General Discussion Poker Forums

Analyze my swing! Note: I'm 6'7"

Make sure you watch them in HD, full screen.

You Tube - front view 7 iron
Download mp4

You Tube - back view 7 iron
Download MP4

You Tube - front view driver
Download mp4

You Tube - back view driver
Download MP4

Some screen shots:

front view 7 iron - set up/impact
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/frontview7ironsetup.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/frontview7ironimpact.png

back view 7 iron - set up/top/impact
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/Backview7ironSetup.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/Backview7ironTop-1.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/Backview7ironimpact.png

front view driver - set up/impact
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/frontviewdriversetup.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/frontviewdriverimpact.png

back view driver - set up/top/impact
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/Backviewdriversetup.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/backviewdrivertop.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/joetall/backviewdriverimpact.png

Hmm the mp4 links aren't working for me, can you zip them up?

I am not a pro by any stretch so take this with a shovel load of salt and seek one on one coaching before you take any of this on board - also It's way too fast to watch in youtube but:

From the 7 iron video it looks like your breaking your wrists a little early in your backswing, and your left elbow looks to have allowed your forearm to break the club head out of the swingplane. You have some big issues with weight transference on the down swing, your downswing needs to be lead by a smooth lateral movement of your hips and powered from your trunk uncoiing.

If you can zip the mp4's up I'd enjoy the chance to look at them

Your 7 iron setup the ball placement is well forward of centre which is not ideal, but it's probably come in to compensate for the swingplane and weight transference issues so be aware that this will all need to be addressed as a whole, or you'll start thinning the ball and that sucks when you're trying to get better and end up looking like a Sunday hacker

You can probably see if you compare your 7iron ball strike image with Tigers for example

http://www.oneplanegolfswing.com/images/tiger-sequence.jpg

See how much of your body you still have to be transerred into power, how your hands are in line with the club head not leading it. These are all symptoms of your shoulders leading the downwing not your hips.

Most important to remember is - if as you start to transfer your weight through your hips properly your point of impact wiill move back to the centre of your feet - so watch your ball placement as you drill this.

Good technical advice for someone who is not a pro How long have you been playing golf Joe?

What you playing off Joe?

If I am playing off less than you I will throw you some comments on your swing - otherwise I'll probably just mess your game up more.

Must be nice playing in the sun - played in London last week and the weather was not as inviting. That said cold weather is a pretty good incentive not to hit it thin...

I'm agreeing with what ron0914 has to say, in addition from the moment you start your swing, you can see your wrists breaking, and your hands/arms/shoulders are driving the action, rather than your body/hips. In fact, this bad habit starts from your setup, when you address the ball you do a little wrist flick holding the club, which is the same wrist break you do when you start your swing, which is causing some of the problems.

Joe - FWIW, the photos make it appear like your shoulders are aligned very open to your target line in both the driver setup and 7i setup to me. This could be an optical illusion, but it seems pretty clear. I cant really tell where your hips are aligned due to your shirt - but I would suggest spending some time making sure that your feet/hips/shoulders are all aligned perfectly to the target (and thus with each other).

I used to choose an intermediate target, and walk into my setup with my left hand on the club. I would spend alot of time making sure my feet/hips were well aligned to the target (parallel railroad tracks) - and then I would drop my right hand down and complete the grip with the clubhead aligned. What this resulted in was opening my shoulders to the target line, and lots of inconsistency - i.e. some slicing or snap-hooking.


Another issue that would cause this is club-fitment, and at 6'7, I am hoping you spend a ton of time/$$ getting your clubs fitted. I am 6'3.5 in golf shoes, and it took me a while to get my clubs right.

Another issue I see is that your club is pointing well right of the target line @ the top. I think this is typically caused by letting your shoulders/upper body turn too far past your hips. Once you are "across the line" at the top, you have to do tons in the downswing to compensate and prevent "coming over the top" which results in an out to in swing plane, and the aforementioned slices/hooks.

