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!!!