How can it be wrong, if it feels so right?

[tugglesf239]

Over the past month or two i have significantly altered my takeaway and pretty much all my back swing.

Essentially i have always felt that even for a high H/C'er, my ball striking is pretty good, if inconsistent.

Forum distance jibes aside, i can confidently hit a 7 iron around 165 (carry) and can expect an extra 10 yards in summer with a decent ball. Again i am opening myself up to pelters, but this is not due to a thin, as my ball flight generally is a high draw.

Toward the back end of last year my inconsistency seemed to get much worse and either resulted in a extremely high push shot, or a ferocious snap hook.

My good shots during this period flew with my normal draw, but ballooned more often than not, which robbed me of a massive amount of distance (maybe 20 yards or so).

I cant tell you how frustrating this was as inevitably i ended up trying to smack the ball to gain the lost distance, which acheived nothing apart adding more inconsistency.

Over the last wee while though, i have found my personal fix.

It was all down to my body swaying.

Basically, my take-away now starts with me keeping my spine and head as still as possible with a conscious effort to keep this "steadiness" right through my swing.

in order to maintain this stability, i do not rotate my hips. It feels to me that my arms start and finish the entire movement. At the top of my back swing however, my body will have completed a good rotation and my back is pretty much square to my target, ready to commence my through swing.

This has genuinely resulted in slightly lower ball flight, normal distances and much, much more consistency.

It also "feels" like i am hitting the ball exactly the way that it is meant to be hit. Feels incredible through the club on a good strike TBH.

Now

Long winded explanation aside, i am in no way offering this as a tip. My reason for posting is simply to ask

Does any one else do this?

Even though the results are telling me this is the way ahead, a little voice in my head is telling me that i am breaking a cardinal sin of the golf swing. I am worried that if i continue on this course, i may run into issues in the future.

Please someone put my mind at rest! :thup:

 

[SocketRocket]

Swaying is a main ingredient for inconstant ball striking. If you are getting your back to the target then you must be making a good shoulder turn but make sure you don't reverse pivot, your right shoulder needs to get behind the ball in the backswing if you can.

Tom Watkins tells us to 'turn in a barrell'

 

[In_The_Rough]

Swaying as SC says is a bad habit. Keep an eye on it as it can be a swine to fix if/when things start to go wrong.

 

[tugglesf239]

Swaying is a main ingredient for inconstant ball striking. If you are getting your back to the target then you must be making a good shoulder turn but make sure you don't reverse pivot, your right shoulder needs to get behind the ball in the backswing if you can.

Tom Watkins tells us to 'turn in a barrell'

Thanks SC

I am more than happy with my shoulder turn at the top of the swing and i am thinking that my torso must finish in a good position as i can really feel the torque building up throughout the movement.

This method also goes a long way to preventing my wrists from breaking at the top of my back swing, which i have a strong suspicion has resulted in less "scooping" at the ball and a ballooning push shot.

I suppose the results speak for themselves, but again the nagging little golf voices in my head are telling me i am doing things wrong.

 

[SocketRocket]

Swaying is a main ingredient for inconstant ball striking. If you are getting your back to the target then you must be making a good shoulder turn but make sure you don't reverse pivot, your right shoulder needs to get behind the ball in the backswing if you can.

Tom Watkins tells us to 'turn in a barrell'

Should have said 'Left Shoulder'

 

[tugglesf239]

Swaying as SC says is a bad habit. Keep an eye on it as it can be a swine to fix if/when things start to go wrong.

Not wrong pal

Took me about 2 months to identify and two months to figure out a fix. Even during lessons my pro was telling me that there is nothing wrong with my (then) reduced distance and silly high ball flight.

got to laugh

I have resolved things and feel like i have just had a step change in my swing. Yet i am worried that even though the little white ball is doing what i want, it is the result of a freak swing

could not make it up

 

[In_The_Rough]

Not wrong pal

Took me about 2 months to identify and two months to figure out a fix. Even during lessons my pro was telling me that there is nothing wrong with my (then) reduced distance and silly high ball flight.

got to laugh

I have resolved things and feel like i have just had a step change in my swing. Yet i am worried that even though the little white ball is doing what i want, it is the result of a freak swing

could not make it up

This is a good vid matey that shows a sway and how to stop it. Have a look and see if it looks familiar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpwXifyLCSU

 

[Sweep]

The simplest tip for preventing sway in the backswing, from Ben Hogan's 5 lessons.
Set up to the ball and simply flair your left foot outwards (if you are right handed). In other words, leave the heel where it is, but move your left foot so your toes are pointing more left. This simple move makes it impossible to sway too far to your right in your backswing. Try it. You can't sway.

