Drills Or Tips To Fix Going Back Too Far?

[ERLoft]

Just wondering if anyone knows some good drills or tips to help shorten up my backswing.  I've developed a 'hitch' in my backswing - I'll get back to a decent top point, but keep rotating further than this.  If I were keeping my spine angle and shoulders level, this wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily, but that's not the case.  My left knee ends up flexing too much and my upper body moves towards the ball to facilitate a bigger turn.  With my spine angle and shoulders completely different than at address, it's really hard to get back to the ball with any consistency. 

I've had some success with trying to maintain the same flex amount in my left knee until the downswing is really underway, but still can struggle at not going too far back.  There's a couple of reasons that I can think of that contribute to this - 1)  Not as flexible as I used to be, but still trying subconsciously to get that same big turn I had in my 20's and 30's  and 2) My rhythm and tempo start to feel really mechanical when I'm working to stop from going too far back.

Sadly, even though I consciously know I don't hit the ball any shorter when I stop at the 'proper' top of my swing, I'm still struggling to consistently keep from going back too far.

I've got an orange whip and think that I need to be working that in my back yard regularly - maybe that will help.  Any other drills or tips would be appreciated! 

[Ernest Jones]

Best thing I have found so far is to feel like your trail arm stays straight. It won't, but the moment you "feel" like it has to fold, stop. 

There is a thread on here that @iacas wrote about this feel, but I never did get the hang of linking posts on the new site. 

Edited June 14, 2017 by Ernest Jones

[billchao]

1 hour ago, Ernest Jones said:

Best thing I have found so far is to feel like your trail arm stays straight. It won't, but the moment you "feel" like it has to fold, stop. 

There is a thread on here that @iacas wrote about this feel, but I never did get the hang of linking posts on the new site. 

You just copy&paste the url and it embeds itself.

 

[Ernest Jones]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

You just copy&paste the url and it embeds itself.

 

Yes, that's it, thanks!

[Buckeyebowman]

There were some tips akin to that in this month's Golf Magazine about Justin Thomas' driving. They basically focused on keeping your hands as far away from your head as possible. Same difference really.

It sounds to me like you are "diving" into the ball. A buddy of mine developed this habit years ago. I stood beyond the ball while he addressed it, and grabbed a little tuft of hair at the top of his head. I told him to swing, and when he dove into the ball that hank of hair got pulled, and it was painful!

I told him what he was doing. I also told him that a little bit of side to side movement of the head was OK, but that bobbing up and down was death!

I doubt you have someone to haul around and hold your hair while you practice, I think I'd just concentrate on keeping a "steady" head. That could shorten up your swing while thinking of something else.

[Ernest Jones]

7 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

There were some tips akin to that in this month's Golf Magazine about Justin Thomas' driving. They basically focused on keeping your hands as far away from your head as possible. Same difference really.

It sounds to me like you are "diving" into the ball. A buddy of mine developed this habit years ago. I stood beyond the ball while he addressed it, and grabbed a little tuft of hair at the top of his head. I told him to swing, and when he dove into the ball that hank of hair got pulled, and it was painful!

I told him what he was doing. I also told him that a little bit of side to side movement of the head was OK, but that bobbing up and down was death!

I doubt you have someone to haul around and hold your hair while you practice, I think I'd just concentrate on keeping a "steady" head. That could shorten up your swing while thinking of something else.

That's an old Manuel de la Torre tip. Focusing on keeping your hands as a far as possible from your head can help keep your lead arm straight-ish without introducing tension because you are focused on the hands rather than the arms. As with all feel based instruction YMMV, but I think this one is a pretty good thought/feel. 

[boogielicious]

10 hours ago, billchao said:

You just copy&paste the url and it embeds itself.

 

@ERLoft,

Here's the video from that thread. That is my Evolvr instructor Stephan. I use this feel a lot.

 

[billchao]

9 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

I told him what he was doing. I also told him that a little bit of side to side movement of the head was OK, but that bobbing up and down was death!

This isn't really true at all. Key #1 allows for a little movement in either direction, more so vertically than laterally IIRC. Lots of great players dip their heads in the downswing.

[Foot Wedge]

Try filming your swing.  I bet that if you do what "feels" like a 3/4 swing, you'll see you get a lot closer to parallel than you think.  I had to work on shortening my backswing, seeing what's happening helps convince you not to make that huge turn to create power.  A lot of things that feel powerful ruin good contact.

[Hacker James]

17 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

 

I told him what he was doing. I also told him that a little bit of side to side movement of the head was OK, but that bobbing up and down was death!

 

ha ha, reminds me of some of Shawn Clements videos where he makes an analogy to a down hill skier! He not only bobs his head, but his entire body!  

[iacas]

7 hours ago, billchao said:

This isn't really true at all. Key #1 allows for a little movement in either direction, more so vertically than laterally IIRC. Lots of great players dip their heads in the downswing.

Yup.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 6/14/2017 at 9:00 PM, Ernest Jones said:

That's an old Manuel de la Torre tip. Focusing on keeping your hands as a far as possible from your head can help keep your lead arm straight-ish without introducing tension because you are focused on the hands rather than the arms. As with all feel based instruction YMMV, but I think this one is a pretty good thought/feel. 

I tried this earlier this year after reading iacas' post that was brought ttt earlier on. For no other reason I started making more solid contact and attained greater distance, especially off the tee.

16 hours ago, billchao said:

This isn't really true at all. Key #1 allows for a little movement in either direction, more so vertically than laterally IIRC. Lots of great players dip their heads in the downswing.

True, but do they dip their heads in the backswing? That's what my friend was doing. If you didn't get that, read the post again. He then had to "stand up" in the downswing precisely the amount he dove into the ball on the backswing to get a solid strike.

If you're someone who strikes the ball with a fair amount of shaft lean, you need to get down to the ball. But then I remember Tiger diving into the ball like crazy when his swing was slowly going to hell! Of course, that may have been caused by his back issues.

 

[billchao]

10 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

True, but do they dip their heads in the backswing?

Some guys named Hogan and Woods both did it and I'm pretty sure they both turned out to be decent at golf. 

 

[boogielicious]

8 hours ago, billchao said:

Some guys named Hogan and Woods both did it and I'm pretty sure they both turned out to be decent at golf. 

 

Rory too.

[Killa]

For me it was an "aha" moment when I realized that my "3/4" swing is actually almost parallel at the top. Filming yourself will help with that. 

[iacas]

22 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

True, but do they dip their heads in the backswing?

Yep.

And a little more in the early downswing.

[Buckeyebowman]

OK, you're going to compare my friend to Hogan and Woods? Yeah, right! You can't be serious!

And once I told him what I saw, and he corrected it, he started hitting the ball much better. I can live with those results! And so can he.

[iacas]

21 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

OK, you're going to compare my friend to Hogan and Woods? Yeah, right! You can't be serious!

Dude, c'mon. You asked "True, but do they dip their heads in the backswing?" and you got the honest, factually correct responses. What do you want?