My Swing (MS256)

[MS256]

I've been Playing Golf for: 9 years

My current handicap index or average score is: None but normal score is in the 70s.

My typical ball flight is: Right to left.

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Misses right and left about equal amounts.

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Videos:

Pretty much a homemade swing that works around some old football injuries and an ingrained urge to have palm up/palm down at impact from 40 years of hitting baseballs. Short game and ability to work the ball both ways to get out of trouble saves my rounds most of the time.

The only good thing about my swing is that it's easy to get underestimated with it. I do work on things to make it more conventional but only one thing at a time. I would really like to keep my spine angle down and not drive my hips in at impact but so far that always takes away some of my power, which is a pretty big part of my game.

[cipher]

Please make your video public and not private.

[iacas]

Got a face-on view? Likely you're going to want to learn to turn instead of using your arms to get the club back. More rotation, more stretching the right side, etc.

Let's see a face-on view.

[MS256]

I don't know what went wrong with that video link. It is on "public" but even I can't watch it from this page. Evidentally iacas could see it.

Who knows??? I figure the golfing gods just didn't want watching my swing to put the entire membership into a slump.

[MS256]

Since the other one didn't seem to work I'll try it this way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTd06UXlkyY

[LSU_justin]

[LSU_justin]

What camera are you using?

[MS256]

It's a Zi8. I would like to have a better camera with more frames per second.

[Stretch]

Hi Mike. You've already pretty succinctly summarized the main things going on in your swing. Wicked strong right hand grip, lot of forward movement of the head and upper center from the top into impact, loss of posture in the downswing as hips go towards the ball.

And, as you also note, you own this stuff and can play decently well with it, so I'm hesitant to tell you to do anything radical. Maybe the way to go is just to work on incrementally calming your tendencies down a little bit, rather than taking a big bath?

For me, the place to start would be steadying up that lateral movement of the head. You are nicely centered over the ball at the top of the backswing and then everything -- head, upper body and hips -- goes forward together from there. By halfway down, you have now moved your low point so far in front of the ball -- and your angle of attack is now so steep -- that the only way you can shallow the club enough to make decent contact is to stand straight up -- which you do.

You're going to need to work on the feeling of your head staying behind while your hips push forward. Easiest way to start doing this is to practice swinging (without a club) with the left side of your head against a door jamb, or one of those trees in the background there. Make your backswing, then push the hips forward (forward being towards the target ) while the head is forced to stay where it is. This will let you feel the secondary axis tilt (right side bend) that you should be creating in the downswing. It's this tilt that will naturally shallow the club, so that you don't have to do it the wrong way by early extending. Once you've got that feel, you can move on to hitting balls (nice and easy at first) with someone standing in front of you and holding the grip of a club against your left temple to enforce the same thing. Or you can easily make your own training aid out of two driveway sticks and a pool noodle.

Good luck with it and hope this will be of some help to you.

[logman]

That's funny stretch, cause as I watched ts256's video I thought of your swing. Not a big power swing , but an educated,controlled swing.

Ms 256.......and what the **** is that!!!

From now on I'll call you Jeffrey

Hi Jeff, Have a look at stretches swings.......do what stretch does.

[MS256]

Thanks Stretch.

I am definitely going to make one of those things to keep my head in place because that is something I really would like to change (if possible) just to look more normal.

Sometimes when I try to change something I find that there is a reason I am doing it that way, and it almost always relates to an old left leg injury I've learned to live with (and play sports with) for a long time.

The most serious part of the injury is that my left lower leg is partially paralyzed and causes balance issues if I let any weight shift to the outside of that foot. I flare that foot quite a bit to keep it from happening. I think (but not sure yet) that is also the reason that I never let the center of my hips get in front of my head. On all of my swings I ever looked at my head, belt buckle, and hips are in a vertical line at impact. Very few if any good players do that.

(Or I am just staying in a position to get out of the batter's box faster). Hahaha!

