Please analyze my swing

Hello All,

I recorded my swing last summer, and would really appreciate some feedback from you guys and all the golf knowledge that exists here.

My biggest problem with my swing is attaining a consistent ball strike, I play off 16 predominately hit the ball straight, sometimes with a slight fade, but my ball striking is poor, I attribute this to:

1. Not hitting ball out of the center of the club-face

2. Lack of distance, drive only about 220 yards

3. Not hitting down and through the ball.

4. Low ball flight.

What I noticed from watching the videos:

On the downswing my head moves several inches towards the target
At impact my spine angle has altered from address, I am almost stood up with my spine straight.

I have uploaded my swing taken from 3 angles (Face-on, Down the Line, and behind)

To view or download the file (wmv9 format), please navigate to

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/...wnload_PAL.wmv

Apologies if this should be posted in the galleries section.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post

regards Jon

Dear Redmen,

I can see a few things that may be of help to you.
You seem to be too upright in your set up, and you take the club too much on the inside. Try the following changes and see what happens.

Bend the knees so as you get the feeling of balancing on the balls of your feet and sitting on a stool. When setting up to the ball, tilt your right shoulder so as that you are attacking the ball with a downward blow.The shaft of the club should be on the same line as your spine angle. Hope this helps somewhat.

Regards,
Robert

__________________
"Play to your ability, not your expectation"

The absolute first thing to do...let your body start the swing. Get the hips and torso around BEFORE you hit the ball. Your arms and hands are doing everything! Your lower body is doing nothing but getting to try and balance ...so unless you walk on your hands, I can't imagine any power at all coming from your swing right now.

Start with 1/2 swings. Get your belt-buckle pointing at the hole when you hear impact. Take a look here for a drill to help:
http://members.cox.net/gregjwillis/LESSON3.htm

Attached Images

MoreTurn.jpg (26.7 KB, 14 views)

redmen1892, I notice you wear glasses. That is, in my opinion, the single cause of all your problems. The greatest amount of information we acquire, we do it with our eyes. If you have a problem with your eyes, you also have a problem with the information you acquire. You could compensate for any discrepancy between the actual information and the percieved information but it will still only be a compensation, not the real thing.

Glasses are known to warp our perception in several ways. One of which is depth of field. If the depth of field you perceive is different than the actual depth of field, you will miss. Or, if you know about that, you may compensate. You could try to compensate forever but if you have that problem and don't wear appropriate eyewear, you will always suffer from it no matter what technique you use to compensate for it.

It appears you pull out of the shot right around impact even though you use a short club, you hover it about 6-8 inches off the ground and there's no ball. Are you afraid to hit the ground before the spot where the ball normally is?

I suggest you have your vision checked for correct depth of field.

Practice without the clubs on the ground and practice striking the ground with the club to get a feel for taking a divot. But if all you practice is swing the club in your backyard, you'll become an expert at that and nothing else. I mean that you must practice sending a ball to a target using a club if you want to improve sending a ball to a target using a club.

Gentlemen,

many thanks for the response, I have some observations on the answers if you'll permit me;

Robert - Do you mean tilt my shoulder lower at address or more on the downswing movement?, also for years I've taken the club away on the inside too much (I've posted about this before), in parts caused by poor eye and shoulder alignment.

Greg - You have nailed on a point that I have struggled with for ages, I never feel that I am 'firing my hips', at impact my hips are about where they were at address, interestingly enough I just turned into Academy Live on the Golf channel (UK) and Butch Harmon was talking about getting Tiger to make sure his belt buckle was facing at the target at impact, mine faces at the ball!!

Martin - My perception at address has always been poor, shoulders facing 10 degrees right whilst my feet were parallel etc, it wasn't until someone put a club across the bridge of my nose I found out that my eye line was pointing way right of the target, once I started to square that up I found that I could see the 'line' of my swing better, hence what Robert alluded too earlier, i.e. taking the club on the inside too much.

happy Swinging.

regards Jon

Your arms are just swatting at the ball with no leverage at all, this is why you lack good distance. You need to keep your hip and upper body turning with arms lagging behind and not let the arms swat through ahead of your body.

Start your swing with this sequence:

The hip turn begins the downswing , then the shoulder start rotating . That rotation pulls the arm through.

Good luck

Don't want to sound mean or anything, this may sound blunt...but...your video is useless, not much point in commenting on it. Because, no one swings the same practicing as they do actually hitting a golf ball. You need to get some video of you actually hitting shots to be of value, and correcting any swing problems you have...does this make sense. I have seen people make pro quality perfect looking swings, then they put ball in front of them, suddenly it is a completely different swing, but they think they arre doing the same thing they saw on the video of themselfs doing these practice swings.

Greg is 100% spot on.

You have to start the swing with your lower body. Your shoulder rotation looks ok. But just like you said later in the post, your belt buckle is point at the ball at impact.

The ONLY way you can change this is practice. I have put a ton of effort into my golf swing with this very same issue. What has helped me out a ton is what many call "the bump drill."

Make your normal backswing, pause, and from BUMP the left hip slightly forward towards the target. Your hands should DROP naturally from the top and your hips should start to rotate. Your shoulders should remain very passive at this point. Once you BUMP and get the weight shift and hip rotation started, and your hands drop into the "slot," you can then rotate your shoulders and finish your swing.

__________________
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