My Swing (k14)

[Dr. Strangeclub]

You're still aligned left of the club shaft on the ground, and you're still coming across the ball.

Sorry, he's aimed

???

Looks like he's open to the club on the ground to me...AH! He's lined up right, THEN he's lined up left after he pulls his left foot back on the follow through. Yep. The still frame is the finish.

[Shanks A Million]

???

You're right, that may have been what confused me. Either way, considering that the left foot should be pointed outward a bit, it should look like the player is pointed left of the stick, and in any case. A friend of mine (like, amazing golfer, 70+ years old and 5 handicap) taught me that the target appears to be at 1 o'clock when you're alligned properly.

[k14]

???

How can you tell I am open to the club on the ground? Is it the way my shoulders are pointing? The camera is slightly to the right of the club so it may slightly exhaggerate the alignment. I do admit that I get lazy and my right shoulder does drop down and towards the ball, I have to tell myself to pull it back when I am about to hit.

[Shanks A Million]

How can you tell I am open to the club on the ground? Is it the way my shoulders are pointing? The camera is slightly to the right of the club so it may slightly exhaggerate the alignment. I do admit that I get lazy and my right shoulder does drop down and towards the ball, I have to tell myself to pull it back when I am about to hit.

No, the feet. The left foot should ideally be a little farther from the club as it is a little flared out. You seem like you're pointed a bit right of it even without the foot weren't flared out. It's a common problem, because the mind aims the feet at the target, not to the left as is proper.

[k14]

Well it is nearly a year later and I have been steadily improving. I have been getting lessons since November and they are starting to come through in my scoring. The annoying thing is that my handicap has only come down 3 shots but I am hitting the ball so much cleaner and further. My 8i has gone from ~120 yards to 150 yards. Struggling most getting the ball in play off the tee. Currently working on shortening the backswing and keeping my elbows closer together.

P.S. Video taken on my iphone 4 with iswing. Great program, so handy to be able to look at swing instantly. Only 30fps but sufficient for the level I am at.

[k14]

So does anyone have any tips/glaring errors they can see?

[boots1302]

i see you are coming over the top a little bit, but that is not a big issue if you are striking the ball well, which it looks like you are. maybe work on taking the club back a little more outside, and in one piece, less "wristy" action. looks really nice though. definite improvement over last year.

[k14]

Originally Posted by iacas

It's probably best to ask for the specific things (which may or may not be "more sliding of the hips" in that thread, yes. In short, you need less of that right knee kicking in and more of it pushing your right hip forward (lengthening the right leg during the downswing may be the feeling for you). They go hand in hand - less right knee flex, hips forward more, left knee bent longer. You need more of both, though, yes. If you can strike the ball solidly, I don't care that you translate off the ball during the backswing. I don't know that it's the case, though.

Ok I will give those things a go at the range today. If it helps I have cut the videos if you want to take a look. In short I believe I do make quite solid contact with my irons but the lower the loft the worse contact I seem to be making. At the start of the year I was hitting my 6 or 7 iron from the 150 marker, now I can hit 8 or 9 iron consistently. When I get one my drives are going further too. Usually around the 230-250 yard range although I was pretty stoked to hit one 301 yards (with about 50 yards of roll) a few weeks ago!! Didn't stop me making double though, doh!

Here are the videos:

[bunkerputt]

You can't use your lower body effectively and still preserve your spine angle because you have lumbar curvature at address.  Tuck your tailbone in.  Remember the advice you heard once, "Try to stick your butt out."  Forget it.  That's wrong.  Try to not stick your butt out.  Here's you:

If you want your butt to stick out like the tour pros, I recommend making the muscles bigger instead.

[bunkerputt]

You're welcome.  Your back will thank me 20 years from now.  Take it slow at first and make sure you don't have a physical limitation preventing that postural change.  Make sure you can do this:

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/FlexFunction/OverheadDeepSquat.html

Better yet, get a TPI certified instructor and have him check you out like the pros do.  You want your tailbone tucked.  If your lower back isn't tight yet (it will be eventually if you don't correct the S-posture), it might be ab strength making it hard.  You want your abs engaged slightly in your golf swing to keep your spine aligned properly.  You might need some light core work to get into a really great address posture.  Good luck.  Like I said, take any postural change slowly at first (swing easy!) and give your body time to adjust.

[k14]

Originally Posted by bunkerputt

You're welcome.  Your back will thank me 20 years from now.  Take it slow at first and make sure you don't have a physical limitation preventing that postural change.  Make sure you can do this:

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/FlexFunction/OverheadDeepSquat.html

Better yet, get a TPI certified instructor and have him check you out like the pros do.  You want your tailbone tucked.  If your lower back isn't tight yet (it will be eventually if you don't correct the S-posture), it might be ab strength making it hard.  You want your abs engaged slightly in your golf swing to keep your spine aligned properly.  You might need some light core work to get into a really great address posture.  Good luck.  Like I said, take any postural change slowly at first (swing easy!) and give your body time to adjust.

