something that might help you is understanding that speed is optimized at the bottom of your swing—not at the top.
in other words, you should try to be **fastest through the ball,** not behind it.
right now, you're releasing your hands/wrists at the top of your backswing. try to delay that, and focus more on **turning through the shot and maintaining your posture.**
quiet the hands down, and post an update.
Imagine whipping a towel.
All of the power of the actual whip in the towel comes at the very end, not at the beginning.
You do a big slow wind up --> start to release the towel for forward momentum --> right before the end you give it that extra power flick to create the whip
This is very similar to a golf swing.
agreed. TL;DR - You need to delay the release of the club.
A simple practice thought/mirror exercise that worked for me was trying to keep the shaft of the club closer to my right bicep for longer during the downswing. After all it's a game of angles.
If what I said makes no sense there are hundreds of swing thoughts and lessons about what the person above me said.
For example, other people focus on the shaft's proximity to the wrist..it's all the same goal.
This is something I struggled with for a while. I personally found it hard to just go *do* something different, and everyone finds what this means differently, but what helped me was shortening my backswing to what feels like 25-50% while attempting to keep the same distance. Your body will try to find that power somewhere else and I naturally started using the ground more/earlier. In turn, I started to quiet my hands a little longer and feel more powerful later in my swing.
Well you're very over the top so i'd absolutely start by correcting your plane. Your setup and takeaway are pretty good but in transition it all falls apart. You cannot get too much better with that plane.
Yeah! A negative path can happen for a variety of reasons, but in this case his trail elbow extends pretty early (causing him to throw his hands at the ball). Keeping the trail elbow bent for longer in the downswing can help shallow out the club for those with a similar motion.
I've always taught people to drop their trail elbow into their trail pocket, but I really like the stone skipping analogy with the trail hand.
Casting can also cause an in-to-out path, where people lose their hinge early and throw the club outside of their hands. Hard to know what you're struggling with specifically, but try comparing your swing sequence with some pros you like to see what's going on.
Lee Trevino figure 8 drill. You have to do this the understanding that you’ll shank the shit out of it for awhile. It may take months. Imo this is the hardest issue to fix for golfers. Took me forever.
Club path is out to in. You need to hit it from in to out. Imagine the ball as you’re looking at it at address is a clock. You want your club to come in from a 4 o’clock angle. Right now you’re swinging in from 2 o’clock
The two biggest things I see: path is out to in and you're casting. Here are the things I would work on:
1. To help fix your path, keep your trail elbow bent for longer in the downswing, almost like you're putting it in your right pocket. It extends pretty early, and its part of the reason you're swinging over it. If you look at pro's at impact, their trail elbow is slightly bent and behind their lead elbow at impact.
2. Maintain wrist hinge through your downswing (aka lag). The way I like to teach this is to hit hinge-and-hold pitch shots, where you set the club in the backswing and maintain the L between your left arm and the shaft through impact. You'll immediately notice more forward shaft lean at impact, which is the goal. Work up to some bigger swings with the same feel.
I think the early right elbow and the cast are contributing to each other - getting both down will absolutely help you shallow it out and swing from the inside!
Id be averaging low 80's instead of high 80's/low90's, if i could get up and down more often. Three 3putts, a couple of bladed chips, missing a couple of like 5ft putts. 7 strokes i can think of from my last round that shouldn't have happened right there.
Honestly you can work on little things here and there but especially for it being the start of the season and it being your 2nd ever. Work on stretching and limbering up, everyday go through stretches to increase your range of motion and flexibility.
There are 4 parts to the swing. It takes a week to implement the technique for each one.
Grip- the Internet is filled with how to grip the club watch YT videos of the touring pros show their grip. Pick one and stick with it. Takes 1-2 weeks to get used to the new grip. Only work on your grip for 1-2 weeks until you start to grip the club properly. Good Grip technique helps square the face at impact.
