Help! Shorten my back swing!

[DaveP043]

I've just read all of these responses, and am struck by the one thing that none of us has recommended.  @Mugs050, you should take some more video and post it to your My Swing thread, or find some other method of getting some good instruction.  Many of us, myself included, struggle with an over-long backswing, and so many of us have swing feels that have helped us to combat it.  Those swing feels have had widely variable levels of success.  I think getting advice from competent instructors is much more likely to get you some usable information than asking the rest of us for advice.  

[rehmwa]

  On 4/20/2016 at 5:49 PM, Emtee said:

I shortened my backswing by making a more "steep" backswing

 

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So weird....I had a friend who's an instructor and scratch this last weekend insist on a flatter takeaway.....That's what he did to shorten his, and he insisted that's what I should do.....maybe he was projecting...

golf is hard

[bm85]

What helped me was:

1). Bumping my hip forward at address. Makes things easier, and it's easy enough to make into a habit. 

2). Hands more forward at address. You want shaft lean anyway, and will give you more time to feel "set."

3). Practicing partial swings. I remember being somewhat tickled when I filmed myself practicing half swings with a pitching wedge some time ago, and saw my club nearly go past parallel at the top. It was just nuts that it honestly felt "1/2." 

It's still a work in progress, but has improved dramatically. Just gotta stick with it.
 

[Mugs050]

I just finished a lunch time session. I practiced the straight right arm and only hitting what I perceived as half shots. A few observations:

-In order for me to stop half way or not go past parallel I had to both slow down my backswing and have a slight pause at the top.

-I felt way more in control. Was able to hit cuts a lot easier and it didn't seem like I lost any distance.

-If I got lazy with my lower body I would hit hooks. It was imperative that I kept the lower body moving. Overall I hit probably 2 hooks that would of cost me on the course.

-I was prone to topping the ball, well I topped two drives. I think this has to with timing because now I am lifting up or quicker on the downswing.

Overall I really liked the feeling. I practiced solo and did not camera myself so I am going by feel more then anything that I was shorter. Next session I will hopefully have a golfing buddy and have him video a few shots for me. Once I get video of noticeable improvements I will update all.  

[Lihu]

  On 4/20/2016 at 7:06 PM, Mugs050 said:

I just finished a lunch time session. I practiced the straight right arm and only hitting what I perceived as half shots. A few observations:

-In order for me to stop half way or not go past parallel I had to both slow down my backswing and have a slight pause at the top.

-I felt way more in control. Was able to hit cuts a lot easier and it didn't seem like I lost any distance.

-If I got lazy with my lower body I would hit hooks. It was imperative that I kept the lower body moving. Overall I hit probably 2 hooks that would of cost me on the course.

-I was prone to topping the ball, well I topped two drives. I think this has to with timing because now I am lifting up or quicker on the downswing.

Overall I really liked the feeling. I practiced solo and did not camera myself so I am going by feel more then anything that I was shorter. Next session I will hopefully have a golfing buddy and have him video a few shots for me. Once I get video of noticeable improvements I will update all.  

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This was my observation as well when I started to make the change. I still over swing because old habits die hard. . .and for the reasons you listed.

  On 4/20/2016 at 6:32 PM, DaveP043 said:

I've just read all of these responses, and am struck by the one thing that none of us has recommended.  @Mugs050, you should take some more video and post it to your My Swing thread, or find some other method of getting some good instruction.  Many of us, myself included, struggle with an over-long backswing, and so many of us have swing feels that have helped us to combat it.  Those swing feels have had widely variable levels of success.  I think getting advice from competent instructors is much more likely to get you some usable information than asking the rest of us for advice.  

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It looks like he's using a Golftec setup.

If he got some evolvr help in addition to that , maybe that could help?

[Emtee]

  On 4/20/2016 at 7:06 PM, Mugs050 said:

I just finished a lunch time session. I practiced the straight right arm and only hitting what I perceived as half shots. A few observations:

-In order for me to stop half way or not go past parallel I had to both slow down my backswing and have a slight pause at the top.

-I felt way more in control. Was able to hit cuts a lot easier and it didn't seem like I lost any distance.

-If I got lazy with my lower body I would hit hooks. It was imperative that I kept the lower body moving. Overall I hit probably 2 hooks that would of cost me on the course.

-I was prone to topping the ball, well I topped two drives. I think this has to with timing because now I am lifting up or quicker on the downswing.

Overall I really liked the feeling. I practiced solo and did not camera myself so I am going by feel more then anything that I was shorter. Next session I will hopefully have a golfing buddy and have him video a few shots for me. Once I get video of noticeable improvements I will update all.  

