Same old, same old...

[Tiger]

I had a really good knock last weekend - well good for me. Came a little out of the blue as I had been playing poorly recently. Had a father / son lesson on Sunday and it's the first time in 13 months I've seen my swing on video. Well that explains a lot. My three main flaws back in full effect:
- posture too cramped
- takeaway closed
- left arm collapsing

Whenever my game goes South it always seems to be these three things that have come back. Practicing and playing more would help but anyone got any tactics they've used to eradicate bad habits...?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

If you solve the left arm collapsing please let me know how. That is a big issue for me and the one that always stands out when I have my father / son videoing golf session. I don't think I do it but there it is every time. Drives me crackers.

 

[Craigg]

- left arm collapsing

This is always the reason for me having a mare. Just can't seem to make the connection inside the brain when I'm out on the course and put it right. Always after the game the penny drops.

 

[the_coach]

I had a really good knock last weekend - well good for me. Came a little out of the blue as I had been playing poorly recently. Had a father / son lesson on Sunday and it's the first time in 13 months I've seen my swing on video. Well that explains a lot. My three main flaws back in full effect:
- posture too cramped
- takeaway closed
- left arm collapsing

Whenever my game goes South it always seems to be these three things that have come back. Practicing and playing more would help but anyone got any tactics they've used to eradicate bad habits...?

often find too many folks only video the swing when stuff goes south some

so always advise folks I work with to have on video the swing (maybe at or just after lesson) when stuff is in/has been put back into good shape

1. close up of the grip from just above the hands/handle so you can see exactly where it should/is best to be
2. caddy view of the set-up with ball position to see posture, secondary spine angle, aligments, shoulder shape + dtl view of posture - reminder of hands/handle distance from thighs - forwards spine angle - angles in legs

my experience one big issue that feeds into the problem (left arm collapse) is posture related - folks that spend a whole bunch of time at a desk and driving suffer a whole bunch with this because of the tendency for that to 'round' the shoulders so collapse the chest

reason posture is a driver to lead arm collapse is not so good posture means the body cannot turn/pivot/rotate well and maintain posture so the shoulders don't make a full turn to get at least lead shoulder to point at the ball

- if the body cannot pivot well the shoulders cannot turn fully enough so something has to 'give' to have the player feel the club has gone back enough - this usually means the lead arm 'gives' a ways too much (a slight curvature not ramrod straight lead arm is completely workable many tour players do this - John Holmes a good example of a slight curvature to the lead arm)

something that also collapses the lead arm is what happens with the trail arm - if the trail arm and hand in order to 'feel' the club gets to the top and the trail arm angle goes past that 90º angle so the trail hand working too much towards the trail shoulder then the lead arm will break down

so sometimes it's more workable as a fix to feel the trail arm pushing away into the handle at the top to keep that trail arm angle to 85º -ish 90º at most - this also keeps some width at the top - and usually means that folks full swing actually needs to stop at 3/4 length - searching for extra backswing length compromises the swing and usually hits it shorter more responsible for bad contact than the 3/4 finish would because connection between body and arms is lost so trouble timing the downswing

any exercises to help the thoracic spine flexibility will also help the ability to make a decent pivot - lack of flexibility there plus not so good posture are very big reasons why the lead collapses because the upper body pivot doesn't take place well enough - often times instead of a decent turn there's too much tilt (false turn) so that lead shoulder never gets all the way to the ball and certainly not to the inside of the trail foot

set-up and posture is a real key to the start of many issues within the swing - simple work at home in a mirror shaft across the upper chest to pivot correctly in posture and get the handle to point just past where the ball position would be is real useful - many folks will find that surprisingly difficult if they are pivoting correctly

 

[Tiger]

Thanks coach I do spend a lot of time sitting down! The challenge is how do I video my swing? I always practice on our practice area essentially an open field. So can't rest my phone against anything. I do have a tac tic which is great training aid but I can't do a full session with it as the clicking drives me crackers.

Will have a look at your suggestions thank you :thup:

 

[the_coach]

if you got an alignment stick and cell holder - just spear stick vertical have the holder at hands height directly behind the hands at 90 to the target dtl view - if poss have a holder you can have the cell landscape (longest side of cell parallel to ground) that ways don't get the big black lines each side of the vid) frame size preset to see just whole swing with clubhead in at the top)
caddy view (face on) same practice directly opposite center of stance and at hands height to get the clubhead in frame at the top of the swing
or if can stretch to if small tripod and holder

as the lead arm collapsing is more likely a symptom not a causation - think in practice the things to focus on after good posture set-up - is the pivot, the turn not the lead arm itself - if that lead shoulder does not move enough in the correct way the lead arm has to collapse or the swing to be a pretty short one

so making sure the lead shoulder gets to ball position along with the trail hand having a slight pressure up into the handle and the lead hand - a feeling that the trail hand is away from not close to the head/right ear

a drill to check where your flexibility allows you to get to would be good grip sound posture then take the lead hand completely off
make a good turn to the top with right arm only -staying in posture lead shoulder to ball position - just turn head & look to check the right arm is at no further than 90º angle should see the right hand is probably further away from the head than usual
then staying in posture turn eyes back to ball - then move left arm to take hold of the handle at that position - am guessing that might be a stretch to make important posture kept doing this - if left arm hand cannot make it bring the handle back down in the arc a touch till you can form a grip and check to see where that is - as that will be as far as you should look to get to and a position the left arm will be comfortably straight at

 

[HawkeyeMS]

This is exactly why I have a lesson every 6 to 8 weeks even if I feel like I'm playing well. It's far too easy for us amateurs who don't have hours to practice to slip back into our bad habits.

 

[Garush34]

I like to do just a few swings in the house/garden every couple days working on either changes or maintaining thoughts/feels. No ball to focus on and see a result but that can be a good thing as you don't get bogged down on results and think that the changes aren't working. I always do this after a lesson too, quite often I have a lesson on a Sunday and won't get time to get to the practice area till the Saturday, so 10 mins in the garden just swinging works wonders. Luckily for me I have a large French windows to the back garden so that acts as a mirror too, to see the changes.

 

[Tiger]

:thup:

 

[HomerJSimpson]

This is exactly why I have a lesson every 6 to 8 weeks even if I feel like I'm playing well. It's far too easy for us amateurs who don't have hours to practice to slip back into our bad habits.

Well said

 

[bobmac]

This is what the pre-shot routine is all about....doing good stuff every shot so you dont forget something.

Get into a good posture and 'rehearse' your backswing focusing on your 2 problems and do it on every shot. When it becomes habit, you wont forget it.

 

[Tiger]

This is what the pre-shot routine is all about....doing good stuff every shot so you dont forget something.

Get into a good posture and 'rehearse' your backswing focusing on your 2 problems and do it on every shot. When it becomes habit, you wont forget it.

👍👍👍👍