Rate My Swing

[aidanmcg33]

What you think of my swing? Any advice welcome.

[Ringer]

How's that hook of yours?

[SandSave]

how do you know he hooks it???

[supercow]

Grip is pretty strong...

[aidanmcg33]

dont hook it, had a tendency to push it out to the right, but wasnt rotating my wrists enough during the swing, now my shots are much straighter and actually that one went dead straight. Is a strong grip good or bad?

[supercow]

Depends on how you swing. If you rely on your body to square the clubface (David Duval) it means that you don't need to release as much with your hands and arms. All you have to do is basically hang on. Have noticed that people with strong grips tend to have pretty good short games but have a hard time with the longer clubs since they deloft the club so much.

[Diggitydog]

IMO.

I bet when you do hit it straight it goes a long way. I also bet that you don't hit it straight as often as you would like. I also guess that your misses are both directions, left and right. You want to be able to know which side your swing will miss when you don't hit it good. Even top players don't hit it perfect all the time, they play so that a miss won't be too damaging unless they are forced to gamble for and really need a good shot.

Grip is too strong, may have been setup strong like that as a compensation for losing it to the right.
Back swing is too long.
You're swinging with way too much effort. All I can think about when I watch it is, calm down. That doesn't mean your personality but the swing, it's just so violent. You are doing some good things but think compact and small.

Try feeling like you are taking a 1/2 backswing (You'll still get to parallel or more with seeing how long your current backswing is)
Feel like you keep your head on the ball, it'll move around a bit but don't let your head get pulled off the ball where the ball is going out of your vision.
Keep your left side firm and don't slide forward with your hips. Drill could be to put a shaft in the ground by your left side and don't let your legs touch it on the downswing.

The thing about hitting some shots dead straight and others being misses is that any swing can produce a straight ball flight with perfect timing. That is why people get sucked in to swinging improperly and don't want to change it. They say things like "Why can't I hit them all like that?" My point is you will probably want to make your grip more neutral, shorten your backswing, swing smoother/softer with more rhythm and work on hitting the ball square to get distance instead of swinging out of your shoes. Watch some video of Annika Sorenstam swing and then check her stats. I'll bet she drive the ball far enough on average that would be acceptable by you if it was in the fairway. I know we all want to hit it 360 yards but believe me you'll be able to get some drives 300 yards with a smooth efficient swing.

Go for a 3 pack of lessons.

[SandSave]

interesting comments here. i would like to video mine and put it up here and see what is said. :) i'll have to mess around with that one

[Diggitydog]

I'm going to tape my Stack and Tilt swing and see what is said about that one.

[Ringer]

Hmm.. I didn't notice the little flip at the bottom until you said you tend to push it. Very active hands. If you aren't hitting a hook now, you will be soon with that grip and finish.

[powerfade]

With that iron in your hand I would recommend shortening the backswing. Using the face of a clock, get your arms to about 10:30, no higher. You've gone past high noon in the video.

[aidanmcg33]

been hooking it and pushing it all day long! But my backs been very sore the past two days and for the first 9 holes i was very stiff even though i tried to do stretches etc. second nine i calmed things down more and tried to go real easy, took me more shots but i was hiting straigher.

[supercow]

You have back problems (most likely lower) because you slide excessively with your upper body hanging slightly behind your lower body at impact and for a millisecond of the follow through. Slowing down your tempo reduces the chances of short term injury but longer term you need to become slightly more rotary (flatten your swing plane) if you want to play the game without pain. We could probably gain further information with video footage from behind.