Post by imperfectgolfer on Jun 5, 2017 16:09:26 GMT -5
My friend has lost his swing. When he was younger, I couldn't beat him and he could quite easily hit 1 irons straight and accurate off the tee (he could never hit woods). He was fine for about 15 years and then he started using woods but the last 7 years he has somehow drifted into a terrible OTT swing and he can't get rid of it. He has seen a PGA instructor who thinks his major fault is not turning enough. This PGA advised him to align himself more to the right and feel as if he was swinging to the right to help cure his OTT move . Unsure whether that was the correct advice but his swing has got progressively worse.
These are not very good videos but IMHO , I think he is trying to keep his head down which is causing him to dip slightly down/forwards a few inches (in the takeaway)and restricts him from making a complete turn. Then on the downswing he ends up trying to create power and correct path using his arms,wrists and hands only with a big OTT move , plus I can see other faults like early extension. But what is the root cause of his various swing faults?
Here he is in his garden practice swinging without a ball.
Here he is on the golf course doing a more relaxed practice swing , but then look at his terrible 'swing' when he's actually going to strike a ball.
What I can't understand is his follow through position in his practice swing , where his right leg lifts of the ground and the forefoot placed almost at right angle to his left foot (0:03). Won't that cause terrible pressure on his left knee? He is doing that swing quite slowly but I can't envisage him doing that swing at full speed without damaging something.
Does this mean that even in his practice swing he going way over the top and swinging left which is pulling his right side too much to the right , therefore his right leg has to lift and replant the way it does to stop him falling over towards the ball target line? His alignment is very extreme and pointing way right of ball target line.
Obviously , in his real swing , I think he is subconsciously manipulating the swing to get the clubhead on the ball because of his other faults (alignment, head not being allowed to swivel to allow a full turn and giving himself enough room to swing his arms freely in the backswing).
What do you think is the major fault in his swing which he could try to redress?
I think that his golf swing when hitting a ball in swing video 1 is "terrible" because he has a gross OTT move due to an incorrect kinematic sequence where he actively starts his downswing with an OTT swing action due to activation of his upper torso rotation (above the level of his navel). Interestingly, he seems to have the correct kinematic sequence in his practice swing in swing video 1 and also in his garden swings and that allows him to generate an in-to-out clubhead path between P4 and P6, and avoid an OTT swing action. He needs to learn to start the downswing with a very active pelvic rotation (as described in my review paper on the topic of pelvic rotation) while keeping his upper torso (shoulders) more passive, so that he can generate an in-to-out clubhead path between P4 and P6. He must also avoid actively pulling the handle of the club down with his arms/hands at the start of the downswing and he must "feel" that his hands primarily move downwards-and-forwards secondary to the activation of his pelvic rotary motion. I would not worry about his propensity to move his right foot in that sub-optimal manner, which could be due to a lack of flexibility.
Jeff.