My Swing (divot dave)

[divot dave]

Originally Posted by Stretch

OK, back from taking the kids to breakfast and have a little more time to expand on the above.

Dave, you're one of those players that will most likely benefit from feeling (with the proviso that feel isn't real) like you keep your weight much more forward, generally. Your feels are going to be: Backswing -- "Weight Forward." Downswing -- "Push Forward." An effective drill for this is to practice with an alignment stick stuck in the ground and touching your right knee at address. Make your backswing -- keeping your knee against the stick, then push your right hip into it as you swing down. The purpose of this is to get your weight more onto your front foot at impact, and the purpose of that is to get the low point of your swing in front of the golf ball. Right now, your low point is behind the ball, which makes it really hard to consistently hit the ball first, then the ground. A related issue that this drill will help with is your right knee action. It's coming in (away from the target) too much -- and that's a big part of the reason why it's hard for you to properly shift your weight onto the right foot as you come down. Flare that right foot open a little more and practice flexing the right knee out towards the right toe, not in towards the left. From that position, the right knee then pushes outside the right ankle to start the downswing. That's what gets the hips moving laterally towards the target and that's what gets the weight onto the front foot at impact. Here's a video that illustrates the drill I'm describing. You don't need to add the second "gate" in this case, unless you find it helpful. Just getting the weight moving forward is also going to help you with your swing path and to get your right arm and club more in line through impact.

Here's some footage of me working on your suggestion. I've over exaggerated a little bit to get used to the feel. Its helped considerably with fat shots. I'm still working through ball placement kinks and forward shaft lean as well... also keeping my head behind the ball, but i'm not quite sure where the correct balance with all of that is given i'm starting with my weight forward.

I'll be posting some footage of me swinging the driver shortly as well.

As always, I appreciate anyone/everyone's input.

[divot dave]

here's a 5 minute video of me working with my 8 iron. There's a little bit of everything in here, shanks, flushes, fat shots, pushes, fades. I'm working on setting up with my weight forward, and keeping the handle relatively close to my body.

[Ernest Jones]

Just watched the FO video, I still don't think you're getting your hips forward enough. If you watch the video, hold a piece of paper or the tip of a pencil at the edge of your lead hip, at impact and through your hips should be way past the tip of the pencil. Right now the never cross that line and I suspect your weight is still tending to be back too far. I would make that your main focus for now, forget everything else for the time being and just work at figuring out how to get forward enough so that you're hitting the ball on the way down and taking a divot(DAVE) after the ball.

Hopefully Stretch will pop back and give you some more pointers. I'm a hack myself (slowly improving) but I'm pretty sure that your weight transfer is causing most of your main issues right now.

If you haven't already, read this: http://thesandtrap.com/t/29616/the-biggest-secret-slide-your-hips

For a while I was practicing with trying to ONLY slide my hips to hit the ball. This is, of course, impossible and you will need to turn eventually but it might be a good feel to work with in order to get some hip slide, drive or thrust happening. Once you start to get it the butt tuck will probably start to come more naturally, at least it did for me.

Good Luck.

[Stretch]

Dave -- Turn your right foot out (to the right) maybe 20 degrees, as shown at left. That's going to help promote the proper knee action, illustrated on the right*. Want that knee going out towards the right toe, not sucking in towards the left knee.

(* Slightly exaggerated for effect.)

[divot dave]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Dave -- Turn your right foot out (to the right) maybe 20 degrees, as shown at left. That's going to help promote the proper knee action, illustrated on the right*. Want that knee going out towards the right toe, not sucking in towards the left knee.

(* Slightly exaggerated for effect.)

I'll give that a go....

for what its worth, I "feel" like my shoulder turn on my backswing is more restricted when I get my knee going in the other (correct) direction. But I'll definitely make a conscientious effort to get that working for my next video.

[divot dave]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

Just watched the FO video, I still don't think you're getting your hips forward enough. If you watch the video, hold a piece of paper or the tip of a pencil at the edge of your lead hip, at impact and through your hips should be way past the tip of the pencil. Right now the never cross that line and I suspect your weight is still tending to be back too far. I would make that your main focus for now, forget everything else for the time being and just work at figuring out how to get forward enough so that you're hitting the ball on the way down and taking a divot(DAVE) after the ball.

Hopefully Stretch will pop back and give you some more pointers. I'm a hack myself (slowly improving) but I'm pretty sure that your weight transfer is causing most of your main issues right now.

If you haven't already, read this: http://thesandtrap.com/t/29616/the-biggest-secret-slide-your-hips

For a while I was practicing with trying to ONLY slide my hips to hit the ball. This is, of course, impossible and you will need to turn eventually but it might be a good feel to work with in order to get some hip slide, drive or thrust happening. Once you start to get it the butt tuck will probably start to come more naturally, at least it did for me.

Good Luck.

I suspect you're right. I'm working on this feel at home, trying to get accustomed to sliding my hips without sliding my upper body too much. Am I correct in assuming the head should not move toward the target with the hips but remain behind the ball?

[Ernest Jones]

Originally Posted by divot dave

I suspect you're right. I'm working on this feel at home, trying to get accustomed to sliding my hips without sliding my upper body too much. Am I correct in assuming the head should not move toward the target with the hips but remain behind the ball?

Yes, you are correct. This (upper center moving forward with the hips) is my big issue right now. It's not a total swing killer and I know guys who play relatively well with it but it is certainly a fault.

