They micro punched the greens at my local course this week. So on Monday I played the back 9 twice and today the front twice.
The front has been the harder for me over the years. A common score was 41 followed by 36 on the back.
And today was a bit like that. Ted and I tied at 45 on the front. I had my first snow man in a long time, but followed it up with a 36 on the replay. I left a number of birdies short as the greens were slowish and bumpy. That included a penalty stroke too. Thus I'm feeling good about my scoring, but the tee shots are still an issue.
I think I am still sliding a bit on all of my shots. I seem to be able to catch the irons, but frequently hit a bit of a push. I was trying to swing with my 9 iron tempo. That was ok, but didn't solve all of the issues.
So tomorrow - have I mentioned that retirement allows for a lot of golf? - I'm going to work on getting the lower body more active, particularly on the down swing. I'm not sure if I am shortening the wind up, so will look into that.
I heard from my mom that she used some of Monte's wrist cock and managed to get a few balls in the air. Yeah Monte!
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
Follow Up for Last Two Posts
A report on the progress of the new "spin" type down swing.
I've found the take away and getting the club position at the top correct, to be fairly easy to do.
Spinning down, aka, not sliding and then playing catch up the hands has worked pretty well.
I played today and hit two wild shots, but the rest were pretty solid and straight down the middle.
One of the interesting parts of a lot of golf practice is that my calluses and moving around.
They are getting close to where Hogan wants them and have shown up on the inside of my right thumb -- something new there!
Otherwise smaller two fingers on the left hand and second and third fingers of right hand.
So I conclude that what I am trying to do seems to work. I just have to get better at repeating it.
Short game was a bit off on the front nine, I was concentrating on the long game. It seems hard for a golfer of my modest caliber to concentrate on too much at once. Did better on the back nine, shot 2 over or so.
As Pelz would say, "it only takes 20,000 repetitions to make it seem normal." I was told that Anika's pop up head move took her a mere 5 years. So I hold out hope that I can get the job done.
I've found the take away and getting the club position at the top correct, to be fairly easy to do.
Spinning down, aka, not sliding and then playing catch up the hands has worked pretty well.
I played today and hit two wild shots, but the rest were pretty solid and straight down the middle.
One of the interesting parts of a lot of golf practice is that my calluses and moving around.
They are getting close to where Hogan wants them and have shown up on the inside of my right thumb -- something new there!
Otherwise smaller two fingers on the left hand and second and third fingers of right hand.
So I conclude that what I am trying to do seems to work. I just have to get better at repeating it.
Short game was a bit off on the front nine, I was concentrating on the long game. It seems hard for a golfer of my modest caliber to concentrate on too much at once. Did better on the back nine, shot 2 over or so.
As Pelz would say, "it only takes 20,000 repetitions to make it seem normal." I was told that Anika's pop up head move took her a mere 5 years. So I hold out hope that I can get the job done.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Excellent Ideas Part II
I was hopeful (always!) that the progress of the prior day would continue to today.
I generally go to the driving range on the weekends and try to play during the week. Retirement is a wonderful thing...
To summarize yesterday's ideas, they were to get the hands into a better position by taking them back parallel to the shoulder plan and to not do (or have to do) anything with them on the way down. The power stroke is merely a spin down with the club coming through as the physics demands. No fighting it and no effort.
I was having capturing the magic of yesterday and realized that, as Monte says, there is a roll to the left arm that gets the club into the proper orientation to the left arm. I seemed to be cheating on that and when corrected, good things happened.
I then realized that since all I wanted was a spin, staying centered over the shot seemed to make sense. I've always seemed to be set up to try to "push" the ball along the fairway, rather than to spin and kick the ball out with the club as it and the club face interacted. I thought about this after my range time, but it seems like a good thought when over the ball and what I should think the spin wind up should be doing.
I tend to setup open and part of that was this view of pushing the ball down the hole. Now setting up square to provide a platform for the windup seems to be logical.
