Getting the club upright?

brianrcarney

Can anyone give me drills for getting the club more upright? I was looking at my swing and it has gone completely flat!! I get the club quarter way back and seem to fling it inside....at top looks fine but its not right at all

Tried and tested drills would be great!

Thanks
brianrcarney

goodgolfer64

theres no quick fix in my eyes to that or shanks....just dozens of buckets with occasional help from from mates to check position at the top of the backswing...
id recommend just feeling like your overexaggerating lifting the club with hands to the top of the back swing and in a very HIGH position....the club will feel and looks miles over your head....you prob wont be able to hit it well for some while unless you put in the time.under supervision from a low handicapper recommended or pro obviously

AldilaMan

brianrcarney wrote: »

Can anyone give me drills for getting the club more upright? I was looking at my swing and it has gone completely flat!! I get the club quarter way back and seem to fling it inside....at top looks fine but its not right at all

Tried and tested drills would be great!

Thanks
brianrcarney

Having a flat swing is a good thing. Most high handicappers swing too steep and most coaches will try to make the swing flatter. Getting a lesson or two is the only way I think.

Garda S Horgan

brianrcarney wrote: »

Can anyone give me drills for getting the club more upright? I was looking at my swing and it has gone completely flat!! I get the club quarter way back and seem to fling it inside....at top looks fine but its not right at all

Tried and tested drills would be great!

Thanks
brianrcarney

Get onto you tube. Tons of golf lessons on that and plenty of ideas for how to have a correct swing plane, and exercises you can do yourself at the range to help it.
I used to have a bit of a block/cut when I moved my hips forward too much. Youtube said to put your golf bag up the side of your left leg and flake away. Cured.
Easy lesson.

Yours etc,
GSH.

ShriekingSheet

Hi Brian,

I learned to play with a very flat swing as a teenager. Decided to make a change when I got my handicap lower. It's no walk in the park, but with a bit of work and the right guidance, I found it made a huge difference to how simple my swing felt.

Advice is similar to that for a newly convicted criminal. Best drill I did was to take a mid iron and get your ass up close to a wall. Make a swing and you'll find your flat swing hits the wall, probably at shoulder height. Gradually swing the club more upright until you can make a backswing that doesn't touch the wall. That'll give you a guide to how it feels.

Start with your ass maybe 6 inches from the wall. With practice you might be able to nearly touch it. Note that your follow through should not be similarly upright, if continued it should hit the wall.

Use an old club initially!

ShriekingSheet

AldilaMan wrote: »

Having a flat swing is a good thing. Most high handicappers swing too steep and most coaches will try to make the swing flatter. Getting a lesson or two is the only way I think.

This is off the mark. An upright swing plane and a steep angle of attack are not synonomous. You can have an upright swing and make a wide, sweeping take-away. A flat, shallow swing on the inside is a cheap way to initially improve, or an easy way for a kid to start, but only very few people get any kind of consistency out of it.

dnjoyce

In a similar situation myself - would agree with Sheet's recommendation for practicing up against the wall (in slowmotion, with a headcover on to avoid damage!!). It helped me to get a good feeling for it. Then on the range it's helpful to stick a tee in the end of the club for reference - when you get the club 3/4 way back, the tee (or just butt of the club) should be pointing in the general direction of the ball - if it's flat it'll probably be pointing way outside it.

It's a long process though and I'm nowhere near the end of it!!

brianrcarney

thanks all, I was in range trying to sort some sort of feeling for it. I was turning till i got the club to about my hip and then trying to get that feeling of going up in a straight line while keeping club head as far away as possible... but sure when your on you sweeney its hard to see if you are anywhere near where it should be

Garda S Horgan

Have a look at golfdigest.com and see Ricky Fowlers driving plane. It has various pictures.
He is small and his driving swing is nearly parallel to the ground. It's very strange to look at, but it works.

yours etc,
GSH.

AldilaMan

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

This is off the mark. An upright swing plane and a steep angle of attack are not synonomous. You can have an upright swing and make a wide, sweeping take-away. A flat, shallow swing on the inside is a cheap way to initially improve, or an easy way for a kid to start, but only very few people get any kind of consistency out of it.

