My Swing (chrismyates)

[chrismyates]

I'm trying to get rid of or minimize my tendency to hit two of the most frustrating shots in golf, hitting fat and hitting a big push slice with my driver. I tend to hit fat or push pretty much any club, but my driver and hybrid miss tends to be a big push slice. I'd like to get some feedback from everyone to see if they can identify the potential problem and perhaps some drills that can help.

I suspect the problem could be one or more of the following:

1. Getting too steep or getting my hands too high in my backswing and transition
2. Sliding instead of turning
3. Shoulders somehow staying too closed at impact.

In some cases I can seem to help the problem by keeping the clubface very closed in the backswing, focusing on turning the back of my left wrist toward the ground on the downswing, or really focusing on getting my shoulders out of the way. However, I feel like I'm just putting a bandaid on the problem. I'm wondering if the solution is to get flatter on my backswing forcing me to turn instead of raise my arms.

Here are a few videos:

My goal is to break 90 for the first time so thanks for any help you can give!

[tristanhilton85]

The biggest reason you are getting those fat shots is you make a HUGE move off of the ball in your back swing.  The problem is that if you don't have perfect timing each and every time, this move makes it very hard to get to a good impact position.  Look in the picture below, the yellow lines represent your head and lead shoulder at address, the red is where they are at the top of your swing (I added a white dot for the ball for reference).  You set up pretty well with everything centered but you get everything behind the ball at the top.

What you want to do is get your lead arm more in line with your shoulders, obviously yours is way above.  Also you want to feel as if your lead shoulder is pointing down at the ball, as it is a bit on the flat side here.  Lastly, shorten up on the back swing, you don't really want to be bringing the club past parrallel.

So basically, for now, I'd say stay more centered on the back swing (you want to fell as if the buttons on your shirt stay in the same position the entire time), bring the arms down, and shorten your swing.

I also think this video would be helpful.

[chrismyates]

Tristan,

What you're saying makes total sense. One thing I was told when I first started golfing is that your weight needs to get on the right foot in the back swing and shifted back on the left foot at impact,  that it's bad to have a reverse weight shift on the back swing, and that you need to stay behind the ball. I think I took that too far and it made me get too lateral with my movements. Any advice to make sure I don't get into the habit of a reverse weight shift in the back swing while working on this?

I'll go out to the range and work on this and follow up in a few days to let you know the results. Thanks!

Chris.

[tristanhilton85]

Originally Posted by chrismyates

Tristan,

What you're saying makes total sense. One thing I was told when I first started golfing is that your weight needs to get on the right foot in the back swing and shifted back on the left foot at impact,  that it's bad to have a reverse weight shift on the back swing, and that you need to stay behind the ball. I think I took that too far and it made me get too lateral with my movements. Any advice to make sure I don't get into the habit of a reverse weight shift in the back swing while working on this?

I'll go out to the range and work on this and follow up in a few days to let you know the results. Thanks!

Chris.

Keeping your weight centered or on your left side is not a reverse weight shift or reverse pivot as some would call it.  A reverse pivot is when during your back swing you shift your weight to your front side and on the downswing you shift your weight to the back side (reverse from what most teach).  What I am suggesting you do is keep your weight pretty centered throughout the backswing (maybe a little more on the front side say 55/45) and then as you swing down keep moving it to the front.  As long as you keep your weight moving forward throughout the downswing you won't have a reverse weight shift.

[chrismyates]

Originally Posted by tristanhilton85

A reverse pivot is when during your back swing you shift your weight to your front side and on the downswing you shift your weight to the back side (reverse from what most teach).

This clarification helps. Just shows how easy it is to misinterpret golf advice.  I'll make sure I don't fall back/let my weight get on the back foot on my downswing. Thanks again.

[johnthejoiner]

Here's a video that will explain the proper weight shift for your swing

[chspeed]

Tristan, while I respect the people who preach the "stack and tilt" method, and while many of the fundamentals of that swing are shared among all good swings, some are not. More importantly, what some people feel as weight shifting to the right side is actually centered, and vice-versa.

I guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't necessarily abandon the feeling of getting your weight right and then left through the swing. I would, however, work on fewer moving parts throughout the swing, which can include turning your hips more as opposed to sliding them backwards.

By the way, can anyone actually feel what it's like to have 55%/45% weight distribution as opposed to 50%/50%? :)

[Harmonious]

As with so many folks, your weight has shifted to the outside of your right foot.  Thus the swaying that shows up.  It is fine to shift your weight to your back foot, so long as the weight stays on the inside of your foot, allowing you to brace against it for your downswing.  Just like a baseball player would do.   What you will find is that this will make you much more centered during your swing, and should lead to much more solid shots. Try that first and see how it feels.

