Video "Casting" ...........How do I get my hands in front of ball? HELP!

This may sound like a really stupid question, but why is breathing part of the routine?
Breath in before the movement and breathe out during the movement and breathe in at the completion of the movement before the next repetition.
 
Breath in before the movement and breathe out during the movement and breathe in at the completion of the movement before the next repetition.
But what is the significance? Relaxation?
 
But what is the significance? Relaxation?
I was having back and neck issues during the 80's related to work and golf. My wife happened to mention it to a hospital patient in her care, who put her on to a book "Awareness through movement" by Moshe Feldenkrais (health exercises for personal growth). After working on the exercises for a month my back and neck issues disappeared. I have been doing them off and on ever since. Ten years ago when I underwent a swing revamp, I adapted several of the exercises to the new movements I was learning. In all there were several hundred repetitions during an exercise session focusing on body awareness.
The interesting thing about these exercises is when one is proficient in the movements visualisation of the movements has the same effect as actually doing them.
 
I was having back and neck issues during the 80's related to work and golf. My wife happened to mention it to a hospital patient in her care, who put her on to a book "Awareness through movement" by Moshe Feldenkrais (health exercises for personal growth). After working on the exercises for a month my back and neck issues disappeared. I have been doing them off and on ever since. Ten years ago when I underwent a swing revamp, I adapted several of the exercises to the new movements I was learning. In all there were several hundred repetitions during an exercise session focusing on body awareness.
The interesting thing about these exercises is when one is proficient in the movements visualisation of the movements has the same effect as actually doing them.
Question. Have you ever had a right neck "pinch" that causes you to become dizzy if moved in a certain direction?
 
Question. Have you ever had a right neck "pinch" that causes you to become dizzy if moved in a certain direction?
Thankfully no. Have you tried using a hard spikey ball to loosen it up. We use a hard spikey ball against the base of the neck against a door frame. The ball is placed against the neck where the neck joins the trap muscle against the door frame allowing room for the shoulder. Push hard with he legs and hold it there for a minute and then do the other side. Always do this exercise before heading to the golf course.
 
I like George Gankas videos on the downswing. I think they could be helpful to you. At the least you might stop thinking about casting since he’s more lower body focused.
 
I think casting comes from 2 sources generally. The first is overactive hands and not letting your body do the work. If your hands are already fairly passive in the swing then it's deceleration before impact allowing the head's weight to swing onwing on past the hands on the way back to the ball. Either way a really good swing thought is to pick a spot on the target line about a foot in front of the ball and try to swing quickly all the way through that spot. Shawn Clement says take your time on the down swing till you're almost to the ball then really kick up the speed. You want the clubhead reaching max speed about 2 feet after impact with the ball.
 
I think casting comes from 2 sources generally. The first is overactive hands and not letting your body do the work. If your hands are already fairly passive in the swing then it's deceleration before impact allowing the head's weight to swing onwing on past the hands on the way back to the ball. Either way a really good swing thought is to pick a spot on the target line about a foot in front of the ball and try to swing quickly all the way through that spot. Shawn Clement says take your time on the down swing till you're almost to the ball then really kick up the speed. You want the clubhead reaching max speed about 2 feet after impact with the ball.
Casting could be considered a by-product of OTT which is natural in a right side dominant swing. If we swing a club loosely with our right hand only, the path is naturally steep, outside-in, or OTT. Left hand only swings are shallow and inside out. In a right hand only swing the right wrist will break inside the right foot, and thus the arc is moving up as it approaches the left foot. Some call this "flipping" but it happens naturally.
 
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I think casting comes from 2 sources generally. The first is overactive hands and not letting your body do the work. If your hands are already fairly passive in the swing then it's deceleration before impact allowing the head's weight to swing onwing on past the hands on the way back to the ball. Either way a really good swing thought is to pick a spot on the target line about a foot in front of the ball and try to swing quickly all the way through that spot. Shawn Clement says take your time on the down swing till you're almost to the ball then really kick up the speed. You want the clubhead reaching max speed about 2 feet after impact with the ball.
Shawn Clement is 100% correct regarding slow to fastest at the ball, and I bet it's the same for tennis, baseball and any other sport that requires maximum speed at impact. Interestingly enough I found this on my own using an impact bag. The loudest "thuds" were the result of the best slow to fast swings, or a whip-action. I think it's easy to watch the pro's and assume they're going full-tilt from the top. One of the best swings to watch is Ernie Els. It's a study in watching what looks like a 20 mph down swing that hits a 7 iron 190. He doesn't even look like he's swinging hard at all. See his practice session below.

