Swing analysis

Over the past month, my coach has been out of town in Europe and other various places working with some European Tour guys and taking a bit of time off, so we hadn’t seen each other for a while. We caught up yesterday out at Pumpkin Ridge and went over my swing; doing some video analysis in the process. He sent me two videos from the lesson, and I figure that sharing them is a good way to blog about the current state of my swing. This one concerns aspects of my iron game and some takeaway pieces with both irons and driver:

The next one concerns getting my head behind the ball at impact with the driver. I’ve been keeping my head too still over the ball during the backswing and then coming through it at impact, which has caused me to hit down on the ball with the driver instead of hitting up on it to maximize distance and spin rate. If I work on moving off of the ball a bit during the backswing, I was naturally hitting up more on it and keeping my head behind the ball at impact.

That is a small snippet of the current state of my swing. Things are coming along nicely. There is always going to be something to work on and it’s good to know where to focus for the coming week or two.

I should get my new irons this week, which is very exciting.

22 Responses to "Swing analysis"

David says:

July 16, 2012 at 9:56 pm

Here’s a great video that might help you out with your takeaway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czEdSpmQuHg&feature=related
Christian says:

July 16, 2012 at 10:27 pm

Hi Dan
I have question: Do you ever feel like your game comes and goes? For me sometimes, I’m playing really well and then two days later Im strugling to hit the ball close to the sweet-spot.
Also, how do you deal with mid-round failure/breakdowns? Suppose you have player say 12 holes really well and then suddenly you hit fat/blade it. How do you recover? What do you think of in such situations?

BR
Christian
dan says:

July 16, 2012 at 10:45 pm

Christian,

Definitely a huge part of the game is learning how to accept those situations. I believe we all have a ten stroke swing, from Tour players to weekend enjoyers, any given round can fluctuate ten strokes. We see it on tour where they can go out one day and shoot 65 and the next day on the same course with similar conditions shoot 75. Some days we hit it well and others nothing seems to work.

Acceptance is a part of the game and you have to respect that at any given moment something can go less than optimal. The best way to get over the bad shot is to not let it get to you. It’s a lot easier said than done, but focussing on the shot at hand and not at what just happened pretty much sums up the mental game. We have to find our zen out there and keep battling no matter what just happened..

Hit them well!

Dan
Landen says:

July 17, 2012 at 6:16 am

Dan,
It is amazing that you have come so far from when you first started. I have been playing since i was about 4 years old currently 19 so about 15 years. Because i never seriously practiced I am still shooting around 100 but had a great improvement between now and last year without playing at all. I dropped 8 strokes and now will play around that point. I just started developing a huge passion for the game, I love being out on the course practicing and playing and because of my passion and your story it has made me want to practice and play even more. Thank you for sharing your story with us and when you make it I will be rooting for you.

Landen
Landon says:

July 17, 2012 at 10:50 am

Dan,

Hey if you have the time it would be great to have your yardages with the sticks your using currently, and then compare those yardages to the new sticks once you get comfortable with them. Just a thought!

Landon
Brian says:

July 19, 2012 at 11:10 pm

I completely agree with your note to Christian. Last week, I played 11 and then put up an 8 on #12. You just have to take it one shot at a time. That’s one thing that I’m good at; on some holes, it takes me a while to count my score!

I haven’t checked in for a while and thought about The Dan Plan as I was helping a friend learn how to get out of the bunker on Monday. I’m glad you have woods and am really proud of you for getting to single digits, let alone under 6!!
dan says:

July 19, 2012 at 11:21 pm

Landen,

Glad you found the passion for the game. No matter how bad a shot or round is, there’s always that calling from deep down to go right back out the next day. It’s a wonderful game.

Keep it up and stick to the plan,

Dan
dan says:

July 19, 2012 at 11:22 pm

Landon,

Good idea. Once I get the new ones dialed in I will post a comparison blog. I know the numbers from my old sticks very well and am excited to figure out what the new ones do, might take a couple of weeks before that is found.

Thanks for the idea,

Dan
dan says:

July 19, 2012 at 11:24 pm

Brian,

Thanks for checking back in. It’s a funny game, things can go so well for so long, then the focus drops and the curtains fall. We have to stay on top of this one..

Dan
williamevanl says:

July 20, 2012 at 8:24 pm

I think its deceiving that you decide when you aren’t playing well that you ‘aren’t going to play for score’. We are unable to actually follow your progress. Also if you are aren’t ‘playing for score’ but shoot a 77 are you then ‘playing for score again’ ?
Marlon says:

July 21, 2012 at 7:31 pm

Williamevanl,

Why are you here?

