A Quicky for Now, More Later!

I've got a few things to say, but I'm off to the range in a couple of minutes.  But in the mean time, here is an interesting link that is worth a visit. 

It contains some other links if you want to explore beyond the material within.

http://www.unz.com/isteve/golf-and-evolution-the-missing-link-discovered/ 

It's about early golf, design, some poetry, and why central control or design may not be all that important!

Working Through the Details

I continue to think and practice on the full swing, usually with the driver.

Glenn was trying to get me to "just spin" my shoulders.  Of course, I still need the lower body to have moved to a forward position before I can do that.

So some of the time is spent becoming conscious of what I need to do -- and do at the range, but not on the course.

I still feel the difference is to be in too much of a hurry on the course.  The movement of the lower body has to have enough time to get there.  The upper body has to wait its turn.

I was looking at a video of Justin Rose and his recent tournament wins.  There are videos where all the shots are kept and all the rest of the broadcast are removed.  A full 18 holes takes about 10 minutes.  It's interesting when watching these is that you can see patterns in how the guy swings and not just the details of a fully analyzed single swing.

What Rose does is to start down from the top of the back swing at a very slow speed then accelerates hard through the rest of the swing.  The position where the acceleration seems to be obvious is where the hands are about waist high.  Now, it might be that he's accelerated a bit earlier than that, but that's what it looks like.

There was an old adage in the golf lesson books about starting down at the same speed as you take the club back.  Easy to say, and easy to do, but when we all want to hit the ball further, it's hard to commit too.  Perhaps golf is yet another exercise in discipline?

I was doing this today at the range.  It was easy to do and I cannot complain about the shot quality.

It helps me take the arms on a circular path rather than trying to get directly to the ball.  Thus allowing me to spin the shoulders.


Will I have the courage and memory to do this on the course?  Well, I've got to do something!

I'll be playing Friday.  Tomorrow is supposed to rain, so I'll probably just go to the range if I can. 

Range Report

I'm working on figuring out what I do differently at the range than on the course.

I also saw a video on youtube that talked about the major difference between ams and pros.  Which was that pros use their hips differently than even very good ams.  Basically they are quieter and do not have much lateral movement particularly in the back swing.  The ams on the other hand, push the hips back along the target line, the forward, causing the head / chest to teeter-totter about twice what a pro does.  I' talking angle to the target line here.


I was going to go to the range then play today, but ended up just ranging it. 

I tried to keep my hips quiet and fairly stationary.  I let them turn and such, but made sure there was no lateral shift on the back swing.  I don't have problems with irons at the course, so there is a good chance I do the right thing a lot.  My irons are not very long these days, but they are very straight.  If I'm not swinging at them well, I can't be too far off either.

As I kept the hips centered, it kept me over the ball and I was able to hit everything well.  When I say I hit everything well, I'm talking about 2 misses out of 100 balls.  I think I topped one shot and sliced one, otherwise off they went.

I'd like to think I've got the key to the difference, but it ain't over until we test it a bit. 

This brings to mind a round down in Albuquerque where I was kind of bunting the drives along and hit them very solidly.  I couldn't understand it and I've not recaptured it since. 

I talked to Sonny again a bit today too as he was coming in to do some teaching.  We concurred on the thoughts above. 

I'm guessing that when I feel I need to hit it a long way, then comes the over-backswing and then I'm stuck and will early extend and flip the hands. 

Sonny also thought that a big difference between ams and pros was that for ams the swing is a Ferris wheel and for pros it's more a carousel.  I thought there wasn't much difference between the two, but I can see the carousel being more of a flatter shoulder swing and more powerful than trying to spin the arms in front of you.

I'll play with that next and see if it revives some distance.

OK, off to Southern California tomorrow and some golf on Saturday.

Some Progress

We played with Sonny today, who is another teaching pro.  Has about a 2 index and hits a nice ball.

I'm still struggling with what I do on the course versus what I do at the driving range.  Sonny has seen me hit at both places and remarked that he would not recognize what I do on the course from what I do on the range. 

It's that different.  Usually golf swings are like finger prints and you can recognize them from 500 yards. 

So sad.  I can feel some of the stuff I'm doing wrong on occasion, but getting the sequence right continues to be a challenge. 

The problems Glenn saw are the still the issues. 

Sonny likes my hip turn and the ones he likes I can't feel.

I also saw a video that described the main difference between the good amateurs and the pros and that was that pros have hips that are very stable, don't move along the target path at all.  This keeps them from tilting in the back swing and in the down swing.  Something that ams like to do a lot. 

I have an unstructured day tomorrow, but time to do some practicing and playing. 

I think that being aware of what I'm doing at the range and on the course is the key to this mess. 

One of the differences between conditions is what one is thinking about when swinging.  On course it's much more target oriented and thoughts of "don't hit it right" and "uh oh, water left."  It might be that difference is blocking the smooth, proper sequence of a good swing.

I've not made a habit of picking a target on the range.  Too much interest and need to stay technical.  But when I've played holes at the range and laid out a course and played, it's been flawless.  I'll have to ponder this.

