Please check my swing plane

Hi all,

Would appreciate if you could check my swing plane for me. I noticed that on the backswing (blue), the pros seem to go under the clubline at address (red), and the cut up across when they are halfway back. Mine seems to be the other way round (blue above red first, then cuts under it at halfway back). I am not sure if the placement of the camera would make any difference here?

Does the downswing (green) look ok?

Thanks for any constructive feedback!

Attached Images

Simon backswing downswing.jpg (119.6 KB, 137 views)

first thing, without know how your set up is, look at where your shoulders point at the top of the swing. If you draw a line extending from your shoulders at the top it would contact the ground over ten feeet away from the ball, you are almost standing straight at the top of your back swing. Need to work on staying down in the back swing, keeping the spine angle. That should also help your right knee from straightening so much.

Thanks shootin4par, you are absolutely right there. In the other screen shots I've taken for this particular swing, I did indeed raise up, and it's obvious that my butt moved nearer to the ball on my upswing. I was pretty sure I got that covered, but think I was too nervous in this swing for the camera, and did not keep the swing thought of restricting my hip movement.

Thanks anyway, you did spot a major issue with this swing. If I have the chance I will post up another swing with that fixed.

Cheers!

Simon

A couple of things jump out. The club looks across the line at the top (although some of that may be camera angle). It looks like your right knee straightens too much to me and this makes you lift the club and come over the top of the plane in the second half of the backswing. You can see this in the blue and red lines. As Shootin said work on a good posture at a address with maybe a little more flex in the knees and then keeping those knees quiet through the swing. You'll probably notice if you do this well you wont the club to parallel at the top and you'd look a little laid off (unless your really flexible or your arms/wrists break down) which is fine

From where you are you do a pretty good job of coming back down, plane flattens and you come from the inside, but if youre in that better position at the top than that inside move would be perfect

Were you hitting cuts/fades that day?

I think your backswing comes around too much.. try bringing it back at a higher angle.

Curiously, I was either hitting straight shots or pulls. This particular shot was a pull I think. Therefore I thought I must be coming outside-in but from the video it seemed like I was coming inside-out (again not sure if it's because of the camera angle).

This is something new, can you elaborate a bit on that? I was told that I was not taking it away inside enough and that my swing is always too steep, which is why I'm making a conscious effort to starting bringing it in early on the takeaway. Are we talking about the same thing here?

I'll work on keeping my body down and try to take a better camera view next time. The camera should be level with the hands right?

Thanks for your input everyone!

Here's the swing sequence

Attached Images

Simon Swing Sequence.JPG (249.3 KB, 76 views)

Look at the lines Simon (assuming as you say the camera is directly on your target line). Your takeaway is fine but in the second part of the backswing you lift your body and take the club up too steep (over the top of the plane) and get acorss the line

My guess is if youre pulling from that top of swing position then you are using your hands through impact. You are slightly OTT on the way down but it would be very difficult not to be given that top of swing position

From that takeaway I bet your half swings are good though right? Which means through impact you are spot on. Just need to sort out that second part of the backswing by making a more compact shoulder turn into a braced right leg

[quote=Simon Woo]Curiously, I was either hitting straight shots or pulls. This particular shot was a pull I think. Therefore I thought I must be coming outside-in but from the video it seemed like I was coming inside-out (again not sure if it's because of the camera angle).



This is something new, can you elaborate a bit on that? I was told that I was not taking it away inside enough and that my swing is always too steep, which is why I'm making a conscious effort to starting bringing it in early on the takeaway. Are we talking about the same thing here?

The reason i say this is because i was pulling alot of shots to, and my swing i felt came around too much.. so i tryed bringing it back higher rather than around my back more, i found i could work the ball much easier and was more consistent. You should be thinking about bringing it back in a straight line... For longer clubs though obviously a more sweeping action is required

First two things I would work on are, maintaining that angle I told you about before, and getting a flat left wrist set at the top of the back swing. You pull shots because you cross the line at the top, fix those two and you will more then likely stop crossing the line. You need to fix those two for sure and it would clean up a lot of other things too.

Thanks. The $%!$#! left wrist seems to be my archille's heel. I just can't get it to remain straight at the top of my swing. When I try to cock and hinge my right wrist, the left wrist just ends up like that. This problem has been plaguing me the whole 10 months I've been golfing. I think I really need to see a pro to get this sorted out. The last position at the top of my swing just can't seem to be worked out

I also noticed the initiation of my downswing is really pathetic. I just don't see the kind of athleticism that I see from the pro's swing videos. Any swing thoughts I should adopt for this, or should I just try to 'act' more athletic?

Do your normal swing, but stop at the top of the backswing. turning only your head look at your hands. If you don't have a flat left wrist then straighten it (you will most likely have to rotate your right shoulder clockwise as well). Then look back at the ball (this should tell you if you have moved more than just your head). From this position to impact your left wrist remains flat.

This reminds me of an old golf joke:

"Looking at your hands at the top of the backswing, teaches you two things: 1) how many hands you have and 2) which hand has the glove"

Simon,

work on one thing at a time. agree with maintaining the spine angle. One thing that might help is to stick your butt out at address and keep it there througout the swing. If you notice the line from your legs through your butt straight.

Never heard it, and very funny.