jamo's Swing

[jamo]

Alright, so here's my story.

I am currently a freshman in college (mechanical engineering major FWIW) and a avid golfer. Over the summer I got down to a 1.5 handicap, but I spent basically the entire year working on my swing. Some things that I tried to do (in a sort of chronological order) were: stop lifting my arms, stop overflexing the right elbow (and shorten my swing), steepening my shoulder pitch (which ties in with keeping my head more steady in the backswing, not raising it), improving my position at impact (eliminating cupping my left wrist, less wrist rolling, getting rid of a chicken wing), and more recently banking my right foot rather than picking it up. I have also been working on timing my hips (forward pushing and rotation), but it has been tough because working on my feet (in addition to the fact that I can't play a whole lot) messes with my hips.

I'm been blogging all of my rounds and practice sessions on The Sand Trap (here: thesandtrap.com/forum/blogs/15446-Jamo-s-Blog-on-TheSandTrap.com), my scores are here: jamo1358.webs.com/index.html , and my YouTube page with all of my swings is here: www.youtube.com/user/jamo358?feature=mhum .

Because I am in college and don't have a camera, I don't have any swing since early August, and even that one is just a face on driver. About a month earlier I have face on and DTL videos of my irons swing, but I was doing a drill, so keep that in mind.

I'll post the most recent videos, and should have new ones in about 3 weeks (when my first semester is over and I have 7 weeks off).

[Richie3Jack]

You've got a pretty good action. I'm assuming that you typically hit a draw and sometimes struggle with a hook?






3JACK

[jamo]

I would say that's pretty accurate, but lately as I've been trying to change things a slice will creep up on me every once in a while.

[jonnygrouville]

You could (and clearly can) play a lot of good golf with that swing.

I like the sound of the things you have been working on, so would say stick with those. Would hate to put anything else into your head anyway!

[slice_oftheday]

Nice action man, I'm a freshman engineering student as well. Cool to have you on the forum.

[Richie3Jack]

It's pretty apparent that you have a path that goes a good amount inside-to-out. How much inside-to-out is the question. So if the face is square to slightly open, you'll hit a nice draw. The closer it gets to closed at impact, you'll hit a hook. I think you need to learn how to swing left a bit more. You 'CF Release' it pretty well, but I think you over-do it. You kind of have the right idea of 'trying to hit a cut' to even it out.





3JACK

[Ringer]

Frankly I see the hip action as a source of some problems. Some may disagree but you simply aren't doing any sort of weight shift. It's almost entirely in the middle of your feet the whole time while you're just twisting in place. That tends to make for very leftward swings.

The very strong left hand grip is the only thing that makes this type of swing work.

I think you should do the walk through drill. Teach yourself to walk through the shot and not hang back. Perhaps you should also consider going to a more neutral grip that allows for a fuller release.

[jamo]

Well, I'll keep all of these things in mind when I go to the range tomorrow for the first time in weeks. I won't have a camera though, not for 2 more weeks.

[jamo]

Here are some videos from today. It was indoors so the lighting was low and you can't really see my arms around impact, but it's pretty obvious that impact was downright terrible. But, I suppose that's to be expected, since I haven't play in 1.5-2 months. My footwork was also bad, and I would like to see a little more lateral movement on the downswing with my hips. Also, my takeaway was well below plane, and my shoulders were a way to flat, especially with the driver. Luckily I have another month and a half off, I have a lot of work to do!

[jamo]

Here are some videos from today. I need a better memory card for my new camera (Casio EX-FS10) so there are a lot of skips (some that take away much of the downswing) so bear with me. All thoughts and comments are appreciated.

[tightdraw]

It's an athletic motion and there are good things going on but I think it could become much better with some careful work. I think your shoulder turn is too flat; your left knee turns too much to the right on the backswing; this can be corrected by turning your left foot out more. a steeper shoulder rotation in conjunction with moving your left knee more towards the target line and less back inward to the right foot would work together to improve things.
The biggest problem beyond that is that your backswing is way too long with driver, by which i mean to focus on the extent of your right elbow bend. No more than 90 degrees. you are way more. the problem is reflected in your P6 position with your hands behind the right leg; they should be at or slightly inside the right leg. you need to tidy up the backswing and shorten it. keep the left wrist at 90 and the right elbow at 90 and your P6 will improve. I also sense a bit of crossover post impact and think you would do better in controlling your shots with more of a cp release.
hope that helps. if you are interested and find this useful i might be able to add a bit more detail. but these are precision moves; you already have the athletic motion down.

[cloran]

Here's my uneducated, 13 HC, Muni playing .02

You said in the OP that you are a 1.5 HC. I haven't read your blogs on thesandtrap, but based on the fact that you take the time to record your rounds I'd guess you have a pretty good idea at where you're losing strokes.

