My Swing

[Samson72]

Hello!
I've tryed to find the faults in my swing and i'm wondering if my thoughts are correct? My missed shots are usually a slice or a pull.

Here is my swing

And here are my thoughts.
First down the line...
The set up looks good but my hands are a litle bit outside on the top.


The club head is outside on the down swing and thats why I slice or pull my shots.



From the front.
The set up looks good and the arms stay connected on the take away.




It looks ok half way back but i should probably shorten my back swing a bit.



On the down swing my left elbow starts to bend and i'm loosing the connection between my arms.


When I compare my swing to Tigers when we are in the same position there is a big difference in where our clubs are. I need to kep the lag longer and not cast the club at impact.



My follow through will probably get better once i come more from the inside and the finnish is high and well balanced.




What do you think? Are my thoughts correct and do you see something else?
/Samson

[golfndawg]

Re: My Swing

Pretty nice swing.......1ps looks like to a point, seems to a prob getting the club back on the original shaft angle on the downswing , it's even outside the shoulder plane as you have noticed that. I would like to see what happens if you stand a bit upright, especially with the upper body, I bet that could cure alot of this..JMO, nice swing though.

[jbrunk]

Re: My Swing

Samson,

You have a pretty good motion and I like your pivot. Regarding the slices, how bad are they?

You need to learn how much the clubface opens and closes during your swing. If you are hitting slices and pulls, you are leaving the face too open at times while other times you are closing it too much relative to your outside in path.

I would work on getting more inside on the takeaway and learning the proper action of the wrists. How?

At some point in the backswing, or even immediately as your first move back, bend your right wrist straight back. This will simultaneously flatten or even bow your left wrist. This will help you get more inside and shorten your backswing. It also builds the foundation for a better move through the ball into impact. Hit some pitches and chips using this motion and slowly work your way up to full shots, holding that flat left wrist/bent right wrist into and slightly beyond impact. Your pivot plays a major role in this and I think yours is in pretty good shape.

Try this and report back.

On the other hand if your slices and pulls are minor, then maybe it is just a path fix, instead of path and clubface.

[Neil18]

Re: My Swing

Hi Samson72,

To support the above comments by jbrunk, I think this is what he is referring to:

http://www.newgolfswing.com/newgolfswing05.php

Might help you with jbrunks advice. It's a good one!

Superb original post by the way. That's the sort of info and pictures we need to be able to talk accurately about your swing.

Firstly, you have a lot of good things going on in your swing, and I dare say you can hit a fair ball and play well (short game depending!).

However, for more consistency and more power, might I suggest the following:

Firstly, to compliment the above article about the backward wrist break, study this on how to grip it to get the most from a backward wrist break:

http://www.newgolfswing.com/newgolfswing04.php

You'll find that with this grip and wrist break that there will be a natural tendency to bend your right elbow earlier in the backswing. This is good! At the moment your right elbow stays straight for too long in the backswing, contributing to your long swing as well as a very late wrist cock, which makes your backswing longer still. There's two ways round it. Learn to change your backswing tempo to stop your arms shorter, or cock your wrists earlier. If you can build up some torque in the early stages of your swing, you'll find you practically cannot swing it long without collapsing your legs or subconciously relaxing out of the tension.

Get your right very upper arm connected to your upper right pec early. I bold these because you only want one connection point, rather than the whole upper right arm stuck to your side all through the swing.

The new grip described above will also sort out what looks to be a very open clubface at the top. It's toe is hanging down almost vertical, when really the leading edge of the clubface should be roughly parallel (even slightly shut of) the flat left wrist. You can even see the clubface is slightly open at address.

Consequently, your brain knows about your open clubface due to the way you've gripped the club, and all you can do to square the face to the path is lose the lag early. Square it with the swing path you have and you have a pull, leave it open and you have a slice. Square the clubface with the grip at address and it goes a long way to aleviating all sorts of faults.

I would say, however, you do a sterling job of keeping behind/over the ball despite your open clubface and "early hit". The tendency with your type of action as it is, is for people to get their head too over/infront of the ball, causing even more flipping at the bottom to square the clubface. Not so with you, so:

The only other thing I'd look at for the time being is your mental picture of what you're trying to achieve.

Your comparison photo with Tiger is a good one. In it you can see how he has plenty of spine tilt away from the target in the downswing, but also notice that his shoulders are quite a bit more closed to the target and facing his hands whereas yours are square to open. You're basically stalling your turn to allow the hands to catch up. The earlier you turn your shoulders to the target, the earlier the lag disappears. It's an unstoppable chain-reaction due to how we're connected up in our bodies.

It will feel wierd to begin with, but try (it's hard!) to get away from the tendancy of turning your right shoulder out toward the ball early. Try the thought of keeping your sternum facing your hands during the downswing. Swing your hands down to the ball. Take your time (although I say this, you have what looks to be a very nice rhythm, but when your start keeping your right shoulder back you may have a desire to give it some "oomph"!).

This thought helps me keep my turn synched with my hands, then you can release fully from the shoulders rather than the hands and wrists. A point that will help you with this is getting your right elbow close into your right side (just infront of your rib cage) early in the downswing at the same time you shift your hips - and only your hips - left at the start of the downswing to get your centre of gravity and weight across.

