Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

[Shamed04]

This is what I have been trying to work with out on the golf course with some success..I have been struggling with a slight fade that I cannot control, Ive just simply been playing it. I cannot seem to hit a draw at all, I took these videos at the range today where I tried a stronger grip but still had no success hitting a draw...Any suggestions?

my first thoughts after reviewing my own videos
1) My backswing is to long
2) To much lateral movement on my downswing
3) My takeaway is slightly inside but was not in the other 3 videos I took

any comments are appreciated...please take into concideration I have not even been playing for a year and am self taught...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBv66Ystj8I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzK2Xk5LEXw

I just uploaded these at 11pm central standard time on tues so they might not be accessible at the point you see them

[GoNavy]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

OK just a quick look, u-tube is hard to do stop motion no frame by frame.

From front view:
Posture looks ok, a bit close to ball for my taste, you over swing badly, at address your setting up way behind the ball, too far for a wedge, (I like to see under the nose for wedge, left ear for driver, mid/long irons somewhere in between) being so far behind the ball at address and with the sway, makes you have to lunge at the ball, try setting up with a little more weight on the left, i.e move your zipper and head more over the ball torwards the target, in other words get the ball more centered, but not by moving the ball, this will keep that sway in check, don't let the right knee float back over the foot, keep it inside. Flare the left toe out some with stop some of the over swinging. right foot looks good, and will look better once you get knee more torwards the target and inside the right foot.

From behind view:
The swing appears a little flat, should be much more upright with a wedge i.e. left arm angle torwards ball, current angle is outside the ball, hands should be directly over right shoulder not behind it, the flatness is cause by flipping the hands back on the backswing, when the club is parallel to the ground on backswing it should also be parallel to the target line and toe line, with the toe up, or very slightly facedown, mostly toe-up.

I might get more if I look at some more, but that should keep you busy for awhile.

[SevenBall]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

Thats a good homemade swing.. It's better than mine was when I first started. But, you gotta get some lessons just to take out the few quirks you have. Again, good job. It's not easy to make your own swing - its a fair effort.

[GoNavy]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

Oh also forgot to add this one in there, you are also loosing the spine angle through impact and straighting up, allot of that has to do with sway and coming over the top. The coming over the top part is because you stuck on your right foot, can't get the weight moved to the left fast enough.

Once you allow the weight to get to the outside of the right foot, you are pretty much screwed, your always going come over the top, and if you did not slide forward like you do, you would be hitting fat shots.

[GoNavy]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

LMAO...your swing sure beats the hell out of that guy behind you, man what an ugly swing, them are some swinging legs..lol

[Martin Levac]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

Good swing.

My impressions.

It appears that you want to swing all the way back and all the way through. That's all good but can you control such a long swing enough for the precison that you require to strike such a small ball? The long swing doesn't require more precision, it just requires more practice to acquire the precision to strike the ball properly. In other words, are you strong enough to control the force that you produce with such a long swing?

Further, it appears that you want to swing long while disregarding that little ball only until you absolutely must strike it. I mean that you move your head quite a bit throughout. If I were to do that, I'd lose focus of the ball with the obvious consequences thereafter.

Have you ever seen gymnasts? The way they land and stand back up. If they miss a landing, they'll certainly exaggerate the stand up motion. But if the landing is perfect, there is no need to exaggerate anything. The gymnast knows it, the judges know it so all the gymnast does is stand up normally. That long swing reminds me of those gymnasts. A lot of moves for show and it appears as such. When a player is focused on that little ball, you see it, you know it. He barely moves his head and you just know his intent is to strike the ball as purely as he possibly can. Look, the only person you have to impress is the ball and it certainly does not know how you swung that club.

Another impression is that you are not exactly aware of what you are doing with the club. Sort of you think you know where you put the club when in fact you put it a little farther back or a little farther forward, see what I mean? This is where the concept of swing plane comes in handy. If all you practiced as you swung the club was to swing it in the same plane on the backswing and the downswing and the followthrough, you'd look like you knew what you were doing. For the simple reason that it's much easier to control the club and to predict what the club will do if we swing it in the same path in the air than if we swung it in different paths all the time.

Here, if you swing the club in different planes, you must become good at swinging the club in the first plane on the backswing, then become good at swing the club in another plane on the downswing, then become good at swinging the club in yet another plane on the followthrough. But if you swing the club in a single plane, all you must become good at is swing it in that plane. One third the work for the same result.

When I say swing plane, I don't mean it in the one plane/two plane concept, all I mean is the plane in which you swing the club, not the type of plane. I wish that guy never invented the concept of the one plane and two plane swings, what a confusing concept in itself and the term brings more confusion when we don't even want to talk about that concept.

