Hitting Wedges Fat....Lots of Problems? Video inside

[ripping_time]

My typical wedge shots are either really good(nice spin, really fat divots, distance, straight) or they go about 3/4 of the intended distance because Im hitting them fat...Its around 30/70 good/bad shot. USUALLY Im not insanely fat but more like scraping the top of the turf, then the ball and then earth. Sometimes it gets outta control tho and really bad. I feel if I can just adjust a few things I could be a good ball striker. Or not, I really havent had a video looked at or lessons... I could be doin everything WRONG. Im fairly new to the game and I DONT want to develop horrible habits early on.

Here is a video of a typical fat shot of mine while I was out practicing:

http://www.swingacademy.com/videoPlayer.aspx?id=3626

Im using a 52 degree wedge and the flag is about 145 yards away(can kinda see it in the video) which is my usual distance for that club if I dont scrap dirt first. I use a neutral to SLIGHTLY strong grip.

Things I think Im doing wrong:
-Seems like I have a major head dip...
-My back heel lifts ALOT during the swing and not smoothly. Didnt realize this until I watched the vid. Ive read to transfer most of your weight to the front leg and this was my result.... good? bad?
-I think I have a swing that starts out flat on the backswing but then gets steeper on the downswing. I dont have much of an issue with slicing them or anything is this really bad?
-I know the head is suppose to be behind the ball(cant see from this angle) and the weight on the front foot...but is it possible my head goes too far behind the ball? Where should it be during impact?

Things I HOPE Im doing right:
-I think Im swinging with my hips alot more. Especially my drives but this motion isnt totally second nature yet.
-I dont flare my elbow as much I try keep it tucked in
-Weight transfer SEEMS good or am I transfering too much too soon?(heel lift issue)
-Im pretty sure I never cast. Does it look like I generate decent lag?

Well there is the vid. Is there alot that sticks out that I do very bad?
Any comments/critiques/put downs are welcome thanks in advance and sorry I only have one angle...I can get another one from another angle if needed

[chaprichard]

like you said - you are dipping on impact. Keep you feet firmly on the ground during the backswing - you should not be raising your right foot at all. Your backswing is too long for a wedge - 3/4 is a far back as you should go with this club - so you are struggling to get the club back to the correct position at impact.

Watch the pro's - they have short back swings with wedges even when they are going for a big shot.

Your swing looks pretty good aside from the raising of your feet / dipping...

[TN94z]

It looks to me like you are using all arms to hit it. I would also keep the back foot planted. It doesn't really look like you can get any weight transfer to the back. When you lift your heel like that, you are almost counter-acting the weight transfer. You need to turn at the hips more to get the weight shift and leave your feet firmly on the ground for balance.

Wow!! A 145 yard gap wedge is some kind of distance! That is a good 30 yards furher than me.

[CG031]

Your hitting it fat, because, from what I can see your downswing far too steep and it's over the top.

[Nick88]

Ok there are a few things that you need to work on!

Firstly your down swing is very steep. When im getting abit steep on the ball i use the headcover under the right arm pit helps me shallow my swings abit!

Secondly on your downswing your decelerating on the ball, this causes your fats more than anything else, this is probably down to you swinging to far round your body and then realising that you could air mail the green so you subconsciously slow down to stop this!

And last but not least, your take away is outside the line, i know this is not good because i used to do the same thing, when you take it outside the line your more than likely to either pull the shot if you flip your hands or hit a weak shot to the right! To correct this you need to feel like your dragging the club inside the line and around your body rather than straight up!

Hope that helps :)

[ripping_time]

Well it looks like instead of playing this week Im gonna spend it correcting a few flaws and hopefully improve the quality of my swing...

-Shorter Backswing
10:30 swing??? I think my overall distance is gonna suffer which might be hard for me to swallow but I just gotta do it.

-Use More Hip
Ill over exagerate this and if I make contact doing that then I should be using alot less arms. I've been feeling it in my drives just not with any other club.

-Back Foot/Weight Transfer)
Il just keep the back foot planted while shifting my weight forward...I hope the back heel wont raise until impact we will see I have to work on this.

-Too Steep(headcover drill/Lower plane)
This is gonna be the HARDEST to correct imho. The headcover drill sounds really helpful tho Ill really work on it. Video is helpful. The shorter backswing combined with a slower start to my downswing should give me a headstart/advantage in correcting swing plane...Wont revert as easy if Im starting off TOTALLY differently.

-Decelerating(Start downswing slower then speed up)
This should help with using less arms...a better swing tempo, a smoother swing, and hopefully more clubhead speed.

-Head Dip
I honestly think this should correct itself after I fix the rest of my flaws. Mainly swinging with the arms and decelerating.


Thanks for the responses! Ill post a follow up video next week or two with summary/results.

[RocketSauce]

yeah thats an extremely steep swing you got there. looked like a small explosion when you made contact with the ground. good luck!

[enduro]

Hard to tell with the angles but it looks like you get your right elbow out really far. Keep that thing down some perhaps? Hard to tell for sure off the angle...