Help With My Swing

POKeefe

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I really struggle with consistency and chunk a lot of shots with the irons. With the Driver, I lay off and duff a lot left. Any feedback you guys have?




 
The first thing I notice is inconsistencies in your setup.

1. Sometimes your feet have a closed setup position (front foot closer to the ball than the back foot). Other times your toes are aligned along the target line. This is going to affect both your swing path and more importantly your dynamic balance. If you look at your video, you'll see that when you have a closed stance is when your club crosses the line quite a bit at the top.

2. Similarly, the amount of knee bend in your setup varies quite a bit. A couple of swings your knees are almost locked straight, other times your knee bend at setup is quite pronounced and varying degrees in between. This is going to lead to a lot of variation in where you strike the ball on the face.

3. Generally speaking, you've got a lot of movement in setting up to the ball, which leads to inconsistency. One key to consistency is setting up with your weight evenly distributed under your feet. With all this movement, your weight is going to be in different positions and different weight distributions between the feet from swing to swing. This also makes it difficult to set up with your hands in the same position at setup. Sometimes you are stretched further out or closer in when you begin your swing. Having your weight starting out differently swing to swing will cause a chain reaction of differences in your dynamic swing as your body reacts to these different starting positions.

Since you only shot a behind the ball position that's about all I can see for sure. However, I suspect if we had a face on view, we would observe additional inconsistencies in setup. For example your ball position.

I must say there are a number of good things to observe in your swing. It's obvious you are athletic. A less athletic person wouldn't have much hope of hitting the ball with all these setup movements and inconsistencies. Also, you do a remarkable job of maintaining your tempo in these swing sequences.

You'll do well once you get more consistent in your setup and settle in.
 
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From a layperson's opinion, you have one of the better functional swings that I've seen on this forum . You're making all the right moves to generate a lot of club head speed - good windup, lower body initiates downswing, good rotation thru impact which are the dynamic basics of an effective swing and the most difficult for most recreational players to accomplish. The static basics like alignment, grip and general setup may not be perfect, but the're the easiest to fix. The golf Guru on this forum can probably direct you more specifically.
 
Couple suggestions: you are standing a little to close to the ball on some swings and it forces you to stand up on the downswing to make room for the club. On your takeaway, you are rolling the club face wide open and pulling the club inside immediately. Try to not roll the face open and feel like you are keeping the club face outside of your hands on the take away by keeping the face looking at the ball and target line. It will come inside eventually on it's own.
 
Put your head in a "box" and KEEP IT THERE! Your head is goofing up your swing....get rid of the movement and see what happens.
 
Like other posters said... the ingredients are there... good athletic turn through the ball staying in forward bend, you rotate around your spine instead of spinning out over the top

You have inconsistencies is setting up, too close, too far, etc etc

Laundry List of things to work on:

1) The first thing I noticed immediately was you just suck the club inside with your wrist and hands, this is a dead on arrival move, but somehow you compensate for it. Let the shoulder turn get you deep to the inside at the top, it will happen automatically. At P2 (left arm parallel to the ground) your arm should be parallel to your target line... then the remaining shoulder turn brings you inside.

In short... try to stay more outside until P2.

2) You over swing and have a reverse pivot going on. You are trying to kill the ball. I beg you, I plead you... do not do this. Your super athletic body turn will bring the speed. You don't need to muscle it. You aren't trying to break down a wall with a hammer, you are swinging a club... it has momentum. When you swing an ax at a tree... do you wind up and THRASH at it? No. Anybody can chop down a tree. You bring the ax back, and let the weight of it load your body with potential energy that RELEASES. Think of swinging a baseball bat, is it a baseball HIT? No. It is a swing. Is it a golf hit? No it is a swing.

Swing LESS. I was just like you.... athletic guy. Wants to go to the range and CRUSH it. Thinking that I need to swing hard and hit it hard. Look at Matt Kuchar. You think Kuchar could take you in a fight? In an arm wrestling match? Hell no. Swing a bit less, and swing easy. Golf is a game of opposites. Let the club do the lifting for you.

You are HERE
M3dNlUu.png


(your sternum is pointing to the sky, you have lurched towards your target, you are now going the opposite direction of where you want and now on the downswing you have to add SO many mechanics to get back to where you need to be... some days these intricate timings are there, other days they aren't = inconsistency)

Try to be HERE
MxvWBVm.png


If you showed me THAT ^ (with a little less crossing the line).... I would say that person is a pretty damn good golfer. That is a DAMN good position.

It took me like 3 lessons and a month at the range to stop doing that. How do you do it? Go to the range. RELAX. You should feel loose, like a rope. Tension in your muscles anticipating and reacting is NOT what you want. Then swing back until you THINK you are at P2. Then hit the ball. You will NOT want to do this at first. You think you'll lose cherished distance. But two things will happen. Firstly, you will NOT be stopping at P2... you will actually make a full healthy backswing - it will just feel unnaturally short to you. and second.... you WILL. HIT. IT FARTHER.

Trust me.

Go to the range, and spend 2 hours hitting shots with 50% backswing, you can still swing forward as FAST (not hard) as you want.... and you will see. In a week, it will feel natural and you will wonder why the hell you felt compelled to swing any other way. You will compress the ball, and off the tee you will be smooth and fast.
 
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