What should be on my swing-fix checklist?

[Joshzilla]

First of all, thank you to GolfTEC and THP for making this available. It's very cool of all involved.

I started playing golf about 2 years ago. Started with 5 lessons from a PGA Pro and then went on my merry way. I have had ups and downs in performance and lately I have really been fighting push/slices. Personally, I am always looking to learn something new and so I read all of the applicable golf magazines and have studied books from Nicholous, Watson, Mickelson and McLean (you'll probably see the McLean bit in my swing).

My swing usually feels pretty ok, but I haven't been happy with my consistency. This week I decided to step things up and start recording my swing so I could see what I'm doing wrong (and right). I see a bunch of stuff, but would like to get the opinion and tips of a pro. I really appreciate the help!


I know I am hooding the clubface on my takeaway (and my takeaway is probably a little quick).


I think I have a lot of good stuff going on here, but I didn't realize how much I squatted in my downswing. Is this a bad thing? I feel like it might be causing a slight chicken wing at impact which is maybe causing my push/slice.


Practicing in sneakers is a bad idea...but it is what it is. Still hooding that clubface!

[video=youtube;NlF-EiFJKHc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlF-EiFJKHc[/video]
Last one. This is from last night. It didn't feel 100% great, but was okay.

So these are a little embarrassing...kinda like being in front of class with your pants down. They're not all my best swings, but I'm going to learn more from my failures right? What's the prognosis, doc? Is there hope!?

Seriously, I appreciate any help and/or tips that you can share.

 

[GolfTEC]

Joshzilla,

Thanks for posting the videos on here for us to look at. It is very hard to post videos of yourself but like I tell my students, "the first step is admitting you have a problem." There are a lot of swings out there that are much worse than yours!

You actually have a pretty solid golf swing overall but you touched on the major flaw....club face. When you take the club away, it is completely closed and then continues to the top of the swing. With a club face as closed as yours, you would normally see screaming left shots. However, you have made adjustments to straighten it out which is why you see so many ups and downs. At this point, you have reached the diminishing returns part of the adjustments. You are doing everything you can to get the face square but it is too little too late at impact. What you need to work on is the start of the swing. It appears that the left hand grip is a little strong as you should only see 2 knuckles on the outside of the left hand. Since the left hand is responsible for the face, this is a critical point. Start with a neutral grip and then we can go to takeaway. You need to work on the takeaway and get the club face to match the spine angle when the club is parallel to the ground. It should not point to the ground as it does in your videos. Then it should match the left arm at the top of the swing.

Now, in the short term you will hit it right only because you are getting the face square in the back swing. It will take you some time to learn to square it in the downswing rather than opening it in your current move. This is a tough change because it takes some sacrifice of ball flight in the short term but will pay huge dividends in the long term.

Best of luck on making this change!

Robert Gamble, PGA
City Manager/Director of Instruction
GolfTEC Glenwood

 

[Joshzilla]

Joshzilla,

Thanks for posting the videos on here for us to look at. It is very hard to post videos of yourself but like I tell my students, "the first step is admitting you have a problem." There are a lot of swings out there that are much worse than yours!

You actually have a pretty solid golf swing overall but you touched on the major flaw....club face. When you take the club away, it is completely closed and then continues to the top of the swing. With a club face as closed as yours, you would normally see screaming left shots. However, you have made adjustments to straighten it out which is why you see so many ups and downs. At this point, you have reached the diminishing returns part of the adjustments. You are doing everything you can to get the face square but it is too little too late at impact. What you need to work on is the start of the swing. It appears that the left hand grip is a little strong as you should only see 2 knuckles on the outside of the left hand. Since the left hand is responsible for the face, this is a critical point. Start with a neutral grip and then we can go to takeaway. You need to work on the takeaway and get the club face to match the spine angle when the club is parallel to the ground. It should not point to the ground as it does in your videos. Then it should match the left arm at the top of the swing.

Now, in the short term you will hit it right only because you are getting the face square in the back swing. It will take you some time to learn to square it in the downswing rather than opening it in your current move. This is a tough change because it takes some sacrifice of ball flight in the short term but will pay huge dividends in the long term.

Best of luck on making this change!

Robert Gamble, PGA
City Manager/Director of Instruction
GolfTEC Glenwood

Thanks Robert. In the week since posting those videos I have spent a lot of time on the range and am already seeing improvements. I'm standing taller and taking a more neutral grip as you mentioned. Also making a point to concentrate on club path at takeaway as I had really only concentrated on my body previously.

Also working on grip pressure and tempo. I was too tight and too fast.

Thanks again for the advice, it's a big help!

 

[Joshzilla]

What a difference a few weeks can make!

I'm glad to report that my woes seem to be ending.

As mentioned, I am standing more upright (taking flex out of my knees and bent over less) which is helping me to promote a flatter swing plane, which is also keeping me from hooding the club face.

My irons are now very straight and actually longer than I have ever hit them (had a 165+ yard uphill 7 iron and a 210 yard 4 iron this week!). My driver and 3wood still have a slight leak to the right, but it is playable and I think I am on the path to recovery there.

The best thing for me was proper visualization. Not that I am trying to "swing like" Hunter Mahan, but watching his swing plane made things fall into place for me. I had been trying to weave together all of these pieces of my swing into a cohesive unit, but simply thinking about Mahan's path made my body understand what my brain was trying to tell it!