Lesson #1
March 13th 2021
Hey Dave! Here’s what we worked on in our first lesson. From the “Down the line” angle I noticed you had a little early extension of the pelvis which tells me you’re not rotating very well and will lead to inconsistent ground contact. During your swing we can observe your ideal swing plane via the white line drawn. You should see your club path go from very under the line to above the line reflecting an in to out path. This path is severe enough that it is preventing you for making divots with irons, aka a sweeper. Pair this with a closed club face and you get big left misses and inconsistent distance control.
From the “face on” angle I noticed your right arm disconnecting from your body a little too much. Much like Ben Hogan and other great ball strikers I really like to emphasize how important controlling the right arm for a right handed golfer can be. Because you’re lacking rotation in your golf swing you can see your spine tilting away from the target at impact and your arms are slapping at the ball fully extended explaining the severe in to out path.
We started off with a drill where you put a head cover, glove, or towel, under your right armpit. Then we make controlled swings while not letting the object fall out of said armpit. This helps engage your bigger muscles and improves your overall rotation through the shot. Also, by keeping the right arm controlled you will have a much more stable club face that will result in straighter shots. Much better impact position shown above with arms staying more in front of your chest and right arm much less extended towards ball.
An even better impact position shown above with a half swing shot.
When were talking right arm control, no one does it better than upcoming PGA Tour superstar Viktor Hovland. Observe some great examples on the right.
So next we started to pair the right arm control drill with the intention of taking a divot. What you’ll notice is a swing path that is much closer to neutral (neutral being the white line). This is a great step in the right direction and I think this what you should feel while you practice and even play. Controlled right arm to keep the club face from closing paired with a “over the top” cut swing feel.
We took the training wheels off and further explored the cut swing feels to get the path even a little above the neutral line. This is great progress because in golf, in order to get lasting changes, we have to over exaggerate the change. I think we’re on the right track to a more neutral, rotational, consistent, golf swing. Next lesson will be focused on increasing your body’s rotation in order to eliminate early extension, arm throwing, and severe in to out path.