Why Am I Swinging Better One-Handed
 

I am a "swinger" who has been trying to work on a few swing flaws: (1) Early club release resulting in club head ahead of hands at impact and (2) head moving forward on downswing. For the heck of it I videoed my swing of the club using my left hand only on the grip (I am right-handed). Perhaps due to lack of strength, there was a noticeable bend of the left arm in swinging back the club and the downswing proceeded very slowly. But, the swing was very rhythmic, lag was maintained throughout the downswing, and the resulting impact position looked pretty darn good (I was not actually swinging at a ball, just the air; had a ball been there, I doubt it would have gone very far due to lack of oomph). Furthermore, I had no difficulty in keeping my head back. Because of lack of support from my right arm, I had to utilize a very pronounced weight shift back (with a definite hip slide) and forward (by time my left arm had dropped passively to the release point I already had what seemed 99% of my weight already on my left side and my hips were markedly turned to the left). My right knee had really kicked in to the target. These are not normally features of my two-handed swing, where I do not make such big movements. But these movements with the one-handed swing just came so naturally. I then tried to duplicate the one-handed swing swing using both hands on the grip but all I got was the same old results; something about using my right arm seems to impede these actions even when I try to do the swing slowly. It almost feels as if my right arm is too "short" and is impeding the swing of the left arm. On video it does seem as if the right elbow is getting stuck in my right side (10-3-A, the Punch?), which might be more appropriate for a hitter rather than a swinger. Perhaps my right hip is not clearing soon enough.

I know this is not much to go on, but can anyone suggest why I might be throwing the club away two-handed?

Chances are good you are setup with a right wrist that is not level, and a right forearm that is too high. If you were to swing into a proper impact from those bad alignments, you would tend to hit a big push/push slice, so your body responds by trying to square the face with a high right shoulder lunge.

Get that right forearm set properly at impact fix - check your flying wedges in a mirror. Feel like you are skipping a rock to get that right shoulder down plane - on a lake that is 'tilted' ;)

Incline Lake
 

Great post Ed.

That lake is tilted on the same angle as the plane. :cool:

Welcome to the forum Ronaaronson!

Thanks
 

Thanks for the advice. I will check into this. BTW and FWI, my recurring problem shot is indeed a high push (very rarely a slice) to the right.

Skipping Rocks With EdZ
 

I like this a lot, Ed. Your 'tilted lake' analogy with its inclined plane of motion not only controls the Right Shoulder, it also gives accurate direction for the Thrust. It is far better than the conventional 'rock-skipping' analogy with its 'horizontal lake.'

:salut:

I agree with yoda... the picture of a tilted lake had me out of my computer chair skippin a imaginary rock...

thanks pal

Man that whole lake deal was too much for my brain cell. I actually fell in a lake. Mike O did too. He still hasn't come up for air. It's been a couple of days now. My kid is asking for his jump rope and my wife don't like that the car is only on 3 cinder blocks now . . . I reckon I better go untie Mikey. Bet he comes up with carp in his mouth.

Obey the "Law"
 

Sounds like a right-hand-pushing, left-hand-pulling and pivot-sliding "switter" , which occurs 99% among "swinging" golfers.
"due to lack of strength", yes, and the lack of the involvment of the right hand (pushing, handling and/or interrupting), the "Law" of "swinging" can thus be naturally obeyed, which takes care all the rest, as well.
Here you go! Time to make it as pushing-passive as possible or as pulling-active (to help the left hand only) as posible.
Because you try to "hack" with the right hand, which is the daily habit used for years and tough to get rid of. If you make up your mind not to do it, however, and mimick the left hand action with both hands, you can overcome it.

You have unleashed a (mini) flood!
 

Pardon, but there will be a few embedded questions (underlined) throughout. Some may require too lengthy a response so it's OK to consider those rhetorical:

The "switter" comment is something to think about. I am not consciously trying to use my right hand, but, as you suggest. it well may be that it is interfering with the action. In TGM, Homer says if you are strong and flexible you can use either hitting swinging or both. If he meant "both" concurrently, it makes me wonder what the correct procedure is, especially considering the "switter" comment (?).

Per a previous suggestion, I have been trying to make sure my right wrist is level and my forearm "on plane" at address (i.e. lower than it has been, in fact, it seems lower than my left forearm). As far as getting my right shoulder down plane on the downswing, it is hard for me to tell whether I am doing that significantly better. The first couple of times I tried "to skip the rock on the tilted lake", I buried the club in the turf behind the ball. Despite feeling very powerful, this procedure resulted in very poor power transfer, as you might imagine. Perhaps this right-shoulder down thrust now must be coordinated with a more than usual active hip rotation to bring the club more forward (?). Anyway, I hit the ball fairly well on the golf range and on the first tee, but somehow as the actual round of golf proceeded, I reverted to Standard Operating Procedure (for me).

I did have a couple of other questions (well maybe more like a 100) concerning TGM. There are several references to "right forearm takeaway", but like so many terms and phrases in the book, you have to deduce Homer's usage from its surrounding context and reading the book a dozen times or more. Is he suggesting that the right forearm starts the takeaway and by extensor action starts the left arm and shoulder moving? Also, what Homer calls the "standard" hip action is one where the hips pull the shoulder in both directions, although the "delayed" hip action is what I had always thought was the more usual procedure advocated by everybody. In fact, Homer himself has listed the delayed hip action as the one to use for both swinging and hitting patterns. This gives new meaning to the word "standard". Can the right hip be cleared too much? Many teachers advocate as minimal a hip turn as possible to increase the coiling tension between shoulder and hip. In my case, doing this resulted in my right elbow getting to far behind my hip, which presented problems on my downswing. This does not seem to bother Tiger Woods too much though. Anyway, I tried starting my back swing with a turn of the hips and a pulling of the left arm with my right hand and it seems that this could be very workable. So if somebody could tell me if these procedures are reasonable, I would appreciate it.

And I am still having a difficult time with the flying wedges description (any illustrations or elucidations out there?). BTW, I have a degree in Physics (albeit form the distant past), which does not seem to be all that helpful. If I am having difficulties understanding the book, I can imagine others are too. There is a fortune to be made in "The Golfing Machine Demystified", but I am not expecting to see such a title real soon now.

Thanks in advance.