My Swing (DarkPrince)

[DarkPrince]

Finally found the power cord for the video camera, albeit its still horrible quality. Eventually I'll invest in a much better quality one, but for now this is all I have to work with. Today I went to the range and recorded a few swings and posted a few up on youtube. I couldn't do a Driver swing as we can't hit clubs that travel over 230 at my range -.- so I did a 6 Iron and a 9 Iron. Was going to do a hybrid one too but forgot to do a DTL and only got a Face On.

6 Iron:


9 Iron:


Again, apologies for the quality haha.

Comments/criticisms welcome...well...sort of...as much as anyone likes to hear what they are doing wrong :P

[atrapasuenos]

I'm not a swing expert, in both videos at the takeaway, the club is not online with the line of your feet, it is inside of that line (Video 1 - 0:06s, Video 2 - 0:07s). In the first video, DTL you came over the top (0:08s). Plus you have the chicken wing... (Video 1 - 0:22s, Video 2 - 0:24s).

Greetings!

[RossOliver]

You're "flashing" your wrists on the way back - the club is far too flat... also, your hands get very high at the top, which isn't a bad thing - but you need to drop the club back onto plane by initiating the downswing with your hips instead of pulling the club down with your hands.

-Ross

[DarkPrince]

Decided to do a little more video today to see what I look like at essentially the start of the season. Personally I see at least 2 things so far, my alignment is super f*cked up, and yes I KNOW I have a super flat backswing, it bothers me, and as hard as I try to not do it, I have NO idea how to change it.

EDIT: appologies about the quality, the only video I have now is on my Canon Rebel T1i DSLR, which yes is "HD" but the shutterspeed is not nearly fast enough to capture it in fine detail. Also it was cloudy/windy so it was probably a little slower than normal :(

Driver DTL:

Hybrid DTL:

Iron DTL:

I also realize after I did all the videoing that I could have easily had the camera closer to me, I was just worried if I did it that some would be cut off, next time I'm going to actually try and get a little closer.

[iacas]

Your swing is not particularly "flat." You just roll the clubhead (left forearm) like crazy to start your backswing. More wrist hinge, more feeling the right hand staying on top in the early part of the backswing.

This sets you up to come over the top on the downswing. Better to from high to low than low to high (with ideal being on about the same plane up and down).

[DarkPrince]

Thank's Iacas, next time I go out I'm going to try and get some face on, I just didn't realize how little video a 4GB SD card holds :S I was out there for an hour or so and only got maybe 15 swings. I think more goes wrong from the face on than appears on the DTL :P  As another random question, is there any issue with how far my head drops on the downswing, I noticed looking at it in V1 that I drop a good amount and never make it back up until well past impact.

Originally Posted by iacas

Your swing is not particularly "flat." You just roll the clubhead (left forearm) like crazy to start your backswing. More wrist hinge, more feeling the right hand staying on top in the early part of the backswing.

This sets you up to come over the top on the downswing. Better to from high to low than low to high (with ideal being on about the same plane up and down).

[DarkPrince]

Finally had another nice day a few days ago, tried to do a quick face on/DTL of driver.

Face on youtube:


Here's a link to DL the original video if you want Iacas, accidentally bumped the quality down a notch on the camera so it only got worse putting it online:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/uiv7e6

[DarkPrince]

As mentioned in another thread, uploaded my swing video to Golf Digest for a free analysis:

And don't you dare make fun of the pants ;) I love them lol.

I would like to know of any legitimate/real drills to do to work on these things if anyone has them.

[DarkPrince]

Took a lesson with my instructor again, first one of the year. It boiled down to four things:
1: My alignment is a bit screwed up, shoulders were open every time, and my body tended to be further open.  Using a club or alignment rod to make sure feet, knees, hips, and shoulders are parallel.

2: My clubhead is way open at address. Part of this is my clubs have little/no offset (Blades), and they are Standard Standard whereas I need Standard Length, 2º Flat LIe I guess.

3: I was overswinging bad.  I wasn't like going past parallel, but I let my hips open/turn too much, having too much hip, too little shoulder turn, probably what was causing me to lose 30 yds of distance with irons.

