My Swing (Hacker James)

[bddarnell]

Cut that tree branch! Nice practice area I must say.

Your analysis is pretty spot on. To my eyes, you are popping up when the club gets to about hip level or slightly higher on your backswing.

I've been studying Ben Hogan's swing as I learn, he covers the left wrist supination on the downswing, stating pretty plainly that to him all good golfers supinated the left wrist about like so on the downswing.

[Hacker James]

or....I could simply move away from the tree.....yes, the flat wrist thing. I was not concentrating on it as much as I could have. Mine is almost flat, but right at impact it is beginning to cup a little.  I would rather it flatten a little sooner, and be bowed at or  just after impact. I could also use a little more lag coming into it. At least the video gives me a few things to work on now that I can see them. Things I like are posture and follow through, I feel balanced.

[BostonBrew]

Sounds like you've developed a good little list of things to work on. Best advice I can offer, and I'm sure you're aware of this, but pick one and fix it first before worrying about the others.

[Hacker James]

ayup...that's da plan.....First thing I want is to stay down on the B/S. That in itself might cure other things. I can see that motion is throwing me off plane and I was coming OTT. Some days it is not there, some days it is.  Thank You .

[Hacker James]

Update July 17 2013. working on camera angles. Little better view of DTL

[Hacker James]

quickie review from my prospective:  You may or not agree. Call me on it If I am mistaken.

posture: mediocre

set up: would like to have seen tad more of lead arm above trail (to promote maintaining flat left wrist).

take away: Okay

1/2 way back: Okay

Stayed on plane

downswing: not too bad, little better than before.

pre-impact : hips and right leg going into the ball okay

Impact: same as address, good extension

Follow through held, upright torso, could have used more turn.

My swing thoughts: Stay down, keep elbow close to body, head still, maintain extension, flying wedge.

[Hacker James]

JULY 25.......once more.    Trying a little different set up, going for better contact. With my old baggy pants, you can not see the leg straightening on the BS too well, but its there. It is noticeable on the caddie view. The DTL is a little fuzzy, sorry. I noticed my left elbow folding sooner than I want.

[Wally]

just a note: I've been looking at this test video and don't think the camera is going to be good enough. It allows me to freeze frame and look at some parts of the golf swing, check for head and body movement okay I guess, but can not really get into nitty gritty and look at things on down swing such as left wrist, impact e.t.c. By that time, its just too fast and blurry at 30 FPS. I was able to notice a couple of things I can work on such as right knee coming in pre-impact, noticed also that on back swing I am pulling body up a little. Also I did not pay much attention to my grip at the start (Of course in this case, I did not pay a lot of attention as I was mostly trying to see what camera would do). I don't know what the shutter speed is as the camera is a point and shoot, but its obviously not fast enough. I doubt if I will buy another though, but I will give it some thought and maybe get a Casio EX-FC100 or FC200 if I can find one. I thought I saw a couple for around $200. We will see what the next looks like when I line up better and try a DTL. I suppose I could film a few just for my own comparison from time to time without publishing or taking up anybodys time.

Any camera is better than no camera I suppose. I use my iPod Touch 5th generation and it works pretty well. You could try that Casio or a GoPro HD camera.

[Hacker James]

Now that I am getting used to it, the Canon Power shot A100IS suits my purposes. Granted, with only 30 fps it is not as good as the Casio, but I can see well enough to determine what I need to work on in the swing. Someone gave me a tip about using the "space" bar on my keyboard instead of clicking on the pause button of the video clip and that works well enough. Windows Movie Maker is fun to work with also and it is easy to "join" different clips, fade in and out, add a video effect.

[Hacker James]

in reviewing my last 3 videos, I note that one common problem (out of many) I have is with my left arm folding in too soon. Its almost a chicken wing and I see it in all three. So today, I really concentrated in keeping my elbow pockets point out. One thing that seemed to help was weakening my grip a little which puts my forearms a little closer together and helps me maintain the extension to avoid that premature folding. I am sure there is a drill I could do for that, but hopefully, the next video will tell. For me, every day seems a little different, but if todays practice is any indication, I was able to consistently make contact and the ball would hit same spot on the target time after time. I happened to be using a one iron as for some reason or other, it just seems to help with tempo. (probably just a mental thing).

[Hacker James]

Post round video. Working on getting parallel at the top

caddie view

[Hacker James]

Okay, now that I've figured out how to make a video, combine clips, e.t.c.   How do I add a voice over narrative?  (using a Canon Power Shot and You Tube). There are sounds when I record, but not when published on You Tube.

Oh, forgot to add that I use Windows Movie Maker to compose and then publish to You Tube.

[Ernest Jones]

Depending on your camera you usually lose audio when recording slow motion video. May not be the case with all cameras but my (Powershot ELPH) doesn't record audio at high speed.

[Hacker James]

Thanks, I never thought of that.  I will have to check it out and see if the sound is there at normal speed.

[Hacker James]

a little tip on checking head movement. When playing a video, simply place the cursor arrow on your nose for caddie view, or in your ear for DTL. you can see any trace of head movement, whether its lateral or up and down.  You veterans of video making already know this, but I spent too much time trying to watch a reference point and found this to be so much easier.

[Hacker James]

working on weight forward

[Hacker James]

I am still working on weight forward. It appears that is not so bad. I also wanted to work on maintaining narrow flying wedge and flat left wrist.  In this video, I purposely kept a little longer arc. I tried to keep elbows together and felt like they were okay. Still having a little trouble with left arm breaking down too early at impact and making it difficult to have that flat left wrist. The ball striking was solid however so maybe I should not worry too much about it.  I think I know how to fix it, but will do a little review in the archives here to find some good drills.

[Ernest Jones]

Have you tried the drill with half a nerf ball under your front foot toes? Squish it on the downswing. It really helps you get a feel for it.