All Posts by Wayne

Online Lesson: John Lamendola 18- Extension past Impact and Full Use of the Pivot

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

John’s swing has improved considerably over the time we’ve been working (mostly online) and he is committed to continuing to improve. We are to the point now where most of the major issues have been addressed, but as we all know there are always things to work on. In this video I suggest something that John had been thinking about for some time, the driving and straightening of the right leg up into the left in the impact area. When we started back in 2015, John’s pattern was to overturn with his right arm and shoulder, drop his hands down in transition, and early extend with the right side of his pelvis. A lot of that has been fixed (he will always be working on the “hands out” move), but as the hips stayed deeper and the lower body cleared better the right glute has tended to remain somewhat passive during the strike, not surprising when we worked so hard to keep it from pushing out to the right early in the downswing. I would like him to really fire that right glute up into the left as he also pushes up off the left leg, which in turn I am hoping will get him to extend more through the ball, using his pivot more fully and freeing up his arms as they move into the follow through. I think the combination of more vertical force and more extension will lead to more clubhead speed. One thing to note is that John mentioned that he has purposefully been trying to keep his left arm connected to his chest into the follow through (I thought that swinging indoors had engendered a cutoff finish), a thought I would like him to get rid of.

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Swing Analysis: Ryan Moore- Big Changes from 2010 to 2018

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

I have an attraction to odd looking swings that work, and Ryan Moore fits right in to that category. In this video I compare his swing from 8 years ago to now, and we see some significant changes in just about all parts of his motion other than his set up. In 2010 Moore had the shaft beyond vertical at P3, then used a huge flattening of the shaft to recover from his across the line position at the top. That shaft shallowing kept going much longer in the downswing before the club steepened back onto the plane, thus taking his release more out down the line and out to the right. In 2018 we see more forearm rotation in the backswing moving the shaft more on plane and less vertical at P3, not crossing the line at the top, less need for shallowing from P4 to P5, and with the flattening happening much more quickly (ending by P5) the earlier steepening of the shaft from P5 to P7 causing the approach to come from more in front of him and his release to exit more around to the left. I also look at an odd angle swing that gives us a nice view of exactly how Moore goes about flattening the shaft, something that he has done to some degree throughout his career.

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Swing Analysis: Cameron Champ Doing Pretty Much Everything I Teach

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

If there is a poster child for the Pivot Compression Swing and the various preferences, I have in general it would be Cameron Champ. He employs an on-plane takeaway with right loading to P2, then continues to load the upper body to the right with a massive turn while working the right side of the pelvis consistently deeper into transition, where he demonstrates the “hands out” hand path move with the shaft shallowing significantly as the right arm adducts, externally rotates and supinates. He drives that arm more forward than just about anyone I’ve looked at and even hits his driver with his hands way in front and the shaft leaning forward, producing an 8-degree launch angle and a descending blow. You might think that he was not optimizing his launch conditions but his 193-mph ball speed and 130 mph clubhead speed still have him hitting the ball further than anyone on any tour. He makes up for the forward leaning shaft with plenty of rightward spine tilt as his head moves hard right in the impact area with the driver and takes advantage of that approach by not doing that with his irons. The combination of today’s equipment with strength and technique has brought us to the point where players such as Koepka, DJ, Speith, Rahm and others are using a drive/hold release technique with their drivers and not only not losing distance but seemingly adding to their ability to create speed. Champ’s use of the sidearm throwing motion to create huge amounts of lag make his swing appear fluid and graceful, certainly not as violent as you might expect at such crazy speeds. It is also interesting that Champ feels like he is “jumping” up into impact, while his head stays perfectly level, another sign of his strength and athleticism. This would be a wonderful swing even if he hit the ball normal distances, but to have something so conventionally sound produce such power gives him a chance to be one of the greats.