4: My hands move too far to the inside when I brought the club bag, flat backswing and at the top of my backswing my hands are well below shoulder level.

So part of this was fixed by going to a demo day and picking out a new set of irons. I just ordered a set of Wilson Staff Ci9 Irons 4-PW (After testing a lot of different irons, it came down to these or Mizuno JPX800 Pro...and I couldn't justify spending $400 more just for a little more feel and less forgiveness) Stiff shafts (recommended by Mizuno shaft optimizer)  This should help me get the ball in the air and go further while still having some control over curve. Even on somewhat chunky shots, or ones off the toe this club just made the ball fly MUCH further than what would happen with my MB TP's. Having the correct shafts should also help lower my ball flight. The Mizuno rep said that I had the completely wrong shafts  with my Flighted Rifle 5.0's because I apparently had no problem getting the ball elevated, but that they were ballooning instead of starting low, climbing and then falling at a good angle. When I got them I wasn't fitted, it was just one of the options that popped up.  And of course the day after I drop the $400 on my irons, I begin striping my irons and my swing/distances are back with them....still taking them out and putting the wilsons in when I get them :P

Working on making the clubhead perpendicular at address, but it just feels like I'm hooding the iron like I'm hitting a low hook. Sometimes that happens, but I think that's more of a coming over the top and causing a pull hook? Either way, shots are more on line, and tailing off to the right less.  After working on my alignment though, it has worked wonders with my irons and my wedges, but dear god it had destroyed my 3 wood and driver swings :S I'm obliterating my hybrids...but the second I get a driver or 3 wood in my hand I'm just coming in way too steep. I was like taking a divot or at least grazing the grass by the end of the day, and on the bottom towards the heel there was usually some chunk of dirt stuck to the club.

Either way, I've got things to work on, and new clubs to look forward to ;)

[DarkPrince]

New Irons came in today, played 9 with them in some pretty cruddy mist/rain and ended up only shooting 38 (+3) Its definitely going to take a while to get used to the semi-lack of feel/feedback, but the distance difference is astounding. I'm hitting PW into par 3's I normally would hit 8i into. Also have to not swing as hard with these. I'm so used to having to hit the taylormades so hard to get them up/far, these I just need to take a nice smooth swing, and can still draw it quite a ways if I need to. Now I need to figure out why I tend to just dead push so many of them.  Gotta get some video again soon, see if anything has changed :)

[DarkPrince]

Went to the range today for the first time this year, apologies about the camera angle. It wasn't until I got home that I realized it was off by a foot or so down the ball line instead of my body.

First is a few 7 irons

Then a few drivers...first one is a snap hook though -.-

So far I don't feel that bad and am pretty positive but there are a few things that bug me. The face is very closed when the shaft is parallel during the backswing, and I can see myself coming over the top every time. Also my head moves a ton apparently:

[stricklerlee]

Okay, you have acknowledged that your plane is flat. That is a good step in the right direction. You have been taking lessons with your private instructor. Good. However, from your recent videos, I don't think you really understand how to swing a golf club. In order to swing the golf club, you must feel like Jim Furyk.

Do you see how he swings the golf club in an overexaggerating sense? All golf pros bring the club almost straight up and then when they do the downswing, they swing flatter. You, on the other hand, swing the opposite way. You bring the club way out and then when you do the downswing, you force the club to swing way left as you hit the ball.

I found this on google.

The top example is exactly what you did in the videos, right to the point. You need to swing the opposite way of what you're doing, like Jim Furyk. But you don't have to swing like him, just lean towards his swing.

[DarkPrince]

Sorry for the double post, for some reason when I tried to add the pictures the first time it kept saying something about a server error.

