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Nick has been in Florida trying to earn money on the mini-tours and ready himself for Q-School each year, but has not had the kind of success he was hoping for. He played a few times with one of my students, Ben Silverman, and decided to come see me for some help. As you will see, Nick has what most of the young players have these days, a great build for the game and a fluid, powerful motion. When length is not an issue it all boils down to control, and that’s where swing analysis and technique work come into play. The first thing I noticed was the weak approach position at shaft parallel in the forward swing. Some really good players approach like this (not many) but have a way of dragging the hands through impact and producing a great strike. Almost all of these players have pivot motion that puts their bodies in perfect position to deliver the club, which somewhat makes up for the wide approach. In Nick’s case his lower body movement is a problem, as he gets down and heavy on his right side (he’s a lefty), which makes his legs slow to clear. With the hips still square to the ball late in the swing and the hands coming in wide his release pattern is a chase out to the left, and his hands are left to square the face with a more complicated action that he can handle effectively and consistently. We talked a lot about the sidearm throwing motion and about moving the body in order to make room for the left arm to get in front of the body and to deliver the club with the hands more forward in the impact area, which would allow him to achieve a sharper strike on the ball as he rotated and exited more to the right. We finished up with some stop-and-go drills that really looked good.
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