I also want to make sure I'm keeping the lower body in its proper position and not letting my interesting is hitting one for distance getting in the way doing it all properly.

I'll report back when the smoke clears.

Then Thursday we are off to SoCal and I'll get a round in Jay.  Need to hit the ball well there!

Answers!

This is a report on my hour long lesson with Glenn today.

As my faithful reader is well aware, the driver has been an issue in an otherwise fine game of golf.

Glenn uses Trackman to gather data.  For those who don't live and breath this stuff, this is a Doppler Radar unit that tracks club movement, ball flight, spin and then calculates distance carried, some of the roll out (which is a bit of guess -- depends on turf conditions, etc.).  Of course once you have all the numbers, a whole bunch of calculations are possible.  It's also doing movie grabs and such for replay and illustration.

I was under the impression that I was too far inside and needed to swing out at the ball to hit it properly.  Was it a lack of shallowing the club shaft that was causing my problems?

Adding to this was that this problem would only show up on the course.  At the range I could hit 50 drives in a row without my usual set of duck hooks and thin topped shots.

Frustrating?  Ah, yes it was.  It might have discouraged a lesser golfer.


What Glenn saw was that I was getting stuck by keeping the arms and hands too close my body.  That caused them to be trapped and if I was going to get close to the ball I was going to have to do hero moves with body and hands.  To improve the club needed to get outside of my top of backswing position.


The solution seemed strange:

1. Take normal backswing (nice that something was good!)
2. Spin the shoulders - nothing fancy required for my lower body.
3. This spinning feels like I am throwing the club well outside of the swing path and will cause me to come over the top.
4. Make no attempt to manipulate the club with arms or hands.
5. Mr. Trackman says that I am still presenting the club to the ball with an inside to outside line.
6. If things get worse, then spin the shoulders harder.  A solution that doesn't require gentleness and caution!
7. When the shoulders are spun, there must be the feeling that the club grip is being pulled into the body, left and eventually upwards.

As I was able to do this the ball flight was good.  TM (Trackman) showed about 3 degrees up on the swing.  The club is set to 8.5 degrees, so an effective loft of about 11.5 degrees.  

My club path was always in to out, but I was getting close to straight.  

Club path was deliciously straight; some times with a bit of draw, maybe due to gear effect of a toe hit.

Club head speed rose from about 90 to 97.  TM was suggesting carry distances above 240 yards, with total yardage in the 260 range.

I'll try to take this to the course tomorrow.  Since I am supposed to do this with all shots, there will be plenty of practice shots.  I wonder if it applies to putting?

Answers?

The usual Tuesday game has been at Wente thanks to the generosity of Phil.  We coaxed Glenn out for a round today.

Glenn teaches at the local driving range and has played some in qualifying events and Web.com events.  I'm not real sure of his CV.  But he hits the ball well and Phil and thought that it might be instructive and inspirational to see the game as it should be played.

About two holes in, Glenn pulls me aside and suggests he can fix all my faults in very little time.  Well, that's what I wanted to hear.

As my dear reader will remember, the stupid driver has been my nemesis for a number of years.  I thought I was coming over the top, but Glenn has stated that I'm too far inside due to dropping my hands from the top of my very fine backswing.

I'm going to spend some time with him and see what some instruction will do to fix this issue.  It's been a royal pain to not get off the tee and it is past time to do something about it.

I may see him tomorrow.

I'll pass on some of the technical details after the lesson.

All Those Years of Practice...

Me: It was a pretty good day.

Interested Party (IP): Did you play ok?

M: Not too bad.  Started to get it up and down a lot on the back nine.  Hit a couple of drives, it was nice weather, so yea, it was ok.

IP: So why a pretty good day?  Did you make a lot of birdies?

M: Nah, missed a coupe of short ones.

IP: Break 80?

M: Maybe, didn't really keep track.  Want me to add up the score?

IP: Nah, scores don't matter.  Hit the irons well?

M: Pretty well.

IP:  So what was the big deal?

M: Second eagle of the year.

IP: OK, but you have had them before.

M: Yes, but this was the first time on a par three.

IP: Oooh, so hole in one?

M: Yep, first one.  Holed out on the 8th, 160 yards over the water and traps.

IP: Exciting?

M: Sadly, no, as the green is elevated and behind the reeds.  We just got up to the green and it was "Where's my ball?"  I wandered over to the cup and looked in.  Initially I could only see about 1/2 the cup and it was empty, but there, peeking out, was the guy.

IP:  Did you save the ball?

M:  Well, it was a water ball as I've been known to hit one in the water on the 8th.  It was a Hyper Ti ball, might be 10 years old.  But it still flew ok.  It's still in my bag.  I may pull it out, but it's just a ball.

IP:  Did you buy drinks?

M: Nah, no one wanted one.  I offered a frozen yogurt at lunch, but my golf buddy didn't feel the need to be treated to one.

IP:  Is that it?

M: Probably.  It was fun, how often do you get to write a "1" on the score card?  But since I don't keep score...