I have found that if I go from "0-100" at the top my right side absolutely takes over and as noted, the swing is naturally then OTT. So in that situation for me to try and get the club to travel over a target in front of the ball would be impossible unless I do some whacky last millisecond manipulation with my hip movement which is even worse. If I use my left side I could easily get the club to travel outside of the intended ground target (giant hook).

 
Shawn Clement is 100% correct regarding slow to fastest at the ball, and I bet it's the same for tennis, baseball and any other sport that requires maximum speed at impact. Interestingly enough I found this on my own using an impact bag. The loudest "thuds" were the result of the best slow to fast swings, or a whip-action. I think it's easy to watch the pro's and assume they're going full-tilt from the top. One of the best swings to watch is Ernie Els. It's a study in watching what looks like a 20 mph down swing that hits a 7 iron 190. He doesn't even look like he's swinging hard at all. See his practice session below.

I have found that if I go from "0-100" at the top my right side absolutely takes over and as noted, the swing is naturally then OTT. So in that situation for me to try and get the club to travel over a target in front of the ball would be impossible unless I do some whacky last millisecond manipulation with my hip movement which is even worse. If I use my left side I could easily get the club to travel outside of the intended ground target (giant hook).


Helps get square and better impact position too.
 
Helps get square and better impact position too.
No doubt. Didn't you and I go over the effortless swing some years ago? I recall a video of a golf teacher who could run and hit the ball, as well as his beginner students.
 
No doubt. Didn't you and I go over the effortless swing some years ago? I recall a video of a golf teacher who could run and hit the ball, as well as his beginner students.
We sure did. I am very much a tell me a feeling instruction type rather than a have this in this position at this point instruction type. Line me up have a couple of feelings I am going for and let me swing.
 
You have to learn to pull the butt of the club instead of pushing it. You have to pull it all the way through impact and past it. Pull the butt from the right shoulder DOWN towards your right knee, then across to your left hip. Hands should be moving left of the target at impact, not towards the target. If you’ve played baseball a good golf swing feels like hitting a grounder to right field (between first and second base).

Drill: Get a gap or lob wedge and put the ball WAY back in your stance, so your shaft lean at address is less than 45* (an acute angle with the ground). If you flip it you’ll just hit the dirt. Ball is way back but hands should hang in normal position. The only way to swing through the ball is to really pull the butt of the club through impact. Hit the ball and don’t dig in the dirt. Start with little half swings or chips and gradually move up to 3/4 swings. Don’t try to take a full backswing. 3/4 or less.

After you can do this with the ball way back in your stance, move it slightly up. Try to keep the same feeling and do the same thing. Little swings, pull the butt, don’t dig.

Repeat til the ball has gradually moved to normal address position. (When you get closer to normal address position you will have to start digging a little because you need to take a small divot).

Remember to pull the butt of the club all the way through, from the right shoulder to the left hip.


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See the video below. There are 6 swings here with your drill. The first couple are half swings with the ball wayyyy back in my stance. The next few are full regular swings (and I always try and think "pull across to my left hip" thoughts.) Sure enough, what we see is that putting the ball back in my stance de-lofted the club and put my hands in front of the ball. But, we can still see my wrists are casting too early. So, when I put it in mid-stance, the same issue returns. Physics of putting the ball back in the stance with my current bad swing makes de-loft inevitable.

I feel like the centrifugal force of the club forces the casting motion, and there's no way around in unless my wrists specifically try to fight the unhinge and hold it back. Obviously this isn't correct, so I'm missing something big. I shouldn't feel like I'm holding back or fighting the unhinge.

 
What helped me was taking my right hand out of the swing...in a sense. Get a good grip with the last 3 fingers of your left hand and keep everything else as loose as possible. Practice swing or take it to the range. You can even go as far as having your right hand barely even touching the handle. For me, my right hand wanted to take over and push the club down to the ball. Don't want that. Keep your wrists loose. My 2 cents.


Thanks for your thoughts. Tried this. Didn't seem to help. I have video footage if you want to see it.
 
Is this the first persons swing that this former Club Pro (20+ years ago) could help? Only because I’ve dealt with the same problem for decades.

1. The club you are hitting needs to have a descending blow. You can’t hit the ground 8” behind and expect results coming up into that club. Nope!

2. As a range exercise (use an old club), tee a ball 6” behind the one you want to hit. In line with target. That’s the one you are now going to hit. Try to hit them both. You’ll have to descend into the first one and keep from releasing to hit the second. If the range is crowded, just use a tee for the second ball, but clip it.

