Swing videos, let me have it!

[MasterP]

A little background before you start picking apart my swing. I've golfed since I was about 12 off and on (31 now), probably about 5-10 times a year average. Some years just a few times out on the course. I've never had a formal lesson, I sort of picked up the game from a friend's brother who was on the high school team. I also played baseball, so I'm sure some of that crept into my swing early on. My swing now is a mix of trial and error and tips I've picked up over the years.

My normal shot is a fade, but when it goes bad it goes real bad, slices and fat shots. It seems the more I tinker with things the more unpredictable my shot becomes. I'm getting sick of going backwards so I'm taking my first lesson next week. I don't have a official handicap, but I usually shoot in the mid 90's, and I've broken 90 a couple times. First video is an 8 iron, 2nd is a 3 Hybrid.

[Gibby]

You actually have quite a nice swing, very natural and athletic with nice tempo. I think your lessons with help you a LOT, because you already have a great foundation. One thing I would pay attention to is your left foot, it' kind of all over the place. On the backswing, the heel comes up, and on the follow through, the toe comes up. Try keeping your left foot planted throughout the whole swing. It will help with your weight shift (even though you seem to get your weight onto your front foot alright already), but it will also help with your balance. You can try a drill that helped me a lot, where you just place a coin on your left foot, and practice making swings without letting the coin fall off.

As for your slice or fade, most likely you just need to learn to swing from inside to out, but i'll let your pro teach you that, it's quite difficult to understand over the internet i would think.

[treebound]

I'm no expert but what jumps out at me is you seem to be doing an AlleyOop standup move in the followthru, might be causing you to start standing up before you make contact.

See what the instructor says. One instructor told me to focus on the swing and let someone else keep track of where the ball goes after you hit it.

Just a thought.

[RC]

Pretty athletic swing. You do have a downswing that is steeper than your top of swing position, so that could explain the fade. Your ball starts out straight enough, so the swing path must be slightly left if your face is pointed at the target, i.e. ball starts out straight. Lots of reasons people get steeper; not enough weight shift forward, a little over the top (which is not a big deal for you), getting inside too soon with the club, etc. You do something at the top where the club starts back down at a steeper angle -- a very small change. Most people have either a little drop to a flatter downswing or a few are very close to a one plane swing. Getting steeper means you must be lifting the club more upright from the top. I like to see the left hip cheek visible at impact, and you are pretty square -- can't see yours. So, without a face on view, I can only guess you are late getting forward so you don't have time to turn your body in the best sequence. You get there, but after impact.

People with swings like yours can hit very good short irons, but long irons may fade more right of your target line. Is that an accurate guess?

[canes113]

I used to play baseball too and the hardest thing for me was learning how to "hit to right field"... in other words swing more inside - out and not over the top. Lessons definitely helped me and I'm sure it will be great for you. In the meantime, I'd work on your takeaway with a slightly closed club face because it looks like you're fanning the club open on your takeaway. This should help eliminate your fades. I'd also work on a slower tempo as the takeaway/backswing should be much slower than the downswing. I usually count a couple seconds before starting the downswing and it's helped my ball striking. Good luck!!!

[MasterP]

People with swings like yours can hit very good short irons, but long irons may fade more right of your target line. Is that an accurate guess?

Spot on actually. It's hard for me to hit my 4-6i straight, and when I do it's a straight pull about 20 yards left of target. I probably aim a bit left on approach shots with those clubs to play the fade, and catch it just right with everything square. If my approach shot is outside of 160 I dread where my ball is going to end up. My 7-PW fade is predictable and I don't have trouble getting them up in the air, distance control is a problem though.

I used to play baseball too and the hardest thing for me was learning how to "hit to right field"... in other words swing more inside - out and not over the top. Lessons definitely helped me and I'm sure it will be great for you. In the meantime, I'd work on your takeaway with a slightly closed club face because it looks like you're fanning the club open on your takeaway. This should help eliminate your fades. I'd also work on a slower tempo as the takeaway/backswing should be much slower than the downswing. I usually count a couple seconds before starting the downswing and it's helped my ball striking. Good luck!!!

I see where I'm fanning the club open, right at the beginning of the take away. I think it's a conscious effort to get the club flatter to try and attack it from the inside on the way down. Probably not the best way to do it, because when I do get things working inside-out my club face is way open and I end up with a push fade. I was sort of amazed that my tempo was so quick when I first saw the video. I thought for sure that I had a pause at the top, not much there though. I'm also amazed at how far back I take the club, I figured it was short of parallel, especially with my 8i.

Also, thanks for the kind words guys!

[delav]

As others have said, your baseline is a good athletic swing to start working from. The biggest thing I can see is that it looks like you are short-changing yourself on your backswing. You take the club back on the inside, and this is shortening your swing arc.

I'd work on extending away from the ball on your backswing, allowing the club to following the target line for the first few inches. This will bring your hands and arms away from your body a bit, and allow you a better shoulder turn as well. Creating space between your hands and your body on the way back is something that many pros do, and I think it could help you quite a bit.

Good luck with the lessons.

[MasterP]

A bit of an update after the lesson:

He started off just having me hit some shots with whatever I felt comfortable with. So I started hacking away with an 8 iron while he took some video, DTL and face on. I really didn't hit any good shots, some fat, some skulled, most pulled left. After about 10 or so he had me stop and check out the video. DTL looked ok, back swing was a bit long for such a short iron, but I was in a good position at the top. The down swing was over the top, and cutting across the ball. On some of the shots I really had to save it to prevent shanks. And I stand up at impact. The face on view exposed some flaws with weight transfer. My hips slide back alot and my legs are all over the place, and I hang back a bit through impact. He brought up a side by side of Tommy Armour III and my swing and showed me where he wanted my back swing to stop, and where my hips are in relation to his in the back swing. Mine slide a good 6 inches back., Tommy is pretty steady.

So then he had me hit some half shots with a soccer ball between my knees just concentrating on rotation instead of the slide thing. It took a while to get the hang of it, but I made some progress. My backswing is still too long, but i got the hang of the hip turn and quiet legs pretty quick. It feels almost stack and tilt the way I stay centered or on my left side. Not that I know what stack and tilt feels like having never done it, but it's pretty far from my natural sliding of the hips swing.

I went out and hit a bucket today at lunch and tried to groove the new swing and hit some good shots. Some draws and some fades, but mostly straight. Probably the best overall bucket I've hit in a while.