Tool: side by side video

When I run out of ideas for my swing I just fire up the computer pop on a recent video and then compare to the pros.  It instantly gives me several things to work on.  I just tried out a new free open source video comparison tool called Kinovea. It let me synch up my swing and the pros swing

Two obvious things that I see here.

1. I'm coming in too steep.  This is the third time I'm writing about this.  This is really a fundamental fault in my swing DNA.
2. I need to be more hunched over when getting towards impact.  I don't know how I'll work on this but I need to start getting a feeling for this.

Rhythm

Well one consequence of the last post on covering was that my rhythm has changed.  By sort of whipping my hands around via whipping my shoulders around, what I call doing the "Rory thing", has made my swing take on a whole other quality.  Ever see someone at the range and they seem like they're swinging in slow motion but their ball just flies (yes usually these are the super good guys).  You can just stand their watching them swing after swing and it's a thing of beauty and marvel.  In the pros it's Ernie Els and even Rory who everyone tries to copy.  We'll I've often wondered how this works and I think that now I'm starting to be one of those guys.  How do I know?  Well here's some video below.  And also recently I've had three unsolicited comments in the last month about how nice my swing is.  One guy even came up to me and said how much he admired my rhythm and that he doesn't see it very often at the practice range and that I made his whole session!  Totally unsolicited.  Wow.  So I'm on to something here.

Tool: Covering the ball and wrist position right after impact

When looking down the line at swing I saw how the pros wrists really flipped over right after impact.   On the range I though about how this would happen with the wrists other than having amazingly strong wrist muscles and the timing to flip your wrists at the exact right time.  Then I thought of using my shoulders to flip over my wrists.  The feeling is pushing one shoulder forward with your arms extended pushes that hand over and visa versa.  So I tried the swing out.  The feeling is to push my right shoulder over right before impact and let it then rotate my right arm over, then wrists, then hands.  This also feels like it create a whipping effect.  As well this keeps my right shoulder going forward and gets me to cover the ball more.  I think the best example of this is Rory's swing.  It's looks like he's throwing his hands forward through impact.  And instead of pulling up right at impact he covers and drives through.  Something that my and my son have been working on with his swing as well.

Coming in too steep redux

Once again I was just comparing my swing to Adam Scott's from behind and thought that I was coming in too steep and my hands were too far away from my legs at impact.  It turns out that I went through this exact same process in May.  I just re-read through that coming-in-too-steep post and it's exactly what I need to do.  So since May till now I just went through a regression to my old swing.  Will go and work on the range this weekend.

Head Back at Impact

The breakthroughs keep on coming.  In the last few weeks my swing has made major strides each time thanks to video and just thinking about body positions and how to get in those positions.  Compared my swing to pros' swing and at impact my head was looking at the ball and already turning forward.  Pros heads were held back behind the ball.  Tried this and got my follow through much better head staying down, better release, and more speed and distance.

Really Turning Hips

With driver really turning hips instead of sliding hips.  First time that I was correct with the driver swing.  Hips not pulled in and back rounded.  Just really thought about turning the hips.  Also trying to keep more weight over my heels and rotate around body.

Leaning over and extending after impact

Just really concentrated on doing it and made my swing finally look good after impact.  Thinking about throwing my arms out and forward.  Just try to let my right shoulder pull my head up.

Also was watching the girls swing at my son's golf team.  The thing that amazes me about their swings is how beautiful their extensions are.  They all kind of have their head go down at impact and after like Natalie Gulbis instead of up like mine.  So I just tried to imagine how they swing and try to copy them.  It works for a while and it looks good on film then I lapse back into my normal head coming up after impact.

Anyway here's a swing where head stays down.

Theory: Building a swing from the inside out

I'm starting to have a theory about how to build a swing.  After a year of constant and intensive experimenting I'm starting to think of how I would try to build someone else's swing.  Once all the real basics are covered like grip, address, etc.  I think you should start with a close examination of the impact position while hitting balls.  Is the wrist supinated, scooping, hands infront of club face, laid off or not, etc.  I would then correct that first because I think that the body compensates in the backswing and downswing for the improper wrist/hand positions at impact.  I think a lot of people cast to close the club face and not because they want to hit at the ball like most teachers say.  So just having them layoff and supinate their wrists more throughout their swing will then tell their body that they don't have to cast anymore to make the ball go straight.  Changing wrist positions is a lot easier than trying to get your body to sub-conscientiously react a different way.