I would suggest spending alot of time hitting 1/2-3/4 swing 8 irons making sure that the club never crosses the plane at the top. My hunch is this will be super-frustrating as you learn that you hit the ball further and straighter with a 3/4 swing than with your normal full swing (if you are anything like me).

The real question is how do you find time to golf with wife/kids/poker?

Oh yea, and EFPTPE...

yeah, the closed clubface on the backswing is a big problem. It looks to me like you're not rotating away from the ball, more tilting your shoulders and never rotating your arms and wrists. I disagree that it has anything to do with turning beyond your hips. You shouldn't restrict turn in either your hips or shoulders, simply make a relaxed turn with both.

What it looks to me like you're doing joe is driving your left shoulder down to start the backswing. This hoods the clubhead, closing it and preventing wrist and arm rotation. To get the clubhead back to square, you have a quick spinning downswing that probably feels a lot like a hockey slapshot. It can be a powerful move when you hit it square, but it's too dependent on timing and awfully tough on the back.

A though I would suggest is to think of a door opening and closing. If you're a right-hand dominant player, think of your right palm as the door. As it rotates away, it traces an arc. It feels like it's open, but in fact it's just describing a (semi-)circle. If you're left hand dominant (which I doubt, just looking at it), think of the back of the left hand in the same way.

This vid with sam snead is a great one to look at. He turns his shoulders fairly level, lets the arms and wrists rotate, then, as he said, just thinks about turning on the ds and closing the door. Amazing action. I think he's 70+ at the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrBze2v8qlM

1)Stare at where you want the ball to go. The ball will always be there, it's not moving.

2)Grip the club with all your might. You need to show that club who is in control.

3)For the backswing, lift your front leg to generate more power. Like a baseball swing.

4)Halfway through your down swing, go ahead and pause.think about how the swing is going, think about the wind, think about the weather, and finally think about what you are going to do after this round. These are things you should think about every swing durring your pause.

5)Right after making contact, stop your swing. Do not follow through, the ball is already gone.

6)For putts, simply say "that's a gimme" and pick up your ball. I can't tell you how many strokes this has saved me.

Hope this helped, let me know how it works out.

DC needs a whole Golf forum imo!

So as the weather is getting nice again, I went to the range with my gf and realized that she's actually way better than I am. So I figured that it is about time to get some lessons. I've never had any golf coaching and probably shoot in the 110's. How should I go about choosing a golf coach? How much do lessons typically run? Any other things to look for? Books? Videos? Websites?

Thanks!

http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Pelzs-Short-Game-Bible/dp/0767903447

I really liked this book, it really improved my short game, I'm not a good putter but I'm pretty good around the green due to this book, which is more important than your long game IMO.

One thing you can do that is quite helpful is to video record your swing and compare it to various online resources to see possible leaks in your swing. You should know what a good golf swing looks like and how one feels to you.

So as the weather is getting nice again, I went to the range with my gf and realized that she's actually way better than I am. So I figured that it is about time to get some lessons. I've never had any golf coaching and probably shoot in the 110's. How should I go about choosing a golf coach? How much do lessons typically run? Any other things to look for? Books? Videos? Websites?

Thanks!

100% get a personal recommendation from someone, don't just choose. Go to the range and look around for the guy who seems to hit the crap out of the ball with good form, and ask him if he knows any golf coaches if you don't already know someone who might be able to recommend one to you. I got a great coach through a recommendation, my brother chose one at random and his coach is quite bad from what he tells me about his sessions.

/aside
Broke 100 yesterday for the first time! Shot 95. Today we played the exact same course, I shot 116, golf is hard.

Hard to say more than what's already been said without overloading your brain, which, when you're swinging, is the last thing you want.

I'm a visual person, so watching someone else do it helps me quite a bit. Just watch/analyze this about 100000 times and you'll be set (if you haven't already). This actually helped me significantly, and some of his earlier vids were a big help playing for a team in High School back in the day.

Tiger SlowMo

First of all, go get a teacher, don't ask people on a poker forum to fix your swing, This is like going to a golf forum and posting a poker hand.

So basically
Take a lesson, Get your clubs fit properly, Get more lessons, and practice your short game

schwiiiing!