My Swing (jon8105)

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

One think I definitely see now. You are moving your arms back before your shoulders, as I thought you might have been doing with the 4 iron. I'd work on a one piece backswing. I have a feeling that my arms and chest are a unit and that I am pushing the unit back with pressure from my left pectoral muscle and abs. Your thoughts may vary (YTMV). But the idea of the upper body plus arms being a unit is a good one.

Also, tuck your right upper arm into your body on the downswing. Also also, think smoooooth and sloooooow and balanced. To me, the golf swing is divided into equal parts backswing, downswing, and follow-through. The ball just happens to get in the way when the downswing changes into the followthrough. Hitting the ball is just an incidental consequence of the grace of the swing. Not like baseball, where one coils back like a spring and waits a while for the pitch and then swings for the fences. There is no such balance in baseball. All explosive power unleashed at a big heavy ball. Do you play baseball? I think you are using too much power and energy on the downswing, and that is destroying the balance, the zen, of the swing. Do not be angry at the ball or try to smash it. Instead say to it, as Snead says he did, "Toppie (or Srixie or whatever brand you use) baby, you're going for a little ride!"

I really have no constructive input to contribute, but man, I wish I had a giant field to hit golf balls into...

30 years ago, I was working in the cattle industry out in the country. Noontimes, I'd take a 9-iron to the paddock next to the offices if the boss wasn't around. and hit balls Reason I didn't want the boss around was (1) sometimes I'd nearly hit a cow and (2) when my ball went "Plop!" into a pile of excrement, I'd dig the ball out and take it over to the cattle's watering trough (a/k/a ball cleaner) to wash it off. Then my my swing went to hell and I developed a horrible slice, and after much angst and self-analysis, quit the game.

[Shanks A Million]

Could it be on my drive that I am shifting too much forward? Would that cause me to hit the ball before my club face is square?

Sliding forward through impact is a fault I have sometimes. The result is mostly really bad snap hooks. The ball starts 15° right, and turns 115° left, and ends up going directly left of where you were aiming. Not a fun problem. Slices are more the opposite, hanging back.

From what I can see, your problem is that your swing is all hands and arms with a fairly narrow arc. It makes for a very inconsistant swing. The body seems to follow the hands, not the opposite. Mostly simple fixes needed, but there's plenty of them.

[jon8105]

Great input guys. One question though, is there any drills I can do to give myself a way to feel what the swing should be so that I know when I am using too much of my arms and hands?

[Rexx]

Have you ever checked your alignment by putting a club down? A common fault is to aim right of your target and as a consequence to swing over the top. I only bring it up because it appears like you look to the left of where your feet are aimed during your pre-shot routine.

[chspeed]

My instructor recently had me swing a heavy length of rope (about the length of driver) back and forth. You try to keep the rope taut on the backswing and downswing and keep going back and forth. It's an old drill, but works amazingly well in teaching you both tempo and the roll your body, arms, and hands should play in the swing. After doing this for a while, grab a club and swing it like a rope, letting the ball simply get in the way.

[jon8105]

Have you ever checked your alignment by putting a club down? A common fault is to aim right of your target and as a consequence to swing over the top. I only bring it up because it appears like you look to the left of where your feet are aimed during your pre-shot routine.

I have before and I was a little off, so I probably need to do that again to see how far off I am now. I try and align my shoulders with the target and usually forget about my feet. Thanks Rexx

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

Some stand a little open on all shots; think Tiger did this in one version of his swing (Tiger v3b) which gave him a really big shoulder turn. Am kidding about "v3b" but it was his swing back in the late 1990s. Simplest thing is to stand square every time including putting. Remembering that the line of your feet is parallel to the line drawn from the ball to the target, and NOT aiming at the target. Like the rails of railroad track.

Above I wrote "one-piece backswing." That of course is wrong. It ought to be "one piece takeaway."

[DavidFehertysBike]

You lunge and then stand up on the ball at impact. Slow down your tranistion from backswing to forward swing and it should calm that some. The backswing is a little long and that could be contributing, too. The screen capture in your first slow motion video when it first loads is a good position, thats a full backswing right there.

[jon8105]

You lunge and then stand up on the ball at impact. Slow down your tranistion from backswing to forward swing and it should calm that some. The backswing is a little long and that could be contributing, too. The screen capture in your first slow motion video when it first loads is a good position, thats a full backswing right there.

Thanks for the input. I will work on shortening my backswing and slowing down my transition and see if that helps.