André Rennes — 8-Iron · Full Swing Analysis

1 Executive summary

Bottom line: a healthy first 8-iron. 126 yards total, 123 carry and 94.0 mph of ball speed. ★ This is the first 8-iron on file, so all three set the baseline. The flight itself looks good: a 23° launch (LPGA Tour 20.8°), a 69 ft (23 yd) peak (LPGA 25 yds) and a 43° landing angle, so the ball stops almost where it lands (only 3 yards of roll). The carry is 7 yards short of the LPGA Tour average (130), which matches the speed gap: ball speed is 6 mph under the LPGA's 100 mph, and estimated club speed is about 67-68 mph against 74 mph.

The head is the star of this swing. It is only ~0.9 in lower than at address at impact and ~0 in toward the ball. The turn is big too: about 85° of shoulder turn against ~40° of hips, an X-factor of ~45°. Two things hold the swing back: the tempo is very slow at ~5.2:1 (1.9 s back, 0.37 s down), and the hips drift toward the ball. The back of the hips ends ~2.1 in off the tush line at impact, and the hands are ~5 in off their address spot.

Strength

Quiet head

Head ~0.9 in lower at impact and ~0 in toward the ball. It even rises ~0.7 in above its address height at the top.

Priority 1

Hips stay back

The back of the hips ends ~2.1 in off the tush line at impact and the hips move ~1.1 in toward the ball. Keeping them back gives the hands room to return to their address spot.

Priority 2

Shorten the wind-up

1.9 s of backswing against 0.37 s of downswing. Move toward 3:1 by keeping the club moving near the top.

2 Ball flight — range screen

Metric	André	LPGA Tour avg	PGA Tour avg
Ball speed	94.0 mph ★	100 mph	115 mph
Carry	123 yds ★	130 yds	160 yds
Flat carry	123 yds	—	—
Total	126 yds ★	—	—
Launch angle	23°	20.8°	18.1°
Apex	69 ft (23 yds)	25 yds	31 yds
Landing angle	43°	47°	50°
Curve	6 ft right	—	—
Hang time	5.0 s	—	—
Proximity	—	—	—

★ = first 8-iron report, so these numbers set the baseline. The curve direction (right) is read from the screen at moderate confidence because the crop is blurry; the shot tracer also bends slightly right. Club speed and spin are not on the screen: at a typical iron smash of ~1.38-1.40, 94.0 mph of ball speed means about 67-68 mph of club speed (LPGA Tour 74 mph). The ball could not be followed in the video (30 fps, it is gone between two frames after impact), so no start direction is given. Slow-motion footage would fix that.

What it means: the ball launches higher than the LPGA average (23° vs 20.8°) but peaks a touch lower and lands flatter (43° vs 47°), which hints at a little less spin than Tour. Spin is not on the screen, so that stays a guess. The 7-yard carry gap to the LPGA average is about what the 6 mph of ball speed explains, so the contact looks solid and the next gains are in speed and sequence. The 6 ft of curve is essentially straight.

3 Timing & tempo — measured from the video

30 frames per second, so each time is accurate to about ±0.03 s. The backswing starts at frame 126 (15.20 s), the top is at 17.10 s and impact is at about 17.46 s.

Group	Backswing	Downswing	Ratio
André (8-iron, Nov 4)	~1.90 s	~0.37 s	~5.2:1
André (9-iron, Oct 28)	~0.60 s	~0.20 s	~3.0:1
PGA Tour (Tour Tempo, "24/8")	~0.80 s	~0.27 s	3:1

Tour figure: John Novosel, Tour Tempo. No earlier 8-iron report exists yet. One frame either way moves the ratio between ~4.7:1 and ~5.7:1.

What it means: the downswing (0.37 s) is about 0.10 s slower than Tour. The big difference is the backswing, which is more than twice the Tour time. About 1.5 s of it passes between lead arm parallel and the top, so the club is either creeping or pausing near the top. The 9-iron on Oct 28 was already near 3:1, so the rhythm is in his toolbox.

