I played nine holes early this morning; shot a disappointing 53. I started out okay but my swing just unraveled about halfway through. I wasn't tired or distracted; I just started duffing. I've shot plenty of 53s, so that was nothing extraordinary. What was disappointing was the fact that I've been doing a lot of practicing, but still couldn't hit the ball right.

I had my partner shoot some video, and he wanted video of his swing too. Later, I studied the video and compared it to others, recent and not so recent. The shots he happened to record were okay, in terms of ball flight. That is, the ball launched and went fairly straight, not long but not sickly short either.

Studying the videos frame by frame, I've learned that...

1. I have no weight shift at all until after impact. If anything my weight stays back on my right foot. Thus my pivot is late too.

2. I have a very small shoulder turn, and therefore my arms don't get much above 9 o'clock.

3. My arms have already started to bend at impact.

4. Somehow my swing path isn't too bad; it's not outside-in.

5. Backswing is rushed.

Looking over older and newer videos, I see that some things have improved. My posture is better. My head doesn't bob so much. My left arm doesn't fold up on the backswing. Although my swing still looks rushed, it's not as bad as before.

What to do?

I'm going to go to the range, get a couple of large buckets, and do NOTHING BUT half swing lag shots with weight shift and pivot (I.e., RH drill). No full swings until I've hit the sweet spot correctly (with lag and turn) over and over and over. Not just a few. Dozens. Scores. I need to imprint what it feels like.

That's the plan.

__________________
Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller