Ringer

Jack Nicklaus wore white shoes. I think I'll wear white shoes too. :D In all seriousness it is probably just a trigger. It works for him but I would suggest finding your own trigger. Tinker with it and see if it works, but if it doesn't don't try to press the issue.

Are you trying to hit "down" on it by leaning your upper body too far in front of it?

Very common problem, but also make sure the left hip gets AHEAD of the ball.

Heavier club makes for more BALL speed, but not clubhead speed.

Parallax is more or less about the position of the camera when trying to view video. But there is also the problem of parallel lines coming to a point along the horizon. Generally I find it is best to just assume you want to hit a draw or fade and forgo always trying to hit it straight. Align the face left or right of the target, then align your body double that amount. You'll do far better around the course when you stop trying to play straight shots.

I am a firm believer in a firm RIGHT leg that the left shoulder turns around to create coil in the backswing. Then the right leg pushes forward which ever so slightly increases the torque. Then the body unwinds from the bottom up starting with the right leg, up the hips, torso, shoulders, and finally arms. Problems arise often when someone tries to circumvent this system. The MOST common I see is when the shoulders try to uncoil at the same time. Just to clarify, the shoulders WILL turn when the hips turn, but they should essentially turn at the same rate until the hips begin to slow down. The shoulders do not turn in addition to the hip rotation at a simultaneous moment. Instead it is progressive. Think of it like the tom tom drum from Karate Kid part 2. The ball on a string whips around a turning drum. If you turn the handle, the drum goes with it, and finally the strings whip around. The trick to the golf swing is making sure you whip the arms around on the proper plane to swing the clubhead on a path where the ball lies.

What must you do with your lower body in order to get the right shoulder to go down and forward as I prescribed?

Find a nice open grassy area where no one is around and you can throw a ball. Get some sort of medium sized target about the size of a basket for range balls. You could use a pillow, 5 gallon bucket, etc.. Get a golf ball, or some other small object to throw at the target. Set your target about 10 feet away from you and align yourself to it as if it were your target in golf. Take your golf stance and posture with the ball in your right hand. Now throw the ball at the target but after you throw it make sure you hold your arm out in front of you and keep looking at the ground. 2 things are important to note when you hold this position. #1: Your right shoulder is DOWN with some separation under your chin. #2: The thumb of your right hand should be pointing to the sky. This "shaking hands" position is ideal for a strong release of the club and one that keeps your right shoulder moving down, then forward. Start to practice getting to this same place with a club in just your right hand. Eventually add the left hand but still get to this position with your right arm and shoulder.

I know guys that have been playing for 10 years and still struggle to break 100. (No, they aren't students :D) There is no set rule.

Being relaxed is more than just not putting in effort. If you can learn to become acutely aware of small amounts of tension that creep into your swing, you will discover a lot about your swing. Understand that tension is either internal, or reactionary. Either you force yourself to tense up, or you re-route the club to put it where you want it as opposed to just swinging with it.

Been there done that. I use a lot of leg drive to start my swing. I'm a shorter guy so I have to utilize my rotational abilities. Taller people can generally be much more stable with their lower body and just turn. There was always a problem for my old swing and that has been the re-route at the top. It's followed by an early clubface shut down and high hands at impact. The early forearm rotation puts the shaft flatter in the back-swing which carries my hands back instead of lifting up. Although my habit is still to re-route, it's much closer to being fixed. I have to get comfortable with the new swing.

Really the only thing to say is that if the ball is "slicing" then the path is outside in. That could be for any number of reasons. Now if the ball is starting to the right and then slicing, I'd say the face just isn't rotating. But again without video it's kinda tough.

Yeah the video was from my camera phone and originally I was quite small in frame. I had to blow it up, that's why it's so grainy. I'll have better ones next time.

I went and saw Ralph West who I used to work with back at Copper Canyon. One of the few guys I will REALLY trust to work on my swing. If he tells me to do something, I'll do it. Unlike the majority of instructors out there who I find just mimic what others say. New Swing After Lesson - http://www.swingacademy.com/videoPlayer.aspx?id=6445 Swing Before Lesson - http://www.swingacademy.com/videoPlayer.aspx?id=4609 He had me do two things. First let my left arm roll more taking the club back and have my hands get flatter, more around my right shoulder. Second, he wanted me to use my lower body MORE on the forward swing. He wanted me to really let my legs go. The results were EXCELLENT. I have never seen so many beautiful draws in my life. They weren't pull draws either. They would start right and draw back.

Hips have two important functions. 1) Get the lower part of the spine forward to create axis tilt. (Hip Bump) 2) Create torque between hips and shoulders to help generate speed. (Hip Turn)

First thing that needs to be addressed is your setup. Slide your hips forward a little bit and tilt your shoulders back so that your right is lower than your left. You should also move your hands up just a smidgen so that they are just off the inside of your left thigh. Next, learn a proper finish position. A great drill is to try and finish with the butt end of the club pointing at the target. Work on just those two positions for a while and report back on your progress.

