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Josh is an immensely talented young player working at a club in Jupiter, Florida while competing on various mini-tours, with the next goal, now that he’s missed the first stage of Web.Com Q-School, to qualify for the Latin American Tour. This is the first time I’ve seen Josh since Q-School, and his complaint is that his swing feels short, choppy and bunched up. Of course, to the eye at full speed it looks fluid and effortless, but when a good player feels things like he is describing you can bet that the slow- motion video will provide an insight into the cause or causes. I focus right away on the clubface being somewhat closed in the takeaway and then not opening as the shaft passes the point where it is parallel to the ground. Plenty of players start the swing with the face of the club somewhat pointed at the ground, but most will rotate the face open fairly quickly from shaft parallel to left arm parallel. I am a fan of opening the face gradually and consistently all the way to the top of the swing as I feel strongly that this allows the right arm to function properly. In Josh’s case, he starts the swing by pushing the grip downward with his left arm and shoulder, which immediately steepens his shoulder turn, and while this does not automatically cause the face to stay closed, it does for Josh. We start with stop and goes, concentrating on opening the clubface by rotating the left hand and on making sure the left shoulder moves more outward and less downward. This rounds his swing off and allows him to increase his swing length while keeping the right upper arm more in front of him. It also helps immensely with the overall feel of the motion by taking the stress out of the back of the right shoulder and keeping his left arm from getting jammed low into his chest.
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