My Swing (SavvySwede)

[SavvySwede]

Started playing golf nearly 11 years ago when I was 15. Played competitively in high school and college with my career highlight coming my senior year in high school when I won the county tournament with a 1 over par 73 on a pretty difficult course. After college a played much less golf and focused on some other hobbies but started to really take the game seriously again at the beginning of 2013. Managed to get a few solid rounds in the mid 70's by the end of the summer. This year I am further looking to improve my ball striking and hopefully shoot a few rounds below par. I used to play a pretty big draw when I was younger but now I am hitting a much straighter ball flight but I can miss in either direction. Let me know what you think. The video is five consecutive shots, first four are with an eight iron I believe with slo-mo on the fourth shot for emphasis. Last shot is a 5-wood.

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[mvmac]

Welcome to the site.  I think your posture at address is causing some problems.  Upper back is too straight, lower back is arched.  Weight is back in the heels and to compensate you "fall" forward on the downswing.  Check out this thread on posture.

[SavvySwede]

Thanks mvmac. As soon as this snow dissipates I will be getting to work on my posture. I do have a bit of a tendency to fall forward and get my head in front of the ball on the downswing. I think it causes me to pull the ball left badly on my worst days.

[SavvySwede]

Been working on the swing a good deal the past year and through the winter. Made a good deal of progress and finally got the push draw working strong again.

Posture has improved quite a bit largely in part to this thread http://thesandtrap.com/t/56069/good-golf-posture-how-to-address-the-golf-ball thanks @mvmac

Head movement is still my priority piece but there has been improvement there as well. My right heel doesn't lift up quite as early and moves more toward the target than it used to; sometimes even getting to the point where I get that foot slide ala Greg Norman

Biggest problem imo is I still get the club way inside my hands and pretty laid off in the backswing. Thoughts?

Didn't realize my head was cut off in the dtl until I got home.

[SavvySwede]

Not a whole lot of changes since the last video. Tempo has smoothed back out since I've cut back on the speed training I was doing over the winter. I think my head is steadier than it was but still plenty of room for improvement. The real thing that has been nagging me is the reverse loop I've got going. Still can't seem to shake it Will need to do some more radical swing work if I want to get that backswing on plane. Anyone have some drills?

[iacas]

Not a whole lot of changes since the last video. Tempo has smoothed back out since I've cut back on the speed training I was doing over the winter. I think my head is steadier than it was but still plenty of room for improvement. The real thing that has been nagging me is the reverse loop I've got going. Still can't seem to shake it Will need to do some more radical swing work if I want to get that backswing on plane. Anyone have some drills?

Tough to say "drills" specifically, but your hands go out and roll around you. You go "shallow to steep" instead of "steep to shallow" as is common among PGA Tour level players (and scratch golfers or better).

These three pictures make the case somewhat:

[mvmac]

Yeah @SavvySwede keep the upper triceps of the arms on your body as you pivot back. Will help the hands track inward at the correct rate, like those pics of Zach Johnson.

[SavvySwede]

A lot less laid off in the first half of the backswing though the club still wants to lay off a bit approaching. the top. Hitting much fewer pulls now and contact has been a bit better. Left arm still wants to pull away from the body a bit so I'm going to try hitting some balls with a towel under the arm and see if that get me a bit closer to where I want to be.

[SavvySwede]

Made a new video but nothing has really changed in the past week and a half. Hit about 10 balls near the end of the session with some impact tape with encouraging results.

The rubber tee at the range was too low but I enjoyed driving a few bullets out there.

[mvmac]

This is basically just a repeat of what @iacas posted but rather then just loading the club more "up" to steepen the shaft on the backswing, allow the hands to track inward on the takeaway. When the hands move away from you (pic below), it makes it more likely for the club to load in and shallow.

Good drill is to hit balls with a tee or glove in your left arm pit. Will encourage the hand path to work with the pivot. With the player below notice how there's no "gap" with the left tricep and the left pec and how the hands have moved inward a bit from 1-2.

[iacas]

This is basically just a repeat of what @iacas posted but rather then just loading the club more "up" to steepen the shaft on the backswing, allow the hands to track inward on the takeaway. When the hands move away from you (pic below), it makes it more likely for the club to load in and shallow.

Good drill is to hit balls with a tee or glove in your left arm pit. Will encourage the hand path to work with the pivot. With the player below notice how there's no "gap" with the left tricep and the left pec and how the hands have moved inward a bit from 1-2.

What @mvmac said.

It's more a matter of the rotation of your forearms and wrists than shoving your hands out and up away from you.

[SavvySwede]

Been hitting the ball better than ever the past couple of weekends. Ball flight is back to it's normally high trajectory(was hitting it pretty low in the late summer) but the biggest development is just how straight I've been hitting the ball lately. Very little curvature in either direction and my miss has been a little fade or push instead of the nasty pull draw which has hardly appeared. Not my best swings in these new videos(40F and 20mph winds stiffened me up a bit) but this is where I'm at. Left arm closer to the chest and backswing on a better path.

 

[SavvySwede]

Haven't uploaded a swing video in a while. Backswing is looking pretty good, needs to be tightened up a little bit. Key #1 took the biggest hit during the winter, my main issue right now being the head sliding forward on the downswing. Also working on weakening the grip up a hair, it tends to get overly strong when I'm off.