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Topping the ball is a good sign as far as a steeper backswing is concerned, now you have to rotate and go down and get the ball. I first made the switch when I saw the "A swing" and realized Leadbetter was onto something about the more vertical backswing. The video I posted before, that guy (GG Swingtips) has his own version of this, check him out on Instagram if you can. My swing now (well maybe not this very second, sidelined due to injury) goes above the shaft plane line on the backswing and falls back onto plane as I rotate. I now have a steep backswing, and rotate on the downswing instead of "bump my hips" if that makes sense. I aim for my left leg to be on the same line in a way as is was at address to create more centrifugal force by using the ground on the downswing. Really tough to describe on my phone on a forum. If you were to look at say Sadlowski's swing and draw lines on his legs at address you'll notice he doesn't move his left leg beyond the line it's at from address, rather he rotates using the force he builds from the ground up. I feel there's a correlation between that and him being the longest in the world.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Emtee

[Dave2512]

 

  On 4/20/2016 at 7:11 PM, Lihu said:

 

It looks like he's using a Golftec setup.

If he got some evolvr help in addition to that , maybe that could help?

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I'd choose one or the other. Never been a fan of mixing instruction. When I had an instructor I only did what he said. But I was 100% confident he was best for me.

[Emtee]

Sorry for getting off topic regarding the backswing by the way lol

  On 4/20/2016 at 6:01 PM, Lihu said:

Not sure that he has a "fundamental flaw" that can't be only slightly modified.

His swing looks really good all the way up to here:

He could just do what @mvmac suggested flaring out the feet and maybe flatten the wrist***, but it looks pretty solid to me.

 

***Looking at other people's swings is easy, fixing your own swing is a painful and lifelong endeavor.

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It's all just preference like everything I guess. I would prefer for his club to be more over his right shoulder at the top of his backswing (there's a line from the net there in the photo above) and shallow as he begins downswing. 

[Dave2512]

  On 4/20/2016 at 7:38 PM, Emtee said:

Sorry for getting off topic regarding the backswing by the way lol

It's all just preference like everything I guess. I would prefer for his club to be more over his right shoulder at the top of his backswing (there's a line from the net there in the photo above) and shallow as he begins downswing. 

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@Lihu mentioned that.

[rehmwa]

  On 4/20/2016 at 7:06 PM, Mugs050 said:

I just finished a lunch time session. I practiced the straight right arm and only hitting what I perceived as half shots. A few observations:

-In order for me to stop half way or not go past parallel I had to both slow down my backswing and have a slight pause at the top.

-I felt way more in control. Was able to hit cuts a lot easier and it didn't seem like I lost any distance.

-If I got lazy with my lower body I would hit hooks. It was imperative that I kept the lower body moving. Overall I hit probably 2 hooks that would of cost me on the course.

-I was prone to topping the ball, well I topped two drives. I think this has to with timing because now I am lifting up or quicker on the downswing.

Overall I really liked the feeling. I practiced solo and did not camera myself so I am going by feel more then anything that I was shorter. Next session I will hopefully have a golfing buddy and have him video a few shots for me. Once I get video of noticeable improvements I will update all.  

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1 - Change in backswing tempo - Same experience here. Finding that was KEY to making it work.  End result after all winter of practice is a TINY bit slower, but a TON smoother and a more predictable cadence overall.  It was less about the speed, and more about how the transition from backswing to downswing transition 'feels' - had to find the pace that got rid of "awkward feel".  You doing it with a 'slight pause' is different than how I accommodated it (I used the 'feel' of a certain amount of torso torque), but it sounds like something workable.  I do know that if I pause at the top of a shorter backswing, even for a long time, I can still strike the ball very clean....

2 - Control - absolutely same experience here.  A lot of variation is removed.  I get more pure contact MUCH more often now.  My short irons are ridiculously better than before - and actually longer since I'm puring it more often - even with a more 'chipping' type shot (less pressure transfer than a full swing).  I have to reset all my distances for 7i and shorter.  the longer clubs still better by a lot and I'm hitting my hybrids and driver like never before

3 - If I get lazy I forget to finish my hip turn - my miss is a pull from that.  But now I have a single swing thought (finish your turn) and my hits have a much tighter dispersion when I do the right swing.

4 - topping - not finding this at all.

get your video - you'll still be surprised at how much farther your backswing is vs what you "think"....

 

[Mugs050]

Had another solo practice session. My first test of mental fortitude. I must of thinned more shots then I hit pure. At the end of the session I striped 5 straight 5 woods high and straight but before that it was a grind. On a positive note I didn't hit really any hooks. 

One thing that worried me was I felt the looser I got towards the end of my bucket it was hard for me to shorten my swing. My body really wanted to keep going. Oh well early in the change, bad weather up here for the next few days so I will have to wait until about Tuesday for my next practice session. 

[Lihu]

  On 4/21/2016 at 7:09 PM, Mugs050 said:

Had another solo practice session. My first test of mental fortitude. I must of thinned more shots then I hit pure. At the end of the session I striped 5 straight 5 woods high and straight but before that it was a grind. On a positive note I didn't hit really any hooks. 

One thing that worried me was I felt the looser I got towards the end of my bucket it was hard for me to shorten my swing. My body really wanted to keep going. Oh well early in the change, bad weather up here for the next few days so I will have to wait until about Tuesday for my next practice session. 

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Yeah, changes like this take a long time. Keep seeing your instructor and keep filming yourself. Use a mirror at home to check your club position at the top. Go slow. Maybe you'll be the first of us to get rid of this ailment.