Fundamental tool: The slot

This past weekend has been revolutionary.  Through youtube videos of myswingevolution I got onto Bradley Hughes.  bradleyhughesgolf.com.

The title poped out since I've been doing research on the right arm and trying to keep my right elbow bent at impact.  The title of the video is "The right arm".  I watched this video and it completely transformed my swing.  I've been feeling for a while now that something was fundamentally wrong with my swing since I've been trying slowly and one by one to concentrate on fixing things that I see like conserving spine angle, right elbow, turning hips, head staying down, covering, etc.  I would fix one thing by trying different experiments and techniques and I was slowly chipping away fixing one thing and I was resigned to thinking that I would just have to work away at it grooving things and my mind filled with swing thoughts.  But certain things I just couldn't correct and it really showed up with the driver.  Like my steep angle on the downswing and pulling in of the butt and head going up.  I couldn't swing naturally and had to really control things to get a correct looking swing.  I figured it was a process but deep down I knew that the pros could just "grip it and rip it" and that there was no way they had all these movements grooved.  So there was a fundamental flaw somewhere.

I watched Bradley's video on the right arm and he explained about the slot and how to get into it and then unlike most other videos what to do once you're in there.  And then he did some other great things like show all the things that happen when you don't do this and he basically described all the things I was fighting against and trying to correct one by one.  And finally he explained it over and over really emphasizing and grooving visually what should happen through the entire swing.  He broke it down into two basic things for me which are:

1. Slot the club on the down swing
2. then rotate through like a baseball swing

This felt very different from what I had been doing.  Although I've experimented with this feeling before when I tried to swing like my hands were attatched to my right hip.  I've also tried "laying off" the club, swinging with my forearms, and most lately really sticking my right elbow into my gut which combined is kinda like slotting the club.  These efforts have gotten me closer and I've had some good results but it was a lot to think about.  His instruction was pretty simple and the best part about it was that it worked.  So yes of course balls were flying but how long will this last?  Well it's lasted 3 full days.  As well I showed it to my son and it worked on him.  And to finally prove that it's that simple I asked my daughter who doesn't golf to swing naturally and then to swing with the two swing thoughts and immediately her swing looked good.  This after about 45 seconds of instruction.  Some videos of new swing from down the line and face on.  Swings have never been more correct.  It all fell into place.

I had worked only with irons the first two days and the third day I wanted to test the new swing with driver.  The real test.  I had to exagerate the movements even more which feels like letting my club head fall behind my body and the top.  Needless to say the drives were going pretty straight, even some draws which I never do and for the first time in about a year I could even start swinging all out with the same swing and it held up.  All my other swings had a ceiling where the started to fall apart after a certain point cause I was just fighting the fundamental flaw to my swing instead of just setting up my swing correctly and then being able apply as much power as I wanted.  Then I even started to play around with the swing and was still hitting everything.  And got into "feeling" the swing again something I haven't done in over a year.  This video has saved me countless months of experimenting.  But I haven't found any other instruction out there till now that just is simple, makes sense, and works.

Swinging around body, hunching over, and the right elbow

One thing that's been bothering me for quite a while with my swing is that my right elbow straightens out at impact.  I guess it's a debate whether it should be straight or not.  Sean Foley says yes, Hogan say bent, but most pros are bent and then extend after impact.  There's not a lot of videos on this topic but I did find a couple of them like this one from Mike Pederson.  He's answered a question I had about what to do with my right elbow during the downswing. He says to keep in front of your right hip.  I'm not that flexible so keeping my right elbow down at the top is not natural I have to stretch this and also stretch my wrist back like I'm holding a tray.  So after concentrating on this here's the difference at the top of the backswing.

Setup

Right elbow more tucked in at top

Then while I'm coming down I really try to stick my right elbow into my gut in front of my right hip bone and then rotate the hips.  This does several things.  It makes me hunch over more to get my elbow in there and thus makes me stick out my butt more.  Also by keeping the right elbow tucked in the shaft angle changes on the downswing and is more laid off (less steep).

More hunched over, rounded back and less steep into ball

I know that's incredibly difficult to see the difference but when scrubbing video back and forth you can see the difference better.  This then at impact keeps right elbow more bent, my back more rounded, and my butt more sticking out.

Impact:  Butt stays out back more rounded, right elbow more bent!

 Even though I kinda like the before image position better.  After impact you can see the spine angle is better conserved and butt closer to initial position.

After impact sping angle much better, not standing up!

So I've made a break in the case after a long time trying different things and I'm going in the right direction.  Here's the full video side by side.  The differences are very subtle.

I'm also trying to swing more around my body to help with coming in too steep.  I'll continue working in this direction and then try to incorporate the other tools like the Rory move.  One thing I know for sure is that all the people that say you need to just naturally feel the swing and don't look at what they're doing on video are just wrong.  At least in my case.  My swing is so entirely different now than it was two years ago and it even feels completely different.  The good news is that I've tried going back to my old swing habits and I can't.  I've tried casting on purpose and not supinating and I just can't do it now so some changes are permanent.  So you can change your swing for the better and break your natural tendencies!!