Swing Vids - What am I missing?

[Tevenor]

I had my daughter take some videos of my driver swing recently. I've really relied on videos to diagnose what I am feeling in my swing vs what my swing is really doing. To be completely up front, I feel like I am in a pretty good spot in my swing but whats been holding me back has been consistency, specifically in shot shape and target line with a push being my biggest miss nowdays. I've made pretty good strides moving forward which has allowed me to shoot much lower scores recently, including tying my personal best 74. But I am streaky and will invariably have 4 or 5 great holes and 2 or 3 crappy holes that I completely lose it. I get on a hot streak and my "feel" is good, and I can shoot damn good shots. And then there are days that I feel like I am getting swung by the club instead of the other way around.

I figured I would post this up here and give everyone a chance to see if they spot anything that might help. Fresh sets of eyes are always great and this seems like a great place to get some outside opinions. I am not looking for more distance and I really like my shot trajectories. Where I need to improve is consistency on target line and shot shape, so keep that in mind.

And yes I drag my right foot something awful. Nothing I have ever been able to shake.


View attachment video-1593378414.mp4
View attachment video-1593378535.mp4

 

[blueonblack]

Pretty long at the top. Hard to keep it on line up there beyond parallel. Across the line will be the issue more than likely. That swing looked pretty good to me.
I might just shorten it a tad for the consistency you're after. John Rahm is pretty much the poster boy right now for just how short a swing can be, along with Finau.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

We see this move a lot..mostly with better, golfers who are athletic, get to practice a bunch, but haven't been taught the right technique.

• SetUP - You're too far back on your heels at SetUp, then you shift forward right before you swing and get on your toes. Fix this if you do anything. Get your armpits over the balls of your feet (front of shoe laces), and get more rounding in your lower back and upper back to reach the ball. Don't sway front to back before you hit...feel centered and grounded at SetUp, and STAY THERE throughout the swing.
• Get a Better Turn - You're not getting a good turn to the top. You're pushing from your left side on the way back, which causes your arms to go long and get the sensation of depth without actually getting depth. Try to feel like your obliques are pulling you back. That will help you sync up your arms to your rotation.
  • Get a good turn, stop at the top, check it, then use your legs to get in the ground and hit. It will be really difficult at first, but once you get that good turn, you won't need to have the feeling like you need to reach for depth or get long.
• Tilting and Releasing Early - Your right arm is getting stuck behind you and you're pulling on the handle a little bit, which causes your block/push right. (mostly due to first two issues) We don't want to see your arm get behind the seam-line on your shirt ever. You're doing this because your turn isn't good enough at the top, so fix that first.
  • Once you fix your turn, this will allow you to get into the ground and just rotate without tilting or releasing early.
  • Pound Town is right around the corner for you once you make these tweaks!

 

[DG_1234]

I had my daughter take some videos of my driver swing recently. I've really relied on videos to diagnose what I am feeling in my swing vs what my swing is really doing. To be completely up front, I feel like I am in a pretty good spot in my swing but whats been holding me back has been consistency, specifically in shot shape and target line with a push being my biggest miss nowdays. I've made pretty good strides moving forward which has allowed me to shoot much lower scores recently, including tying my personal best 74. But I am streaky and will invariably have 4 or 5 great holes and 2 or 3 crappy holes that I completely lose it. I get on a hot streak and my "feel" is good, and I can shoot damn good shots. And then there are days that I feel like I am getting swung by the club instead of the other way around.

I figured I would post this up here and give everyone a chance to see if they spot anything that might help. Fresh sets of eyes are always great and this seems like a great place to get some outside opinions. I am not looking for more distance and I really like my shot trajectories. Where I need to improve is consistency on target line and shot shape, so keep that in mind.

And yes I drag my right foot something awful. Nothing I have ever been able to shake.

You have good athleticism and do several things well with your swing.
More than anything else, a grip technique change will help you achieve the ball striking consistency you want. Specifically, stand tall without a club and notice how your hands are oriented when your arms are hanging relaxed down the sides of your body. When gripping a golf clubs your hands/wrists should be oriented the same way.
In the face on photo you've provided notice that you've been manipulating your hands/wrists into too strong of a position (especially the left hand/wrist). It's true that some great players have made such a strong grip work well for them, but the reality is that doing it that way makes it much, much harder to strike consistently good shots.