Another problem I have (which is opposite of what you mentioned) is that my club comes into the ball so shallow that it is a disadvantage in grassy lies or when the ball is sitting down even a little. Off of very short fairway grass it's not a problem and my favorite surface to hit off of is baked out hard pan, or anything else hard. I could hit balls all day long off of hardpan and never mess it up. I can put a tee in the ground a foot behind the ball only sticking out of the ground a half inch and I will clip that tee before impact every time on a normal swing. On the higher priced and better maintained courses I occasionally play that is not a problem. On the main course I play it becomes a huge problem because the fairway grass is so high.

That course should be very easy but the long grass makes it harder for me than some courses with a much higher course rating. I shot a 76 last summer from the tips at Capstone and if I remember right that course rating is about a 73 or 74. The course I play isn't course rated but if it was it would probably be about a 64, and yet I usually shoot in the mid 70s on that "easy" course. SMH

Every shot off of those closely mowed fairways at Capstone seemed like a piece of cake.

My son currently has a +1.5 handicap and he has no problem with the grassy lies because even though he has a flatter looking swing than I do he would never clip a tee a foot behind the ball (like I do) and the club is actually coming into the ball steeper than mine.

[Stretch]

It's not surprising that you're a sweeper. As I mentioned, the early extension is a shallowing move and you have quite a bit of it. The leg injury may be a limiting factor. You won't be able to get your hips sliding the way you want unless you can push the left knee outside the left ankle. For most people that feels like a bit of a roll to the outside of that foot, but as you say the flare will help.

[cipher]

Your swing is definitely functional, and stretch has some great advise for you. If you can get into those positions with your injuries. If not, "swing your swing". ;)

[MS256]

Played 90 holes this weekend trying to change my swing a little. Mostly trying to eliminate forward head movement and raising up before impact.

Jury still out on whether I am going to pull it off or not. It was obvious that I'm going to have to take a step or two backward (as far as my scores go) to hopefully be better in the end.

Of course since I was playing in 15 to 30 mph winds and temps in the 40s there is no guarantee I would have played very well anyway.

My son has some of the same swing flaws so at least we were working on it together. He had a lot better luck than I did with changes but he is a +1.5 handicap and a "Dots" learner and used to making changes. I am a "Holistic action" learner and as such I always want to fall back on feel and what comes naturally (even if it's wrong).

We each fit the stereotypical defintions of "Dots" and "Holistic" to a tee.

Holistic people are very good at a task they have never attempted before but they HATE following the rules and practicing mechanics (completely feel players in golf).

Dots people are not good at things they have never practiced but through their life experiences they know that if they practice and follow the rules they will improve.

In the end for either group to be as good as they can be they have to adopt traits from the other group of learners. Dots learners usually catch and pass Holistic learners simply because they will practice fundamental mechanics more. Drove me crazy as a coach until I learned the two types of learners. I couldn't understand why some people couldn't "just do it" the first time.

P.S. I keep myself in good physical condition but found out after the 90 hole weekend I'm not in golfing shape. I'm actually tired. Ha ha.

[MS256]

I'm trying to post a video again since the first time didn't seem to work.

Trying to do a better job of keeping my spine angle down until after impact and my butt on the butt line until after impact. Looks like I made a slight improvement on those two things.

Just in case the video doesn't play off of this page again here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA58GJFzVbg

[Stretch]

^^^

[MS256]

Originally Posted by Stretch

^^^

Still lack a good bit to look anywhere close to conventional at impact. Looking forward to better weather so I can keep better track of distance as I work on it. That 3 wood has (or had) 240 yards carry last summer and is my most consistent long club. With the wind and cold we've had lately keeping track of distance for each club pretty much goes out the window.

[MS256]

Hey Stretch,

Thanks for the training aid idea. I built one and after trying it (and having a disasterous hip sway the first few times) I figured out where the ball needed to be in relation to my head against the pad.

Of course it's still a work in progress but today on the course when it was right it was really right. A few times I got caught in between what I was doing before and what I am now attempting to do now and missed left or right, but most shots were very good and with very good power.