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Hi Wayne,
I’m not going make it to FL this winter so here are some new videos. . I’ve been working extremely hard on keeping the head out over the ball throughout the swing. I think you will agree that progress has been made. However, it should be noted that during the swings you see here, I am REALLY focusing on it and it’s all I’m thinking about. I find that I go right back to backing out of it if I ease up and let myself think about other things.
My actual game on the golf course is telling me that we must be making some real progress. My handicap index is down to 0.6 (the lowest of my life), I’ve had a couple nice tournament results, and I almost never shoot anything higher than about 75 in casual rounds anymore. I still don’t really strike it with consistent solidness, but I just don’t seem to hit very many damaging shots either. It’s like we’ve gotten enough good stuff in there so that I can at least play.
Because I’ve really been focusing on keeping that head out over the ball to the exclusion of all else, these videos clearly show other things I’m not doing right that we’ve talked about previously. We can clearly see that I’m still throwing the club with zero shaft lean or sustain through impact, which I must say is quite frustrating. Honestly, it’s sometimes tough for me to believe I play as well as I do with such an early throwing away of the club. It seems like something a much less skilled player would do. I also know that clubface is still too closed on the takeaway, the right elbow is still a little bit pinched going back, and the head is still not releasing after impact.
I guess the questions are, once I can really ingrain that “head out over the ball” thing, which of these items should I focus on next? Or…do you think there’s something else I should shift the focus to?
Thanks as always
Phil
As Phil notes here, if he doesn’t focus hard on keeping his head out over the ball he always reverts to a substantial backup. The idea has produced nice results and as such should continue to be a key thought, but it should be remembered that the head is sitting on top of the trunk and is subject to the movement of the entire pivot. Phil’s main issue now is still his pattern of early extension in transition, and my suggestions are ones I have made in the past. I would like to see him maintain his right knee flex in the backswing, along with additional clubface opening and deepening of the right elbow at P3. I would counsel that Phil work on transition stop and goes, where he would get to P3 with the changes I mentioned, then after a few seconds finish his backswing and hit the ball in one motion. This would give him an opportunity to isolate the transition move, and specifically to attempt to continue loading back into his right heel as he completes his turn and then using the right side pelvic rotator muscles to reverse the direction of the hips and start the forward swing keeping his right cheek back on the tush line. At the same time, he would try to feel as though his hands were moving back toward the ball instead of behind him, allowing him to adduct the upper right arm and to get his right elbow into more of a pitch position so that he can forward lean the shaft at impact. Adding anterior pelvic tilt in transition while keeping the head out over the ball creates room for the right arm to drive more in front of the right-side rib cage, and since Phil has always had a nice amount of lateral pelvic shift he should be able to lean the shaft and better compress the ball.
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