Shallow swing arc

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magicmarker

magicmarker

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Practice hitting irons off a tee an inch or so above ground, you will avoid being too steep or you could miss the ball.
 
dschultz6072

dschultz6072

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I had to change my intent and my physical motion to shallow my move out. I was yanking the handle into the ball, "lagging" the head, stalling out and giving it a swift pop with the hands. I gave up and sought help after getting pissed off at not being able to get my 3 wood higher than 15 yards off the ground. This is a good start:

I feel like I'm "casting" because I'm getting used to it but I'm hitting towering high draws. And I can hit driver off the deck now. I don't think I've ever had my right arm move the way it does right now. I'm getting the feeling of the going down then up after my trail thigh thing with the coupling point that was being talked about a couple years ago. General question, general answer. Hope it helps.
 
Erik_K

Erik_K

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Look at the shaft vs the path of the hands on the DS. If the shaft is overly steep coming down, that is to say on a steeper plane coming down vs the what the hands are doing, you are likely going to have an out-to-in path. If the face is also shut coming down, the blade is going to dig into the ground --> you'll have deep divots that point left.

At the top focus on letting the clubhead drop (almost as if you have a touch of left forearm clockwise rotation). Now the club can attack the ball from the inside some more. For some, this may feel like you are also letting your back face the target for just a bit longer. In other books this was called "flattening the shaft." I can tell you that if you are used to a shoulder spinning-type move from the top, this will be a rather uncomfortable drill or feeling. I am not the best at describing the anatomical movements, but you can also focus on having some external rotation of the right shoulder.

Other ideas:

Get an "inside approach" type device, or use any soft object (like a pool noodle) and that is 8-10 inches off the ground and over the ball (on your target line). Swing under it.

Practice swinging from a side hill lie with the ball above your feet.

Axis tilt: I like to feel like my hips to don't sway back and forth much, if at all. I am not advocating keeping the head dead still but if you have a lot of hip movement back and forth through the ball, it's hard to maintain your secondary tilt and hit the ball from the inside. I like to feel that my left hip pretty much stays quiet and that I might slide forward just a bit on the DS.

Go to the far end of the range where the net is. If you are a right handed golfer the net will be on your left. If you are used to pulling the ball and/or relying on a pull slice you can practice swinging out to the right a little bit. The idea here is that if you are faced with the ball going way out of bounds you need to change the path of the swing. Don't cheat and line up 45 degrees out to the right. Take a neutral, normal, stance and just focus on easy swings so that ball starts right and you either have a push or maybe a push draw.

Visualize a plane landing on a long runway. The plane (clubhead) would come in shallow and use up a lot of the runway vs a plane descending quite rapidly (and steeply) into the ball.

You asked a very vague, general, question and without a vid of your swing you are going to get a lot of general responses that may do more harm than good.
 
Last edited:
dschultz6072

dschultz6072

New
I'll put it this way, in order for the club to come in shallow, the way the shaft moves has to change. If you are used to bringing the handle with the grip pointed toward the target into the impact area, then the clubhead is way off the ground far too late and you have to dump it onto the ball at a sharp angle in a quick period of time. Couple this with a stall of your body and maybe a slight jump and you might be able to shallow the impact. But to do this and try to hit the ball flush with enough loft to control the trajectory consistently is tough to do. That would be trying to hit the ball with a 'football on it's end' shaped arc, a la Nicklaus' picture in Golf My Way. In order to get the more round shaped arc that you should be seeking, the shaft has to actively be extended away from you from the top as soon as you start back into the ball. If you are not extending it you are artificially creating the "wide, narrow, wide" look. The narrow part should happen simply because your body is pivoting to the left. Your arms and wrists should still be trying to keep the arc wide on the downswing. Basically the exact opposite of what the old "pump drill" has you do. This way when you are approaching the ball the clubhead is not so far off the ground and you don't have to take pie pans out of the turf. You still have to make sure your body is moving properly, but without a video, there is only so much one can say.
 
Z

zachgolf

New
How do we shallow out without thinking a lot of things in the DS? In the DS I want to just swing hard, mainly fire my lower body and rotate my shoulders on plane. I think the fix we are all looking for is in the BS.
 
J

jerry1967

New
Erik_K said:
Look at the shaft vs the path of the hands on the DS. If the shaft is overly steep coming down, that is to say on a steeper plane coming down vs the what the hands are doing, you are likely going to have an out-to-in path. If the face is also shut coming down, the blade is going to dig into the ground --> you'll have deep divots that point left.

