Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online Tuesday at noon Eastern to review your swing videos, answer questions and offer tips to keep your game on track during the cooler winter months. Be first in line by leaving a comment below.

Gary asks at 1:00:

I have a tendency to stand up and release early on my downswing. What would your advice be?

That is a pretty solid motion Gary.

The standing up thing and early release on the downswing is directly related to your address position. If you have read this blog in the past you have heard me discuss the "Tush line" and how to maintain it. If you go to my website www.redgoat.smugmug.com and look at the Redgoat Fundamentals section on Tush line it will give you an idea what I am talking about.

The basic idea is that your tush starts too far behind your heels in the address position and is not in a position that can be maintained as you swing the club. To compensate for the inevitable loss of balance that comes from this starting position your weight will move towards your toes as you swing, forcing your torso to become more upright. As a result, your arms have less room to move down into impact before they collide with your left hip. This causes you to release the club earlier than you would like.

To fix the problem you must fix the address. Get closer to the ball with your entire body but move your toes back away from it. You should have the feeling that your weight is over the balls of your feet and even towards your toes. Your knees should be bending out over your toes forcing your heels to feel like they are barely touching the ground. This will force the weight to move into your left heel as you turn back and into the right heel as your turn through. (Yes, I have compensated for you being left-handed)

As a result your tush will stay back away from the ball, allowing your arms room to get down in front of your hips later into the downswing. This will store energy longer and allow you to pick up some clubhead speed while you are making better contact.

I would also recommend you check out the Redgoat fundamentals section on my website www.redgoat.smugmug.com for the different options in the takeaway. Your hands and arms move out away from you too much going back requiring a compensation later in the swing. You have too good a golf swing to settle for that type of inefficency in the backswing. Look at the Nick Faldo and Nick Price swings to get an idea what you should be feeling.

Send in the new swing when you make some progress and I will tell you what to focus on next.

Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online Tuesday at noon Eastern to review your swing videos, answer questions and offer tips to keep your game on track. Leave a question or comment below.

Thanks to everyone for your participation in this weeks blog. I look forward to seeing your swings and questions next week. I hope you are all having a better week than Tiger. GO PACKERS!

Matt W. asks at 1:08:

Hi Brady, I hope you can help me. For a long time my miss has been to the left, everything from pulls to a duck hook with longer clubs, often hitting it out on the toe. I have worked on making some swing changes but continue to have this problem. I can see I’m under plane going back and I lose my tush line, and then I’m steep coming down. Problem is I don’t know how to fix it. I really don’t feel like I have a lot of weight in my heels at address, sometimes just the opposite, and my grip is fairly neutral. This video is from a couple of years ago but I assume I’m still doing the same thing because I keep getting the same results. You have always been very helpful when we have communicated in the past and I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks for the kind words, Matt. Your tush line doesn't seem to be too far off so I wouldn't waste a great deal of effort on that at this point. Yes, you are slightly below plane going back but again it seems fairly insignificant to the problem at this point.

The major issue for me is that your shoulders look severely open at impact. This is the cause of your left issues and has more to do with a lack of laterally motion toward the target on the down swing than your takeaway. If I had you on my lesson tee I wouldn't let you leave until you hit several shots where we could see your upper left arm from the Down the Line camera angle at impact. To get there, you will have to get your weight working parallel to the target line as you begin the downswing. This will happen with the entire body but you will maintain more right side tilt away from the target than you currently have. With your body moving more laterally, the rotation of your shoulders will slow significantly and the club will attack on a shallower angle. This will eliminate the pull, lessen the depth of the divot and help you start the ball at the target or even slightly right.

I really like your motion but I think you could improve a great deal with this simple change. Send me some new video as soon as possible.