Hardly cheap since my teaching professional charges €30 per half hour teaching a flat swing but perhaps I should go to you for lessons instead

brianrcarney

i am no Ricky Fowler haha... yeah thats pretty strange looking... where he is 3/4s back is about where i was getting and it was just horrible, both the feeling and result, liable to block or come over top and snap!! need consistency and i feel a more upright swing will achieve this...

VikingG

As a beginner I'm getting slightly confused ... I would have thought that if you were standing with your backside to a wall you would want the club to hit the wall on the backswing..... maybe not for 8i to PW.. but for everything else yes.

I have looked at my swing and the club is brought back to nearly directly above my head and I have been trying to bring it more behind me...

brianrcarney

VikingG did this come from a lesson? maybe you were swinging too steep or out to in and the pro wanted you to get the more inside feeling.... just a thought

mr.mickels

brianrcarney wrote: »

Can anyone give me drills for getting the club more upright? I was looking at my swing and it has gone completely flat!! I get the club quarter way back and seem to fling it inside....at top looks fine but its not right at all

Tried and tested drills would be great!

Thanks
brianrcarney

If it looks fine at the top then how do you know you are doing something wrong. Most often what a player thinks/feels he is doing and is actually doing a not the same, hence why the majority of golfers have difficulty making any real progress. Its impossible to say without seeing your swing, so you will need a handy player who also knows a certain amount of the golf swing to cast a critical eye. The vast majority of weaker players do swing too steep, and where they go wrong is in the takeaway. If your takeaway is good then it will likely continue correctly. It is likely its your initial takeaway thats the problem, possibly much too steep in an effort to get an upright swingplane, as its too steep when your shoulders turn it makes it appear to you they are swinging the club very flat, but if it looks fine at the top then what they are doing is correct, so you need to pay extra special attention to the first 3 moves in every golf shot as all three affect the rest of the swing, that is the grip, alignment and then the takeaway, if you do pay attention to those the backswing plane will likely be good.

Drills for a more upright swing, get an old club, if you are average height stand with your feet 3 feet from the wall and you should be able to make a full backswing at normal speed without hitting the wall.

A great drill for the takeaway simply involves an old belt (superb simple drill for any beginners or high handicappers), wider the better. Tie the belt around your chest and right arm just above the elbow, so the right arm is now tied to the chest. Now make lots and lots of practice swings, the left arm isn't tied. You won't be able to make full swings obviously so swing best you can, you will notice you need turn your shoulders to get the longest swing, and also when you are coming down do try to hit the ball reasonably hard, this drill has lots of benefits other than just the takeaway and is great for improvers. After taking a few minutes to swing the first time you may be wondering why you are doing it. Then hit a few shots using your body and hands to advance the ball, see if you can hit it a bit harder each time. After hitting a few balls then remove the belt and make a swing, you will feel why you did the drill, you will likely have a much better right arm position, the right arm will stay more compact with the body, the left arm will feel more free and you should have a much more solid takeaway, you should also feel more what your hands should be doing at impact. You don't actually need to hit balls with this drill but it helps. If you don't like the idea of using this belt drill in front of others at the range then spend 5 mins at home on the lawn doing it before and after going to the range.

Another simple takeway exersice is to put a ball on the grass 12 -18 inches behind the ball you're addressing, and brush the second ball with the club during the takeaway.

Another simple practice for a smooth takeaway is when taking practise swings first move the club towards the target a foot or so before then starting the backswing, should help get a smoother takeaway, obviously only works if there isn't a ball in front of you. Many of the older players used a version of this idea when playing before starting each full swing, the called it the forward press, the likes of Snead, Player and a few more high profile players used it all the time. The idea is that a move from stationary to motion is often a jerky movement which upsets the takeaway and hence the entire backswing, so to get the club already moving before the takeaway begins the make a movement towards the hole with either the hands or right knee.

Best drills you will ever do are taking a mid-iron and hitting lots of shots one handed, alternating between each hand, and trying to hit good shots, not merely making contact with the ball, again using your body to help advance the ball rather than isolated arm movements.

Generally only very minor changes make a big difference to the overall, so beware not to overdo the efforts to get an upright swing or it will become too upright, or vice-versa.