I don’t mean this as an attack, but as a genuine question because I’m curious. In multiple comments you have expressed that you feel Dan is not being forthcoming, and you’ve gone out of your way to remind him that you don’t find his achievements to date impressive. So why come read about them?
williamevanl says:

July 23, 2012 at 5:12 pm

This is the internet, I don’t even interpret attacks as attacks…

To answer your question: simple, to see if I’m right. I’ve predicted how this this thing would go since the beginning. I’ve been right up to this point but I’d hate for Dan to develop a vanity cap or to disguise his progress in anyway because it will just confound this entire thing.

It will become incredibly tempting for Dan to try to continue to show improvement when there is none and to coverup setbacks. (how interesting is “my handicap has been trending up for the last 3 months” ? ) I hope and think that he will not but I’m nagging him in an attempt to keep him from doing it just in case.
Richard Chen says:

July 26, 2012 at 9:39 pm

Hard to see from the video of the driver setup. Is the ball being played off of the heel of the leading foot, or more toward the center of the stance like for a fairway wood shot setup? During setup for the driver, is the head favoring being over the trailing leg more rather than being over the center of the stance? During setup, is the head behind the ball, or behind the clubhead?
Richard Chen says:

July 26, 2012 at 10:14 pm

For the driver, slow motion photo sequences show that most pros allow their heads to move back away from the target by a small amount up to a few inches during the release of the downswing. Most do not hold their head perfectly still during the release based on the photos. This may be liken to the recoil of a gun or of a cannon, which is based on Newton’s law of motion of “for every action, there is an opposite reaction. This is also expressed as the law of the conservation of linear momentum as mv=MV. Thus, as the clubhead (and ball) is propelled forward, the head and body will be propelled backward in the opposite direction. Since the body and head is much more heavier than the clubhead and ball, the opposite movement will be slower and of much less distance like the recoil of a cannon is slower and of much less distance than that of the cannon ball, which is much lighter than the cannon. According to the laws of physics, the recoil effect is automatic without any conscious effort.

Another interesting law of physics is the law of the conservation of angular momentum, which can be easiest to understand by watching figure skaters on television making spins. Figure skaters speed up their spins and turns by pulling their arms close to their bodies, while they slow their spins and turns by extending their arms away from their bodies. This law of physics applies to the downswing of golfers as well as to figure skaters, although the effect is much more dramatically apparent when a figure skater starts the spin slowly with the arms extended out, and after pulling the arms close to the body starts to spin amazingly fast. Golfers like Venturi and Hogan advocate having the hands and arms close to the body. This conforms to the physics law of the conservation of angular momentum that allows a spinning body to rotate faster without adding any more energy by reducing the radios of the spinning body.
Richard Chen says:

July 28, 2012 at 7:06 am

In the first video on the initial taking the club back, not sure, but it appears the hips are used to start the backswing by turning back for a fair amount right from the start of the backswing. In the pro with the grey shirt, the hips are fairly still during the starting phase of the backswing. Most modern books have the backswing started with the arms and upper body, and later the hip turn second. Of course the downswing is the reverse with the hips and lower body moving first, and then the upper body and arms second, and the hands last. Bobby Jones did a lot of hip turning during the backswing (and he did very well indeed,) but the modern players use less hip turning during the backswing by finalizing the hips turning last during the backswing.
Richard Chen says:

July 29, 2012 at 9:22 am

The video appears to show the setup has the trailing arm (left arm playing from the left side) appearing ramrod straight. This tends to keep the rear shoulder from dipping more lower during the setup, and thus tends to not allowing the head from being able to be set further away from the target during the setup. In Hogan’s second book Five Modern Lessons of Golf, the slight bending of the rear arm during setup is described in detail.

With the rear shoulder low, and thus the forward shoulder high during setup, the initial takeaway will be turning the forward shoulder back down (and thus raising the rear shoulder backup at the same time) to swing the arms back with minimal to no movement of the hips and the front kneed. Turning the shoulders back to even height with each other is moving back to a normal and natural position of the shoulders (assuming the player has both shoulders at essentially the same height when standing normally) that will not need the hips and legs to move to adjust. When the front shoulder (left shoulder for a right-handed player,) reaches the point of rotating below even level, the left knee starts to bend out (and in) to allow the leading hip to lower to make room for the leading shoulder to turn down below even level (height.) In the modern backswing, this delay of the start of the turning the hips back results in less turning of the hips during the backswing, which makes the swing more compact with less unnecessary movements during both the backswing, and the downswing. With less unnecessary movements, the swing can become more accurate, and powerful. The delay of hip turn also encourages a more upright backswing than an overly flat backswing.
Richard Chen says:

July 29, 2012 at 10:56 am

Considering the accuracy and consistency of using the driver. Some consider the driver as the easiest of clubs, while at the same time the most difficult of clubs.

The driver is the only club where the ball can be teed up above the ground to eliminate the ground from impeding the striking of the ball, thus making the striking of the tee shot a lot easier. Besides, the newest drivers have super big clubheads and clubfaces to make striking the ball easier. Being the longest club, the driver allows the hands action to be slower (as compared to the long irons, for example) and still offer long distances.

