What drills (changes) do I need to focus on?

Hi Matt,

I'm careful when I say that anything in the backswing causes something in the downswing. To me, the downswing is influenced by the backswing, but not a direct cause. The way I tease it out is by doing shorter swings. Can you post a 9 to 3 to see if you get into a better impact position? If that's the case, then the upper body dominant release is not caused by the backswing, but rather encouraged and supported by it. My goal for the winter would be to clean up the impact position and get a little bit better shaft lean. I think this will happen from better sequencing and some arm motion tweaks. But the 9 to 3 would help determine where to start.

I do like the follow through position. even though you don't have much shaft lean at impact, you maintain some good arm structure into a decent follow through position. I think that'll help you make the change easier.

Happy Golfing,
Tyler

Tyler,

I will grab a video of some 9-3's and post them. With that being said, I feel the best part of my game is 100 yards and in when I'm trying to focus on a 9-3 feel for approach wedges and those are typically the kinds of shots that I hit. For example, a 90 yard shot is a 9-3 swing with my 50 degree wedge. I feel like those are the most solid shots that I hit and my start line and distance control is much better compared to say trying to hit a full 8 iron from 150-160 yards. Thankfully, I'm long enough off the tee that I can often get to 120 yards or less if I play from 6,500 or less yards.

Here are a few clips from tonight’s practice session. I will say it took forever to actually get a 9 to 3 because I kept swinging way too long on the backswing!

Hi Matt,

Haha, it's hard to do a true 9 to 3 for many golf swing styles.

Watching your 9 to 3 swings, it looks like the impact position is similar to the full swing. So I'd start with release training and getting more comfortable with a better impact position. Your 9 to 3 move does look like a good wedge swing, but wouldn't have enough shaft lean for a longer iron to get contact higher on the face and control the club face angle. Looking at your position, it's start with some drills like the impact fix and/or push ball. There are two areas you'll need to work on if you decide to take on that project.
The arms need to be higher from DTL and more forward from the face on. At the same time, the hips will be more turned but the shoulders still square. That means the spine will be more twisted. These feels can be awkward at first, but it will produce a different impact feel that you've likely never really felt.

You can do a video of trying the impact fix to 9 to 3
https://www.golfsmartacademy.com/golf-instruction/impact-fix1/

Good luck and happy golfing,
Tyler

Here are a couple examples of me doing the push drill.

Push ball is looking pretty good. Are you able to match the positions with a 9 to 3? If not, that's the next step. Keep it up!

Tyler

I struggle to get the higher handle at impact. My clubs are already 3 degrees up so not sure if that every plays into the equation. I'm 6'5" tall and play 1/2" long clubs that are about 3 degrees upright I believe.

I don't know if height would strongly correlate to ulnar deviation. Here are two examples of tall golfes who tend to get nearly full ulnar deviation (high hands). It's usually something related to the feeling of the arms being higher or the swing feeling more horizontal, or like you have to reach from the shoulders more (vs down, in, and close). You can see compared to the ribcage, their arms and shoulders are more in line rather than vertical. Perhaps that imagery will help you
Tyler

I believe I'm making some progress! Focusing on vertical power from the lead leg has helped a lot.

I think so too. I'd experiment with trying to get the left arm higher, shoulder or elbow more elevated to neck/upper chest height instead of the arm feeling really down by the side. That might help with getting the hands even more ahead. But good job so far!