http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX96nYYkMHQ

Be gentle, please:)

In all seriousness, I thought I'd point out that I'm already aware of a couple of things that I have worked on since this video was taken. This is just my most recent, and I've been hitting it fairly well since I took it. I average between 230 and 250 on a well struck ball, and over the past few days, I've had two shots clear 270. Typically, though, I just miss and get about 210 to 220.

I know that I'm reaching for the ball on this shot, and I've since been working on keeping my elbows in tight. My typical miss is either a pull, which I think is related to tempo, or a slice. I can see my swing path going outside in when I slice, and I'm not sure how to address that. I never pull it and slice it at the same time.

This particular swing went 245 down the middle of the fairway with just a very slight fade on the end. You can tell it's a good shot by the way I stand and watch it. If it's not a good shot, I'm usually already on my way back to my bag with my head turned around watching the ball by the time it lands.

Good athletic swing, looks like you would get some good distance when you strike the ball well.

One thing that sticks out to me is at the top of the backswing- your plane, spine angle and head move to accomodate overextension. I think that is what creates the over the top move. The last 6 inches of hand travel at the top of your swing is where it crosses over. In the clubhead trace this is shown as where the club crosses backswing/downswing.







Els represents pretty well how we should transition the clubhead to the inside starting the downswing. In a great majority of golfers, this is the opposite. We think that by taking the clubhead back lower and to the inside that it will fix the slice. Unfortunately it does exactly the opposite and makes the rest of our swing accomodate.


Edit: added Els planes

when you say "overextension", are you referring to me standing too far from the ball and overextending my arms?

Maybe over rotation is a better word for it. I see the movement of the arms, hands, hips and body which push the club past parallel. In this image you can see the difference in posture that is created by taking the arms, hands, shoulders and torso too far back. What makes this possible for you is the hips rotating back with the torso. Instead, you could try to get the club to parallel with an abbreviated backswing and wrists fully cocked.



There could be some power gained. Since the 2 major contributors to power in the golf swing are:
1. The difference in angle between the hips & shoulders. This allows the torso to coil and then your core muscles close that angle by pulling the shoulders back towards the legs and hips. Here it seems that your hips and shoulders are on a very close angle.

2. You have a great wrist cock at the top. If you were to shorten your backswing but cock your wrists earlier this would reduce the over the top and add some pop.

Hope this helps.

Okay, you've definitely given me some food for thought. I'm willing to sacrifice 20 yards to keep my ball in the fairway.

Here's the deal, though. I work every day on stretching the back muscles around my shoulders because I discovered nearly a year ago that I just don't have the flexibility that most of the low cappers with long drives do in that area. It's funny how I thought that, over the past year, I was making progress based on the fact that I can now tuck my left shoulder under my chin whereas a year ago, I couldn't. Funny how this was an illusion with my waist compensating for what my shoulders couldn't do.

One thing I'd like to point out (something I've been working on) is that I do try to fully cock my wrists as the very first part of my swing. It is the catalyst that sets everything else in motion. I'll concentrate on that again while trying to minimze the waist rotation and see what happens.

Thank you for your input.

Pretty good swing. 245 yds with a slight fade consistently would be the envy of most golfers.

I noticed that your right leg is locked / virtually straight through the back swing. That probably contributes to the over-rotation / club head going past the line.

Keeping your right leg bent through the entire back swing would probably help keep your hands on-plane, thereby minimizing the fade or slice.

Also a straight right leg can also lead to a reverse weight shift, but I don't detect that in your swing.

wow....nice pickup on the left leg-lock. It's one of things I remember hearing at some point in the past, but never applied it to my swing. Now that you pointed it out, it looks painfully out of place (pun intended).

I used to have serious problems with a reverse weight shift, and I worked hard at addressing that. Next time I go out to hit the ball, I'll take a few practice shots focusing on that.