This post is more a memory aid for me than any real news. As my bowling coach used to say, "you've got to do it all."
So, we spin back and put the hands/arms/shoulders in the proper plane and position and then spin back down.
I also found that trying to spin quickly from the top was not the most consistent. Better to start the spin slowly and then keep accelerating until the bottom of the swing where the whip starts to bring the club around. That improved the club contact with the driver, which is the big issue for me. It also allows for a better lower body shift to provide the base for the spin, by providing time for the first shift to be done by the feet/knees/hips before the back and shoulders get involved.
I'll play tomorrow and we shall see if reality matches theory!
I generally go to the driving range on the weekends and try to play during the week. Retirement is a wonderful thing...
To summarize yesterday's ideas, they were to get the hands into a better position by taking them back parallel to the shoulder plan and to not do (or have to do) anything with them on the way down. The power stroke is merely a spin down with the club coming through as the physics demands. No fighting it and no effort.
I was having capturing the magic of yesterday and realized that, as Monte says, there is a roll to the left arm that gets the club into the proper orientation to the left arm. I seemed to be cheating on that and when corrected, good things happened.
I then realized that since all I wanted was a spin, staying centered over the shot seemed to make sense. I've always seemed to be set up to try to "push" the ball along the fairway, rather than to spin and kick the ball out with the club as it and the club face interacted. I thought about this after my range time, but it seems like a good thought when over the ball and what I should think the spin wind up should be doing.
I tend to setup open and part of that was this view of pushing the ball down the hole. Now setting up square to provide a platform for the windup seems to be logical.
This post is more a memory aid for me than any real news. As my bowling coach used to say, "you've got to do it all."
So, we spin back and put the hands/arms/shoulders in the proper plane and position and then spin back down.
I also found that trying to spin quickly from the top was not the most consistent. Better to start the spin slowly and then keep accelerating until the bottom of the swing where the whip starts to bring the club around. That improved the club contact with the driver, which is the big issue for me. It also allows for a better lower body shift to provide the base for the spin, by providing time for the first shift to be done by the feet/knees/hips before the back and shoulders get involved.
I'll play tomorrow and we shall see if reality matches theory!
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Two Most Excellent Ideas
Sorry for being away. My mother likes to read these and I have a few things to say, so once more back to the keyboard!
And speaking of keyboards, I purchased a new Dell laptop when I started to get crashes on my old Toshiba. It was a bunch of years old and quite heavy, but it provided good service.
The new Dell has a 5 times the memory but a worse keyboard (kb). If you worked on kbs for most of your career, then one picks up habits and expectations. The new one doesn't have as much key press as I would like and it also has an enormous touch pad near the space bar. I keep hitting the touch pad in some combination with other keys and it moves the cursor back some and occasionally up a line or two. I tend to type along and not notice this. It's a mess to correct some of this.
The other thing that bothers me is the lack of home/end keys on the numeric keypad. Oh, they have a num lock button, but it doesn't do anything! So when I want End it's a bit of a stretch.
Back to golf...
I've been having some success, but still an issue with longer clubs. The driver has been a mess for the most part and I've been scoring by not using it.
I've scored well on occasion; shot a 34 on the front 9 at Los Positas. My under par 9 hole scores are quite rare in my golfing adventures. Three birdies and one bogey. Lots of kick in pars and I managed to hole 3 or 4 25 footers. It's an easy game when the putts drop from the other side of the moon.
Last night I ran across a video that talked about just spinning and letting the club square and come around when it wants to. That was useful, but the question is where one should spin from and here is where Monte Scheinblum came back into his own.
Monte makes the point that the arms have to go back parallel with shoulder plane. If it's too low then you get stuck and do horrible things from there (this is my issue). If you take the club back above the plane then you are coming over the top and will typically come over the top from there.
I'll look up the videos and put in links to them below.