Axis tilt is necessary for an inside path to the ball.

[Ed: Previously the contents of a whiny private message, since removed. Stub left because jamo quoted and responded.]

So let me get this straight. First you say "eek" because I put a lot of thought into my teaching... then in the next sentence you say I'm being nit-picky? Please make up your mind. Or are you just trying to find things to argue about? Finally, again I NEVER said ANYTHING about HIPS sliding back. I really am baffled by where you and IACAS thought that I did. I have always said there is a weight transfer to the inside of the back foot. It has always been my position that the right hip stays right where it is while the left hip rotates around it. Like a swinging door rotates around it's hinges. The right hip is the hinge while the left hip is the door knob. Then on the forward swing a hip "bump" is made that establishes a place for the left hip to stay while the right hip proceeds to rotate around it. The two hips flip flop rolls from backswing to forward swing. It's a very very simple concept and works beautifully to create proper weight shift, axis tilt, and shoulder movement.

Finish with the butt end of the club pointing at the target.

I put a lot of thought into my experiment. It's a thought experiment that my entire teaching years have been founded by. It's one of the basic fundamental principles of my teaching and I have stood by it for years. And since when is a "swing" outdated? You can call your version of the "golf motion" whatever you like... but as long as there are students trying to make a "swing" I will be teaching a swing. You say sternum, I say the part of your spine between your shoulder blades. Mighty Tiger does go back, and then returns. Even by your own assesment, there is a "small" weight shift back. You were suggesting maybe 60%. I didn't say that you have to make a LARGE movement with your hand to swing the club between your finger. In fact I specifically said "slightly". As you can see with Tiger, it's a slight move back. When you move your arms and torso back around the spine, by definition you are shifting your weight back as well. However the move Shawn is recommending counters this by actually leaning forward a bit. His idea is to keep the upper body more over the ball, then shift the hips well forward while keeping the upper body over the ball, then spinning the hips hard. Sounds like Stack-N-Tilt to me whether he intends it or not.

Now if he could just learn how to release the club with a neutral grip, he'd have a great swing.

I'm going to give you the simplest thing to do it's not even funny. It was given to me by Manuel de la Torre a few years back and makes setting up sooooo much easier. Most people don't even realize it, but every time you step up to the ball you already have an alignment tool. THE CLUBFACE! Set the clubface FIRST so that it is square to the target. Now, set your your body perpendicular to the clubface. BE VERY CAREFUL to not let the clubface move. One trick to prevent clubface movement is to apply a little bit of pressure down to the ground with the club. But it's absolutely vital that you do not let the clubface move once it's set. Really that's it. Just remember, clubface first, then body.

I know Shawn is very popular and has some good advice. This particular video may work for some because it does allow for a bit more of an inside path to the ball. But on a whole, I don't particularly like this video. The main reason is because of the lack of weight transfer. It is very "Stack and Tilt" ish where there is no weight transfer to the back foot. This lack of weight transfer and rotation of the torso where it is, actually means your swing center has leaned forward on the backswing. This is unlike any "Swing" I have ever observed in nature. Let me give you a thought experiment to illustrate my point. Take a club and hold the butt end of it between just your index and thumb. Let it just hang there. Now in order for you to make it "swing" you must initiate the swing by moving your hand very slightly back. Then to get the club to start into the other direction, at just the right time you need to move your hand slightly forward. It's this subtle shift combined with gravity that makes the whole swing happen. Now imagine trying to move your hand forward in order to make the club go back. It simply doesn't work. You would have to add some other sort of effort to the club with your other hand to make this happen. Please, take time to really think about what is being said. What may work for you now could end up being a disaster later on down the road. The best way to figure that out now is to see if the information passes a "sniff" test. Here it just doesn't pass my sniff test. There's no real "logic" to what he's saying. There's no explination as to "WHY" it works. I know why it works, and I know why down the road it's going to cause problems. Just be careful

There are a few tricks I have learned and taught over the years. I think the best advice I can give you is to pay more attention to your finish than any other aspect of your golf swing. Get VERY specific about it and start rating your finish on a scale of 1-10. For example, rate yourself on how much weight is on your front foot. 1 is almost none while 10 is all of your weight. Then rate yourself on how well you are balanced on your front foot. Is it rolled out, or flat on the ground? How about where the butt end of the club is pointing? Is it pointing at the target or is it pointing way off somewhere behind you? Make the finish your TRUE goal. It is the TRUE result of your swing. The ball is merely a landmark on your way to the finish, nothing more. It's like passing a McDonnalds on your way home. If you decide to stop at McDonnalds then you'll be late getting home.