Hi Wayne D – I enjoy the website and all the great content you have on it.
During my last online lesson (about a year ago), the key issue identified was the poor movement of my lower body. Specifically, my right hip had very little lateral movement from the top of the swing to the left arm parallel position, which caused my lower body to come out underneath me in the downswing. I have worked on this issue and I think I have improved it insofar as my lower body isn’t coming out from underneath me as much.
I have been hitting the ball solidly during the past few weeks. My driver is a little fade and my irons are going relatively straight. However, my driver miss tends to be a pull.
Despite hitting the ball fairly well recently, when I look at my swing on film I see certain things that are problematic. First, my club is laid off at the top of the swing which may contribute to outward path my hands take in the downswing. This seems to lead to a steep path and perhaps swing too much to the left (an out-to-in path). I would think a shallower swing path in the downswing might help with the pull miss. Also, I noticed my release is a little “flippy” at impact.
I look forward to your analysis.
This lesson is quite interesting in that a specific improvement has caused a few other important things in Michael’s swing to get worse. He has done a great job in getting his right leg to drive inward and thus keep his hips nice and deep, but in doing so he has cut off his backswing a bit (causing the laid off look at the top) and that combined with more upper body forward movement in transition has cause the left arm to be too far in front of him in the downswing with the club tipping out into a steeper approach than he had before. It is a good reminder for everyone that any significant change will affect everything else in the swing mechanics and you must keep an eye on what happens to everything else once the change has been made. Michael’s lower body movement has certainly improved and now if he can finish his turn a bit more and keep his left arm from rolling up as gets to the top, and then keep his head steadier in transition, the whole thing should be a lot better.
click to view Michael’s previous lessons