I headed out to the driving range this morning determined to fix the mechanical fault in my golf swing that had created so much angst last weekend. If you’ll recall, I wrote that last Saturday’s range session had left me with a bad case of the pulls and I was able to slap a partial band-aid on for the following day’s round. Needless to say but I had completely taken the right side of the golf course out of play.
Armed with the same band-aid, today I proceeded to have one of those range sessions where everything was pure garbage. These things occasionally happen and I had the common sense to immediately whip out my iPhone and grab some DTL video with my gap wedge, Driver, and 6-iron. What I captured with the 6-iron was revealing. See if you can spot the root cause of Mickey Mantle:
The video coupled with a review of a couple DTL setup shots from previous blog posts solved it. Here is a shot from me last November at Baywood Greens when I was beginning to suffer a case of the pulls:
Now here’s a shot From Ross Bridge in October when I was hitting it good. Spot the difference?
In the good shot, I’m very balanced at address and in the Baywood Greens shot, my weight has started to slip back toward my heels. In today’s video, my weight is very much on my heels creating the insight path on the back swing and over the top move on the downswing. A good move in golf is an athletic move and I was in a poor athletic position. I could feel something wasn’t right but couldn’t nail it with out the visual.
What’s fascinating and frustrating are how these things keep creeping into my swing, but I understand that golf more than any other sport is a game of never ending adjustments. Part of the fun and challenge is trying to bank a group of recognizable adjustments that you can call on in short order when something goes a kilter. So, if you aren’t periodically filming your setup and swing you should be, and the more you can, the more you will learn, and the steadier you’ll play.
Can’t wait to battle test this tomorrow afternoon at Northwest. Happy Easter everyone!
All About Golf 
Brian
Interesting you talk about your set up. As I watched your pull compare to your thumbs up shots, I noticed your swing plane was different…..root cause could definitely be your set up….it is all a bunch of dominoes. Great advice about videoing your swing.
Cheers
Jim
Excellent eye, Jim. You are absolutely right. On the thumbs up shots, I was on plane on the backswing, but that session, was only about half thumbs up shots. Today I warmed up well trying to stay balanced and then it fell apart on the front nine. Couldn’t control anything but made another adjustment on the back to stabilize. It’s truly maddening sometimes when you think you got it fixed and you don’t. Thanks! Brian
Brian
That is why we love this game! It is always challenging, frustrating and exhilarating at the same time! Glad you stabilized on the back nine!
Cheers
Jim
There are many other small differences between the driver pictures. On the good driver shot your stance is stightly closed and your hands are a little higher. On the bad driver shot the stance is open and the hands lower. I think having your weight toward the heels is a good thing because it allows the body to turn easier. To prove this just take a swing with your weight on the heels and your toes even up in the air. Then take a swing with the weight solidly on the balls of your feet.See which one makes turning easier. On the 6 iron shots I think you may be slightly and I do mean slighly too far from the ball. A half a ball closer may do the trick. I only watched your video 27 times but I think the swing is pretty good and the compensation comes from slightly reaching for the ball. Nice pause at the top.
Awesome Vet, thanks for the review. I highly value your wisdom and perspective!