Pitching Wedge

Over the next 3 days, i am going to delve into 3 distinctly different golf swings of mine. a wedge, a 7 iron, and a driver. all 3 of them have surprisingly different swing mechanics, and executions, all of which i find quite interesting. avid readers of this site? not so much... :)

So, this is a video of my golf swing with a pitching wedge. it is a fairly lofted club, of about 48 degrees in loft. the loft of the club is the angle that the club face makes with the ground when the club is at address (about to hit a golf ball).

so, generally speaking, the more loft on the club, the easier it is to hit, therefore this would be a relatively easy club to hit. the only club i carry that is higher lofted is my sandwedge which i documented earlier.

so, this swing, due to the club being shorter (the higher the loft on the club, the shorter the club shaft is) you can stand closer to the ball, which is mostly what makes the swing different. what is next is going to be a series of photos of different phases of this swing, and why the matter.

this is me standing at address to the ball. the yellow line is the plane that the shaft of the club should ideally move along. 

now, once i have begun my backswing, you can see that my hands stay on the yellow line, and the orange circle is where my clubhead is. the fact that it is bellow the yellow line is fine for the backswing, but ideally i would like to have it closer to on the yellow line. at this point in the swing, the club should be pointed directly at the camera, not off to the side like that

by the time we get more into the backswing, the club has returned to a proper position, and actually extends the yellow line. my hands are still in the perfect spot.

side note: now that i have gotten almost to the top of my backswing (i don't have a screenshot of my pitching wedge at a full backswing, but that is okay) you can see my lower body movement. if you compare the first picture, where i haven't started moving anything yet, you cannot see my right leg/knee at all. by the time i get to the above picture, my knee has moved towards my left, and outward a bit due to the flex of my knee. this is creating a great deal of torque and "explosiveness" in my knee that helps drive the club through impact with a greater amount of force.

So, i skipped the picture at the top of my swing, and went directly to my downswing. this is the major problem area in my golf swing. as you can see by the green circle, my hands, and the club (which is perfectly pointed at the camera, which is good) are dramatically above the yellow line that i started on. that is not good. it means i will not properly make contact with the ball, creating a curved shot in the air. it is very difficult to have a straight trajectory from such a swing.

this is at the moment of impact, and you can more clearly see how my hands and the club are above the yellow line.

side note 2: by now, my legs are back in place, and although you cannot see it, my right knee has moved forward, creating a driving force for the club to follow. 

So, due to the angle of impact, my ball flight will be pushed towards the right to begin with, and then will curve in the air back to the left. this is a common theme within all of my swings, and ball flights. that's all for now, 7 iron tomorrow!