Yeah thanks for the tip. I tried it yesterday when I played 18 holes and this morning my back is not stiff. I didn't play terribly well but my back not hurting is a big plus!  Will go to range today and take some video to see if I can see the difference.

[bkoguy07]

Your swing looks wayyyyyyyy better! Keep it up

[k14]

Originally Posted by bkoguy07

Your swing looks wayyyyyyyy better! Keep it up

Yeah cheers. I was looking at a swing from 18 months ago the other day and I couldn't believe how terrible it was. So frustrating though cause I was scoring the same back then as I do now! I need to focus on my short game a bit more I think, since I am spending so much time on my long game my short game has been seriously neglected.

Anyway, I got my new Casio FC150 the other day and here are a few swings. At the moment I am trying to get my hips turning a bit better with some flex in left knee. This has pretty much eliminated my back pain. If you look at these videos you can see I pretty much don't move my hips at all and that was causing a heap of strain on my lower back. It would keep me awake at night and at 27 I'm too young to have a stuffed back! This in turn has finally helped me to start swinging in to out semi consistently in my last few rounds. A few too many fats and thins though. Will try and update after this weeks practicing.

[bkoguy07]

What are your misses?  Big blocks/block fade/shank?  Club face looks open in your back swing (with my limited swing analysis lolol).  Don't rotate your hands away as you take your back swing.  Try to keep the feeling of back of left hand to the target on the takeaway.

[k14]

I thought I'd again update this thread.

I am continuing to make progress in some areas and de-progress (or maybe regression??) in others. My irons are awesome, I am continuing to get more and more distance and accuracy. In the last 12-15 months I have gone from hitting an 8i 100-110 yards and now hit it between 155-165 yards with a full swing. My instructor taught me what I call the 1/2 swing (which is more like a 90% back swing when I video it) and it is really fun to hit. Lower trajectory and heaps of back spin, I only loose 10-15 yards off my full swing. One hop and stop on the green (if I get clean contact). I can still hit a full swing which goes a heck of a lot higher but it just gives me another set of options for getting on the green and close to the pin. Also inside 100 yards I have really got my wedges sorted and have been averaging 30 or less putts per round in my recent rounds.

So the negatives, getting off the tee. In my last 2 rounds I have shot 82 and 84 but hit a total of 1 fairway in those 36 holes. Yes 1, and that was on a dogleg par 4 where I hit 5i. \

If you look at my FO swings of 8i vs driver below it is very obvious what the difference is. It seems with the driver I get stuck and stop swinging through the ball and pull up and around with my body. Coming over the top and either hitting a pull/hook or mega slice. It is so frustrating and just killing me. I've been averaging 3.4 on par 3's recently but on par 4 and 5 I am 1 stroke over par on both. So the only reason I manage to shoot mid 80's is cause my irons and short game is really solid. My local course has all the fairways running parallel, so on the par 4/5 if I have a big miss (50 yards+) usually I am on another fairway so can still hit into the greens over the line of trees separating the fairways. But if I have a small miss I am usually going to have to get up and down from 80-100 yards for par.

Does anyone have any tips/drills that might be able to get me to transfer my iron swing to the driver? I am still getting lessons but I just seem to go round in circles and am starting to loose a bit of faith in my instructor. I have been tracking stats since before I started getting lessons and my fairways hit has not changed an ounce. 22% for the last 18 months. GIR has gone from 10% to 25% in the same time.

[threejack]

I'm surprised nobody has touched on it yet. your hands are going through impact so your letting the club head fly (you're releasing the club). try keeping the hands quiet and using your body and shoulders to take the club through impact. that will make it more consistent for sure.

pros: correct me if I'm wrong but i think I'm right.

[mchepp]

Personally, I think you should read and understand this thread that I have linked below. Your right elbow seems out of position and the result is a steep downswing. Steep downswings do okay for the irons but cause problems with the longer clubs especially the driver.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/54238/elbow-position-and-its-effects-on-the-downswing

If you have questions you should ask in this thread iacas and mvmac will be able to answer your questions.

[k14]

Originally Posted by mchepp

Personally, I think you should read and understand this thread that I have linked below. Your right elbow seems out of position and the result is a steep downswing. Steep downswings do okay for the irons but cause problems with the longer clubs especially the driver.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/54238/elbow-position-and-its-effects-on-the-downswing

If you have questions you should ask in this thread iacas and mvmac will be able to answer your questions.

Yeah that makes a heap of sense. Sometimes when I hit an iron shot I come down really steep and the club can get stuck in the ground. Need to try and swing around my body a bit more. Another thing I noticed is that I hardly at all rotate my hips. Hmm, which thing to work on first!