At the top focus on letting the clubhead drop (almost as if you have a touch of left forearm clockwise rotation). Now the club can attack the ball from the inside some more. For some, this may feel like you are also letting your back face the target for just a bit longer. In other books this was called "flattening the shaft." I can tell you that if you are used to a shoulder spinning-type move from the top, this will be a rather uncomfortable drill or feeling. I am not the best at describing the anatomical movements, but you can also focus on having some external rotation of the right shoulder.

Other ideas:

Get an "inside approach" type device, or use any soft object (like a pool noodle) and that 8-10 inches off the ground and over the ball (on your target line). Swing under it.

Practice swinging from a side hill lie with the ball above your feet.

Axis tilt: I like to feel like my hips to don't sway back and forth much, if at all. I am not advocating keeping the head dead still but if you have a lot of hip movement back and forth through the ball, it's hard to maintain your secondary tilt and hit the ball from the inside. I like to feel that might left hip pretty much stays quiet and that I might slide forward just a bit on the DS.

Go to the far end of the range where the net is. If you are a right handed golfer the net will be on your left. If you are used to pulling the ball and/or relying on a pull slice you can practice swinging out to the right a little bit. The idea here is that if you are faced with the ball going way out of bounds you need to change the path of the swing. Don't cheat and line up 45 degrees out to the right. Take a neutral, normal, stance and just focus on easy swings so that ball starts right and you either have a push or maybe a push draw.

Visualize a plane landing on a long runway. The plane (clubhead) would come in shallow and use up a lot of the runway vs a plane descending quite rapidly (and steeply) into the ball.

You asked a very vague, general, question and without a vid of your swing you are going to get a lot of general responses that may do more harm than good.
Click to expand...

thank you very much I will work on this
 
J

jerry1967

New
dschultz6072 said:
I'll put it this way, in order for the club to come in shallow, the way the shaft moves has to change. If you are used to bringing the handle with the grip pointed toward the target into the impact area, then the clubhead is way off the ground far too late and you have to dump it onto the ball at a sharp angle in a quick period of time. Couple this with a stall of your body and maybe a slight jump and you might be able to shallow the impact. But to do this and try to hit the ball flush with enough loft to control the trajectory consistently is tough to do. That would be trying to hit the ball with a 'football on it's end' shaped arc, a la Nicklaus' picture in Golf My Way. In order to get the more round shaped arc that you should be seeking, the shaft has to actively be extended away from you from the top as soon as you start back into the ball. If you are not extending it you are artificially creating the "wide, narrow, wide" look. The narrow part should happen simply because your body is pivoting to the left. Your arms and wrists should still be trying to keep the arc wide on the downswing. Basically the exact opposite of what the old "pump drill" has you do. This way when you are approaching the ball the clubhead is not so far off the ground and you don't have to take pie pans out of the turf. You still have to make sure your body is moving properly, but without a video, there is only so much one can say.
Click to expand...

thank you very much, could you explain this one sentence you have in the instructions.
"the shaft has to actively be extended away from you from the top as soon as you start back into the ball."
 
dschultz6072

dschultz6072

New
Like on the video I posted, you don't want to feel like you're harpooning the ball with the butt end of the club. There is no active delay of the wrist action. Start it going from the top. Line the club up for impact. But, like I said, if your body is moving out of sequence or the clubhead is all out of whack (ie closed or open) it won't make a difference. Your coordination will take over just to try to hit the ball online.

Here's a visual of a buddy of mine. Watch the shaft from the top down. He is not holding any "power angle." The energy is being transmitted into the clubhead and it is moving at 117 mph. The clubhead moves into the ball shallow. And you can see, he's not flipping at the ball. He's moving the shaft. Ex D1 college player, big high draws, 320 yard drives, shoots in the 60s.

 
D

DCgolf

New
Or as John Jacobs said: "if you look at the best players, the distance from the shaft to the right shoulder increases like lightening on the way down"
 
B

Brian Manzella

Administrator
zachgolf said:
How do we shallow out without thinking a lot of things in the DS? In the DS I want to just swing hard, mainly fire my lower body and rotate my shoulders on plane. I think the fix we are all looking for is in the BS.
Click to expand...

What "plane"?

DCgolf said:
Or as John Jacobs said: "if you look at the best players, the distance from the shaft to the right shoulder increases like lightening on the way down"
Click to expand...

And from the left arm to the body once the club changes direction!
 
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