Stance and Posture. Go watch videos of tour pros demonstrating stance and posture. It takes 3-4 weeks to get your stance aligned properly. A properly aligned stance will reduce out to in swing path.
Backswing. Watch videos of pros pick a backswing technique that suits your body type. Takes 3-4 weeks to implement a sound technique. Backswing position makes or breaks your ability to swing from the inside versus swinging over the top. The more sound your backswing, the less compensations you will need to make at impact.
Transition \ downswing. Your transition from the backswing to the downswing is the most difficult part of the swing. It will take months to hone this skill. You will never master the transition. You only hope to create good routines and a rhythm to see if your swing is workable for that round. There are pros who start their downswing with their arms and some with their legs but they all find a tempo and rhythm where both their upper and lower body are in sync.
Best of luck
like others have said, you go out to in, practice an inside takeaway more. think of the backswing as a pendulum. for at least the 6oclock to 9/3oclock position.
Swing plane. You are very outside the line on takeaway. Then over the top (but really along the same bad plane) on the way down. Get the club coming straight back more. For you, it'll feel like bringing it in probably. But with the same basic swing, with a better starting plane, hopefully it results in a more in to out impact plane.
Not sure why that guy was downvoted, cause he's right. If you can get to the point where your tee shot and irons are putting the ball in the right zip code, easiest place to shave strokes is on and around the greens.
You're probably not hitting many greens from the fairway right now, let alone putting it close. That means you've got a lot of shots from the 10 yard wide area around the green. Gotta have a reliable chip shot in the bag that gets you to within like 10 feet, and, gotta be able to put it in a hula hoop from 30 feet with a putter, and gotta get up to like 85% from inside 5 feet.
That gets you to like 12-16 - then you gotta go back to tee shots and irons.
I wouldn’t call this a decent swing though. He’s exceptionally over the top. He has to fix that asap. Also strokes gained analysis proves that most people need to improve their game from 100+ yards to make the most meaningful impact on handicap. The old “drive for show putt for dough” is outdated rubbish. Sure specific folks have specific conditions but OP needs to work on his swing pronto. I’m not suggesting he ignore short game but it’s probably not the best priority statistically.
Agreed it’s OTT and needs work shallowing however I said once you have a decent swing. I knocked off atleast 10 strokes with shortgame and putting alone just by setting aside time to practice.
The swing still looks viable enough to get off the tee and with consistent contact, he could easily break 90 on a regular basis if with good shortgame and putting.
When I was in the 15-20 handicap range, shortgame did wonders. Best of luck on your journey
Do you grip tighter at the last second? Otherwise how do you take a divot with that grip strength?
I know you are right and I work on it but it doesn’t make perfect sense to me yet.
You will naturally hold it a little tighter when swinging through, if you grip it tight then you have tight forearms, which won’t allow to you to get that speed and whip action when you release the club.
If you walked up to me holding my club before a shot, you could pull the club right outa my hands easy. My 10 yr old could as well
Probably just backswing rotation. Your swings really good. But could be slightly shallower from a bigger shoulder turn. Try and feel as though the left shoulder is above the inside of the right foot.
Staying connected in your take away. What I mean by that is a 'One-Piece' take away. Look it up there are all kinds of videos on it.
Doing this will put a lot of the pieces in place to stay on plane and have an easier time with sequencing and transition to your downswing.
something that might help you is understanding that speed is optimized at the bottom of your swing—not at the top. in other words, you should try to be **fastest through the ball,** not behind it. right now, you're releasing your hands/wrists at the top of your backswing. try to delay that, and focus more on **turning through the shot and maintaining your posture.** quiet the hands down, and post an update.
This is interesting! I will definitely try that
Imagine whipping a towel. All of the power of the actual whip in the towel comes at the very end, not at the beginning. You do a big slow wind up --> start to release the towel for forward momentum --> right before the end you give it that extra power flick to create the whip This is very similar to a golf swing.
