swing video casting problems

I had a chance to tape my swing the other day.... wow, i thought with the distances/accuracy I was getting that I had a good swing. I think I may have one of the worste looking swing ever. If i saw my video w/o knowing that the very shots i recorded went about 240yds carry with my 3w NO WAY i would believe it went that far with my ugly EXTREMELY early casting i had.

You probly wont believe me either, but no lie, the following videos are a 240yd carry 3 wood and a 155yd 9i and a 200yd 5i with range balls.

I am not sure if it is my grip or what, but I can't seem to stop casting.

any advice welcome....
please just dont tell me my distances are fine, dont change anything, or work on my short game ect..... I dont care about that, i want to try to get rid of my casting

thanks

Hmmm...I am no expert, haven't shot well in months.

As a Mike Austin/ Shauger follower, I think your swing looks fine. The cast you speak of looks like the secret 'twirl' that Dan Shauger teaches.

You should check out

aperfectswing.com

If you're hitting those kind of yardages, not to be rude, but who cares what your swing looks like. I messed up my game bad by caring about what my friends at GTO thought about my swing.

I have since thrown out my video recorder, I advise you do the same - this is coming from a previous 5 hcp to now 15 hcp.

__________________
IN THE BAG:
- 10.5 deg GX Squared TI w/UST Proforce 65 SFlex (GigaGolf.com)
- Ben Hogan CFT Ti 3i Hybrid, Steel (Used)
- Nike Pro Combo 3-PW/TT DGSL S300 (From LowPost42 on GTO - Thanks man)
- 56 deg SGS "Score Grind Scale" Wedge (GigaGolf.com)
- 54 deg Cleveland CG10 Wedge
- White Polymer Putter Model 692 - Stainless Steel
- TaylorMade TP Red Golf Ball or Titleist DT Solo (Quite the difference I know)

MY GOLF BLOG

Full motion video allows me to deduce what intentions you have when you swing that club and when you strike that ball. Slow motion video is too slow to do that. Please post full motion video next time.

You can't seem to stop over-swinging either. Notice how far you bring the club back and how low the clubhead ends up at the top. Forget about casting and take care of that first.

Some rules of thumb.

If you must lift a foot or any part of any foot during the backswing, you're over-swinging.

If your shoulder catches your chin and forces your head to turn back on the backswing, you're over-swinging.

If you must collapse the wrist cock on the backswing to bring the club to parallel, you're over-swinging.

If at any time during the backswing or the downswing you must take your eyes off the ball, you're over-swinging.

There is no reason to over-swing. Over-swinging does not produce more power. But it certainly hinders control. In short, if you lose control, you're over-swinging.

-edit- I have to agree with Matt about the video camera. It makes me so self-conscious that all I think about is how I look next time I swing the club. How I look is so irrelevant to how well I strike the ball. Best to just look at where the ball flies. After all, the ball does not lie. -edit-

IMHO must somewhat disagree:
Lifting the foot while not usually necessary, likely adds to the weight transfer and is not always overswinging. I would rather see rolling the foot.
Shoulder catching chin is because head and spine posture is not erect enough
Wrist cock is not collapsing but I would check the grip for pressure points being maintained, left last 3 fingers and right hand pinkie pressing down at top of swing.
Taking the eyes off the ball is ok with a little head movement, its a hand eye coordination I would work on.
I don't see you overswinging but get a pro to work on your parts working together better. I would try staying centered over the ball more and work on your pivot and leg action.

thanks for the advice guys

sorry to hear you lost your swing, that sucks. I dont really care how it looks, I just have seen MANY videos of the pro's and they all keep their wrist cock very late and i believe that is what leads to the descending blow that they get and all the power and nice contact. So it is not nessisarily the what i look like that i care about, but i care more about what the pro's look like and trying to emulate that to try to emulate their results.

where i may hit my 5i as far as some pro's, but my 5i will stop dead or roll way past or their 9i will get stop or get spin and mine 9i will roll a bit sometimes stop.. but never an backspin.... their trajectory is so much differnt than mine, and consistent, i would prefer to have a proper late release to emulate some of thier similar trajectories/results.

also, that twirl you speak of.... I have a few videos on MA and though he speaks of twirling i think it is more of a fell than and action, because he holds his cock utill way late in his swing like most pro's do.

sorry i will try to get some of them next time

and I dont think i am that flexible to be over swinging, i think that when I come out of my spine angle that is when i am allowed to overswing so i think i need to work on my spine angle and that should help my over swinging

could you please elaborate on what i need to work on as far as my pivot and leg action?

Casting and maintaining the angle between the club and the left arm is basically the same action. The only difference lies in the amount of force applied. When you collapse this angle by decreasing it during the downswing, you're not maintaining it and the only possible move the club can do at this point is cast from the top.

