My crazy new swing

I've been working on my swing for the last 2 months. I bought a camcorder and started using V1 software. I studied my swing, saw what my faults were and tried to correct them.

I've practised at home in front of a mirror and used every spare hour available to practise on the driving range.

At home in front of the mirror my swing looked good. I was trying to swing less upright and also swing more on plane. Also I was lifting my head on the backswing. So at home in front of the mirror I could swing exactly like I wanted. But as soon as I'm on the practise range. I do my old swing; upright, outside the plane. lifting up. I do the same old shots.

So this routine follows for a month. I swing at home great, doing practise swings in front of a mirror. I get in the right positions. I film myself and everything looks good. The next day I get up early cycle to the golf course, practise, film my swing, get home and I'm swinging the same old way. It's all very frustrating.

Out of desperation I tried this. When I'm at home I look at the mirror when I'm starting my backswing. I'm not looking at the ball or where a ball normally should be. I thought to myself. Can I do that when I'm hitting the ball for real ?

So I goto the driving range and try it. I take up my normal set up. But I look away from the ball. I have my head held up. I start my backswing and when I'm at the top I look at the ball. The downswing is the same. I soon found out it wasn't hard to do. It was easy. I also found out after the first few shots something was different. I was drawing the ball with my driver like never before. I hit every shot like a missile, hitting the ball way further than before. My irons were good as well.

I played 2 rounds over the weekend. After 2 holes My Dad told me what I was doing looked daft but he also said I was swinging more flat. My driving was great, everyone shot was a draw and it felt strange aiming to the right and seeing the ball draw into the middle. My wedges were great, I hooked a few mid irons but overall it was a good round.

I've no idea why this seems to work. For some reason I can't swing on plane any other way. I do have one dominant eye and the other one is weak and doesn't focus properly. Maybe it's this.

Anyway I'm going to carry on doing this and see what happens. The only drawback is people standing infront of me which is offputting because I catch their eye when I'm starting my backswing.

Hey PuttKing,

Fear not. You are in the same boat as hundreds of thousands of other golfers.

For changes to take effect so that we don't have to think about them takes months. Keep going. You'll go backwards, do it great one day, not so good for another 2 months, but while you are practicing, regardless of the results, you are always retraining yourself to do something different.

One day you will be on the range with the camera, be spraying it all over the place and feel horrible and decide "screw it, I'm just gonna swing". You'll get home and put your uninhibited swing on your PC and be amazed at what you see.

For the time being, do what works. If getting your backswing right means looking away from the ball for a while, do it. What's the worst that can happen?

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

Thanks Neil

The only downside at the moment is people saying stuff. My Dad told me it looked "daft". When I hit this brilliant 3 wood onto the green on the 10th, I felt like saying "yeah but look at the results !"

Film your new swing now, and cut your head out of the shot (hold a piece of paper over it) and just look at the spine angle and plane.

As you probably expect, this is closer to what you were striving for. What you did in practice to produce this position obviously worked.

I am impressed that you made that adjustment to swing like you did in the mirror.

I bet that after a while swinging like you are, that you will allow that part of the swing to become normal, and you can then allow the head's position to fall back to normal. It is probably nothing more then to allow your shoulders to relax. Once you start playing to positions in a swing, there is tension. Tension to force the body where it was not normally going before. After enough repetitive movements, this becomes normal. Then you can relax.

Good job.

__________________
I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

What I've noticed now I'm swinging on plane is how soild I'm hitting the ball. With my driver I'm hitting these monster draw shots. My wedges as well go where I aim. It's very encouraging !

The monster draws are probably because your old swing had your hands closing the face down to square it up. Now that you are in better position with your body, you can let the hands stop.

Is that just a case of not using my hands as much ?

And make it more a arms and shoulders swing ?

With my new swing I did hook a few mid irons slightly to the left.

"Using your hands" to close the face down (swatting, flipping...) is what you want to stop now.

Allowing them to set and release vertically, that's always ok.

Greg,

I tend to get confused by your statement of only letting the wrists hinge up and down. IMO the left forearm should rotate clockwise as it lifts to the top, without this the club would be pointing straight up at the top of the backswing (outside the swing plane). This clockwise rotation has to be countered on the downswing by rotation of the forearms and wrists to square the clubface. I accept that if one was to use the right hand and door drill then the wrists are locked, but most tour players use rotation of the forearms and wrists to square at impact and release lag by moving the clubface from open to closed.

__________________
Best Regards
Brian

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Funny o'l game!

I personally do not like the leading arm rotation going back as a physical move in it's self. It should be rotated naturally because you rotated your shoulders.

You defiantly rotate your arms through impact because of the same reason, the shoulders (which causes the leading wrist to be facing the target at impact ... or close to it depending on your grip strength.) But the wrists should not break in the horizontal -- this causes the wild hooks (early flip) or crazy slices (late flip).

My guess at what PK65 was doing. There are other reasons, like over rotating the arms independent of the shoulder rotation. Or maybe a crazy strong grip (but he said his irons were ok).

__________________
I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

Thanks for the reply Greg.

I fully understand and agree that horizontal wrist break is not desired, I just wanted to clarify the fact that wrist and forearm rotation is not the same as flipping. I also do not propose that the rotation of the leading arm going back should be carried out early or with force, I only wanted to highlight that the wrists hinge and unhinge both up and down and by rotation.

When I said "monster draw" - I meant a great, long drive that's got a touch of right to left. So it's not a problem.

I played today and hit the ball quite well. It feels strange to fight a hook when I've sliced it for the last 25 years. I think the reason my bad shots are hooks is because my takeaway is too inside.

My Dad still stays my swing is comical and I shouldn't do it. I'll film it soon and post it on here.

Not sure if this has been mention in previous replys.
At address...K position....Spine tilt....this includes the base of the neck.
It's not written in stone that the head(chin) can't rotate to the right.
Nicklaus would pre-set his chin to the right. Hogan would wear a hole
in his shirts at the left shoulder. Jones would see the ball from his left eye.
When doing mirror drills you're looking back and finding your position.
Do some face-on views.

I think what you are doing is pretty sound fundamentally. You are probably able to keep the club on plane because it is essential to do so to get back to the ball. Your emphasis is swinging the club back and through and not hitting at a ball.

I played a couple of rounds over the weekend.

I hit the ball really well. Scored a 74 gross which was good considering I couldn't reach at least 3 of the par 4's !

It's a great feeling to have when you can aim for the right hand side of the fairway and watch the ball draw back into the middle !

My wedges are spot on as well !

I'm going to keep doing it. I've studied my new swing on V1. The differences are slight but I can see them. My head doesn't lift up in my new swing and my right elbow is closer to my body. I've no idea why it seems to work.