Club position at the top of the backswing?

[Beezerk]

I was at the driving range earlier doing some slo-mo stuff and it occurred to me that at the very top of my backswing the club is pointing at 10 or 11 o clock (imagine from the top looking down, target is 12 o clock).
Am I right in thinking it should be more or less pointing at the target?
Only way I could get it like that was to crank my wrists over but it felt just wrong. Any tips on what the correct position should be and how I could potentially achieve this?

I've always played with an OTI swing path since I started last year (my divots are generally left of target) so I'm also now wondering if this club position at the top could be part of the reason why I tend to come from the outside at contact.

Just after general thoughts s'all :thup:

 

[Maninblack4612]

If you have an OTI swingpath it's likely the club will be laid off at the top. If you want to correct this then you need to make a bigger shoulder turn, take it back more inside or something else that gets the club pointing at the target at the top. Having said that, there are players who are laid off at the top who still hit from the inside, it depends on what you do at the start of the downswing.

As far as the divot is concerned, if you hit ball before turf, with an in to out swing, even, the club will be travelling from right to left after impact and you'd expect the divot to point left, mor so if you're swinging out to in.

 

[the_coach]

[video=youtube_share;MvxnhmvWM3I]http://youtu.be/MvxnhmvWM3I[/video]

 

[Beezerk]

Thanks chaps, that all makes perfect sense. I do have an extremely truncated backswing which I need to work on a lot.

 

[Maninblack4612]

I've been experimenting recently with a fuller shoulder turn, feeling as if I've got my back to the hole at the top. It' eliminated the shanks completely & a lot of the weak fades, which is my bad miss, especially with the long irons.

 

[Jensen]

The other factor to bear in mind is that if you don't quite do a full swing the club will look layed off, pointing left of target ie 10, 11 O'clock.
Good old Jim Hardy mentions this is "Plane Truth"

 

[JustOne]

The other factor to bear in mind is that if you don't quite do a full swing the club will look layed off, pointing left of target ie 10, 11 O'clock.

Absolutely. The club only points to the 12 o'clock position on a FULL swing

Here's a tour pro (Peter Uihlein) who has a slightly shorter than 'normal' swing and you can see that it's pointing to about the 11 o'clock position here

[video=youtube;P3KOBMP7ETY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3KOBMP7ETY[/video]

 

[Smiffy]

Here's a tour pro (Peter Uihlein) who has a slightly shorter than 'normal' swing and you can see that it's pointing to about the 11 o'clock position here

So the club pointing at 9 o'clock on a full swing is wrong then???

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Surely the important thing is what happens at impact, not at the end of the backswing, as the likes of Mark Crossfield keep reiterating

 

[Beezerk]

Surely the important thing is what happens at impact, not at the end of the backswing, as the likes of Mark Crossfield keep reiterating

I agree mate but I think in my case my backswing is so poor I don't have a chance to make decent contact, or at least good contact on a decent plane.

 

[Maninblack4612]

Surely the important thing is what happens at impact, not at the end of the backswing, as the likes of Mark Crossfield keep reiterating

This is very true. The "club pointing at target at top" only holds for a swing which goes up & down on the same plane, like Els. Many pros slip the club onto an inside plane coming down & are laid off at the top. Looking at my hero, Jiminez, he crosses the line at the top, starts the downswing with an over the top move and is perfectly on plane at impact. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[MadAdey]

The theoretical backswing that gets to the top and points exactly at target isn't done by many from what I have seen. Like Homer already said and I've heard it from many coaches on the Internet and TV, the most important bit of the swing is how you enter the impact zone. I think your better to be a bit flat and enter the impact zone on the inside, than try to get the club higher on the backswing and come in on an out to in path.

 

[Beezerk]

Been working on the video The Coach posted, I don't usually mess around with my swing during games but yesterday I gave it a bash from about the 10th hole onwards as the round was turning into a bit of a joke due to slooooow play.
Bigger shoulder turn trying to feel like my back is facing the target, got to say I hit some of my best ever shots straight away. I also hit some of my worst lol but generally I was really happy with not just the ball flight but I also creamed a couple of irons through the green like I'd gained a bit of distance as well.
Lots to work on but I can now use this as a base and hopefully improve my "armsy" type swing.