[threejack]

just curious, where do majority of your drives end up?

[tristanhilton85]

Originally Posted by chspeed

Tristan, while I respect the people who preach the "stack and tilt" method, and while many of the fundamentals of that swing are shared among all good swings, some are not. More importantly, what some people feel as weight shifting to the right side is actually centered, and vice-versa.

I guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't necessarily abandon the feeling of getting your weight right and then left through the swing. I would, however, work on fewer moving parts throughout the swing, which can include turning your hips more as opposed to sliding them backwards.

By the way, can anyone actually feel what it's like to have 55%/45% weight distribution as opposed to 50%/50%? :)

I see what your are saying, but in this example where he is shifting so far to the right, he does need to swing so that he feels centered or even staying on his left side.  And yeah, some can tell the difference between 55/45 and 50/50... 50/50 feels perfectly centered, 55/45 feels like it favors the front just a touch... now whether or not what one feels as 55/45 is actually 55/45 is debatable but I can tell a difference between what I feel is 50/50 and 55/45.  Now enough about this, I don't want to hijack Chris' my swing thread.

[chrismyates]

Originally Posted by Harmonious

As with so many folks, your weight has shifted to the outside of your right foot.  Thus the swaying that shows up.  It is fine to shift your weight to your back foot, so long as the weight stays on the inside of your foot, allowing you to brace against it for your downswing.  Just like a baseball player would do.   What you will find is that this will make you much more centered during your swing, and should lead to much more solid shots. Try that first and see how it feels.

After looking at several of my videos it's pretty obvious that I'm getting my weight on the outside of my right foot on the back swing pretty much every time so I think this is most likely the main cause of my fat shots. I'm wondering if it's also contributing to my pushes if I am also sliding forward too far in some cases leaving the clubface open.

Originally Posted by threejack

just curious, where do majority of your drives end up?

It's very rare that a drive ends up left of where I'm aiming with a normal setup. If it's a "good" shot, it starts a little right of my target line and fades right. If it's a bad one, I end up with a nasty push slice (starts right and slices farther right) that ends up in the trees or out of bounds on the right side of the fairway.

[chrismyates]

Just a quick follow up here. I went to the range and practiced not moving laterally on the backswing and it definitely made it easier to get back to the ball to make clean contact. I also worked on shortening and flattening out my back swing. I still seemed to push some of the shots unless I really focused on what in my mind was "finishing flatter and to the left". I need some more reps to sort it out, but I feel like I'm making progress.

[JasonFL]

Chris the first thing i though when you said you suffer from a push slice was that you're over rotating your hips. tristans photo proves it. notice how little the pros hips turn inthe back swing compared to yours. huge hip turns prevent your hands from clearing your hips due to the large turn needed to get your hips back to square. try swinging a club while on your knees to see what i mean. its helped me a ton.

[chrismyates]

Originally Posted by JasonFL

Chris the first thing i though when you said you suffer from a push slice was that you're over rotating your hips. tristans photo proves it. notice how little the pros hips turn inthe back swing compared to yours. huge hip turns prevent your hands from clearing your hips due to the large turn needed to get your hips back to square. try swinging a club while on your knees to see what i mean. its helped me a ton.

Do you mean on my backswing?

[JasonFL]

Yes sir.

[threejack]

I would agree that your pushes/slices occur from too much backswing rotation, but I also think getting more club head speed would help you. Your driver swing is smooth but not lot of club head speed. If you increase that club head speed it will help snap that club face square. tuck that right elbow toward your ribs on your downswing as well to promote the inside out path.

[chspeed]

Originally Posted by JasonFL

Chris the first thing i though when you said you suffer from a push slice was that you're over rotating your hips. tristans photo proves it. notice how little the pros hips turn inthe back swing compared to yours. huge hip turns prevent your hands from clearing your hips due to the large turn needed to get your hips back to square. try swinging a club while on your knees to see what i mean. its helped me a ton.

I respectfully disagree. If anything, most amateurs turn their hips too little - trying to achieve the infamous, and essentially incorrect, "X" factor. Even McLean backed off his X factor a couple of years ago. Here's a good video on this:

[threejack]

I'm going to agree with the over rotating of the hips. My pro at my lesson yesterday caught me doing the same thing. Not only did I club up with every club, my accuracy improved a crap ton. I only rotate them to like 30 degrees now. Look at Tigers old swing, his hips HARDLY moved. The x-factor is not incorrect btw. In fact I have a little rule of thumb, if most pros do it, its probably not wrong!