 

[ScienceBoy]

You and I are going through the exact same thing, except maybe my 7 iron only flies about 145. My sway came after hitting a run of low 80s, a couple of rounds in the 70s last summer.

I started to practice less as work and home life got busy, before long I could not break 90, more like rounding up to 100.

Since the start of the new year I have more time so its back to golf after putting the clubs away for a couple of months. My takeaway consisted of an early wrist, no shoulder turn and a sway. After a few minutes in a group lesson I was peppering a pin on the range with a much improved takeaway, shoulder turn and no sway.

I then even played 9 with the pro and a couple of others, my driving was superb with a better takeaway. It only lasted 5 holes before my old one came back for two. Thankfully I recovered to only play the last two in +1 due to a missed 5 footer for par after only just missing the green with my 7 iron approach (old takeaway?) after cutting the corner with my drive! (Outdriving everyone in my group inc the pro)

 

[MashieNiblick]

Had a similar issue, moving off the ball (swaying) slightly to the right, as I was overly concerned with avoiding a reverse pivot. Pro got me to stay centered over the ball and suggested I practiced swinging in the garden with my right hip against a cane pushed into the ground to discourage lateral movement. He said sway way was causing fats and thins as it prevented me getting the bottom of the arc in the right pace consistently. For me though I do need to feel that I am rotating my hips when I take the club back and I try to keep my right leg planted and my chest centered and consciously turn around that.

Result has been that I am also hitting my irons far more consistently and solidly.

 

[golfdub]

In tom watsons book he says he became the player he is when he realised that you rotate around the spine and once he nailed this the golf swing was so much easier.
I worked on that last year and once you can rotate properly it amazing how well you hit the ball

Good luck and keep up the good work

 

[USER1999]

Quite often what you think you are doing, what you feel you are doing, and what you are actually doing are completely different.

 

[delc]

In my opinion, the golf swing is a fairly simple motion where you swing your arms, hands and club head in an elliptical semi-circle around a fixed pivot point. The fixed point can be regarded as the top of your spine somewhere between your shoulders. If you keep your head relatively still, and your eye on the ball at least until you hit it, this pivot point will also stay still. So as you say, start the backswing with your arms, hands and club head in a smooth one piece take away whilst keeping your head still. The rest of the swing seems to follow on quite naturally from this. The other main point is don't slog at the ball, as this seems to cause a sway forward as you start the down swing. Swing smoothly with slightly less than maximum effort and take one more club if necessary to compensate.

 

[One Planer]

Quite often what you think you are doing, what you feel you are doing, and what you are actually doing are completely different.

Agree with this.

Following lessons, My pro has me rotaing my shoulders around my spine which makes my shoulders turn down, not level. Doing this I can get a full shoulder turn in with my left shoulder under my chin.

That said my hips do open and both I and my instructor feel it's a good thing. If you don't open your hips, I would think it would be harder to make a full shoulder turn and, if I read the OP correctly, your swing wold be all arms (?) which I would have thought would yeild less distance with an extra emphasis on timing through impact(?)

I'm probably wrong, but I agree with Murph in as much as what you feel you're doing probably isn't what youre doing.

Got any video of your swing?

 

[SocketRocket]

Dont try and keep your head still, it will be a power leak. You wont be able to turn back behind the ball unless you allow your head to move back a little.

 

[need_my_wedge]

I know most of my bad shots come from a sway. In an effort to combat that recently, I've taken to adjusting my weight a little to the left when I set up, and trying to fix my rotation start through the shoulders. I may not be describing it exactly right, but when doing this it cuts out the sway and I get a good strike. I was wary of reverse pivot, but asked one our pro's to check my turn, and fortunately the answer was OK, so I guess I'll keep working with it.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Think it was JO (and probably others) who suggested I turn my feet out more. In the end the best method for me was to keep the right foot sqaure but rotate the left foot out. I am getting a much better turn and the left foot being out of the way is giving me more room to turn through.

 

[London mike 61]

The simplest tip for preventing sway in the backswing, from Ben Hogan's 5 lessons.
Set up to the ball and simply flair your left foot outwards (if you are right handed). In other words, leave the heel where it is, but move your left foot so your toes are pointing more left. This simple move makes it impossible to sway too far to your right in your backswing. Try it. You can't sway.

Your bang on there! :thup:

 

[delc]

Dont try and keep your head still, it will be a power leak. You wont be able to turn back behind the ball unless you allow your head to move back a little.

Your head probably will move back a bit anyway with the method I described, but any sway should be minimized. If you have watched Tom Watson's video, he says that the 'golf secret' is to make sure your shoulders turn around your spine, rather than swaying backwards and then forwards. I concur with this.

 

[SocketRocket]

The best way to prevent excessive sway (You should have a little) is to keep your weight just inside your left foot in the backswing.