The Offseason Plan Of Attack

I've been getting questions in regards to my swing and I feel like I now have an idea of what I want to do during the 'offseason' and here's what I came up with.

The basic premise is that I want to take much of the swing in the video below and add much of the S&T lower body components to it.



This happened back in May and a few days later I took some more video and came up with these swings.



So why am I so high on these swings? Mainly this was the best I hit the ball all year long. But that wasn't a surprised when you see some of these pics in the swing.


Not only do I like those alignments, but in the last picture I 'kept the head in the circle' on the downswing which is something I was trying to work on earlier.

So, here's some of the changes I plan on working on for now:

P1

Here's my old P1 address.


Here's the new P1 position. The weight is a little more on the left heel, overall with the weight at about 60/40 left side. Posture is better. The handle is moved forward and the ball position is about the same, slightly behind the circle.


I plan on keeping my right forearm 'on plane' at address and still incorporating the Right Forearm Takeaway. However, the right elbow in this 'new' P1 needs to be a little further out in front of the body. I noticed that it was sticking up against my abdomen at address and the 'old' P1 the elbow was out in front of the body. I'll explain why this is important in a bit.

P4

A couple of months ago I lost the AC Power Adapter for my camcorder. Before that I was only filming Face On swings because I had some Face On alignments that I worried about. This was a big error in judgement because I started getting sloppy in my alignments, particularly from the DTL view and that got me where I'm at today.

Here's the major issue


Shaft is sort of 'laid off' at the top, clubface is shut. I think the main problem is the right elbow. Take a look again at that old P4.


As you can see, there's that 'space' between the right elbow and the right side. My 'new' P4 the elbow is glued to the right side.

I believe a major reason why I have gotten away from having that 'space' is because at address I had the right elbow up against my abdomen instead of out in front of the abdomen. I noticed this difference today when I was using what I knew from TGM's curriculum of using 'basic-acquired-total' motion and from what I know about learning feel from mechanics. Basically, I would get myself in the position I wanted the elbow at the top of the swing and then go from the top and drop down to the address position. I then noticed it was much easier to get the elbow in the position I want at the top if the elbow is not up against the abdomen at address.

I HIGHLY recommend that if you're working on your swing like I am, you should videotape it as much as possible. Anytime you're making changes that's a very delicate time and the golfer must 'get it right.' If you're not videotaping the swing, you can easily start doing things wrong that you *think* are right and ingraining a flawed alignment which can lead to compensations. I think with the quality, low cost and convenience of camcorders, Homer Kelley would have been a huge advocate of using a camcorder for all practice sessions.

So, for now the main goal is to work on the right elbow at P4 and see if that gets the clubshaft in a better alignment and the clubface more square. Here's the old P4 from the Face On view.


I like this position very much, but I want it with more waist bend and a little more weight on the left side. Also, if you look at my current P4 from the DTL view, you will see that my right knee is locked. I've confirmed this with the S&T guys and they say that the right leg should 'straighten', but do not lock. If you look at my old P4 from the DTL view, you will see a straightened, but not locked right knee. I think this pic of Mr. Hogan at P4 is something I have in mind.


Essentially, these are the things I want to work on first before I start making adjustments to the downswing. The main theme with the downswing will be the lower body action and 'keeping head in the circle.' However, I think making these adjustments to P1-P4 will help with 'keeping the head in the circle' on the downswing. And remember, here's the footaction I'm looking for.



As far as the other lower body action, I'm looking for more 'linear' hip action on the downswing and getting about 90% of the weight on the left side with a flexed left leg at impact.

My general feeling is that my old swing back in May was very, very good. But the poor posture, lack of waist bend and lower body movement prevented it from being a great golf swing and prevented me from being a really good ballstriker. My main issue that would occasionally creep up in the old May swing was the hips would rotate too quickly and throw the downswing out of whack. So if I can incorporate those S&T lower body components that will make it less likely for me to rotate those hips too early. And I will be more likely to 'get the head into the circle' on the downswing and that will help increase power, accuracy and consistency.

For now, I'll work on the right elbow and the clubface at P4 along with the changes at P1 and post them here probably on Wednesday. Starting Tuesday I plan to get back to an exercise and stretching routine and in about a month I plan on trying a program to help with lower body strength and to better utilize 'ground forces' in the golf swing.

EQUIPMENT CHANGES

Here's a look at my current bag:

Driver: Cleveland Hi-Bore XLS 10.5* (Fujikura Low-KickPoint Stiff)
3-Wood: Cleveland Hi-Bore XLS 15* (Fujikura Low-KickPoint Stiff)
3-Hybrid: Mizuno Fli-Hi CLK 20* (TT Hybrid - Stiff)
4,5,7-PW: Mizuno MP-62 1* strong, 2* upright (Rifle Flighted 5.5 +1/4")
6-iron: Mizuno MP-62 1* strong, 2* upright (KBS Tour Stiff +3/4")
GW: Nickent ARC 50* 2* upright (TT DG S300 - same length as PW)
SW: Titleist Vokey 54-08 (TT DG Wedge Shaft)
LW: Cleveland 588 BeCu 60* (TT DG Wedge Shaft)
Putter: Yes! Victoria II 2.5* loft, 74* lie angle

I should be getting the Swing Speed Radar in about a week or so. The goal is to reach my goals with my swing alignments and to increase swing speed. If those things happen, I will probably go to a lower lofted driver with a higher kickpoint shaft. I need a lower lofted 3-wood (13*). I will keep the iron heads, but change the shafts. I put a KBS Shaft in my 6-iron to try it out because that was the shaft I was considering to put in and I really like the shaft. It feels much like a Rifle shaft, but has noticeably more 'zip' to it.

I also plan to get some Trackman time to better help get my swing where I want it and to focus on Angle of Attack, Clubface Angle and 'true path' numbers.










3JACK