Right you are rwh. A few weeks ago when I visited the swamp I was hitting my normal volume of swampballs (400-500) while Yoda was giving a lesson. As I was admiring OBLeft's swing, Lynn walked up to me during a break and asked, "Hey Bagger, so are you hitting now?".

No says I. Still swinging.

He asked me to go to the top of my swing, adjusted my wrists into a correct position and said, "this is where you need to be". He's had me working on start up in the past but I had bigger issues to deal with at the time.

Later in the day I visited Steve Ferguson, GSEB who teaches along side Ted and Lynn. He had a shiny new HG Driver and I asked to take a few swings with it. I took one swing and he said, "hold on right there". He grabbed his camera and set me up for some video. He pointed out the same thing Lynn was seeing. My clubshaft was cross-line at the top and the clubface was closed to the sky. :-&

Five minutes later Steve had me doing start-up swivel drills. He said, "Fan it, Fan it as hard as you can at startup, you can't fan it enough". Note to the reader, this is clubface fanning while tracing a straight planeline, not taking it inside at startup. It took me about 5 swings of hitting pushed right shots until we figured out that the lack of a start up swivel has created very little roll in my release. So once I started rolling everything came together.

Its amazing what that little start up motion does to every section of the swing. Over the years Lynn has taken me from stance, to pivot, to arms, and now to hands. The final missing pieces of my swing are finally coming together.

Nice Post!

Great post and an important point that you've made. The swivel has nothing to do with arm movement other than a rotational movement of the forearms. A complete swivel can be made that moves the clubshaft parallel to the target line and parallel to the ground and opens the clubface 90° without ever moving the arms from their address position.

Great Post indeed, Gives detail to the simple one to two and avoids taking the club inside because it is tracing the plane line straight- not twisting the hands and clubhead. kudos to Steve too.

It is the most difficult part for me...!!!:crybaby:

Start-up Swivel......
 

....was the holy grail for me. As long as you .....

"Delivery Line Prep Roll" during the downswing.

Wind it up going back.....unwind it coming down.

I see so many players try to emulate Sergio by holding that "wrist lag". Their problem is they never unload that stored energy. They try to create force.

Let it happen. It's a beautiful thing. LET that left wrist uncock downplane. Keep the pivot moving. ROLL..ROLL...ROLL

Thanks Bagger. It was great to meet you and to talk of G.O.L.F. and life.

I have an old tendency towards an angled start up, the club sort of looking at the ball. Lynn deduced this to be due to my old pre RFT takeaway where I "maintained the triangle" (non bending right elbow) while pushing the club back with my left arm with a big shoulder turn. Ah, remember the seventies and soft rock?

Things have changed a lot in my start up but I still have some residual angled hinging going back. It isnt the first wobble in my swing but its something I hope to tackle soon. I love that feeling of "free wheeling" into the ball with the clubface like a little baseball bat.

What was the drill Steve gave you to train you start up swivel? Does this move preclude a lagging takeaway? Did you have to dial down your extensor action until after the swivel was completed?

O.B.

Hi O.B.

Its soft rock now, but back then Steve Miller, The Eagles, Doobie Brothers, etc were in everyones 8-track. :salut: Wish I would have started playing golf back in the 70's instead of the late 90's. I wouldn't look like such a train wreck now.

No specific drills per se but in my case, its like trying to rub your head and pat your stomach at the same time. I just couldn't fully turn the left hand down the planeline at startup. Too conditioned to bending the right wrist without much roll as a primary part of my startup motion.

I now use a lagging takeaway which means the right wrist needs to stay vertical during startup while the left wrist turns and fans the clubface. To clarify, the wrists stay in their adjusted address position during startup with the exception of turning. I had to practice simply tracing the planeline with the clubshaft while turning the wrists over. No right wrist bending or left wrist cocking until the backstroke section. The clubshaft traces the planeline much longer before switching ends.

In my case, video confirmed that it flattened my backswing and got my wrists set perfectly at the top. The inside takeaway disappeared as well. The lagging clubhead isn't for everyone and there are shots when you need to set the wrists earlier. All I'm saying is even though the clubhead is lagging, the left wrist should be turning to fan the clubface.

FYI -
I have no issues with the Tomasello drill as long as its followed to the letter. Just not my thing.

To miss golf in the seventies isnt the worst thing that could happen to you, Bagger. If you want to try to make up for it, just grow your hair down past your shoulders, order a tequila sunrise and start reverse "C' ing" until your back falls apart.

Perverted axis tilt could not be overdone back then. It was, as Lynn would say, the worst of times for the field mice on the left hand side of the fairway.


Thanks for all of the great posts and hard work on this site. It has helped my game so much.

Regards
O.B.

The egg hatched!
 

Bagger and I played a round yesterday and I noticed how my friend was pounding the ball. The other thing I noticed was the compression he was getting with his wedges and the sound it was making. He NEVER makes that sound. We are on the 7th tee and he showed me the start up swivel move, which I never really understood before. He also showed me how to properly roll through impact.

In the past when I tried to swing, I always struggled with the horizontal hinge through impact. I would always hit sharp hooks when trying to swing. I am convinced now that this was due to an improper start-up.

They say you should never work on your swing during a round. Screw that. All I can say is I'm blown away by the results. I can't believe how hard I can roll throught impact without hooking the ball.

Thanks Bagger!! (and Yoda, and Steve, and Homer)