First of all I don't expect him on my lesson tee any time soon. Secondly when you look at swings this good,as in functional, what we learn is how he matched his components, not what's wrong with it. There are about 50 million golfers in the world and MAYBE a dozen or so hit it this good. So i look at how he put it together. I'd say he has chosen to take the left side out of play with a weak grip and a vertical move allowing him to release it more freely. Matching components. Yes he's erect at set up but at the top he has increased tilt. He has a great vertical drop and a tumble back onto the plane from a laid off position, Another matching component. Lesson? Work on your putting and confidence Ian.
A swing to comment on - Ian Polter
- Thread starter Brian Manzella
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Agreed. A band-aid that has won him tournaments and plenty of money.
I think he could be tweaked as well. I'd really fix that tilt of his going back and see if we can't get him going back with a little less lay-off. It might save him a back injury later on down the road. No one can stay that flexible in their lower back for too long.
Kevin Shields
Super Moderator
I still like it but it is definitely prone to that miss twitch referenced
Jim Kobylinski
Super Moderator
Who's to say he couldn't hit it better and win more tournaments or prize money? Just because they are on tour and have something that works doesn't mean they couldn't be better. Some are so paranoid they won't change a thing, others aren't. I mean, even Tiger admitted he didn't know the d-plane and how ball flight really worked until he was on TM.
Everybody has a miss. Great ones know where. Wanna make this swing prettier? Ok. Then we get a miss somewhere else. Change the laid off, better get rid of the tumble. Its what Jacobs called a rock and block. See them all the time only they don't impact it like that. How can we make suggestions from a video? I'd like to see ball flight.
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jay2010
New
Jared Willerson
Super Moderator
I like most of it, especially the arm swing and tumble. There is no tug here and the club doesn't get under plane.
Personally, I get confused when everyone starts talking minutiae about a tour players swing. I read all the comments before watching the vids. Based on what a few were saying, I was expecting a weird, don't see how he gets it airborne, type of swing. However, it looked rather orthodox to me.
The only thing I don't particularly care for is the bunched/crowded look at setup.
Personally, I get confused when everyone starts talking minutiae about a tour players swing. I read all the comments before watching the vids. Based on what a few were saying, I was expecting a weird, don't see how he gets it airborne, type of swing. However, it looked rather orthodox to me.
The only thing I don't particularly care for is the bunched/crowded look at setup.
aaron_lohan
New
For most of his career Poulter has fought getting the club stuck on the inside in his downswing and the resulting hook. To me it looks as if he has tried to develop a swing that prevents that, hence the high hands at the top and centred pivot. In analysing a swing I think you should look at the player's history and past tendencies and look at what they are trying to accomplish.
mgranato
New
IJP's strength is close to and on the greens. How much of that influences his "power" swing in general? I'm not sure exactly how to ask it, but seeing as how the full swing and wedge swings have completely opposite kinematic sequences will there always be a trade off/sacrificing of one or the other? Keeping it relative, of course. We see very few great wedge players with equally good/effective power swings, and very few great power swings with equally good/effective wedge games.
There is only so much time to practice at the level it takes to win consistently out there. Is IJP's full swing (by his judgment) "good enough" so long as he keeps wedge game as sharp as it can be? Maybe the time/attention it would take him to bring his full swing up to the next notch would cause his wedge game to slip slightly yielding him a net minus overall.
Seems to me there's always a yin yang deal when you try to keep things on a razor's edge.
There is only so much time to practice at the level it takes to win consistently out there. Is IJP's full swing (by his judgment) "good enough" so long as he keeps wedge game as sharp as it can be? Maybe the time/attention it would take him to bring his full swing up to the next notch would cause his wedge game to slip slightly yielding him a net minus overall.
Seems to me there's always a yin yang deal when you try to keep things on a razor's edge.
Completely agree.
I am not a fan of band-aids, my point was simply that some golfers are able to apply band-aid's and make them work quite effectively. Doesn't in any way mean they should stick with them or that they can't get better. Everyone can get better. EVERYONE.
Billy McKinney
New
The slo-mo looks better than his regular speed swing, imo. To me, it has always seemed like he bypassed the sit in the start down to the . I'm a big fan of pressing into the earth for power.
aaron_lohan
New
I think there is a lot to be said for sticking with a reliable if not spectacular swing, believing in it and having the self confidence to not tinker with it too much. Look at someone like Hale Irwin who stuck with a swing that was solid but not spectacular, which enabled him to have a fantastic career. Billy Casper also springs to mind.
On the other hand there have been the likes of Ian Baker Finch who reached a high level with good but not incredible ball striking and then decided to change their swing to get better and ended up falling off the map.
People tend to a look at tour pro's swings and think that they can improve them but in reality this is very difficult to do.
Brian Manzella
Administrator
lia41985
New member
As others have mentioned, he's got a beautiful swing of the arms. Also mentioned was that he doesn't tug/over pivot. A revelation for people that don't know better. They'd scoff about a swing where there isn't an over pivot ("you can never get enough!") and that swing would be one in which the hips must stall and the release is a flip but look at how damn open Ian's hips are. These pictures show how "quiet"/dynamically stable the body is to allow his arms to swing down and through: https://picasaweb.google.com/106612...CImOirLT-OXDygE#slideshow/5777863200317002866
Here's a video with a mix of iron and driver swings with real time and slow motion:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B3frUr6k9EY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Here's a video with a mix of iron and driver swings with real time and slow motion:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B3frUr6k9EY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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