I'll post my full swing here in the next week or so. Still going to GolfTec after massively overhauling my swing last year.

Had a great lesson today that really made me rethink the golf swing in a pretty big way. I've always had a problem with a steep, over the top move. Even with a vastly improved swing from my old stand up straight, butt suck, clip the ball swing, I still have a tendency to get steep and over the top.

I spent a lot of time last year focusing on the backswing and the transition and have finally gotten locked in this year on feeling comfortable with the transition happening early and finishing before the turn happens, and turning as the last piece of the swing. I never really thought about turning my hips and shoulders at different times or paces, but that was a revelation to me when we went into it today.

Basically as a fun experiment, get your club into the top of the backswing or early position in the downswing. Then turn your shoulders and see what the club does. The club basically automatically comes steep and over the top. So now I'm thinking about my downswing in terms of the hips pulling the shoulders through. Once you reach the point where the hips and shoulders can't separate any more, the shoulders will follow through with the club. But the longer this waits to happen, the longer the club will stay shallow in the downswing.

When I do practice swings without the ball, I feel like there is a timing issue around the transition with certain things happening too early or too late, perhaps related to what you are describing. For me, it seems like there are some necessary adjustments to get the lower body more active rather than overusing the arms. When I get it down to what feels right, in hindsight I suspect that the previous swings that were out of sync during the process of figuring it out might have created errant shots at the range, but I am unsure. But at the range I'm self-conscious and unwilling to put up with mishits, and I'm wondering if that is a big leak in my practice range sessions that prevents me from rediscovering those crucial feels, particularly the one of a proper release and bottoming out of the club, which I tried to describe in another post.

First range session today with a stronger grip. Mostly went okay and I didn’t hit any big hooks. A few nice draws but mostly felt able to still fade the ball. My mis-hits were still poofy short right shots so I am not sure if the grip was all the way there. Will get some video and shots including grip once I work it a bit more.

Followed up on a bunch of this today and had an awesome range session where it felt like everything clicked into place. It really feels like my swing has gotten simplified to where it will be infinitely more repeatable.

My internal thought process is basically:

1. Get hands deep on backswing, don't roll the face open and don't roll the shaft behind my body. Gets me in a good wide position.
2. When my left arm gets to parallel on the backswing, start my transition. It isn't a huge move, just a shift of weight while the club is finishing the backswing.
3. Once the transition is complete and the club is coming down, be slow with the hands. Keep the butt stuck out, keep the elbow bent during the downswing.
4. Snap the left hip out left while keeping the left shoulder closed. Let the hips pull the shoulder through the swing.

Getting all of the things in place was what really allowed me to play around with feeling like I'm moving the left hip to the left of my body, but that in combination with the left shoulder staying more tucked allows the club to stay on plane and hold the lag until impact.

First round today with what actually feels like the best version of my golf swing yet.

No off the planet misses, especially off the tee. Miss pattern with the driver is spaceball high and fading or a dead pull, which leads me to believe I'm still getting too quick and over the top with the shoulders/hands and I need to rely more on my hips to pull it through.

Ball striking was as good as I've had in quite some time though. Very few shots that missed my distance by 10+ yards. Been shooting mid to high 80s all year, shot Even par on the front and +8 on the back, some short game woes, one bad tee shot and one bad iron shot led to 3 doubles in 4 holes.

Have worked on the above for the past two months + now. A lot of progress; definitely working hard on just swinging it and being less concerned with positions. To keep working on positions I do a lot of practice swings and use my tour striker etc. but am trying to not have much "swing thought" stuff when I actually hit balls and play.

Have driven it a little better; slightly longer on the good ones and the dispersion seems tighter. Missing it both ways and my good shots aren't consistently one shape or trajectory. But probably as confident as I've been been on the tee though which is nice with 3 tournament rounds coming up labor day weekend and the week after.


Grip:

Driver DTL: https://i.imgur.com/XNVbUWU.mp4

Driver face-on: https://i.imgur.com/Ids7hml.mp4

3i/Driving Iron face-on: https://i.imgur.com/RE7ce7U.mp4

3i/Driving Iron DTL: https://i.imgur.com/RPX4r69.mp4

7i DTL: https://i.imgur.com/Ie72m7y.mp4

I'll let the better players comment on your swing. 1 thing that jumps out at me is your ball position on your driver, Not sure if it's the way the camera's is set up but it looks like the ball is a lot further forward then one would recommend, We are all different but I would have the driver about where your 3 Iron ball position is.

Should put these on Youtube, I'm not sure why but I couldn't go full screen for some odd reason but youtube helps us adjust the playback speed with ease.

Here's a little inspiration for just swinging it:



(est. 117 mph)

"Two of golf’s most eminent instructors, Macdonald Smith and Ernest Jones, built all their teaching around the one conception, “Swing the club head.” There are other details to be thought of, of course, in developing anything like a sound swing, but in the end it will be found that this is the prime necessity. Those who are able to sense what it means to “swing the club head” will find that they can thus cover up a multitude of sins, and those who sense it not will find that no amount of striving for perfection in positioning will quite take its place. —Bobby Jones on Golf

It's easy for Bobby Jones to say just swing the clubhead when he has a good swing and is a good player and doesn't have to work at getting the club in good positions because he already has that part down which is why he is so good. The average hacker does not and it doesn't matter how you swing the clubhead, if the clubhead is not on plane, you are going to struggle.

Understanding the different positions of the golf swing is the most important part of golf and anyone who wants to make improvements to their game must learn to get the club on plane and in the right positions.