I'm also starting to think that most teachers work from the outside in (address, plane, backswing, downswing, follow through) and they brush over impact.  The reason is quite simple in that you can only give feedback on what you can see.  And since they can't see what's happening at impact because it happens too fast they don't know what's happening with the wrists.  But they can see everything else so that's what they correct.  The poor students are compensating for a bad impact position in their backswing, downswing , etc.  to hit the ball straight.  And the teacher tries to correct the compensations and not the root cause which is squaring the clubface at impact.  With the high speed camera you can see the wrists and club face.  The root cause of the bad swing.

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.

Shoulder to shoulder

Also the other day friend told me that I wasn't turning my shoulders.  This I always revert back to having a backswing with just my arms.  He said teacher told him to touch his chin to his shoulder on the backswing and then on the follow through.

Had last practice session before going on vacation for 3 weeks to Thailand.  This combined with keeping my head back and my swing is more correct than ever.  Ball was flying and contact was pure, irons and wedges.  A great way to leave on vacation with these good swing thoughts.  Will have to really try and remember this feeling.

Head back

Was working with a friend the other day and he held a club to the left side of my head.  It forced me to think about keeping my head back on the downswing.  This somehow helped to conserve my spine angle.  It felt like the club was swinging through more under my shoulders somehow.  Hard to describe but ball flight was much higher.  Have to try this again and check with video.  But feels more correct.

Hips

Got a new used R11 driver with a Fujikura blur 60 stiff shaft.  So I'm working extensively on my driver swing.  I just love some good sessions just swing, film, analyze, and repeat trying new things till the feeling is correct.  It's the fastest way that I've found to improve.  Otherwise I'm just hitting balls and I'm not sure if I'm reinforcing bad habits or not.  Well all the faults of my iron swings are accentuated with the driver.  So my usual standing up at impact was really noticeable.  I was also really trying to keep my right arm bent at impact.  I had correct several things.  One was my swing path.  It was still outside in so I had to really change it to inside out.  I also noticed from down the line that the pros right wrist sort of snapped after impact down the line.  Well mine just kept going through and didn't snap.  Well looking at the video I saw that my path was part of the problem being outside in.  So I hopefully corrected that.  That then corrected my systematic fade and slices.

Then with the driver I just had my usual standing up, butt in a impact.

I wasn't making progress so I had to do some real rethinking of what I was doing.  The feeling was completely wrong. Well I swung without a ball just too feel like what the position should be like.  I actually got into more correct positions.

So the next part was doing it with a ball.  I've gotten much better at this but it's still way off.  Well somehow I got to thinking about swinging with my hips.  For the first time really thinking about planting my right elbow on my right hip and then just rotating the hips.  Also really using my legs to push off and turn.  I hit a couple and with a slight tail wind the balls flew all the way to the far corner tree and fence.  It still doesn't look correct but they feeling is once again way different from where I started.

Coming in too steep

I looked at my swing and compared it to the pros (Rory, Tiger, etc) with the V1 Home program and with their irons they come in a lot more layed off and shallow than I am.  This program really helped me out since just looking at video is ok but your eyes play tricks on you so it's very helpful to draw lines to really see what's going on.  Also you can keep the lines in place and change videos so I'm comparing my angles directly to the pros.  So this is what I worked on today is coming in at a lower angle which meant for swing thoughts on backswing need to layoff more at the top.  Then on downswing drop the arms down and then turn through.
Before:

After:

This last video I compared to the pros and the downswing angle is looking much better.  I just need to keep turning the body towards the target.  My ass is also staying in place instead of pulling in.  Something I've been working on forever!! I lapsed a little till I thought about putting my right elbow into my right hip and pushing with my right hip to swing the club then things got better again.
This swing is complicated and fragile.  I don't know how I'm going to make it repeatable?
While doing this I also realized that my head didn't come up right before impact.  Well my head actually stayed in the exact same place but during the downswing it went down and toward the ball instead of staying in place.  So I tried keeping my head more level during my backswing and downswing and now my head stayed still at impact.
Here's the proof:

But for some reason I'm still hitting everything off the toe.  I was hoping that being less steep coming in would help this but I'm still struggling with it.  With my new Mizuno MP52s that makes for a lot of bad feedback in the hands.  I feel like I hit about 1 in 20 pure now.  Whereas before it was about 50% or even higher so something I still have to figure out.

