Swing analysis

Question
QUESTION: Kind of fuzzy, but any comments would be great! I've been
really struggling with a shank sometimes as well as a really
bad fade with my driver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2FJt3-
9Dc&feature=player_embedded

Thanks!

ANSWER: Jeff:

Malformed video.  Can't play it.  Try again.

Eddie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: It should be working ... here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2FJt3-9Dc

ANSWER: Jeff:

Nice job.  Tough to see, scratchy video, but here is what I can tell you.  Your left hand grip looks too weak and you take the club too far to the inside on the takeaway.  Once that happens, the opposite of that on the downswing is to throw the club out away from you, which would result in the possibility of the clubhead arriving outside the ball, thus shanking it.  A shank is hit on the hosel of the club, so you have to figure out why the clubhead is outside the ball at impact.  My suggestion is to strengthen the left hand grip (get help from a PGA pro if you don't know how to do that correctly), take the club back a little straighter away and see what happens.  The club needs to approach the ball more from the inside in your swing.  You are not that far off.  You have a good looking swing, but how much do you have to off at impact to shank it?  Not much!!

Plus, here is an easy drill to do.  Set up to your ball, place the clubhead down behind the ball and then place a long tee about an inch outside the toe of the club.  Then swing and make sure you don't hit the tee.  If the club is moving out away from you as you start down, you'll break the tee.  Then you know you need to get the club moving more from the inside.  It's an easy check.  

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks a lot :)
I think I might cancel my lesson with the pro that I was
going to have this weekend because now I know what I need to
practice! I've actually had this problem before, both with
the grip and the takeaway. I've tried strengthening the grip
(moving the left hand more to the right but not moving my
right hand much) and the clubface feels really closed on the
way up and I end up hitting it chunky or just plain bad.
Does this just take practice or will the straighter takeaway
help as well?

Thanks for the help! I'm going to the range tomorrow so I'll  
try to videotape again.  

Answer
Jeff:

Strengthening the left hand grip is not just merely turning it more to the right.  It has to be held in your hand correctly first.  The shaft should rest along the base of the fingers, not in the fingers or up in the palm.  The club sits right across the base of the fingers so that when you close your left hand down onto the club, your heel pad will completely cover the top of the shaft.  In your video, I can tell the shaft is way up in the palm because your heel pad is way to the left of the shaft.  This is an extremely weak position.  If the left hand is really weak, you'll tend to roll the club open and behind you in the takeaway (which you do).  Then to recover from that, you'll tend to throw the club down and out away from you in the downswing, which is causing your shanks.  So get that grip fixed, match the right hand to the left, and go practice.  Allow the club to swing away a little straighter, not so far inside.  It will take practice, but your grip will help fix a lot of your issues Jeff.  Let me know how you do.  

Eddie