My Swing (Ben)

[Ben]

Yeah it does look like its going well left off the face. Dunno what's up with that? But I assure you these two shots were frozen ropes directly to my target, which was the same as the other day, a large tree out in the distance (236y). framed in red in the picture below. Today I was in a spot a little more left on the range. You can't really tell from the camera being low, but I also have a shaft lined up straight at it. Johnthejointer pointed out my alignment the other day, and I did in fact reply that yes, I do set up with my feet closed to the target (more closed the longer club). That's why I posted the Hogan Stance diagram. You will see that with a driver he prefers a rather closed stance. My purpose for these videos was to help me find out why I'm pulling the ball. And to post here cause its been a while since I've posted anything new. I found out what was a cause for the pulls, but, alignment was not one of the culprits. So here's the tree. Feet closed, clubface square, shoulders square. Nice shots!

[johnthejoiner]

I have to say this before you start shouting at me, you have a great swing, now to start tearing it to shreds "just joking".
Its hard to slow down your swing on the video but if you go to the one on your long video and go  the swing that ends around 5.30, you'll see at the point of contact your hips have cleared but your shoulder are still square to your target and you pulled it, now compare it to your next swing your hips and shoulders have cleared to the same degree and you flushed that one

[delav]

Originally Posted by Ben

Yeah it does look like its going well left off the face. Dunno what's up with that? But I assure you these two shots were frozen ropes directly to my target, which was the same as the other day, a large tree out in the distance (236y).

Hey Ben,

You can take this for what it is worth.  Sounds like you've determined that your clubface was shut on the backswing, resulting in some lefts.

If you're hitting 'frozen ropes' left of target, this suggests that the clubface is closed at impact, and the path is slightly across the ball.

Here area a few things I observed:

The target (tree) is shown here in green.  Shoulders are open to your target, hips square, feet are closed by about 50-70' of where they 'should' be, depending on who you ask.  Again, I understand you like that Hogan diagram, but consider what this setup might cause.

Moving into impact.  The orange lines measure the flex and movement of your right hip and knee.  One was drawn at address, the other well before impact.  Look at the movement of the right knee towards the ball and the lifting of the right heel.

Because your hips were closed to the target, you're forced to rotate them excessively rather than translating them toward the target.  Your body won't let you move your hips laterally because it knows that would send the ball way right of your target (due to setup).  As a result, the hips spin and the club approaches the ball slightly from the outside.

You mentioned Fred Couples was a swing mentor of yours.  His position here is very, very different.  Look at the minimal movement of his right knee towards the ball, as well as the low right heel.  Fred isn't rotating his hips here nearly as much as he is moving them toward the target.  He's also setup well with his feet left of target (although, he is swinging an iron here).

Here is the path of your clubhead (blue) and the ball after contact (yellow).  Hard to see exactly whats going on here because the camera isn't positioned right on the target line, but the ball starts left of target and stays there.  Notice how early your club gets low and left of target?

The fact that your shoulders are open and feet well closed could be things to thing about.

I don't mean to reinvent the wheel of your swing with this post, but I de believe that being closed at setup is causing a few issues with mechanics here.

[Ben]

Wow, that's really awesome. Thanks delav! Can't hurt to play around with my feet as well I guess. I'll have to check out that analyzrgolf site too. Is it free? Looks pretty bitchin.

[delav]

Ben,

Analyzr is a great tool, I'm just getting to know the software myself.  Here is the website:

http://analyzrgolf.com/

It's only available for Mac OSX, but perhaps that too could be a change for the better :)

[bkoguy07]

Nothing really big here, but do you ever use a glove?

You could get a bitchin nickname opposite of tommy 2 glove gainey ..

Ben No glove whateveryourlastnameis

[Ben]

Went to the range today and took an assortment of videos with different clubs. 54*, 6i, 3i, 3w, Driver. Working on a few things lately. Keeping my backswing on plane is one, I tend to be a tad too upright. I'm also working on lag and the Hogan chain reaction. Making sure the clubface gets delivered to the ball correctly. I think there's four swings in each video...

[mattttt25]

Very unremarkable swing... and I mean that as a huge compliment.  I like how your pre-shot routine is short and simple.  Swing looks effortless, no wasted movement.  No big turns, no sharp angles.  You remind me of a MLB all-star taking batting practice.  Thanks for posting.

[bunkerputt]

Your swing looks pretty sound fundamentally, but you are a little loose with your angles.  Bend your knees just a touch more to get your weight in your quads.  It looks like you are shifting fine with the lower body, but it's a straight-legged shift, which makes you lose your spine angle on the down swing and cast to get back to the ball to make up the height difference.  Because of the straight-leg action, your rotation is limited and the legs can't work effectively to add power while preserving club head lag.  Check out this guy.  He keeps his angles best on tour right now IMO:

Here's you.

Here's Charl Schwartzel.

[iacas]

Ben, just a suggestion... but I'd work on controlling the right knee. More forwards and a whole lot less towards the golf ball. It's a big part of your head yanking off the wall.

(Red line not 100% accurate because of the camera view being too far to the right, but the knee definitely goes well across where it should.)

[jshots]

Originally Posted by delav

Ben,

Analyzr is a great tool, I'm just getting to know the software myself.  Here is the website:

http://analyzrgolf.com/

It's only available for Mac OSX, but perhaps that too could be a change for the better :)

For windows I would get Kinovea . It is very good and open source(free), and if you don't support open source i'm going to find you and... I probably won't ever find you

[Ben]

Taken this morning. Trying to get flatter on the backswing. Feels flat, doesn't really look all that flat though...

Compared to older swings maybe? http://www.youtube.com/user/benplaysgolf?feature=mhee

[mchepp]

Your backswing is far from flat. Plus if you want to flatten your backswing I think you need to make sure you keep the face square to the arc at P2. Otherwise you are going to have some incompatible pieces.

Right now, except for the earlier comments about your right leg, your swing is pretty good. You maybe over swing a bit, which causes your lower body to be a bit disconnected, but without a face on view that is hard to tell.

[Ben]

"Overswing" is definitely not a term that someone has ever used in describing my swing, that's for sure. Most of the time I think I underswing... ha.

And forget getting flat. I've had enough with screwing with my swing. It produces a nice fade that I can rely on. I gotta get more rounds on the course. And sharpen up my wedge game...

[poser]

Originally Posted by Ben

"Overswing" is definitely not a term that someone has ever used in describing my swing, that's for sure. Most of the time I think I underswing... ha.

And forget getting flat. I've had enough with screwing with my swing. It produces a nice fade that I can rely on. I gotta get more rounds on the course. And sharpen up my wedge game...

Well said.  If you can control low point and have an idea where the ball is going then I wouldn't be to worried about what my swing looked like. You are already at a high level so short game is going to save you the shots you need to compete.