Aaron Baddeley Sequence
 

There's alot of TGM principles being adhered to in this sequence...love the swing under a centered/stationary head:)

thanks for posting, fantastic!

He's got very nice swing and lovely impact aligments...You can see the power in those alignments. But he's not a very good ballstriker by tour standards... I have no idea why.

How are you measuring AB's ballstriking capability?.....here are some of his current stats.

STANDARD STATS--RANK
Driving Distance
287.8 76th
Driving Accuracy Percentage
59.97% 139th
Greens in Regulation Pct.
62.71% 116th
Putting Average
1.748 11th
Eagles (Holes per)
187.2 40th
Birdie Average
3.48 33rd
Scoring Average
70.76 69th
Sand Save Percentage
48.28% 120th
Total Driving
215 126th
All-Around Ranking
604 32nd
Regular Season FedExCup Points
5,268 50th
Money Leaders
$1,190,937 58th
Par Breakers
19.87% 29th
Putts Per Round
28.52 22nd
GIR Pct. - Fairway Bunker
53.1% 36th

I checked out the ball striking statistics ->http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/xm.html?158 (which is actually total driving + GIR) on the PGA Tour website. He's 123rd on that list.

I would imagine if you are long but not accurate you may be hitting from bad places into greens...I wonder if driving stats are done from Par 4's or Par 5's or a mix of both?

From 2004-2006 he was around 190th in ball striking. In 2007 he was 160th and this year 113-123. Does that appear to be very good and significant improvement in ball striking?

When were the pictures taken?

I understood he was using the Stack n Tilt method.

I think the video clip is fairly recent but not sure how old it is .....I have made a DTL sequence that I will post later today:)

Another View
 

Here's AB from DTL...enjoy:)

Game held up pretty good against Eldrick in the Match Play deal. He pretty much matched him shot for shot if not better from tee to green . . . then Eldrick putts it into eye droppers from 50 feet. He is a bad man . . . and the other'n is one Badds mutha too.

I think it looks better in pics than in real time.

It's only my uneducated opinion, but it just doesn't look quite right. For a swinger it looks a bit short and flat, like he doesn't have time to prepare for the downswing. I think it might be because there's a lot of body turn but not much arm swing.

He looks like one of the best ballstrikers on tour from face-on, from down-the-line he looks pretty average.

Badds' ball striking has improved a ton. Bennett and Plummer have done a good job.

As an aside. I recently had the chance to hear Eric Axley's brother discuss what he was doing with B&P and he is very excited about where his ball striking is headed and he could always putt the lights out. His recent form bears that out.

average?
 

What exactly looks average from dtl? What do you prefer?

I'll clarify by saying he looks average on tour from dtl. I don't like how he swings the club away from his body after impact, I like to see the arms stay in close to the body and the club to exit below the left shoulder after impact (like Hogan). So long as this is done with the pivot and not with excess club rotation the release of the golf swing will be more consistent.

Ok
 

Good explanation. I see your point there. Why do you think he does that?
And how could he fix it and still hit the medium trajectory draw he likes to hit?
:golf:

I think the reason he does it that way is it is the way he feels comfortable hitting the trajectory that he likes to see. I, personally, do not think it is the single most consistent way to hit it right to left because with the arms swinging away from the body coming into impact it becomes more difficult to properly synchronize the arm swing/pivot, also the clubface closes more rapidly. Some of the guys that swing out to right field snap the clubface shut right after impact. Baddeley certainly doesn't do that because of the mechanics of the stack and tilt swing, but I am hypothesizing that his clubface closes quicker than would be ideal, than would suit optimum mechanics, I would need more pictures, video, etc. to confirm. When Baddeley was winning the US Open last year his swing looked a little more neutral: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJzUd7o5stQ, as in he is not swinging out to right field nearly as much as in the sequence HG posted. The question that should be immediately raised is Baddeley trying to hit a bigger draw in the sequence HG posted than in the youtube video or have his mechanics truly changed. I certainly don't know the answer to that, but other than a specialty shot, having to hit a huge draw I don't like to see the club exit above the left shoulder.


I want to say that I do not think I would do a better job teaching Baddeley than Bennett and Plummer have. My ideas are nothing more than how I believe Hogan would change his swing if he swung like Baddeley and wanted to hit medium draws.

How can Baddeley "fix" his swing and still hit medium draws?

-left hand grip slightly more turned

-stand about 2 inches closer to the ball

-turn the left foot out 45 degrees

-put the ball 1/2 to 1 inch further back in the stance

-keep the arm pressure points throughout the swing, the upper arms should be firmly attached to the torso from the time the clubshaft is parallel to the ground in the downswing and parallel to the ground in the throughswing.

-get the lower body moved laterally during the backswing as V.J. Trolio describes in The Final Missing Piece of Ben Hogan's Secret Puzzle.
With this move in place Baddeley could rotate hard in the downswing, swing with reckless abandonment.

-lead less with the handle, do not bow the wrist into impact

-if he needs a higher trajectory yet he could speed the club ascent

The technique I am suggesting would likely hit shots that start about where the player is aiming, perhaps slightly left and then draw slightly. Baddeley starts the ball right of where he is aiming and then it draws back to where he was aiming. Personally I like the mechanics of a SLIGHT pull draw more than a push-draw but perhaps that is nothing more than personal preference.

I know these are two thing that he has been working on.
-get the lower body moved laterally during the downswing almost backing into it in a way.

-lead less with the handle, do not bow the wrist into impact

Bennet & Plummer talk a little bit about the importance of the angle of the left arm in relation to the target line. Their ideal position for the left arm is 20degrees inside the target line when the left arm is parallel to the ground in the downswing.

The posted swing sequence vs. the YouTube sequence are very different in regard to this checkpoint.

In the YouTube swing sequence, his left arm is parallel to the stance line on the downswing when it is also parallel to the ground. He hit a nice bullet fade.

In the swing sequence posted on this thread, his left arm is angled 45 degrees inside the target line when it is parallel to the ground. There is no way he could hit anything but a draw/push on this swing.

Bennet & Plummer say that the angle of the left arm at this checkpoint is largely controlled by amount and rate of shoulder turn. If you look closely at the YouTube sequence you will see how his shoulders start unwinding immediately from the top of the swing, while in the posted swing sequence on this thread he moves more weight onto his front foot, moving his swing centers forward, but his shoulder rotation is slower on the downswing.

Bingo
:happy3:

Check out this slow motion driver swing of Badd's. Make sure you turn off the sound.

http://www.pgatour.com/swingplex/02/23/71/index.html