3. All that is to get hands down the target line. If you have better ideas, use them because that’s what you need.
 
Is this the first persons swing that this former Club Pro (20+ years ago) could help? Only because I’ve dealt with the same problem for decades.

1. The club you are hitting needs to have a descending blow. You can’t hit the ground 8” behind and expect results coming up into that club. Nope!

2. As a range exercise (use an old club), tee a ball 6” behind the one you want to hit. In line with target. That’s the one you are now going to hit. Try to hit them both. You’ll have to descend into the first one and keep from releasing to hit the second. If the range is crowded, just use a tee for the second ball, but clip it.

3. All that is to get hands down the target line. If you have better ideas, use them because that’s what you need.
Good stuff. IMO if the swing is dominated by the right side then the path will always be OTT with an ascending arc to the ball, or picking the ball.
 
Good stuff. IMO if the swing is dominated by the right side then the path will always be OTT with an ascending arc to the ball, or picking the ball.

Thanks. I was a one year club pro so I usually avoid these conversations. My own kid doesn’t want to listen to me because he can beat me, so why the hell would anyone else.

But.... this swing I know, lol. It’s me without the crazy backswing. I’ll give a hundred drills that’ll help here if needed, lol. I know em all.
 
This change won’t happen overnight. Probably something you want to do during the off-season.

I can tell you this: Do NOT start pulling on the handle. Stop 🛑 right now with that 💩feel. Sorry whoever mentioned that, but it’s true.

Your SetUp is too “athletic”. You start low and then stand up. I’d prefer you did the exact opposite. Stand much taller and then learn how to get into the ground. You are aimed way right and coming way over the top. That’s what you have to do to hit it straight and square the face.

Your arms need to get deeper and higher and you need to leave them back for as long as possible. Check out my swing in another post. That’s a decent model for width but I’m trying for more back and lower. Gives you room to come from the inside by keeping your hands high for a long time.

You need to learn how to use your legs properly and in the right sequence By staying centered and getting into the ground. This will turn what will Soon start to hook into a straight ball. (Keeping hands deeper and back longer will create an inside path). Rotating more moves path left.

We don’t do band-aides, and unfortunately for you to have more shaft lean you have to fix quite a few things, otherwise it will be impossible. 🤷‍♂️
 
This change won’t happen overnight. Probably something you want to do during the off-season.

I can tell you this: Do NOT start pulling on the handle. Stop 🛑 right now with that 💩feel. Sorry whoever mentioned that, but it’s true.

Your SetUp is too “athletic”. You start low and then stand up. I’d prefer you did the exact opposite. Stand much taller and then learn how to get into the ground. You are aimed way right and coming way over the top. That’s what you have to do to hit it straight and square the face.

Your arms need to get deeper and higher and you need to leave them back for as long as possible. Check out my swing in another post. That’s a decent model for width but I’m trying for more back and lower. Gives you room to come from the inside by keeping your hands high for a long time.

You need to learn how to use your legs properly and in the right sequence By staying centered and getting into the ground. This will turn what will Soon start to hook into a straight ball. (Keeping hands deeper and back longer will create an inside path). Rotating more moves path left.

We don’t do band-aides, and unfortunately for you to have more shaft lean you have to fix quite a few things, otherwise it will be impossible. 🤷‍♂️

I like the restraint shown, lol. Please don’t tell him how you really feel. Ouch.

I’ll throw you a challenge, fix my swing. Lol!

If you can that would be forum famous as I tend to get a little, ahem, long in my swing.

Forgive a former LD guy for not knowing how to play real golf.
 
Worked ok when I bomb and gouged stuff to death. I’m not as long anymore so having to hit 3/4 wedges and all that sucks.
 
Worked ok when I bomb and gouged stuff to death. I’m not as long anymore so having to hit 3/4 wedges and all that sucks.
Hogan's tip of creating adhesion between the arms and body (upper arms and upper chest ) with right elbow turned inwards to belly button keeps the arms in control and demands a full turn on the backswing. It keeps the arms and body in synch during the swing and prevents the arms outracing the shoulders and vice versa.
 
I like the restraint shown, lol. Please don’t tell him how you really feel. Ouch.

I’ll throw you a challenge, fix my swing. Lol!

If you can that would be forum famous as I tend to get a little, ahem, long in my swing.

Forgive a former LD guy for not knowing how to play real golf.
Well that’s why it works. 😯LD definitely needs that extra speed and if you know how to properly shallow then that’s fine. He just needs to figure out shallowing first. 👍💪
 
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