frame by frame

Pesky golf swing, so much going on!  The good news is I’ve really come a long way in how it should feel.  This is a video that I took clips from the app Ubersense.  It’s a stupid app name but it does the same thing pretty much as V1 Home.  It’s just easier to use and the videos are better since I don’t have the pro version.  Here we have Jaclyn Sweeny with her 8 iron.   The full back swing isn’t shown here but the parts I wanted to really look at are.

Overall notes about this series of photos

The secondary spinal tilt remains though the entire downswing and through impact. 

You can see in the photo of me and John he is showing me that my upper body is swaying towards the target when it should remain centered and to the right.  He is essentially holding me in place.  I am practicing this by standing in front of a door jam and I have to keep my spine tilted in the doorway as I practice my down swing hitting my hands (softly) into the door frame.  If I do it wrong I will be looking at or past the door jam and will no longer be in the doorway.

The feet are grounded. 

She does lift her heel slightly in frame 1:60 but you can see pretty clearly she is using the ground to rotate her hips. The right toes and ball of the foot are very grounded and her left heel is so grounded in 1:60 that her left toes actually come off the ground a bit.

Frame by Frame

1:58:  One of the easier things to see when actually watching the video is that her right hip really does come “up.”  Up is sort of not the right word but it has a feeling of elevation as we move from the backswing to down swing because we are changing directions and loading up using the ground as support for the lower body to move our weight over the left hip.  We are creating that hitting down motion on the ball that I’ve been after.   The hinge at the wrists is also visible too.  Keeping the hands relaxed allows the hinge (wrists) to change direction effortlessly.  There is a slight lag as we go from back swing to down swing.

1:58:  Clearly we can see the ground is being used as leverage for the lower body with the right toes and ball of the foot. 

1:60:  The hinge is line with the club face, shaft, wrists and arm.  The butt of the club is pointed at that left hip.  The hands are NOT getting out in front.  Very connected.  I have been letting my hands get out in front rolling the top of my left hand out which opens the club face.  It’s also impossible to keep the top of the left hand facing the target if the wrists become unhinged. The butt of the club will face out left instead of at the hip.

1:61:  This is my favorite frame as it illustrates very clearly the position I want at impact.

The connection is the same as in 1:60 but even more so with the shoulder because the weight has transferred over the left hip.  What you can’t see here very well is the top of the left hand is facing the target.  Not opening the club face – it is square at impact.

The secondary spinal tilt is still  happening as the weight moves left the right heel is off the ground slightly but not twisted out and that left heel is firmly planted.

The right hip is still up creating a swinging down motion into the ball.  The lowest part of the swing is after the ball and the arms are all the way extended.

1:63: The arms continue to sweep away and the shoulders rotate into a finished position.

Looks pretty simple huh?  No big deal!  I am still working on quarter swings and am working my way up to half swings.  I am also working on a new pre-short routine.  Confirm the connection starting with the hinge.  Bend forward at the hips bringing the hinge to the ground…. I never bend forward enough.  Hands above the toes.  Then flex the knees and step apart.   I am also doing a trap drill to connect from the ground up.   Updates soon!!