Golf Swing of a 2.9 Index... NOT! :-P

[iacas]

I don't record myself very frequently because one of the joys I get out of trying to improve at golf is to try to figure things out without looking at video. Such is the case today, when I recorded four of my swings with a 5-iron, practiced a bit more, and then went to play 18.

I shot 74 and really struck the ball nicely all day. My misses were in the right spots and not all that bad.

The video was shot because I was starting to hit a lot of shots fat. My hands, as I posted elsewhere, had gotten behind my zipper at address instead of just in front. That's all it took.

After shooting the video, I fixed another flaw that became obvious to me now that I was no longer chunking everything - one of my old "fallback" flaws of snatching the club away very quickly to the inside, getting flat and across the line at the top, and then kind of "jumping" at the ball on the downswing to create the room I need to hit the ball.

I began practicing a move kind of like Chris DiMarco's pre-shot routine where he takes the club back to just past parallel/hip-high, keeping the clubhead outside of his hands the whole way. This leads to the arms swinging back more rather than around, which in turn lets me have a more upright swing plane and generate more power. With my flatter swing, it's more of a one-plane type swing and the only power I can generate comes from my core... I prefer something closer to a two-plane swing with more power coming from other parts of my body. I've never had much problem timing it, after all, and in fact other things - like my lag - are substantially better the more upright I swing.

So anyway, these videos were outdated almost as soon as they were taken, but I thought I'd share them anyway. The club in these videos is a 5-iron, which when I'm swinging poorly (i.e. flat like you see here) goes about 175 and when I'm swinging well, as I did on the course later, goes about 195.

Down the Line (1) , Down the Line (2) , Face-On , Face-On Angled

Anyway, there's the (broken, since repaired) swing of of a 2.9 handicap. And when I say that, I mean the swing is probably about a 6 handicap... and when I'm swinging properly I'm about a 2.0 right now (my 74 today comes out to 1.3).

P.S. All video shot with my Canon SD550, 60FPS, 320 x 240 (it may show up as 640 x 480 because I prefer to view them slightly larger and likely saved them at that size).

[iacas]

BTW, I'm not asking for any tips or advice. Please refrain from telling me what I should do to fix things. That spoils the fun for me and, again, the videos were outdated minutes later when I felt my left knee "jumping" - a problem whose cause I'm well aware of.

[Diggitydog]

Dude, he just asked that you not give advice! I would say that would also mean refraining from backhanded compliments.

iacas, show us the updated version.

[iacas]

Dude, he just asked that you not give advice! I would say that would also mean refraining from backhanded compliments.

Yeah. Precisely. My hopes in sharing this are:

a) to demonstrate that even good players have bad swings b) to demonstrate some flaws so others can note them and perhaps recognize something like it in their game c) to force myself to write about it. In doing so, I force myself to think about it.

iacas, show us the updated version.

No need. Why would I put a good swing on video? It's fixed. I don't need to look at the video to correct anything.

Besides, my friend who was shooting the video left after taking those four. I spent another 15 minutes working on the "knee jump" and then went out and played. That being said, I'm going to try to get some more video on Saturday, as well as put in some time with a mirror.

[Golf4life]

P.S. All video shot with my Canon SD550, 60FPS, 320 x 240 (it may show up as 640 x 480 because I prefer to view them slightly larger and likely saved them at that size).

nice video recording with that camera. i need to get me one and finally record my swing.

Now here comes the noob question: How were you able to get it in a quick time format and upload. It's so much easier to view someone's swing and be able to slow it down manually.

[pelsh]

Like any good golfer, you know where the club is at the top/on the way down and you put it in the right spot. My flaw is I don't cock my wrists soon enough, pull it way behind me as a result, but at the top/down/through its 100% on plane... However for me the back swing pulls everything out of wack. Seems from what you said thats your issue also.

Good swing though... right on plane down and through.

[iacas]

nice video recording with that camera. i need to get me one and finally record my swing.

The SD550 (or, more likely, whatever model has replaced it by now) is pretty nice because it does take 60 FPS video at 320 x 240. 30 FPS video is almost worthless.

Now here comes the noob question: How were you able to get it in a quick time format and upload. It's so much easier to view someone's swing and be able to slow it down manually.

I opened the .avi in QuickTime Player. I moved the in/out-point sliders to remove all the extra stuff (my pre-shot routine, etc.), I chose Save.

I hate, hate, HATE YouTube videos. That's why I won't even comment on anyone's swing on YouTube. It's worthless. Frame by frame? Peh! You can't even grab and put the play indicator where you really want.

[Finn07]

Erik, do u use a certain file sharing site or is quick time the file sharing site? "Not the best with this stuff...."

[iacas]

Erik, do u use a certain file sharing site or is quick time the file sharing site? "Not the best with this stuff...."

I just hosted them on my server. Same one that hosts thesandtrap.com.

[iacas]

So today I spent three hours (admittedly, almost 45 minutes of that was shooting the breeze with the superintendent) at the range with a mirror.

