Tension at top of back swing

Hope I'm not over-killing this topic, but really want to get a confirmation on this. At the top of the back swing, should the most tension be on the inside of the right leg, and higher up somewhere like the inside of the right thigh and the groin area? Is it possible to be overdoing this tension feeling?

I have aches in my right chest after long practices at the driving range. A friend suggested that I might not be rotating my shoulders enough hence causing too much tension on the right chest. What else could be causing an ache in the right chest??

Hi Simon,

The tention (bad teaching word),better, the torque in the torso causes the coil effect, at the top of the swing you should feel this torque just above your right knee and up inside the right hip joint. If you feel this build up of pressure in these places you will generate alot of power.

As for the pain in your chest during practice, this could be many things, tention in the upper body during the swing seems most obvious, gripping the club too tight will cause the upper body to tense up. However it may be something simple like hitting to many ball in a short space of time, also lack of a few important warm up exercises.

I suggest you first check you grip for tightness and work on turning the left shoulder to initiate the swings first move away from the ball.


Good luck and be careful.


Ian.

__________________
Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

Thanks Ian. I am still not getting more than 110yds off my 7i, although contact feels very sweet and I can do it consistently. I know I am losing power somewhere, and was wondering if the aching right chest could be a good indicator of where I might be going wrong. I also do not generally feel so much tension in my right inner thigh, because whenever I do that I am unable to come back to hit the ball nicely. And you are right, I suspect that my grip might be a little too tight. Used to hit at least 200 balls at the range each time, but have cut it down to 100 balls or so with more rest days in between. Will try out your suggestions and hopefully the distance will come and the aches will go!

Thanks guys. Looking at my video taken about a month ago, I realise that my upper body seems really "dead". Incidentally, it seems to be that I am not rotating my shoulder enough, and especially not around my spine axis. Hope you can see the video below, and give some advice on what I need to do to start making my swing look decent? Thanks!

http://www.eys.com.sg/simon/simon_swing_20050821.mpg

This is interesting. I was at the range and concentrated on doing two things, particular rotating my shoulders and making sure they are rotating along the axis of my spine. (Definitely feel the tension on my right leg now and it feels great!)

And guess what, the ache in my right chest has gone away! Not only did last night's session not worsen the ache, it actually seemed to have made it better. Go figure

With this new swing, I am definitely getting better results with my 4wood and hybrid. But alas, I am not able to hit my irons as cleanly now.. Guess I'll need more practice with the new swing..

hey, simon I watched your video and i have some ideas. i noticed that your posture is totally straight, you to get flex in your knees so that you can turn towards the insdie of your right foot. this will allow yor upper body to turn around your spine angle better. becuse you will turn on the back swing better this allow to turn from the ground up, starting with your legs,waist, torso. this will allow your power to travel up through your body into your hands thorugh the club to the ball. hope this will help you.

Hi Gareth,

Really appreciate you taking the trouble to see my swing and give your comments. You are right, I actually feel quite disgusted to see how little I am rotating my shoulders and how stiff/still my body is

I'd like to confirm some things so I can incorporate them into my new swing.

1) Assume a more 'sitting' position so my legs are more flexed
2) Rotate shoulders so that at top of backswing, my back is facing the target
3) Since I should be rotating alone the axis of my spine, at top of backwing my left shoulder should be considerably lower than my right shoulder

This video shows that my back is only facing about 45 degrees to the target, so rightfully I should be rotating my shoulders further by another 45 degrees or so until my back is facing the target, right? I've tried that recently and do feel much more tension on my right inner thigh, and I do feel that this could be the key to why I am not getting enough power...

Hi Simon,

One of my friend had the exact same problem and this is because she was picking up the club with her arms across her chest rather than letting the arms follow the shoulder turn. If your are working on the shoulder turn, thats great.

Dont feel like you are "sitting".

