i did read thread, look at swing.

you are pulling out of your posture completely through the ball. so even if your bend isn't excessive at the start, you aren't staying anywhere near in it anyway. so i'd start with less bend and then stay with that bend through the ball. two things: 1) make sure you're standing correct distance from ball as often you have to change spine angle just to hit the ball if you aren't correct distance from ball; 2) tom watson in his new book says consistent spine angle is the secret to golf swing.

from reading about your course lessons, seems like your short game has to improve a huge amount. but i think anyone can do that with instruction and lot of practice.

curious what others think of weight shift and overall rhythm. thinking you need to relax a bit (as do i)

Look at the feet during the swing. When the club goes through it looks like you're up on your tippy toes. I guess this helps your body stand up to make room for the club to not slam into the ground? Dunno, I guess that's probably bad? A view of you swinging from DTL would probably be pretty helpful.

Swing plane might be a bit too vertical or maybe you're a little too close to the ball? It sort of feels like your arms are staying too close to your body or are too vertical near the end of your backswing. You sort of lift your arms straight up their at the end of the takeaway, don't know if you're flexible enough to go that far back, or maybe your shoulders + hips aren't rotating enough. Maybe try having the backswing feel a bit shorter and/or slightly flatter during the takeaway?

Weight shift/rhythm dunno, seems fine?

See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bVATEqz9oY

Look at their shoulders + upper arm at the end of their takeaway vs. yours they don't lift them up vertically much or at all.

Take my advice with cautioun, I'm pretty new at the game but:

Try this maybe: Hold your arms straight out in front of you, hands together (so its 90 degrees with your body). While maintaining that 90 degree arm/body angle assume a golf posture and rotate your hips/shoulds backwards like in a backswing. The arms will look like they're lifting up because of tilt and your left shoulder is lower than your right even though they won't be in regards to your upper body. Point I'm trying to make is feel like you should feel like you're swinging your arms more back and not up?

Hey
That's exactly one of few things I was working on today. Felt like I have more stability and more controlled swing.
Will keep an eye on those things

Hey
I noticed that yesterday while watching those vids. Today I tried to keep my left heel on the ground. It was hard to do it at the beginning.
Sometimes (rarely) I lose balance after swing and I always fall forward than.
So that’s the next thing I have to work out.

And I see your point with vertical swing. I will do DTL video soon so we can have a look at it from better side.

Thx for opinion!

good luck OP! i shot an 89 on my first time out this year, my first time under 90! i even shot a 40 on the back 9!

ive been playing over the summers only for like 7 years though

Wrong

Your backswing is too long and causes your spine to lean to the left at the top of the backswing. So you have too much weight on your left side at the top of the swing. Therefore your weight works back onto your right foot through the ball. You make room, in a good swing, by clearing your hips through the hitting area and transfering weight onto the left side.

You cannot do this so you create room by going on your toes and straightening your body. I will post a good top of the backswing position.

Look at the angle of the club and the left arm compared to yours and the position of the upper body/spine.

I hope you can see the difference.

Practise turning onto your right heel in front of a mirror. Any questions let me know.

Hope this helps.

This is correct. Your bent over too much.

thx for tips huntypro.
I definitely see difference

lots of things to work on

LFC, my apologies for taking so long to get to your swing! Things have been crazy & I've only been posting on my phone while I was traveling this past week & it's a little difficult trying to view the swings on the phone.

Here's my thoughts on your swing: first, I couldn't get the swing to play in the DTL version - just saw your setup. I don't know if others had that problem, or if it just didn't load properly in my browser. From the dtl setup, yes, you are a little too bent over - when you look at a good setup from down the line, you should be able to draw a line from the back of the right shoulder to the ground, and it should run across the front of the kneecap, and into the shoe laces - yours would be a few inches in front of your knee and would hit somewhere around or in front of your toes. This posture is what's causing you to "stand up" through impact - your body can't maintain that position & you would lose your balance if you tried to stay that bent over (amongst other problems). Try this drill to help you get into a better posture - place the butt of a club under your right armpit - and let it hang towards the ground - assume your address position and see where the club hangs. It should run through your kneecap, - if it doesn't, move your upper body until the club hangs through the kneecap and would extend into your shoe laces. If you feel like you have too much knee flex - take your address position & hold a club across both knees - keep the club where it is and straighten & lock your knees - how much room is between the club & your knees? There should be only about 4 finger-widths - if there's more, lock your knees and place your hand in front of your knee so you can measure the four finger-widths and hold a club in that position -then bend your knees until the club touches the shaft. This will give you an idea of proper knee flex.

