Short leg tendon

[THJahar]

I was born with a short left leg tendon. This means that my left leg is slightly shorter than my right and i cannot lift my left foot toes up from the ground.
Now I mitigate the height difference by having a lift inside my left shoe.
My problem arises because of the tight tendon. When I transfer my weight through to my left leg on my swing. Because the tendon has no flex in it, any transfer slightly more than vertical means i start to go off balance.
My pro has noted that I collapse my right arm, pulling the club towards my chest giving a out to in path, and losing distance.
Now To get a straight arm and an in to out path, I invariable end up off balance on my left leg and end up making a step forward.
Now this doesn't impact the swing too much but it does look ugly.
So does anyone have any advice, strategies or experience on how to approach this problem?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think to be honest the only way to truely understand whats going on would be to see your swing. Can you post a video. I'm no expert but I'd be interested to see the swing as you describe it.

 

[JustOne]

Hi,

Why do you want to swing from in-to-out?
Why not stick with what you have and simply reduce the motion across the ball as much as you can ie: straighten it out a bit. Then you'll get more length and be hitting just a slight fade. Learning to swing from the inside is the long way around.... unless you REALLY want to of course.

 

[THJahar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5X_QXi4zk

Well here's a video hopefully it'll clear up the point.
The fact that on my follow through I pull in my right arm leads to a few things, including:
topped shots
hitting off the toe of the club
not rotating hands

Now I know I may have to live with the 'step' but it does have a mild psychological effect.
I as a human being want to stay balanced and not stumble, so invariably the 'pull the arm' effect beings to creep in every few shots.
I'm just really asking if anyone with experience with teaching golf to people with physical differences may have a strategy to help.

 

[JustOne]

The perfect swing path is in-to-in. You don't really want to be throwing your hands away from your body - at least not consciously. The moment you have hit the ball your hands should start working back to the inside. Hitting the ball OUT to the right is a recipe for disaster, it will definately pull your weight onto your toes.

Are you only having issues with your woods or is this throughout the bag?

Here's a pic at impact of a pro player... he's way behind the ball at impact (drawn a line for you),

your video looked like you were about 2 feet infront of the ball which is bound to cause you an issue, even with your irons.

The swing is a rotation of the body/shoulders around the spine not a slide to the left. Turn back, turn through. Looks like you need to work on your balance by hitting 75% shots without that slide. The question is...what causes that slide? Are you standing up too straight at address?

I'm sure you appreciate it's hard to teach an able bodied golfer anything without actually being there, add in a physical restriction and you've multiplied that difficulty by 10.

hope this helps.

Regards...

 

[THJahar]

Well I don't have a decent camera, only my phone so I couldn't do a 'real' swing and perhaps I over exaggerated it a little.

What i'm trying to say is my left foot cannot compensate for any forward motion.
Hence the standard in to in swing with a straight right arm on the follow through, is slightly beyond my threshold and my foot is not strong or flexible enough to hold me in a decent finish position. Which means I have to take a step forward.
Now if I accept that I have to take the step, well and good. But as I've said the psychology of trying to stay balanced means that I pull my arm close to my body and bend the left arm leading to the errors in my swing.
And I guess the question is, how can I improve the stability on my left leg?
Clown Shoe (lol)?, stack and tilt? Wider stance? Splayed foot? More knee bend?
I was hoping someone who has had limited mobility,leg weakness, flexibility etc. may have come across something similar and they've discovered a strategy to deal with it.

 

[minigolfer]

hi this may help it may not i hope it does but my freind has the same problem and sometimes he has a weight cast that is helping push the heel back on the ground look into it