I had the pleasure of meeting a Toronto-residing DJ Watts Golf blog reader and commenter today at the range.
David D. and I have been corresponding via email for a couple of years now without having had the chance to meet.
He made the short drive today from the city to the range where I practice.
While he couldn’t hit any balls due to a back ailment for which he’s still awaiting treatment, we talked while I hit balls and he observed.
I was having real trouble with my Driver again, which I attributed to performance anxiety, as I was hitting my irons and wedges exactly where I wanted them.
But with the driver, everything was a pull-fade, starting left and going high and drifting right. Granted, there was a slice wind today, but my irons and wedges had just the natural fade action that I’m used to seeing. The Driver howeverwas just not on.
Wouldn’t you know it that David came in where Steve P. left off last week with critiquing my own swing action? Where Steve had noticed something, David noticed something else, and the two were definitely related.
David noticed that my shoulders were very open at address. So open, that it almost assuredly explains my issues with the swing plane, my outside-in divot and the tendency to come over the top when swinging, a trait that gets more pronounced the longer the club I’m swinging.
It isn’t an issue, I imagine, with the shorter clubs, as I was hitting the ball with precision with those, but the Driver was a disaster. David said my shoulders were not only open, they were “grotesquely” open, or something to that effect.
So, I made the adjustment to squaring my shoulders at address instead of having them wide open, and this is how I looked then:
When David made his observation, we immediately went to the camera to see what I was doing. He took several video clips with his camera, which he will try to upload to Youtube so I can grab them and re-post them to the blog, but we got a video clip with my camera which I’ll share now – and what a difference it made to my swing!
DJ – Square Shoulders – More Inside Out Down Swing
—
What a difference in my down swing plane. Below, you will see the difference, where my club shaft is closer to my right forearm on the down swing, compared to previously where the shaft is aligned more with my left arm for a much steeper plane.
Today:
—
Before:
Also, at impact, I have much more “right elbow tuck” to the right side than usual, where my right arm is straightening at impact and the right elbow has left my side.
What a difference!!!
—
This change will have me swinging much more on the inside-out path that I want, and will eliminate the steep, outside-in path that I’ve had no matter what I did before.
And to think it was something as simple (relatively) yet crucial as my thinking my shoulders were square when they were really wide open.
I want to thank David for a very enjoyable time (we were there for 3.5 hours, and it felt like a blink of time, to be honest), and I look forward to his being 100% and able to swing again.
Final Note – 8 Second Hang Time?!?!
I had David capture one of my swings on video and keep the camera on me to determine what my hang time was with the Driver.
He had mentioned that the pros he watches (he’s an avid tournament hound on the Florida-SC swing of the PGA Tour) get hang time with their Drivers of around 6 seconds.
I would think it might be a little longer, but again, the PGA Tour stats show not much difference from David’s observations.
So, I hit a drive, and timed the ball landing to the tap of m Driver on the deck. On this particular drive, I missed right, but the hang was – get this – 8 seconds. The clip is the proof.
—
Just an interesting tidbit, I thought…
530y par 5 today, almost made it in 2 shots, 5y short green. Little to much draw or I am likely to made the green. By far for me the best result I had on that hole ever, and chipping into the hole for eagle was just cake on the ice. starting to be able to pound the ball now.
I always want people to make comments, and find out what one does might be off, set up as noted will drift or be adjusted over time to make some compensation since muscles and perceptions tends to slowly adapt over time which can be hard to spot.
Absolutely, Robert. I was telling David that when I’m shooting the videos, I tend to have a much better set-up and swing, because I’m actually consciously focused on it for the video’s sake. Alone on the range, however, it is easy to drift into bad habits for whatever reason, and then to wonder why your striking is off.
David’s observation however solves the mystery for me in my mind as to why there are times I kill the ball and other times that I struggle with the driver. Depending on my rhythm and coordination on a given day, I could hit the ball great or very badly, because of the shoulder position in my set-up.
Just a few swings, and it felt worlds different from my accustomed feel at address and especially impact.
I feel like a kid that just found the map to a secret candy store, now that I’ve had a couple of trusted people with knowledge of Mike Austin look at my swing and give me their observations. I was out in the sun for 3.5 hours, and I hit two large buckets, but I can’t wait to get back out there!!
Love the look MUCH better with the red shirt on!! Now that’s absolute power! DJ, you know this……with great power comes great responsibility. And you are doing a great job. I want you to be my eyes. We will talk more about that another time I hope.
It was a very different feel through the impact zone, BT.
As for you having eyes, I’ll be there for ya
Did range work yesterday to further clarify and know the “golden move.” Everyone here knows what you mean about performance stress and not having confidence to hit the shot as unsure of the whereabouts the ball may go or perhaps going time and time again where it is not wanted to go and so when zone is found, its elating. The turmoil can be suffocating.
Club championships begin and while I hope to repeat, I have an emotional distance from competing due to having a happiness of finally having great ball striking… “getting it.” It seems I can finally enjoy the game on a more complete level. Scoring comes from good shots which comes from the knowing and doing and so there is an illusion of competing as you are not playing against another person but you are playing a course with a little white ball.
Another thing I did or may do for performance anxiety is going into a little mantra which is “feel the pain.” It settles me down and connects me with the body. Its means accepting wherever you are and going from there. Feeling it. When the pain or anger or mental chatter is dissolved, the body returns to a higher level of performance.
Hello Chief!
There’s a lot but not enough said about the mind in golf, but I understand this site is about the golf swing.
To me it’s all to do with expectations. Whether you’re playing on your own , in a friendly 4 ball, or club/pro event, we all want to do well, perform to our best, be succesful.
It takes a great, peacefull mind to play shot after shot in golf, just enjoying the moment and not being concerned where the ball ends up. Ofcourse we are concerned but I hope you understand what I mean?
We are playing with and against nature, knocking a little ball into a little hole, but our biggest battle is always going on inside.
The result is not everything but letting go is.
Normally two flaws can be made in the aiming, either to much left or right.
I have aimed to much right, so I could then obviously open the shoulders to compensate to see the target better which is easy to do.
I took note where the target has to be in regard to where I look and been lately finding this works well now. It also helps hitting the ball consistently with the same swing.
You also need to be able to trust your equipment. Since I had new stiffer shafts in my irons I know where the ball is going. I came 4th in my Club Championships at the weekend, if my lie angles had been correct I wouldn’t have missed 3 greens and would have been 2nd (too upright causing a dead straight pull). Lie angles sorted now back to standard, bring on the next competition!
Enjoying the live coverage of the British Open whilst at work. Gawd bless the BBC
.
Soooo, commentator just said Ricky Fowler has some niggling back problems and he is having an MRI scan next week. He is 23 for gods sake.
Well the way Ricky is swinging… we all knew it would happen sooner or later…!
I didn’t catch that, Seb. Then again, coverage began here at 4:30am and I missed the first couple of hours, and the last few, with my eyes closed fro some reason.
Re Rickie: That’s awful. I remember wavering as to whether or not I should write about my hunch on where Rickie was headed, just two months ago, because I think he’s a nice kid, and I didn’t want to sound as if I were rooting for something bad to happen.
That said, the only surprise for me is that it happened this soon. I was thinking more along the lines of his late 20′s…
I seen 30 year old golfers with surgery in the back.