Please Help !!!

[kguldi]

just prior to impact my shoulders sometimes come up, causing a weak topped shot. is there any way to prevent this ? also, to start the downswing am i supposed to gently shift my weight to my left side first, then turn my hips?

thank you

kguldi

[GregJWillis]

1) Your shoulders do not come up on their own. They are attached to body. I am going to guess that you are lifting up when you take the club back...very common. When you lift up, you have to drop it back down to the exact spot where you started to make good contact...too much down and it goes fat, not enough and you top.

The idea is for the head to stay in the same vertical position throughout the swing. Have a partner stand facing you holding a club's grip on your nose. Then swing. They will see what you are doing right away. You will see it too unless you try to prove the drill wrong by doing something to prevent it (only natural). So, I usually take an average over about 10 swings with different clubs.

But if you see that your nose is raising up at all on the takeaway, you have a problem so check the following:

* Knees are flexed at setup - feeling like a linebacker - very sturdy where no one can push you over.

* Your arms hang straight down from your shoulders. This makes your spine angle bend from the waist.

* You rear end wants to feel like it is sticking out a little - not a lot - just a little. This will help with counter balance and allow you to do the next thing:

* When you take the club back, only use the shoulder rotation. Any help in the legs, hips, torso, arms, hands, head, eyes, or any combination of these will result in nothing but bad things that have to be undone to the tune of exact timming at the point of impact. The shoulders should take the club to where the arms are parallel to the ground...then the rest can take over.

This first move will make your back leg feel the weight. Don't do anything other then allow the weight to be put there. Anyone watching you will not notice a dam thing. But you will feel it. Your back leg will look exactly as it did when you were at address...flexed.

This is where you are probably causing your head to raise above the club on your nose. If you start to straighten the back leg as you take the club back - to help turn the hips, then this causes you to lift up the whole body. Keep the hips still in this first move, this will help you keep the knee flexed.

If you discover that are doing the shoulder rotation and the leg flex correctly, then you are looking at just the upper body movement. This one is a lot harder to fix. You are not rotating your shoulders about your spine, but rather, using your body as a hammer by trying to smack down on the ball with everything you have - including your body...causing your upper body to raise up and down having the same affect as the back-leg-lock.

The solution to this is to have a partner stand behind you holding a club along your back while you swing very slowly...no full shots here with someone that close. The partner will keep this club shaft in place and that alone triggers your head to think about it, and you can feel what it is like to go through the motions without using the upper body's up-down motion. Then take the club away and swing slowly again. If you moved again, then go back to the club on your back again. Go back and forth until you do it without the club. Then make full shots. This takes a lot longer to fix because it could be a lot to do with what you are doing inside your head...what you think you need to do to hit the ball hard. When all you really need to do it have a smooth swing without the up-down motion of the body to help.

2) I would say yes, "Gently" is a good adjative. You don't what to violently shift your weight. I have a drill that will help you called the Walking Drill . This is a good one to let you feel a good weight shift.