If you're hitting 60%+ FIR and 12+ GIR I don't think you need to do too much with your swing. Keep it long with the driver, etc.

If you are missing fairways and greens, but it's a fantastic short game that's saving you, then I'd keep on trying to tighten things up a bit with the full swing.

When you get to the level you are at it can become very difficult to shave those last few strokes without a lot of practice (not speaking from experience, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night, lol). Tiger woods aside, there aren't many guys that play to a scratch or better level that try to change their natural motions.

I'd reevaluate your rounds from 2010. Find out where you can save a few more strokes, and start attacking there.

Good luck.

[jamo]

First off, thanks.

Jan 5, 2011 0:54:04 GMT -5 tightdraw said:

It's an athletic motion and there are good things going on but I think it could become much better with some careful work. I think your shoulder turn is too flat; your left knee turns too much to the right on the backswing; this can be corrected by turning your left foot out more. a steeper shoulder rotation in conjunction with moving your left knee more towards the target line and less back inward to the right foot would work together to improve things.
The biggest problem beyond that is that your backswing is way too long with driver, by which i mean to focus on the extent of your right elbow bend. No more than 90 degrees. you are way more. the problem is reflected in your P6 position with your hands behind the right leg; they should be at or slightly inside the right leg. you need to tidy up the backswing and shorten it. keep the left wrist at 90 and the right elbow at 90 and your P6 will improve. I also sense a bit of crossover post impact and think you would do better in controlling your shots with more of a cp release.
hope that helps. if you are interested and find this useful i might be able to add a bit more detail. but these are precision moves; you already have the athletic motion down.

Yeah, my shoulder turn is definitely too flat, which stems from the fact that I tend to let my head come up on the backswing. I noticed what you mentioned about the left knee, so I'll make sure to turn the left foot out. I actually used to do that, I must have gotten away from it.

Jan 5, 2011 7:44:49 GMT -5 cloran said:

Here's my uneducated, 13 HC, Muni playing .02

You said in the OP that you are a 1.5 HC. I haven't read your blogs on thesandtrap, but based on the fact that you take the time to record your rounds I'd guess you have a pretty good idea at where you're losing strokes.

If you're hitting 60%+ FIR and 12+ GIR I don't think you need to do too much with your swing. Keep it long with the driver, etc.

If you are missing fairways and greens, but it's a fantastic short game that's saving you, then I'd keep on trying to tighten things up a bit with the full swing.

When you get to the level you are at it can become very difficult to shave those last few strokes without a lot of practice (not speaking from experience, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night, lol). Tiger woods aside, there aren't many guys that play to a scratch or better level that try to change their natural motions.

I'd reevaluate your rounds from 2010. Find out where you can save a few more strokes, and start attacking there.

Good luck.

I know that I can save stroke with my short game (especially putting), but right now it's winter and I can't really practice short game, so I'm trying to get my swing down.

Anyways, here are some videos that I took today. They aren't any different from the ones a few days ago other than the fact that I got a faster memory card so the videos don't skip.

[tightdraw]

Hi Jamo,

I have some difficulty trying to slow down the vids enough to be confident in what I am saying but I watched the vids enough to feel comfortable bringing up the following point. Look at the first vid and slow it down at and just after impact as best you can. You wil see that your club gets in line with your right arm almost immediately after impact and what you want is to have the club in line with the left arm after impact and at lowpoint. Once you see this you will want to find a way to change it because this really is the best evidence of flipping there is. So what is happening is that your body is slowing down to get your arms in front of your body in the right positions and then your body doesn't move at the rate your arms do and outrun your body. also if the clubface is too open to the arc at P6 your brain is going to have your arms working to turn the clubface square to the target. so for me, the key is get your body and arms working in unison from P6 to through swing. if you do that the first thing you will see that the club will be in line with the left arm after impact, not your right arm which is where it is now.
that is just my point of view and I hope it is somewhat helpful to you

[jtothec]

read this: bit.ly/icr7X4 and pay close attention to the first move straight down of the shoulder. somewhere in there he shows tiger and why he gets stuck sometimes. his shoulder moves towards the ball instead of straight down first. its hard to tell at first but it is a slight over the top move with the club stuck behind that he has to save. if you look at your videos you will see your shoulder is doing the same. a swing thought for me is to try to bring my right elbow down and point it through my body at my left heel. my elbow has to connect to my ribs above my right hip. hope that made sense

sorry i gave you the wrong link for the tiger getting stuck. here it is but still read about the spine engine. www.aroundhawaii.com/lifestyle/health_and_fitness/2010-08-getting-unstuck.html