My Swing (Stretch)

[Stretch]

Well, after a long layoff for injury and a minor change of location, I'm back at it. Here lobbing a couple of eight irons up towards Table Mountain. Setup has gone bad again, attachment too closed, too close to the ball at address. Have been working on hip movement, secondary axis tilt and trying not to flip. It's a journey...

[MSUGolfer]

Stretch, looks like you and I battle the same problem. You look real hunched over in that video. Me being 6'6", Ialways have to remember slight knee bend but bend over the hips more so. So your struggle is one i feel ya on!

[Stretch]

My club has had the grass end of the driving range closed for the last few weeks for reseeding and maintenance. It was so nice being able to practice off turf again that I did a little gardening!

Working on driving the club through impact and (fairly obviously, I hope?) moving the low point further in front of the ball.

[Stretch]

Very inconsistent with the irons right now. Timing is either there or it's not, which usually means I'm rolling/slinging through impact. Took some video today and ... yeah well.



Looks to me like the shaft is just fractionally ahead of 90 degrees right at the point of contact and the left wrist is still flat, so may not qualify as a 100% flip -- but the club head certainly passes the hands right afterward. Characteristic of a rolling release, the left arm is tight to the torso in the follow-through rather than driving ahead.

Also, arms aren't getting down nearly fast enough and I'm not extending at all through impact. On the plus side, hips are getting forward better, head is static, footwork is OK and the low point is well in front of the ball.

[motteler621]

one thing I notice but I dont know much by any means,lol, is that you dont have any "jump" action in your feet and legs through impact.

[uttexas]

Yes, lack of extension of legs into impact. I'm 6'5'' and have been working very hard on this for the past three months. I suspect that taller players can develop bad habits early on with clubs that don't fit them (staying hunched with bent legs into impact)

[walk18]

You're still flipping or scooping at impact. Try to have your hands ahead of the clubhead at impact to really hit down and through it.

[Shanks A Million]

Looks to me like the shaft is just fractionally ahead of 90 degrees right at the point of contact and the left wrist is still flat, so may not qualify as a 100% flip -- but the club head certainly passes the hands right afterward.

No, 100% a flip, and that's

why you aren't consistent. You have to time it very well to hit a good shot. A flip is when the clubhead passes the hands before the point at which both arms are fully extended into the followthrough position. This is why you're a 10 handicap, and if you fix it, I bet you go down very easily. With such a flat plane, it's hard to miss it too badly with a good forward shaft lean.

[boogielicious]

Stretch,

I agree with motteler621. Remember the butt tuck/jump as part of the progression. You may be holding off slightly with your arms subconsciously and causing the loss of lag.

[iacas]

I agree with motteler621. Remember the butt tuck/jump as part of the progression. You may be holding off slightly with your arms subconsciously and causing the loss of lag.

Stretch worked on these exact things in Boston and started pounding the ball with what felt like (correct me if I'm wrong Andrew) half swings or 3/4 swings. He couldn't jump enough.

[Stretch]

Stretch worked on these exact things in Boston and started pounding the ball with what felt like (correct me if I'm wrong Andrew) half swings or 3/4 swings. He couldn't jump enough.

Nah, you're exactly right. I've just slouched back into old, bad habits.

[mvmac]

Wow, that pic on the right is textbook.

[Stretch]

Yeah, but you can't get there from here.



Finally accepted that I just can't play golf consistently with a backswing where I rotate the hell out of the wedge right at the start of the take away and end up this flat at P4. Now for the painful process of actually trying to sort it out. Many, many buckets of balls are going to suffer for these sins, I predict.

[Shanks A Million]

Yeah, but you can't get there from here.

I don't know, those hands are really, really deep, I'm green with envy. Kuchar swings that flat, and it hasn't held him back much. I think that position is pretty good really, just a few problems in the swing as I've noted, as well as others in the past, it's sort of a "bleh" swing, no real "jump" to it.

[Stretch]

... it's sort of a "bleh" swing, no real "jump" to it.

So it's somewhere in between "blah" and "meh"? Sounds about right.

Thing is, Shanks, there's deep and then there's deep and stuck and rolled wide open. Kuchar starts off the same way I do -- breaking the wrists and rolling the club head inside under the shaft plane -- but he makes it work by 1) putting in a lot more wrist cock and 2) lifting pretty much straight up from P2 to P3. Here he is in the equivalent position to the top of my backswing. Even if he also stopped there, he'd be in much better shape coming down because he hasn't rotated the flying wedge open so much. Of course, he then goes all the way to the actual top. He still has to tumble a little to come right onto the plane but, as you point out, he makes it work and gets himself into nice shape to approach the ball. From where I am at "the top" -- let's call it P3.142 -- I have to bring the right forearm down almost vertically to get the club around the corner and the face closing fast enough to be near square at impact. And even then, I roll/flip most of the time to try and shape the shot. Anyway, I can play generally OK with it since it's not a swing that causes a lot of wild misses and, thanks to working in the S&T; pattern, some of the other bits are in decent shape. My low point is in front of the ball, my hips go forward and I maintain my inclination to the ground pretty well. But I don't think I'll ever be a consistently good ball striker, and certainly not a remotely powerful one, trying to hit from here. TL;DR -- Deep hands maybe not best thought for Stretch.

[saevel25]

If you look, the line formed by your clubshaft points outside the ball, Kutchers points inside. Thats the difference, your hands are good but your club gets to flat. If you can get the clubhead more vertical with keeping your hands deep, it would work better.

[Shanks A Million]

But I still think it's a better place to be than steep and over the top. Just hinge your wrists, and get the left shoulder down lower, and you're pretty much home. It's not a bad swing, just a swing that's too far from your typical "bad" swing to be a great swing.

[iacas]

Just hinge your wrists,

Whaaaaaaaaaat? It's nearly 55 degrees as it is!