Being shallow is only difficult in golf
Man, if only being shallow were as simple in golf as it seems to be in real life (for some anyway), this game would be a hell of a lot easier. I've been on a journey with my golf swing for the past 4 years and getting "scooby" as the G-man says has involved a lot of work, experimentation, and shots so fat it'll put the new Gatorade commercial to shame.
This isn't meant to be a "here's how I did it" post because frankly I'm still not where I want to be, but I've improved a lot so I figured I'd post a swing video from the hitting bay at work today and comment a little bit on what I've been working on and what things I still want to see change.
It's hard to summarize a physical movement, which I think is partly why mastering the golf swing is so difficult. But what I like about my move at this time is that I'm getting the club to shallow at the top of the swing by doing two key things.
- Taking the club away more on an inside path (my typical takeaway tended to see the clubhead move outside the line immediately). This helps prevent me from looping the club too far to the inside on the downswing which would create a significant in-to-out path (on the order of 5-7 degrees).
- Over-exaggerating an over-the-top move (kinda like Speith's new pre-shot routine) and letting gravity take over by loosening up everything in my hands, wrists, and arms.
Golf is a game of opposites (ex. to make the ball go up, you have to hit down on it). So by bringing the club more to the inside at the start of the swing, the natural reaction at the top is for the arms to want to go more over the top, which is a typical move for someone who casts the club and slices it. But since I've got an natural in-to-out club path, I'm not worried about that. I need to get the club moving out in front of me.
I'm still looking to improve my forward weight shift. Ideally I would begin transferring my weight to my front side earlier in the backswing, but where I'm at now is a huge improvement from a year ago where most of my weight was still on my trail foot at impact.
I'm also technically across the line at the top and would like to see the club more laid off. But as long is the club routes correctly in transition and shallows, I think my move would be mostly Gankas approved.
If you can't tell, I'm a bit of a fan. I once sent my swing to George on Instagram and asked him if he hated it. His exact words were, "Yo Jake, what's up man. I don't hate it at all, actually it's pretty fuckin good. Real good."
Til the next update,
Jake
the love you withhold is the pain that you carry