I was basically working to ingrain the things I fixed yesterday after I shot the video, and trying to figure out what the "feelings" were for each of those.

The toughest thing about golf is linking what you THINK you're doing with what you're ACTUALLY doing, and coming up with "feelings" for those correct swing parts so you can repeat them.

In the video, I remember thinking a few things. One is that I wanted to be a little closer to the ball than what felt completely comfortable as well as a bit more upright. This I achieved, but I actually ended up too close to the ball. The reason I wanted to do this was to allow my arms to hang a bit more, which would help my swing get more upright.

Low hands with hanging arms have been one of the things I've worked on most this year, but when I get too close to the ball I've got to do that "butt in/left knee jump" to give my hands room to go through the ball that you can plainly see in the video.

Second, I honestly thought I was taking the club back a bit to the outside. Though thinking back I can't quite recall why I thought this, I do remember thinking it. My "key" to correct this (which, again and to be clear, didn't actually need any correcting) was to start the backswing with my left shoulder. Doing so forces me to roll my wrists and tuck my right arm very quickly, resulting in the very inside takeaway you see in the videos.

Today I developed some new keys. First, I'm standing just a tad further back from the ball and bending just a bit more at the hips (not the waist) to give my arms and hands the room they need. This is toughest with the driver and easiest with the wedges, of course.

Second... Taking the club back on-line (at horizontal to the ground, I want the toe up, the clubhead straight in line with my hands, and my hands on the same line as they were at address or barely - 1/2" at most - inside that line) felt odd at first, but later felt okay. I simply keyed on the feeling that I wasn't changing the angle between my forearms and the club shaft or that the plane created by my two forearms didn't change at all in that first move away from the ball. The shoulders must still rotate, and it's still very much a one-piece takeaway, but there's no rolling of anything and no pushing of the left shoulder to start anything.

Those two changes resulted in a left arm angle at the top of my swing that is about 20° or more higher than in the swing on video. Unfortunately, it was also across the line and pointing well to the right (a vestige of the adjustments my body had to make in the previous swing). This didn't help my timing or ball striking, so to shorten my backswing and to help my hips clear a tad earlier in the downswing, I flared out my left foot about 15-20° more.

At setup I moved the ball about 1/2" backwards in my stance and make sure my hands are an inch forward of where they've set themselves lately. The combination of the two more properly line up the bottom of my swing in front of the ball rather than at or slightly behind the ball. Moving my hands forward subtly encourages me to roll them a bit more going back, so I do watch that.

My swing thought is pretty simple and keys on the main move listed here: the second one, the initial move away from the ball. The swing thought is something like "back and up". I want to feel as though my hands move straight back without rotation (though they do rotate naturally), then my shoulder turn lifts my arms into the air on a steeper plane than before. If I do so, and had a good setup, I hit a baby cut with a crisp strike.

20 minutes or so I spent gripping down on various clubs and hitting big huge slices, low slices, high slices, low draws, high draws, punch shots, high shots... low pitches, high pitches... just basically "goofing around" but really re-sensitizing myself to feeling the clubhead. I call these my "Nicklaus Sessions" because Jack talked heavily about how golf was simply a matter of "applying the clubhead to the ball." Plus, the shots sometimes come in handy when you need to get out of the trees or something...

My range work would have been a lot easier if the wind hadn't been so hard from left to right. I'd rather see a wind straight into me since it'll exaggerate the ballflight. Any crosswind makes it difficult to judge the ball flight accurately. (I never worry much about shot height when working on the range.)

Anyway, as I said, I'm hopeful that this little discussion can help others. If nothing else, it helps me to write about it since it forces me to think about it more.

[GoingfortheGreen]

P.S. All video shot with my Canon SD550, 60FPS, 320 x 240 (it may show up as 640 x 480 because I prefer to view them slightly larger and likely saved them at that size).

What, no ProPlay GPS?!

[iacas]

What, no ProPlay GPS?!

No, my SD550 is the "Super Duper ProPlay GPS Deluxe - now with built-in 8 MP still camera!". Plus it records sound - I'm not even sure the ProPlay did that...

[seattlemudder]

A friend of mine keeps telling me I should videotape my swing - I haven't gotten around to it. I like the point you made about what you think versus reality. I think I take the club away on the target line and then approach the ball from the inside - in reality I have no clue. I know that I have more of a two plane swing and my normal shot is a slight draw but certainly video tape would reveal what I'm actually doing.

I must confess that part of me doesn't want to know because I'm afraid of being hypercritical and trying to change too much at the same time.

[MyGolfster]

A friend of mine keeps telling me I should videotape my swing - I haven't gotten around to it.

As a guy who enjoys working on my swing, once you get in that trap it is hard to get out. My advice to you is to continue to work the draw, if it is high and slight. Feel the impact as you probably do, and hit it on the flight you want.

If you want to work on something to improve, have a friend who is a 4 handicap or less just check your swing plane, set-up, and if you are in balance (head stays quite still, watch Jeff ogilvy and aaron baddeley). Balance, posture, and plane are important factors. If you have those, you will play well. MyGolfster