years of playing recreationally and pouring money into lessons. I’ve got Taylormade Burner 2.0 stiff shafts as my woods, hybrids, and irons, and Ping wedges. Equipment now is closing in on 10 years old, but I have no intention of replacing anything, as that is not my answer to improving.

 

I recently posted a thread about my driver and being unable to control it. I have been working in the weeks since on trying to feel less like I’m coming from the inside while getting steeper and trying to hit more of a fade. I’ve had some success in straightening out my shots, but that snap hook still rears its ugly head at times. I’ve finally been able to get some video (sorry, the head-on driver shot isn’t very good, not much room) to share.

 

In watching my videos, it seems to me that my lower body looks pretty passive and my wrists really turn over coming through the ball. Should I work on using my body more to square the club face? The club face looks ok on my backswing and at the top unless I’m mistaken, and my swing does seem to be on plane.

 

I've been Playing Golf for: 20+ years
My current handicap index or average score is: average score in the 100's
My typical ball flight is: everywhere
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: snap hook

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Videos: 

 

 

 

[boogielicious 2,778]

Thanks for posting. Overall, I think your swing has some good positions. But you are flipping a bit at impact. That makes it hard to control the face.

The first 5 drills in the thread below are excellent. Day 5 helps a lot with impact. Check it out. If you can, post a video of you doing the drills here. When I do the day 5 drill, I go for the feel of trying to keep the wrists from rolling over after impact.

 

 

[brianb9986 2]

So I've been working through the assigned drills from days 1-5 and getting some good solid hits. Also, though I might be getting ahead of myself in getting back to a full swing, I wanted to try the whole "sit/squat into the left leg to start the downswing" bit I've seen, and wow...what results. I filmed the chipping exercise and the impact exercise (what I call "punch"), as well as a slow motion of me just trying a sit/squat with no ball, and one with ball. I can't believe how just doing that 1 motion has me in a much more dynamic position coming through and into the ball than I ever have. My impact looks better on the swing without the ball, as I still look like I'm breaking down a bit on the swing where I actually hit the ball. However, my weight is transferring, my hips are getting around, and I'm actually building some lag in the club. Thoughts?

 

[brianb9986 2]

So I've really been working on getting into a "posted-up" position at impact, as I'm hoping it will ensure that my weight and body is in good position to strike the ball more consistently. I've nearly eliminated my dreadful hook with my irons, and the times I do hook, I'm pretty sure it's because I pull up out of my posture and come off the ball. Most of my iron shots now are going straight or fading. I've really tried to feel weight centered, hips turning and bumping toward the target. I'm trying to get my left shoulder low on the backswing and squat into the downswing. I'm still hitting some shots thin, which I'm hoping will resolve with more practice. My woods and hybrids, however, I still have this problem where I'm just spraying it all over. Upon closer inspection with video, I can definitely see I'm pulling up with the driver instead of getting deeper into a squat.

I'm hoping for some feedback just to see if I'm on the right track here. I've never looked this good as far as getting my weight back to the left and straightening out the left leg, but I still need to work on getting my hands more in front of the ball and still work more on the "squat" so I don't come up out of my stance. Any idea why I might be pulling up (ie, some kind of compensation my body is trying to make)? I used to think that maybe I was standing to close to the ball, but it doesn't really look or feel that way.