My Swing (Nuck81)

[delav]

Nuck. Things are looking better and better. Take a look at your shoulders at address. You've got them pretty open (left shoulder open to target). Try squaring them to your hips and your target.

[nuck81]

Another Month another video, and a big question....Am I flipping my wrist? It doesn;t feel like I am but when watching the video I can see what appears to be a little flip. Regardless I'm not doing a good job maintaining my wedge, but I'm finally starting to get my left arm straightened out....

[iacas]

Am I flipping my wrist?

Yes. Use the drill I posted to YouTube awhile ago for awhile (you don't necessarily need the "pre-set forward" part of it, but it wouldn't hurt):

[nuck81]

Six month update.

I even have a driver swing this time. Sadly it's not a 300 yard Driver swing.

[delav]

Still flipping, your left wrist is very cupped at impact. Your left arm should also be straight at impact, rather than collapsing as it is now. This is not an ideal position at impact. Iacas posted a good drill above, I can provide other impact drills if you'd like.

Compare your impact position to that of Tiger below (notice the flat left wrist and cupped right wrist... well through impact):

[nuck81]

Thanks delav for the tip and always bringing some great advice in my thread. My flip is an ongoing problem, and going to be my main focus this next month. My main focus in August was more Hip intitiation in the downswing. I have another lesson next week, and it's going to be strictly contact.

[iacas]

At some point you're going to have to get your arms down faster. To really get them across your chest. You seem to just almost try to rotate through instead of really pulling the left arm across your chest and aggressively straightening the right arm.

[nuck81]

iacas- Yes I do think of a rotation and arc in my swing.

Would a more aggressive left arm create more lag and help with the flip?

[delav]

iacas- Yes I do think of a rotation and arc in my swing.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "more aggressive" left arm, however I think you'll make big progress when you begin to feel the hands "drop" from the top. The idea being that as your hips bump and begin to rotate and translate, your shoulders remain static while your hands drop. Sergio does this beautifully, emulating this will help develop lag, power and a better position at impact.

[sean_miller]

Would a more aggressive left arm create more lag and help with the flip?

Here is something I was working on at the range today - left versus right handedness. With wedges, short irons, and even mid irons, I found varying which hand/arm dominated had an effect on trajectory. If I wanted to hit the ball higher I really fired the right hand. Imagine a hard forehand volley in tennis or a snapshot in hockey. Pulling the left hand through seemed to keep the ball down - a flatter ball flight. With long irons and woods a more balanced approach is the key (for me).

What shot are you working on in your video?

[nuck81]

That was just my stock iron shot, which is a slight draw...

[iacas]

I'm not sure what you mean by a "more aggressive" left arm, however I think you'll make big progress when you begin to feel the hands "drop" from the top.

Thing is, and I think you'd agree - if the hands are on plane, you don't want them to "drop" at all because then you'll be under the plane. Tiger's taken his hands out and up and had to "drop" them while he starts turning and that's a bit part of why he's gotten stuck... It's easy to drop them too far at P4, especially if they're not far above the plane on which you'll eventually strike the ball anyway.

By "getting the arms down faster" and having a "more aggressive left arm" I'm talking about releasing accumulators #4 (left arm moving across your chest - it goes from 80 degrees [forearm to collarbone] or so at address to 45 degrees or so at P4, and back to about 75 degrees at impact) and #1 (right elbow flexing - goes from 0 to 90 or so and back to 10 or so at impact). You load it from 80 to 45 degrees or so, then unload it as the first of the four accumulators on the downswing (The Golfing Machine will tell you the first accumulator to release is #4.) Instead, you spin rather than pull your left arm across your chest. Two ways to think about it - you get the handle of the club down faster or you move the handle (your hands, too) away from your right shoulder (down towards the golf ball) faster. Your arms are a bit passive, a bit "along for the ride" as you spin through the shot. You'll have to pull the handle down (or push it down - I don't want to get into a swinger/hitter discussion, because in reality you're gonna do both). Freeze your impact position. It's not terrible, but the biggest thing to clean up is to move the handle forward another six inches. So by the time your body gets to that position, your arms have to have moved farther. BTW, that'll help with the flying wedge and keeping a straight left arm (your left elbow is bent at impact). P.S. Lemme put it another way. Let's imagine you have a clock sticking out of your belly button. Straight in front of you is 12 o'clock. Your left shirt seam is 9 o'clock. Your right shirt seam is 3 o'clock. I guess your spine is 6 o'clock. At address the handle is somewhere around 11:30. Throughout the backswing, the handle moves across your chest until it's at, say, 2:30. Impact should be around 10:45... you're making impact at 12:15 - you need to get the handle to go from 2:30 around past noon to 10:45 and you're not even getting it back to noon. (This makes sense to me... But it's 1:30am so I hope it makes sense to you...).

[nuck81]

iacas- Thanks a lot!!! That is a ton of superb information, and it definitely gives me a solid foundation on what to work on in the next month or so. Very much apprectiated.

[passintime]

Thing is, and I think you'd agree - if the hands are on plane, you don't want them to "drop" at all because then you'll be under the plane. Tiger's taken his hands out and up and had to "drop" them while he starts turning and that's a bit part of why he's gotten stuck... It's easy to drop them too far at P4, especially if they're not far above the plane on which you'll eventually strike the ball anyway.

This is a great post and makes a ton of sense to me! Not my swing thread, but very helpful, indeed.

[walk18]

Nuck it's been fun watching you progress in this thread, you're really improving. As has been mentioned, keep those hands ahead of the clubhead at impact to avoid flipping. I have a feeling you're getting close to figuring it out. See the video drill that was posted earlier.

[nuck81]

Nuck it's been fun watching you progress in this thread, you're really improving. As has been mentioned, keep those hands ahead of the clubhead at impact to avoid flipping. I have a feeling you're getting close to figuring it out. See the video drill that was posted earlier.

It certainly been an enjoyable journey. It's actually quite amazing how awful the swing was when I first started. But things really started to improve around July.

Here is something I was working on at the range today - left versus right handedness. With wedges, short irons, and even mid irons, I found varying which hand/arm dominated had an effect on trajectory. If I wanted to hit the ball higher I really fired the right hand. Imagine a hard forehand volley in tennis or a snapshot in hockey. Pulling the left hand through seemed to keep the ball down - a flatter ball flight. With long irons and woods a more balanced approach is the key (for me).

I thought about this today and did my own experimenting. My results were the exact opposite. I got a really high ball flight with more backspin when I led with the left hand. A stronger right hand made my flight lower, and even caused me to blade a few times...

[sean_miller]

It certainly been an enjoyable journey. It's actually quite amazing how awful the swing was when I first started. But things really started to improve around July.

You probably weren't doing it right.

[nuck81]

Maybe, but I've always liked the left hand better. It feels like someone else......