I went to the range today to try a few of these things out. Specifically the items were:
Coming back was a spin and it was easy to do that from my legs and then all the way up. I was able to keep the head still and not slide (another thing I am very good at).
This all worked quite well -- ok, better than that, I hit a couple thin balls but all the shots were straight, high and solid. Now, I can hit the ball pretty well at the range. I'm greatly admired there and once one of the pros brought a student over to watch me hit. But on the course was a different issue.
I'll be very optimistic in this current iteration as everything I was doing was quite easy for me. Nothing was hurried or hard. The wind up and spin out were easy. My distance looked pretty good and my long irons were much higher.
Not sliding forward maintained the full loft on the irons and sent the ball towards the heavens.
Here is the spin video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mA10dnvJX4
Here is Monte on arm location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px50pNlcqPo&list=RDWrSSRIX_61s
I'll update this as I take it to the course. I tried this arm and spin stuff with all shots from chips to bunker shots, through the irons and then 3w and driver.
And speaking of keyboards, I purchased a new Dell laptop when I started to get crashes on my old Toshiba. It was a bunch of years old and quite heavy, but it provided good service.
The new Dell has a 5 times the memory but a worse keyboard (kb). If you worked on kbs for most of your career, then one picks up habits and expectations. The new one doesn't have as much key press as I would like and it also has an enormous touch pad near the space bar. I keep hitting the touch pad in some combination with other keys and it moves the cursor back some and occasionally up a line or two. I tend to type along and not notice this. It's a mess to correct some of this.
The other thing that bothers me is the lack of home/end keys on the numeric keypad. Oh, they have a num lock button, but it doesn't do anything! So when I want End it's a bit of a stretch.
Back to golf...
I've been having some success, but still an issue with longer clubs. The driver has been a mess for the most part and I've been scoring by not using it.
I've scored well on occasion; shot a 34 on the front 9 at Los Positas. My under par 9 hole scores are quite rare in my golfing adventures. Three birdies and one bogey. Lots of kick in pars and I managed to hole 3 or 4 25 footers. It's an easy game when the putts drop from the other side of the moon.
Last night I ran across a video that talked about just spinning and letting the club square and come around when it wants to. That was useful, but the question is where one should spin from and here is where Monte Scheinblum came back into his own.
Monte makes the point that the arms have to go back parallel with shoulder plane. If it's too low then you get stuck and do horrible things from there (this is my issue). If you take the club back above the plane then you are coming over the top and will typically come over the top from there.
I'll look up the videos and put in links to them below.
I went to the range today to try a few of these things out. Specifically the items were:
- take the arms back correctly per Monte
- then spin in place and let the club do what it will, with no hand or arm or shoulder manipulation
- loosen the hands so they don't affect what the club does either in cocking or uncocking
Coming back was a spin and it was easy to do that from my legs and then all the way up. I was able to keep the head still and not slide (another thing I am very good at).
This all worked quite well -- ok, better than that, I hit a couple thin balls but all the shots were straight, high and solid. Now, I can hit the ball pretty well at the range. I'm greatly admired there and once one of the pros brought a student over to watch me hit. But on the course was a different issue.
I'll be very optimistic in this current iteration as everything I was doing was quite easy for me. Nothing was hurried or hard. The wind up and spin out were easy. My distance looked pretty good and my long irons were much higher.
Not sliding forward maintained the full loft on the irons and sent the ball towards the heavens.
Here is the spin video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mA10dnvJX4
Here is Monte on arm location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px50pNlcqPo&list=RDWrSSRIX_61s
I'll update this as I take it to the course. I tried this arm and spin stuff with all shots from chips to bunker shots, through the irons and then 3w and driver.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Three New Things to Try and How they Did
I watched some more Monte Scheinblum videos yesterday. There were three things I wanted to test at the range.
The items were a flippy pitch shot, leading the down swing with the right elbow, and keeping the left arm off the chest.