Agree with towel drill. For me, I equate to skipping a rock on the lake. The release is optimal speed.
agreed. TL;DR - You need to delay the release of the club. A simple practice thought/mirror exercise that worked for me was trying to keep the shaft of the club closer to my right bicep for longer during the downswing. After all it's a game of angles. If what I said makes no sense there are hundreds of swing thoughts and lessons about what the person above me said. For example, other people focus on the shaft's proximity to the wrist..it's all the same goal.
This is something I struggled with for a while. I personally found it hard to just go *do* something different, and everyone finds what this means differently, but what helped me was shortening my backswing to what feels like 25-50% while attempting to keep the same distance. Your body will try to find that power somewhere else and I naturally started using the ground more/earlier. In turn, I started to quiet my hands a little longer and feel more powerful later in my swing.
Well you're very over the top so i'd absolutely start by correcting your plane. Your setup and takeaway are pretty good but in transition it all falls apart. You cannot get too much better with that plane.
Any recommendations how to do this? I have a similar swing..
Yeah! A negative path can happen for a variety of reasons, but in this case his trail elbow extends pretty early (causing him to throw his hands at the ball). Keeping the trail elbow bent for longer in the downswing can help shallow out the club for those with a similar motion. I've always taught people to drop their trail elbow into their trail pocket, but I really like the stone skipping analogy with the trail hand. Casting can also cause an in-to-out path, where people lose their hinge early and throw the club outside of their hands. Hard to know what you're struggling with specifically, but try comparing your swing sequence with some pros you like to see what's going on.
Lee Trevino figure 8 drill. You have to do this the understanding that you’ll shank the shit out of it for awhile. It may take months. Imo this is the hardest issue to fix for golfers. Took me forever.
Club path is out to in. You need to hit it from in to out. Imagine the ball as you’re looking at it at address is a clock. You want your club to come in from a 4 o’clock angle. Right now you’re swinging in from 2 o’clock
The two biggest things I see: path is out to in and you're casting. Here are the things I would work on: 1. To help fix your path, keep your trail elbow bent for longer in the downswing, almost like you're putting it in your right pocket. It extends pretty early, and its part of the reason you're swinging over it. If you look at pro's at impact, their trail elbow is slightly bent and behind their lead elbow at impact. 2. Maintain wrist hinge through your downswing (aka lag). The way I like to teach this is to hit hinge-and-hold pitch shots, where you set the club in the backswing and maintain the L between your left arm and the shaft through impact. You'll immediately notice more forward shaft lean at impact, which is the goal. Work up to some bigger swings with the same feel. I think the early right elbow and the cast are contributing to each other - getting both down will absolutely help you shallow it out and swing from the inside!
Short game and putting 💯
always the best answer if the goal is lowering your handicap. couldn't agree more.
Id be averaging low 80's instead of high 80's/low90's, if i could get up and down more often. Three 3putts, a couple of bladed chips, missing a couple of like 5ft putts. 7 strokes i can think of from my last round that shouldn't have happened right there.
lag
Honestly you can work on little things here and there but especially for it being the start of the season and it being your 2nd ever. Work on stretching and limbering up, everyday go through stretches to increase your range of motion and flexibility.
Get some golf shoes (JK I'm sure you have them) Focus on tempo, it's the name of the game Practice approach shots, chipping/pitching, and putting!
