Swing Video, Give me something to work on

[mc0388]

I've been playing golf since the age of six; off and on during my teens, with some added enthusiasm in the last 4 years (I'm 30). With only 1 professional lesson, I haven't had very many people critique my swing. I attached 2 videos the first is a 6 iron (I hit it about 185yds with a 10-15 yd pull), the other is a driver video (@280yds straight). If I miss, its usually a pull (not a pull hook).

Two things I noticed:

I would like my head to stay still more in the iron video. It seems to travel laterally a few inches (Is this normal?).

Also, my hands break a little to soon during the take away on the driver video.


Sorry about the quality (shot on a digital camera with video capabilities)

Any feedback is appreciated

Thanks


iron

driver

[tonyy]

Your videos are private.

[mc0388]

Your videos are private.

Sorry try now

[Grndslmhttr3]

I was never big on playing irons right off my front foot.

[18 Birdies]

swing looks pretty good, very nice follow through. I dont know much to say sorry.

[JimmyAyo]

Matt -
Your iron swing looks very similar to Sergio Garcia. It almost appears you break your wrist to create lag on your swing which if done correctly, will act as a 120 mph swing.

Your drive looks like you have an alignment problem. It looks like you are slouched over more than you have to be or your posture is slightly leaning. It also appears that your follow through (looks good) but you are leaning backwards which means you are generating the energy needed to bring you forward. Widen your stance and just check for mechanical issues like hand alignment on the club, where the ball is in your stance. From this angle, it looks like it is playing on the inside of your left which would be good. Make sure your head stays on the ball all the way through.

Our distances look similar, I hit my 6-iron about 190 and my drive over 300 and I play a low trajectory draw. I had an issue that I see in your stance. Pretend you are playing short stop and create an athletic stance..Shoulders up, neck up face the ball and stay loose with a grip at a 5 on a scale of 1-10.

[skialpental]

I know this is not what you want to hear but here it is anyway.

Practice your short game and just watch your swinging come around.
If your short game is super solid your long game feels little pressure therefore it will become better. Just my 2 cents but that is what I worked on the last month or so and it works wonders for my game.

[bjw181]

Looks like you have the fundamentals down. I bet your miss is a push with those fast hips. Maybe work on a smother transition? Its tuff to really see too much being wrong with your swing without knowing your ball flight tendencies and seeing you play in person.

I agree you are slouched a bit. When I am trying to find something to work on, I always try and perfect my setup.

[mc0388]

Matt -

I have been clocked at 112-116mhp SS. My nature ball flight is between 0-10yd fade. My typical misses are a pull and when I try to get fast I do push the ball (although not that often). Recently, I have moved the ball more forward in my stance, and it has seemed to create a more predictable fade.

After watching my own video, I can definitely work on posture and widening my stance a bit (Im 6'2" 225lbs and have struggled with posture on and off the course). My alignment is typically down my target line, which is 5-8yds left of the target. My follow through and ball contact are 2 things I am happy about. Are there any drills I can use to help keep my head more still on my take away? Also, after being told many different things on ball placement in my stance, where should I have the ball? for a PW? for a 4I? Thanks again for the good critiques

[simland]

Take this with a grain of salt as I've only been playing for about 3 months.

I made some big leaps in fixing my swing this past week after watching myself on slow motion video. I found that I wasn't shifting my weight forward and was instead rotating my hips like crazy while staying on my back foot. This combined with a relatively flat swing plane led to a huge out to in swing path. My ability to close the club face is what determined the success of the ball flight.

Now, taking what I know about my swing and seeing your swing (which is pretty darn good) I can say that if you normally hit a fade or a push, you are likely on an out to in swing path. It doesn't look very drastic. I would suggest 2 things.

1) Take a little steeper backswing as right now it looks fairly flat. With a flat backswing your hands have to shift at the start of the downswing to try and get the club back on plane. This causes the start of the out to in swing path. (With a closed club face this will push the ball every time. Especially if you play the ball forward in your stance as this gives the club more time to close.)

