lateral slide - swing video

[thumper07]

alright last year i suffered from a reverse pivot and started shanking all the time. so i started taking lessons and he found i needed to work on my weight transfer. well now i believe i am over doing it. well atleast i think i am. i am actually playing well but when i video taped my swing the other day i noticed this lateral slide. when i saw my swing i was shocked at how awful it looked(i threw up in my mouth a little) because of how good it feels and how well i'm hitting the ball. i hit a draw ball flight with the 6 iron going 184 and the driver i dont know it flew in the woods, the field ends at 240yds. i got yardages using my golf buddy in a field adjacent to a golf course. let me know what you guys think about
1) is this move wrong
2) should i not worry about it cause i'm hitting it well, but might cause problems down the road
3) what drills are there to work on this

thanks for any help or input.

-matt

[thumper07]

for some reason the other video never processed on youtube and i couldn't edit my original post.

-matt

[RC]

Not bad at all... great separation going back on the driver. The only thing I see is your right leg gets a little straight and this causes your entire body to move right. Personally, I like to see the reverse K shape on the right side and yours is almost a straight line, which might mean your weight could get stuck or that you revert to sliding to get off the right side. That produces pushes and hooks respectively a lot of the time. But hey, not everyone touts that position. If you keep flex in your right leg and knee, the lower body will not shift much to the right. A key thing to check is if you feel the weight on the inside of the right foot even though you have turned your shoulders behind the ball -- does that make sense? Another thing... the straight right side is a hint of your old reverse pivot issue (you mentioned this old problem.) There are lots of golfers that would like a swing as solid as yours, but with a little adjustment your swing would really look great to those of us that like the ground up body swing.

[ks8829]

How do you hit the ball?

How do you hit the ball on the back nine?

How do you hit the ball under pressure?

I noticed that your head moves back a head length and back forward a head length?

If its a problem turn instead of sway back because if you timming is not perfect comming back its hard to be consistent with your golf swing. Have you tried drills with your feet together and swinging the driver? have you tried bending your knees more to help you make a turn? have you tried putting more weight on the back feet on the inside so that if forces you to turn and not sway?

[jambalaya]

I look at the impact position as the moment of truth and despite a little slide back you get into a good impact position.

[jjb333]

To echo what others have said you're swaying back a lot and your head is moving a lot too. Now, since you're swaying back so much, it looks like you're sliding forward a lot. I can see that if you stop swaying back as much as you are, your slide forward will be very minimal which is a positive thing. Focus on keeping your head still during the whole swing and you should see a better looking swing.

[thumper07]

well the shitty part is i dont feel myself doing it. i only see it on camera. i will try to work on swinging with my feet together. my right knee does lose some flex but doesnt lock like it used too.

Right now i'm hitting the ball about mid-high with a draw. Something also, since i started doing this i cant for the life of me hit a fade, except with driver and wood. and thats just a tiny one, i cant even cut my 3 iron. its either straight or draw. i used to be able to work it both ways. i'm also having problems controlling my trajectory but these are all probally just inconsistency problems.


just a side note, looking at my tempo do you guys think i can get away with x-100 shafts. i hit them in the s57 when i got my irons and loved the shaft, but i needed the forgiveness of my irons and didn't have the coin at the time to have ping install the shafts.

thanks
-matt

[1dayIllBaPro]

To make this short
1. Keep the flex of your right knee during backswing.
2. Keep your head still.
3. Hold your finish position.

Anything else loos good to me :) nice swing, nice tempo. Just work on those, and you will be great.

[Armonster20]

Want to trade swings? I've got the same sway to the right during the backswing, but don't always make it back to the left on the downswing.

Just curious, would tilting your right knee in, toward your left knee, reduce the swaying?

[1dayIllBaPro]

Want to trade swings? I've got the same sway to the right during the backswing, but don't always make it back to the left on the downswing.

I tilt my right knee in a little bit at address. But remember, by doing this, it doesn't make sure you would reduce swaying. However, If you keep your right knee flex, and your knee at the same position inside your feet, then you will be fine.

[tm22721]

To eliminate swaying right and to get most of your weight to the left side by the end of the backswing, just screw your right foot clockwise into the ground at setup and maintain this pressure throughout the swing.

This move also eliminates the need for a lateral shift during the downswing since your weight is already on the left before you start down.

[thumper07]

thanks guys, my brother and law came home from school this week(goes to methodists uni. in the pgm program) and i had him look at my swing after i played saturday(shot a 77) and he too said to keep the flex in my knee, he picked it up almost immediatly. so we were at the range and while i was hitting balls he used a club jammed behind my knee while i hit shots and felt weird but cant argue with results. i have never felt this good about my swing. We went out today in 38* temp i shot a 73 with 2 3 putts. So thanks guys for your help and i'll try to post videos this week to see how much of a difference it made.