I tried the pitch shot a bit and was a lot less accurate in distance and direction from my usual methods. The idea with this is to not accelerate fiercely into the ball, but gently and then feel as if you were hitting up on it. I found this worked quite well for a 10 or 20 yard flop shot, but the little stuff around the greens didn't seem to work for me. It was a means to drop a ball about a foot ahead of you, which would be useful when short sided -- of course that never happens to me.
The next item was to try leading the down swing with the right elbow. Hogan talks about keeping the elbows close together and this is really part of that and part of connecting the body parts. A gap between the right elbow and the body is a gap that has to be filled at some point. Not allowing the gap seems to make it simpler.
I found that this worked quite well. I was able to either start the down swing slowly or aggressively and still make great contact with the ball. I used it through all the clubs and was very pleased. It made the driver feel as simple as a wedge, which is what I've been looking for in my game.
The final item is getting the left arm off the chest fairly early in the swing. This is something that Monte works on. A stuck arm limits swing speed to the speed you can move your torso. I'm old and fat and can't move it that quickly, so I thought I'd see if this applied to me. It doesn't seem to. I couldn't do much with this and with the success of the leading right elbow, I don't care to worry about it now. Maybe later.
That's all for now, but there may be another theory tomorrow!
The items were a flippy pitch shot, leading the down swing with the right elbow, and keeping the left arm off the chest.
I tried the pitch shot a bit and was a lot less accurate in distance and direction from my usual methods. The idea with this is to not accelerate fiercely into the ball, but gently and then feel as if you were hitting up on it. I found this worked quite well for a 10 or 20 yard flop shot, but the little stuff around the greens didn't seem to work for me. It was a means to drop a ball about a foot ahead of you, which would be useful when short sided -- of course that never happens to me.
The next item was to try leading the down swing with the right elbow. Hogan talks about keeping the elbows close together and this is really part of that and part of connecting the body parts. A gap between the right elbow and the body is a gap that has to be filled at some point. Not allowing the gap seems to make it simpler.
I found that this worked quite well. I was able to either start the down swing slowly or aggressively and still make great contact with the ball. I used it through all the clubs and was very pleased. It made the driver feel as simple as a wedge, which is what I've been looking for in my game.
The final item is getting the left arm off the chest fairly early in the swing. This is something that Monte works on. A stuck arm limits swing speed to the speed you can move your torso. I'm old and fat and can't move it that quickly, so I thought I'd see if this applied to me. It doesn't seem to. I couldn't do much with this and with the success of the leading right elbow, I don't care to worry about it now. Maybe later.
That's all for now, but there may be another theory tomorrow!
Thursday, September 1, 2016
A Tip of the Hat to Monte
The big thing about the golf swing is to be in the right place when the club comes down.
Every movement in taking the club back and then back down, the shoulder turn, etc., all cause compensatory movements in the body.
If you pay attention to this, you can feel it. Find a level spot and just move the club from the address position to half way back. Notice weight shifts and foot pressure and maybe hip turn/shift too. Some of this is small, but it's there.
When you fully wind up or are in the act of winding things are happening too.
The body needs to maintain balance and that is what is going on. Sure you can lean for a bit, but you can't hold that position.
Ok, so when we start down, compensations must also occur. The speed that you do this stuff is important. I've found that fast, powerful movements seem to be "corrected" for by the body better than slower ones.
Which leads me to Monte Scheinblum. You can find him on youtube and recommend that you do.
He has problems with some of the traditional golf swing teaching. For example, the other the top move, casting are the ones I'm playing with now.
The traditional theory is that casting (this is opening the angle of the club to the left arm) is a large power loss and one should strive to avoid that and in fact there are proponents of trying hang on to the angle or shorten it to increase power.
Monte's view is if you try to cast, you can't do it. Put your arms parallel to the ground in the take away path as if you were taking it back for a full swing. Now try to cast from this position. You can't do it, if you swing with any speed. Sure, in slow motion you can, but normal speed or as fast as you can, you will not. And at high speed, your hands will work just fine for striking the ball.
