My Swing (nhwoj)

[nhwoj]

First two are on a par 3 when our course was empty (6i) with my sketchy-quality digital camera. Pulled the first, slight chunk on the second. Next two are way higher quality, using my dad's camera in the backyard with a practice ball. The last two are very good natural ball flight examples for me, slight fade on the 4i and push slice with the driver. Any comments or observations, anything you can say is helpful.

Just to note, all my shots have pretty high trajectory. With driver/3 wood = push slice, hybrids = medium cut, long irons (4,5, sometimes 6) = slight fade, short irons/wedges = straight (incase you're wondering about normal ball flight).

[nhwoj]

Anyone have any suggestions?

[alo1984]

You way over swing. Shorten the backswing up. You take the club back way too far outside/steep. Try taking the club back more inside and lower. That will put you in a better position at the top.

You appear to flip the club head through impact, which causes a poor, glancing blow. You should work on getting your hands in front of the ball at impact. You want to have a flat right wrist through impact, and yours is bending/cupping. There are several threads on this forum and numerous books/videos that can give you some good drills for that.

[Easy]

That left elbow is well past 90 degrees at the top of your backswing. Unless you're trying to duplicate Fred Couples keep that left elbow pointing down.

[sean_miller]

First two are on a par 3 when our course was empty (6i) with my sketchy-quality digital camera. Pulled the first, slight chunk on the second. Next two are way higher quality, using my dad's camera in the backyard with a practice ball. The last two are very good natural ball flight examples for me, slight fade on the 4i and push slice with the driver. Any comments or observations, anything you can say is helpful.

I guess I don't know much about a good golf swing, because I think what you've got now is fantastic. I'd suggest raising your hands a tad at address (maybe your irons have a lie angle that's too flat?) and to just keep on practicing. Like I said already, I like what you're doing - right now! A little more practice and I suspect you'll be crushing the ball.

[mdl]

I agree with sean miller. Only thing I see that's definitely bad is that you start your down swing with a twist instead of a bump forward, so your hands and club head go from what was a pretty good plane to over the top. This is true on your 6i too but especially on your driver, hence the push slice. Don't spin out on the start of your downswing and try to keep your hands and club head on plane and not coming a little over the top.

[nhwoj]

I agree with sean miller. Only thing I see that's definitely bad is that you start your down swing with a twist instead of a bump forward, so your hands and club head go from what was a pretty good plane to over the top. This is true on your 6i too but especially on your driver, hence the push slice. Don't spin out on the start of your downswing and try to keep your hands and club head on plane and not coming a little over the top.

Thanks, and I suspect the turn of the body on the downswing is because of my baseball background (I've been playing since I was 6) that's already ingrained a baseball swing in me. Anyway everyone, thanks for the feedback!

[chuckanderson]

Yeah take a shorter back swing. If you take what seems like a short backswing, to where u just barely touch your chin to your shoulder, you will get about the right feeling. Do that with an 8 iron for about 30 times, then swing one how you used to. You can feel your left arm breaking down where it feels like you have to work to keep your hand in the correct position or your elbow in. I did it for a long time and that's what causes the big fades. If you did what I did you will learn to rotate your hand to make it work, which is just a terrible habit to make a bad golf swing work (plus I would randomly get lazy and hit the fade). Now I'm in a much better position with my right arm (I'm right handed) at the top and I never have to fight the breakdown.

edit: oh yeah... stop that picking the right foot up business

[nhwoj]

Yeah take a shorter back swing. If you take what seems like a short backswing, to where u just barely touch your chin to your shoulder, you will get about the right feeling. Do that with an 8 iron for about 30 times, then swing one how you used to. You can feel your left arm breaking down where it feels like you have to work to keep your hand in the correct position or your elbow in. I did it for a long time and that's what causes the big fades. If you did what I did you will learn to rotate your hand to make it work, which is just a terrible habit to make a bad golf swing work (plus I would randomly get lazy and hit the fade). Now I'm in a much better position with my right arm (I'm right handed) at the top and I never have to fight the breakdown.

That's really weird, I never even noticed I was doing that. Once again it is probably a leftover from my baseball mechanics, striding to take a swing.

[luckyluke699]

Hello! I'd like to quantify that I am no expert on this by any means!! Iacas etc would be better placed to comment than me, but you do appear to be doing one thing I used to do too, which is overcocking your wrists and thus taking the club way past horizontal at the top of the backswing

I've added a couple of pics on the attachment below to illustrate so take a look.

As you can see in the left picture your driver is clearly pointing towards the floor. In Tigers drive (centre pic inverted the pic to help) you can't see the club at all, as it is perfectly horizontal. The final picture is side on to illustrate the difference in club angle between yourself and Tiger easier...

Attachment 2493

It's difficult to work through this, without someone else's help as you need to know what the correct angle "feels like" without seeing yourself. My Pro would stand in front of me and hold the club forward so it pointed towards me but to my left parallel with my eyes.

I would then perform my backswing only (note, no follow through!!), and if the clubs hit at the top, I knew I was overswinging and overcocking my wrists. Once I gained how this angle "felt", I could then practise it on my own before performing full swings on the range... this stopped my slight slicing as you seem to experience.

Good luck, hope that helped

[nhwoj]

Here's a new video of my driver swing, guys. Please give me feedback, what's better, what's worse, etc. Anything helps! Thanks.