Hands close to legs

Well my swing was doing great so on to the next piece which was the fact that my hands were so far  from my legs at impact.

This got me working on my backswing which was way to away and out in front of my body.  Here's the after.  I also realized that I wasn't turning my torso on the backswing it was all arms.  The new feeling is bringing the club back around me then lifting my arms.  It's a little dark but here's the after.

Swing don't hit made me finally have left side aligned at impact

I always read about swinging the club and not hitting the ball.  You're supposed to make pretend the ball isn't there and just swing the club and the ball just happens to get in the way.  Well that's actually a really hard thing to do because sub-consciously your body adjusts to hitting the ball.  That's why practice swings always look good and then when you hit a ball it's hard to reproduce.  Your body naturally corrects to hit the ball.  Well I had one of those break through moments that last about 10 or 20 balls where all of a sudden you try something new and then it works and then you almost can't do anything wrong.  All the balls are perfect.  You try to groove the feeling before it goes away and you forget what to do.  Well I had one of those moments recently while practicing.  For some reason I just turned my body on the backswing and then just turned my body back on the downswing.  I let my arms just really hang loose and I really tried to just let them be like spaghetti.  When I was swinging I felt like when I hit the ball my head was tilted sidewards and looking up to the sky.  So wasn't even looking at the ball at impact.  The balls were all of a sudden flying straight, far, and high.  I also felt a strange sensation in my lower back like for the first time ever I was actually using the gears in there.  My son filmed me.  To date this the best swing I've ever done.  Notice left side is aligned at impact.  Have never done that before and always wondered how to get in that position.

Here's the proof.

Tool: Swing with forearms and relax wrists

Was comparing my son's swing to Rory's, to mine.  We noticed that he and the pros really snap over the right arm after impact.  We looked really closely at the action of the right elbow.  Mine kinda rolled over right at impact and not snapped after.  Went to the range to work on this and for some reason started also working on my finish position which is always not completely followed through and tight.  Well to get a better finish I always had to loosen up my wrists and arms but then my swing felt too loose but my finish was better.  So then I tried to loosen up just my wrists and not my arms.

This seemed to really work!  The feeling was swinging with my forearms and any adjustments to my swing were made with the forearms and arms, elbows, etc. but my wrists were free to just pivot freely.  This made my entire swing feel much more relaxed, smooth, and flowing.  The balls were also flying well.  So I think I'm on to something will have to test it out more.  But added another tool in the toolbox.

Here's a treat video of my son's great swing.  He's 12.

Increasing lag

Had a good day at the lab yesterday and had to get down these swing thoughts before I forgot them.

• keep right elbow tucked in on backswing
• downswing with forearms connected together
• really layoff for increased lag
• synchronize right toe pointing at same time as hands go by
• feel like right hip/right elbow is driving swing
• really turn over right hand after impact

Swing 5.8: Clearing hips and not knees

Well my swing was looking better but it was still funky.  I figured out that I was clearing out my knees more than my hips.  I just looked at my video and realized this.  I have to laterally move my hips whereas I was starting with and clearing the knees.  This will help me get in the proper strong aligned left side at impact.

Also worked with Ryo on his left wrist at impact.  He had it down during our golf camp and then lost it.  We tried everything for about three sessions constantly filming but nothing worked.  Then finally I thought about his wrist position and thought that if his right wrist was more closed then it would be flat or bowed at impact but then the ball would fly off to the right.  Then I realized that if his grip was weaker that would compensate for it.  I told him to try a neutral grip which is what I was trying to get him to have for a long time and it immediately worked.  He was subconsciously squaring the club face by flipping or scooping since his grip was so strong that he couldn't supinate.  So this was a great mystery solved and he's now happy again because he was pretty obsessive about getting it perfect.  And this is a pretty fundamental thing in the golf swing.
Here's the swing:

Swing 5.7: Crunching down

Filmed local pro swinging from rear.  One thing I noticed was that he had a short backswing and then really cleared his hips.  Clearing my hips has always been a difficult thing for my body to learn.  I was also trying to get my right elbow more infront of my body to get a better lag.  Well one thing I did was just raise my hands on my backswing.  This really helped because I then had space to get my elbow tucked infront of me.  This helped a lot.  Then the next thing to do was to work on clearing the hips.

