My Swing (Mordan)

[ohiolefty]

I like your action and your finish position a lot. I think if there was a way to quiet your left leg a little and do what you're doing with your left leg with your hips and turn, you'd be really deadly.

[iacas]

The shots you are hitting fat are because your head is well in front of the golf ball throughout the swing. Move the golf ball 1 inch forward from the center of your stance and keep your head just behind the golf ball (especially at impact) throughout your swing. Your head should never move forward in the golf swing. To make sure it doesn't, you could even practice having your head move a tiny bit backwards as you approach impact. I would be surprised if this doesn't cure your fat shots immediately.

I was going to say almost exactly the same thing. From the top of the backswing, feel as if the hips go forward, the belt raises as it goes forward, and that your head drops away from the target.

The first two are real, the last one is to help your head from moving forwards. Charlie Wi's head has this movement, but he gets it back into the box by impact. The oval shows his head at the top of his backswing: Nice changes, nice work.

[Mordan]

Here's the latest video of my swing. I think I've pretty much eliminated the sway from the first videos, and my left leg isn't collapsing backwards anymore although I'm not sure about the lift of my left heel, it's coming up a good 2 inches off the ground in the backswing.

I'm hitting the ball better than 6 months ago, and I'm hitting quite a lot of good shots in a round. Unfortunately, I'm still throwing in some really poor ones which are costing me on the scorecard but the general trend of my scores is going in the right direction.

Any thoughts?

[Mordan]

I've also noticed that my backswing is getting shorter. I'm not sure it's a bad thing, I don't seem to be losing any distance but I can't really see why it's shorter. Maybe a combination of shoulder turn and wrist cock. Is this something I should be looking into?

[uttexas]

really nice improvements.  your swing looks awesome.  I'll nitpick a bit here--but they are easy changes (set up changes)

1.  try moving the ball more forward--with a seven iron, I'd say 2 inches forward of center.

2.  try flaring your left foot out some more at address (same amount as right foot)--this might make it easier to get your left hip more forward into impact and not lift the left heel so much in the backswing.

[bwklinks]

One thing that i would add to uttexas post is to roll your top hand over when you bring your club back so the face will open, that should help to avoid stray shots of the tee on impact. feel it out though.

keep up the good work just looked at all your video's and have noticed allot of improvement. The tempo of a swing is half the battle, and it looks like you have it down pretty good, cant wait to see the progress in your next video.

[Cut68]

Absolutely beautiful tempo and solid impact position. If you're really a 21, as others have said, spend some serious time practicing around the greens. I've found that if you can make solid contact, the fastest way to move your H.C. is to put in the work on your short game. If you are money with a wedge in your hand, it can make up for a lot

[bwklinks]

I agree, having a good short game is key. I have read allot of books that preaches about how you should start with your putting and work your way back to the tee. Make sure with your chipping that you lead with your hands and have the ball back in your stance so you limit flub shots. good luck!!

[Mordan]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Nice to know I'm moving in the right direction, especially after getting home from a really frustrating 9 holes after work where I shot 49. Unfortunately the even tempo from the video above seems to desert me for stretches of holes at a time once I get on the course. Maybe I need to start taking video of some shots on the course to see what I'm doing differently when it all goes wrong. A few playing partners have mentioned that my swing was "a bit quick" after I've hit a poor shot.

Perhaps the only positive out of today's round was that my chipping was pretty good. While my handicap is still 21 that's really only because of the strange winter we've had where nearly all individual competitions were either cancelled or played in poor conditions (in the UK only competition rounds count towards your handicap). I'm probably playing more to a 15 or so, and there's a medal comp on Sunday so I'm really hoping to start bringing it down.

I'll keep an eye on my ball position, fat shots are still my worst miss so I'm a little reluctant to push the ball too far forward in case it brings on more. And I'll flare my left foot a little more too, I used to do that and I'm not sure when I stopped.

bwklinks, I'm a little confused by the rolling of the wrists. If I consciously roll them open at the top won't I just have to time rolling them shut again at impact?

[johnthejoiner]

It looks like at the start of your takeaway you pick the club up and start to set your wrist very early, do you do that with all your clubs ?

