Watching the Pro players messes with my mind

[treebound]

I watched some of the LPGA tournament on tv last night to see how well Michelle Wie was going to do, and then I noticed Inbee Park's swing. It seems to work for her since she won, but I think if I posted a video of me swinging like her I'd probably get all sorts of suggestions to change and fix it. 

I don't even want to talk about Furyk's swing, but he too has done well with his swing. 

Sometimes when watching golf on tv or when watching other people swing a club on a course or at a driving range, I try to pick up on things that might help me improve my own version of a golf swing. I don't think I want to emulate Inbee Park's swing, but on days where my knee or back are having issues I just might incorporate a bit of it to try and help some. 

 

Anyway, just curious if anyone else sometimes have their mind and swing thoughts affected when watching pro players swing a golf club. 

Edited March 5, 2017 by treebound
Typo

[DaveP043]

The thing which most, or maybe all, of these "odd" swings is that all of the oddness happens on the backswing.  In every case, the forward swing is very solid.  This is why the 5SK instruction makes so much sense to me.  Figure out what every good player does, ignore the stuff they don't all do, and you get a (very wide) plan for your personal swing.  The keys say very little about the backswing, other than keeping your head relatively still.  

[Wanzo]

15 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

 The keys say very little about the backswing, other than keeping your head relatively still.  

Good post Dave.  I think your sentiment is correct, but I do think the teachers of 5sk would adjust a backswing if it's preventing someone from getting their weight forward or have the correct path etc. (the other keys). Obviously these pros with unique backswings don't have an issue with that

 

52 minutes ago, treebound said:

Anyway, just curious if anyone else sometimes have their mind and swing thoughts affected when watching pro players swing a golf club. 

In the past I would have, but I try really hard to stay focused on my instruction given to me and not deviate. I think that's your best bet. Just watch the pros for fun not to look for ways to fix your game

 

54 minutes ago, treebound said:

but on days where my knee or back are having issues I just might incorporate a bit of it to try and help some. 

 

If you're having knee or back issues I'd say it's even more important to communicate that to your instructor and if you don't have one be really careful with what you are trying to implement. 

[Daddycool_83]

1 hour ago, treebound said:

I watched some of the LPGA tournament on tv last night to see how well Michelle Wie was going to do, and then I noticed Inbee Park's swing. It seems to work for her since she won, but I think if I posted a video of me swinging like her I'd probably get all sorts of suggestions to change and fix it. 

I don't even want to talk about Furyk's swing, but he too has done well with his swing. 

Sometimes when watching golf on tv or when watching other people swing a club on a course or at a driving range, I try to pick up on things that might help me improve my own version of a golf swing. I don't think I want to emulate Inbee Park's swing, but on days where my knee or back are having issues I just might incorporate a bit of it to try and help some. 

 

Anyway, just curious if anyone else sometimes have their mind and swing thoughts affected when watching pro players swing a golf club. 

if i had a fiver for everytime i wanted to emulate a pros swing ide be rich,im a hitter of the ball as opposed to a swinger,i deloft at impact compress yadda yadda but my swing is unbalanced at finish and not technically brilliant,but..i hit my irons straight,my drives are the same if not a little fadey at times and i can shape a shot if needed..so for me as much as ide love the swing of adam scott or rory mcilroy i know it would be mainly for aesthetics as opposed to anything else,ide still have to hit the ball at the end of that swing,so..for me ill take the unconventional with a half decent to solid golf game over textbook swing anyday,on the flipside my playing partner has a gorgeous swing,a real technical guy ( where im a feel player) and he plays off a 12 like me..i think like fingerprints our swings are unique,im not saying we cant emulate the pros swings but my philosophy is find your own swing that works,tune if needed but work with what you have..unless ofcourse you go to a pro for lessons and strip your game to bare bones and start from floor up on a new swing,but thats a whole different kettle of fish.

[treebound]

Yeah, I need to go find the 5SK stuff again. 

I also am thinking of finding a local instructor for a few lessons once the local courses open up again. 

Time for some knee exercises, then maybe the driving range, and later I'll watch some of today's PGA tournament on tv and will try to keep my mind under control. 

[billchao]

1 hour ago, treebound said:

I watched some of the LPGA tournament on tv last night to see how well Michelle Wie was going to do, and then I noticed Inbee Park's swing. It seems to work for her since she won, but I think if I posted a video of me swinging like her I'd probably get all sorts of suggestions to change and fix it. 

I don't even want to talk about Furyk's swing, but he too has done well with his swing.

If you struck the ball as well as they do, I doubt any good instructor would have you change much. Their swings might look different, but they are highly functional.

Amateur golfers have swings that don't look good and don't work well, but the latter should be the reason for swing change, not the former. You can become a pretty good player without an aesthetically pleasing swing and there are many idiosyncrasies from player to player, even amongst the pros.