[Stretch]

Originally Posted by divot dave

I'll give that a go....

for what its worth, I "feel" like my shoulder turn on my backswing is more restricted when I get my knee going in the other (correct) direction. But I'll definitely make a conscientious effort to get that working for my next video.

You will probably feel like you're not turning as much, and that's fine. The payoff is going to be how much more solid your contact will feel. This isn't some newfangled idea either, here's Hogan from 5 Lessons. Look at his feet and knees. That's a stable and powerful position to hit from.

[iacas]

Dave,

Do you have any recent videos?

[divot dave]

Dave,

Do you have any recent videos?

This is from spring 2014.... (was trying to sort out some shank issues that day). However, I've gone thru swing changes since then.... I'll try to put up something new over the weekend.

[iacas]

This is from spring 2014.... (was trying to sort out some shank issues that day). However, I've gone thru swing changes since then.... I'll try to put up something new over the weekend.

It says the video does not exist.

[Ernest Jones]

I got "this video is private"

[divot dave]

It says the video does not exist.

I got "this video is private"

sorry about that... I tinkered with the privacy, but not sure if that did much.... try this one:

Its from about a week ago, but I wasn't practicing, just testing out the slow mo on my camera. Still, you'll get the gist.

I'm going to try to get practice in this weekend, will hopefully have new video from better angles under practice conditions (loose, warmed up etc).

also, disregard the lawn plz. the mower broke

[divot dave]

working on the following:

[divot dave]

@iacas :

Quick update on my swing... I've been rehearsing the pump drill and spending most of my time at the range doing so. I took some video of it today but it came out like crap with the lighting. The video below was the only shot worth salvaging but it was a full swing. As you can see, I'm still not getting my hands close enough to the ball by the time I reach a6, but I worked on some different feels later on which improved the quality of ball contact drastically, I just don't have the footage to see what was different.

[iacas]

@iacas:

Quick update on my swing... I've been rehearsing the pump drill and spending most of my time at the range doing so. I took some video of it today but it came out like crap with the lighting. The video below was the only shot worth salvaging but it was a full swing. As you can see, I'm still not getting my hands close enough to the ball by the time I reach a6, but I worked on some different feels later on which improved the quality of ball contact drastically, I just don't have the footage to see what was different.

Tough piece to work on because it's not really something you can "do" just by thinking about it and trying to exaggerate it. At those speeds too much has already happened. The last point in the swing, as we talked about, at which you can think about something enough to do it before impact is A5 or so (lead arm parallel to ground on downswing). So you already have to be planning on making the move basically from transition on downward (~A4, top of backswing).

Some quick notes on arms/handle being where they are:

On the left, don't short yourself on the backswing. Continue to make a good, nice turn. If you're bundled up because it's cold, focus extra on this. It's not a killer - I don't mind backswings that are a little too short - but it can muck with your timing a bit.

Don't be too hard on yourself on the right, either. It's better than when you came here, and the piece is difficult. Remember, your body naturally wants to "push" out or "hit" the ball with your left hand and elbow. The elbow straightening prematurely pushes the hand out, and the hand then throws out to hit the ball in the air, and none of those are really necessary. Elbow jabs into your side early (stays soft, doesn't extend to push out), left hand/wrist is soft on the club. Then, basically on their own , they throw out much later in the downswing motion.

Here's a little demonstration of that:

Good work, though. It's better. Keep going.

P.S. There's a little stutter around A6. It's just your SD card. If you have a higher "class" or a faster card lying around, try that out.

P.P.S. Wear lighter colored clothes next time.

[divot dave]

...

Don't be too hard on yourself on the right, either. It's better than when you came here, and the piece is difficult. Remember, your body naturally wants to "push" out or "hit" the ball with your left hand and elbow. The elbow straightening prematurely...

It sure does...

ironically, the feel that I worked on after taking the video was to hit the ball with the back of my right hand... That swing thought alone altered a number of things:

1. At address I setup with what felt like my head positioned "more behind" the ball
2. my spine angle tilted just a little bit
3. it felt as though my right hand was actively leading the club to the ball and smacking it with a descending "back hand" - i know that sounds weird but that's how the thought came across and it really made a difference.

The result was a good back swing minus the "awkward" feeling I had in my previous swings... also, crisp clean contact with the ball then turf, the ball sailed quite well actually. I upgraded my beginner set with Mizuno JPX 825's so it was pretty cool to see them perform when the ball was struck well.

...

Good work, though. It's better. Keep going.

P.S. There's a little stutter around A6. It's just your SD card. If you have a higher "class" or a faster card lying around, try that out.

P.P.S. Wear lighter colored clothes next time.

Thanks, and I'll get a better sd card... I hijacked the one that came with my son's Nintendo 3ds so no surprises it struggled a little bit.

And the clothes... yeah, dark was a pretty bad choice there.

Thanks for the input Erik!

[divot dave]

My latest swing... fyi, I'm coming off one of the most severe cases of the shanks I could possibly imagine. I made changes at setup out of desperation and as of the last few weeks, I've been hitting the ball much better (less shanks). This swing is with my pw, and I'm working on my full swing getting forward shaft lean at impact and also engaging my lower body more throughout the down swing. One of the consequences of the improved impact is a slight pull, but consistent enough to be able to just aim more left to hit my target.

Sorry I don't have a face on... wouldn't work out with the lighting.

comments? suggestions?

many thanks