New Member - Swing Post

Hi AG,

Welcome to the site!

Perhaps you can tell us a little about your game. Which areas are your strengths and which areas you're trying to improve? There are a couple of things that you could focus on in your swing, so I think prioritizing depends on your miss tendencies.

Tyler
GSA Team

Hi Tyler,

I took a few years off from - 8 to be exact - so I'm in a rebuilding phase. My tendency it to get steep, and hit a lot of fat iron shots and slices off the tee. I can scrape it around to shoot in the mid to high 80's.

My priority is to drastically reduce the fat shots and develop a playable soft draw or fade. I'm able to practice 3-4 times a week but I less than 3 times a month.

Hope that helps. And, thank you for your time and advice.

AG

AG,

Welcome back. I had some injuries and took quite some time off from playing as well. Getting back is a journey, but hopefully, we can help speed it up. As far as the fat shots, I'd start with the impact line. Looking at your impact position. Your upper body is tilted a bit behind and the body is under-rotated. This combination will cause the club to bottom out early.

One thing that jumps out from your impact position is how straight your spine is, that straightness makes it hard to get the trail arm in front of the body which also contributes to your fat shot tendency.

I'd probably start with some 9 to 3's with a focus on the body position at impact (merry go round) to see what happens. If it gets steeper, then you might have to circle back to a little flatter arm action. I agree that in your delivery position, your arms are somewhat steep and will be something to work on, but I think the impact is a better first step. But we'll see as you work through it.

Tyler

Tyler -

Thank you for the feedback! I will definitely give the merry go round from 9 to 3 try. My thoracic area is ridiculously stiff and immobile so I'm pretty sure that's contributing to the straight spine. Trail arm shoulder mobility is also an issue that needs attention.

I recently started doing mobility exercises twice a day which I hope will make it easier to get into a better impact position.

Thank you again!

Adisa

I’m a new member Hitting lots of very deep fat shots, some shanks some thin
I am a left hand golfer
I got down to single figures, but then had four/five years off and a replacement shoulder
The rehab is as good as it going to get
I still feel that I could get back to some reasonable golf,
However, I am struggling to hit Driver or 3wood of a T Peg
it’s just horrible. I don’t know where to start

Hi Michael,

If I'm not sure where to start, then my normal order is to work on solid contact first. So I'd start by looking at low point control to help with the fat shots, thin shots, and shanks. Maybe you could post a video of your swing. Then we can see how the shoulder is influencing the overall pattern. To look at fat/thin contact, I'd start with the face on view. To look at the shank, I'd look primarily down the line. So both views will give us a good starting point.

Looking forward to helping. Happy golfing,

Tyler

When it comes to contact, we want to tease out if it's a release problem (flip) or a transition problem (cast). To do that, let's have you hit a 9-3 (belly button height to belly button height shot) to see if the pattern is less behind you.

The fat shot comes from the fact that the club is so far behind your body, that the center of the swing is behind the body and the club is coming up into the ball. We'll probably have to work on a couple of things to get it feeling more automatic, but the first step is getting more comfortable with impact with some shaft lean. To do that, we need the arms (especially the right arm) more in front of the body.
Let's see how it looks on a 9-3 and then we can talk drill options.

Tyler

Hey Tyler,
Here is a 9-3 shot for you.
Any swing drills or playlists to get started will be very helpful. There is so much great stuff on the site it can be hard to know where to begin.
I almost feel like my right shoulder gets stuck at the ball and my elbow extends to early. Would that be the wipe movement missing from my swing? I did have labrum surgery on my shoulder however I do have decent external rotation but it may play a factor in the lack of wipe. I also included a 3/4 shot and a full shot as I have been working on the motorcycle move. Thanks a lot!

Hey Kyle,

Welcome to the site! Thanks for posting your swing. I think you're in the right area. It looks like in your delivery position you've got the arms behind the body. But part of that is because the body (rib cage) is a little bit in the way. So I'd work on delivery position first. I have a feeling that if you train the wipe first, your brain will try to do it too late.

To create more space for the arm and to help get the arm in front, we want to get the arms more involved with the turtle shell feel. A lot of golfers who get stuck have a look like yours where the arm is behind the body. Because the ribs have crowded the ball, if you did have the arms in front, you'd be highly likely to shank it.

https://www.golfsmartacademy.com/golf-instruction/turtle-shell-abs/

Tyler

Thanks for posting your swing.

A few things to consider.
If you wanted to get a little more compression on your irons, then you'll need to get a bit more body turn at impact. But, if you look at your delivery position, with lower level body turn, the club is slightly outside the hands. Turning your body earlier would likely make the club move more outside creating some pulls. So, you'd have to get your arms to pull down less in transition and shallow some. (see the impact pictures (first two) and then the shaft parallel position (p6).

So it's one of those scenarios where you have two things that currently balance each other, and to get more body turn and shaft lean, you'll need these two things to adjust. I would usually start with some delivery position training. Either delivery and go or the delivery pump and see which felt more different (the body sequence, or the arms) and then focus there for a couple of practices. But you'll usually have to work on the two of them together in practice.

Here's where I would start,
https://www.golfsmartacademy.com/golf-instruction/combo-delivery-and-go-delivery-pump/

Happy Golfing,
Tyler

I usually get to answer questions about once or twice a week, but it can vary with holidays and travel and such. Thanks for your patience.