My swing again.

[Stillhacken]

Here is another video of my swing. I have made some improvements but still have that spaghetti look going on. That right leg is a too flimsy I believe. I want all the tips anyone has but especially look at my swin path. I have been hitting a slice , and fade and Im not sure if its an open face or outside to in swing path. Please look.

[Mike420]

Re: My swing again.

You are over swinging which isn't really advisable. Might affect your spine angle ect. I'm no pro either, but perhaps you could try and swing your arms more around your body which might cut out the slice. Looks a little up right if you know what I mean. Sounds like you struck it well.

[BrianW]

Re: My swing again.

You look to be lifting early in the downswing and pulling your arms sharply across your chest making you unbalanced, this will also prevent you from closing the clubface thus creating a slice or fade.

Work on maintaining your spine angle through impact, keep over the ball more, release the club more towards target so that you are mirroring the club position at the end of the takeaway then allow the arms to pull naturally high over your left shoulder in a nice balanced position.

Swing easy!

[Stillhacken]

Re: My swing again.

You have a very good swing except for swinging around to far as most tall people like yourself and then you can not recover in the downswing and the clubface remains open.

When Phil Ritson was doing his thing at the Kinemation Sudio's in Fla. (I am Dating myself age wise) he had a Master Professional name Bill. Takinitdeep may remember Bill's last name, I could look it up, but it is not important.

Bill was tall and he taught tall players the same as I do. You have too much backswing arch/turn, a gift given to you.

Drop the left foot back at address, that will shorten your backswing, make you more compact and in the downswing you want to feel the left arm and hand coming down sooner and learn to whip the club through impact.

You can also feel both arms pulling down in the downswing if that works better.

In the downswing work on hip and shoulder rotation.

I did try that left leg back at the range today and it did help . I also noticed the lack of lag in my swing coming into the ball. It is amazing how much more distance I added today when I held the lag then released at the range today. Im not sure what you mean by working on my hip and shoulder rotation in the downswing. Am I not rotating enough?

[Stillhacken]

Re: My swing again.

BTW..........Thanks everybody for the tips and advice.

I wish I could swing easier.
Something about that dang driver.

[Martin Levac]

Re: My swing again.

It appears you swing out of control. Instead, control the club. Your intent on the backswing must be to position the club properly in order to begin the downswing properly. Not merely to flop the club back and forth.

Here I teach you to distinguish between the loose long swing and the tight wide swing.

From this thread: http://www.golf-tuition-online.com/g...-my-swing.html

More specifically this comparison:

Long left thumb: (edit: loose long swing)

Club drops lower at the top of the backswing
Swing arc is narrower
Distance traveled by clubhead is shorter
Angle between left arm and club is narrower
Thus, movement between top-of-the-backswing and impact is longer
Acceleration is more violent and more difficult to control

Short left thumb: (edit: tight wide swing)

Club drops higher at the top of the backswing
Swing arc is wider
Distance traveled by clubhead is longer
Angle between left arm and club is wider
Thus, movement between top-of-backswing and impact is shorter
Acceleration is smoother and easier to control


In this comparison above, I compare the long and short left thumb on the grip. I might as well be comparing the loose long swing and the tight wide swing because the differences I list above are exactly the same. Note where I say the club drops lower at the top of the backswing. Think of how low you drop the club at the top of the backswing.

To make it relevant to this discussion, compare Neil18's swing to yours. Look specifically at the transition point between top of the backswing and beginning of the downswing. Notice how much in control Neil appears to be. He controls precisely where he positions the club at the top of the backswing and thus controls precisely how he begins the downswing. I don't mean to take credit for his performance or to demonstrate the effectiveness of the short left thumb, far from it. I merely want to show the difference in control I see between your swing and Neil18's. The short left thumb in this instance would only be a tool to achieve the goal, in our case it's control. Same goes for the tight wide swing. A tight wide swing allows better control than a loose long swing. Better control to strike the ball more precisely to transmit more power to send the ball farther and more accurately.

Please consider carefully the differences between the loose long swing and the tight wide swing.

Here: http://www.golf-tuition-online.com/g...-my-swing.html

(thank you Neil and my apology for using your video as a reference)

[chessbum]

Re: My swing again.

Dear Stillhacken,

Look at your swing at finish. You can see where you end up with the club draping downward along your spine, a sure sign of a slicing swing. Compare it to where the pros finish and you can see the difference where their finish is in with the club in a horizontal fashion.

I think your main problem is an outside to inside swing path. This finish of yours proves it.

Here is a great drill for it and I just saw it on the golf channel the other day. I tried it and it really works. I am not usually a slicer but the feeling is really profound!!!

The instructor called it the Jim Furyk drill, because as he explained, it emulates his swing path for one reason, it promotes an inside to outside swing path. He also called it the "figure eight" drill for the same reason.

Here is how it goes. Imagine watching Jim Furyk in your mind. Bring the club straight back and upward and then LOOP it back and come back into the ball. Imagine that it looks like you are creating a figure eight. The feeling is really great.

When I do it, it feels like I am bringing the club back in and straight up then move it back and come back into the ball. If you look at Furyk's swing you can see what he is doing with it and how it looks like this figure eight.

After you get the feel, check to make sure you are maintaining your wrist cock, this completes the whole drill.

It really works, give it a try and let me know what you think!! After just a bit, you will suddenly feel the correct impact from the inside and no slice.

