My Swing (nick4501)

[rustyredcab]

I think Eric has found the cause of the early release. No way you can let the hands lead the clubhead without falling down or shifting center froward toward ball. Easiest thing to do from that backswing is release way early. That's why he gets the big bucks. :)

Originally Posted by iacas

Cart before the horse... Let's stop having to time some move a foot off the golf ball and back, first.

[tshapiro]

With all due respect to some of the advise on this thread, I think you're going about it the wrong way...

Here's your basic problem, you are not using your body properly and this has little to do with your arms so forget about this early casting business.  I'll tell you how to get your weight and lower body moving and then that early cast will no longer be early.

First off, power comes from weight transfer and rotation provided by the legs and core - not the arms.  The arms are simply the conduit for that power - especially the left arm.  Your power is coming from the arms which is the heart of your problem.  You are not getting any weight transfer or rotation.

From the top of your swing, I want you thinking "Right hip, Left arm".  This is because I do not want you to pivot in place like you are doing now with zero body action.  Rather, I want your right hip to begin moving your weight forward, across your body while your left arm sort of just stays suspended and begins to fall.  Allow your right hip to pull your the right side of your rib cage and right shoulder down and around to the impact position.  This will allow your right arm to release through impact like a lose string and pick up the path of your pulling left arm.  As your right hip comes around, this will twist your lower body like a Twizzler and put you in a positition where you can actually get your lower body to drive that left arm hard - as in you will be killing the ball once you get your timing correct.

Right now your lower body barely moves and so you are correcting it by slowing your swing up even more.  So, to get things right, you need to lead your downswing with that right hip leading the left arm and then hit the snot out of it once you get your timing down.  Once you start getting a feel for getting your body into it, that early cast will naturally go away because your timing will center around the use of your true power source - your legs and core.

[playbridgestone]

From experience, your problem is your upswing.  None of the rest matters if that isn't correct.  It is hard to see from this angle and would be obvious with a down the line angle.  You are pulling the club inside on your upswing and lifting your head.  Your arc is very very small and your swing is all arms/hands right now.  To fix this, you need to add width to your arc.  To do this, pull your club straight back from the ball (parallel to your feet and on the target line) instead of pulling the club in towards you.  It might feel weird at first but it is the right way to do it and you will see that your downswing and everything else will be much smoother.  Feel the weight of the clubhead.  Watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgcAsIR2O_4 Good Luck.  Post a video of a down the line view from behind and you will see the difference.

[Ranger]

I just watched that video that playbridgestone just posted, and it really made sense. I especially liked the medicine ball analogy that Clement used. That really brought it home for me. I kinda knew about this concept of using the arms as simply a conduit for the rest of the body and pivot point etc., but this really helped. If you were trying to heave a medicine ball as far as you could, you would not use just your arms to do it. You would have to use your entire body as a means to get your arms swinging to sling the ball outward. Bingo!! Thanks for posting it.

[Stewie007]

Do yourself a favor and sit down on a bench or something that has no back so you can freely rotate. This is what I want you to do.

1. Sitting straight up, and raise your arms to be parallel with the ground palms facing down and make two fists.

2. Bend at the elbows inward so your fists are pointing at one another as if you're hugging lets just say a tree.

3. I want you now to rotate your upper body without turning your lower body (hips and such) OR your head

This motion is key to understanding the mechanics of your backswing. If you find that you can't keep your head completely still while rotating side to side completely, then you are ACTIVELY twisting at the torso. STOP IT!!! This motion must be initiated by a rotation of the shoulders and nothing else. While you do this, your torso naturally follows but is working passively in response to what you are doing with your shoulders. Your neck should be stationary throughout this exercise, and it should be effortless.

I feel that this will help you, as it has helped me. This will enable you to keep your left arm straight and allow the right arm to work as intended. It will also help you negate the side to side motion that really keeps you from getting your arms and shoulders where they should be so that your wrists will find the appropriate angle quite naturally. It will also help you loosen up, it looks like you are trying to strangle that club!