About over-swinging. The spine angle has nothing to do with over-swinging. The definition of over-swinging is "to swing too much" and in practice that means "to swing out of control". I see you over-swinging. While it may not be important what we look like, looking at ourselves allows us to learn what we're doing and how we're doing it.

For instance, I know that you try to lift the ball when you strike it. I also know that you wait for the club to catch up before you allow it to strike the ball. I also know that you think that bringing the club so far on the backswing will give you more power. I know all this from what I see. And from experience, I know what result you produce every day.

Have you tried this?

Instead of trying to stop casting, do the opposite: Cast the club willingly.

This is how we learn. We try everything. We even try things we know won't work. We try things other people told us will not work. We try all kinds of things. That way, we learn everything we can about what we're doing so we know how to do it right. But we also know how to do it wrong in order to not do it wrong.

The alternative is that we do the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.

that is one of the characteristics of insanity isn't it?

i gotta disagree with you on this, its interesteing you see that, becuase I try the opposite....

because i try (or think i am trying to) to hit with a descending blow

not sure what you mean by waiting for the club to catch up....

and i actaully do try to cast from the top/transition, that is probly the reason i get the distances i do. there is no way i could get the distance I do from trying to hold my angle like some people do. I think that a late releaste has to do with the grip, proper sequence of events, and direction of those parts. I just havn't figured out how yet.

Let me put it another way.

Taking into account all the apparent flaws and the distance you produce anyway, if you struck the ball downward you'd get even more distance. But then I think more distance is not what you really want here. So it would not serve you to try to get more distance. What would serve you best is to strike the ball precisely to send it where you want. The only way to do that is to control the club properly. I've already explained how you can do that. I'm sorry to say but if you disagree with my analysis, then I can't help you anymore because I think that my analysis is correct in all aspects.

Good luck.

Things I see (take it or leave it):

#1 - take it from a guy who is working on it ... you are overswinging ... shaft wwwwaaaaayyyy past parallel at the top of the backswing ... against popular belief a person can hit it far with an overswing (John Daly), but the person will generally have to compensate for this on the downswing (Daly's was a right knee drive to aggressively shift the weight back to the lead foot) ... not exactly sure what you are doing ... mine was a breakdown of the wrist cock ... if it is the same for you but your 9i screen shot in youtube window is perfect ... hands at 10 o'clock.

#2 - you are casting ... but this is not always bad ... in your case I think you are just losing distance ... I actually use a "casting" technique to get a flatter and 80% distance shot (high speed chip) ... Howell (and Sergio) have incredible "wrist lag"/"wrist cock" (but this provides other problems) ... one thing that helped for me was to just practice getting my hands to my back thigh with my wrists still cocked (I did this everywhere ... with or without a club) stop and repeat.

#3 - You're quite upright ... I don't know if this is bad ... but all the pro's bend over ... might tell you something.

#4 - Your swing is very consistent ... if you didn't tell me you had a different club I probably wouldn't be able to tell ... good stuff.

Critiques are generally meant to be a critical analysis, having said that I see a lot of great things in your swing.  Please keep in mind that I am not a PRO but have seen enough of them to depart tid bits here and there. Kind’a like a nurse who attempts to stand in for a Doctor, not really a good idea for serious issues but generally alright for the minor stuff. And that sums up your swing nicely, in general it is very good with a few possible minor improvements to be made. Your distance is excellent BTW.

The Good: You seem to be well balanced throughout your swing. Very good shoulder rotation---wish I was as flexible. I think this is adding to your past parallel shaft location at the top of your swing. I would think with your shoulder rotation that you might get a lot more consistent with your ball striking in distance and direction by shortening your backswing just a touch (arms that is, not your shoulder turn—that is great!!!). With your flexibility you will easily reach parallel and I think you will see benefits there.

The Bad: Your initial takeaway has a lot of wrist action in it. It is almost as if you are purposely attempting to create the correct wrist cock by performing it right where you can see it at the beginning of your swing. When I started working on my wrist cock I did the exact same thing—in fact I was told to do this to ingrain it into my swing by a PRO, but he also said once I start to feel what it feels like and can rely on it, to let it happen more at the 9:00 o’clock position of my swing. This allows you to bring the club back much less steeply and aids in hitting shots that are less steep---many see distance improvements as well as crisper shots and better flight dispersion.

The Ugly: Not much really, but I had to put it in. If I had anything to note it would be your swing plane being a bit flat (laid-off) at the top. You could practise coming back low and wide, with your shaft finishing up somewhere between your shoulder and head. Many draw a line on a static picture shaft angle and ball to eye angle. Then attempt to slot the club in the area in between. You are also right that you are actively releasing your wrists a bit early, but it doesn’t really look like a cast to me. Casts to me are that ugly move at the top initiating the swing down.

Hope that helps. Keep on golf’n 

__________________
SumoSid
"Moments of Greatness followed by Moments of horror."

thanks for all your imput/advice guys, i am goin to take my videos down now and hopefully put up some new video's in a bit. thanks again