Fixing DJPie's Swing - A Typical "Good Player" Pull-Fader Swing

[iacas]

I wrote up a little swing analysis/help/lesson for DJ Piehowski of No Laying Up, and I thought I'd share it here as I think it can help a lot of others who are good players who try to "manage" a slightly wipey pull-fade.

The analysis is based on the swing at 15:33, which is from a pretty good angle:

(The video should start right at 15:33).

The Shots

Particularly with the driver, it pains me to continue to see you playing what has to be, at times, a sort of wipey pull-fade. Maybe you're pretty good about pulling it enough that it's not so wipey too often. I think you could make some relatively simple changes that can improve your driving (and irons, but more on that later). Many amateurs will swing left because it helps them "cheat" better contact by somewhat artificially moving the low point forward a bit. You can also be a pretty good wedge player with this type of move, in fact, but I'm going to focus, mostly, on the driver and longer clubs.

The Faults

In short, you:

• take your hands out and up too early
• then have to suck your hands in, with the club a bit laid off (not as laid off as it looks due to the short length of your swing - a good thing)
• swing out over it with no left arm depth and a steepening shaft that tips out a lot.

You have a lot of great pieces in your swing. Your elbows at the top are to be admired, for example. Here are some images.

The "Proof"

1. You're already set up a bit more upright with your torso and with your arms angled out away from you on the limits of what we typically see from better players. Then, your first move in the takeaway is to make your hands go even *farther* up and out. From this "up and away" position, you'll have to compensate by "sucking" your hands back in and around you when they should be going UP more (see the Justin Rose comparison in the spoiler). Your arms are not in a "bad" position at the top, but "how" you got there (and the shaft pointing where it does) does you no favors.

Spoiler

Justin Rose Hand Path on the Backswing

2. Your first move from the top is to again throw your hands out away from you. This is the part of the swing where the hands should be "dropping" slightly and the club, from this camera position, should be moving a bit more behind you or at the very least dropping vertically, *not* moving out toward the ball already. A big part of the reason you swing "out" immediately from the top is that the shaft is a bit laid off and your last move on the backswing is to pull your hands around you more with the clubhead moving farther from the ball, so you reverse both of those and swing your hands out and move the clubhead in that direction too, at the change of direction. The shaft is a bit too laid off, but your hands and elbows and arms are fine… *if it's a static image.* It's not, though, and how you got the hands there (sucking them in late from the "out" takeaway) changes how they behave in transition.

3. Classic goat humper stuff here (I'll try to avoid jokes about the Silvie's caddies). It's a last-ditch effort to shallow the club as much as you can this late in the downswing and to add as much speed as you can. If it was just for speed, that'd be "fine" but it's mostly because the shaft tips out and you're trying pretty hard here to not just let the club crash down and swing mega-left through the ball.

The Fix

I'm a big fan of prioritizing, and I think I do a good job of that. I'm a big fan of keeping things simple, and I try very hard to do that, too. So, while I wrote a decent amount up there, a LOT of what you do on the downswing and in transition is just a *reaction* to things you did earlier. So, fix the "earlier" things and let the later things sort themselves out and improve on their own. Remove the thing that's causing the compensations and the compensations dissolve.

Here are the three things I'd try to get you to feel if you were on my tee. They all bleed together, so while it's three things in this list, it's one continuous move that melds together.

1. Pivot your chest so that your hands get carried backward (away from the target) and inward slightly (away from the ball) for the first 1-2 feet of the backswing. Just turn your sternum back, and let that "carry" your hands with it. Your wrists and forearms will hinge or bend slightly - feel as though your right palm continues to face downward slightly (so you don't roll the forearms right-palm-up). Just turn your chest back, turn your sternum back, and carry the hands back and slightly inward. There will be some hinging, some elbow folding, but feel as if the big muscles are doing all the work here.

2. Make the clubhead go UP and the shaft feel vertical. I will call this the "umbrella" position or the "torch" position as you're trying to feel as though the clubhead is going up and the shaft is getting vertical, like you'd hold an umbrella or a torch with your right hand. Rather than your right palm facing the sky it will feel like it's continuing to face out toward the ball, or horizontal.

Jack Nicklaus shows these first two things well:

3. At the top, continue to feel as though the clubhead is "across the line." It likely won't actually get across the line, because of the swing length, but if it's slightly across the line, you'll have a chance at *shallowing* it during the downswing rather than steepening it and throwing it out toward the ball.

In summary:

• Let the hands track inward with the chest turning back to start the backswing.
• Continue to keep the right hand in a position where the shaft gets steeper, minimal forearm rolling…
• … all the way to the top, where the shaft will feel slightly across the line.

Think of almost any George Gankas student - steep and across into a super-shallow transition. When the clubhead falls a bit behind you (shallow), you'll rotate more to get to the ball rather than humping those poor goats quite so much.

Think also of the PlaneMate, which helps golfers do many of these same things - track the hands in rather than rolling the clubhead in, steep during the backswing, shallow during the downswing, and rotating in the follow-through.

With the Irons Too?

I would do this with the irons too, but I wouldn't worry about it much. Your swing, if you actually work on it, will change a bit. Like I said above, swinging over the top/left/outside-in/whatever-you-wanna-call-it is a bit of a "cheat" for better contact, as it helps you move the ground contact point forward.

You may hit some scuffy (slightly heavy, but "brushed" heavy) irons for awhile as the path begins to move out to the right. You'll generally see the ball go a bit higher, with a start line that's out to the right a bit. You should see a decrease in the amount of fade/slice that you have, and I'd expect you to hit the ball a bit farther too.

But mostly, do this and worry about this with the driver and other longer clubs, up to about your 6-iron. Let it bleed into your shorter irons a little, but I wouldn't worry about standing on the range hitting wedges like this. 6-iron and longer.

Exaggerated Example

Here's a gal, Brogan, who "overdoes" all of the pieces I've laid out for you here.

Hands track inward, right palm facing downward a bit, shaft steepens.

Shaft continues to be "steep" and gets "across the line," then shallows in transition.

She "overdoes" the pieces I'm giving you, but you'll likely have to feel for awhile like those pictures look to get the change you need. (She also drew every golf ball).

Listen, Who Can Say…

Clearly, I felt like procrastinating this morning. And I wanted to help out someone who seems to be a good dude. And yeah, for all I know, you roast @Randy in the finals like you roasted @Soly last time around. But they're handicapped rounds, and you can play better golf. You've got a lot of great pieces to your swing, but this wipey over-the-top cheating (I mean that in a good way) swing can be better.

You don't know me. You might chuckle to yourself, skim this, and say "okay thanks pal." And never consider it again. Maybe you'll show it to your instructor (if you have one) and you'll both chuckle. But that's cool, because even if you don't want to look at this, maybe someone else will and will benefit from it. Whatever you do with it, or don't do with it, it's all good here. I enjoyed writing it up.

P.S. There are a few good drills for you in this, too:

Pay particular attention to Day 1 (~2:40 onward), a little of Day 2 (you do this pretty well, but can sometimes get a bit flat), Day 18 is a good thing that should fit your Blueprint plans and help you subconsciously manage the path a bit (arrange the balls to encourage an outward path), Day 20, the "stick on the right hip" part of Day 29. Day 30 is something you can *always* do at home, even for 1:00 per day.

[nevets88]

@iacas on an episode of No Laying Up. Checking the odds on Paddy Power now, lol.

Also, Soly, lol:

 

 

 

[Wanzo]

I enjoyed reading the post. I have some similar issues. It was interesting to see you walk through deliver the info to a new student.  Thanks for sharing.