My swing is ruining my game.

[DangerousDave86]

Has anyone got any drills to stop me from swinging from the inside? For the last two years I've been dropping the club down the inside from the top of my backswing, resulting in, more often than not, a massive snap hook.

Played off a low single figure handicap for the last ten years but for the last year I've been struggling to break 80 as I cannot stop myself hitting this duck hook. Trying to play fade impossible, as I still drop it down the inside and open the face right up, resulting in a massive block.

Could really use some assistance as it's driving me crazy.

 

[Lump]

Surely this is not a case of trying to alter a swing after it has worked well for so many years, but more of a case of what has changed to create the duck hook.
I would suggest something must have changed with your grip over the last year. I would personally look there before trying to re-invent your swing.

 

[fundy]

I went through similar early this year. By the time I went to see "an expert" he put me on trackman and my swingpath was 9 degrees in to out. Basically the more scared I was of hitting it left, the more I was swinging it from the inside (then flipping the club with the hands to try and square it).

The initial lesson I had was that to stop hitting it left i had to feel that I was swinging the club to the left. Sounds totally wrong and takes a little while to sink in (did for me at least) but once you realise that actually it makes perfect sense then things become far easier. When fighting a hook I now focus on trying to make sure the swingpath is neutral and that Im leading with the heel not the toe of the club. Im by no means fully sorted but the good days now have a neutral swingpath and quiet hands rather than in to out swingpath and very active hands, with a resultant much straighter and more controllable ball flight (plus i can shape both ways rather than varying degrees of hook!)

Would definitely recommend finding a decent pro, ideally who had trackman and video so can explain the cause and corrective process quickly. Wish you well as I know how destructive and sould destroying playing with a duck hook is!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Would definitely recommend finding a decent pro, ideally who had trackman and video so can explain the cause and corrective process quickly. Wish you well as I know how destructive and sould destroying playing with a duck hook is!

Perfect advice. Go to a pro, get properly assessed and work on the fixes at the range. If you are off single figures it won't take much of an effort to feel the changes and get back to normal

 

[DangerousDave86]

Surely this is not a case of trying to alter a swing after it has worked well for so many years, but more of a case of what has changed to create the duck hook.
I would suggest something must have changed with your grip over the last year. I would personally look there before trying to re-invent your swing.

I stopped playing a couple of years ago for a year, and since I started again, I've developed this "loop"

 

[DangerousDave86]

Exactly this lol.

 

[the_coach]

Has anyone got any drills to stop me from swinging from the inside? For the last two years I've been dropping the club down the inside from the top of my backswing, resulting in, more often than not, a massive snap hook.

Played off a low single figure handicap for the last ten years but for the last year I've been struggling to break 80 as I cannot stop myself hitting this duck hook. Trying to play fade impossible, as I still drop it down the inside and open the face right up, resulting in a massive block.

Could really use some assistance as it's driving me crazy.

check your set up alignments, that being scared of the leftside of the shot you haven't started to aim body alignments so club face too aligned a ways to the right, check right hand not gone under the grip so more in palm of right hand, you'd want grip in fingers hand more on top of the handle.

difficult to say exactly why without seeing the action, generally do all longer clubs irons go pretty low, may even catch the odd ones fat? a good few pushes in there.

swing path coming from inside, but is it 'feel to real' are you really dropping it down inside from a good position at the top so shaft more over top of right shoulder, or is it going up a bit flat (so half ways back butt of club would point over the other side of the ball target line. not in between the foot line & ball target line?)

heavy in to out path often means too that the weight is too much on the trail leg coming down, path coming from behind the legs & the body hips have moved to the target too much laterally so the arms club coming from this position with weight on trail side get stuck behind, the fact that the hips go laterally left too much means from this stuck arm position the hips & body too also can't rotate left out of the way, hip can't turn & clear so body hips in the way the arms/hands/club then forced over kinda wrap around so the face gets rapidly closed down big duck hooks all day.

drill:
put a club down 1" handle off the right foot parallel to ball target line, put a rolled ball towel or head cover 2" other side of the ball/target also parallel to ball target line. most of the length of the towel/headcover need to be towards the target side of the ball _ a physical obstacle to stop the swing hitting ball & continuing to the right)

do some slow takeaways till left arm is horizontal to ground & also parallel the club on the ground make sure the left thumb sets upwards so the butt end of the club here points somewhere between the club at the foot line & the ball target line not over the ball/target line to the side that the towel or headcover is.
then from here just complete the shoulder turn so the club shaft is more over the top of your right shoulder (not down behind your back some)

from there as you swing downwards concentrate on turning to clear your hip left & not moving them laterally left towards target, as by turning/clearing thats the only way the swing path will be neutral enough to hit through the ball without hitting straight into the towel/headcover as well.
then feel you continue to swing through to the left to the balanced finish, left hips turned & cleared left right hip come through towards target right knee to left knee & upper body/chest rotating leftwards so chest ends up pointing left of your target at finish the right shoulder is the part of the body nearest to target, hands & handle more over top of your left shoulder, weight on your left heel.

