My Swing (Cantankerish)

[Cantankerish]

 

I believe that I have accomplished #2 now on both driver and irons.  Please tell me if that is not the case.  One point of continued annoyance is that I practice with my hands in front of the club head, but looking at the stop motion of the (it should be in slow-motion - but yo can still make it out) 7-iron, it appears to me as if I am not doing this.  On some days, I hit lots of fat shots (few GIR), while on other days I nut almost everything (many GIR).  Does it follow that on the days I am bad, it is because my hands are not forward?

Also, any tips are welcome.  Thanks.

[iacas]

5 hours ago, Cantankerish said:

I believe that I have accomplished #2 now on both driver and irons.  Please tell me if that is not the case. 

Key #2? Not quite. The left hip goes up really early in the downswing.

[Buckeyebowman]

Yep. You need to slide it toward the target a bit more before rotating. I also noticed that you have changed the ball position in your stance in your last vids. I was going to ask how you were hoping to create a hands ahead of clubhead position with the ball teed up, with the Driver, on the target side of your left foot. 

Don't get me wrong, your swing looks much better. It's just not quite there yet. 

[iacas]

44 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Yep. You need to slide it toward the target a bit more before rotating.

It’s not about sliding it more, I disagree.

[Cantankerish]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

Key #2? Not quite. The left hip goes up really early in the downswing.

“Hip goes up really early” is a new issue for me.  By that, I mean that I had not heard of that issue before.  Can you explain it in some detail for me?

[phillyk]

Early leg extension, the left leg should retain some flex and rotate then extend right around impact. Basically need more rotation as you move the weight forward. One way to see/understand this feel is by holding your club in your elbows with the clubhead on trail side and toe pointing up. Set up in a golf posture with a ball in a normal position. Backswing is swinging the club back so the butt end of the grip is pointing at the ball. Downswing is bringing the clubhead back to the ball. You should feel that left hip really rotating to get the clubhead back. If you early extend in this drill, the clubhead can’t get to the ball. 

[iacas]

22 hours ago, Cantankerish said:

“Hip goes up really early” is a new issue for me.  By that, I mean that I had not heard of that issue before.  Can you explain it in some detail for me?

Your left hip goes up, your left knee extends, etc. prematurely.

It's subtle, but to compensate, your head tips down and back.

[Cantankerish]

On 12/1/2019 at 8:25 PM, iacas said:

Your left hip goes up, your left knee extends, etc. prematurely.

It's subtle, but to compensate, your head tips down and back.

Ahh, you are right!  The comparison is very effective.  I hope you will entertain a few more questions on this, because this information creates more.

1. Should I be focused on the head in this condition (a #1 issue, and therefor top priority according to your instruction) or can I consider it a side effect of the early hips?  Actually, I have reason to believe that it is not a big issue. In studying the still images you provided, my eyes appear to NOT have moved relative to the ball.  My guess had been that the eyes are the purpose of the still head. (There is vertical movement, but I thought that was less of an issue than horizontal.)

2. Would you say not to bother with the above consideration and just get the hips more standardized because there are other issues created by them?

 

Thanks in advance

Edited December 3, 2019 by Cantankerish

[iacas]

7 hours ago, Cantankerish said:

1. Should I be focused on the head in this condition (a #1 issue, and therefor top priority according to your instruction) or can I consider it a side effect of the early hips?  Actually, I have reason to believe that it is not a big issue. In studying the still images you provided, my eyes appear to NOT have moved relative to the ball.  My guess had been that the eyes are the purpose of the still head. (There is vertical movement, but I thought that was less of an issue than horizontal.)

2. Would you say not to bother with the above consideration and just get the hips more standardized because there are other issues created by them?

1. No. Head is a result.
2. Don't worry about your head, no, worry about the left knee/hip action.

 

[boogielicious]

On 12/3/2019 at 12:24 PM, Cantankerish said:

Ahh, you are right!  The comparison is very effective.  I hope you will entertain a few more questions on this, because this information creates more.

1. Should I be focused on the head in this condition (a #1 issue, and therefor top priority according to your instruction) or can I consider it a side effect of the early hips?  Actually, I have reason to believe that it is not a big issue. In studying the still images you provided, my eyes appear to NOT have moved relative to the ball.  My guess had been that the eyes are the purpose of the still head. (There is vertical movement, but I thought that was less of an issue than horizontal.)

2. Would you say not to bother with the above consideration and just get the hips more standardized because there are other issues created by them?

 

Thanks in advance

 

19 hours ago, iacas said:

1. No. Head is a result.
2. Don't worry about your head, no, worry about the left knee/hip action.

 

@Cantankerish

Listen to Erik's advice. It is easy to get sidetracked and start thinking about other things or self-analyze. Focus on the priority piece and keep working that. Sometimes the other things fix themselves with the priority piece correction. Other times, the other items are an easy fix after the priority piece correction or have no need to correct at all.

