The Fix Becomes The Fault

From swingstation.com

Have you ever tried to change something in your golf swing and experienced profound rapid success?  And then you tried the exact same move the next day only to have nothing work?

The following story is true. . .

On Thursday of last week, I reviewed five years of down the line swing videos of myself.  Of course, I was looking for a swing key that would carry me the next three days on my golf trip to the eastern shore.  What’s amazing is that over the five years, I worked on many parts of my swing and implemented many changes, but my move looked strikingly similar in each video.  With the slight exception of my most recent video, I tended to lift my head up about three inches on the backswing and then move about three inches backward during the downswing.  My “reverse L” was clearly causing me to lose my spine angle.  How could anyone hit the ball correctly with this much head movement?  So, to remedy, instead of one swing key, I picked two.  I would point my left shoulder at the ball on the backswing (to keep my head from rising) and sit into my left glute on the downswing (to start the swing from the ground up and maintain my posture).

During my pre-round warm up on Friday at Hog Neck, I was hitting big push cuts with this move, so I did what any reasonable fellow would do and discarded my range session swings as aberrations.  On the first tee, I blew a big push cut into the woods and was fortunate to make bogey.  I scraped a 2-over front side together on the sheer luck of great putting, all the while struggling with these two moves.  On the back side, I jettisoned the sit down move and just focused on “left shoulder down” and began pounding my driver and nutting irons dead at flags.  THE MAGIC MOVE HAD ARRIVED!!!  After finishing the inward half at 1-under, I was extremely pumped to play on day two.

Ever fill up a balloon and let it fly around the room making funny noises until empty?  Armed with “left shoulder down” on Saturday at Eagles Landing, I pumped up and nailed my first three drives, but quickly evolved into a fluttering mess of pull cuts, pop-ups, and chunked irons.  What happened?  After 18 holes, I looked and felt like that spent balloon.

At Heritage Shores on Sunday, I started with nothing but weak pull cuts off the tee and fat irons.  After one particular chunk with a gap wedge from 98 yards that threw a divot almost 45 degrees to the left, I heel spanked a driver on the next tee, and decided something was fundamentally wrong with my swing, but I couldn’t identify.  The only thing I felt was unathletic.  So, the change I made was to get in a more athletic position at address and forget left shoulder down.  I simply flexed my knees a bit more and for the last seven holes was rifling my driver and hitting the irons spot on.  What happened here?

In retrospect, when I bent my knees, I re-engaged my spine angle.  Just try this and see if you don’t feel some tension return to your lower back.  Left shoulder down had become left hip in and a reverse pivot.  GAWD this game will drive you nuts!!!

So now I am filled with hope that this latest correction is the one.  I should probably go back to my instructor for some serious correction but it’s getting late in the season.  We’ll see what happens after tomorrow evening’s range session.

Has your fix ever become the fault?

Play well.

 

Film your swing!

Two weeks ago I came home from the course incredibly frustrated with my inability to hit the ball.  I had been working hard on a change to keep my backswing on plane and was disappointed with the lack of progress under game conditions.  Hitting big pulls with every club in the bag created a mental grind and was putting too much pressure on my short game.  My daughter took this video snippet of my swing in the backyard and BANG!  On went the light bulb.  What do you see that might cause a big pull?

My take:  My stance is too narrow and my right toe is angled out which creates an unstable base for me to coil against.  I’ve got a little too much weight on my left side at address and my club is still coming too far inside on the backswing.  As I complete my shoulder turn, I continue to raise the club with my hands, which causes me to lose control at the top and finally, I slide my weight forward instead of turning and hitting against a firm left side.  Presto, I’ve got my big pull, not to mention a slew of other potential problems.

The fix:  It’s never a good idea to fix too many things at once but I saw this as an opportunity to do most of the corrective work before I swung the club (in my setup) and only employ a single in-swing thought.  So I widened my stance, squared up my right toe, and shaded my weight to the right at address.  My only swing thought was to take the club back outside the line and after my shoulder turn had finished stop the backswing.  Essentially, I felt like I was taking the club back way outside with a 3/4 swing but felt fully coiled and in a strong controlled position.

Validation:  I tested my theory in an adjacent field with about 15 balls and a pitching wedge and my shots were flying strong and straight.  The following Saturday I practiced short game and before I was finished hit a few 7-irons and drivers with the same positive feedback.  The next day I played 18 after warming up very well and hit 13 greens and shot even par.  Today (Wednesday) I was back in the field at lunch with my pitching wedge and continued to enjoy the excellent contact.  What’s next?  Well we all know that in golf momentum is fleeting but I can’t wait to play again.  Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait another 10 days.  I’ll try to stay sharp with some practice and will post an update after my next round.  So send me links to any swing videos of you and let’s get to work!