[JonMA1]

I guess it's only natural to emulate what we can easily see with a pro's swing. At real time speed, there are so many things we miss and a lot of what we miss seems to be the stuff we need to emulate.

If I tried to just finish like Jimmy Walker or Dustin Justin, I'd cut across the ball every time - because I can't see all the things that got them to that point. On the other hand, if I could come through the ball and have all the keys that Inbee Park has on the downswing and impact, I'd gladly take her backswing all day long.

1 hour ago, treebound said:

and then I noticed Inbee Park's swing. It seems to work for her since she won, but I think if I posted a video of me swinging like her I'd probably get all sorts of suggestions to change and fix it. 

I could very well be wrong, but when I look at her swing in slo mo, she seems to get a full shoulder turn even though it doesn't look that way in real time. She just keeps the club more vertical than many. I think the instructors here try to discourage the John Daly type swing where the club goes way past parallel at the top.

[billchao]

7 minutes ago, JonMA1 said:

I could very well be wrong, but when I look at her swing in slo mo, she seems to get a full shoulder turn even though it doesn't look that way in real time. She just keeps the club more vertical than many.

She makes a full turn, just doesn't hinge her wrists much.

[HitAndGiggle]

Watching the pros can be very interesting now that I'm starting to get somewhat serious with my game. One thing I notice is pace-of-play-related stuff. When I play I, often due to slow partners, just step up and hit each shot. I get a kick out of watching pros really evaluate and over-evaluate every shot. At final address of the ball they'll lift and look 10 times before taking a swing. Of course, it seems to work. Haha...it's just a different game at that point. 

My golf coach had me make a few changes to my swing this winter as I was ready to really improve. Then, I was watching a slow-mo swing of Justin Thomas and noticed much of his swing having elements of what we've been working on...to a great degree. That was kind of neat. And, I really like his swing. But, I took a video of his driver swing and showed it to my coach, emphasizing the turning of the hips. He said that nobody my age really swings like that - haha. True. 

Some of those players on the LPGA are fun to watch... 

[iacas]

On 3/5/2017 at 10:09 AM, treebound said:

It seems to work for her since she won, but I think if I posted a video of me swinging like her I'd probably get all sorts of suggestions to change and fix it.

I don't think you'd get too many of those suggestions from me, as others kind of said.

[LHH]

On a similar note I was recently watching Chris DiMarco and Tiger Woods at the Masters 2005 on youtube and thought his swing was pretty "against the grain" for lack of better words. ANd he was competing, very well too, against Tiger at his best.

[treebound]

57 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't think you'd get too many of those suggestions from me, as others kind of said.

Understood. And having read some, then going back and watching replays, there is much that I wasn't seeing. 

[Buckeyebowman]

On 3/5/2017 at 10:43 AM, DaveP043 said:

The thing which most, or maybe all, of these "odd" swings is that all of the oddness happens on the backswing.  In every case, the forward swing is very solid.  This is why the 5SK instruction makes so much sense to me.  Figure out what every good player does, ignore the stuff they don't all do, and you get a (very wide) plan for your personal swing.  The keys say very little about the backswing, other than keeping your head relatively still.  

Good points. It's really all about impact. You can look at swings throughout pro golf history and there are idiosyncracies galore. Arnie had the "anti-hook" follow through. Jack had the flying right elbow. And if you look way back, no one would ever try to teach someone to swing a club like Walter Hagen!

Even aesthetically pleasing swings like Hogan, Snead or Bobby Jones had some quirks if you'd look close. As a young player Hogan had a HUGE swing a la John Daly, Snead kind of threw it over the top a little bit, and Jones would cross the line at the top, but his first move down would reroute the club right back on the target line.

Back when I was young and just taking up the game my Uncle, who was a country club pro before WWII, advised me to watch the lady pros on TV to learn about the swing. The ladies had swings that were more textbook than the men.

[Vinsk]

On 3/5/2017 at 0:18 PM, billchao said:

She makes a full turn, just doesn't hinge her wrists much.

What amazes me is how she completely takes her eyes off the ball and looks ahead before she even hits it. 

[gregsandiego]

Inbee's swing seems very slow both back and forward. It has to be an optical illusion.

 

Edited March 12, 2017 by gregsandiego

[Lihu]

2 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

Inbee's swing seems very slow both back and forward. It has to be an optical illusion.

 

She "only" hits about 237 according to Annika, but 254 in her official stats. She looks pretty relaxed and has a 93% driving accuracy stat!

http://www.lpga.com/players/inbee-park/82866/stats

 

[GolfLug]

I would absolutely love to have steadiness and weight distribution Inbee has in her backswing. Even on pro circuits you would be hard pressed to find someone who has better control of keys #1 & #2 in the BS. 

[boogielicious]

Below is a screen shot of Inbee at A4 and A7. She plays the ball pretty far back for the driver. Her hips stay centered in the backswing, but her head moves way back. She's got Key 3 down though. 

You can't argue with her results. I am not remotely expert enough to say whether she would need to correct anything.