My swing video

[kafka01]

Hey guys,

today we decided to take some videos on the course of our swings and i put together a compilation of different shots to comment on.

Since the season is over - have fun ripping it apart -thx for your input in advance, i´m sure i have to work on quite a bit over the winter.

Sorry - the quality is not the best.

[Zeph]

I'll jot down what I see, but take it for what it's worth, as I'm a high handicapper.

- Your driver set up seems a bit wide and unstable, which may contribute to the hip movement. You've also got an athletic set up, perhaps a bit too much hunched forward. Looks like you are reaching for the ball also, could be too far away from your body. The wide stance could also be something you developed because of the hip movement. Try hitting some shots with your feet together, side by side. If you make any lateraly movement with your hips then, you'll fall over.

- You have a huge lateral movement with your hips in the backswing. You do get them back forward by the time of impact, but it's a lot of unneccesary movement there. The hips should not move laterally at all in the backswing, then fire forward in the downswing. Most of your weight moves to the back foot in the backswing, having to make a huge transition on the downswing. Look at the attached image.

- Left arm wraps around the body at the top of the backswing. Should be more straight, not making such a fast rotation at the top of the backswing that the arm just keep going and bend. This will also get your right arm bent over further than 90º, which leads to trouble.

- The torso moves back also during the backswing, so your head is moving a lot, like the hips. It has to be dynamic and alive, but should not move considerably in any direction, if any, a small dip is fine. As with your hips, the head move forward again in the downswing, but at impact it's half a head more forward than at set up.

- Difficult to tell, but it looks like you've got a very strong grip. You are holding off the release through impact, giving you chicken wings on the follow through. The right arm is not taking over the left. I'm betting your misses are mostly to the right. The strong grip can be something you've developed because you hold off the release to prevent hitting so much to the right. To fix it, you'll need a more neutral grip and let the right arm overtake the left through impact. With a strong grip and the proper movement through the ball, you'd hook everything. You can experiement by taking a very weak grip, or taking a neutral grip with the clubface open at setup. If you hold off the release with that grip, it'll go straight right and short. It forces you to release the club through impact.

- From the down the line view, at the top of the backswing, the right arm is perhaps too wide, aiming to the left. Ideally it should be more straight down.

- Looks like your body is spinning too fast around. The shoulders are at an open angle when you reach the ball. Might also be a reason for why you are holding off the release, if you were to release the hands through impact with the shoulders aimed to the left, the ball would surely go left.

Probable causes and effects:

Cause: Too much lateral hip movement. Effect: Too wide stance in order to support the movement
Cause: Rotating too fast, shoulders open at impact. Effect: Pulling shots left, you have to hold off the release to hit it straight. With a driver, it'll be a fade or slice.
Cause: Holding off the release. Effect: With a neutral grip, you will hit it right, a strong grip will aid in hitting it straighter, but it's no solution, more of a band aid

If anything is wrong here, please let me know.

[uttexas]

Overall, the swing plane looks good to me.

Your balance gets a little too far on the outside of your back foot at the top of the backswing. At the top of the backswing, keep your weight over the inside of your back foot.

On the forward swing, your head and upper body move forward. Try to keep them back (the same position they were in at the top of the backswing)

overall, nice swing. I like the swing plane alot.

[uttexas]

I see now that at the very top of the backswing, you are in a C position with your body. You are sliding your hips too far back during the backswing. By keeping your weight over the inside of your back foot, you will limit this backward hip slide. Because you slide your hips back, you then bend your head/shoulders/chest forward to keep your balance.

read this article for good explanation and tips/drills http://www.golfinstruction.com/golf-...wing-10337.htm

[mc0388]

Your swing is nice, tempo, balanced, and efficient.



One area to work on is flexibilty. It seems during your backswing, your shoulder turn is 90%. When your trying to complete your backswing you pull your hips around to help get your shoulder turn square to the target. This is forcing your hips to 'slide' a little farther back than needed (slide is a good thing mostly).

It seems if your were more flexible you would be able to complete your backswing with your hips in better position to create more torque and possibly ad a little distance.

A good place to look at flexibility and hip slide is: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29616

[cody west]

nice overall but i would work on first getting your hips through. it seemed like in most of your swings your hands got ahead of your body, i noticed it most in the last swing.
also it looks like your clubface is open at the top (flat).
a drill you can do it fix the club face at the top is to take the club and hold it halfway up it like on the shaft and take it back to paralell and make sure ur face is perpendicular to the ground then take it all the way back and make use the face is paralell with the ground.
also next time you are on the range try to hit a couple balls where you point your belt buckel toward the target in your follow through
let your wrists and arms relax. more loose swings go farther than tense strong swings. the main reason i say this is because it seems like in the downswing of your driver you tense up in your upper arms and wrists until right before impact. if you left your arms and mainly wrists relax throughout the whole swing it will be more accurate, straiter, and longer.
it is a good swing. these are jsut some little things i noticed

[kennay92]

too much swaying.. and the second guy (dono if thats still you or not) but i wouldnt be surprised if he sliced the ball cause he it looks like he kind of come a little outside in.

[kafka01]

Thx for all the feedback. After seeing myself on video i have to say that a lot looks a bit forced - pretty much as it felt during the swing, since i just felt really stiff in the last days - that of course can cause many problems in a golf swing.

The swaying is a result of the C-position that uttexas spotted. As a beginner i always tried to keep my body really still during the backswing which resulted in a way bigger C-position that you can see here. That of course lead to a lot of OTP-movement and fat shots - esp. since i was hitting a lot with my upper body instead of driving with my lower body. To get a better feeling for getting into the right side and activating my lower body my pro made me "sway" to the right side, just to get me out of the left side. I thought i reduced the swaying, but i obv. have to work on that.

Your balance gets a little too far on the outside of your back foot at the top of the backswing. At the top of the backswing, keep your weight over the inside of your back foot.

Balance is an issue for me - if i´m hitting it well i can pretty much swing as hard as i want and i finish where i´m supposed too - if i´m hitting it bad as seen on the vids, i tend to fall over and my left foot pops open instead of staying on the ground.

but i would work on first getting your hips through. it seemed like in most of your swings your hands got ahead of your body, i noticed it most in the last swing.

This is the hardest part for me to grasp, i never had the "feeling" for firing hips and lower body first and let the hands follow - of course i knew it in theory, but doing it in practice is a completly different thing for me - only within the last couple of months i was able to develop a better feel for it and getting my lower body more dominant over my upper body. But old habits, esp. if you are not in A-game shape, die hard.

@Zeph - You really have good observation skills for a self proclaimed "higher hcper". and made some valid points. If i would have to look at my swing without knowing whats going on i probably catch the swaying and the C-position and thats it. Do you read a lot of books on this topic or how are you able to catch all these details? Yes i mostly hold of my release, if everything goes okay, it goes straight or as a fade - if it goes wrong i slice it, or it goes straight right. But i very rarely miss left. But thats certainly something i have to work into my game. Normally i´m using a neutral grip btw and not trying to manipulate my ball flight with my grip - unless the situation calls for it. Pesonally i dont like looking at Tigers Swing - its nice to look at it from a technical perspective imo, since its pretty flawless - but to "copy" it i think he is not the right match for me. Some golfchannel announcer once said, if you want to copy somebodys swing, make sure, you pick someone with a similar body stature and flexibility as your own. And i think that is so true. Thanks again for the feedback - i will do my homework and hopefully next year i got rid of some of the bad tendencies i still have.