I went home and once again compared my swing positions to Rory's and other pros and it just seemed like my downswing was too around my body or was just wrong.  Then I noticed that they were really crunching down on their right side during the downswing.  I tried this and my swing felt completely different but the tape showed that it was more correct.  I almost felt like my swing path was outside in.  I just throw my hands up and then crash down to the ball.

Swing 5.6: End of major operations. Turning the hips

Like a war I want to finally declare that I'm at the end of all major operations with my swing and now at least it's not embarassing.  The before and after from this summer is amazing.  Here's a list of things that I've corrected and what swing thought or tool in the toolbox was used:

Starting with the takeaway and going till the end.

1. Arms too bend on takeaway - keep arms straight and think of them as one unit.
2. Club too high - take away more around body
3. Reverse C and club way past parallel at top - shorter backswing and keep wrists almost stiff
4. Downswing starts with arms and shoulder - turn hard with legs and hips, try to have left hip touch back of right shoulder, let arms lag
5. Left wrist cupped - layoff club
6. Standing up - bend over at waist
7. Hands too far away from body - keep hands close to hips
8. Rhythm fast to slow - think slow on downswing then fast
9. Hips square at impact - think of hips facing target at impact
10. Left wrist breaking down at impact - lead with back of left hand like swinging with legs together
11. Hands in center of body and extended at impact - keep right elbow tucked into stomach
12. Left side at impact not aligned - don't lean so far left instead turn around body
13. Chicken wing - keep left arm glued to left side.  Used bicycle inner tube around arms to keep triangle and arms as one and keep arms straight
14. Hands too low at finish - still a problem and need to correct

I'm sure there's more stuff and now the problem is going to be regression once start playing on the course and not just working on my swing.

The final and last piece was getting my hips to turn.  But I finally did it.  I have to feel like my hips are facing the target at impact while bending laterally over the ball.  Even when looking at the video my hips are barely turned but more correct.  Left side is aligned and ball flies good.  Still need to work on maintaining spine angle.

Swing 5.5: Laying off the club

Stumbled upon a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODCzUcP6GLk

I was looking at my swing from behind and noticed that my club angle on the downswing was very steep.  I  incorporated this idea of "laying off the club" and what it did was made my club at impact less steep which allowed my hands to be closer to my body.  That in turn allows my upper body to be more bent over instead of upright thus maintaining my spine angle.

Swing 5.4: Bending over

The one thing that still is missing from my swing is the fact that the pros are so much more bent over that I am.  I am so upright.  So one day I just told myself to bend over at the waist and keep my head over the ball instead of standing up.  This will take a while to get into muscle memory as my tendancy is to stand up.

Swing 5.3: Maintaining spine angle

I've been trying forever to figure out how to not raise up at impact and straighten out my spine.  Well I looked at the video at the moment of impact and compared it to Rory's.  Let's take a look:

spine angle maintained, hands infront of club, right arm still bent.  Left side aligned.

Body too upright, hands barely infront of club, right arm too straight.  Left side not aligned.  Hands behind.

So I signed up for another lesson to work on just this point.  In the meantime I was watching a video of myself swinging with my legs together.  Lo and behold I was in a better impact position and my head stayed the same height as impact.  No straightening up and losing my spine angle!

Add caption

Left side more aligned.  Shoulders more inclined.

Well you can't really see it in pictures that much but the video shows that the swing is more correct.  Since my shoulders are more tilted and not level at impact I can better maintain my spine angle because my left shoulder is higher.  So I then figured out that I just need to swing like that in with my feet apart and at power.

Well when swinging with my feet together and noticed that I would bring my hands around faster and naturally supinate my right wrist more.  I don't know why I did this.   But at least I knew what the feeling was now!  It was really leading with the back of my right hand.  I tried to do this with a full swing and really think about supinating my left wrist.  Here are the results before and after.

