Mav's swing from the front

[Maverick]

I'm still trying to work on not trying to bring the club past parallell and doing the 3/4 swing..it's weird..I feel like I'm at 3/4, or less, but still shows I'm going way past parallel.

The ball is positioned in the middle but the camera angle is bad..it looks like the ball is set back..but it's not..I'm hitting a 7 iron.



What do you like or don't like..?

[Cizzle]

For the backswing, feel your left shoulder turning the club back, nothing else. Once your left shoulder is right in front of your chin at 90 degrees, your backswing is done.

On your downswing, your still throwing your arms. Tsk tsk tsk. Have your right knee move towards the ball to turn your hips. Your knees should touch well before impact, turning your shoulders and club into the impact position. This will make you a) hit the ball much longer. b) be much more consistent. c) Your shots will be much much much straighter and on target.

What I think is good: Your waggling, but you're not doing it correctly! Set up and then waggle! You should not have your whole body waggling along with you! Also, you still have a nice full shoulder turn, just watch that your left shoulder does not go past 90 degrees. It also looks like you have a nice backswing with torque built up, but you waste it all by throwing your arms at the ball instead of turning your hips, which will then turn your shoulders releasing all that built up energy into a great swing. Best of luck

[Soup Fan]

The only thing that my untrained eye can sense is that you may be shifting your weight far too early. It looks like you are out on your front foot and that by the time you get to impact you are all arms...like Alfonso Soriano way ahead of a changeup that he thought was a fastball.

I like the ease and tempo of your swing, though, and as far as I can tell you repeated the same swing all three times, so if it feels comfortable and you are hitting it where you want, I say go with it.

[Maverick]

but you waste it all by throwing your arms at the ball

When you say turn my hips you mean that I should rotatate them..like try to show my belt buckle toward the target..rotate with my spine as a center axis..?

[Avid Golfer]

I'm still trying to work on not trying to bring the club past parallell and doing the 3/4 swing..it's weird..I feel like I'm at 3/4, or less, but still shows I'm going way past parallel.

The position of your club relative to parallel(ness) to the ground does not look to be a problem. Since you said your camera angle was off and the ball wasn't as back as it looks I have pulled a Ernie Els swing that is also from an angle where his ball is not as far back as it appears. I have made a comparison of you both in the image sequences below:

Even though Els video angle is off (his target is probably closer to the camera then him and the recorder is probably shot from a slightly diagonal direction) his ball position still lines up with his left ear (red line drawn straight up from the ball), but your line goes through the right side of your head. Moving on from the ball position the other position that looks off at setup is your right hip. Your right hip looks to be over your right foot and leg, not a position that is condusive to bracing and containing weight shift. If you look at the pros you will often see that the right hip and knee is bumped inside the instep of the right foot, and the left hip is in line with the left leg.

As you move back your right hip looks to rise, and weight looks to shift outside your back leg. In comparision look at Els who looks more balanced at this stage (with the left hip still above the left leg). As you continue to swing back, and then up to the top you look to loose width (the distance between your hands and your right shoulder). When Els swings back to the top we see more width (with separation between the position of the hands and the right shoulder). As you start down your hips and legs look to be sliding toward the target, and even though it is difficult to see from this angle it looks like your club is starting down on a steep angle (like seen in your down the line swing). In comparison Els has the club drop more behind his body (shallowing out).

As the downswing continues your back heel raises in the air suggesting that your lower body may be loosing balance and moving toward the ball (again more noticable down line). Els back foot on the other hand stays relatively flat, and the movement that does occur is a rolling on to the instep. Your weight looks to move outside your front foot on the downswing (which may be in relation to the lower body slide) just as it moved outside the back foot on the backswing, and as a result you are not in a position where you can clear the hips and lower body behind you. Els is able to rotate his hip directly behind him because his weight did not shift outside his front leg on the downswing. The through swing is a result of the downswing, and improving the downswing will improve the through swing. In summary my recommendations are: get your ball position in line with your left ear, and bump your back hip and knee toward the target at address. On the backswing keep your weight on the inside of your back foot. Starting down allow the club to drop behind you. (You may find feeling like your back stays facing the target, your left shoulder elevating, or your right elbow dropping to your right side as you start down helps the club drop behind you). As you continue to swing down keep the weight inside your front foot (this will help provide power, allow you to turn your left hip behind you, and release through the shot).