Bob&Co. Question

[HomerJSimpson]

JustOneUk

There you go. Not great and I know (I think) what the flaws are but give me the wisdom of your expertise.

 

[JustOne]

JustOneUk

There you go. Not great and I know (I think) what the flaws are but give me the wisdom of your expertise.

Erm,... I don't have to if you don't want me to

If you are happy with it that's fine by me.

If you HONESTLY want me to take a look I'm happy to do it.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

JustoneUk

No please do. I value your opinion and you clearly know your stuff so always good to get a fresh opinion. I didn't mean my last post to sound as condescending as it perhaps did.

Please let me know what you think.

 

[JustOne]

OK.... gimme 15min

 

[JustOne]

Your setup looks fantastic - probably the best I've seen for a long time.. honestly!

Good posture, alignment of feet, hips, and shoulders, nice spine angle, hands hanging freely, eyes looking straight at the ball not down the nose..looks like a scratch golfer.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2462/homer0.gif
Take special note of where your head is in relation to the treeline in the distance, just peeping above it.

You've rolled your wrists over and taken the club back waaaay inside the line..probably trying to keep it close to the ground for some reason..is that 'low and slow' with a short iron???
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9034/homer1.gif
Head still looking good just above the treeline.

Looking good again. Club is back on plane more or less, although you've moved a lot of weight to your right side already and your left knee is well flexed.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3020/homer3.gif
Head still looking good.

And then it goes a bit pear-shaped as you over swing, reverse pivot, lose your spine angle, open the club face, and lift your head 3 inches. Because of this your swing goes off plane as you've 'stood up'.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4541/homer4.gif
You've also moved so much weight to the right hand side you're going to struggle to get back to the ball consistantly.

After that fantastic set-up you then decide to hit the ball from the sitting position...??????
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/5321/homer5.gif
Your head has bobbed right up over the trees, and you have sat back with your body weight.

before completeing your reverse pivot, lean back scooping the ball into the air somewhat..
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9176/homer6.gif

to a nice finish.

The ball does seem to fly off awfully low for such a high lofted club, is that a 7,8,9 or a wedge?

This is all very fixable if you want to?

Regards....

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Reverse pivot - my old nemesis. Its an old fault that I'm really struggling with. If you stop the video when the hands are about shoulder height everything is on a good plane but I really struggle to stop it there and kepp going until the shoulder overturn and force my head and body up (purely due to physics). My swing was very much a product of the 80's where leg movement and driving at the ball was en vogue (think Jonny Miller) and not hitting against a firm left side like today.

I'm not sure where the loss of spine angle comes in but I was taking the club way too insode at that time and I'm working more on a wider more one piece move to waist high and then a turn from there.

The club was actually a 7 iron. I'd be interested in the fix to keep the swing shorter and prevent the reverse pivot thorugh the excessive turn and more importantly how to prevent the lifting up through impact with loss of spine angle.

To be fair the movement is a fairly repeatable one and the quality of ball striking is pretty solid with thestock poor shot being a pull or hook as the hands get trapped and over work to get back to the ball at impact.

 

[bobmac]

Well Homer, you did ask

Have you learned anything new since the last time you posted your swing.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have but its an ongoing battle angainst deeply ingrained faults.

 

[JustOne]

Your posture is absolutely fantastic, makes mine look crap!. If you can repeat that forever you won't go far wrong. The issues start with your takeaway.

You are too far inside, too flat and subsequently right at the lowest of low swing planes. That generally lays the club off open. This leads to you making your grip too strong to try and close it.... and then (ironically) rolling the wrists over to stop it being shut...so it's open again (weird huh?)

Because you are so flat you have no option other than overswinging with your clubface pointing to the right of target, which causes the reverse pivot. As you've moved your weight in the wrong direction you have to straighten up otherwise you might snap your back ....it's a catalog of errors which results in you eventually leaning off the ball trying to scoop it airborne.

Here's fix 1.
Posture, I can't emphasize how great that is, don't ever change that.

Forget that 'wider' stuff on your swing, you'll do that naturally.
1) Fix that movement to the right and get on plane

To hit the ball you are trying to move your left shoulder over to meet your right one.. which is WRONG - you need to TURN your shoulders.


TURN YOUR VOLUME OFF and watch this video of some old guy swingin the club
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4smKIu2uARU Pay attention to the shoulder turn. ONLY WATCH THE LEFT SHOULDER on everything he does in the entire video.

See how it doesn't move away to the right. It never gets beyond the ball even though he has the ball positioned by his left foot. The right shoulder actually does most of the rotating. Don't let your left shoulder get more to the right than the MIDDLE OF YOUR STANCE at most - thus keeping your weight more centered and stopping all that flapping about.

You have a great spine angle, think about the club coming up to the side of your right shoulder, not round behind you. In the picture you can see your swing plane is barely above waist height.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1277/swingv.gif

remember not to move that left shoulder across yourself.

My swing was very much a product of the 80's where leg movement and driving at the ball was en vogue

A question...
Do you remember ever seeing that golf drill where you put a club shaft in the ground by your right foot and turn towards it?

 

[mikeyh]

Tony, I have a very similar swing to you and get similar results. I have changed my driver to a neutral titleist D1 with a slightly less stiff shaft than my previous and am now hitting a lovely shape shot. Mostly straight, but some with a touch of fade. I was always a right to left shape before. I also just weakened off my left hand a touch from 3 knuckles to 2 and a half!

Hope this helps

 

[TonyN]

Thanks Mikey. I think I wanted Bob and JustOne to say no, bad Idea, dont mess with grip, go buy a new 909 and when the mrs gives me stick, i will blame them

Will give it a go this weekend with the grip.

 

[JustOne]

Um,...If it works for you then go for it
Does that help? hehe

Seriously though if you are swinging from that far inside (in to out) then weakening your grip will lead to you leaving the face open and pushing your shots to the right or worse. That said I would always advocate a more neutral grip than 3 knuckles in the first place! In general the flatter your swing plane the more knuckles you tend to show.

Your grip has to match the rest of your swing. In theory you can't change one without the other being affected.
If you weaken your grip for all your clubs, get the ball position right and swing on plane then you're sorted - all you'd have to do is hole the putts

I did previously say not to mess with your grip just for hitting drives...so I guess that means you can go buy a different club?

 

[TonyN]

909 it is then

 

[JustOne]

Don't forget to pack your bags on your way out the door

 

[TonyN]

Only bag I need is always packed.....well I could do with a few more tee's in it but I can buy some more