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Cameron Champ: Amazing Par Shows Golfers How to Score

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

Cameron Champ has been aweing the golf world with his prodigious power, but in this short video I show how he recovered from two poor shots on one hole to pitch in for an unlikely par. I love his swing mechanics and the fact that he can produce the kind of speed he does and still keep the ball in play, but his ability to score when he doesn’t hit good shots is what will determine how far he rises in the world rankings, and that is what he demonstrates here by keeping his cool, grinding on each shot, and producing a momentum saving par with a great shot that follows two not so great ones. This is a wonderful lesson for all golfers, especially for those prone to getting upset after messing up. Champ just keeps moving on to the next shot, eyeing it without regard for what he has just done. It took me a long time to mature to where I didn’t let a previous shot affect the next one, and my message to anyone wishing for optimal results is to eliminate anything from your game that doesn’t help you succeed. It’s a brutal game and it is vital that you not let mistakes cause further mistakes.

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Online Lesson: Austin Kendziorski: Controlling Forearm Rotation in the Downswing

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

I’ve been working with Austin since the middle of 2015. Austin has a tremendous amount of power but has historically struggled with getting the clubhead trapped behind his hands at P6. He had a breakthrough in 2017 when he won his first college event at Erin Hills (where the U.S. Open was held) but began to struggle in the spring of 2018. We spent 3 days together in January of 2018, so I guess I must take some blame for that, but as I look back on his swings they look pretty good to me. Austin got frustrated by the summer of 2018 and decided to go full Dustin Johnson with the bowed wrist and closed face, but his results did not improve much even though it was amazing how close he came to copying DJ’s move. I compare Austin here with Kevin Tway, recent Tour winner who is built similarly to Austin, and who sports a short, wide swing that unleashes great power with the driver (Tway had the most drives over 320 yards on the PGA Tour in 2018). Though I don’t show it here Austin’s swing in the fall of 2017 was much shorter and wider, and as strong as he is (he has gained 35 pounds of muscle since I first met him, which may be another factor in his struggles) I like the Tway/Finau model where the extra speed generated by a longer swing is simply not necessary. If you are as strong as these guys are why not take advantage and learn a controlled swing that provides accuracy with the irons and plenty of length with the driver. I would also like to see Austin stay taller in the backswing and continue to work on trying to control the overly active adduction, supination and external rotation of his right arm in transition while trying to supinate the left arm earlier in the forward swing. I refer him to Tway’s rehearsal, in which he brings his arms down from P4 to P6 with little or no lower body movement and no effort to pitch the right elbow inward. While I wouldn’t want to see the hands heading to impact as wide as Tway rehearses, any problem Austin has had with his hands not getting forward enough has had to do with him overdriving his right elbow.

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Swing Analysis: Denny McCarthy- Extra Deep Pelvic Movement Provides Space

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

You may not have heard of Denny McCarthy but after his dominating victory in the Web.Com Tour Championship there are real signs that he is ready to make his mark on the PGA Tour. Denny is local to the DC area (3-time Maryland State Open Champion as an amateur, played in college at Virginia) and qualified for the Web.Com Tour at the end of 2015. He spent two full years on the Web.com, finally achieving his PGA Tour card for 2018, where he made 13 of 22 cuts and just under $500.000. His victory gained him the #1 ranking for money earned in the Web.Com finals, which gives him fully exempt status on the PGA Tour for 2019. He is small at 5’9” and 165 lbs. but in great shape and very strong, which is readily observable when you watch his pivot movement. He planes the club nicely and gets away with a substantial upper body back up in his backswing by keeping his pelvis deep and firing his glutes late in the forward swing, giving him the appearance of jumping up into impact without early extending. He keeps his arms and shaft well out in front of him which keeps the club from getting stuck and makes a left to right shot pattern more likely. His stats show issues with driving accuracy, but he showed huge improvement in that regard in 2018.