 

[DangerousDave86]

Ill see if I can get a video up of my swing in the next couple days so you can see. Think my lower hand is too much palm not enough fingers, but if i try and change my club face feels horrendous and I top the ball.

 

[the_coach]

From around 3' 10" in you'll see a similar drill to the one I outlined in post #7, up till then is an explanation.

[video=youtube_share;jiNP-nkGBxM]http://youtu.be/jiNP-nkGBxM[/video]

 

[DangerousDave86]

Thats a good drill, I've been trying to put a headcover on the inside behind the ball try and avoid it and swing around it, but as soon as the headcover is gone, i revert back to the usual crappy loopy rubbish.

 

[the_coach]

Ill see if I can get a video up of my swing in the next couple days so you can see. Think my lower hand is too much palm not enough fingers, but if i try and change my club face feels horrendous and I top the ball.

yep get that, any time you change grip it's a ways difficult but if everything stays the same you'll hit the shots you don't want to.

but if indeed that right hand is under so more in the palm as you take the club back at the position when the club shaft is horizontal to the ground, it's likely that the shaft is already pointing behind you legs your heel line, & also the face, leading edge of the club will be looking a good ways down to the ground so already in a pretty closed position.

then with that strong grip the hands don't then 'set' at the correct angle either so at the top of the swing the club face, leading edge is looking directly up at the sky, in a very closed position.
from here you'll have developed pretty much on automatic pilot without really realizing a number of compensations to get club head to ball.
you've got to swing from the inside to out other wise it will go even further left, as the weight is a little too much on the right side swing coming in a good ways shallow the hips will have gone laterally left towards target but also they likely to have gone forwards towards the ball. that EE often spoken about (early extension)
this happens as an automatic compensation as you try to stop the ball going even further left than it already does as to try to keep the face square (sometimes you keep face square to the in to out path, not target - so push) sometimes you can't & the club face closes down so hook.
the other thing this lateral slide & EE forwards movement towards the ball hip action does is make the hands have to rise vertically coming into impact to get the clubhead to the ball, so the hands are higher than they were at address which also makes the clubshaft very steep as it all travels say something in the order of 10º from the inside so very much in to out swinging rightwards after ball contact.

hence the drill with the physical block of the rolled towel or head cover, to stop the swing path swinging to the right.

{you could try doing this drill without changing the grip but then be prepared to start the ball left a ways then it will go further left just accept this (talking about on the range here not course) once you can get it starting left going left consistently as you miss the obstacle (towel/headcover) then just move definitely your right hand counterclockwise so the grip is in the fingers of the right hand which is more on top of the grip - if your left hand is very strong say you're also seeing 3 knuckles here at address then you'll also need to move the lefthand a little ways counter clockwise so you only see 2 knuckles at address, then make the same swing missing the obstacle & you should find the ball will start towards target without the hook.}

if you can get the grip to neutral to start with you may well hit some push slices some tops, because the hips still doing what they are not supposed to as outlined before 7 the weight too much on the right side.
but the more you can do that drill feeling you retain posture, feel weight on the left foot starts transition & get the hip turning going back to the top, then in posture feel the left hip turn & clear weight going into the left heel so you swing down to impact & swing left to avoid the towel or headcover the swing path will become more neutral, & the more the hands will return through impact at the right height more like the address hand height & the more the shaft will return more at the angle it started at at address, so not steep (if viewed from DTL )
won't be easy as you've developed over time doing what you're, but you got down to a good level so you must have pretty reasonable hand eye coordination so if you persevere pretty sure you'll get there.

if you can follow that complete drill in post #7 it will help. obviously goes without saying if you can get to a PGA Pro he'll get you working on these things to help you deliver the club better.

 

[DangerousDave86]

Appreciate your help, thank you.