Watch this video, single best golf drill on the internet imho

Trackman yesterday


Driver average

Club head speed 104.9
Ball speed 150.3
Launch angle 13.1
Spin 2812
Path -0.7
Face to path 3.2
Carry 246.5
Total 283.1
AoA -0.7

Maxed out at 109.5 club head speed which is 10 mph faster than when I started this thread.

Progress! With some improvement on AoA and closing the face just a tiny bit, should be able to get the spin numbers down and launch angle up and pick up another 20 yards.

So I broke my right/trail wrist in May 2023, had surgery and have been working through occupational therapy. Doc cleared me for golf at the end of July and I’ve played a few times. It’s a struggle and I lost about 15-20mph of swing speed. Saw my coach about the current situation and he helped me with some setup and shallowing issues. Played yesterday and struck driver pretty well, but playing 90-95mph is a whole new world. Seems like I need to find distance in technique and mechanics instead of muscling it out there. Hopefully some of the speed comes back as I heal but for now I’m working with this swing, which I really like.

I think there’s a good bit of speed leaks that can be plugged without increasing speed per se

That’s what I mean, shallowing for me increases AOA and helps me keep the face closer to the target line, leading to more smash and less spin.

Unless you mean you see leaks in this video in which case I’m all ears.

A little hard to be certain because of the angle of the camera but here is what I think I see:

You never really get on your trail side (into your right heel) getting to the top. Love to see you get loaded up on the right more

Probably a flexibility issue but you get the club to shoulder height and basically stop turning. Instead you just lift the club higher. Huge power leak

You get on your left side WAY too quickly. That leads to EE and flipping at impact


I generally agree that shallowing solves a lot of this. But it all works together. Get more into your right side and the club will naturally shallow out some.

I guess it’s just that there is some nuance to shallowing. If some of these other things aren’t addressed to you are just shallowing but then maybe getting stuck underneath

I think I would work on weight shift first and foremost

Thanks

"I generally agree that shallowing solves a lot of this. But it all works together. Get more into your right side and the club will naturally shallow out some"

regarding getting onto the right side:

the pelvis should be allowed to rotate a comfortable amount around(in front of) the rear femur, facilitating a full shoulder turn.

i think sticking your butt out a little more will free your hips and activate the big leg and hip muscles.

i have a crappy left hip so my follow through isnt standard. i have to make it a point to focus on a balanced finish. if i followed through like jack does in the vid i would limp for a week after 9 holes. that said i think a more controlled finish position* will provide the stability needed to catch the shifting weight. see your left foot has completely turned at the end? you couldn't catch yourself so your foot turned to a stronger position.

*im thinking watch nick faldo tempo stuff to get a groove before moving to more modern tempo stuff with the driver. i liked the kyle Hampshire vs pga guy tempo/sequencing comparison. when i started backswinging with faster tempo my driver through long irons instantly benefitted. but i think finding slower tempo groove after any layoff is necessary.

I used to stick my butt out more, but my coach has me leaning over more, in order to not be so stiff through the spine. Maybe I can find a way to stick my butt out without a stiff back. This is very much a work in progress, thanks for the thoughts.

maybe you had become too bent over and thats why the coach straightened you up.

what i see in the vid is a stance that could work great for a small man with a slinky for a spine. im neither of those. for medium and big sized people, we're looking at a more significant weight load shifting onto the left side with significant torque. if theres not a strong foundation of activated legs and hips to catch the spinning force, youll probably have a different follow through for nearly every shot, depending on slight variations in earlier positions.

if instead you find a consistent strong balanced finish position, and make it muscle memory through practice, the foundation for adding speed will be there.

On the topic of weight shift and body turn I went back through this thread and found a post I made a couple years ago about a feeling I had to get my trail hip back in the downswing.

Must’ve forgotten!

Anyway I implemented it along with some other things I’ve been working on recently in a tournament today and shot a lifetime best 84, FTW in a net 2 man best ball tournament (coming in at net 25-32). Appreciate it fellas.

sports are so much fun when you feel like youre playing well. congrats jack.

On the topic of hip pivot and weight shift, I found this video to be really informative for some reason

thanks that was really good.

Hey peeps, been just over a year since the last video I uploaded.

I've been down the rabbit hole and back. Got way too into youtube tips and trying too many feels and swing thoughts. My swing got really twitchy, really inconsistent, and just not fun. Yes I built a sim. Some kind of investment for a golfer like me..

In an effort to simplify things, i've developed what is somewhat of a novel strategy for me.

In essence, i'm picturing the swing plane as a circle around my body. Once I take my setup, it's almost as simple as making the circle, and then pushing against the direction of the force of the circle with my lead leg as I get through the ball. The plane is steeper with wedges, and flatter with driver. It's really a feeling of almost pulling my body against the momentum of the club, to "crack the whip" so to speak.

There's really only two swing thoughts here - one is to keep my hands low during the takeaway to widen the circle. The other is to feel the pressure of my lead knee coming in towards the center, over my lead foot toe more or less. Then unwind from there.

This seems to remove any need for thoughts of wrist flexion, timing for initiation of downswing, shallowing, actively moving my hips in a certain way, etc. The club almost seems to square itself. Suddenly I can hit a fairway wood.

This is a developing story. I've only had one chance to test this out on the course with some great success. Shot 49-42 on a 6700 yards course, including 3 GIRs from over 200 yards with 3i and 5i (unusual for me!).