My Swing (LL91)

[LL91]

Thanks again, @iacas and @mvmac . About the weight stuff, you're saying I should set up with my weight centered between toes and heel, and maybe further away from the ball?

I guess it's reassuring to hear my shoulder plane is alright, but I'm definitely lacking in rotation in one way or another. The difference at impact for example here is drastic:

Again, the golfer on the right has his right shoulder below the left, spine is bent sideways, and hips are way open. I'm also liking his right arm and elbow, how it's super close to his body and bent.

I don't rotate enough, which causes my body to stall, my right arm to lose it's bend and my hands to flip, and I stand up and early extend before impact so I don't hit it fat. Any good tips on how to properly turn through the ball?

[LL91]

I worked on my back swing yesterday, and I think I made some progress:

The problem is, of course, that I've had such a flat back swing for a long time I've developed a huge OTT move in the transition. It has produced some ok shots, as I've gone from under the plane to more or less on plane with my OTT move. I think it's time to change that once and for all now. I do like how my back swing looks now, quite similar to Dustin Johnson. My weight is indeed on my heels, but otherwise I think it's ok.

A1:

A2:

A3:

A4:

A5:

Here's the big flaw. My arms start working towards the ball right away in the transition, while Dustin (and virtually every other pro as well) brings them more or less straight down, keeping his left arm connected to his chest. It's something I need to work on.

A6:

As a result of the transition I'm way OTT and there's nothing I can do to fix it anymore. You can imagine the amount of slice my drives have because of this position.

I need to feel like my hands and arms work way down and away from the ball at the start of the transition. We'll see how it goes.

[iacas]

I worked on my back swing yesterday, and I think I made some progress:

The problem is, of course, that I've had such a flat back swing for a long time I've developed a huge OTT move in the transition. It has produced some ok shots, as I've gone from under the plane to more or less on plane with my OTT move. I think it's time to change that once and for all now. I do like how my back swing looks now, quite similar to Dustin Johnson. My weight is indeed on my heels, but otherwise I think it's ok.

Yes, that looks like what you want to work on next. Right after you fix your balance - it looks too far back on your heels at address.

Couple of good drills or things you can do on your own, but start with using some driveway sticks in the ground like so:

The blue stick is outside the target line (white dotted line) and just at the top of your right shoulder, and about two inches outside your right shoulder (to your right).

The purple stick goes just inside the target line and angles inward at about the shaft address angle.

The blue stick doesn't allow your left arm (or clubhead) to shift out quite so much during the transition and early downswing, while the purple stick forces you to raise the handle and keep the clubhead outside (above) the stick.

[LL91]

Thank you very much for your advice, @iacas . I have been working on my transition move, and I feel like I've made some progress. The balance thing is putting me off though. If I set up with my weight closer to my toes I fell like it moves even further towards the ball during the swing to the point where I'm about to tip over, which is when I start pulling my upper body back and early extending like crazy. And I'm hitting so many shanks with irons that I'm actually afraid of going to course right now. Anyway, here are some stills from a driver swing from yesterday. I haven't had a chance to get some actual sticks for the recommended drills, so I've drawn them afterwards. Sorry for the angle being slightly tilted.

A1;

A5:

Hands are almost inside the line, definitely better than before. The angle of the image is making me look better than I actually am though. If you use the front edge of the mat as reference, you can see I already have my weight on my toes and I'm about to tip over. This is when I start pulling back slightly.

A6 (ish):

Loving that clubhead position coming from the inside, drastic difference compared to the previous swing.

A7.5:

Look at that, the whole club and my hands are actually between the lines. Yay.

I have a feel for the transition that seems to work, have to keep grinding it. My backswing is creeping back towards the flat side though, it's something I need to keep an eye on. Also the balance stuff is driving me nuts, but I guess it'll get better with time. Sad news is wind blew over my tripod with my phone, and now it has a broken screen and doesn't work anymore. I'll get it fixed but meanwhile can't take any video above 30fps. Oh well.

[mvmac]

A1 looks a lot better. Arms could be deeper at A5. As you're rehearsing the downswing, make sure the weight/lower body is transferring forward.

[LL91]

Yeah, I agree about the arms at A5. I'm glad to inform though that I had the best range session of the season today. I was flushing a lot of my shots with what looked to me like a push draw. I've been pulling everything all my life so any shot that starts more to the right feels like a push, but they might have been straight draws as well. Either way, the shots felt great, sort of effortless. I'm concentrating on going deeper with my arms on the backswing, without letting my wrists get too active too soon so the clubhead doesn't overtake my hands. I also feel like I'm turning my torso more around my left hip so the right hip gains depth instead of the left getting closer to the ball. This leads to a position at the top where I feel like I have enough space under myself so to speak to swing from in to out. I don't have a camera right now to confirm what I'm feeling so I might have just gotten lucky today on the range. Either way, making solid contact has never been easier than today. Heading out to the course tomorrow, we'll see how that goes.

[LL91]

Just a quick progress update. I've been playing more than working on my swing lately, but after a recent change to what to me feels like a flatter swing (I haven't taken a video lately so I don't for sure know what my swing looks like at the moment), I've been shooting some of my best scores. Couple weeks ago I shot an 83, besting my previous record by 4 shots, and yesterday I shot an 80. I was on track to breaking 80, but a dumb bogey on an easy par 5 on the 17th and a tee shot to a bunker on the par 3 18th made sure that didn't happen yet. Did manage to get up and down from the bunker though, which was cool.

This was on the easier of the two courses at my home club, just 5469 meters (=6000 yards). Handicap's down to 12.8. I will try to take some video next time I head to the range.