Confused...

Well I'm confused but I guess it's just part of the process.  Yesterday I was practicing and I noticed that I was still outside in and slightly coming over the top.  A teacher friend even could see that immediately while looking at my video.  I had been working on the idea of clearing my hips.  I was looking for videos about how not to come over the top.  There's a bunch on youtube which go through mainly starting with your hips and not your hands.  Then I saw one by Zach Allen which was interesting and along the lines that I had been trying to do.  It really talks about dropping your club back behind you.  I tried that a lot along with other things this morning that I was trying to correct such as:

• Take club back around body, sticking out but, leaning over, get shaft more upright on backswing.  
• At top try to lean shaft back by laying off and letting club and hands fall back behind body.  
• Rotate through with hips and try to keep my right elbow attached infront of my right hip and turn through while keeping butt sticking out and leaning over even more.

Needless to say this was a lot of stuff but I was making good progress.  And sometimes I would stripe the ball but I was pretty much systematically pushing everything.  But my positions on video were looking pretty good.

Then an older friend, who I love talking to because his son is a teaching pro, came over to chat.  I told him everything that I was working on and he gave me some advice to just keep it simple.  Go back on the plane and swing through the plane.  Just like Tom Watson describes in this video.  Well I don't usually listen to him because he doesn't believe in video and his swing isn't the greatest.  But I tried to keep an open mind and did just keep it simple.  Well I started striping 8 irons.  And it felt natural.  I hit about 10 in a row all to the exact same spot and a lot farther.  And the sound was just that nice thud and then hiss of the ball.  I hadn't had that all morning.  The swing itself felt horrible from what I know I was coming over the top, scooping, chicken winging, and right elbow straight at impact.  Back to old habits.  But when I looked at tape it wasn't that bad.  And it was really hard to argue with the results!  I tried the other clubs and it didn't work as good but that 8 iron was golden.  The funny thing is that my club fell back more at the top when I did this than when I was consciously trying to do it.

So there is something to take away from this.  Sometimes too many swing thoughts and working on a move takes you to a dead end and you just need to swing horribly but naturally and make good contact.  My analysis of this is that basically what was happening to me is that by trying to clear my hips so much I was getting stuck. That's why everything was pushing.  Now I know what getting stuck feels like!  By trying to swing on plane with a simpler swing it brought my right shoulder forward a lot sooner and that allowed me to cover the ball and close the clubface.  But now I'm still a little over top so I'm trying to combine the two of getting my swing path inside out but still staying on plane.  This is quite a journey, one sometimes that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Shafts

Just read a really cool article about shafts and how they work with the golf swing. It talks about the difference between early and late release and how different shafts  react to that.  I also understand why you see the forward bend in the shafts at impact and how that is used to generate clubhead speed!  Fascinating.

Update:  Apparently depending on the shutter speed the forward bend seen in the shafts at impact can be really exaggerated.

Body release vs hand release

After going through most of Bradley Hughes videos on youtube I'm grasping more and more the concept of body vs hands release.  I've put some concepts together like how I've heard about the new swing of all the pros which is with the back of the right hand facing the target on follow through.  Johnny Miller talks about how Ben Hogan used this to take away the left side of the fairway.  Also the low and left finish which Sean Foley has Tiger doing and something that Hunter Mahan has done which is also characteristic of good ball strikers.  I believe this to make Tiger have less of a hands release.  Then also reading how Matt Kuchar changed his swing from a hand release to a body release and that's when he started winning.  It is all starting to make more sense to me.  I also looked at Ben Hogan's swing and people's analysis of it.  The case is basically that all the good "ball strikers" had a body release.  And the hands release guys like Lefty have to rely on timing and aren't know for their ball striking.  One characteristic of the body release is the bent right elbow at impact.  I've finally been able to do this in a natural way thanks to Bradley Hughes.

My body was fighting a steep club angle right at the top of the downswing.  I wasn't even trying to find the slot or even really knew what it was.  So I had to do several things to get my clubface square at impact.  I had to release my hands early which made my right elbow straight at impact which made me have to stand up or else I would be fat.  A hard move.  All this because of not laying off at the top and not finding the slot.  Most of my good amateur friends have this swing.  Some are even tippy toeing at impact.  My hands release swing:

And now a more body release.  This is my best driver swing to date.

My right elbow is clearly bent at impact.  My club is much shallower coming in which allows me to rotate around my body.  I'm still searching for how to get in the slot at the top swing which is a mess but I'm going to work on cleaning that up. The results are also very good, ball is flying far, I can swing all out for the first time in a long time without losing too much accuracy.  I still have a tendancy to push and slice but the ballflight in general is a lot straighter.

I also ordered a Swing Speed Radar so it will be fun testing that out.  I'm all about feedback for optimal learning!