From a previous post where I was showing progress from before!

Camera angle isn't exactly the same.  Hitting plastic ball into net so not exacly the same.

Hands lagging behind shoulders.  Triangle not maintained.

Great lag.  Triangle is maintained

Hands slightly infront of club.  Head came up.  Left side not aligned.

Hands way infront of club.  Head stayed down.  Left side solidly aligned and wrist supinated!!  

Hips not turning!  Right hand not fully released.

Hips are slightly more turned.  Still need to work on this.  Right hand looks correct and released.  Never seen my right hand like this before but have always been striving for it.

Hips still not turned so having a hard time maintaining triangle.  Left arm wanting to chicken wing

Not swinging full on so club is pointing up.  Hips turned, triangle good.

Well  this was a big piece of the puzzle solved in getting my body in the right positions.  We'll have to test it out on the range and get the muscle memory going.

Swing thoughts to do this are trying to lead with the back of my right hand.  It almost feels like I'm backhanding it bending my right arm and wrist on the downswing but the video shows that it's straight before impact.  But watching the pros their right arms are sometimes slightly bent right before impact so that's ok.  It's a strange feeling and doesn't feel powerful.  I'm almost sure when I try this on the range the balls will be flying horribly.  Probably weak skulls or fat shots till I can get the contact.

If I forget the feeling just go back to hitting with feet together.

Here's the after comparison w/ Rory:

Rory

Still far but looks much closer than before

Here's what it looks like in realtime.  I think I'm starting to get that look that I'm striving for when I see good guys swing.  I still have so much to learn but have made some really great progress!!!

Swing 5.2: Left arm attached to body

Made some major progress.  Worked with a friend at the course.  Really helped with the chicken wings saying that I should really feel like keeping my arms together and swinging as if they are one.  Really conserve the triangle.  I also realized that hands were very far away from my body at impact.  So trying to work on that.  Finally and I don't know how it started but tried to really just not fire my left shoulder till very late.  I think this is helping because my lag is getting better.  It's what Ben Hogan said to do which is just turn the hips first.  I thought I was doing that but infact I was firing the left shoulder and starting my arms way too soon.  All this happens unconscientiously so had to reall concentrate on not doing it.  Anyway keeping my arms straight and as one really helped out my swing and now it looks much more beautiful and not embarassing.  I think I'm really on to something here and might finally have solved the chicken wing problem.

Swing 5.1: Lag and major breakthrough

Well tried to work on lag and wasn't happening.  So instead I just figured I'd try to work on correct positioning after swing and the lag would eventually come.  So tried to really cross arms and have lateral bend.

Then today for some reason while hitting balls with my son and while working on rhythm I just imagined dragging my right palm on the mat to the left of the ball.  This somehow worked for me and immediately my ball flight was higher straighter and the sound at contact was better.  My shots were much more consistent.

This was confirmed by video and for the first time I actually had lag and my hands were in front of the clubhead at impact.

hands and shoulders at same level.  Wrists still too active at this point.

Club parallel to ground lag is real good.

Hands in front of clubhead.  Head not coming up as much.  Hips should be turned more.

Need more release and hips should be turned more.

Hips are still not turned and release is not as good so lateral bend is bad so slight chicken wing.

So I gave up the release and lateral bend for better lag.  Well I can only concentrate on one thing at a time but the ball flight was much straighter and swing is more powerful with less effort.  Ball wasn't going as far and stopped drawing.  I had a slight fade in fact.  But was very straight.  I did loose some distance but it might have been because of the wind or that I wasn't swinging as hard since I was trying to groove the new feeling.  Next step is to combine lag, release, and lateral bend.

Swing 5.0 beta: Lag

Read Kelvin's series about lag (http://www.aroundhawaii.com/lifestyle/health_and_fitness/2011-10-pga-tour-clubhead-lag-part-1.html).  Thought about right elbow positioning and being behind or in front of the right hip.  Mine was definitely behind so I'm thinking about getting the elbow into my stomach and not my side.  Going to try this on the range tomorrow.

Swing 5.0 beta: Right hand position right after impact

My swing is slowly coming together piece by piece.