Keep your head still. Focus on the back of the ball. Plant your feet firmly on the ground. Be aware of what you do with the club as you swing it. Swing the clubhead into and along the intended line of flight and strike the ball in the middle of the clubface with the clubface square with the intended line of flight.

I think there's production of speed and transmission of speed. In other words, there's swinging the club and striking the ball. I also think it's more important to transmit the speed properly to the ball than anything else. I think that you can lose more speed through faulty transmission than any other way.

Nevertheless, good swing.

[Ian Hancock]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

Hi Shamed,

Without going into loads of detail, as I think you should work on a couple of thing at a time then re-post later, about 6-10 weeks later, this how long it roughly takes to change something.

First, your hand need to be ahead of the ball at address, check ball position also.

Second, You creap a little inside on takeaway and drop down outside that line in the down swing, think opposite, outside back inside down.

Third, Alinement, just make sure you square everything up, you are a little closed hence outside down to aim at target.

Remember not matter how you set-up you mind will make the body swing at the target, thats why bad shots happen, if we simply hit where we were aiming after a few missed shot we would all be square....................if only it was that easy.

On a positive note the most important thing is fine, Tempo, you look like a good golfer, with a bit of hard work you could be really consistant.


Hope this helps

Ian.

[Martin Levac]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

A note on equipment.

Equipment can and will cause unwanted mistakes such as the slight fade in the case of a flat lie or a too supple shaft. Check your equipment so that it is fit or at least that it isn't too much unfit.

I think that the proper equipment will not help you but improper equipment will certainly hinder you.

[Shamed04]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

thanks for your comments I will work on:
1) setup
2) keeping my head still
3) my address position
4) ball position
5) grip
6) keeping weight inside my right foot
and then in a few weeks I will try to repost my swing...thanks
Maybe ill just try to focus on a couple of these
oh yes and of course shortening my swing

[Jeff Mann]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

Further advice to confuse you - because I think that you need to differentiate minor points from major faults.

You do have some minor faults eg. hands too close to the body, hands behind the ball instead of slightly ahead of the ball, slightly too flat takeaway.

However, they are minor faults that are not responsible for the fact that you cannot draw the ball. I am not surprised that you hit a fade rather than a draw. It is due to the fact (major fault) that you start the swing with an upper body move (shoulder rotation) rather than a lower body move (active hip rotation).

See - http://jeffmann.net/Shamed04.jpg

Note that you started the downswing with an active shoulder rotation and that you have come over-the-top. Your clubshaft is crossing the upper part of your upper arm, instead of being shallower and crossing the mid/lower part of the upper part of the upper arm (which would happen if you started the downswing with a shift-rotation of the hips). Note how steep you come into the ball, and note that your right elbow is far away from the right hip (because of your OTT move). At impact, you have completely lost your spine angle, and you are much more erect than you were at adddress. That is partially due to your too-active shoulder rotation and too-steep downswing path. You need to learn how to have a shallower downswing swingpath that comes from the inside, and that swingpathwill allow you to maintain your spine angle through impact as your right shoulder slides under your chin.

This is your major fault, and all the other faults are far less significant. You have to rethink your whole downswing approach, and you need to start your downswing from the bottom-up, and not top-down. See my downswing review chapter at http://jeffmann.net/downswing.htm

Jeff.

[jambalaya]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

Not bad at all. However, the guy behind you has a huge reverse pivot.

[Shamed04]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

LOL ill remember to tell him that next time im out there

[doppelganger]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

All the above comments are true. On the other hand, I see in your down the line clip, as mentionned by GoNavy, that your swing plane is much too flat. You seem to be swinging over the top (outside in swing path) on the downswing. What you want is a more upright backswing with shorter irons with a more inside path downswing to promote both power and consistency (although power shouldn't be your main concern for now). You also cock your wrists much too soon in your backswing... no need for that. Start cocking your wrists when the club shaft is parallel to the ground and not at the very beginning of your swing.

All in all, it's a pretty good swing.

[Jeff Mann]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

As others have mentioned, your takeaway is too-inside and too-flat. Note that your clubhead is far behind your right thigh at the end of the takeaway.

See - http://jeffmann.net/Shamedo4a.jpg

The clubshaft should be along the toe line, and parallel to the ball-target line at the end-takeaway position.

See - http://jeffmann.net/backswing.htm

Jeff.

[Shamed04]

Re: Finally My swing...Now tear it apart at will

thanks alot guys...i have about 20 diff things in my head now..lol Im heading out to the range after work, ill try to focus on a few of them at a time and if they seem to help I will continue to focus on these areas and finally repost my swing after a few weeks...thanks again to everyone, great points from all