My Swing (Sinik)

[sinik]

I've been Playing Golf for: 5 years
My current handicap index or average score is: mid-90's
My typical ball flight is: cut (and ball flight is higher than I'd like)
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: a pull / slice

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Hi all! Have lurked these forums for a long time and thrilled to have finally just joined.

Been really working on my swing a lot lately (was weekend hack for the most part before) and have been feeling good progress (shot a personal best 89 the other day on a tricky course from 6,500 yards [71.7 / 134] that I nearly threw away with 2 triples in the last 4 holes). These are some of the main things I'm working through:

• More stable wrists at the top that aren't cupped, so I don't come across the line at the top (more common with my driver)
• Slightly more knee bend so that my right knee doesn't lock at the top and force my head forward too much during backswing
• Keeping my right foot down more into impact rather than coming up too early and contributing to early extension / loss of power
• Better follow through - that damn chicken wing!
• Tempo. Tempo. Tempo. Don't rush and get quick, trust the club to do the work.

But the one thing that I can't figure out how to drill (and should help more bullets 3 and 4) is: getting my right elbow moving down/in in transition to start the downswing. I welcome any feedback really, but I'm really interested in drilling that feel and working that into my swing so that I can shallow the club better and lead to more control (prioritizing that over distance right now). I think not moving the trail arm properly is leading to dumping my angles early, often, and leading to a higher and shorter ball flight than I could have.

 

Thanks very much in advance!

 

Videos: 

Driver DTL (wind pushed camera so club face goes out of frame on way to the top)

 

 

4 iron DTL

 

 

Edited April 29, 2021 by sinik

[saevel25]

Hands get no height from A2 to A4. Your hands, and right elbow gets stuck behind you. You have no room for your hands to get down in front of you. 

 

[iacas]

  On 4/30/2021 at 12:20 AM, saevel25 said:

Hands get no height from A2 to A4. Your hands, and right elbow gets stuck behind you. You have no room for your hands to get down in front of you. 

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I concur.

[sinik]

Thanks fellas - what do you mean by no height? Relative to the shoulder plane at the top? Should my hands be closer to lining up vertically with my trail shoulder than being behind (to the left from DTL) of it?

 

What's the feeling to force that? Push elbows together during takeaway?

 

Would you say that fixing this would make it easier to move the right elbow properly and that (maybe?) the chicken wing follow through is a result of the move I'm making after A2?

[iacas]

See Day 3 in the COVID practice plan for a bit of a start on this:

30-Day Practice Plan | Golf Evolution

See also these two topics:

 

[sinik]

  On 4/30/2021 at 12:27 AM, iacas said:

See Day 3 in the COVID practice plan for a bit of a start on this:

30-Day Practice Plan | Golf Evolution

See also these two topics:

 

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Thanks, iacas! I'll take a look!

[Lane Holt]

Sinik,

   Your problem is very simple . One that most players always make until they understand why . 
   At 0.02 you have formed your lever system in a very good athletic position . At about 0.03 your powerful shoulders have begun their rotation and pushed directly out toward the ball / target line . The hands no arms of the average human weigh approx. 28 lbs and t hey lost the battle . They had NO choice but to go out with their more powerful body parts. It is a must to drop your DOMINANT HANDS DOWN and BACK before that powerful Scapula bone goes out . Otherwise , you will never be able to pull the clubface down from inside and attack the ball from an in to out path . 
    Your DOMINANT RIGHT HAND aid responsible for making that happen . It has to CONTROL that task . 
      If you closely  observe the great players you will immediately notice them doing just that . 
Good luck 

[iacas]

  On 4/30/2021 at 3:23 PM, Lane Holt said:

At 0.02 you have formed your lever system in a very good athletic position.

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Uhm, no.

  On 4/30/2021 at 3:23 PM, Lane Holt said:

The hands no arms of the average human weigh approx. 28 lbs and t hey lost the battle . They had NO choice but to go out with their more powerful body parts. It is a must to drop your DOMINANT HANDS DOWN and BACK before that powerful Scapula bone goes out.

Expand  

Oh my, no.

  On 4/30/2021 at 3:23 PM, Lane Holt said:

Your DOMINANT RIGHT HAND aid responsible for making that happen . It has to CONTROL that task . 
      If you closely  observe the great players you will immediately notice them doing just that . 
Good luck 

Expand  

@Lane Holt, this right here is a great example of how poor a job you actually do of helping people here.

Were @sinik to do as you suggested, he may very well be worse (and worse off) at golf. The issue is not what he has to do from the top of the swing down, but rather, how he gets to the top of the backswing. By making his hands and arms do as you suggest, he'll be even MORE adducted, more stuck, more "right elbow around/behind" himself, etc.

No. To all that you said, no.

[sinik]

  On 4/30/2021 at 3:34 PM, iacas said:

Uhm, no.

Oh my, no.

