My Swing (Dakota Atkinson)

[Dakota Atkinson]

I've been Playing Golf for: 3 months (end of last summer, this summer)

My current handicap index or average score is: 88-97 on par 72

My typical ball flight is: with longer clubs (driver/woods,3-5i), straight-hook, sometimes push a little. short irons usually straight, sometimes push

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: very inconsistent with driver/long irons. will add other videos later to address short clubs

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Videos:

Hit a lot of straight-hooks today. And oddly a lot of drives that seemed to have topspin - started off like low line drives and quickly dived down. If I remember right, the last ball I hit in this video was the only good drive in the vid.

Also have noticed my follow-through kind of looks weird, if there's something wrong/any tips about that let me know. Thanks!

[Dakota Atkinson]

DTL Driver and DTL 9i/6i. Driver has lots of problems, used to have massive slice now I have just about every other problem besides a slice with it. Occasional solid straight drive. Irons are usually pretty good but hitting a little thin and a little fat last few days, and pulling/pushing some. Really just not hitting very good at all right now.

Shot a 102 yesterday. Worse than my 1st day of the year.

Really looks like my follow through is short/compact, don't know what to do to make it where it should be. Any tips would be appreciated!

[Dakota Atkinson]

2014 season, same ol same ol. My short game has improved vastly, which helped me shoot an honest 7-over 43 yesterday. That may be my best 9-hole score ever. The course was short though, so I basically had tee shot then wedge on every par 4. My biggest problem remains driver/3 wood/long clubs off the tee. I still slice my driver daily, and my 3 wood is hit or miss. Here's a couple videos of 3 of my swings today, the first in full speed and the second in slow mo.

First swing was DTL with a driver, was pull-fade. with strong emphasis on fade lol, started towards left of fairway and went 20 yards past the fairway to the right. Second was a 3wood, which actually went pretty straight. slight pull-fade, but ended being center. 3rd was with 3 hybrid and went about 30 yards into the pond in front of me.

I've dissected these videos a little bit, and noticed with the driver that my swing appears to be out to in, which would be causing my slice. I also noticed on all swings that my right elbow position looks awkward and incorrect on the backswing, but i don't know where to start with fixing that. aside from those major problems, i really notice that my follow through looks like a baseball swing. I guess it's hard to ditch that habit after ~13 years of playing. I would really appreciate any tips to fix these errors or any other errors that you guys can spot. I should be able to fix the out to in path on my own with help from vids on this site, but I don't know where to start with other issues.

Sorry for the length. Responses appreciated.

[iacas]

Apologies for the brevity, but I'd check out some Key #2 videos at http://purestrike5sk.com/videos.php . Finishing up a book today so time is short - sorry.

I'm sure someone else may give you a bit more feedback as well. Thanks for being a member.

[Dakota Atkinson]

Thanks, Erik. I've been a lurking member here for almost a couple years, I don't post too often because I have a shortage of helpful advice lol. I have worked on shifting my weight left in the past but looks as I've reverted to baseball mechanics, I will work on that next, along with keeping the left wrist flat.

[cipher]

I am thinking that this may be a good drill.

Notice at the end of the drill how Erik's leading leg is more vertical.  Your front leg leans back and you kind of tend to keep leaning back with your body into and all the way through the follow through.  You can tell your hips and body wants to go forward but the leaning back is hindering this almost like you are trying to help the ball into the air.  Hope this helps.

[Dakota Atkinson]

Was working on keeping my weight forward last week and noticed I looked pretty silly doing so. I stumbled across the secondary axis tilt vs. weight forward thread and realized i was shifting everything forward, so today I was trying to get my  hips forward while keeping my upper body back a bit. Also was incorporating an in-out swing path. I was lining up using the alignment that james hirshfield suggested in the 5sk high draw driver video and was hitting literally the best drives of my life, so I went and played 18. I was hitting great tee shots until ~14th hole, then pushing and slicing returned.. I'm guessing my swing path must've slipped up. Anyway, I recorded a couple 5i swings. I'm looking to see if I'm getting my weight forward correctly and what else may jump out at you guys that looks incorrect (hopefully nothing..lol). Next time I'll try to film DTL to analyze my path also. Thanks

Sidenote, I really like the point your batman signal to the sky tip. It's easy to follow and I think it helps a lot. I might not be doing it in these vids, I don't remember. Too many thoughts to try to put all of them into each swing.

[Dakota Atkinson]

Tried to take some DTL vids by propping up my iPhone in my bag. First two swings are from last week, second two were this morning where I tried to incorporate Dufner/Hogan/etc. feel of dropping the club and tucking the right elbow on downswing. The last swing was one of the best drives I've ever hit. The two swings from last week were both push and the drive also had a slice to it. Basically just wondering if my swing plane looks correct or not. Realllly trying to fight this push that I always seem to have. I like the tucking elbow feel, I just feel inconsistent with it right now.

I'm not real sure how good these videos are, as far as the angle is, I think the first one may be unusable but the others should be at a decent angle, despite low quality on the ones today.

Appreciate any tips. Thanks

[Dakota Atkinson]

Just looked at this.... thankfully my swing has improved a bit over the last 3-4 years. Note: I said in the first post that I shot 88-97.... there is no way that was accurate lol. Now, I am mostly in the 78-85 range. Had a few lessons this year, have seen a lot of improvement but I still have a couple big misses per round that really hurt my score. Misses are usually a hook, occasionally a push. I think my swing looks flat but I don't know the best route to go in making adjustments. My instructor has yet to mention anything about my swing being too flat, or my backswing at all, but looking at my swing on video I think that's where some issues may lie. Thanks in advance for responses!
 

 

 

[Dakota Atkinson]

Here's a few more vids, including some face on angles. The  last 2 times I've played, I was hitting fades which I usually hit draws/hooks so that was surprising. I don't know what specifically I don't like about my backswing, but I know there is something I don't like. Also likes like an early release, and maybe that I am standing too close to the ball at set up? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

 

[boogielicious]

I'm not an instructor but I was able to capture some screen shots. For the most part, it looks pretty good. You do sway back a bit on the backswing, see A4 on the right in the first screen shot. Your path on the downswing looks pretty good though.

 

[Dakota Atkinson]

@boogielicious , thank you for the response!

Those screenshots are helpful. I didn't realize my head moved back that much on the backswing, that is something I will try to tidy up. The downswing path does seem to look good, which I am very happy about; the part of the backswing that concerns me is how at the top from DTL view the club is pointed way to the right. I don't know if it's because of something I do with the wrists, or if its okay because the club is still square to the forearm, or what. I just know that whenever I try to change it, everything that follows in the swing is thrown way off, and I can hardly hit the ball haha.