Flat as all get out

[iacas]

So after sinking into a bit of a ballstriking slump again, I worked hard on getting my hands above my shoulders at the top of my backswing. I had two problems:

1) What felt like "parallel" at the top was actually about 18 inches past parallel (driver clubhead). What is parallel feels very, very short.

2) "Over my shoulder" feels more like it's over the bill of my cap (and I don't wear them backwards). I really have to develop a more upright swing. My hands are almost shoulder height (and outside, not above, my shoulders).

I wonder how in the heck I hit the ball from that position... ever! Let alone got down to a 3.8 index.

Needless to say, I'm going to be devoting some serious time to fixing my swing as soon as I get back from The Memorial. Lots of time on the range, less time playing. Video camera will be with me regularly.

I guess this isn't a topic to which I expect a response, but if you have anything to say, go ahead. Otherwise, I'll just try to find this thread when I have more to say about it...

[allin]

Actually it is a relief to see that a good golfer struggles with this also. My pro says this starts from to much emphasis on increased shoulder turn. He is making me limit my turn and work on my take away. I suspect his next step will be to increase my hip resistance. I have suprisingly seen a sudden 1-1/2 club distance increase and a decrease in hard low hooks. The distance seems to come from increased hand speed through the contact zone since I am not working so hard just to get my body back to the ball. I am curious if low hooks are your miss also?

[iacas]

Actually it is a relief to see that a good golfer struggles with this also. My pro says this starts from to much emphasis on increased shoulder turn. He is making me limit my turn and work on my take away. I suspect his next step will be to increase my hip resistance. I have suprisingly seen a sudden 1-1/2 club distance increase and a decrease in hard low hooks. The distance seems to come from increased hand speed through the contact zone since I am not working so hard just to get my body back to the ball. I am curious if low hooks are your miss also?

Low hooks are the miss of most good players (except Greg Norman).

[allin]

I would love to refer to myelf as a good player but the roars of laughter from my friends would last for hours.

[HanesOnU]

So after sinking into a bit of a ballstriking slump again, I worked hard on getting my hands above my shoulders at the top of my backswing. I had two problems:

Wow, amazing. That is exactly what I'm struggling with. I could have posted that exact thing and it would be 100% accurate for me. But I started trying this around a few weeks ago. AT first the higher hands felt really weird, but I'm now hitting the ball better than ever. I'm hitting more greens and fairways than I ever could have imagined. One round I hit 16 greens. I also had 6 birdies(my record) that round too, b/c I was giving myself birdie putts. But my hands still aren't high enough.

It may feel weird, but just do it, it will make you hit the ball better. As for the long swing, I still haven't solved that. My problem is if I try and shorten it, my tempo is horrible!

[Diggitydog]

My swing plane has been too flat as well. The resulting misses are low hooks or cruelly a wicked slice if the clubface doesn't close properly or timing isn't perfect. My misses were miles on both sides of the fairway.

My instructor was hesitant at first to mess with my swing plane because I was getting to a good position at the top but the routing of the club was not consistent enough for my liking. I could groove the flat swing on the range but under pressure my swing would crumble like a cookie in Cookie Monster's puppet mouth.

With my instructor, a video camera, and a fierce commitment to practice I have successfully changed my swing to be much more upright and on plane. I would still consider my swing a one plane swing but I'm not getting stuck behind my body any more. Wow does the new swing feel great!

My instructor did something different with me. He likened it to bending a metal bar. "You have to bend the bar past straight for it to return to straight." We had a full lesson with me not turning my shoulders AT ALL on the backswing and keeping my chest at the ball. The other thing he did was make sure I was taking the club away on an outside the ball plane. The result was a short swing on an out to in plane resulting in a controlled fade when the lower body action was correct. The swing produced a fierce slice if I didn't have good tempo or was jumpy at all with my lower body on the downswing. I didn't miss it left once with that swing. I went away for a week with that swing and didn't ask him about when we would change, I just trusted him. One week later after 10 buckets of balls over 7 days I showed him my controlled fade swing. The distance was not great but it was consistent and I could have played the course with the swing.

He then recorded me, as he does every lesson, with the upright swing and we went to his studio to break it down. He had me forget about the first lesson and proceeded on baking the final swing. The main swing feeling is to turn the shoulders to 90 and have the club move on plane. The natural tendency is to wrap the club around the body when turning the shoulders. He had me turn my shoulders only and then would physically route the club, with his hands, on the correct plane to the proper position at the top. He would have me hold the position at the top then hit the ball after stepping away. This was repeated at least 20 times or more. Then he would help me on one swing and have me hit one on my own. Soon I was pounding balls down the middle with effortless power.

I hit balls steady for one more week and went back for a third lesson by which time I was consistently pounding straight drives with the misses on a very tight dispersement pattern. I did have a lapse of bringing the club too much inside and low but was easily corrected during the third lesson. When the club swings on plane, and when I was flat I thought I was on plane too, there is a feeling of limitless speed available for the clubhead.

These three lessons have changed my golf game in the span of one month.

To be fair this wasn't a miracle in a can, I did have a decent swing before but the focus here was on the swing plane.

