I went to the range today and couldn’t help hitting these knockdown shots.

Basically, setup with the ball in about the middle of your stance.

Swing about half-way.

Really try to swing about 50-75% of your total effort.  You need to swing easy for the knockdowns and hit it super-crisp.

Make sure your follow-through is longer than your backswing.  A lot of teachers will teach you to stop at waist-level.  That is not a good way since there’s a chance you might de-ccelerate.  The best way is to swing nice and easy but make sure you follow-through.  There is no need to abruptly stop the club.  (If you watch Tiger hit knockdowns, he makes a nice follow through.)

You also want to try to see if you can get your right arm straight like the red line.  (Obviously, I didn’t do that, still working on it…)

backswing, crisp, knockdown, red line, right arm, tiger, waist level backswing, crisp, knockdown, red line, right arm, tiger, waist level If you like this post, please subscribe to the ProGolferDigest via RSS or via E-Mail to receive updates.

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Today, we are going to study the “head” of a pro golfer.  Last time I did a Down-the-Line swing analysis of Adam Baddeley, but today we will do the front view.

How much should your head move during your golf swing?

Most good pros, including Tiger Woods, will move about 1-2 inches on the backswing and come back to the same head position addresss at impact.

Let me prove the point by going through Adam Baddeley’s swing:
(Note the red line I put on Adam’s left ear.)

Notice Adam’s head moved about 1-2 inches already on the takeaway?

This is good, Tiger does this too.  But it doesn’t matter whether you move that head on the takeaway or at the top of the swing, it just matters you do move it.

Note: Moving the head means you have successfully transferred some of your weight to your right foot, critical for hitting the ball straight and far.

Look at the top of his swing, it’s now clear he’s in perfect position. 1-2 inches of head movement is usually the best.  Anything more or less means you are either doing a C-reverse-weight-shift OR you are swaying too much.

Note: Sometimes even I sway a lot by overswinging (thus my head moves about 3-4 inches), simply keeping a keen eye on your head movement will help you not overswing plus stay in perfect balance.

Notice that Adam’s head has come back to the same position at address.  This is a good sign he’s transferred his weight back to the left foot.

Here, Adam actually pulls his back a little.  (Your goal is try to keep it near where the head was at your address)  He might be trying to hit it a little hard here but it’s not going to affect his shot that much.

Notice how the head now is way right of the original red line.  This is good and shows that you’ve completely transferred your weight to the left foot “after” hitting the ball.

Today’s Lesson?

Take a video shot of your swing from the front like Adam’s swing shown above.  Then download the free V1-Home software and see how your head performs.

It’s a very simple but effective way to correct your swing, by looking where your head is.

I assure you if you can achieve that 1-2 inches consistently, you will hit the ball consistently too and hit the ball farther and straighter.

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Well, while analyzing swings of the great pro golfers, I got the desire today to go out to the range for the first time in weeks.

I hit the ball great and here’s why.

As you can see in the address, the shoulders  are parallel to my target line and my clubface is about 8 degrees open to hit a power fade. (My video camera is a little off…)

My stance is closed, which is a natural habit I get into but I should really open up more.

At 1/2 way point, My club is in perfect plane from the ball through the middle of my right shoulder socket. This is the the plane Tiger Woods follow and me three.

At top of my swing, the butt end of my club shows that I am still in plane. I also have a very good triangle going, which is good. The only bad part about this backswing is that I just finished working out before hitting balls so my muscles are too tight. Tightness is not good for golf but oh well…

On the downswing, I dip my head a little, which is my bad habit and I am also slightly inside of the plane. (probably because of my slightly closed stance)

At impact, I hit the 3 wood perfect. It makes thing really big “ping” sound.

My shoulders are about parallel to my target line.

My clubface is actually open and I am trying to hit a power fade here.

My followthrough is slightly flat. Meaning I came over the ball a little. This is partly due to my slightly closed stance.