A few weeks ago I was shooting a pathetic 130 weekly as I re-emerged into the world of golf. After getting some of these things in line I have literally shaved a minimum of 20 strokes off of my game. Now its a question of shaving 10-15 more off by getting my putting game in order. You gotta loosen up, though, you are too rigid.

PS: Please note the use of the big smiley when I "yell" to signify that I am not actually being mean. (Some people seem to "miss" the smiley) hehe. :)

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Stewie007

This motion is key to understanding the mechanics of your backswing. If you find that you can't keep your head completely still while rotating side to side completely, then you are ACTIVELY twisting at the torso. STOP IT!!! This motion must be initiated by a rotation of the shoulders and nothing else. While you do this, your torso naturally follows but is working passively in response to what you are doing with your shoulders. Your neck should be stationary throughout this exercise, and it should be effortless.

Is your advice summarized by "turn only your shoulders in the backswing, don't turn your hips at all"?

[bunkerputt]

Originally Posted by iacas

Is your advice summarized by "turn only your shoulders in the backswing, don't turn your hips at all"?

Waiting for the reply because this one's gonna be good...

[Stewie007]

Originally Posted by iacas

Is your advice summarized by "turn only your shoulders in the backswing, don't turn your hips at all"?

No, and I understand why you might think that was what I was saying. The point of this exercise is to help understand how the body should move. It also helps loosen up so that there is not as much tension in the swing overall. Its really an exaggerated rotational motion but it shows you how you can rotate without swaying side to side and in such an exercise if you rotate actively with your full body then that swaying is what is going to happen, which is noted by side to side head movement during the exercise. I am speaking of active motion, which in turn I mean to speak of where the initiation occurs. Obviously the hips are going to move, unless of course back injury is the goal. :) I thought I was clear that this was to highlight shoulder motion in relation to how the hips move. Its exaggerated, but clearly relevant as you view a slow mo of most pro swings.

This motion is key to understanding the mechanics of your backswing. If you find that you can't keep your head completely still while rotating side to side completely, then you are ACTIVELY twisting at the torso. STOP IT!!! This motion must be initiated by a rotation of the shoulders and nothing else. While you do this, your torso naturally follows but is working passively in response to what you are doing with your shoulders. Your neck should be stationary throughout this exercise, and it should be effortless.

Originally Posted by bunkerputt

Waiting for the reply because this one's gonna be good...

You could have left the snide comment out. I suppose you are reacting to my perhaps over zealous comment in your swing thread. However you can note that I wasn't rude. I will continue to conduct myself as such. I think what I have said here is fair advice, and it stands on firm ground. Note the position of the shoulders below. Which muscles do you think are leading the action in the backswing.

[bunkerputt]

Originally Posted by Stewie007

You could have left the snide comment out. I suppose you are reacting to my perhaps over zealous comment in your swing thread.

You're right Stewie.  My apologies.

[nick4501]

Hi guys.  Thanks again for all the advice, but I'm now getting confused by conflicting opinions.  I've tried concentrating on keeping my head more stable, but the distance problem remains.  I understand what everyone is saying about the rotation of the body being out of time with my downswing, resulting in me casting the club, but having watched my videos in slow motion, I do think that my hips are rotating.

Here is a down the line video - hopefully it'll shed more light on the problem!

[DublinMeUp]

Hey nick,

Thought i'd weigh in with what i saw if thats ok?

Your down the line seems very armsy, if that's even a word. Please take this with a grain of salt but you need to increase the angle of attack so to speak.

So in the first third of your back swing i think you need to start bending your wrists up toward the sky, thus bringing the club up at a much steeper angle. Then try to get the club head over your right shoulder so that near the top of your back swing if you draw a line from the club head to the ball it dissects you shoulder. You then want to follow this same "path" down to impact and through the ball. I'm not very good at explaining myself and i dont ever do swing analysis lol but i looked at this vid and made the following pic to try show you what i mean, the red lines are only highlighting what i mean. They are not drawn on some analysis machine or anything

Anyway,  i think Erik and the guys will have this sorted for you in no time, maybe i help and maybe i cause more confusion, I'm not sure. Good luck

[indybuckeyefan]

the power comes from turning your shoulders a larger amount than your hips.the torque created is speed and power

Originally Posted by nick4501

Hi guys.  Thanks again for all the advice, but I'm now getting confused by conflicting opinions.  I've tried concentrating on keeping my head more stable, but the distance problem remains.  I understand what everyone is saying about the rotation of the body being out of time with my downswing, resulting in me casting the club, but having watched my videos in slow motion, I do think that my hips are rotating.