The driver is difficult for beginners because it is the longest club so that the ball is the farthest away to make precise contact; however, for experienced players, this should not be a problem, specially with the new super-sized driver heads. The driver is also difficult for the beginners as it has little loft, so that beginners try to swing up at the ball to “lift” the ball into the air, resulting in a lot of topped shots; however, for the experienced players, this should not be a problem, as the driver still has enough loft to fly the ball into the air if the ball is contacted at the level of the sweet spot or above on the clubface without any swinging up at the ball. For the average golfer, the problem of the driver is that it imparts the most side-spin to product big slices (and hooks.) For the experienced and properly trained player, most side-spin problems can be controlled. Being the longest distance producing club, any deviations of clubface angle even small is amplified after the ball travels a long distance to land in the rough and in the trees. While the proper grip can deliver the clubface consistantly square at ball impact, inconsistent arm swings can change the clubface angle at impact from late and early hits.

A “late” hit is when the hands have swing past the “ideal” point of impact for the driver before actually contacting the ball. An “early” hit is when the hands have not swing up to the “ideal” point of impact with the hands when the ball is hit. When the ball is hit late, the clubface tends to be left “open” pointing to the right of target (for a right-handed player.) When the ball is hit “early” the reverse happens. This can be seen by setting up with the driver clubhead lying on the ground. With the driver clubhead lying on the ground, if the hands are moved forward, the clubface opens, and if the hands are moved back, the clubface closes. Even champions often inconsistently hit late, or hit early losing many championships after pushing shots way off line after hitting late.

It may be worthwhile to develop the ability to monitor, or to even control the precise position of the hands at the moment of impact to prevent late and early hits to eliminate push and pull shots of the driver due to clubface angle from being off.

First it is necessary to choose the “ideal” position of the hands at the moment of impact for the driver. Many champions advocate hitting the drive at or near the bottom of the swing arc. Sam Snead in an article said to neither hit the driver on the downswing nor on the upswing, excepting for special situations. Jones said to hit the exact back of the ball. The back of the ball offers a very precise and easily distinguished “point of aim” for the hand position at the moment of impact, while still offering half a ball width of upswing to the swing arc. When the hands are timed to be precisely inline with the back of the ball at the moment of impact (thus neither late nor early,) and with the proper grip squaring the clubface, and with the proper setup is help hit the ball on or near the sweet spot, and with a reasonably accurate swing path into the ball, the physics of this proper arrangement of the geometry of the club and ball cannot but land the ball somewhere in the fairway (assuming there is no drastic side winds.)

The driver can be the one of the easiest club to hit with the proper geometry aligned.
dan says:

August 3, 2012 at 9:51 am

Hi Richard,

Thank you for all of these comments. Very insightful. As far as the driver is concerned, I am trying to get my head and upper body to go back a few inches during the downswing just as you mentioned. My main swing issue right now is that I have a tendency to over rotate and when swinging drive my head through the ball which produces either a push or a pull hook. When I keep the head behind the ball, even to the point where it is moving backwards as the slow motion videos of pros shows, I make better contact and square up the face. It’s the same thing that I am working on with all of my clubs right now, I have spent too much time rotating my entire body through the ball and need to correct that and work on maintaining a good spine angle through the swing.

Thank you for all of this!

Dan
Richard Chen says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:50 pm

Part of the setup is the grip. How “strong” or “weak” is the grip depends on the individual. A “strong” grip is a golfing terminology indicating the amount the hands are turned away from the target, such that more knuckles of the leading hand can be seen by the player, and the “V’s” formed by the thumbs and forefinger of both hands pointing to the rear shoulder, or even further to the rear of the rear shoulder for a very “strong” grip. A “strong” grip during setup will have the back of the left hand, and the palm of the right hand (for a right handed player) pointing somewhat up toward the sky. A “weak” grip during setup has the hands basically set vertically with the back of the left hand, and the palm of the right hand pointing horizontally, and not somewhat up toward the sky. Whether a “weak” or a “strong” grip is used depends on the individual. Nicklaus said if a person when standing naturally has the hands turn in somewhat should use a strong grip. Sarazen used a very “strong” grip during setup, while Miller uses a very “weak” grip position. Hogan used a very “strong” grip is his early career, and switched to a “weak” grip later on.

The issue is that if a player uses a “weak” grip when he naturally should use a “stronger” grip will tend to push the ball. It may be that players whose shoulders stoop somewhat naturally will have there hands naturally turn inward, and a “stronger” grip will be more natural.