Your elbows will then be closer together through impact and you can hit the ball from the inside with a slowly turning clubface, rather than from the outside with a quickly turning clubface.

In summary:

• I like your posture and rhythm. Plenty of room to move. You've picked up some good points on your own swing. Always a bonus.
• Study the grip and backward wrist break text.
• Compact the backswing with the wrist break, grip and earlier right arm bend.
• Right elbow in and hips left on the start of the downswing.
• Stay facing your hands on the downswing. You'll feel like you keep your back to the target longer. Wierd, but trust it!

Not a massive amount to do (it's all geared toward achieving the same thing), despite the long descriptions, but everyone on here knows I like to make sure I say what I mean, and that you understand what I say! You can either try the stuff out or dump it! Plus, I love talking to people about their golf swings! I'm on medication for it.

Please let me know if something isn't clear!

[kbp]

Re: My Swing

The lag is the first thing, IMO. It looks like you are probably "casting" the club at somewhere about halfway along the downswing, that is, deliberately uncocking the wrists with the forearm muscles, rather than keeping the wrists as a more free hinge and letting the swing arc and speed uncock them naturally. Instant lag.

If you learn to actually hit the ball with a natural, unforced, late release, with more lag, you may find that some of your "positions" relative to plane will correct themselves.

[Cliff]

Re: My Swing

Leave the left shoulder behind as you start the down swing is a great way to feel the lag required to drop inside, The feeling is lag in the shoulder while the arms drop back in line, this way you can retain the wrist angle you have developed and you will have more power than you will ever need at impact. Trust me on that.

You make a great move through the ball but with this lag in the start of the left shoulder on your way down it will be even better.

Little note no doubt you have seen/done it before (Today’s cure is tomorrows fault) So take it easy with any change.

Regards Cliff


Good luck btw

[ben hogan]

Re: My Swing

In this video notice how he turns into his right hip (leg).
Where as you're on top of it,harder to get to left side.

[AvidGolfer]

Re: My Swing

To me it looks like you are too bent over at setup, you loose flex in your back knee at the top of the swing, and as a result you loose coil/distance, swing past parallel, and your arms start the downswing instead of the lower body leading it.
I wouldn't worry to much about your left arm being slightly bent at impact. Retief Goosen has a slightly bent left arm at impact and he still hits excellent shots.
I recommend setting up with taller posture, and maintaining the flex in your back knee. Changing those two things may automatically fix the other positions for you.
Below are pictures of Greg Norman, Trevor Immelman, and Nick Price you can compare your setup and swing.

[Cliff]

Re: My Swing

Simple bio-mechanic calculation as I said above.

Leave the left shoulder behind while starting the transfer of weight and drop the hands away from the right shoulder at the same time, If you control this it will lead you into stronger right arm position and will help you retain the wrist angle better because you are in the correct attack line and impact position.

You will find that your strike will be much more energetic without any more effort, this is due to the fact that you have stored up more energy in the large muscle (back area).

Try the above without changing any set up regarding how tall you are standing in your start position.

Make a small change in the way you transfer back to the ball. That is all you need to do.

(Please don’t changes you start height position, that will effect your top position which will in turn effect your rotation position and so on.)

[Samson72]

Re: My Swing

Thank you all for your input! you make some good points.
the things that feels most interesting for me to try at this point is....

At some point in the backswing, or even immediately as your first move back, bend your right wrist straight back. This will simultaneously flatten or even bow your left wrist. This will help you get more inside and shorten your backswing. It also builds the foundation for a better move through the ball into impact. Hit some pitches and chips using this motion and slowly work your way up to full shots, holding that flat left wrist/bent right wrist into and slightly beyond impact

A bit more like Ernie rather than Tiger..

Get your right very upper arm connected to your upper right pec early. I bold these because you only want one connection point, rather than the whole upper right arm stuck to your side all through the swing.

And...

Leave the left shoulder behind while starting the transfer of weight and drop the hands away from the right shoulder at the same time,

this sholud help me to stay more on the inside...

And the best tip of all....

Little note no doubt you have seen/done it before (Today’s cure is tomorrows fault) So take it easy with any change.

And Cliff, Brilliant picture mate! you make your point very clear.

I´ll let you know when I´ve tryed these things out and hopefully my swing will be in better shape.
Thanks again.
/Samson

[Neil18]

Re: My Swing

Most importantly, don't forget to have fun with it whatever you change or try!

[ben hogan]

Re: My Swing

[Ian Hancock]

Re: My Swing

Hi there,

I have to agree with Cliff here he is spot on here, your swing is absolutely fine with the exception of your shoulders just going a little early, I posted a clip of Beh Hogan last week on here.

Just pause it at impact, note how the shoulders are square or slightly closed, as Cliff says feel like your keeping your back to the target until your arms are dropping a little more, your just rushing it.

Great swing

Ian.

[Neil18]

Re: My Swing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvOr5nNqYEw

I like that video

[ben hogan]

Re: My Swing

I like that video