I notice you are lifting your club above your waist. It isn’t necessary to generate the reverse rotation needed to build the golf swing. you have 2 options – A- push the club away from your body further, or B- keeps your hands lower and allow the shoulders to rotate the club, not the arms.
Your setup is good. It looks like you might be lined up with your shoulders to the left and your feet to the right. Sometimes the camera angle causes this, but always make sure the alignment of your shoulders. I will line up with my feet to the right of my target, then my shoulders right of that to force a draw without changing my swing.
The natural thing is for your arms to hang. When you ask the question, “Where do I put my hands? My answer is: Where it will be at impact. You don’t have to mimic photo 5, but that is where I would suggest you start with at address. I drew the line.
There are 2 schools of thought with regard to weight shift. The stack-and-tilt sophists believe all rotation is around the left leg. Other sophists point out that the hip thrust does not have to abide by the arch of the swing. Make your own decision, just remember to be balanced through every step of the swing. Watch what your head does is move up almost the size of a golf ball. Do you find yourself ever swinging and missing? if your swing moves 2″ above the ball, you are not going to advance it.
Here we have what is called a “flat” swing. Your left shoulder is not facing ball. There are many ways you can get your shoulders to point at the ball; the easiest is to simply raise your hands a bit higher at the top of the swing.
I am not a fan of lifting the left heel off the ground. Sport Science https://youtu.be/wguFY0DDoAU proved that the percentage gained in power isn’t worth the lack of control. I had a fellow pro who lifted his left heel on long irons and woods, but kept it on the ground for his shorter irons, proving my point that if you want accuracy, your platform needs to be stable.
I would also think about what your left knee is doing. the reason we stick the left knee toward the ball is to allow more movement of the hips.
Your arms are flatter than your shoulders, but your club is right on plane. You mentioned that your shot either goes straight or fades to the right. You stay in this pocket through the swing. Good for accuracy, but if you want to control the ball, and not have the game control you, you want to swing through to the right.
I circled the right hip because it is lagging behind. When you are towing a skier on a jet-ski, the power is coming from the boat (your core), and the skier is the club. Keep that hip speed in front of the hand speed and you will not only generate more clubhead speed, you will also start the ball to the right and create a natural draw.
Your right elbow is nice and tight and your lower body control is great. The shoulders and hips are behind the ball, but we are already at impact.
This displays that your version of “straight” is actually to the left. Kind of like our current political climate. The body is is a great position and I assume most of the time your left foot timing is correct. The right shoulder is also in a great position.
This gives you a look at where the club head is going after impact. From this snapshot, we see that your hips are not full extended, and there is still more power leftover. You also are allowing your wrist to release. If you look at the 2nd photo, you can see the wrist lag, that releases in this photo. Both fall off the direction of the rest of this swing. If you have accuracy issues, it can be worked on here.
The impact position of your right shoulder is now in perfect alignment with the ball. You can do this on the way up with the left shoulder. If you get good at it, you can use this line to swing under (draw the ball), or swing over (fade the ball), in micro-doses.
This is a great picture. The oval is the arch of your club, your right foot if pointing downline at your target. Your right arm is in line with the swing path. You are waiting for this…..but…., if you look at the oval at the point of impact, your club went to the left of the line. Everything else naturally went in a nice oval, but your hands took a different path. It’s not necessary to fix, I’m only pointing a more powerful, more accurate way of looking at the swing from my experience. Feel free to disagree.
And here is really where the but came in….we lost control. The club has perfectly aligned with your swing plane, but the right heel has turned off course. The hips are staring at Barry Bonds (The greatest left fielder of all time), and your shoulders are not facing your target. Your power is causing an infield shift.
At this point in the swing, the weight transfer is complete, and it is only a result of how you got there. If you finish balanced, you likely had a controlled swing. If you finished with your right heel pointing to first base, you threw something off balance in the swing. Over-rotation means your energy isn’t going through the ball, it is lost in the recovery. Your weight is on the weakest part of your left foot. Fix where your core is balanced in your setup to finish smoother. Feel a control at the end of the swing, not like someone is stealing the club from you as it pulls you to the left.
If this was your driveway, you would be driving into the bushes. Fortunately, you are much smarter than to hit the ball 40 yards to the left. You corrected this at impact. However, If you are struggling with accuracy, get all your momentum toward the target. If you are struggling to get more power, these body positions can help you make better contact, and you can adjust from there. If you are just trying to be better at golf, go putt!
