Feel is a terrible witness. Golfers are routinely convinced their backswing is three-quarters when video shows it past parallel. A short, well-filmed clip exposes the faults that feel never reports. These seven are the most common — and the camera view that catches each one.
1. Sway (face-on)
The hips slide away from the target in the backswing instead of rotating. You must then slide back, and timing becomes a coin flip. Watch the trail hip against the background in face-on video: it should rotate, not travel.
2. Over-the-top (down-the-line)
The classic slice-maker: the club swings out-to-in across the ball at impact. From behind, watch the club move outside the hands halfway down and cut across the target line.
3. Early extension (face-on)
Hips and pelvis push toward the ball in the downswing, the spine loses its angle and the arms run out of room. It shows up as a big shift of the hip line toward the ball, usually paired with thin or blocked shots.
4. Casting the club (down-the-line)
The wrist angles release too early, throwing the clubhead at the ball before the body arrives. From behind, the clubhead overtakes the hands well before impact — a massive loss of lag and speed.
5. Reverse pivot (face-on)
Weight tilts toward the target in the backswing instead of loading the trail side. The upper body leans toward the target while the lower body hangs back. Power disappears and fat shots follow.
6. Overswing (face-on or down-the-line)
The club passes parallel at the top, usually because the arms keep running after the body stops. Video is the only honest measure: the shaft’s angle at the top tells the truth instantly.
7. Poor tempo (face-on, 60fps+)
Jerky transitions and a rushed downswing are invisible in real time but obvious at 60 or 120 frames per second. A video review with measured swing events shows exactly where the transition happens and how it relates to the rest of the sequence.
See it to fix it
Film ten seconds, watch it back in slow motion, and pick one fault — not all seven. One fix at a time is how swings actually change.