So I'm a former low single digits player that didn't play much for a few years and I'm starting to get back into the game. My swing has been feeling quite a bit less athletic than it used to and this video confirms it. I'm wondering if the dip down and towards the ball on my backswing is the root cause of my feeling very bunched up on the downswing or whether my initial move away from the ball is at fault. Opinions?

Hitting a few 8 irons

You have too much weight on your left side at address, with virtually a straight line running from your left shoulder through your foot. This means that when you turn away from the ball, your backside gets outside your left leg at the top of the swing. If you are trying to Stack and tilt you are doing it wrong.

You have two choices going forward. You can move more weight at address to your right axis and make the same turning motion with your swing, which I think looks ok btw. Try to imagine your a baseball batter and you take it back while looking at the pitcher. Notice how if you stand on your front leg you get tight in the neck and it's hard to maintain your height. If you stand on your rear leg you have more room to turn into. Golf is no different.

The other option is to continue with a stack and tilt motion, if that is indeed what you are trying to do. Now, I don't know everything about that method as I mainly work on using the right axis, but I do know that you need to feel your left knee bends toward your left foot as you take the club back. There is no conscious turning of the lower body.

I like a lot of your motion, this position, however, I hate:



The shaft is way vertical to start the downswing, causing you to probably be a decent wedge/short-mid iron player (along with your setup/lack of weighshift) but to me would prevent you from being a good long-iron-player/driver of the golf ball

Getting a better shift in your backswing would allow you to shallow out your downswing. I'd fix the setup first, see if I couldnt get a little more load into your right side in your backswing, and see how that helps the downswing plane.

I totally agree, there's really no other way for me to get the clubhead on the ball once I've moved over the top of it three quarters of the way up the backswing. I figured that move was more a symptom than a cause, so thanks for the feedback.

Here are some shots focusing on moving weight more to the right side on setup.

just watched the first one, already looks better to me

Here's the new shaft angle. I'm still kind of hunched over at the shoulders, but at least I can get the club on the ball from the inside.

there ya go

also, do you have a damn driving range in your backward or what?

Yeah!

Very nice. Mate, you have a little Hogan thing going on there. You aren't able to maintain this great spine angle through the ball though and that is the next thing to work on imo.

Because of where you were at before, you needed to violently pull your left shoulder out of the shot or else you'd take huge deep divots.

Your old set up, you were set up to hit it low, so at the moment of truth you were forced to swing to hit it high to recover. Now you are more on your right side at address, so set up to hit it higher, you can feel more of a down-blow at impact. Keeping your left shoulder lower than the right a bit longer.

I see that green bucket next to your range balls. Stick that under your left foot to work on your back-swing. Stick it under your right foot and hit some half shots to feel the extension of the right arm away from the right heel through the ball.

Yeah I caught a few on the upswing but didn't sweat it much since it's a natural response to the vertical shaft angle I had going before.

Not sure what you're talking about wrt to the right foot/right heel combo, are you talking about setting the basket upside down and putting my foot on it? That sounds pretty hard!

LOL I wish I was still on the course, now it's a bit of a drive to practice, but I'm in compulsive-obsessive mode with it at the moment so less important things, like playing hands, paying the bills, etc. will have to wait....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkNfmWjSD_c

If you have specific questions fire away.

I'm in the same boat right now

BTW, I'm a complete beginner... but looking at the second video, it looks much better than the first one. You look more fluid to me.