if he's standing up at impact can he stand further from ball or stand taller? or are those band-aids? i think i do the same thing.

i know that tom watson thinks the absolute key to modern swing and how far guys hit the ball is maintaining spine angle through swing (NOT follow-thru so much)

and i asked my former coach, who was 2nd or 3rd team all-american (sort of irrelevent but WTH), how guys hit such consistent shots with such clubhead speed and he said "maintaining posture/angles" too... he basically said you can hit one good/great shot with any swing whatsoever with hand/eye/timing but you need the posture and proper swing for consistency.

honestly I do this a little bit myself. I did it for 10 years and never knew it until I finally watched my own swing on video and after 10 years of doing it wrong, it is hard to fix and I am still trying to get a grasp on it.

Standing a little taller could help a touch, but really what is happening is that he is changing the angle of the clubshaft from address to impact. At impact he is standing the clubshaft more upright and probably hitting shots off the toe as a result and surely the toe of the club is hitting the ground considerably more than the heel.

Take a look at the DTL video and notice where his hands are at address and then where they are at impact. At impact his hands are a lot more up and to the right as you are looking at the screen. I have this same issue and have been trying for years to find a fix for it and so far unsuccessfully. It's one thing to pick out the problem and a whole nother thing to figure out how to fix it.

If anyone has a easy fix for this, please enlighten us. I wish I had known it right when I started playing so I could've fixed it then rather than after doing it wrong forever.

suit, great comments.... i am going to look at that in my own swing. had never really thought too much of the club's up/down orientation at address/impact.

but i think i have some toe hits with my irons (say on a par 3 tee shot) where the swing seems good but it just seems like i don't catch the ball that solidly... gotta think about this, it makes sense.

two things i've always wondered about in regards to hand position at address vs. impact:

1) centrifugal force i would think would mean hands further away.

2) rotation of trunk will mean something hands potentially much further away (espec. if upper body rotates to much before you hit the ball)

the best golfer i know well says make sure you don't get your upper body too far ahead of your hands.

i think #2 might counteract what we are talking about but not sure.

but i always wonder if hands should be same distance from ball at address vs. impact.

should add that distance to stand from the ball seems to be my bugaboo.

if i stand close i hit the ball really well but battle a vicious pull.... if i stand much further away, ball takes off straight but the hits aren't that consistent.... i think maybe getting your weight forward is key.

Think about it like this...

When you address the ball you set the club down behind the ball with the sole of the club flat on the ground (at least I think most people do). So if at address it is flat and at impact your hands are higher or more over the ball, then the toe is now lower than the heel which is not a desireable outcome right? At impact we want the sole of the club to be flat just like it was at address.

Watch video of most of the best golfers on tour and you'll see most of their hands come thru very close to the same spot as where they were at address. Use swing software and draw a circle around the hands at address and watch as they go thru that circle at impact or very close to it.

I wanted to add to this...
Here is a video of my swing from my old help me thread (check that out here if you want. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/93...-slot-1466425/ )

Just watch my trail shoulder and compare it to yours. Notice how mine never slows down and it goes down and under my head. Yours slows right before impact and then seems to go more level or almost up as you lift your upper body. I really think if you think about making that trail shoulder stay down and power thru low it will help keep you from lifting up.

thx v much. will look at that..

OP your hands look too close to your head at top... experts (i'm not) agree?

No expert either but that has to do with losing width. Keeping the left arm straight and hands as far away from you as possible in the backswing is a good habit to have.

Another thing I noticed looking at your grip. You must address the ball with the clubface closed. Don't do that. You're trying to compensate for a flaw in your swing to correct a slice. Hold it square and fix the swing. Some things we've talked about will help with that

suit, thanks...

this is where i'm at with my swing.... basically i think i'm always trying to compensate for wrong things.

my bugaboos in order are distance from ball >>>> width of stance >>>>> grip strength.

when i stand far from the ball my good shots aren't so great but my bad shots don't cause much harm. when i stand close, my good shots (and my general ball contact) are amazing but my bad shots are really offline.

i think i need to fix my swing as i did to a certain extent with my short game and putting...

one obvious problem with long game is everything is in fast motion so what you think you're doing vs. actually doing can be very different.

ValarMorghulis,

Two questions about your grip. Are you 10-fingering it? Where exactly is your left thumb?

Yeah, 10 fingering. Used to interlink, but when I changed the grip, I went to that. My left thumb is at North-East, if top of club is North, and East is right hand side of club..

Cool, nothing inherently wrong with a 10 finger grip, but if you're having trouble hitting it left you might experiment with something more traditional. I made a short video analysis of your swing. Hope you like it.

jk3a,

Thanks a million for that analysis. I've been keeping both arms straighter recently on the takeaway, not sure if that has helped with the body rotation, I'll check it out on the range. I think it may have. Looking at the Tiger Woods comparison in the video, Tiger's right arm is straight, whereas mine is heavily bent. By keeping that straight, I think it forces more rotation.

In terms of how closed the club is, I don't generally rotate my forearms. I find that if I do, then the club face opens much more nicely. However, I did see mentioned in some youtube video that it may be better to keep the clubface slightly closed as the timing required on impact is slightly lessened. On the other hands, sometimes it feels like I get a sweeter contact when I do try to add some forearm rotation. Any thoughts?

Thanks again,
Valar

No problem.

Personally I like to think of the face "opening" in the takeaway as a function of core rotation. I would encourage you to lessen any forearm/hand action during the takeaway.

To clarify, I think the release works best when we are keeping the face square to our rotation during the backswing. What you do is close it as compared to address.