How to analyse your swing on video?

[ParHunter]

Hi,

I am taking regular lessons but in-between lessons I record my swing and try to analyse it. The problem is I am not a pro, I can see a few things I like or dislike but I would like to know more about what to look out for (am I too high or to flat on the backswing, is the angle at impact correct, where to draw lines etc).

Is there a good instruction video/website/book on how to do self analysis? I don't want to make my instructor jobless but it would be nice to identify faults myself so that I don't run off in the wrong direction between lessons.

 

[ekennedy]

Just my two cents, Parhunter, but trying to analyze your own swing without a tremendous knowledge of what you are actually looking at can be very, very dangerous. You can buy books that will show you certain "positions" and "lines" but those are very arbitrary. Nothing replaces your ball flight. If you were trying to say, shorten your swing, video can be helpful in the "feel ain't real" category, but if you are searching for swing flaws, its a recipe for disaster. A perceived "flaw" in your swing may counteract another "flaw" and changing one may bring down your house of cards.

IMO, the best thing to do is to pay one of the Manzella instructors on this site to view your video and have them tell you what to work on (or more importantly, what to leave alone.) I would not, however, post any swings on this forum and let the rest of the blogosphere give you their two cents worth.

 

[softconsult]

eKennedy nailed it. He didn't mention the difficulty of camera alignments. Maybe the analogy would be trying to do heart transplant surgery with no training, except the surgery might be less difficult than video based golf swing analysis because there are less variables in the surgery.

 

[ParHunter]

I am not talking about the 'heart transplant surgery' level of analysis more the 'put a plaster on a finger' level analysis. E.g. draw a line vertical through the ball. See if your hands are in front of the line at impact.

I know that the camera angle plays an important role.

 

[ekennedy]

Parhunter,

I understand. Does your teacher use video during the lessons? If so, consult him on "one specific thing" that you can look for on the video. Do your best to ignore everything else.

 

[ParHunter]

Yes my teacher uses video and he gives me points to look out for but inbetween lessons when I try to get to these 'positions' I might do something else which I shouldn't. I just want to be able to monitor my swing and identify obvious mistakes. I know that there is not one detailed guide to analysis which will fit every swing. I had a look at How To Analyse Your Golf Swing Part 2 | Golf Swing | Howcast.com and that guy certainly has a completely different swing to mine and I can't use most of his ideas but there are a few nuggets here and there which are useful (e.g. I've never thought of videoing myself from behind).

 

[softconsult]

Maybe your instructor would let you bring your camera to the lesson. Then focus on the one or two things to work on.

I had a lesson with Brian where he used his Casio to show me how open my clubface was at the top. That was the only thing video'd.

Mike Jacobs made a DVD for me to take with me. It's funny to watch myself, after we worked and worked on wider stance, take my address, waggle a few times and with each waggle move my back foot and narrow the stance slightly. I need to use the camera more, but frankly, it takes a lot of time to get everything set up just right. Then, if you are hitting irons and view is face on, you have to adjust the camera due to the trenching effects of divots.

 

[ParHunter]

All I am trying is to gather are a few fundamentals (like hand being in front of ball at impact).

For example is this fundamentally true (no matter what swing you use)?
You draw a line along the club at address (from DTL). Your club should be on the same line at impact. If you are above the line your are coming from the outside, if it is below the line you are coming from the inside.

I've got an iPhone and the Gorillapod (a special tripod which you can attach to everything). So it is easy for me to set up my iPhone on my golf bag and video myself.
I've got a swing view program on my iPhone and one on my Mac. I just want to make best use of what I've got.

 

[softconsult]

For example is this fundamentally true (no matter what swing you use)?
You draw a line along the club at address (from DTL). Your club should be on the same line at impact. If you are above the line your are coming from the outside, if it is below the line you are coming from the inside.

Of course, you can find instructors who would say that is true. I know that Brian says it simply is not true that shaft angle and position at impact is not the same as address. I can't recall the specific thread. He also says that drawing lines on the shaft is pretty much useless.

And there in lies the problem. Instruction is full of contradictions, and exact opposite recommendations. Don't know if you have done this, but might make sense to buy a few of Brian's videos. Watch them multiple times. Then compare what your instructor is preaching to what you have learned.

 

[dbl]

If your swing is mature/advanced, then for your pattern there may well be telltale indicators of faults that you could watch for in a video. But who knows which ones? - that would be for you and your instructor.

However, if the swing was less "mature" then video may reveal the usual litany of faults: swaying, popout, flipping, inadequate shoulder turn, poor pivot, OTT, chicken wing etc. And of course to fix any of those, adherence to a particular pattern may suggest certain fixes. One could come here and look up patterns or components which could help you decide to keep or how to go about changing the swing pieces.

 

[ej20]

Video is really mainly for feedback and diagnosing an obvious fault.An example of an obvious fault is losing your tushline by 6 inches or more.There are acceptable parameters in a golf swing and there is no need to be so precise.Losing the tushline by an inch or two is not much of a concern.That is why I believe video is useful even with parallax.It doesn't need to be that precise.

One must not use video to try and build a swing model we like.Just because our favorite player has a steep backswing,shallow transition pattern doesn't mean that shape will suit us.Some people play better with a slightly flat backswing and come back down above it.

At the end of the day,it really is about the results only.The first goal is solid contact and that being hitting the ball cleanly before taking a divot.The second goal is getting a good path and clubface.The third goal is reliability so that poor shots are not extremely penalising.If you can do that it doesn't matter what your swing looks like.

 

[Erik_K]

I think ej20 gave a very nice response here. For very obvious problems like slipping, too much shifting, not enough shoulder turn and so you don't need the camera to be set up in a precise manner. When you have players raising questions about getting on to a certain plane, performing plane shifts and so on, then you have an issue with parallax.

In other words, there's something to be said about a 25 handicapper posting a video vs trying to nail down some minute detail of a Tour player.

Erik