-matt

btw - the 77 i shot saturday was my lowest round ever until today when i shot the 73. the hardest part was trying to control my excitement about how well i was playing cause lately i'll do real well and then fall apart as i get ahead of myself.

[thumper07]

here ya go, i took them tonight, i can really feel a difference. the swings look alot more connected and I feel like i am staying on top of the shot alot better. let me know if you see a difference and whether its better or worse.




-matt

[RC]

I just noticed the January 09 issue of golf digest has a swing analysis of long drive champion Jamie Sadlowski. When you look at the lower panel of snapshots of his swing (face on, he is hitting to the right) you can clearly see the reverse K shape I mentioned earlier. Must be nice to carry a ball 400 yards, huh?

[RC]

Thumper07: check your pms.
Regards,

[mm6840]

Just a hint : it's much more usefull if you shoot video down the line (camera wait height)

regards,

[Titleist Man]

It could cause a BIG problem down the road. Personally im trying to not have any things that i have to counter act but i have tons of time to work on my swing(I played 8-9hrs a day this summer 5-6 days a week). As to fixing it try to feel your weight on your right side more on you backswing and try to not lean forward on the downswing. Or you could find a teacher who knows a lot about mechanics and take a lesson from him. Good luck.

[darthfader]

First off, I just wanted to say... BRAVO. Your trying to improve, trying to make changes. You've made the critical "better technique = better scores" decision. Most golfers I meet couldn't care less.

Secondly, before I offer any advice... here's a look at my swing:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ditentukan

I figure that for you to take me seriously, you need to see the goods. :) The swing is not too bad, sort of a work in progress for the last 18 months. But trust me, my swing looked AWFUL last summer. Posture, grip, stance, plane (and therefore impact position) were ALL broken. I decided to dive in and try to fix it before things got worse.... and WOW.. THEY GOT WORSE. I had the shanks for a couple months late last fall, sometimes I'd get 100 balls at the range and shank 50 of them. Yeah. No joke.

Looking at your swing, I'm reminded of a few things I've had to work through. Maybe I can help you sort them out.

1. A lot of guys have posted about your right leg straightening. They're all correct. If you want to be consistent, your lower body needs to feel "quiet". Look at my swing as a reference. Its not perfect, and I definitely get a little "squatty" at address, but the right leg is still flexed, and it almost looks like I'm "sitting" down into my right hip. This was a difficult move to learn, and it took me months of stretching/exercises involving the right hip, adductor (inner thigh) muscles, and abdominals. The right knee doesn't stay flexed by itself (as I'm sure you've noticed). In my case, my backswing "feels" like my inner right thigh muscles are pulling my right leg to the left, while my upper body turns to the right. In reality, my lower body is actually staying very quiet. The first time I tried this (last year) my groin cramped like crazy. It was hilarious.
2. The sway. I used to do the same thing on the backswing. No offense, but its a strength/flexibility issue. You mentioned your bro-in-law sticking the club behind your knee to limit the leg-straightening... well it helped with the sway too. The reason it "felt weird" (as you say), is because your right hip isn't conditioned to support your body weight in that way... YET. Keep working on it, keep stretching the legs, back, hips, etc. You'll get stronger and more efficient in your backswing.
3. The downswing... I wish I got my right side turned through as well as you do, you don't seem to have a big slide towards the target like I did. You've probably figured this out by now, but sliding back and forth causes all kinds of problems, including shanks.
4. The release.. I can't tell from your face-on view, but based on your descriptions, I'm going to guess that your miss is either a big high block right (not a fade), or a big hook. Reason is, any excessive slide on the downswing (towards the target) will kinda drag the club behind you and off-plane. If you slide too much (like I did), the club gets WAY behind you, the plane flattens out.... shank city. If you slide a little bit, the club shallows out just a bit, and if you're timing it right, you get a nice high draw. Get to impact a little early, its a big hook.... a little late, and its a big push. Bottom line is, don't slide. TURN instead.
5. Danger!! I see your left leg locking up after impact. Work on the flexibility and strength in the left hip/leg too, so that you can "turn" into that left hip, instead of feeling like you need to force the hips to rotate using the left knee. Just something to think about. Ask Tiger. ;)

Like you, I also got to the point where I couldn't hit a fade. My grip had become WAY too strong, and I was aiming right, playing a big draw. Once I was able to stop sliding as much, I was able to open things back up. You'll get there too.

Good luck.