Help with my swing (video and stills)

[jonnythan]

These are (obviously) not the same swing. I have wicked trouble with slicing and topping balls. Both of these shots were halfway decent.

I have taken stills from each swing. They are found here: http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y19.../golf%20swing/

[Ryanrocksfender]

the major flaw i see is that you are coming over the top witch is why you slice... try bringing the club from the inside! best of luck

[Bauer]

Looks like you need to set your stands a bit wider. Bend your knees a bit more and possibly create a steeper spine angle and maintain it throughout the swing. I'm not a low handicap either so take what I say with a grain of salt until it is confirmed by some better players.

[Zeph]

Don't know what club you were using, but the stance width is not that bad.

A few key points I would've worked on:

- No swaying. You sway the entire body back and forth. Imagine a pole going through your spine, out your bottom and down into the ground. It locks you there. Not 100%, you need some natural movement, but keep your body still and just turn the upper body.
- I really like your point of acceleration. You don't rush from the top, but speed up when the hands reach your pockets, good moves there.
- Swinging too much with your arms. From the top of the backswing, the arms drop while you shift weight to the left side, starting the hip turn. Then from the point your hands reach your pockets, the hips fire through and the torso follow. This will give you a lot of power and increase your lag. The most common reason for casting is the arms rushing down. It's difficult to tell when swinging, but the difference of the arms staying with the torso and being pulled and arms being thrown out is big. With the arms rushing, your wrists have no chance but to cast the club. If the arms fall from the top and are speeded up through the ball from your pockets caused by the hips and torso, the wrists don't get any signal to cast out the club, so they will stay where they are until your hands go past the ball, then they'll start releasing.

This will also help on your balance, too much arms can easily make you unsteady and lose balance, even if the shot was OK. Especially important to just let the arms drop from the top and not accelerate until they reach your waist. Doing this right will give you a great finish position and well balanced on the left foot. I see from the video that you have a lot of weight forward and would have to take a step if you didn't pull the body back. This is usually a sign of the arms doing too much.

You use the muscles to pull your arms to the top of the backswing, which is in a very nice position btw, you keep the arms in front of your body and have a great position for a downswing. Don't turn your arms further than that. When you reach the top, try to just stop pulling the arms and let gravity take control to pull them back down.

You have a very good swing in my opinion for a 30+ hcp. Some small adjustments and you'll be hitting it much better. It's a lot of text here, but if you read it, it's really only two things I recommend working on. Which frankly is enough. Fixing 10 different things at once is a killer. You also have the move over the top, which is another cause of too much arms. Your swing plane is fine and all until you start swinging through the ball. The arms take control and you pull the club to the left.

[uttexas]

lots of good things. The tempo is nice. You start slowly from the top of the back swing and then accelerate through the ball instead of rushing from the top. You do a good job of extending your arms through the impact zone (a little chicken wing, but not bad) You have a nice 3/4 swing (you are not overswinging) Your wrist cock is great--you radially deviate your wrist instead of extending it. Thus, the shaft stays on plane. You accomplish this by maintaining a flat wrist relative to your forearm instead of extending your wrist (cupping)

What I would work on.
widen the stance a bit, and bend a bit more from the waist and knees. This will help prevent the swaying that I notice in your swing. The swaying will lead to inconsistency. Focus on staying behind the ball at impact. You do a pretty good job of loading on the right side in the back swing. Keeping your head back on the follow through will help you release the club better on the forward swing.

you do "come over the top" meaning your foward swing plane is steeper than the back swing plane. Your swing plane is upright (Jack had and has an upright swing plane). However, an upright backswing plane combined with an over the top move, makes is difficult to release the clubhead through the ball. You end up releasing the club head a little early and holding on a bit with the chicken wing left arm.

In your case, I would flatten out the backswing a bit. Then at the top of the backswing, your first move should be down (not around). Think of swinging under, instead of around. This is difficult to accomplish and is unnatural to almost everyone.

Bottom line-
great tempo, wrist cock, shaft stays on plane relative left forearm in backswing.
get lessons to improve stance and swing plane.

[brotekind269]

buy a new hat.



