Mr.Wedge

I believe Moe Normans success had less to do with the single plane aspect and more to do with his swinging the triangle of the arms and shoulders, which when learned, is a very simple and repeatable method of execution, not to mention accurate and powerful.

[FONT=arial]I'm with you, and it concerns me most in how the sport of golf is presented to prospective new golfers. Those of us who have been around the sport for some time know there are many different ways to arrive at the powerful impact position, but the uninitiated do not get a fair shake IMO. They are told, "Go see your local PGA Pro", but go to two different PGA Pros and you'll get two different ideals of the swing. I have had PGA Pros give me ablolutely rotten advice which actually prevented me from learning to swing. So we admonish newbies to carefully select a teaching pro. How can they know? "Find the method that works best for you" is another admonishment, which does not take into account it may take years or decades even for someone to find that method, not to mention all the bad habits they have developed in the meantime having to be overcome at some point. Learning the golf swing need not be this difficult. I think many of the more successful golfers today have a combination of talent and luck of circumstance in just happening to have had a good teacher early in the process. But if the opportunities are to be opened up for more, and if the golf industry wishes to grow so more recreational golfers stay with it, I believe a major paradigm shift within the PGA and the general golf teaching establishment is required. Actual standardization may never be possible, but I think we can do a better job than we do now. [/FONT]

Assuming you meant left hand, it looks about right in the vids, but the right is too far under the shaft. I don't have any pics of the armpit drill, but you have hard of VJ practicing with a head cover under his left armpit, or Hogan practicing with a handkerchief (not wadded up, just the tip of it folded into a small ball)? It will feel very different and awkward to you, so if you work on this best with 1/2 to 3/4 ish swings with a wedge or short iron at first. The lead or left shoulder is probably most important but doing both will help you get the feel of rotating the shoulders as one unit. It also helps with your swing radius, keeping it consistent throughout the swing. This link can give you an idea of how the arms and shoulders work together as one unit: Notice how relaxed his arms and shoulders are at address and at impact, driver to wedge. Note he is not extending his arms from his shoulder joints. His shoulders are relaxed and square. That is his natural swing radius and he doesn't change it throughout his swing.

First is the grip. Your right hand is rather weak; needs to be rotated so the V is more on top of the shaft, palm square to the target. Maybe kick the knees in toward each other in order to get the weight on the insides of your feet. You really want to key the insides of the legs and that will do it. It looks like your weight may be a tad on your heels. I think that tilt at address may be helping to cause the lateral move. I am not a big fan of spinal tilt at address. You can see you get the spine vertical from the front view after you make the shift coming down which is a healthier position. Tilting the spine that way at address to me just overcomplicates the shoulder rotation unecessarily IMO. If you keep it, cut it about in half, getting your head over the inside of your right thigh at address. You could use the old arm pit drill. I like to use a boulder sized shooting marble in each arm pit and swing without dropping them. You start off disconnected at the shoulders. Relax the arms and try to keep the take away one unit. I wouldn't worry about the hips but focus on the shoulder rotation. Think of a directional arrow pointing out the back of your right shoulder and follow it. Do that and keep the right knee flexed and kicked in a tad and you'll see big improvement is my guess.

Sounds like you have a very goodteacher!

Here's a thought: If you try to delay release you are keying the wrist muscles in the opposite direction of the hit. If you resist wrist hinge (ultimately allowing them to hinge due to change of direction), you are keying the muscles in the direction of the hit. I've tried all the different hinging scenario's and allowing c-force with a bit of resistance to hinge produces the crispest and most powerful shots for me.

Here comes the controversy...there is really no need to consciously do anything with the hips. There is enough going on in the swing to think about without having to make the hips do something. The hips are pretty much controled by what you do below and above them. The knees control hip level. Do some practice coils in front of a mirror. Straighten your right knee on one and note what happens to your hips--they tilt, and your torso then tilts toward the target as a result. Now do one with the knees kicked in towards one another flexed (weight will be on the insides of the feet). Keep them flexed and kicked. If you simply coil the shoulders from that position, you will note the hips coil as far as they need to in response and you will feel a powerful tension all along the insides of your legs (esp the right); you will note your hips stay level. If you unwind the toso from this position, the hips will be leveraged off the inside of the back foot and rotate back towards the target just fine. The feel will be that of the hips being "squeezed" back around rather than thrusting them. Some people like to feel as if they are initiating the down with the left hip and that is fine, but you can't change physics; it's all leveraged off the fulcrum of the inside of the right foot. Ps: I think it is neat that you and your wife enjoy the game together and you both swing nicely.

You probably guessed it...exact same critique.

Yep. Keeping the right flexed and kicked will make your hip rotation feel restricted. Just go ahead and make your shoulder turn as you do against that restriction, which is torque you are building to return to the ball with. You will probably notice your left heel will not come off the ground near as much if at all.

There is a lot that looks good and much could be commented on, but the most important thing for you to work on IMO is your right leg. You straighten it during your backswing and this throws all your other levels off. If you work on keeping it flexed and kicked in toward the target throughout the backswing, you will increase accuracy and distance.

I think it is important to make the distinction between "hitting from the inside" which is the thread topic, and an "inside out swing". A square hit will be a swing which I described in my previous post which approaches the ball from inside the target line. An inside out swing approaches the ball from further inside, crosses the target line at the ball, and continues briefly outside the target line producing a draw or hook depending upon the angle of the clubhead relative to it's path.

I doubt he'll lose distance because of it.

Clubhead acceleration is the primary factor in creating backspin. It is possible you are taking too long of a backswing and having to slow it down in the hit zone to control distance. If so, try taking some shorter backswings in order to allow the clubhead to release while accelerating through the ball. Keep your grip loose and allow, don't force the club to release. Hope it helps.

Consider the triangle formed by the arms and the shoulders at address. If the shoulders make a pure rotation around the axis of the spine with the triangle remaining intact and the angle of the spine not changing, the only path for the clubhead to take is inside the target line from a downrange view. If the radius of the swing (base of the neck to the hands) remains consistent, the triangle stays in position, and the spine angle doesn't change, the clubhead will release into the ball along the same inside path. "Swinging from the inside" is a result of a well executed swing, not something to be manipulated IMO. It is stressed because having the clubhead approach the ball from any other direction will result in a mis hit of one sort or another, but the actual cause will be some other malfunction in the swing. If you focus your attention on maintaining a pure radius (controlled by the leading arm). making a pure shoulder rotation, and keeping your spine angle consistent, you will be swinging from the inside.

I try to practice at least one hour every day taking a day off every week, and do golf specific exercises daily as well. If I may add, how much is less important than how you practice. Repetive hitting will not necessarily help reduce the handicap. Ps: this is my first post here and the Welcome section won't allow me to post a new thread, so howdy all. I live along the northern Gulf coast and am keeping a sharp eye on Gustav and Hanna right now. I look forward to participating in this forum (if I don't get blown away), and I hope you'll forgive this bit of threadjacking Burnsuptoniic.