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I did a Ryo Ishikawa analysis some time ago entitled “What’s Wrong With Ryo?” and by the title you can tell that I spent most of the video trying to figure out why such a formerly budding superstar had stalled out and wasn’t performing at the level expected of him. If you pull up the video (click here) you will see that my main concern was Ryo’s tendency to cross the line at the top with a “pinched” right arm, and as the arm maneuvered the club to uncross it the elbow remained quite bent and the hands approached impact well away from the body. The issue was especially apparent with the driver, and if you can’t drive it on the Tour you are not going to stay out there long. This past week Ryo had a very good tournament at the Quicken Loans in Virginia, and it was obvious that his iron swing had improved dramatically and that the changes he has made are pretty much everything I suggested, although I have no idea if anyone who helps him ever watched my work. His club now points perfectly at the top, and at least with the iron shots I caught on video his hands approach impact much closer to the body, which in my mind makes the squaring of the face far easier than a higher approach because it lessens the need to arch the wrists to make the club descend to the ball at the same time they are trying to rotate the face and square it up. The problem I still see, however, is that his driver swing approach is still way above his address position, and his accuracy stats off the tee are not very good by Tour standards. So I would say it’s a mixed bag and if he could take the iron improvement over to the driver he would hit the ball much better in general.
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