Getting rid of a pull

My game is getting better and better. The iron game is getting crisp. What I will say about my iron game is that my tempo is much smoother. For some reason, I cannot take that tempo to my driver. If my tempo is off, I can hit as much as a 20 yard pull. I feel like I am racing from the top down, instead of the bottom up, getting over the top and shutting the face. Also, when my tempo is out of wack, I lunge towards the target, my head doesnt stay back. So 2 questions....

1) How do you overcome a pull?

2) How do you get a consistent tempo?

I know if I could get a consistent tempo I would hit the ball more consistent. When I find that groove and dont think about it, I can crush the ball. I know tempo is SO hard to get and keep, but maybe someone out there who has a good tempo can share their secrets....

Thanks!

__________________
What's in my bag....
Cleveland VP 2 Blade Putter
Ping Tour Wedges, 54 & 60
TaylorMade rac LT2, 4i thru PW
Tour Edge Exotics Iron-Wood 21* 3i - Aldila NV 90 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 18* 5 Wood - ProLaunch Blue 75 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 15* 3 Wood - Aldila NV 75 Stiff Shaft
Cleveland HiBore XL 9.5* - Fujikura Fit-On Red Stiff Shaft

If anyone read this and was wondering how to fix a pull, I will share one thing that has helped in the last week, and that is making a full shoulder turn. It helps keep my shoulders closed or square at impact.

Also, if you make sure you dont RUSH down from the top and focus on making that full turn, it will lead to MUCH better contact.

Hi,

Out too in swing path + square face = Pull

Your obviously swinging out to in! You feel you coming down quick and not in tempo this tells me you are useing to much of your upper body (shoulders mainly) which causes you to come slightly steep on the ball which then causes a pull shot.

My advice to you would be: When at the top of your swing feel your back stays pointing too the target for longer so kind of feel your arms outrace your upper body. Go on the range to get the arms and upper body synchronising better.

Hope this helps, it should do!
Cheers,
Ricky

Belive it or not ive found lately that im hitting the driver much better when I speed up my backswing. I then feel as if the butt of the club is being pulled at the ball and then sort of through it on that 1600-1000 line

If I slow it down or go low and slow I seem to pull it as well ?

Youre right about one thing, tempo is key

...bigger turn is helping me keep my back to the target longer. Again, its helping me keep those shoulders closed to the target line.

...as for the backswing, I have quite a quick one. So instead of trying to slow down my swing, which has really screwed me up in the past. I make my backswing WIDER. I look almost like Furyk. I am making sure the clubhead stays in front of the hands and that I feel like I am reaching back at the halfway point just before I set the wrists.

...as for the wrist set, it happens a little later with a wider backswing. When I hit irons, I set them earlier, but then again I take a shorter backswing. With the driver, the later I set the wrists the bigger the turn I make.

...as for the butt of the club, I totally agree that it needs to be pulled towards the ball. However, 2 other things are happening when I hit good shots in relation to the grip of the club...
1) My hands and grip drop below my belt buckle
2) As I pull the butt of the club towards the ball from the inside, that when I start to release that the butt of the club start to turn towards my belt buckle. I dont let the butt of the club get in front of my belt buckle BEFORE impact.

#2 there has been HUGE for me. Look at impact shots of Bubba Watson or Camilo Villegas. Their hips opened up to the target, but the butt of the club points right at their belt buckle. They are NOT flipping the clubhead through (butt of club pointing BEHIND buckle) or holding off (butt of club poiting AHEAD of buckle). Both of those positions produce horrible shots. The more common thing to happen is the club pointing AHEAD of the buckle, producing a fade.

For me, like said above in a earlier post, my shoulders outrace my arms and my hands overcompensate. Out to in with a shut face

Need to generate a clean transition and tempo is the key...


whew...time to put the fingers in some water!

__________________
What's in my bag....
Cleveland VP 2 Blade Putter
Ping Tour Wedges, 54 & 60
TaylorMade rac LT2, 4i thru PW
Tour Edge Exotics Iron-Wood 21* 3i - Aldila NV 90 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 18* 5 Wood - ProLaunch Blue 75 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 15* 3 Wood - Aldila NV 75 Stiff Shaft
Cleveland HiBore XL 9.5* - Fujikura Fit-On Red Stiff Shaft

Im right there with what you say re #2. Thats a swing key ive been working on a lot lately too and it seems that if I have a quicker tempo going back I find my lower body almost rebounds when it hits it maximum coil point and my arms start getting pulled down. With the right tempo (for me anyway this seems to be quite quick but thats probably because ive been too slow for most of my golfing life) this seems to happen automatically and its then effortless. When its right on ( which of course isnt always) my hands always come down inside on that 1600-1000 line and I seem to then have time to either hold off a little and hit a cut or agrgressively rotate the forearms and draw (which I find hard to control btw)

Hi

I read an article recently that said the best golfers tempo has a ratio of 3 to 1, that is the back swing is three times slower than the down swing.

I have heard the tip to say "one and two and three and" in your mind as you pass through the six checkpoints of the swing, personally I cant do this as I need some exceleration as the cub is released and cannot keep to an even tempo through all points.

Another tip I heard which is more realistic is to imagine the clubhead is a car on a roller-coaster ride, the track follows the path of your swing. The car will progressively slow as it raises towards the top then start to gradually accelerate as it rolls back down the track and will reach its maximum as it bottoms out.

If all else fails then try to slow it down to a blur

Regards
Brian

The best tempo drill.....

Tee up 5 balls in a line, but not too close together. Your goal is to hit the 1st ball 50 yards with your driver, and increase the distance of each shot by 50 yards as you go down the line.

I don't mean hit it further than 50 yards, I mean hit it so it ony goes 50...then 100, then 150, then 200, then 250.

The catch...YOU MUST MAKE A FULL SWING. This will make you control your swing speed.

Simply swing in to out instead of out to in but make sure you release at impact or you will turn a pull into a push or worse.
Also, over and over we talk about tempo here, isn't anyone reading this stuff

I always thought that an out to in swingpath created a slice not a pull. Its the in to out path specially with a closed clubface that would create a pull ????

A pull is out to in with a square clubface. A slice is out to in with an open clubface

For some reason a quicker tempo allows me to stay connected better on my back swing, keeping me a little flatter going back (as a one planer) which makes it much easier for me to come from the inside coming down esp with the long clubs

here is my guess
if you dont pull with your irons but do with your driver I would say that probably that your back swing with the driver is longer then your iron swing, to the point that you are allowing the back swing to pull you out of your spine angle, this will help you to come over the top with your driver.
try this
take your driver and swing back in super slow motion while keeping your spine angle and notice where you have to stop because if you dont you cant keep your spine angle. you should try to make the back swing just short of that on your real swing because momentum will carry you the rest of the way to that point
now do that back swing again and start down and you will notice you come from the inside
now do a slow mo back swing where you loose your spine angle and a slow motion down swing.
you should notice that when you make a slow motion backswing and loose your spine angle you are more likely to come over the top unless you make a compensation move on the way down

Shootin

Question for ya. How would you advocate staying in the spine angle in the swing. How would you describe how to 'feel' it?

i.e.

- Keeping your rear end stuck out or on the bar stool ?
- Turning around the flexed right knee ?
- Actually lowering yourself on the backswing by pushing down with your feet(i.e. Tiger, Hogan etc)?

I think I could maybe get some more consistency myself from really working hard on this but its something I dont really think about ?