In my opinion, shifting the head back a little during the later part of the downswing should not be overly and consciously forced to happen in the ideal swing. It should be subconsciously “allowed” to happen by not trying to fight against physics, so as to allow any alight head movements that are natural outcomes of the laws of physics. For example, Nicklaus said in his book that when he was a teen first taking lessons, his teacher held the hair on his head to keep his head still during the swing. Nicklaus has a very still head during the backswing, and with a fairly small amount of head moving back during the later part of the downswing to impact. He appears to be trying to not make any unnecessary head movements, but still allowing some head movements where is natural to have such movements (according to the dictates of the laws of physics.) Nicklaus keeps his head shifting to a minimum during the backswing by the configuration of his setup. At the end of his backswing, he allows his left heel to lift well off the ground to allow a full shoulder turn back. He makes a sharp and rapid shift back to his left leg and heel by planting his left heel down. In his video, Nicklaus said that once he rapidly replanted his left heel, he will swing all out right from the start of the downswing to gain maximum clubhead speed, but only after the left heel is replanted will be swing all out. Tiger Woods in his book has the first part of the downswing not at all out until later in the downswing.

Another thing about the grip, is that the new clubs can have synthetic club grip materials that offers a natural tackiness and contouring, which allows the club to be gripped with minimal pressure, while still maintain full control.
Richard Chen says:

August 4, 2012 at 12:15 am

Nicklaus picks a spot a little in front of the ball to swing his driver clubhead to. It appears his strategy is to use two points to establish a line for swinging his driver clubhead on line during the release and impact. He first swing the driver clubhead into the ball (the first point of the line) and than to try to swing the clubhead to the spot on the ground somewhat in front of the ball (the second point of the line.) Byron Nelson went a step further as described in his book. He said he program himself to first swing the clubhead to the ball, and then continue by “throwing” the clubhead pass the ball all the way to the “target.” (Although my formula is not to imaging swinging the clubhead all the way to the target, but only a third of the way to the target.) Hogan talked about having both arms straighten out at a point just pass the ball, and thus having the clubhead going down the line (towards the target) the longest. In all these cases, they try to keep the clubhead traveling on the target line during impact, and for a moment after impact. Snead taled about keeping the back of the left wrist straight and from breaking down by cupping, so as to keep the clubface angle from shifting out of square during the release and impact. If the clubhead is made to swung on line the longest, and the clubface is kept from deviating from square through impact, then the chances of getting a good drive becomes almost automatic.
Richard Chen says:

August 12, 2012 at 11:13 pm

Part of setup can be the waggle. Hogan considered the waggle to be a fundamental. He recommended practicing the waggle, and practicing a slow motion back and forth drill of the release daily for the driver release. Such waggle and release practice drill can grove the releasing point for the driver swing, which is further away from the target than the release point for iron shots.

Hogan stressing the waggle is somewhat strange from today’s viewpoint, as few to almost no touring pros waggle now days. Nicklaus do not waggle at all during the setup, and players since do little waggle. Until the driver swing is grooved to the extend that it can be perform automatically, using the waggle can help speed up the development of the groove.

The waggle is performed with minimal lower body movements. The slow motion release drill can involve the hips turning back and forth with the legs working. The left heel (for a right handed player) can lift off the ground a little to shift weight to the right leg during the small back swing, while the right heel can lift off of the ground somewhat to begin shifting the weight back onto the left foot and the left leg with the left heel replanted onto the ground during the forward swing. The head is kept relatively still. At the point of impact at the back of the ball position, the right kneed is bent toward the left to make room for the right shoulder to turn more steeply downwards, and thus allowing the left shoulder to turn fairly steeply upwards. The upper body is somewhat closed going into the release, and turn to a little open at the impact point.

The amount of waggle and release drilling contributes to Hogans accuracy and consistency. Hogan changing to a very “weak” grip for a relatively none tall build may result in the need for a lot of drill practicing to groove the extra amount of hand and arm rotations to square the club face.

In the forward swing for the driver, as the hands swing down to about in front of the right hip (for a right handed player,) and the hands swing down about in line and below the right shoulder (with the shoulders still a little closed,) the hands release and rotate counter-clockwise (with the shoulders turning to a little open) into the ball to square up the clubface at the impact point.

Some instructions describe turning the back of the left hand to face the target (and thus squaring the clubface at the impact point.) At the same time, the right palm turns to face the target.

Another way is to imagine gradually reducing the loft of the driver clubface back to the loft at setup during the final release, By reducing gradually the loft of the driver clubface releasing into the ball, the hands, arms and shoulders will turn automatically the proper amounts to square the clubface at the point of impact. After the the clubhead passes through the point of impact, the loft of the driver clubface can either to continue to gradually decrease in loft, or the loft can be held to point for a moment looking at the target at ground level. This will help keeping the back of the left wrist flat going through the impact point and beyond.
Ben says:

August 14, 2012 at 9:16 pm

Hi im really happy your shooting for nothing less than the PGA tour, I look forward to seeing your future results. Best of luck! – Ben

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