He was actually referring to it as an anti-slice drill

Chessbum...

[Stillhacken]

Re: My swing again.

Hey, this is great.
I go to bed then get up and in the mean time people are working on my swing. I thank you for that.
I believe if I can keep my right leg a little more solid it will stop alot of my faults like the back swing over rotating and the wet noodle look I have in my swing. I will try all these tips everyone has given.

Btw.........does my swing look more like a one plane or two plane? Or is it to unorthadox to tell. I am trying to establish a set of fundamentals using Jim Hardys book. Im shooting for a two plane because the set up and swing feel more natural. Sorry if im dragging this thread on.

[Neil18]

Re: My swing again.

Afternoon Stillhacken! Nice name!

I think your basic mental picture of the swing is pretty good. You've got a lot of the right bits working in the right order. You've got good athletic dynamics as well. Me thinks you've played other sports to atleast a reasonable standard! Just a couple of subtle changes that I would suggest though.

The good thing is that your setup looks good. Can't tell much about the grip in detail but the placement of your hands look lovely.

I think your mental picture of your swing needs a little adjustment in terms of what it takes to send the ball a long way accurately. You look like a big, tall, sporty guy so strength, I doubt, is an issue for you. As has already been suggested, tightening up your swing would probably be a good place to start. It would give you a chance to allow your athletic dynamics to work for you. Start by shortening your backswing. This is one of the hardest things I learned and it took me about 8 months of continuous practice to be able to swing my arms shorter. In fact, I'm still working on it.

At the moment, your club gets well past parallel at the top. Shorten it to the extent that it just about gets to parallel during transition (for driver. Irons should really be shorter still). Try feeling as though you're swinging halfway with your driver. And believe me, you will need someone with you to tell you how far back it's going cos when you first try it and think it's shorter, it won't be! Once you get used to swinging halfway with it, you'll probably get it on video and realise you're actually swinging it parallel. Weird, but true. Given the natural pace of your backswing, feeling like you are swinging it halfway is no exaggeration.

I think your swing is more two-plane than anything else and I certainly don't think it's unorthodox.

Along with shortening your swing, you may notice from down the line that your hands get stuck way behind you. Your hands end up a good distance behind your heel line at the top and your right elbow is totally disjointed from your torso. Again, shortening your backswing by half will sort this out for you. From down the line, my coach likes to see my hands somewhere around vertically level with the instep/heel of my right foot. To start to get to this position, get that right elbow more into your side and don't let it slip "behind" your ribs. This'll keep your backswing nice and wide without losing connection between arms and body. Still vital in a two-plane swing.

I think your slice/fade comes from your downswing. From face on, you can see that your right arm straightens very quickly and your right elbow never gets into the right spot (this is born from your hands getting behind you at the top. Your body's gotta do something to get your hands back infront of you. After all, that's where they need to be to hit the ball!).

Get your right elbow into the right side of your abs. Think of first two moves of the downswing being "weight starts left, right elbow into the hip/abs". This will allow you to hang onto the lag more easily and should help to shallow out your downswing arc (which is currently marginally steeper than your backswing arc) and stop your right arm straightening too soon. This will allow you to approach the ball from slightly inside and get you hitting straighter or even with a slight draw.

The whole idea of these small changes will allow you to feel like there's a whole lot less effort in the backswing. There seems to be a bit of "heave ho" going on at the moment in your swing from start to finish. Really, the backswing is just cocking the gun. Then your athletic power can then be put to use where it's needed - during and after impact. Swinging it shorter and keeping your arms more connected to your torso should help with stabilizing your legs too. You won't need to turn your body and hips so far back to support the huge swing of your arms. This should help them look more like under-cooked spaghetti, rather than boiled!

PS - I am flattered that others have referred you to my swing video! By all means use it if you feel it will help. I hope it does.

[Timothy Slaught]

Re: My swing again.

Hey StillHaken:

In the slow motion shot from down the line at the top of the backswing your shoulders are level. In fact it looks like the left shoulder may actually be a little higher than the right. This is a clear indication that you are coming out of your posture during the back swing.

The shoulders should turn perpendicular to the axis they were set at address. This is the case for whatever planer you happen to be. Because you appear to raise the left shoulder so much during the backswing it is hard to tell what your true swing plane is.

When you set-up with good posture, you will have a spine tilt anywhere from 20 degrees forward for upright two plane and 30 or more for flat one plane action. Whetever spine angle you use, the shoulders need to turn as close to that spine angle as possible. If you were to draw a line on the computer screen across your shoulders in that slow motion sequence at the top of backswing, it would be a horizontal line. Instead it should be a tilted line perpindicular (think letter T tilted forward ) to the initial spine angle. In any event, the left shoulder will be lower than the right.

Basically try to keep that left shoulder down in the backswing. At address, raise your chin off of your chest to facilitate moving the left shoulder under the chin. Your shoulders seem a little slumped at address also. Try to be a little less slouched. Look at Adam Scott's set-up for example to see this athletic position. No we can't swing like Adam but we can learn from his good posture.

Your sequencing is really good and overall it is a good swing so these are just some things to consider. You have definitely tightened up the leg action from previous footage but the right knee still moves around a little as you said. Wedge a ball under the outer portion of your right shoe to get the feel of that right knee staying put while you hit 100 yard shots. Great drill fo rthe wandering right knee.

Best of luck.