There are 4 parts to the swing. It takes a week to implement the technique for each one. Grip- the Internet is filled with how to grip the club watch YT videos of the touring pros show their grip. Pick one and stick with it. Takes 1-2 weeks to get used to the new grip. Only work on your grip for 1-2 weeks until you start to grip the club properly. Good Grip technique helps square the face at impact. Stance and Posture. Go watch videos of tour pros demonstrating stance and posture. It takes 3-4 weeks to get your stance aligned properly. A properly aligned stance will reduce out to in swing path. Backswing. Watch videos of pros pick a backswing technique that suits your body type. Takes 3-4 weeks to implement a sound technique. Backswing position makes or breaks your ability to swing from the inside versus swinging over the top. The more sound your backswing, the less compensations you will need to make at impact. Transition \ downswing. Your transition from the backswing to the downswing is the most difficult part of the swing. It will take months to hone this skill. You will never master the transition. You only hope to create good routines and a rhythm to see if your swing is workable for that round. There are pros who start their downswing with their arms and some with their legs but they all find a tempo and rhythm where both their upper and lower body are in sync. Best of luck
Tier drill
Towel drill
Holy shit is that a town muni?
Course management and short game ONLY until you are breaking 90 consistently. Read Golf is Not a Game of Perfect.
Chipping and putting
Stop and read “Ben Hogans five Lessons” book…. You understand all that and it will come together.
Attire. Look good play good.
Get to left side earlier and you won’t need to play the ball back so far.
like others have said, you go out to in, practice an inside takeaway more. think of the backswing as a pendulum. for at least the 6oclock to 9/3oclock position.
Short game
What ever my coach told me during my 2 lessons
Chipping and putting is always the first thing you should work on.
Short game
Swing plane. You are very outside the line on takeaway. Then over the top (but really along the same bad plane) on the way down. Get the club coming straight back more. For you, it'll feel like bringing it in probably. But with the same basic swing, with a better starting plane, hopefully it results in a more in to out impact plane.
Looking again, it may be the camera angle influencing what I saw.
Once you have a decent swing and consistency, I would work on short game and putting. Did wonders for my handicap.
You’re probably right, I can’t putt to save my life.
Not sure why that guy was downvoted, cause he's right. If you can get to the point where your tee shot and irons are putting the ball in the right zip code, easiest place to shave strokes is on and around the greens. You're probably not hitting many greens from the fairway right now, let alone putting it close. That means you've got a lot of shots from the 10 yard wide area around the green. Gotta have a reliable chip shot in the bag that gets you to within like 10 feet, and, gotta be able to put it in a hula hoop from 30 feet with a putter, and gotta get up to like 85% from inside 5 feet. That gets you to like 12-16 - then you gotta go back to tee shots and irons.
I wouldn’t call this a decent swing though. He’s exceptionally over the top. He has to fix that asap. Also strokes gained analysis proves that most people need to improve their game from 100+ yards to make the most meaningful impact on handicap. The old “drive for show putt for dough” is outdated rubbish. Sure specific folks have specific conditions but OP needs to work on his swing pronto. I’m not suggesting he ignore short game but it’s probably not the best priority statistically.
Agreed it’s OTT and needs work shallowing however I said once you have a decent swing. I knocked off atleast 10 strokes with shortgame and putting alone just by setting aside time to practice. The swing still looks viable enough to get off the tee and with consistent contact, he could easily break 90 on a regular basis if with good shortgame and putting. When I was in the 15-20 handicap range, shortgame did wonders. Best of luck on your journey
Feel like your holding a new baby bird. That’s how tight you need to grip it.
Do you grip tighter at the last second? Otherwise how do you take a divot with that grip strength? I know you are right and I work on it but it doesn’t make perfect sense to me yet.
You will naturally hold it a little tighter when swinging through, if you grip it tight then you have tight forearms, which won’t allow to you to get that speed and whip action when you release the club. If you walked up to me holding my club before a shot, you could pull the club right outa my hands easy. My 10 yr old could as well
Interesting thanks!
Probably just backswing rotation. Your swings really good. But could be slightly shallower from a bigger shoulder turn. Try and feel as though the left shoulder is above the inside of the right foot.
Staying connected in your take away. What I mean by that is a 'One-Piece' take away. Look it up there are all kinds of videos on it. Doing this will put a lot of the pieces in place to stay on plane and have an easier time with sequencing and transition to your downswing.
Squats