 

[Tevenor]

Pretty long at the top. Hard to keep it on line up there beyond parallel. Across the line will be the issue more than likely. That swing looked pretty good to me.
I might just shorten it a tad for the consistency you're after. John Rahm is pretty much the poster boy right now for just how short a swing can be, along with Finau.

Appreciate the input. That past-parallel at the top is something I noticed early on and it was worse once upon a time. I've brought it back but I do see that addition 10-15 degrees and it really doesn't need to be there.

 

[Buster1]

@Tevenor be careful. Over the top is NOT what blueonblack said. He was discussing being long at the top, or past parallel.

Over the top refers to the hands and club being outside of the correct plane on the downswing, causing an out-to-in path at the strike.

Just clarifying.

 

[Tevenor]

Wow. Thanks @TrueMotionMatt . A lot to digest here.

We see this move a lot..mostly with better, golfers who are athletic, get to practice a bunch, but haven't been taught the right technique.

• SetUP - You're too far back on your heels at SetUp, then you shift forward right before you swing and get on your toes. Fix this if you do anything. Get your armpits over the balls of your feet (front of shoe laces), and get more rounding in your lower back and upper back to reach the ball. Don't sway front to back before you hit...feel centered and grounded at SetUp, and STAY THERE throughout the swing.

I absolutely see now what you are saying now that I relooked at my DTL video. Something I didn't even notice I was doing.

• Get a Better Turn - You're not getting a good turn to the top. You're pushing from your left side on the way back, which causes your arms to go long and get the sensation of depth without actually getting depth. Try to feel like your obliques are pulling you back. That will help you sync up your arms to your rotation.
  • Get a good turn, stop at the top, check it, then use your legs to get in the ground and hit. It will be really difficult at first, but once you get that good turn, you won't need to have the feeling like you need to reach for depth or get long.

Is this similar to the concept of keeping your hands in front of your chest on the take away to leverage the core/obliques to get that full chest turn? Looking at this pic, seems to show my hands are outpacing my chest as the chest still hasn't passed by the camera angle but the hands have already gone by.

• Tilting and Releasing Early- Your right arm is getting stuck behind you and you're pulling on the handle a little bit, which causes your block/push right. (mostly due to first two issues) We don't want to see your arm get behind the seam-line on your shirt ever. You're doing this because your turn isn't good enough at the top, so fix that first.
  • Once you fix your turn, this will allow you to get into the ground and just rotate without tilting or releasing early.
  • Pound Town is right around the corner for you once you make these tweaks!

I absolutely see the late hands now that you point it out. That adds to idea of turning with the obliques/core to get the first 1/3 of the turn going and keeping my hands more infront of my chest instead of letting them slide behind the right shoulder. I can definitely see where the late hands becomes then a timing issue as to whether the face of the club is closed to path or open. Yes?

 

[Tevenor]

@Tevenor be careful. Over the top is NOT what blueonblack said. He was discussing being long at the top, or past parallel.

Over the top refers to the hands and club being outside of the correct plane on the downswing, causing an out-to-in path at the strike.

Just clarifying.

Yup. Mistype on my part. I was speaking more to being past paraleel at the top. Updated my post above.

 

[Tevenor]

You have good athleticism and do several things well with your swing.
More than anything else, a grip technique change will help you achieve the ball striking consistency you want. Specifically, stand tall without a club and notice how your hands are oriented when your arms are hanging relaxed down the sides of your body. When gripping a golf clubs your hands/wrists should be oriented the same way.
In the face on photo you've provided notice that you've been manipulating your hands/wrists into too strong of a position (especially the left hand/wrist). It's true that some great players have made such a strong grip work well for them, but the reality is that doing it that way makes it much, much harder to strike consistently good shots.

Appreciate the comments. The grip is a known item I've been working on. I used to have a much stronger left hand grip, believe it or not. Pretty sure I could see all 4 of the knuckles. I've been slowly moving it to more neutral as I can get the swing to feel comfortable but I have a habit of regripping during the setup phase and it naturally turns more strong. Its part of me migrating from being a very handsy flip player to trying to get more neutral on my path and strike.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

You have good athleticism and do several things well with your swing.
More than anything else, a grip technique change will help you achieve the ball striking consistency you want. Specifically, stand tall without a club and notice how your hands are oriented when your arms are hanging relaxed down the sides of your body. When gripping a golf clubs your hands/wrists should be oriented the same way.
In the face on photo you've provided notice that you've been manipulating your hands/wrists into too strong of a position (especially the left hand/wrist). It's true that some great players have made such a strong grip work well for them, but the reality is that doing it that way makes it much, much harder to strike consistently good shots.

