Swing vs. Handicap

[joeyl5522]

Brandon, you have a really good swing, a lot of talent to work with. One thing I did notice is the placement of you left foot at address. If you flare it slightly toward the target at address it will give you hips more mobility through the ball. The lower body should lead on the downswing and having the proper foot placement at address will help that. I would bet with your swing, you may be losing shots on and around the greens?

From the back view I noticed posture. I think your knees are bent a little to much at address which would hinder the mobility of your hips through the ball. If you stand straight up, bend slighty from the waist, with a little knee flex I think that would help.

[James_Black]

Slightly better quality that my other swing videos

http://www.swingacademy.com/videoPlayer.aspx?id=7048

[jamo]

Ok, here is me. I'm playing off of a 1 handicap at this moment. The far right picture is me a week ago, the middle is over a month ago, and the left is from last October.



For a few more pics, see my blog post here.

Currently I am actually working keeping the left arm straight, not flipping (flipping being cupping the left wrist) (I didn't/don't have much of a flip, but I want to eliminate it), and releasing (rolling the wrists) a little less. And in the current picture I am moving my head a tiny bit too far forward.

[Stretch]

Nice foot action there!

Kinda looks like this thread could be narrowed down even further. "Impact position vs. Handicap."

[joeyl5522]

Ok, here is me. I'm playing off of a 1 handicap at this moment. The far right picture is me a week ago, the middle is over a month ago, and the left is from last October.

That looks GOOOOD!!

[brgolf]

Thanks... and therein lies the point of this thread, right?

Yea just what I was thinking. I get into a pretty good position at the bottom of the swing although I'd like for my hands to be a big more ahead of the ball.

[Shanks A Million]

Ok, here is me. I'm playing off of a 1 handicap at this moment. The far right picture is me a week ago, the middle is over a month ago, and the left is from last October.

And in those pictures, it's clear why the handicap has dropped so much for you. As I recall, you were somewhere around a 5 or 8 earlier in the year, right? Then a 3, now a 1. Impact position really varifies that.

And to point something out, this thread isn't really about tips, it's about impact position and swing mechanics vs. handicap. We've seen a few so far, and most of them seem fairly accurate. Here's James Black:

[Cornbread]

Ok, here is me. I'm playing off of a 1 handicap at this moment. The far right picture is me a week ago, the middle is over a month ago, and the left is from last October.

Asside of the slight head position change, which looks to be best in the last shot, photo 3) I see nothing different. The ball position in photo 2 is farther forward which created a different shaft angle, not your swing. Photo's 1 & 2 were taken a split second later than photo 3 (as you can see the ball leaving already). Mentally you may feel you are doing something different, but the photo's don't reveal such IMHO.

[Shanks A Million]

Asside of the slight head position change, which looks to be best in the last shot, photo 3) I see nothing different. The ball position in photo 2 is farther forward which created a different shaft angle, not your swing. Photo's 1 & 2 were taken a split second later than photo 3 (as you can see the ball leaving already). Mentally you may feel you are doing something different, but the photo's don't reveal such IMHO.

Seriously?

Seriously ? I'm just going to stay calm and let that one go for now. Needless to say, it's wrong.

[bplewis24]

Asside of the slight head position change, which looks to be best in the last shot, photo 3) I see nothing different. The ball position in photo 2 is farther forward which created a different shaft angle, not your swing. Photo's 1 & 2 were taken a split second later than photo 3 (as you can see the ball leaving already). Mentally you may feel you are doing something different, but the photo's don't reveal such IMHO.

Check out his blog post. It has a few more pics and comments.

Brandon

[jamo]

And in those pictures, it's clear why the handicap has dropped so much for you. As I recall, you were somewhere around a 5 or 8 earlier in the year, right? Then a 3, now a 1. Impact position really varifies that.

I finished last year at about a 6 (though I was playing like a 10 when the oldest videos were taken), started this year at about a 3, and now I'm a 1.

Asside of the slight head position change, which looks to be best in the last shot, photo 3) I see nothing different. The ball position in photo 2 is farther forward which created a different shaft angle, not your swing. Photo's 1 & 2 were taken a split second later than photo 3 (as you can see the ball leaving already). Mentally you may feel you are doing something different, but the photo's don't reveal such IMHO.

And the ball placement has been part of what is helping my swing. It was too far forward in the 2nd one. To be honest, I don't think you would see a difference in my right hand position if I took that picture in line with the other two, that is, .00001 second later.

In fact, here is a comparison of when the club head is just passed my left foot. As you can see by the lines, on the right picture my left arm is dead straight and there is not cupping of the left wrist. On the left there is cupping. Slightly, but it's there. The left arm is also bent a little more on the right. Look, the difference isn't huge, but in the swing it makes a big difference. I don't claim to be the best in the world, and if you note my original post in this thread I wrote that specifically I was working on precisely these positions in the swing.

[Cornbread]

Congratulations on your improvement. Being able to shoot a 73 average is Good Golf. What sort of course do you play at. A Muni or Country Club?

[deronsizemore]

Congratulations on your improvement. Being able to shoot a 73 average is Good Golf. What sort of course do you play at. A Muni or Country Club?

A 73 average? Did you arrive at this number because he's a 1 handicap?

Handicap is an indication of potential, not average score.

[Shanks A Million]

A 73 average? Did you arrive at this number because he's a 1 handicap?

He's pretty much jumped the shark and the couch. Just ignore and get back to the topic at hand. Anyone else have a video?

[acegolfer]

Here's mine.

[Cornbread]

A 73 average? Did you arrive at this number because he's a 1 handicap?

First off... excuse my previous misuse of the word 'average'. I don't have the ability to 'edit' my postings or it would have been corrected, prior to your nit-picking.

While there are many variations in detail, handicap systems are generally based on calculating an individual player's playing ability from his recent history of rounds. Therefore, a handicap is not fixed but is regularly adjusted to increases or decreases in a player's scoring.

[Shanks A Million]

Here's mine.

So far, not a single double digit has had a forward leaning club shaft, and vice versa. Interesting... I think iacas was right. Keep them coming.

I'm curious to see the swings of the double digits who claim to hit it 300 and or hit it purely but have a poor short game. That's where it will get interesting. Here's a few of my impact from today: And a tour pro:

[sean_miller]

I'm learning a lot about my swing, and the swing in general, this week. Mostly about how much I really don't know. Everyone's swing looks fine to me so far. Last week it seem the buzzword was "timiing". It was in every other thread. So what's the thing my instructor wants me to work on in Friday's lesson? Better synchronization of my arms and shoulders (arms come back a shade too slow) so that I don't have to rely so much on timing. I almost burst out laughing - maybe he reads the TST forum?!?!?

Anyway, my access to quality video is limited, so here are couple grainy screen caps at the start of my first couple lessons (from April 2010 - preseason).

Image 1 is with a 4-iron. Image 2 is a 3-wood off the deck.