@Lane Holt, this right here is a great example of how poor a job you actually do of helping people here.

Were @sinik to do as you suggested, he may very well be worse (and worse off) at golf. The issue is not what he has to do from the top of the swing down, but rather, how he gets to the top of the backswing. By making his hands and arms do as you suggest, he'll be even MORE adducted, more stuck, more "right elbow around/behind" himself, etc.

No. To all that you said, no.

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Thanks for jumping in!

 

I guess this is a common question, but the obvious benefits of fixing my bad move on the way up to consistency aside (and probably accuracy), is it ultimately compromising a lot of distance as well? 

Edited April 30, 2021 by sinik

[boogielicious]

  On 4/30/2021 at 3:38 PM, sinik said:

Thanks for jumping in!

 

I guess this is a common question, but the obvious benefits of fixing my bad move on the way up to consistency aside (and probably accuracy), is it ultimately compromising a lot of distance as well? 

Expand  

If you can give us a face on view, that will help. Do the drill @iacas suggested and post video of that drill. To answer your question, possibly, but fixing this first piece will help correct other sequence issues. Also, please ignore Lane Holt. 

[sinik]

  On 4/30/2021 at 3:43 PM, boogielicious said:

If you can give us a face on view, that will help. Do the drill @iacas suggested and post video of that drill. To answer your question, possibly, but fixing this first piece will help correct other sequence issues. Also, please ignore Lane Holt. 

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Cheers - will try to get a FO view of normal swings as well (the feeling of being stuck and the resultant chicken wing is more pronounced there, for sure). Can just be a bit tough at the range I typically frequent.

 

Appreciate all the feedback!

[iacas]

I’m going to do more to make a “production” level version of this video, with some talking and stuff, but this will give you some idea in concert with the links I posted above:

 

[sinik]

  On 4/30/2021 at 4:46 PM, iacas said:

I’m going to do more to make a “production” level version of this video, with some talking and stuff, but this will give you some idea in concert with the links I posted above:

 

Expand  

Honestly this is just incredible content. Very much appreciated! Seeing it both ways (starting with height and starting with depth) is illuminating.

 

So it seems like when I'm filming myself at the range later on doing full shots after I've worked on these drills, that a good check-point is being able to draw a straight line, at the top, roughly from my hands down through my trail shoulder and into the middle of my trail foot?

[boogielicious]

  On 4/30/2021 at 4:51 PM, sinik said:

Honestly this is just incredible content. Very much appreciated! Seeing it both ways (starting with height and starting with depth) is illuminating.

 

So it seems like when I'm filming myself at the range later on doing full shots after I've worked on these drills, that a good check-point is being able to draw a straight line, at the top, roughly from my hands down through my trail shoulder and into the middle of my trail foot?

Expand  

I think the face on view will help. We need to see how much your torso turns with respect to your arms. Different players hands will look higher/lower depending on how much their torso turns. My hands look lower than some others because I don’t have as much torso/shoulder turn.

[sinik]

  On 4/30/2021 at 5:29 PM, boogielicious said:

I think the face on view will help. We need to see how much your torso turns with respect to your arms. Different players hands will look higher/lower depending on how much their torso turns. My hands look lower than some others because I don’t have as much torso/shoulder turn.

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This video is a few months old and not great quality, started going to the range far more since then so my swing has become a little more controlled and connected. I've had to kinda battle turning my shoulders far more than 90 degrees for a while now.
 

 

 

[boogielicious]

  On 4/30/2021 at 5:36 PM, sinik said:

This video is a few months old and not great quality, started going to the range far more since then so my swing has become a little more controlled and connected. I've had to kinda battle turning my shoulders far more than 90 degrees for a while now.
 

 

 

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It’s hard to tell with full speed video, but Erik suggested that Day 3 drill will help and he really knows his stuff. You may be letting your right arm collapse a bit and over swinging. I don’t want to load you down with too much info, but this thread below is very similar and explains it well.

 

[sinik]

  On 4/30/2021 at 6:12 PM, boogielicious said:

It’s hard to tell with full speed video, but Erik suggested that Day 3 drill will help and he really knows his stuff. You may be letting your right arm collapse a bit and over swinging. I don’t want to load you down with too much info, but this thread below is very similar and explains it well.

 

Expand  

Thanks! Another thing I neglected to point out is that that face on swing with the driver was with an old 60g shaft. I found it was too light for me to have feel for where it was in the backswing and contributed to going too far past parallel. Upgraded it to a 76g HZRDUS Yellow (the shaft in the DTL clip in the original post) and have MUCH better feel for that.

[sinik]

Hi @iacas, I was having a little trouble with the proper positions from your drill (I think the main issue is I need a full body mirror to self-check), but these drills below really spoke to me.  How do you feel about what they're showing here?

(ignore the preview image, the video is about the backswing and the trail arm, specifically)
 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by sinik
clarification