Baseball Swing, another breakthrough

Well the new grip is holding up and I'm able to continue to swing slightly under plane so I'm happy about that.  The other thing that I really thought about was the constant quest to keep my right elbow even more bent at impact.  I thought that it can't be about holding my wrists back or trying to keep my elbow tucked in or feeling like I'm hitting with my elbow on my hip because those swing thoughts only got me so far.  I had to rethink it.

So I thought about baseball swings.  I started looking at slow motion baseball swings at a home run derby and how they all hit the ball with their right arm bent and then released it after impact.  Just like how you're supposed to with golf.  So I figure if two sports do it that way then it must be the most powerful way to swing. So when I swing a baseball bat it makes perfect sense to hit with my right arm bent and turn in to it with my body for power.  Trying to hit a baseball timing a release with the wrists and extended arms just doesn't feel right. So I tried to just really visualize and apply that thought to the golf ball lying on the ground. It's a lot harder because I think since you're afraid to hit the ground you naturally want to extend your arms so that you're maxed out at impact and can't hit the ground. And going into a swing with a bent right arm feels like you will just hit straight into the ground. I had to really imagine that I was swinging at a baseball on the ground and hit the ball with my whole right side and getting my right shoulder down on the ground. So just a complete rethinking of the impact position. A different swing thought that changed the timing of my whole swing. It's hard because you have to relearn to trust that you're not going to hit fat but I was able to abstract out the ground and do it. And it worked! The results are below.

One thing that changed without even trying was my finish. No more chicken wings. I can't wait to work on this more. The combo of my new wrist position and new baseball swing thought at impact is making my swing look way more correct. More correct than it's ever been. Hopefully this will hold up and then I want to work on getting more lag and power.

Under Plane and Breakthrough

My swing has been pretty stable for the past few months so I've been happy with that.  Since it's winter it's not really a good time to be playing so I continued to work on my swing.  One thing that had been bothering me is my left leg at impact.  For me it was too bent and I wasn't fully posting up until my club was horizontal after impact.  Even though Ben Hogan says to keep the left leg bent at impact in order to keep the hips rotating.  I looked at all the pros swings and they post up.  I guess this is for more speed. Well changing my timing is really hard!

Of course in looking at my swing I saw some things once again my right elbow not being bent at impact which is something that Ben Hogan says is important. In trying to once again get my elbow really tucked in I was experimenting with wrist and hand positions to make it easier to tuck in my elbow during the downswing. I tried to get the right hand more in the fingers and swing more around my body like the whole open and shut the door metaphor. This got me in a better right elbow position which should be in front of the right hipbone again according to Ben Hogan. I then played around with keeping my elbows in at address and pointing then straight down like he says to do in the book. This also helped get my elbow tucked in and I'm able to I think keep it slightly more bent at impact. At least it feels easier to do keep it bent. My son filmed me of course to see if it did anything and the results were really nice. For the first time I'm slightly under plane in my downswing. I've been fighting this forever trying all sorts of stuff like:

• trying to really swing more inside out
• drop the hands down after transition
• layoff the club after transition
• point my right hand up to the sky on downswing
• let the club fall behind me after transition
• ...

All of these got my hands down but never shallowed out my club. And certainly didn't allow me to get under plane.

Before: perfectly on plane but a choppy motion at impact as I had to release early to get clubface squared up. I was fighting trying to keep my right arm bent but couldn't.

After: slightly under plane and turning into the ball with right elbow bent going into impact and not chopping at it straightening right arm just before impact. This is fundamentally more correct!

Once again it's a very different feeling and I'm amazed at how many different ways there are to swing a club. I was striping a couple of 7 irons so the ball flight is there.  It feels reproducible and different but not unnatural. It feels like a breakthrough and I'll see if it really leads to something or is another dead end.

To summarize the change is all on the right arm.  At address have the hand/wrist flex down. I think this is what lays off the club. I'm not sure but will have to play with this more. Point the right elbow down not out and slightly bent. Swing around body and really try to keep elbow in front of the right hipbone at impact.  Also bend over more than I think I need to on the downswing!