My Swing (Bullitt5339)

[Bullitt5339]

I decided to videotape my swing so that I can see what I'm doing wrong. My typical shot is either a pull/pull draw or when it's bad, the pull/hook. I see one thing immediately from watching the videos, and that's my posture is bad. I kind of slouch my shoulders when I'm lining up. I've also known my grip isn't correct for quite a while, but when I try to line up with a correct grip, I definitely get a pull hook.

All of these shots are a full swing with a 58* Lob Wedge, since that's as much club as I can hit at my house without knocking windows out. Distance with both of these shots was 75-80 yards.

Any other advice/criticism is appreciated.

[uttexas]

Address: Move the ball forward to the middle of your stance. (backward ball position can promote pulls) One of the strongest grips I've seen. Considering that you can hit a lot of pulls, try weakening your grip so that the "v's" point between your right shoulder and chin.

Backswing: the clubface appears to stay shut for a long time (hard to see the clubface in the forward swing without slowing the playback, but I suspect the clubface stays shut--you hit a pull on the video.)
Your weight on the backswing goes too far back--it goes outside your right foot, thus your right knee buckles at the top of the backswing. Keep your weight more forward on the backswing.

Forwardswing: starts with an OTT move. To prevent the OTT, you need to get your arms into a "deeper" position at the top of the backswing. You do move your weight forward well, but come into the ball out to in, with a closed club face=straight pull.

see deep hands thread http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...ght=deep+hands

[Bullitt5339]

OK, I just went out and hit a few balls trying to work on the things you've said.

#1: My grip: I used to have a more neutral grip, but for some reason lately, it's just not feasible for me to hold a club like that anymore. I thought about it, since it doesn't even feel comfortable, to the point it's uncomfortable, I went out and grabbed an old 60* wedge, and as soon as I held it, my grip went back to more neutral. Hmmmmm. That feels OK to me, why don't my clubs:

I have oversided grips, and small hands.... duh. When I grab a standard sized grip, it goes more neutral, but I guess my hands aren't big enough to reach around an oversized grip properly, so I strengthen my grip to compensate. Does that sound like a reasonable fact, or is it all in my head?

#2: Ball Position. When I'm standing over the ball, I would swear to you that its in the center of my stance. Seriously. But watching the video, you are correct, so I'm going to have to make mental notes on what is actually center, not what my eyes tell me is center. Thanks for pointing that out.

#3: Weight going too far back. Something I've always struggled with. It gets so bad at times if I don't watch it, I'll actually almost lift my left foot off the ground completely. This is going to be the hardest thing for me to correct. Too many years of power hitting in baseball, I guess.

#4: "Hands Deep". I read the thread, but unfortunately I'm not really schooled much on golf terminology with regards to the swing. I'm assuming by reading that thread that my hands should feel like they are coming around my body on the backswing, instead of more straight back? Is that correct, or am I thinking backwards? I'm having trouble getting rid of my over the top move, and it plagues my game, especially with the driver. If I pull a 58* wedge, you can imagine what my shots off the tee have looked like lately, can't you?.........lol

[uttexas]

Deep hands is a combination of depth and width. Basically, the more volume (depth) you give your arms from the top of the backswing into the ball, the easier it is to approach the ball from the inside.

So, first give your hands depth by rotating the shoulders vertically, keeping the clubhead outside the hands, then as your club gets parallel to the ground and start cocking your left wrist, bring your hands in.

Tiger has been working on getting his hands "deeper" take a look at the video on the right--see how he is keeping the clubhead outside the hands until club parallel to the ground then brings club head in.

When you bring the clubhead in, it should feel like you are stretching your left arm back and across, so that it doesn't hit an imaginary wall behind you.
This drill here: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/entries...ot-Hands-Drill

[iacas]

Tiger has been working on getting his hands "deeper" take a look at the video on the right--see how he is keeping the clubhead outside the hands until club parallel to the ground then brings club head in.

Depth isn't just relative to the clubhead, of course, and Tiger can still go a bit deeper. I think you know that but I just wanted to put that out there for others.

[westcyderydin]

all i would would do if i were you is...

1. work on tempo. your backswing is very fast, just smooth is out a bit.

2. you are coming over the top. that means that your swing path goes outside to in, you want it to go slightly inside to out. that is whats causing your pulls, you are coming over the top and also closing the face...so you just need to fix that.

one drill you could do is put a hanger on the ground with the flat part closest to you. take a couple of practice swings going parrallel with the back part of the hanger (inside to out) as opposed to the front side (outside to in) like what you are doing now.

[delav]

Deep hands is a combination of depth and width. Basically, the more volume (depth) you give your arms from the top of the backswing into the ball, the easier it is to approach the ball from the inside.

Great link to the video of tiger. You can see that although subtle, he's getting his hands a bit deeper on the way back and getting the club in a better position at the top. Most noticeable is how less "stuck" he looks coming into the ball as a result. Seeing the changes side by side, and the resulting ball flight in each video really illustrates the difference that this swing thought can make.

To the OP, work on a one-piece takeaway. Your swing is pretty much dominated by your arms, with a passive amount of turn in your shoulders and your core. Working on the "deep hands" swing thoughts will help with this too. The OTT move should begin to correct itself by getting your hands deeper and in front of your torso/chest during the backswing (rather than beyond/behind it). Best of luck.

[Bullitt5339]

Not good, not good at all, but I can see a lot of what's causing my problems (I think).

With my wedges and irons, I am standing soooo close to the ball that in order to even make contact with it, I have to stand way up on the shot to where I'm actually cutting across the ball.  This gives me all kinds of problems.  My shots are low fades, toe shots, with a lot of trenches dug because I'm hitting the ball so fat and my hands are so far ahead that there's no loft at impact.   Very steep swing that would make anyone cringe.  I actually hit 2 so fat this weekend that my right wrist still hurts.

I am going to the range all this week to work on standing further away from the ball so that I can actually achieve an in/out swing path.  I'm not so worried about ball flight direction, I just want to get used to hitting standing further away from the ball, which should naturally flatten out my swing a bit.  And then on Saturday, I'm' going to take another lesson with the Pro so we can work on my ball-striking.

I keep going further and further downhill with no relief in sight, so I'm going to have to get more consistent with taking lessons until I get it all worked out decently.  2 years ago, we thought I'd be shooting in the 70's by now, but I haven't been practicing as much as I used to, not playing as much as I used to, and not getting my lessons nearly as much as I should.

[TimG3394]

So... Lets see it

[Bullitt5339]

I will have my instructor give me some of the higher quality videos he does on Saturday to show what I need to work on.