New swing - tips please?

[MCFung]

Hey gang,

Just started to put together this swing, because my old swing was AWFUL! (trust me ) Anyways, just saw a teaching pro for the first time, but he is so booked, it will be quite some time before I can get back to him. I was hoping you guys could take a look and let me know what you think. I am really struggling with my hips, and having my shoulders outrace my hips. Also struggling with club extension past the line, my club comes right back inside in a hurry. Any tips or drills you guys could provide would be a great help.

Here's my swing:

Front View:
http://www.swingacademy.com/swingana...l.aspx?id=1809

Target View:
http://www.swingacademy.com/swingana...l.aspx?id=1808

Thanks!

[Dent]

Great start already!

2 things I notice:

On your backswing, you have a lot of lower body movement, and your hips slide back with the club instead of turning, which can rapidly decrease all of your momentum and power. Try to keep your lower body still and then when need be, to turn your hips instead of dragging them backwards.

On your downswing, you seem to shift all of your weight onto the back of your front foot, which I feel can lead to restriction from making pure contact with the ball, and maybe in some cases, topping. You do not finish on the back of your front foot, which is good, but you seem to do it very quickly, which I think can make your upper body pull up the club before you make contact with the ball.

I was taught by Tom (AKA Avid Golfer on this forum) to try and keep all of your weight on the tips of your feet throughout your whole swing. It feels un-comfortable at first, but It works.

You've got something good going here, keep it up, and good luck with your lessons.

[phxgolfer]

I'll be the first to tell you that I am not the best player at the course by any means. However, I have had many lessons over my life and have developed and cured many issues in my swing over time. This may be what you meant by your hips, but it seems like you are not rotating at all in your backswing and then pulling the club across your body at contact once your body begins to rotate for the followthrough.

EDIT: I agree with Dent. He seems to have some great observations.

[AK jr.]

one thing i noticed is that from my observation, its ur hips that actually outrace ur shoulders which is causing u to play catch up with ur arms. in turn, ur hands flip at the bottom in an attempt to compensate which is causing u to hook it or pull it. what i would do is get a full length mirror and put it in ur house or garage and just practice swings in front of it. at first, keep your lower body completely still, it may feel like you are swinging a baseball bat. once you can swing fluidly with your upper body, add your lower body but at a minimal amount. a good golf swing will have a acceleration on the downswing and little lower body movement. the last thing i noticed was that you are coming up a little bit after impact. not that any of us are pros on here, but most highschool/college golfers i play with who have a good swing hit down on the ball including myself. if you keep your head down and drive through the ball versus scooping it a little, you will notice that your distance should improve and ur contact will feel much more solid

[MCFung]

You really think my hips are outracing my arms? At impact, it looks like my hips are facing the ball, same as my shoulders. I thought my hips should be almost facing the target at that point?

[AK jr.]

if you have a powerful turn than its ok for your hips to be a little ahead of the ball, but in your case you should be about square to the ball at impact. like i said work in front of a mirror, and get to a point where your swing looks like one fluid motion versus your lower body working against your upper body

[Petden]

Im not sure if this is because of the angle but the second video seemed to me as if you were chopping wood. My swing is no where near perfect, so I am not insulting yours, just providing an opinion. It looks like you came with the club face open and then tried to correct it by quickly closing it and that caused the ball to go right.

[jambalaya]

Looks like you got a lot of good feedback on Swing Academy and here. I had one observation and maybe someone else can verify if it is a concern. It seems to me that both of your elbows are pointed outward. The back elbow straight back and the front elbow facing towards the target. My experience is that your elbows should be pointing towards your hips at address therefore you need to bring your elbows closer together. That would help to keep your backswing more in one piece and solve that initial takeaway problem.

[MCFung]

Typically, my lead elbow is pointed at the target due to my strong grip. My trailing elbow is pointed at my rear hip at address. Are you thinking I should take a more neutral grip?

[titaniummd]

Looks like you got a lot of good feedback on Swing Academy and here. I had one observation and maybe someone else can verify if it is a concern. It seems to me that both of your elbows are pointed outward. The back elbow straight back and the front elbow facing towards the target. My experience is that your elbows should be pointing towards your hips at address therefore you need to bring your elbows closer together. That would help to keep your backswing more in one piece and solve that initial takeaway problem.

Overall, there is not much to criticize.

On the backswing to where the club is parallel, I personally believe that most of the weight transfer should be near completion. It appears that the weight transfer is still in progress as it is still rising to the "L" position on the back swing. The problem I see is that the leading arm is bent at and beyond impact. Beyond impact, both arms should be at full extension. I think that this is a major power leak. Additionally, there seems to be a lot of tension in the arms prior to the swing so it appears more of an upper body/arms swing. The rotation of the lower body should drive the torso/shoulders and just let the arms follow suit.

[MCFung]

Overall, there is not much to criticize.

Yeah, I am definitely chicken winging it after contact. I just recently bought new clubs and I never got them custom-fit. Being fairly short (5'6"), standard length clubs are a little too upright for me. I have attempted to adjust by using a very upright swing plane. I wonder if that is just my body/mind's way of compensating for such an upright swing? I definitely want to flatten the lie angle on my irons to compensate going forward.

As for my upper body/arms swing, I have always struggled with using my hips properly. Its something I continue to work on.

[JackLee]

You really think my hips are outracing my arms? At impact, it looks like my hips are facing the ball, same as my shoulders. I thought my hips should be almost facing the target at that point?

You are correct. Your hips should be turned much more at impact. That's why you cannot swing through correctly with your right arm extended. And yes, you are swinging too upright.

It looks like you control your swing with your arms and hands. Your body is not responding to that. Try controlling your swing with your right shoulder. For your backswing, just turn your right shoulder around your spine pushing your right arm, hand, and club back together. For your downswing, pull with your right shoulder, while tilting your spine and head away from your target a little. I use an old tip that says "look under the back of your ball in the downswing. That gives me the tilt I need and focuses my eyes where the leading edge of my clubface needs to go. Be sure your right arm is fully extended through your release and impact. Pulling with your right shoulder, while tilting a bit away from your target, should make your other body movements automatic, including making your right hip lead and turn correctly. Try to make your clubhead path a little inside-out through impact. This is some bare basics from "The Golf Swing and Its Master Key Explained" by Noel Thomas. It teaches the torso powered swing that is used by most pros, but with lead shoulder control.

[jambalaya]

Typically, my lead elbow is pointed at the target due to my strong grip. My trailing elbow is pointed at my rear hip at address. Are you thinking I should take a more neutral grip?

I'll let your coach advise you on your grip. In looking at your front on video, it doesn't seem like your elbows are too far apart but both elbows seem to point away from your body. This is a small thing so I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially the front elbow. But whenever I have a question I usually go to this link:

http://www.pgatour.com/swingplex/00/60/04/index.html It has many slow motion swings of pros many of which have a down the line and front view. I think it is pretty consistent that the pros have the back elbow pointing to the hip. Not so much on the front elbow but definitely the back.