[bwklinks]

what i meant with rolling your wrist is to roll them when you take the club back so that the toe of your iron pre say is pointing to the sky, instead of keeping it closed on your back swing.. but at this point i would keep it simple, don't worry about that just give it a try on the range.. if you work on your game around the green your H.C will go down and your confidence with get greater on your overall game.

Hope this cleared up my prior post.. Glad you are out hitting the links.. Wish I had time to do the same. Hope to this Summer with my Spring semester at college finishes up.

[Mordan]

Well isn't golf a strange game. After yesterday evening's frustrations I managed to make it out again for another 9 this evening and shot a 5 over 42. 6 pars, a bogey and two double bogeys due to silly mistakes (loss of concentration I think). Definite signs of progress.

Originally Posted by johnthejoiner

It looks like at the start of your takeaway you pick the club up and start to set your wrist very early, do you do that with all your clubs ?

Yeah I think so, it's not a conscious move but I'm pretty sure I do it all the time. I have no idea if it's a good or bad thing.

Originally Posted by bwklinks

what i meant with rolling your wrist is to roll them when you take the club back so that the toe of your iron pre say is pointing to the sky, instead of keeping it closed on your back swing.. but at this point i would keep it simple, don't worry about that just give it a try on the range.. if you work on your game around the green your H.C will go down and your confidence with get greater on your overall game.

Hope this cleared up my prior post.. Glad you are out hitting the links.. Wish I had time to do the same. Hope to this Summer with my Spring semester at college finishes up.

I guess I'm just a little unclear as to why I'd want to add wrist roll to the equation. At the moment it just feels like I hinge going back and come through on the way down, wouldn't adding another dimension of movement make it harder?

[bwklinks]

Ya at this point it would be good to think about that, just something to possibly work on at the range.. when i work on my game i try different things... I was a great time to get that in your head. Just keep it simple and enjoy yourself out on the course. Glad you were able to get out for a quick nine!!

Just work on keep your swing smooth at this point. And just keep your head clear when you are out playing..or the best you can, its aways hard to after a poor shot. Just remember that you cant do anything about the previous shot, just to make the next one better.

What Kind of course do you play at are you a member anywhere?

[Mordan]

Originally Posted by bwklinks

What Kind of course do you play at are you a member anywhere?

Yeah I'm a member of a club on the south coast of England. I think they call it a downland course but I've never been able to find a definition of what that means. I'd say it shares some characteristics of a links course, the fairways and greens are hard and fast and the holes are set over rolling hills so there is some kind of slope in play on pretty much every shot. I think that's one thing I've found hard over the last 6 months is that you almost never get a flat stance on any shot that isn't on a tee box. Ball below the feet has been giving me a few nightmares recently.

[bwklinks]

wow that course sound great.. ya that can be tough playing on uneven ground.. Must get great playing in England, I'd love to get over there.. I'm from the states. I work and play at a course designed by Arnold Palmer, called The Golf Club of New England we are hosting the 2012 U.S junior Amateur. Its an amazing course that I'm Lucky to play.. I'm a Member a different course that is more for the common man. the course i work at is about $12,000 a year in dues so there are some wealthy people that i get to meet everyday.

[Mordan]

Here's my latest swing videos, front on 7i, driver, then 52 degree wedge, and down the line 7i and driver. Not a great day for golf, as you might notice from my trousers, it was blowing at least 30mph and I was hitting pretty much straight into it.

Not a lot seems to have changed since my last videos, which might suggest why my golf hasn't improved too much. My good golf is really quite good, but my bad shots are often very bad.

My two most common misses recently are a low pull hook, due I think to letting my upper body fall towards the target, and thin shots due to starting my swing with my arms and flipping to try and rescue it. I've noticed that I have a tendency toward setting up with the ball too far forward, and a little bit closed, but I'm not sure if that's a big problem or not.

I'm going to start with Evolvr soon, and maybe try and get up to have a lesson with James now that I know he's in the UK, but in the meantime does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

[JetFan1983]

I think I know what your next pieces to work on are, but I could be wrong. If I am wrong, hopefully Mike, Erik, Dave, James, SK Golf, Phil Mc, the Pharaoh, etc. or whoever else knows the right answer sees the thread and makes the correction.