Instead do this to get a feel of the right posture:

1- Stand straight with your feet apart as you would to swing (keep everything straight).
2- From the waist, bend down(keeping your legs straight and your back!) so that both your palms can touch each other without too much obstruction from your body (about 15-20degrees perhaps)
3- Bend your knees slightly by a couple of inches.

The feeling that you should get is that your butt sticking out (this will probably feel way to exagerated and may feel gay) and your weight is on the ball of your feet.

Have a look in the mirror to see. You probably feel like your butt is sticking out way too much but its not.

Besides that, both the 2nd and 3rd point that you wrote is absolutely correct.

When you do your back swing, turn just using your waist and feel like your weight is transition to the right side but the weight is still inside your right foot. Make sure to keep the spine angle and the knees bent. If you do all this, you should feel quite a bit of tension on your right side.

Enjoy!

Thanks guys! I feel much more assured now to know for sure what was wrong with my swing and how to correct it. Have been stuck with 100m for my 7i in the past 3 months since I started golf, and I am hoping this new found revelation will open the door to some improvements.

But I know my swing will probably go haywire from this adjustment. I just can't imagine how I'm going to be able to hit the ball cleanly consistently after turning my back away from the target. It just seems like it's going to be 100 times more difficult now

don't worry simon these adjments will fee very strange at first, try swinging with out hitting any balls. in the golf swing the ball gets in the way of the swing. just foucs on the technique and it will become natural in time.

Thanks Gareth! Just a quick update. Was at the range last night and make sure I was turning my back at the target - that's about 45 degrees more than I've even done in my golf swing. It feels weird yeah, never knew it was supposed to feel that extreme, as in you are going for the target, but yet at some point you actually turn all the way from it :P

But, I love what this does to my woods! I was hitting my 4H, 4W and even the driver nicely! It takes much less effort now coming back on the downswing, and I can't believe that I actually managed to hit my driver 200yds with a relaxed slow swing!

I'm going to go out this weekend and take a video of my new swing. Hope you guys can continue to provide some very valuable and much appreciated advice!

Thanks!

Went to the range again this morning and took a video. Was not able to re-create the feeling I had two nights ago. Comments on my swing appreciated!

http://www.golf-tuition-online.com/v....php/photo/537

or

Low Quality :
www.eys.com.sg/simon/simon_swing_20050917_mpeg1.mpg

or

High Quality :
www.eys.com.sg/simon/simon_swing_20050917_mpeg2.mpg

Hi Simon,

There is improvement definitely in your spine angle and the turn. However, still try to do more and really feel like you butt has to stick out to balance your upper body. Make sure that your angle stay the same through out the whole swing, even at your finish.

As for not getting that feeling, dont worry about it as for all of us, it comes and goes.

Keep up the good work!

matt

Hi Simon,
Just watched the flicks, if you watch the clip one click at a time you will see that your turn is fine, and you have a perfect swing plane, however two things stand out once your hands reach head height your body is almost straight, you have lost your spine angle.

First work on maintaining the angle at address, and flex your legs in a more agressive stance, try and look like you are going to hit it a mile.

Another very noticable fault is the wrists once they reach head height they cup dropping the club across the line and thus starting your downswing off on the wrong plane, there is quite abit of re-routing on the way down.

If you work on stopping the swing once your hands reach your eye level this should eliminate that slight overswing and wrist break, watch the video for yourself, if you stop it once the hands are at eye level everything is fine until one click after.


All in all I think you have great potential to have a single figure swing.


Ian.

__________________
Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

Thanks Ian! I'm actually trying very hard to get the waiter style with my hands at the top. Am I over-doing it?

Ok I don't care how silly I'm going to feel. Will really go out and adopt an aggressive caveman stance and tilt my spine really down Actually I did a measurement. My spine tile was something like 22 degrees, while a friend of mine had a tilt of about 36 degrees. Does it matter that I "think" I am having a one plane swing while his is more two plane? What's a good angle to tilt the spine??

Say, what's a single figure swing?