The majority of your issues stem from the posture - being that bent over, you cannot pivot back or through properly, so fix that first! Once you have a good posture, let's work on the backswing pivot. Your lower body slides away from the target (because it cannot stay in that bent over position & must stand instead of turn) & we want the body to turn back while the hips stay between the ankles. A little hip slide is pretty common, and it's easy to fix, and once you start to stay a little more stable, the contact on your shots is going to improve a ton! Here's a couple drills to give a feeling of rotating: First, to feel a proper hip turn, take your address position without a club, and then place your fingers on top of your knees - keeping your fingers on your knees, make a turn back (like you were turning away from the target) - pay attention to what your hips do - they rotate - not slide. Do this slowly several times and try to keep a little flex in the right knee (it's ok if it straightens a little when you do this drill, but we'll want to keep the flex in the right knee during the swing). You will notice that the hips stay more centered & turn, as opposed to sliding & moving upward. Once you have the feeling try making some slow practice swings with a club, trying to recreate the sensation you had with the drill. Next try hitting some balls with an 8 or 9-iron paying special attention to the hips rotating.

A second drill is to take a club & lay it across your shoulders (hold it in place by crossing your arms), and take your address position. Now make some slow backswings trying to turn your body so the club across your shoulders goes behind the ball - while you're doing this, try & get the same sensation with the hips that you had in the first drill. When you are at the top of the swing, I'd like you to feel like you have equal pressure on both feet, and that you are pushing into the ground (I like to feel like I'm on a platform that is pushing up, & I'm trying to push it back into the ground). When you feel this balanced, pushing-down sensation, it's very powerful & centered, and it's also keeping you in your spine angle - if your body is pushing down into the ground, it won't be raising up & moving off the ball! Just to clarify, this isn't a "stack & tilt" type swing - the feeling of equal pressure is just a feeling, your weight will really be a little more on the back foot because of your upper body rotation, but by feeling like there's equal pressure, your hips will stay centered & rotate as opposed to sliding.

Once you've got the feeling & you're ready to hit some balls, try to incorporate the feeling of the hips rotating & staying centered at the top. You might use a swing thought of trying to turn your belt buckle over your right knee - it's ok for the left knee to move a little towards the right leg, but try & keep the equal pressure in both feet at the top. The first few swings will feel pretty different, and don't worry if you don't hit them perfectly - your downswing will take a few swings to adjust to the new position, so you might catch a few thin or even top one, but don't worry - give it a few swings & you'll be hitting it much better!

So get your posture a little more upright, & try the drill, then post a report back! With those two adjustments, you should notice a dramatic increase in ball striking & it should be much easier to make more consistent contact. Hopefully this all makes sense, if not, let me know & I'll clarify. Keep me posted on the progress! Let me know what I can do to help you reach your goals this year!

That’s a great staff.
Thank you for explaining it so clearly.
Can’t wait to try it at driving range. Have to wait till tomorrow -Easter so family came to my house, and for today I’m practicing in my room
I’m going to work on those things and make better videos in a week or so (btw DTL video is just with a posture, no full swing there)

One more question Rob: what do you think about constantly playing around (breaking) 90 at the end of this season? Too ambitious? high hopes? Or doable with a solid/hard work ?

Marek

+1 Dagolfdoc. Fantastic explanation.

Glad you understood my explanations! I think 90 is reasonable with some hard work & some serious short game work. I think your swing is solid (with the above corrections it will be much more consistent!), you are very motivated, and you have a great passion & attitude for the game! I'd love to see you post some personal best scores on here soon! Your goals are reachable - keep working hard & we'll all try to help as much as possible on here!