2) Make a stronger shift of weight to your front foot. If you do this your body will clear out preventing your hip rotation from causing a block. Blocking will cause your swing path to have to come from the outside no matter what you do.

Again, grain of salt, I'm a bogey golfer.

[bjw181]

2) Make a stronger shift of weight to your front foot. If you do this your body will clear out preventing your hip rotation from causing a block. Blocking will cause your swing path to have to come from the outside no matter what you do.

Blocking a ball is caused by coming inside-out.

[becksfan2185]

One thing I will say, is that despite the relatively fast SS, you keep a nice, smooth tempo.

As for ball position, there are plenty of different opinions. General rule of thumb is to start your middle irons in the center of your stance. Shorter irons - move the ball slightly back towards your right foot (although I keep them in the center)... Longer clubs - move them slightly forward. Driver is typically played even with or just inside the left heel. As with anything else on this forum, or in golf for that matter, you will hear all sorts of opinions on the "right" setup. The correct setup, ball position, posture, etc. is unique to your swing.

[simland]

bjw181, you are correct. The effect I spoke of exists, but it is not called a block.

And actually after watching the vids a few more times, I would say widening your stance is the best advice. Just give that a go before trying anything drastic.

[bunkerputt]

Matt,

You have great rhythm. That's a good starting point. If I were to change some things about your swing, I'd make these changes:

1. Widen the stance a bit. This will help with hip stability, which will be important for #2.

2. Turn your hips a bit more on your backswing. Let that left knee kick in some and brace against your right leg like an A-frame house. You have really flexible wrists which are letting you get the club back even though your hip turn has restricted your shoulder turn. Use more hips and feel like your hands are still somewhat in front of your torso on the backswing. This will let you fire your hips without opening up your shoulders too quickly which is what is causing your pull.

Generally, if the swing is dominated by the upper body, your misses will be left, lower body, to the right.

You might need to point your left foot out a bit to accommodate the increased hip rotation if you decide to investigate my advice.

If you are trying to develop a largely rotational swing, as indicated by your disdain for shifting, you will need to bend from the waist just a bit more. Keep your eyes fixed on a dimple on the ball. This will naturally keep things quiet and promote balance. Beware reverse pivots! They can creep in when you try to keep your head too still.

Good luck.

[chspeed]

Solid swing. In terms of hip turn, there are those that say that you should turn your hips back, but you get a great shoulder turn without that, and I think that would just introduce more movements to your swing.

In terms of head movement, lateral head movement is fine. Most pros move their heads back a bit. You also seem to bring your head up a bit on the backswing, and seem to leave it up on the downswing. Maybe trying to keep your head (or spine angle) vertically steady will show some ball striking improvement? However, as other people have mentioned, trying to keep your head still can cause problems so proceed carefully.

[RC]

With your solid swing, I would not look to the internet for suggestions... go find a great teaching pro and fine tune anything that needs it -- but don't change your tempo, and don't select a teaching pro that has only one way he wants you to swing and might not optimize your naturally good swing.

[mc0388]

Looks like you have the fundamentals down. I bet your miss is a push with those fast hips. Maybe work on a smother transition? Its tuff to really see too much being wrong with your swing without knowing your ball flight tendencies and seeing you play in person.

I played 9 holes today. Beside an absolutely horrible day chipping and putting I hit 6 of 7 fairways and made some excellent iron shots (specifically 4 and 5 irons). I tried to work on posture (not sure if its noticeable) and I widened my stance a little. All in all, I had a very predictable ball flight and am very happy. (My fairways were (2) 3 woods, (1) 3 hybrids, and (3) driver) Attached is a updated video fro today. I tracked the drive with my GPS, it was 283yds and a slight push rt (still in the middle of the fairway). Actually looking at my alignment the ball was right down the target line! Need to work on that

[Dub]

Dude, you've got an awesome swing and would take money from 80% of the golfers I routinely play with....assuming you can pitch, chip and putt and can handle a little trash talking and razzing.

I would change jack chit.

Tee it up and let it ride.