Swing Thoughts/Analysis

[justinp]

I've never taken a lesson. I typically just read things and watch other swings and then go the range to play and tweak. I've worked my handicap down to a 12.5 (actually hit 11 at one point last year) and I'm fairly comfortable with my swing now. The biggest problem I have right now is with my driver.

I've been crushing it off the tee this year with my new stick (Cobra F Speed) but at times I get into a rut where I'm blocking a lot of drives to the right. They are still hit on the screws, I'm just blocking it seems. Anyway, for the first time I was able to get a video of my swing at a tournament I was playing on Monday. It's actually a full speed practice swing, which is why you don't hear any contact.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/jpp11/GolfSwing.AVI

My own evaluation:

#1. I've always had a little bit of a forward press. I don't do it on purpose, it just works that way with my setup and strong grip.

#2. Going back to waist high everything looks good I think. I have a flatter swing (more of a one plane swing) and usually hit a draw.

#3. Here is where I see a big difference with most single digit handicappers. When my left arm is perpendicular to my chest I have yet to set the club. Most swings I see at this point the club has been set to about a 90-degree angle with the left forearm. I continue to rotate around rather than taking the club up.

#4. This is where it gets scary. I had no idea I over-rotated that badly. If you step through frame-by-frame you'll see my hands get WAY behind me and the club not only goes beyond parallel but it ends up pointing back across the target line. Not sure how I don't reverse pivot here...good flexibility I guess.

#5. Things look good coming down for the most part. I think I just put my hands so far behind at the top that they never have a chance to catch up coming down. The club gets stuck lagging behind and...block right.

Does this seem to be a correct evaluation? Any thoughts?

[MPS67]

Sorry, I couldn't get the video to play.

[$2 Nassau]

Couldn't get it to play either.

However, are you sure that a practice swing, even at full speed, is going to give you good feedback? Even if you're trying to mimic your normal swing there is always a difference when you are actually hitting a shot. Just my opinion.

[VanillaEps]

Definitely over rotating. I'm surprised you don't hurt yourself. Do you get any minor back pain after playing a round of golf?

Setting the club late isn't a flaw, IMO. For example, TW sets his club "late" as well. A very long arcing swing. If it works for you, there's no reason to try and tweak or change that.

[MPS67]

VanilaEPS,
can you tell me what you used to view the clip? All I get is audio using Media Player.

[justinp]

I initially had an issue playing the clip on a Windows XP machine. My MacBook Pro played it right away without issue. On the XP machine I had to download another codec to get it to play. I'll see if I can go back and see what codec it was and post it.

$2 Nassau - Yeah...I want to get some clips of me actually hitting balls at some point. My personal digital camera is old enough that it only takes video at 15fps which is no good for slowing down a golf swing to see what's going on at each step. This vid was taken by a tournament volunteer that I knew (I think using a Flip Video camera). I had no idea she didn't get my "real" swing until I got the video in an e-mail the next day.


VanillaEPS - No back pain. Just very flexible still. Ask me again in a couple of years though. I agree that major changes aren't in order. For the most part I think the major pieces of the swing are ok. I just need to get myself to stop the backswing at parallel to keep my hands and the club in front of me.

[justinp]

Apparently the codec comes with the software provided with the Flip Video camera...which doesn't do anyone else any good

Anyway, I have XP running in parallel on my MacBook and installed some free video decoding/encoding software called ffdshow.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow

The video is MPEG-4 ASP encoding and AVI format. I'm sure there are other places to download the appropriate codec. This just happens to be the one I used. After installing the software I was able to view the video in Windows Media Player.

[MPS67]

Hey, thanks for the download. The video now works.

I've got to say, unbelievable flexibility Justinp!

I agree with you and VanillaEPS that you're over rotating. I don't know if you have any ideas in mind to restrict your shoulders from passing 90°. Maybe slowing down your tempo on the back swing and decelerating your arms sooner at the top would help. I think your club would set better at the 'left arm perpendicular to chest' position once your arms stopped rotating back further.

I could be wrong, but it looks like you could use more hip and torso rotation when initiating the downswing. Your swing looks like you use your arms a little too much IMHO. With the 15 fps of this video, It's hard to tell the location of your grip when contacting the ball. The lag amount that I see in the frame before your ball contact is what I'd like to achieve at ball contact. So, by extrapolating, I'm guessing you're casting only a little bit, and this could be why you are seeing a slight right push as the club head hasn't yet rotated square.

[iacas]

In the future, please do not post videos which require special or non-standard codecs. I'll remove the thread.

[justinp]

I'm honestly not sure what is non-standard about it. It's MPEG-4, AVI. I had no trouble getting it to play in Quicktime on my MacBook Pro. No additional codecs/software required.

It seems to be a Windows related issue. It's not like this is some vendor specific codec. MPEG-4 is a widely used standard for video encoding.

Sorry.

[supercow]

This lag reminds me of the old Sergio who also had problems with blocks/hooks due to excessive lag. A couple of things you could try to reduce the size of your backswing are:

- is to feel as though you are sitting down on your trailing leg on the way back. As soon as you feel as though you're weight is not being transferred to this trailing leg, stop your backswing
- shorten your the length of your thumb down the length of the shaft
- change your grip. That looks pretty strong (if I'm seeing it properly) and you'll notice that people with stronger grips appear to have more lag in their downswing (Duval is a good example of this)
- develop a feel for where the clubhead is. The more you play/practice, the more you'll discover that you're able to know where the clubhead/clubshaft is pointed at the top of your backswing. You can use this to your advantage to gradually groove yourself stop at a certain position
- focus on the feel for the left side of your torso. As soon as you feel as though this is being pulled laterally away from your front foot stop your backswing

Note - these 'fixes' may result in a reduction in your power/distance.