Here is a down the line video - hopefully it'll shed more light on the problem!

[mvmac]

Hi Nick, I'm just going to add to what Erik wanted you to do

This is a good video to check out too

[playbridgestone]

Like I said in my earlier post, your backswing is still way off.  You are pulling the club behind you right now.  To get a feeling of what is correct, literally just pull the club straight to the right on your upswing until you can't reach then start going up.  It will probably be exaggerated but that is the only way to get the feeling and fix what you're doing.  Once you do it a few times you will be able to feel the clubhead fall into the slot/on plane during your downswing instead of using your arms to try to get it into position right at impact.  You could swing half as slow with half as much effort and let the clubhead do the work and hit twice as far as you are now.

To help with understanding what I'm saying.  If you were to place a 2x4 lumber stick parallel to your feet on the nearest side of the ball facing you, on your backswing, keep your clubhead following the side edge of this 2x4 until you can't reach anymore and it lifts off the ground, then cock and go up.  Feel like your arc is HUGE instead of this tight little baby arc your making right now.  It will also work with an extra club laid on the ground parallel to your feet or no club at all as long as you understand the concept.  This is your main problem and exactly how I used to hit it when I started.  If you can figure this out and keep your head still, then you will have something to build off of instead of just hitting AT the ball with your arms all the time and you will see your swing start to improve drastically.

[playbridgestone]

This might help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10FJTAaGNVU I've watched almost all of his videos to see his teaching techniques and must recommend to anyone.

[playbridgestone]

Also, your head movement right now is your body compensating so at impact, your clubhead makes contact with the ball.  Head movement is often a symptom of poor swing mechanics because your body is compensating and your using your arms just to get the club back on plane and the point of impact.  If the rest of your swing is correct, it is easy to keep your head still.  Do what I told you and I guarentee it will solve 90% of your problems.  You might not even hit the ball the first few times but just get that different feeling and keep practicing.

[nick4501]

Thanks for the advice playbridgestone, but I'm not sure if that is the cause of my lack of distance.  It's a serious problem now.  I played yesterday and lost a shot on EVERY hole simply because it took me 2 shots to catch up to everyone else's first!

I know I've got a very flat swing plane and I do intend to address this issue as soon as I've corrected the distance, but I'm not convinced that they are related because I have ALWAYS had a flat swing plane and never had the distance problem.

I agree that I seem to have a very crunched up arc, but do you think this could be the reason I'm casting the club and therefore releasing all club head speed before I hit the ball?

[playbridgestone]

Your swing does not flow.  What you are doing in your backswing is completely wrong so in order for you to make contact at the ball, you have to use your arms & hands to bring the club back on plane right at impact.  You may hit the ball sometimes because you time it right and are able to bring the club back to plane right before or right at impact but it will NEVER become very consistent.  Your problem is not distance right now, it is your swing.  If you fix your swing, the distance will come naturally.  You will likely be able to hit farther than you ever have and I know you will be more consistent.  Your swing is completely inefficient right now.  There is a reason the club is made the way it is made and there is a reason why you should swing it like it is made to be swung.  If your swing is good, you can literally lift the club back with limp hands & arms and swing half as fast as you are now and get the distance that you want.  Not even exaggerating.  You must be willing to try new things and thats all I'm saying to you is to TRY it.  I've taught this method to people and INSTANTLY see results EVERY time.  Take it for what it is worth.  Just trying to help man.  You don't even have to hit balls.  Go in your yard and swing like I told you and you should be able to FEEL the club and your swing FLOW naturally instead of using your arms and fighting against natures forces just to get your clubhead to line up at impact.  Otherwise, go take a lesson but i'm willing to bet they tell you the same thing.  Hope you get it figured out!