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Swing Analysis: Tom Weiskopf- 14 Years of Brilliance

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

Between 1968 and 1982 Tom Weiskopf won 16 PGA Tour events including the British Open in 1973, a year in which he won 7 times world wide and was ranked #2 in the world. Weiskopf came close to being remembered as one of the all-time greats, but suffered 4 runner-up finishes in the Masters and a runner-up and 4 top 4s in the U.S. Open. Just as players in the 2000’s had to deal with Tiger Woods, Weiskopf played in the shadow of Nicklaus and Watson, and by the mid-80’s had all but ceased to compete, not returning to competition until turning 50 in 1992 and playing the Senior Tour, where he won 4 times including the U.S. Senior Open in 1995. Weiskopf looks like a prototype for todays average Tour star, tall (6’3”), and lanky strong, hitting the ball longer and higher than most while exhibiting great control with his shorter clubs. We also see comparisons to today’s players as he utilized a full wind up backswing with his driver while keeping his iron swing much shorter. What stands out as a huge difference between Weiskopf’s technique and today’s swings is his large amount of lateral movement, both off the ball in the backswing and with his lower body in the forward swing. He, along with Nicklaus, Watson, and Johnny Miller (among others) finished his swing in a pronounced “reverse-C”, as his leg drive continued well past impact while he kept his head and upper body behind the ball. Other items of interest in his swing are his right forearm takeaway, his flat or even bowed left wrist and the top of his swing, and his “hands out” move in transition which kept the club nicely in front of him in the downswing.

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Online Lesson: Chip Zabatta- Lower Body Instability Leads to Faulty Backswing

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Chip is a good player (we played a round together with Tony Romo at his other club, Wykagyl) who is a member at and regularly plays one of the hardest courses in world, Winged Foot, which puts extra demands on his ball striking. Chip’s main tendencies are to lose his right leg brace in the backswing and turn his shoulders too flat, get his right arm and shoulder behind him at the top while he loses depth in his right hip and lets both knees flex toward the ball, then approach impact with his right arm in a push or punch position and his legs out from under him, all of which leads to a weaker impact than he would like. To correct some of these issues I want him to concentrate on his backswing first by widening his stance a bit and making sure to brace his right foot to the inside and to load his pelvis more to the center instead of letting his right knee rotate outward and his hips slide to the right. At the same time, I want him to try to widen his backswing (which would probably shorten it) by using right arm extensor action to keep his left arm straighter and to keep his right arm more in front of him at the top while increasing the pitch angle of his shoulder turn. At the same time, (I know this seems like a lot, but he can pick and choose what to concentrate on) he needs to make sure he does not let his knees drift toward the ball as he gets from P3 to P4. Using the shaft between his feet will help remind him to stay deep with his hips and to finish in the box. The idea behind these technique changes is to put his right arm in a better position at the top and at the same time help create space in downswing so he can take advantage and eventually have his upper right arm more in front of his chest and his hands more forward approaching impact.

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Online Lesson Antti Kauhanen: Early Loading Leads to Lifting at the Top

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Hi Wayne, thanks for the previous lesson, it has really helped me with my game. My misses with the driver are not as bad, but driving is still holding back my scoring. I have not been able to get rid of the lifting at the end of the backswing and it seems to me that the lifting is the key problem in my swing. The feeling I get at the end of the backswing is that my left shoulder is moving too much to my right and it causes me to lose sight of the ball and makes the transition much more difficult. If I manage to keep the left shoulder more to my left, I usually hit it much more solid. However, I really don’t know what the best way would be to try to fix this problem. I am sure you can help me sort this out.

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Online Lesson: Trent Tessler 4- Lack of Right Forearm Supination from P3 to P4 Causing Issues

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

In this video I focus on Trent’s right arm, forearm and hand action from P3 to P4. It appears to me that the lack of right forearm supination approaching the top of the swing causes Trent to cross the line, which is not optimal but certainly not catastrophic, but more importantly to leave the right forearm pronated and the right wrist in a position that makes finding his lag pressure point on the right index finger quite difficult if not impossible, in addition to sequence problems caused by right shoulder tension and pullback.

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