Online Students: Justin Baker

Justin has made nice progress since starting with the website, and even made a trip down to see me in July, where we got some nice work in. He is still struggling with the transition move, and I noticed right away that he had left out the line on top of his head, which, in Justin’s case, happens to be one of the most important lines to be aware of. As you can see, Justin lowers nicely in the backswing with the loading action taking his head downward a bit, then, instead of lowering again to get the lower body leading in the forward swing, almost immediately starts moving upward, to the left, and away from the ball. In the additional video I show a few clips from out lesson here at Woodmont where I had him throwing a junior club out of the bay (no one else was around), and it is apparent that when his brain is thinking “throw sidearm” he automatically lowers in transition and drives his hips to set up the right arm position and action necessary to facilitate that kind of throw. You can see that he has yet to incorporate that particular sequencing into his swing, but it is nice to know that he can physically accomplish it. It is evident that he needs to work specifically on that transition move, and that when he views it he should never leave out the line on top of the head and the one that lies vertical against the forehead. My suggestion for a drill is a simple one, though hard to do correctly. The swing will stop at left arm parallel in the backswing, at which point the “go” is to finish the backswing and hit the ball in one motion. You will get greater feedback and awareness of what is going on in transition since your swing is essentially starting much closer to that segment of the swing.