Had my first video lesson on friday.  At first I left extremely confused but after working on my shoulder turn I am starting to get a feeling for it.  He said that instead of actually bringing the club more upright in the backswing, I just bent over further, dropped my left shoulder, then rotated, so it looked like it was more upright but it was still below plane.  Next he focused on me being in a reverse C at the top of my swing because I had a tendency to get to the top...and keep leaning "left" (towards target) with my upper body. The rest is the usual over the top stuff that should be fixed by getting me to start on plane and getting my wrists to hinge correctly.  So my keys to work on are to feel more like I'm pulling my right shoulder straight back, replacing it with the left, instead of lifting it straight up and dropping my left down. Which of course feels weird as hell...especially since he had me doing it while swinging on a 2x4 :P

The 2x4 I guess showed that I was improperly loading my weight into my right foot since my left knee bent/bowed out so far you could see between them since my weight was still mostly in my left side, and he said your knees should never cross your toe line.

But like I said, I left more confused because while I'm not a S&T; person, It always made sense to rotate around a central point and keep your body over the ball. This new way at first felt like I was doing the big no no of swaying my whole body back over my right leg and then having to compensate on the way down. But as I looked at some of my favorite players swings I realized they all did it without the big sway, so it's possible, I just have to remember you can load without moving everything "right". Man it puts a lot of torque/stress on my right knee tho :/ He said it will take a few weeks to grove this new move so we'll see how it goes.

He also joked that I'm apparently very flexible, which I did not know :P

[iacas]

Originally Posted by DarkPrince

The 2x4 I guess showed that I was improperly loading my weight into my right foot since my left knee bent/bowed out so far you could see between them since my weight was still mostly in my left side, and he said your knees should never cross your toe line.

Just be careful with this one. The left hip and knee gain flexion on the backswing, the right hip and knee lose flexion:

[DarkPrince]

In non swing related news, I'm actually going to be the Assistant Coach for my old high school's golf team this season so that will be fun :) And there's a small possibility that I might become the Ast. Pro at my home course too so that will finally get me going on the PGA train hopefully :/

But back to swings:

If in laymans terms you are saying that the left knee does flex and the right leg does straighten, I think it just comes down to he's trying to get me to stop throwing my leg way out there, it's not that we don't want it to flex, I think we are just trying to redirect it. I was flexing it so much (and probably straightening my right leg so much) my entire body was leaning left at the top of the swing (although my pic doesn't exactly show it as bad as it looked on the video). My videos suck so sometime soon after he switches over to a different system he's going to give me copies I can take home, and as always I'm a student and you're an instructor so I am always likely to be 100% dead wrong in my assessments ^.^

[DarkPrince]

I really hate that feeling like you're doing something different doesn't mean jack. I feel like I've been working on my shoulders going more around instead of down, but every time I take a video and look at it, it just doesn't look like anything is different or changing. I know it's only been a week and this stuff takes time, but I still figured maybe something would be different by now?

[iacas]

Originally Posted by DarkPrince

I really hate that feeling like you're doing something different doesn't mean jack. I feel like I've been working on my shoulders going more around instead of down, but every time I take a video and look at it, it just doesn't look like anything is different or changing.

Why do you want your (left?) shoulder to go more "around" instead of "down"?

Why do I ask?:

You're doing fine with the shoulders so far as I can tell.

Frankly, the first thing I'd do is change your grip a bit. Too palmy, perhaps too strong (tough to tell from down the line). You don't go forward as well as you think, you lose your left arm depth on the downswing and are forced to arch your left wrist (you do this first thing in the takeaway too), etc. Face-on view would have been nice.

Lots of weird stuff going on. But here's a truism in golf: You will not change it working at full speed. Look at my swing thread for some videos (the most recent ones) showing how I work on things. Slow motion, lots of rehearsals, no worries about really hitting the golf ball - it's just there.

[DarkPrince]

I'll see a bout getting a face on some time, I just always forget about it because i have to move my bag since I lean my phone up against it as a tripod :P

Basically the shoulder thing is trying to get me to start on plane instead of continuing to be below it and the next thing he said we would work on is getting my wrists to hinge properly. I don't think I'm as bad going back as I was at the beginning of this thread (flat and way open) but now I feel like I'm doing the opposite of what I was then. Then I was opening the face way up on the way back, but now it's closed like 45º.  I've felt something weird in my grip since late last year but everyone I've asked says its fine...but it doesn't feel fine, but I don't feel like I've done anything different. But yes I feel like my hands just force the thing closed because even when I try to fan it open like I used to, it's still closed at the top.