overswinging and losing sanity!

[bongko]

Hi,

My name is David and I'm new to this site. First of all want to say hello and thanks for everyone's contribution to such a great site. I used to be a 6 handicap player but in the last few years I haven't been able to practice and play as much so I'm up to a 14 now. Some days I'm in the groove and can get back to high single digits, but it seems like its been ages since I've hit in the singles consistently.
I've always been plagued with the overswing, but it was never as bad as it's been lately. I've tried many drills like headcover under right armpit and hands away from head, but they've resulted in either lateral sways away from my center of gravity or what I feel is a reverse pivot.
In any case I haven't had the luxury to get lessons so I've been reading away online and I think I'm trying to fix one thing but perhaps something else is probably fundamentally wrong.
I've noticed that I am losing power, almost 1.5 clubs less distance and my ball flight is a moderate fade or slice. On the course when I try to turn it over I end up with a dead pull. So frustrating.
Anyways here are a vids, hope that someone can help me work out the kinks. I'm open to all forms of helpful criticism and ready to jump through hoops!
Driver

Irons

After I saw these vids I've been working on bending the knees a little more and trying to keep my balance. If there are any setup problems or swing plane problems please let me know.

Thanks,
David

[GregJWillis]

Re: overswinging and losing sanity!

Quick looks at your first 2 vids shows 2 things I would start with:
1) You are standing up on your back leg going back. This is a problem where you will loose the ability to feel like you are at the top of your swing. If you keep your back leg flexed throughout the backswing and to the top, your hip rotation will set to a limit that lets everything stay in connection and you will feel like you have completed your backswing much shorter. Feel like you are squatting "downward" into the ground slightly, and this will counter your current desire to stand up. Eventually you will be able to forget about the squatting, and it will be natural.
2) In the second vid (from behind you), your takeaway has your arms very straight together...where I like to see a little relaxation in the trailing (right) arm. This allows folding naturally of that arm so you can maintain a more on-plane line going back. You have a bit of an outside the plane takeaway (see the clubhead to the right of your hands when you have the club straight back? We want to see this clubhead inline with the hands at this point). A little more flex in the right arm at setup will raise the leading shoulder up slightly, so expect this new feeling.

So, flex the back leg slightly and keep it flexed, and relax the right arm a bit. Don't go overboard and create all sorts of tension to get these new feelings, but do them with ease, because you have a good fluid swing that we want to keep. You are looking for more distance, so the flex in the back leg will allow you to turn "harder / faster / more into impact" then before, so this is the first new action you will see enhanced. Exploit this new ability and start to gain distance there.

Good luck.

[bongko]

Re: overswinging and losing sanity!

Hey Greg thanks for the feedback. I've been working on flexing the knees feeling the squat during the backswing. I am getting used to relaxing the right arm and trying to keep the right side a little more connected to my side. I've only had two practice sessions due to the holiday season, so still not entirely comfortable with the changes. I do notice that I am starting to be able to draw it again more consistently and my pulls are not as bad as before. I will continue to pound the rock pile some more and hopefully have some better results before summer time. Thanks again!