1) Keep your right arm straighter on the backswing. Feel like you are keeping your right arm completely straight because it appears to be over-flexing in an attempt to complete the backswing.

2) Jump and extend more on the downswing as you approach impact, using your right leg to jump off the ground and straighten more. You won't actually jump off the ground, but feeling that may help you. It seems like there isn't enough hip slide yet, and also not enough secondary axis tilt at impact, perhaps leading to a bit too much steepness in the swing. More hip slide would give you more side-tilt as well and less pull-hookage. More hip slide and side-tilt would probably keep your head from going forward too.

3) Keep both your arms straight in the follow through. Your right arm never fully straightens on your follow-through. Feel straight arms there.

Your head appears to me moving forward just slightly still on your downswing, in which case, you may still need to work on what Keep it Simple and Erik said earlier in the thread about this: feeling like your head is moving backwards a little bit on the downswing while you are pushing your hips forward.

[Mordan]

Isn't golf a strange game? The video is from my range session on Saturday, I was hitting it ok with my irons but my driver was giving me big problems. I felt like I was fighting the club all the way down to the ball and you can probably see from the video I was struggling even to get it off the middle of the club face. And playing isn't a whole lot of fun when you're not sure if your driver is going left, right, low or high.

But after the range session I decided to get a few holes of practice in and being a little perplexed at how I could take a practice swing that felt quite comfortable and looked like it came through the striking zone on a good arc, but couldn't seem to do it with the ball in front of me I decided to just focus on the arc of my club almost ignoring the ball. And it made all the difference, suddenly the ball was coming off the middle of the club and going pretty much where I was aiming it.

So deciding this seemed to be a good strategy I solely focussed on the arc for all my drives in yesterday's monthly Stableford competition and the improvement was remarkable. I was even looking an inch or two behind the ball, thinking about the arc and just swinging much more freely. Even though my putting and sand game, which had been keeping me in it recently, decided to desert me somewhat I shot 40 points (gross 84 against par 72) in tough conditions with a 2 - 3 club wind, including blading my two bunker shots and missing 3 short putts. An indication of how tough the wind made some of the holes was our S.I. 2 16th hole which was playing into the wind with a bit of left to right and with a fairway sloping left to right, which gave up 0 birdies and 1 par from 103 competitors, about a third of whom play off single figures.

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

I think I know what your next pieces to work on are, but I could be wrong. If I am wrong, hopefully Mike, Erik, Dave, James, SK Golf, Phil Mc, the Pharaoh, etc. or whoever else knows the right answer sees the thread and makes the correction.

1) Keep your right arm straighter on the backswing. Feel like you are keeping your right arm completely straight because it appears to be over-flexing in an attempt to complete the backswing.

2) Jump and extend more on the downswing as you approach impact, using your right leg to jump off the ground and straighten more. You won't actually jump off the ground, but feeling that may help you. It seems like there isn't enough hip slide yet, and also not enough secondary axis tilt at impact, perhaps leading to a bit too much steepness in the swing. More hip slide would give you more side-tilt as well and less pull-hookage. More hip slide and side-tilt would probably keep your head from going forward too.

3) Keep both your arms straight in the follow through. Your right arm never fully straightens on your follow-through. Feel straight arms there.

Your head appears to me moving forward just slightly still on your downswing, in which case, you may still need to work on what Keep it Simple and Erik said earlier in the thread about this: feeling like your head is moving backwards a little bit on the downswing while you are pushing your hips forward.

Thanks for the comments. I've always wondered a little about my left arm, and the way it flexes a little at the top of my backswing, but never considered the right arm too much. Reducing the flex in the right arm will probably do the same with the left, but I'm not sure what benefit this will bring to my swing. I'm not saying you're wrong at all, but I always like to know why I'm doing something. You also mention my arms in point 3, and I do wonder a little if perhaps straighter arms will give more consistency to the low point of my swing and get rid of occasional thins and fats.

I'm not sure I can jump a lot more from my right leg, my foot almost comes off the ground after impact and if anything I thought I'd want to bank my right foot more rather than driving up with it? Maybe banking and driving forward rather than up might be what you mean? That would hopefully give me more hip slide.