4 The reference frame — how this swing was measured

Grid: each square is about 5 inches (~40 px, 7.91 px per inch). Height was not given, so the scale comes from his body size in the frame. Treat all distances as ±1 inch. His real height would make the scale exact.
Center lines: a vertical line through the center of his stance (feet) and a horizontal line through the ball line, fixed references for balance, spine and height. Together with the corner diagonals they cross at the belt buckle at address.
Corner-to-corner diagonals: a fixed perspective scaffold for depth. The far-right mat corner is partly hidden by the black ball tray, so that point is estimated.
Depth rays: no alignment sticks were on the mat, so the mat edges are extended to the horizon instead. Anything moving along these rays is moving toward the target (into the picture), not sideways.
Address references: the white cap line is head height, the dashed light-blue lines mark shoulder and knee height, the waist line marks belt height, and the dashed red tush line is the back of the hips at address. The red trail is the head path and the yellow trail is the hands' path.
Tracking: body points were tracked automatically on all 270 frames (11.0-20.0 s) and checked by eye at each key position. The camera stayed still: the background moved less than 0.1 px (median).

5 Swing sequence

Nine key positions, filmed down-the-line from behind the hands on November 4. The target is straight into the picture, with the mat edges standing in for target-line sticks.

Photo 3 · Lead arm parallelt 15.60s · frame 138

Photo 5 · Arm parallel (down)t 17.30s · frame 189

Photos are numbered in the order they happen in the swing. The frames follow the standard swing positions.

6 Position-by-position biomechanics

Photo 1 — Address Good

Athletic iron posture: knees flexed, spine tilted from the hips, arms hanging, sole of the club resting on the mat behind the ball.
The cap line, shoulder and knee lines, waist line and tush line are all set here as the references for the rest of the swing. No sticks were on the mat, so the foot line is not judged.

Photo 2 — Takeaway Good

The hands, arms and club leave together, with the hands ~7 in from their address spot.
Head ~1.2 in lower and ~0.4 in toward the ball, hips ~0.6 in away from the ball. A small, calm start.

Photo 3 — Lead arm parallel Good

Hands ~22 in from the address spot with the club climbing, a wide arc.
Head ~1.9 in lower, its deepest point of the swing and still inside the good band. Hips ~0.8 in away from the ball, so the base is not swaying in.

Photo 4 — Top Good

Hands lifted well above the shoulder line, ~33 in from the address spot. Shoulders turned about 85° and hips about 40° (±10-15°): an X-factor of ~45°.
Head ~0.7 in higher than at address and ~1.0 in toward the ball line. It stayed tall. Hips ~0.1 in toward the ball, so the base is steady.
It took 1.9 s to get here, the slow part of the swing (see tempo).

Photo 5 — Arm parallel (down) Lower body leads

The hips start the downswing: ~0.7 in toward the ball while the head stays almost level (~0.5 in lower).
Hands ~16 in from the address spot and dropping back toward it (yellow trail).

Photo 6 — Delivery Solid

Arms in front of the chest, club blurred as it comes through. Hands ~6.5 in from the address spot.
Hips ~1.0 in toward the ball and not rising. Head ~0.8 in lower and still.

Photo 7 — Impact Head great, hips watch

Head ~0.9 in lower and ~0 in toward the ball: Good. Hips rise 0 in: Good.
Hips ~1.1 in toward the ball (Watch) and the back of the hips ~2.1 in off the tush line (Fix). Hands ~5.1 in from their address spot (Fix).
Shoulders about 15° open and hips about 35° open: the lower body is clearly ahead of the chest, a good sequence.

Photo 8 — Release Good

Both arms extend toward the mat and the club travels low through the ball area. Hands ~3.6 in from the address spot.
Head ~1.0 in lower and ~0.3 in back. It stays behind the ball while the body turns.

Photo 9 — Finish Good

Tall and balanced at frame 236, chest and belt turned toward the target, trail foot up on its toes, arms high.
Head ~5.8 in higher than at address and hips ~2.4 in toward the ball, a normal rise into the finish.

Overlay — head at address, top and impact

Measure (vs address)	Top	Impact	Reading
Head, height	~0.7 in up	~0.9 in down	Good head stays close to its address height
Head, toward the ball line	~1.0 in	~0 in	Good no drift at impact
Hips, toward the ball	~0.1 in	~1.1 in	Watch small drift toward the ball
Back of hips vs tush line	—	~2.1 in off the line	Fix early-extension sign (partly hip turn, see note)
Hips, rise (waist height)	~0 in	~0 in	Good waist height holds
Hands vs address spot	~33 in	~5.1 in	Fix not back at the address spot
Shoulder turn	~85°	~15° open	Info big turn, ±10-15°
Hip turn	~40°	~35° open	Info hips lead the chest at impact
X-factor (shoulders minus hips)	~45°	~20° (hips ahead)	Info good coil, then hips lead
Tempo	Back ~1.9 s	Down ~0.37 s	Watch ~5.2:1, very slow back

Depth note: from behind, the head and hip shifts toward the ball sit partly along the depth rays, so each is a mix of "toward the ball" and "toward the target". One camera cannot split the two. The tush-line gap (~2.1 in) is bigger than the hip-center shift (~1.1 in) partly because the hips turned open ~35°, which carries the back of the hips off the line even without a slide. A face-on clip will separate turn from slide (see section 10).