I agree, it is a bit off, however, this is the last thing I would change right now...it's the hardest thing to change, and I would only do it if 100% necessary; i.e. the other things I recommended didn't work, and don't worry about it now. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a strong grip, and it's mid season...table this suggestion to the off season.

 

[blueonblack]

Appreciate the input. That past-parallel at the top is something I noticed early on and it was worse once upon a time. I've brought it back but I do see that addition 10-15 degrees and it really doesn't need to be there.

Do you have to loosen the grip at the top to get that far beyond parallel?

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

Wow. Thanks @TrueMotionMatt . A lot to digest here.



I absolutely see now what you are saying now that I relooked at my DTL video. Something I didn't even notice I was doing.




Is this similar to the concept of keeping your hands in front of your chest on the take away to leverage the core/obliques to get that full chest turn? Looking at this pic, seems to show my hands are outpacing my chest as the chest still hasn't passed by the camera angle but the hands have already gone by.
View attachment 8954921




I absolutely see the late hands now that you point it out. That adds to idea of turning with the obliques/core to get the first 1/3 of the turn going and keeping my hands more infront of my chest instead of letting them slide behind the right shoulder. I can definitely see where the late hands becomes then a timing issue as to whether the face of the club is closed to path or open. Yes?

• So right there, you stop turning your chest and the club is waaaaay too flat there (I purposely left that out the first time, cuz I didn't want to freak you out , but now that I see it in still form, I can't let it go. Ha!).
  • Pitch that club more vertical too
  • Go 3-4 frames forward and notice how your arms keep going, but your shoulders stop rotating (see below where I froze it).
• Here's how to get the feel of more rotation
  • Stand with a wall on your left side (preferably the garage or wall you don't mind hitting)
  • Put your left foot about 6" from the wall
  • Take your backswing, SLOWLY
  • At left arm parallel, aka P3, DO NOT cock your wrist anymore, keep them right where they are, but get that club more vertical.
  • Then, keep turning your shoulders back by pulling AND by getting your right hip to keep turning around and heading towards the target.

 

[Tevenor]

• So right there, you stop turning your chest and the club is waaaaay too flat there (I purposely left that out the first time, cuz I didn't want to freak you out , but now that I see it in still form, I can't let it go. Ha!).
  • Pitch that club more vertical too
  • Go 3-4 frames forward and notice how your arms keep going, but your shoulders stop rotating (see below where I froze it).
• Here's how to get the feel of more rotation
  • Stand with a wall on your left side (preferably the garage or wall you don't mind hitting)
  • Put your left foot about 6" from the wall
  • Take your backswing, SLOWLY
  • At left arm parallel, aka P3, DO NOT cock your wrist anymore, keep them right where they are, but get that club more vertical.
  • Then, keep turning your shoulders back by pulling AND by getting your right hip to keep turning around and heading towards the target.

Lay it on me! I am never worried about to much feedback. I tend to self filter on the 1 or 2 things I can focus on change on range sessions or hitting balls into my net at home. Then I work through them in a sequence to incrementally make things better. Big changes cause big misses and sometimes worse problems creep in. Learned that the hard way trying to get rid of my baseball swing ( HS and college ) and try to turn it into the half finished masterpiece you see before you.

Took a few swings in the back yard focusing on that right him rotating fully which opened up my chest way farther and I was able to keep the hands much closer to centerline most of the way back. Also noticed that with that extra hip rotation back, rotation through to post impact was way more stable. I am guessing because more potential energy stored by the increased right hip rotation allowed a more complete follow through from sheer momentum if nothing else.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

Here's how you get a full turn.

 

[Tevenor]

Here's how you get a full turn.

Fantastic. I'll work on both of those this weekend. Thank you so much.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

Fantastic. I'll work on both of those this weekend. Thank you so much.

Do it inside the house...you'll learn real quick.

 

[TCB2010]

Just out of curiosity are you overlap or baseball grip I couldn’t tell but was leaning towards seeing overlap.

 

[Tevenor]

Just out of curiosity are you overlap or baseball grip I couldn’t tell but was leaning towards seeing overlap.

Overlap. Was interlock until hurt my pinky finger 2 years ago. Switched to overlap to let it heal up and haven't gone back.