And be patient. Some items can take time to correct.

[Cantankerish]

Thanks for taking a look.  To my eyes, my swing is beginning to look better.

1. I got some extremely useful feedback last time concerning the hip.  I set about removing the early hip flair, and hopefully you will see that it is gone.  Erik, I would have struggled indefinitely with that because I started doing it on purpose, thinking it was correct.  I cannot thank you enough.

2. My primary goal right now is accomplishing key #2, weight forward.  Please let me know if it looks like I have accomplished that.

3. Also, I have begun work on hinging my wrists.  I have been launching the ball higher and I am concerned that it is due to me performing the release prematurely.  Also, I do not feel as though I am getting much extra power out of it, doubling my concern.  This is an element of key #3, inline impact, which I have only begun to investigate.  Please let me know what my status is with this.

4. Finally, I had the rear camera placed differently this time.  I think it is revealing that I am coming over the top!  Please tell me if this is in fact the case.  I will have to halt everything else to correct that.

 

Thank you in advance for helping me.

[iacas]

 

[Cantankerish]

The golf swing is truly an alien invention.  None of it has come naturally to me.  I did not know why I was being told to do so (neither the above post nor the video say so directly), but a couple of hundred range balls later, and I have now incorporated this proper angle into my swing.  It was not a simple matter.  I had to improve several issues with the downswing to figure out how to make decent contact with the ball.  They are (1) my left arm must be straighter, (2) the club has to come way inside along my right leg, and (3) my hands have to cross the plane of the ball well before the head of the club.   These are all items I have known that I needed to improve but I have struggled to make it happen, so I would say that this change in the swing has had a great number of positive impacts.  Interestingly, I went to practice chipping before leaving the range today.  I found myself just sorta moving with the new exaggerated angle when I performed the much smaller movement in the pitch.  Holy moly, the stroke is so much better like this!  With the the arms close to my body and my legs doing extra work to put my torso in position, my arms are doing very little.  I think that the larger muscles in the legs taking on a larger role make it easy to deliver a repeatable stroke.

Pros really are not playing the same game as amateurs.

Thanks again, Erik.  When I think I have this licked I will get some footage.

[Cantankerish]

Been a couple of months working on this.  It is proving a difficult transition.  I have just about got it to stick, and today for the first time I incorporated the "pitched shoulder" into my swing on the course.   It went quite well.  It adds some distance to my irons, so I will have to figure those numbers out again.  But the motion creates an angle on the clubface that puts quite a bit of fade on the ball.  I have begun rolling my left wrist on the backswing just a bit to counter this side effect, and it does the job.  But I just do not see how this is the correct solution.  It adds a variable that seems counterproductive (how much roll).  If I commit to this swing and this is not the correct approach I am just going to have to unlearn it - and then frankly not really know what to do about the considerable fade I am creating.  So then I will have to unlearn the pitched shoulder too.  Obviously that is wrong.

 

Can I get some advice on this?  Is a video necessary?

[iacas]

Can you post some new videos? Ideally high-speed?

[Cantankerish]

On 2/16/2020 at 9:46 PM, Cantankerish said:

Been a couple of months working on this.  It is proving a difficult transition.  I have just about got it to stick, and today for the first time I incorporated the "pitched shoulder" into my swing on the course.   It went quite well.  It adds some distance to my irons, so I will have to figure those numbers out again.  But the motion creates an angle on the clubface that puts quite a bit of fade on the ball.  I have begun rolling my left wrist on the backswing just a bit to counter this side effect, and it does the job.  But I just do not see how this is the correct solution.  It adds a variable that seems counterproductive (how much roll).  If I commit to this swing and this is not the correct approach I am just going to have to unlearn it - and then frankly not really know what to do about the considerable fade I am creating.  So then I will have to unlearn the pitched shoulder too.  Obviously that is wrong.

 

Can I get some advice on this?  Is a video necessary?

 

On 2/16/2020 at 9:59 PM, iacas said:

Can you post some new videos? Ideally high-speed?

I am having trouble scrounging up a good camera.  But anyway, scratch all that.  I somehow got the wrong technique in my head.  I had been trying to create the correct angle of spine only on the downswing - even though there was no actual reason to think that was proper!  I suspect that the real change here happens at setup, and you just maintain it throughout the swing.  So much simpler.

I gotta work on this for a bit.

[iacas]

Phones have great cameras these days.

[Cantankerish]

I have been practicing the hunched over angle.  I still have to focus on doing it or I do not, but here is what I have.

 

 

Please let me know if I have achieved the correct angle (or anything else that is wrong).

Thanks