Golf swing analysis with Poults...

Right then, time to bear my soul and stick a little swing sequence on here seeing as the blog title does have the word 'golf' in it. Please bear in mind that its been about 6 months since i swung a golf club, and my body is nowhere near as strong as it was back then. Since the accident i haven't been able to go to the gym or go running or anything, so i cant get into the kind of positions i want to (more to the point need to!) in order to make an efficient, powerful golf swing, but I'll get there with a little hard work, and besides, i enjoy the challenge :-) 


I thought I'd do a sequence comparison with Ian Poulter, who swings it great. What you obviously cant see in these pictures is his amazing rhythm, which is what glues all of his fantastic positions together, again, something which i need to work REALLY hard on, as without good rhythm and tempo, you may as well just give up, because good positions mean tosh without it. Anyway, set-up position:

 

As you can see, Poults stands nice and tall to the ball, with his shoulders back and in good posture, something which i am not doing - my shoulders are rounded and slightly slumped, but this is a posture thing which isnt helped by being a full-time online poker pro... still, with a bit of gym work, this can be easily fixed. Other than that i think my set up is ok. 


9 o'clock: (left arm position if looking face on)

This is a very tell tale comparison of where my injuries play a part in my golf swing. Because of the lack of flexibly in my right wrist (broke in 3 places), i cant hinge it back like Poults is doing here, so my shaft-plane becomes a bit steep at this point (as opposed to being perfectly on plane like Poulter is, in other words, his shaft angle is very much the same as what it was at set-up, and pointing much more at the ball). The clubface is also a bit shut, but i've always done this, and i'm not overly bothered because from this point i rotate my left arm pretty well in order to compensate, and the club works up to the top into a nice 'square' position (in Laymans terms, the angle of clubface is the same as the shaft plane was at address): 

What i dont like about this 'top of the backswing' position, is that i've become a little 'disconnected' In other words, my arms arent quite in sync with my shoulder turn and this is will cause me problems on the way down if my rhythm is out, and my transition into the downswing isnt smooth. I also havent turned my hips enough (another old problem of mine). I try to create lots of coil against my lower body, but forget that i need to let my hips turn more naturally instead of trying to fight it in order to create more torque. Because of this, my left knee kicks more 'out' as opposed to 'in' like Poulters, and im therefore not as balanced and comfortable as i'd like to be. My right knee also straightens too much, which actually weakens the coil that im trying to create - gonna go to the range this avo and work on this specifically - if i can maintain more flex in my right knee as i swing to the top, then this will also stop me from potentially 'over-swinging', and i can be much more compact and connected at the top.


Unfortunately i dont have any downswing pics, as the frames went too fast for my phone to catch so they just came out blurry, but what i did manage to get was this frame from just after impact:

Poulters pic is obv just a few frames later, but i think my release isnt too bad here, and would be pretty close to his a few frames later. What i dont like though, is that i've lost my spine angle a little because i've stood up through impact, and again, this is injury related (i think..i hope!). After having surgery on my left knee last year, i think i've been subconsciously worried about posting my weight onto it through impact, and i kinda 'bottle it' a little on the way through. it's ok though, as a few good gym sessions should build up the strength in my knee, enabling me to be much more confident in putting weight on it at such a high speed.


And to finish...

Pretty happy with my finish position, as it shows that i've swung in balance. I've transferred my weight nicely, and i've turned fully through the shot.


Please feel free to leave any comments about my very much 'work-in-progress' golf swing. Any magic tips are always handy!


Oh, and before i forget, i did tell MrStarch that i'd post a pic of my perfect hangover cure, so here it is Ross, just for you...

On the poker front, my month is going ok, and my graph hasnt changed all that much since last time so i wont bother posting an update. Last night i won the WSOP 'stage 3' qualifier, which automatically entered me into the final stage tonight, where there will be either 1 or 2 $4.3k Las Vegas packages up for grabs, which includes the $1k buy-in event #54, flights, accomodation and a few other treats (maybe the odd party or suffen...), so I'm hoping for a bit of run good please poker gods!