• Chicken wings are gone!  This was mainly a rhythm problem and not a try to keep your arms straight problem.  Shorter backswing and then really accelerate after impact cured this.
• Spine angle getting better.  My head is still coming up at impact but bending knees through impact helps get my hips out of the way so I can bend my spine sideways.
• Casting.  Lag is getting better because of better rhythm.  Starting to really feel the whip and acceleration of the club.

Then I watched more videos of Tiger and Angel Cabrerra and all the other pros swings and they all had a right hand turned over and released after impact.  Mine wasn't as released.  So this is the next piece of the puzzle that I'm working on.

Right hand cupped

Right hand more turned over, arms straight, shoulders not hunched

This just looks ugly

Finally starting to look like a real follow through

My shoulders are more inclined so that means that my spine angle is conserved.  Wrists are fully crossed.  It's amazing how just a slight change can make the swing look correct or completely lame.  Best part about this is that ball flight was also good nice high slight draw.


Current swing thought to get swing grooved:

• Swing with the legs, relaxing arms try to feel acceleration and whip with rotating hips and lagging arms, quiet wrists.
• then introduce head and side bend at impact
• then introduce release with crossing wrists after impact

Don't forget on backswing to keep hands low and wrists quiet.

I'm slowly bringing this swing home.  Feels really good to finally have something that looks correct.  The only way I could have gotten here was with lots of video and experimentation, and of course lessons when I get stuck.

Next thing to work on is lag.  Research to do:  getting right elbow tucked in more, which will hopefully also allow me to maintain my spine angle.

Rhythm

Saw a great video of Tiger Woods practicing in 2000.  His rhythm is amazing!  I need to copy this.  Just slow backswing, downswing and then acceleration at impact and follow through.  I’m going to keep this in the camera to look at the range!

Bent knees

Well the lesson got my swing going in the right direction but my spine angle was still a problem at impact, I was standing up and pulling my hips in.  So then I started to push my butt out at impact which looked more correct but felt weird.  And then I thought that I should try bending my knees more or just squatting down like how most of the pros do it.  I tried it and it helped a lot because with my knees bent at impact it allows my hips to get out of the way more and I can better maintain my spine angle.  But I’m so used to thrusting up with my hips at impact.  This is wrong now that I look at it and I’ve been trying to retrain my body to keep my left hip down and my left leg bent at impact.  I need to work more on the spine angle but this has really helped.  Ball flight is also really nice.  More like Mathias’ ball flight nice high slight draws that go far.  Swing feels very different.  I’m slowly working on each piece and learning how they all fit together.  It’s funny how you have to at some point look at each part of the body and see if it’s doing the right thing.  Then you start all over again.  But swing looking much more powerful and finally on the way to being correct….I hope!

Swing 5.0 alpha: Lesson

Turns out that my 4.0 swing was a completely false.  Basically I found out through extensive video analysis that swinging with and without a ball changes your swing completely.  My no ball swing looked pretty good but I couldn't hit a ball that way.  The clubface was way too open at impact.  So the swing was fundamentally wrong.  So I was out of ideas and took a lesson with Julien to look for new ideas.

Lesson
He told me that I was keeping my weight on the right side much at impact which is why my ball pushed to the right.  I needed to shift my weight more to my left side.  Well I was originally doing this to get in the right impact position, head back.  He had me hit leaning downhill and just turn my shoulders.  He had me look at Tom Watson’s DVD.  This didn’t make too much sense to me at first but then eventually I saw my swing change for the better.  I’m not sure how this worked but my impact position was better.  The other big change he made was on my back swing and de activating my wrists.  They were way too active.  So my back swing is much shorter and larger.  I almost feel like I’m not even breaking my wrists on the back swing but when I look at video I am even more than 90 degrees.  Video just doesn’t lie.  What this also did was force me to accelerate through my swing and get me my arms straight with the club during follow through.  Chicken wing is disappearing!  He also had my backswing more around my body instead of straight up.  So swing changed for the better.  A lesson really helped me with the breakthrough even though right after the lesson it didn’t seem like it.

Before                                                                         After

wrists way too active and too close in to body

wrists less active and farther away from body

Not too much difference here

Impact

Also almost identical

A little chicken  wing

Little less chicken wing

And even more chicken wing and weight on the right side

Less chicken wing and more on the left side