Progress, it’s what we’re all after in the golf swing. All my students want to make progress as quickly as possible and so do I. I don’t care for the “to get better you’re going to have to get a lot worse” mantra. If I do the proper fundamentals in the golf swing correctly, I should get better for the most part immediately. One of the things that crept into my golf swing recently was me getting across the line at the top. It wasn’t much, but I really didn’t like the look of it nor the misses it predisposed me to. So, I set out to fix it and I’m very pleased with the results.
In the picture on the left, you can see how I let the club get slightly across the line. In the picture from today, you can see how I’m in a perfect position at the top with the club having a slightly “laid off” look because I haven’t taken it back all the way to parallel. I accomplished this by having more forearm rotation on the way back. Even though it would seem to many that rotating the club open, or “fanning” it on the way back would lead to an open clubface, you can see that my clubface is dead square at the top as it is perfectly inline with my left forearm.
The end result, I’m in a much more stable and consistent position at the top and that’s progress…
Interesting to note that pics for “Swing vs. Draw” are up side-by-side with the pics from today’s piece. (At least they are for the moment. New blog posts will move them down.) In those pics, there’s more shaft showing above the hands. Chuck, is that camera angle at work, or were those swings shorter on the backswing?
Ray
It’s a little bit of camera angle but it’s also the fact that my swing is longer in the new pics. That’s simply a by product of my dynamics being compromised a little because I’m focusing on the backswing when making this change. Once I get more comfortable, my swing will naturally shorten up again.
it also looks as thought your left arm is higher on the new pic. if you look at your collar you can see much more of it on the old swing picture. in the new picture you can see hardly any of the collar.
why is this Chuck?
The swing I’m working on right now is Haney’s model for Tiger Woods and it is more of a two plane swing, so my arm will get slightly higher at the top than it was before. It’s more of an arm swing than body swing and needs to be higher for more leverage and to stay more in front of the body.
Chuck,
Very interesting. I hadn’t visited the blog site for a while, so I’m catching up over lunch. I’m very intrigued by the foream roatation thing (as you know from our recent discussions on the forums). There is no doubt in my mind it puts me in a much better top of swing position–just like you. It is such a small detail–but what a huge difference it makes in the swing. I like it!
I seem to have the same problem you have/had with coming across the line but mine is so much more dramatic. my club is all the way by my head and the shaft is pointing WAY right of the target. I took video of my swing and it looks like my right shoulder tends to lift at the very top of my swing but im not sure if this is the main reason why the club is across the line, or is it just momentum taking the club in that direction and i just need to work on my takeaway. Any suggestions for me getting more on plane or even slightly laid off Chuck???
Tim, watch the videos in the Members Vault about the takeaway and and backswing plane.