 

[Tevenor]

Do it inside the house...you'll learn real quick.

Yeeeeeeeah. About that.

"Hey honey, remember how you said that you really wanted to paint the family room walls? Well, I think now is the right time."

That will go over really well. She already doesn't understand why I am going to play 36 holes tomorrow.

 

[Tevenor]

Do you have to loosen the grip at the top to get that far beyond parallel?

Not that I am aware of. I have noticed that my right hand can be seen with the grip only in the fingers on some other videos I have taken. Example below where the shaft is only sitting in my fingers with no palm at all.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

Not that I am aware of. I have noticed that my right hand can be seen with the grip only in the fingers on some other videos I have taken. Example below where the shaft is only sitting in my fingers with no palm at all.

View attachment 8954933

Flex your left wrist like DJ (and do what I showed) you won’t be able to get long.

 

[Tevenor]

Just a quick report back on this one. I took what @TrueMotionMatt gave as guidance and have been doing drills since Sunday. Was able to hit maybe 50 balls into my back yard hitting setup after doing the drills each day. At first felt a bit uncomfortable and my timing seemed off but given where I was, I sort of expected that. I was able to run the drills twice yesterday and hit balls periodically through the day ( love that my hitting net is right outside my home office. Conference calls + clubs in the office = mute on the headset ).

Went to the range today at lunch to start looking at ball flight and already seeing a difference. My mind hasn't yet coalesced why but as long as I used my obliques to rotate myupper and I focused on keeping a bit of wrist hinge up ( not flat back ), I could do my normal down swing ( shallowing out the back with good left hip out rotation ), and the ball would start pretty close to my starting line. I don't think I had a single push. Had some unexpected fades but that was me getting quick in tempo.

So far so good. I am going to keep doing the drills all week and see how it affects my round on Saturday. Hope to get another video to see the contrast between old swing/ and TrueMotion influenced swing on Sunday. One odd affect, and this may just be annecdotal, not causal but my ball flight seems to be higher ( which was already pretty high ). Might just be the day.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

Just a quick report back on this one. I took what @TrueMotionMatt gave as guidance and have been doing drills since Sunday. Was able to hit maybe 50 balls into my back yard hitting setup after doing the drills each day. At first felt a bit uncomfortable and my timing seemed off but given where I was, I sort of expected that. I was able to run the drills twice yesterday and hit balls periodically through the day ( love that my hitting net is right outside my home office. Conference calls + clubs in the office = mute on the headset ).

Went to the range today at lunch to start looking at ball flight and already seeing a difference. My mind hasn't yet coalesced why but as long as I used my obliques to rotate myupper and I focused on keeping a bit of wrist hinge up ( not flat back ), I could do my normal down swing ( shallowing out the back with good left hip out rotation ), and the ball would start pretty close to my starting line. I don't think I had a single push. Had some unexpected fades but that was me getting quick in tempo.

So far so good. I am going to keep doing the drills all week and see how it affects my round on Saturday. Hope to get another video to see the contrast between old swing/ and TrueMotion influenced swing on Sunday. One odd affect, and this may just be annecdotal, not causal but my ball flight seems to be higher ( which was already pretty high ). Might just be the day.

Did you video yourself to make sure you were doing what I recommended? This is key!

 

[Tevenor]

Did you video yourself to make sure you were doing what I recommended? This is key!

I did a quick real time to make sure what my brain thought I was doing was what my body was doing. Once I got the feel for the right move, I've been focusing on replicating that feel.

 

[Tevenor]

Quick update: Went over the data from a round I played this weekend on a new course. Tried to stay focus on staying balanced on the feet and using my core to rotate the first section of the take away. Whether it was just a great day or if the work on the takeaway position helped, I am not sure but with the driver, I didn't miss a single fairway. Other than 2 drives that faded a bit more than I wanted ( started online and still hit the fairway ), the rest were straight on target with no pushes.

Irons on the other hand was a rough day. Tried to stay focused on the same takeaway but wasn't completeing the swing and doing a full turn and ended up pushing the ball for 16 holes until I figured out what I was doing wrong.

Was still able to shoot 80 with 11 pars however on a course I had never played before and was tight as hell. Hard to argue.

I am going to keep working on the drills this week and playing a course on Thursday and Saturday that I know very well which should give me an opportunity to shoot for score. We'll see how it goes.

Also hitting the range either tomorrow or Wednesday to get an update video on progress to share.