smithyone

Thanks for the feedback. So much to learn in this game. My understanding of cupped was like in this picture below indicating a clear bend away from it's natural state. If I grip the club without any flexion or extension either way it looks like the picture below of post impact. Would I be better off trying to get flexion into it or get it looking even straighter at impact?

Yeah maybe hard to see in that photo, but I think (hope...) it is flat rather than cupped. I took another video of my swing today and post impact you can see it reaches the flat position, going to cupped later on. I'm bowed at the top of the backswing. So I suppose it has to be flat at impact? I I'm not sure whether you can go from bowed at the top of the back swing to cupped at impact then back to straight after impact? But it is something I am working on. I'm new to golf, only started last April, so my swing is far from perfect and changing all the time. But I feel like the DST club is helping me not be all flippy and helps me focus on rotation.

I was interested reading this post because I've just bought a DST compressor. I think the answer as to whether it is useful depends on swing speed. If you swing fast, the club head mass will likely straighten the shaft completely, as mentioned and photographed. However, that isn't how I use it. I use it for slow half swings to feel the position I need to be in with my hips rotating towards the target and my right arm slightly bent. It allows me to develop the correct position and then try to increase the length of backswing. Increasing length of backswing then increases the speed of the swing, but I try and keep that same feeling. Of course, as mentioned there are other ways to do this, with alignment sticks etc, but I find this to be a really useful training aid. I've bought others which haven't had the same impact on my swing. When I swing slow, I don't see the shaft straightening completely. See the pictures here, it is clearly bent even after impact. My camera only does 120fps, but I don't think that should mean it changes the flex of the shaft on the image? The shot was a clean hit and had that lovely sound of a compressed ball strike which I didn't get very much before. When I switch back to my normal 8 iron and try and recreate the feel, I'm getting more compression. I've now started hitting my 9 iron 150+ yards, when I hit it correctly, whereas it was about 135-140 before. So I suppose those number don't lie, the training aid has done something for me. I'm having to club down as it is changing my yardages.