7 Where the 8-iron sits in the bag

Club (best report)	Total	Carry	Ball speed	Launch	Curve
7-Iron · Oct 14	147 yds	144 yds	104 mph	22°	0 ft
8-Iron · Nov 4	126 yds	123 yds	94.0 mph	23°	6 ft right
9-Iron · Oct 28	117 yds	116 yds	92.2 mph	27°	6 ft left
Pitching Wedge · Oct 28	115 yds	113 yds	89.2 mph	28°	15 ft left

Heads-up: the gaps are uneven. The 8-iron carries 21 yards less than the 7-iron (123 vs 144) but only 7 more than the 9-iron (123 vs 116), with just 1.8 mph more ball speed than the 9-iron and 10 mph less than the 7-iron. The 7-iron and 9-iron are each a single-session snapshot, so this is a first look. A few more 8-iron swings will show whether this is the club or just one swing.

8 Diagnosis

Good ball flight, modest speed: 94.0 mph ball speed (~67-68 mph club speed, estimated) is under the LPGA Tour average. The launch, peak and landing angle are all healthy, so the 7-yard carry gap is mostly speed.
Quiet head: ~0.9 in down and ~0 in toward the ball at impact, and the head even rises ~0.7 in at the top. That is a strong base for solid contact.
Hips drift toward the ball: ~1.1 in at impact, and the back of the hips ~2.1 in off the tush line. Part of that is turn, but it likely pushes the hands out and up, and they end ~5.1 in off the address spot.
Big coil, good sequence: ~85° of shoulder turn against ~40° of hips (X-factor ~45°), then the hips open ~35° while the shoulders are ~15° open at impact. The lower body leads, as it should.
Tempo ~5.2:1: the 1.9 s backswing is the clearest speed gap. About 1.5 s sits between lead arm parallel and the top, so a smoother, non-stop backswing is likely to help rhythm and speed.
Shape: only 6 ft of curve (right) and 3 yards of roll, so the direction and landing are repeatable.

Confidence: high on the ball flight (range screen) and on tempo (measured frame by frame, ±0.03 s); moderate on the curve direction (blurry screen), and on head and hip distances (grid scaled from body size, ±1 inch); rotation angles are visual estimates (±10-15°); low on the toward-ball vs toward-target split (needs a second angle).

9 Next steps — keep it simple

Priority 1 · Hips back

Tush-line wall

Set a club or bag just behind the hips at address, touching. Make half to full swings keeping the back of the hips light against it until the ball is gone. 10 balls.

Feel: "back pockets stay on the line, chest turns around." It keeps the hips from sliding toward the ball.

Priority 2 · Tempo

Count and go

Count "back-2-3, down" with no stop at the top. Aim for a backswing near 1.0-1.1 s with the same 0.37 s downswing, which is 3:1.

The 9-iron on Oct 28 was already ~3:1, so this is a rhythm he already owns.

Priority 3 · Hands home

Return to the spot

Film a 3/4 swing and check that the hands come back to their address spot at impact. Start from the grid and aim for under 1 in.

With the hips staying back, the hands are likely to find that spot by themselves.

Keep · Quiet head

Head and coil

Keep the same calm head and the big shoulder turn. Hold the cap near its address line.

~0.9 in of head drop and a ~45° X-factor are real strengths.

10 Limitations & next capture

One swing is a snapshot. The readout matches this swing, as it is the screen shown right after it.
Spin and club speed are not on the screen, so club speed is estimated. The ball could not be tracked at 30 fps, so there is no start direction.
No alignment sticks were on the mat and the far-right mat corner was hidden by the ball tray, so one depth-ray anchor is estimated. The club could not be read from the sole, so the 8-iron label is from the logbook entry.
Distances come from a grid scaled to his body in the frame (height not given). Rotation angles are visual estimates (±10-15°).
From behind, depth (toward the target) mixes with sideways motion, which is what the depth rays flag.

Next capture: (1) the same down-the-line spot, with the ball tray moved off the mat corner and, if possible, two target-line sticks down; (2) a face-on clip at chest height; (3) slow motion (iPhone Slo-mo, 120 or 240 fps) so the ball can be followed; (4) a close, sharp shot of the clubhead sole; (5) 3-5 balls for an average; and (6) André's height, to lock the grid scale.