[HanesOnU]

GREAT POST! Make a lot of sense. Sounds like he is a great instructor.

[Diggitydog]

He is the best instructor I've met. He was picked as instructor of the year in our Province for 2005. His rates are $50 CAD per 45 minute lesson! You can hit as many range balls before and after that you like and if you are having any kind of issues he'll stay until they are resolved instead of saying at 45 minutes. "So we're good then?"

Sometimes I'll hit the ball so pure and far now I just start laughing out loud at how easy it can be.

All that being said I still have bad days, but not like my bad days were before.

I am really fussy about my swing which is a fault in my game. I can lose focus on the course if I'm spraying my tee shots. It's amazing how well I can putt when I'm not distracted by what is wrong with my big swing. Part of what my instructor is teaching me is to play with the swing you have that day. My tendency has been to revert into practice mode as soon as I hit a bad tee shot. I'm analyzing in my head what I did wrong and how to correct it. Problem is there are no free shots on the course to tinker with the swing. My goal this year is to accept that perfect shots will not happen as often as I want and not to get too up or too down after hitting a golf shot.

Now if we could get rid of this 3 days of rain I would like to put all this into action again. Is it abnormal to feel like 4 days without swinging a club feels like I've taken an official leave of absense or something?

The other thing is I can't believe people will buy new gear, go play golf, get frustrated for shooting high scores, go out the next time do the same thing over again, but not spend $150 - $200 on some solid instruction. Absolutely baffling to me.

[iacas]

Quick update...

Despite shooting 71 (my best round in a decade) and having some awesome ballstriking rounds, I had someone look at my swing and it really hadn't changed much. I thought I was making progress, but alas, I was perhaps a few degrees more upright with my swing only.

A few days ago I put my swing on video with my still camera at 60 FPS. I noticed that I was doing a lot of things really well, such as:

• I had a good weight shift and good balance throughout most swings.
• I was standing a good distance from the ball.
• My shoulder turn is a bit over 90 degrees, while my hip turn is minimal - good "X Factor."
• My head stays the same height, a problem with which I've struggled.
• The "jump" I used to have in my swing is largely gone.
• My tempo, though fast, is 3:1, or "Tour Tempo" rhythm.
• My grip is good, my weight centered over my feet, etc. Lots of littl ethings are good.

What was bad was my posture at address. I was standing too upright - not enough bend at my hips - and this forced my hands too high and my arms out instead of hanging down. I'll attach a picture at the end that shows this.

Today, I got a mirror and went to the range. It's amazing the difference this simple change has made. Bending more from the hips, letting the arms hang down, and increasing the angle led to very good shots. I only had to think of turning with my shoulders to get my arms to go UP instead of AROUND my bod.

It makes sense too - hanging arms are more vertical than ones thrust outward.

I went out and played five holes afterward (after getting in some putting practice) and found a few things:

1. instead of the soft cut which was my standard drive (when it wasn't screeching way out of control, way right or way left more than half the time), I hit a soft little draw - a shot I've been missing for the past few years.
2. I had a lot more effortless power. The ball jumped.
3. I only need one real swing key, after I get set up properly: rotate the shoulders back and through.

Played the holes in even par. Just parred them all. Actually, could have birdied the last, but after a really creamed drive, the lightning siren sounded... I missed every fairway, but that's only because I was lining up for my cut and I hit the little draws. I missed one fairway WAY right, but I knew it partway down and it was simply a case of bad timing and I couldn't get the clubface back to square. But even as horrible as it felt, it was far more playable than my other recent bad swings.

Here's the image showing what I mean. I apologize for the angle. I told the kid to shoot down the target line. He shot down the ball's target line, not mine, and on the wider angle of that camera it looks like i'm pointed way to the right. But that's okay - the arms and hip angles can still be illustrated:

[Diggitydog]

Originally Posted by iacas:

2. I had a lot more effortless power. The ball jumped. 3. I only need one real swing key, after I get set up properly: rotate the shoulders back and through.

Interesting, the term effortless power was exactly what I said to my instructor when I started hitting the balls on plane. Video analysis is very helpful and people just don't do enough of it The shoulder back and through is my swing key and when I focus on that swing key I hit great shots. If I don't use the shoulder turn key and start thinking about my arms or something my shoulder turn will come up short and the shot will generally go to the right on me. Also the bend at the hips and good upper shoulder posture makes the rotation very easy. You don't have to be board straight like Adam Scott but squeezing the shoulder blades together ever so slightly makes a full turn easier. Great post iacas, it's nice to see players working on the swing even when the handicap is low like yours.

[iacas]

Video analysis is very helpful and people just don't do enough of it

I use video to relate what I think I'm doing with what I'm actually doing. Sometimes they're not the same, but video doesn't lie.

Video can be dangerous if we try to fix every little thing that doesn't quite look right. I feel like I use video appropriately, and don't "overdo" it and obsess over it. I go in with the goal of fixing one problem - in this case, getting the shaft more above my shoulders instead of behind it at the top of my backswing - and ignore anything else that looks off.

Great post iacas, it's nice to see players working on the swing even when the handicap is low like yours.

Whenever I see my swing and the flaws that have crept into it, I am amazed I was able to play as well as I

did play.