I might block the ball 1 out of 10 balls or pull it because of the closed stance.

If I opened my stance, most of my problems would probably be solved.

Oh well, next time I get to go hit balls, I will probably have “other” problems but yes alignment is probably the most important. You have wrong alignment at the beginning of your swing and you can have all kinds of problems.

Overall, I hit the ball great today. I feel like I can try out for the PGA Tour the way I hit the balls today.

Well, even with the closed stance and my bad swing habits, I hit a lot of good shots at my target. Well, good scores are about good short game mostly anyways.

What is my long term goal?

Well, it has always been to play pro golf. Now, I make money online to feed my family and make a living. Once I can get that going faster, I might have more time to practice and eventually start playing in some mini-tour events again.

Will it happen?

Of course, my dreams never die. That’s probably why I made this blog. Once I can build up my blogging business to about $20K per month, I should be able to spend more time golfing and of course, blogging more often on here too.

Here’s a video of the 3 wood power fade I hit just perfectly about 270 yards:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Don’t blame me if my swing sucks right now, I go to the range about once a month.

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Retieft Goosen has one of the best rhythms in golf.  Here’s Retief at setup.

At backswing, Retief is right on-plane.  Now, there’s 2 types of planes that 99% of tour pros use.

One plane is the plane formed by the ball to the middle of the shoulder sockets (the top red line) and the other one is the plane formed by the ball to the belly. (the bottom red line)

Retief here uses the 2nd type of plane, which is what David Leadbetter promotes whereas Butch Harmon does the other.

The impotant thing is to keep your plane within the two different types of plane.  Anything higher or lower will make your swing a lot harder to keep up and cause back problems.

Jack Nicklaus probably breaks this swing plane rule but that explains why he needed a ceramic hip replacement.

At the top of the backswing, Retief has a beautiful triangle.  His club is pointing slight to the right of parallel meaning he will probably hit from inside-out and a slight draw.   This can become a problem for Retief if his club starts pointing more right and cause blocks to the right under pressure.

At downswing, Retief is actually a little too “steep”.  This can again cause blocks to the right.  But Retief manages to get back on plane right before impact:

As you can see, Retief is coming in a little too much inside-out.  His shoulders are still inside-out.  He might hit a good 15 yard draw on this drive but again, this type of too much inside-out action will cause blocks to the right.

However, it’s always better to error on the inside-out plane than outside-in plane since you do hit the ball more accurately this way.

After impact, Retieft shows he hit the ball perfectly as his club and right arm are in plane with the ball.

This is the secret.  No matter how bad your backswing is, if you can end up in this position, you will hit the ball very very good like Retief Goosen.

Here’s the video:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

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Adam Baddeley has one of the simplest swings in golf.

As you can see Adam at address, he’s perfectly balanced, ready to go.  I set up the big red line from the clubhead through middle of his shoulder sockets.  (That is important as I will explain later…)

Adam’s new swing is actually a little flatter than most other tour pros but it’s perfectly acceptable position here.  He “rotates” more laterally than the other players, which is part of his swing technique.

At the top of his swing, again, Adam is very flat compared to most other tour pros but he does remind me of Ben Hogan, who swung even flatter than Adam.

The important thing to note is how “well balanced’ he is, he looks like he’s almost just standing tall without the club in his hand. (for the lower body)

At downswing, Adam is perfectly ready to launch the ball with his swing plane slight flatter than the red line from the ball through his shoulder sockets.  This means he’s coming into the slightly inside-out, meaning he will hit a nice powerful draw.

At impact, again, Adam is in perfect balance.  If you watch his spine and lower body only, you can tell how well balanced he is, almost standing normal.

That is the key, you always want to feel like you are simply standing up tall throughout the swing.  It lets your body balance itself automatically.

Now, here’s the secret.  Notice that red line from the ball through the shoulder sockets?  Well his clubs right on it after impact.  This ball probably was hit almost perfectly.

Here’s the video:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

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