Any Pointers? Swing Check

[Yanks Fan]

Been playing a little over two years now. Mostly self taught and playing with and trying to copy good players at my work lol.

http://www.swingacademy.com/videoplayer.aspx?id=4907

http://www.swingacademy.com/videoplayer.aspx?id=4908

First video is my 52 wedge from about 110-115. Gave me about a 20 foot putt.

Second video is a 9 iron from about 140-145. Gave me about a 15 foot putt.

Any thoughts or advice for me? I'm sure one of the first things someone will point out is playing the ball so far back in my stance. These videos are from 2 weeks ago or so and I'm trying to move the ball further up in my stance to a more "normal" spot.

I'm looking for any advice to improve.

[JaY_B]

The ball position causes every technical fault in this swing.

What shot do you normally hit and whats your bad shot?

[Fatphil]

u have a good athletic swing for playing only 2 yrs...what I see is an early release..and during the take away you whip the club inside and thus get "stuck" on the way down. You need to get a handle on how to properly "cock" or "set" your wrists. You seem to be rolling them in rather than cocking them up. Once you get to waist height or 3/4 you should "correctly" set, locked and loaded...unfortunantly there is one more issue...which is putting the club on plane. By rolling your wrists inward you are artificially putting the club on plane with your hands..what needs to be done is to set your wrist cock correctly THEN a slight clockwise roll of your forearm, elbow and bicep (about 45deg) with your arms not with your hands. Tiger rolls his arms about 90deg to get that laid off look but most of us humans do 45deg to get parallel. An issue that may hold you back is your grip...you are very strong with your left hand and very weak with your right...one way or the other is OK but don't mix em up..the hands should face each other like you are clapping..not one on top of the other. that makes a proper wrist action possible.

[DBeane]

You actually put a good move on the ball for a rookie. I would focus on keeping your head quite. However, in the second video it didnt seem to move that much.

-Beane

[Yanks Fan]

The ball position causes every technical fault in this swing.

Typically hit a little fade. My bad shot is hitting left. If I'm missing left with any club then I know it's going to be a bad day. I can draw a ball pretty consistently if need be. I don't really like hitting a draw because I can't control it as well as other shots but if I have to hit one, I'm fine hitting it. When I do hit a draw, I put the ball further up in my stance. It's hard getting used to the ball being in a "normal" spot but it's coming along.

u have a good athletic swing for playing only 2 yrs...what I see is an early release..and during the take away you whip the club inside and thus get "stuck" on the way down. You need to get a handle on how to properly "cock" or "set" your wrists. You seem to be rolling them in rather than cocking them up. Once you get to waist height or 3/4 you should "correctly" set, locked and loaded...unfortunantly there is one more issue...which is putting the club on plane. By rolling your wrists inward you are artificially putting the club on plane with your hands..what needs to be done is to set your wrist cock correctly THEN a slight clockwise roll of your forearm, elbow and bicep (about 45deg) with your arms not with your hands. Tiger rolls his arms about 90deg to get that laid off look but most of us humans do 45deg to get parallel. An issue that may hold you back is your grip...you are very strong with your left hand and very weak with your right...one way or the other is OK but don't mix em up..the hands should face each other like you are clapping..not one on top of the other. that makes a proper wrist action possible.

So fix the grip and see if that fixes the wrist action? Next time I go to the driving range, I'll change the grip and see if I can get it more proper. The two feet of snow that fell today is hampering that right now though lol. Thanks for the feed back. I'll definitely see what I can do about the grip next time at the range.

[JaY_B]

u have a good athletic swing for playing only 2 yrs...what I see is an early release..and during the take away you whip the club inside and thus get "stuck" on the way down. You need to get a handle on how to properly "cock" or "set" your wrists. You seem to be rolling them in rather than cocking them up.

Yes but working on cocking the wrists wont help because it is not the cause, the ball position needs to be correct first, if you set up with the ball back in your stance you will find you tend to drag the club head inside the line during the take away.

Yanks Fan, I recommend that for now you work on these things: Set up - your grip is a tad too strong, the grip should run along your hand on a diagonal from the ball of your left hands little finger (pinky) to the first 'pad' of your index finger, simply close your hand on to the club and your grip wont be far off. Also note your ball position, for your driver it didn't seem too bad but it has definitely crept back in your stance for the shorter irons, just make sure the ball is always central or slightly forward in your stance for short irons (unless your trying to hit it low, duh ). For the swing I would suggest we keep it simple, I think your hips are a bit wild are your arms become unconnected, so on the back swing you should feel like your weight never ever goes past your right instep and the inside of your right thigh (this is where you should feel the tension). Secondly, put a glove/headcover under your left armpit and keep it there throughout the swing (even the follow through). Just try this for a few practise sessions, see how it goes and report back, hopefully this will help .

[Fatphil]

not to beat a dead horse here but the criss-crossed grip to me creates a chain reaction of bad stuff. I agree with JB that that the left hand is a bit strong for my taste also but that's something he needs to work out...to me the bigger issue is the palms need to face each other..whether or not you are strong or weak they should not be in conflict with each other.

[golfdad]

not a golf teacher, so here is my 2 cents.

if i understand you correctly, you avoid addressing the ball further up at the "correct" spot because that will lead to a shot to the left.

instead of fixing this and that, you should find out why you need to "compensate" with ball position like that, with the help of more qualified players on this board. after that, you will know what to do or what to look out for because you will know the "whys".

ps. need better camera angle and lighting.

[HoosierGolfer]

Been playing a little over two years now. Mostly self taught and playing with and trying to copy good players at my work lol.

Find a PGA Teaching Professional in your area to work with and don't ask swing advice on the internet from anyone.

[JaY_B]

Find a PGA Teaching Professional in your area to work with

Agreed.

and don't ask swing advice on the Internet from anyone.

Why not? fair enough you lose the demonstration and instant feedback factors over the Internet that you would get in a one to one lesson but there are plenty of knowledgeable people who can give good advice.

[HoosierGolfer]

Why not? fair enough you lose the demonstration and instant feedback factors over the Internet that you would get in a one to one lesson but there are plenty of knowledgeable people who can give good advice.

I guess that I have always felt that there are a lot of people out there that would be so much better off getting a real lesson from a PGA Teaching Pro than someone on the internet that knows nothing about the person or his swing, outside of maybe a single posted video. This is not the way to become better. If you get 20 replies, you will get 20 opinions on what to do. What works for you, will more than likely not work for me or anyone else for that matter. JMO of course.

[Fatphil]

This is not the way to become better. If you get 20 replies, you will get 20 opinions on what to do. What works for you, will more than likely not work for me or anyone else for that matter. JMO of course.

In many ways to post on a blog is very cathartic (emotional definition more than the medical) (ha ha maybe both).

It gives the writer pause to think about their game and put it down into words with decent spelling and grammar. Whether or not you take the advice of “Bubba in Boise” is neither here nor there…the fact that Bubba made the effort to think about what is important to HIS game and write it down is critical in the learning process.