Why this works is that the action of the hands to cast, causes the arms to come down and get to the hitting position. Damn handy all of that. And you can swing as hard as you can and it all works out nicely.
Let's talk about hitting from the top. This is defined as starting the upper body before the lower. Causes monster slices and hooks and nothing good. But if you take the club back and are in a reasonable place and you start down from there by swinging hard, the lower body will react and save you from falling.
The legs and hips will shift a head a bit and the left knee will do good things and all is well. Try it!
Again, I've found it is easier to do if you swing hard.
Monte wants the shoulders and arms and club to remain connected. He doesn't want the shoulders to get in front of the arms or the arms to lead the shoulders or the body to lead the upper body. By doing some of the above, you are maintaining the connections. So the swings are not long, but they are connected.
Monte says to take advantage of the body's ability to react and use it. That's why this stuff works.
He has videos and more explanations on these items and drills to try.
I find this works quite well. I'm very comfortable with the casting of the hands drill and I've taken that to the course. Now, my irons are the strength of my game and this made them better. Hit a low pitching wedge from under a tree? Move the ball back and swing and cast and off it goes nicely to 4 feet from the pin.
My driver has been an issue for years and I've not quite got this fully resolved, but it seems to be working well. More time on the course will tell.
In any case do take a look at Monte's videos...
Every movement in taking the club back and then back down, the shoulder turn, etc., all cause compensatory movements in the body.
If you pay attention to this, you can feel it. Find a level spot and just move the club from the address position to half way back. Notice weight shifts and foot pressure and maybe hip turn/shift too. Some of this is small, but it's there.
When you fully wind up or are in the act of winding things are happening too.
The body needs to maintain balance and that is what is going on. Sure you can lean for a bit, but you can't hold that position.
Ok, so when we start down, compensations must also occur. The speed that you do this stuff is important. I've found that fast, powerful movements seem to be "corrected" for by the body better than slower ones.
Which leads me to Monte Scheinblum. You can find him on youtube and recommend that you do.
He has problems with some of the traditional golf swing teaching. For example, the other the top move, casting are the ones I'm playing with now.
The traditional theory is that casting (this is opening the angle of the club to the left arm) is a large power loss and one should strive to avoid that and in fact there are proponents of trying hang on to the angle or shorten it to increase power.
Monte's view is if you try to cast, you can't do it. Put your arms parallel to the ground in the take away path as if you were taking it back for a full swing. Now try to cast from this position. You can't do it, if you swing with any speed. Sure, in slow motion you can, but normal speed or as fast as you can, you will not. And at high speed, your hands will work just fine for striking the ball.
Why this works is that the action of the hands to cast, causes the arms to come down and get to the hitting position. Damn handy all of that. And you can swing as hard as you can and it all works out nicely.
Let's talk about hitting from the top. This is defined as starting the upper body before the lower. Causes monster slices and hooks and nothing good. But if you take the club back and are in a reasonable place and you start down from there by swinging hard, the lower body will react and save you from falling.
The legs and hips will shift a head a bit and the left knee will do good things and all is well. Try it!
Again, I've found it is easier to do if you swing hard.
Monte wants the shoulders and arms and club to remain connected. He doesn't want the shoulders to get in front of the arms or the arms to lead the shoulders or the body to lead the upper body. By doing some of the above, you are maintaining the connections. So the swings are not long, but they are connected.
Monte says to take advantage of the body's ability to react and use it. That's why this stuff works.
He has videos and more explanations on these items and drills to try.
I find this works quite well. I'm very comfortable with the casting of the hands drill and I've taken that to the course. Now, my irons are the strength of my game and this made them better. Hit a low pitching wedge from under a tree? Move the ball back and swing and cast and off it goes nicely to 4 feet from the pin.
My driver has been an issue for years and I've not quite got this fully resolved, but it seems to be working well. More time on the course will tell.
In any case do take a look at Monte's videos...
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