My Swing (Ernest Jones)

[Ernest Jones]

Well, here it is in all its ugly fugly glory. Misses are usually to the right (push) with a wee (sometimes gigantic) bit'o'slice with longer clubs and driver.

FPS is pretty limited but I was hoping someone could point out the major bits that need work :-)

Hoping some fellow trappers will have mercy on me and help me out!!!

[Ernest Jones]

Here's the DtL, which looks a little less awful although it is the same swing. I'm hitting wiffle balls because its my only option at the moment.

[uttexas]

The main thing I see-- you are getting too much mass forward too early in the backswing. Feel 50/50 as you turn back, as you approach the top of the backswing, start shifting forward, then thrust forward in the downswing so that you end up 90+ front/ 10 back. What you are doing: looks like 50/50 at address. As your arms approach parallel to the ground in the backswing your left knee moves forward and it looks 75 front/ 25 back and your upper body and head move forward then at the top 80/20. Then in the forward swing, in order to get the ball in the air, you move your upper body backwards and at impact look 50/50. Because I also start straightening my right leg early, I can tend to move my upper torso forward during the backswing. What helped me the most was to feel that I turned my hips first on the way back (then the shoulders). Turn the hips so that you feel like your belt buckle faces the camera on the DTL view. Feel that your right hip pocket turns behind you and that your left buttcheek is trying to touch a bar stool in front of your left hip. As you turn, feel that the left knee flexes straight toward a face on camera (yours flexes forward--shifting your mass forward) Try initiating the backswing with the hipturn and keep the upper torso mass centered during the backswing. Then at the top of the backswing, thrust your left knee forward and push your hips forward while straightening the legs. This is difficult and will take practice. To prioritize--work on the hip turn keeping the upper torso centered first--when you are doing this, you might feel as if your upper body is shifting backwards, but a recorded video will show that it is actually staying centered. Here's some videos of Troy Matteson--he straightens his rear leg on the early side also. [VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUWcCXXw5is[/VIDEO] face on [VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml6hMCXrumI&feature;=related[/VIDEO]

[Ernest Jones]

Thanks. I'm going to work on this - winters coming though :-(

I find that my lead knee wants to flex towards my toe as I (feel) rotate around my spine angle, otherwise I find it awkward to rotate smoothly. Never realize how much my hips went forward till I filmed it! Maybe I'm just over doing the knee flex?

Would you say that the parts are ok just not in the right order? ie: if I delayed that forward move but kept the rest roughly the same?

[Ernest Jones]

Hmmm, that Troy Matteson video looks like a toned down version of what I'm doing. I'll have to check out more of his swings.

[uttexas]

Would you say that the parts are ok just not in the right order? ie: if I delayed that forward move but kept the rest roughly the same?

yes, you have the right idea. it's a matter of sequencing and rates/degrees of motion.

[Ernest Jones]

Have been working alot on getting that lead knee to move towards the target line as opposed to towards my toe and have definitely seen a major difference in the mirror. Much more centered and when the hips slide forward properly I couldnt believe the feeling at impact or should I say ***IMPACT*** lol.

Hit some awesome shots at the range. Main miss is blocking to the right but still with a ton of compression. I figure that means my face and path are both headed right so I just need to work on getting the face closed a little more so the path can be to the outside to bend the ball back in.

I know its a shot in the dark without video but any tips for working on that block? I felt that concentrating on banking my right foot more helped.

[uttexas]

bandaid (quick fix) for a block, move ball back a bit in the stance: this will turn a block into a push draw real fix/cure (updated video would be nice)--get hips more forward at impact ---also, from your previous videos, you shift your upper center (head and shoulders) back going into impact in order to generate loft: this move will lead to blocks.

[Ernest Jones]

Hi Uttexas. Thanks for the help. I will try to get some more video happening. I want to avoid the bandaids though, I'm afraid they will just slow down the process of getting a good swing. It's minus 20 here in montreal so I can afford to hit blocks all winter long if need be .

Definitely working hard on the hip slide and banking my right foot - feels good so far.

[Ernest Jones]

Mid-iron  I think it was a 7?

hybrid

So I seem to have exchanged my big pushes for minor pulls. Much happier with this but still not what I'm working for (push draw).

Back swing: I just try to stay nice and stable/centered with my hands staying as far (extended) as possible from my head.

Transition I try to focus on constantly pushing my hips forward, this seems to work best if I focus on banking my right foot to initiate the slide. The longer the club the more I seem to need to push the hips.

I couldn't get any face-on shots as their are dividers between the stalls and I had no tripod anyway. DTL shots were taken with an iphone resting on a chair.

I have some driver shots (including some nice push draws believe it or not ) that I will upload as soon as I have time to edit them.

[Ernest Jones]

PS: I have started to address the ball near the hosel. I saw someone suggesting this elsewhere on the forum, I thought it was so weird that I tried It! Seems to work for me, hope it's not a path leading to "Chapel Perilous"

[Ernest Jones]

Here's two driver swings. Any comments or advice welcome. Again, I'm mostly focusing on getting the hips pushed all the way forward. My best swings seem to be when it feels almost like I'm taking a step toward the target. Nether ball flight is really what I'm trying to do but they beat the hell out of big ass pushes and slicing it off the planet :-)

[uttexas]

Swing is looking much better, ball flights look good too. Couple things I see Address: looks like you are standing a bit too far away from the ball (looks like you are reaching to the ball a bit)--this results in arms disconnecting from torso at the start. Take a look at the DTL of Matteson above--see how his arms look to hang almost straight down at address. Backswing looking better(please post FO when you can) Going into impact looks like you straighten your right arm early and throw or flip the club a bit going into impact (this is partly because you are standing too far away from the ball) Look at the Matteson FO view--see how his right elbow stays just infront of his right hip all the way into impact.

[Ernest Jones]

Work in progress. Focusing on keeping my arms straight, actually stole my 5 year olds belt to take to the range gonna strap those suckers together a la Ben Hogan.

Finally got a high-speed camera which is already paying huge dividends as I am self coaching for now. All the local pros that I have eavesdropped on at he local ranges make me shudder - no thanks! Need to work on getting my ball position more forward (although this particular camera angle is deceptive) and I know I have too much weight forward at address right now but I think that is low priority for now.

[Ernest Jones]

Here's another look but at 120 fps instead of 240. Much better resolution. Same crap swing though

[Ernest Jones]

*Bump*

Shot 51 twice in a row (I rarely get to play 18 due to a young family) and I can almost taste breaking 50

I know breaking 50 is not really anything to write home about (or on a golf forum) but it will be huge for me . So far this year my progress has been (all 9 hole outings) 67, 63, 59, 59, 51,51 and just when I was starting to think this game ain't all that hard - 67 My last hole of that dreadful 67 I suddenly remembered what had been key for me, Keeping my arms together, and promptly hit a perfect draw 5 iron off the tee on a par 3. Landed just on the right fringe and chipped in for birdie!! Saved my day!

I'M BACK LOL.

Amazing how easy it is to lose it all from one day to the next. Practice, practice, practice!

[Ernest Jones]

I can miss the box so I can't be OTT, but at A6 my clubhead is well outside of my hands...is it possible to look like this at A6 and still hit from the inside? I really don't want to spend all winter ingraining a slice LOL.

Not one of my better swings but not that far off my baseline....

[mchepp]

OTT is debateable. You are too steep at A5. You then let you right arm go wild, straighten too much, and save it by folding in the right knee. I think mvmac's drill to prevent folding in that right knee is a good place to start.