My Swing (shortys408)

[shortys408]

you can see in the next to last swing in that video that I pulled that ball into the bushes. What did i do to pull the ball there?

[Keep It Simple]

You are swinging WAY too stiff. Try this as a practice drill: let your arms hang down at address like spaghetti - very loose. Then practice swinging your arms back and forth with your body (arms completely passive). Try hitting the ball this way. In regular play your arms should be loose and relaxed while your body turn does most of the work.

[uttexas]

You've got a pretty good swing. You have a nice hip turn and the club appears to be travelling in an in to out path on the downswing when the club is parallel to the ground. But then you maintain your spine flexion and don't extend into impact.
The main reason you are hitting straight pulls is that you don't extend your spine, legs, and arms into impact enough. Think "extension into impact". You come into impact with a significantly flexed spine--if you didn't bend your elbows and legs a bit, you'd hit the ground well before the ball. When you swing into the ball with a flexed spine, arms, and legs this promotes swinging across the ball with a closed club face = straight pull.

Try hitting some balls thinking "stand up" or "jump up" into impact.
Also, hit balls maintaining your right wrist hinge (you release your right wrist hinge prior to impact = flipping the club). Keeping the right wrist hinge will promote keeping the club face open into impact. By keeping the club face open and extending more into impact, you should start hitting some slight straight pushes, and some push draws (which are both better ball flights than a straight pull)

see picture below, notice how extended the spine, legs and arms are. Notice how the right wrist is hinged and left wrist is "flat"

[shortys408]

what i understood from that is because I am bent over too much my elbows bend at impact? I tried what you said with extension in to impact and it does seem to straighten my shot with this foam ball. I will see how it works with a real golf ball next time I play.

[delav]

Given your body type, I'd really work on flexibility if you want to take golf seriously. Try a Yoga DVD or gym class, it will really help. Seems to be quite a bit of tension at setup and follow through.

Taking a wider stance will help your balance, and moving weight through to your left foot at impact will help get rid of the pull move. Search for the thread on 'hip slide'

[shortys408]

what would you recommend specifically that I stretch?

[shortys408]

keeping my right wrist hinged more is causing me to slice. I will try and post some more videos later.

[SteelCitySlice]

It also appears on some of your swings that your weight is slightly forward over the ball...essentially you're on your toes more than your heels. I noticed it a few times because on your follow through you fall to the side a little as you are holding your finish. I had this same problem and it resulted in either a pull or a horrible banana slice most of the time. If you really concentrate on keeping your weight back and staying mostly on your heels you'll have better balance through the swing which will make it easier for the club to stay on plane. Widening your stance, like one of the previous posters suggested, will also help your balance. All of this is probably secondary to what uttexas said above (btw, I will probably be using some of that advice!), but try it out and see if it helps at all! Good luck!

[James_Black]

If you really concentrate on keeping your weight back and staying mostly on your heels you'll have better balance through the swing which will make it easier for the club to stay on plane.

that's the opposite of everything that I've ever been taught.

to have an "athletic stance" pretend your a goalkeeper, they don't lean back on their heels. They have their weight on the balls of the feet and can shift either way easily. Same thing in golf

[delav]

what would you recommend specifically that I stretch?

Shoulders and back, lots of rotational stretching. For someone who is body building, stretching of the arms, legs, lower back and shoulders too.

Look at the flexibility of almost any tour player, particularly at the top of their backswing and finish. You really can't overdo stretching and flexibility, and in most cases muscle mass and stiffness will really limit the positions your can achieve and clubhead speed you can generate.

[shortys408]

i stretch my legs a lot every day. I had back surgery from a herniated disc about a year ago. PT told me to continue stretching my legs out to keep pressure off of my back. I still can not touch my toes :/

[Zalfor]

ur really stiff, you need to loosen up a bit.

[shortys408]

this may sound like a silly question, but how do I "loosen up". I feel plenty loose when I am swinging the club.

[Frito]

You are swinging WAY too stiff. Try this as a practice drill: let your arms hang down at address like spaghetti - very loose. Then practice swinging your arms back and forth with your body (arms completely passive). Try hitting the ball this way. In regular play your arms should be loose and relaxed while your body turn does most of the work.

Somone told me this one time on this forum and before i started doing it right everything went left. Your arms should feel like there doing Literally nothing on the down swing. nothing at all, use your turn and try to get a "whip" feel. also your grip pressure should be equally loose im pretty strong too and i allways had a death grip on the club. ya and let your arms hang down like a limp noodle at adress and make sure they don't tense up.

[shortys408]

played a round today. Took some of the advice and turned my hips through impact, also widened my stance. Here is a video. The shot in this video resulted in a push (different than my usual pull)

[shortys408]

after watching that video in slow motion. Looks like I just suck at aligning myself. Ball appears to be going straight, i was just aimed incorrectly. The ball flight of that shot did not have any spin (draw or fade)

[shortys408]

Here is a driver video I took as well. Sorry if the angle is incorrect. The driver is the club in my bag I am the most satisfied with. I seem to hit the fairways most of the time, ball flight is usually straight or a slight draw. Most of them go around 240, some go further, some go shorter (especially when wind is involved). Any suggestions as to how I can add more distance would be nice.

[mazzamouth]

have you ever worked on your alignment?

if you looked at his feet, they did look open, so your alignment can be off, which will make a difference as well.

Here is a driver video I took as well. Sorry if the angle is incorrect. The driver is the club in my bag I am the most satisfied with. I seem to hit the fairways most of the time, ball flight is usually straight or a slight draw. Most of them go around 240, some go further, some go shorter (especially when wind is involved). Any suggestions as to how I can add more distance would be nice.

you have a lot of head movement with this swing, watch your head in the video..