Tool: Laying off the club (part 2)

One thing I love doing is filming my swing in slowmo and then compare it frame by frame to the pros swings.  It gives me lots of ideas of places where there are obvious differences and then I can work on those things.  So I was looking at my driver down the line compared to Adam Scott.  One thing I noticed was that he has the club layed off (so looking at his right hand and wrist) at the top, bottom, and even at impact.

Right wrist not laid off

Laid off at top

Right wrist still straight

This is the frame that really captures it for me.  Right wrist bent back.

Still straight!!

Even at impact you can see his wrist is bent back.

So one feeling I remind myself of is trying to get in the position right when the club is parallel to the ground to have my right wrist bent back.  This gives me way more lag and whip.  Just try to have the feeling of being laid off the entire swing and grip the club more in the fingers.

There are other differences I see mainly the distance from my hands to my hips.  And also how extended I am at impact compared to Scott.  But I'll address this in another post.  One tool at a time!

[Solved]: Practice swing vs real swing

Why do practice swings look so good on camera and I can get into the right positions but then when I hit a ball my positions are all off?  Here's a two swings one without a ball and one with.

Head stays still, hips turned, spine angle retained, right elbow bent at impact, etc.  It just looks like a correct swing.

Now here's with the ball.

Head comes up, hips don't turn as much, butt comes in, I stand up, right elbow extended at impact, etc.  I just can't get myself to stay down.

So why is it impossible to recreate the practice swing?  Well the mystery is solved for me.  If you look closely at the practice swing at impact my club face is way open.

When you swing without a ball your body doesn't need to close the club face so it doesn't, and the swing looks good.  But then when you put a ball there your brain tells you to close the club face for impact which is why your swing completely changes.  I think this is why a lot of people cast.  I filmed my friend in slowmo and his practice swing was perfect (hands infront of the club, etc.) however I then filmed a close up of his club face and it was completely open at the imaginary impact.  Then when I filmed him hitting a ball he casts big time.  It's his subconscious way of closing the club face to hit it straight.  So when you see people doing really good looking practice swings just ignore them because they don't really count!!

In fact if you really concentrate and are able to ignore the ball and try and do a perfect swing while hitting a ball it will slice way off to the left.  Almost like a shank.

Mystery solved thanks to high speed camera.

Idea: Rolling release vs stable release

I've worked a lot with my driver swing recently to be able to play on large courses and I've been able to eliminate my big slices.  I now have a consistent power fade to sometimes a slice.  But since I haven't been hitting irons I now have a big problem with my irons.  On the practice tee I can get them pretty consistent but on the course I can pull, fade, or even slice them now.  it's not very consistent.  Just saw a video about release types here.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53DaCUuj1Bo
They talk about roll and stable release.  After doing video analysis I think I'm doing a roll release.  This relies much more on timing.  When I look at Rory or other pros I think they are doing a stable release.  At least they are bowing their left wrist on the downswing and I'm not.  I think I was doing this but I stopped for some reason.  Will try this out tommorow at the range.