I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. the first video I thought you were bald, the tan kinda blends in with the sky.

[Kcas77]

The only other thing I see aside from what others have said is you are not fully transfering your weight to the front on the follow through. Your back foot should fully turn.

[CarlSpackler]

x2 on Zeph's post. Couldn't have said it better myself. The image I use to prevent swaying is to keep my head behind the ball.

[TN94z]

It looks like you are starting the downswing with your arms. Start the downswing from the ground up and really get some hip turn...this will pull the club online. At impact your hips are facing the camera, they need to be turned more toward your target.

Also, your head moves back on the backswing and then stays back on the downswing. Try to keep your head in the same position as address and get more rotation than lateral movement. You will move laterally a bit but you have more of a "sway."

Your back foot needs to come all the way up on the toe...this is a sign of a full weight transfer turn

[jonnythan]

Great great stuff here guys.

I was having trouble getting that back foot up without falling over, and it must be because I was swaying and moving my body too much. I don't have a club or a place to swing right now, but I do have a bundled-up ethernet cable that feels like a grip in my hands and I noticed that if I focus more on turning my hips and shoulders instead of moving them (and keeping my head in place) I think I can get that cleaner follow through.

Things to think about at the range: keep head in place, steeper and straighter back, allow arms (and clubhead?) to fall and get pulled as I rotate hips and shoulders. That make sense?

[jonnythan]

Wow, fantastic! I just finished my best driving range session yet. I was hitting my irons really well. My distances seemed a bit compressed (7 iron was going 120 or so, 5 iron 130 or so) which is probably because of the low (low low low) quality balls?

I was concentrating on keeping the head/spine in place and rotating more than swaying as well as initiating the swing by dropping the club and hands instead of trying to bring them around. I immediately noticed I was able to follow through better and get the right foot all the way up without going unbalanced and taking a step.

I couldn't hit my hybrid to save my life though. I'll be taking more video in the next couple of days. Thanks a million guys.

[bruce]

If you could lessen your hip turn on the back swing and turn you upper body
more on the backswing,this will create a lot better of a coil for power and then all you have to do is uncoil.Get a soccer ball and get into your golf swing,take it back like a proper golfswing and release and notice which muscles your body uses to throw the ball,it will be your core muscles as the ball is heavier.
Remember turn the upper body and start the downswing with the lower body,don't pull your arms down.You should be hitting a 7 iron a lot further than 120 yrds.Keep practicing the soccer ball routine before going and hitting balls.

[jamo]

I would not say you are coming over the top, your swing is just outside to inside, which is similar, but a little less dramatic and easier to fix. Over the top means your hands start the downswing by firing, losing lag and power. You don't do that, you just don't have an on-plane swing.

[uttexas]

Wow, fantastic! I just finished my best driving range session yet.

Glad to hear you are enjoying the improvements. This is most important---have fun. You will experience continued improvement mixed with heartbreaking setbacks (the nature of golf). Try to always enjoy your time on the course/range.

[TN94z]

I was told that your hips should be around 45* and shoulders around 90* on the backswing.

[CarlSpackler]

Wow, fantastic! I just finished my best driving range session yet. I was hitting my irons really well. My distances seemed a bit compressed (7 iron was going 120 or so, 5 iron 130 or so) which is probably because of the low (low low low) quality balls?

I find that the hard part is making changes/improvements permanent. My old habits often creep back into my swing. Keep up the good work and it will pay dividends.

[jonnythan]

OK here is the latest:



Looking at this I notice my head is diving during the backswing, and I will try to concentrate more on this. I also need to concentrate a bit more on not using my arms as much to start the downswing?

Any comments appreciated.

Here's the original video for comparison.

[mm6840]

Hi,

Much, much better. Backswing looks Ok now! Downswing is still more or less just arms.
I tend to agree with (Burley golf and others) your stance could be wider and action more stacked and more bent over.
And you have to decide : going more "2 plane" (more hip slide and some hips slide back) or "1 plane" (stacked and hip slide forward) route ... But in every case your downswing should start from "ground up" or bump left with hips or ...

Cheers
m