Swing 1.6: Hitting off grass

Went to the range today with my son to work on putting, short game and then we finished hitting balls off the grass. Usually we only hit off of the mats which makes fat shots still go pretty good. So the feedback is not there as far as hitting the ball correctly and where the divot is.

Well my new swing held up. At first my SW was horrible and it couldn't hit anything. kept shanking or hitting way fat. Then finally I grooved my swing and hit the ball correctly. Moved up to the 9 iron and hit it really good as well. Then finally to the 7 iron and hit about 8 out of 10 really well just flying of the club making that really cool hissing sound. Huge divots were coming up but the ball was already way gone flying toward the 140 meter marker. So this was the real test of how my ball striking really is. The last time I tried hitting off grass almost everything was fat. So for the first time since I started playing golf almost 3 years I'm finally hitting the ball correctly.

My poor son only hit about 1 out of 10 good. That's exactly how things used to be with me and it just felt like I sucked so bad. Like do I even play golf? Our regular course has mats for tees. How can I suck that bad. Well the good news is that I can teach him now and I understand why that's happening. So hopefully he won't have to suffer as long as I did.

Oh yeah, shot a 32 (par 27) on sunday which is my best score in a while and the swing held up nicely. I even had backspin on two holes with SW and 8 iron. That's the first time ever I've had the ball spin 8 feet back from the ball mark. Just like the pros.

Swing 1.5: Accelerate through ball

Just back from my Saturday morning practice range session while my daughter is at piano. I was trying to grove in my new swing because of a competition tommorow but instead of doing the competition my wife convinced me to caddie for our son instead. So I was able to try out some new things in this constant evolution.

So here's the latest thing. I've always tried to have a good extension after hitting the ball but often I break my wrists just after contact. In watching my son and pro golfers in slowmo they're able to keep their wrists straight after contact until their club is way in the air. My wrists break. I forgot what this is called in golf terms but it's a common problem. So the other day while swinging in the yard I thought about Dave Pelz's putting bible which I read and also the short game that I'm reading and talking about the flying wedge. In other words when you have a shorter backswing and accelerate through the ball your clubhead lags behind your wrists so you're pulling the club instead of pushing the club (like when your wrists break) when you hit the ball. Pulling the clubhead makes the face of the club much more stable and pointed toward the target. His book tells you why but it just makes sense, like pulling or pushing a cart.

So I thought the only way I'm going to be able to keep my wrists straight during my follow through is by having the fastest part of the swing after the ball and not right at the ball. This didn't make sense to me because when you want to hit something you concentrate on hitting the thing and not accelerating through the thing. During my swings without the ball it felt weird and not very powerful. Like all my power was in the follow through and not during contact. The feeling was I had to slowdown my downswing and then hurry quickly through and push through contact to get through to the powerful follow through which now looked correct. It just didn't seem like this would hit the ball very far and my swing seemed weak but with a great follow through.

Well then I tried it on the practice range and the strange thing is that it somehow works. I've always marvelled at the guys and the pros who have such an easy swing and then the ball just flys off the club going super far. When I would look at myself on film my swing might seem a little slower than theirs but my effort looked huge and my ball would fly ok but not amazing like the good guys. I also wondered how they all looked like their arms moved so slowly but their clubhead moved so fast. I've been trying to do this to get more lag and have suceeded somewhat but it still didn't look right. Well now I think the whole thing is related to this accelerating through the ball thing that I discovered for myself. So I went through SW to 4 iron and the swing held up. I felt like I was swinging in slow motion and the ball would just fly off the clubface nice and straight and far. I'm wondering if this is finally what it feels like to hit the ball correctly. I've already thought that several times before after learning breakthroughs so I won't say anything is final. But once again it felt like for the first time everything I'm hitting was just flying farther than before. It seemed like I could hit my 8 iron to the flag at 130 meters. My 7 iron easily to it. The 6 iron to the 150 meter sign and 5 iron past it. The balls were horizontally dispersed so I still have to work on my swing plane and path but I was concentrating more on grooving the contact. So here's the latest swing thought sequence.

Thoughts on setup:

• feet shoulder width front foot pointing slightly out
• club angle flat
• keep weight on front foot (this is the s&t influence)

Thoughts during backswing:

• stay on swingplane
• keep backswing shorter at 10:30
• keep weight on front foot

Thoughts at top of backswing:

• keep it slow
• shift more weight on front foot (s&t)

Thoughts during downswing:

• hit down on ball
• accelerate through the ball

Thoughts at impact:

• accelerate swing even more

Thoughts after impact:

• extend

Thoughts at finish:

• see how much weight is on my front foot to see if I hit down on the ball or not.
• watch how ball lands to see what the spin was

I've been able to simplify thoughts which is a good thing. I don't think about wrists anymore and I don't have to keep the clubface closed any more for some reason. The three main things I think about at each swing:

1. Hit down on ball
2. Accelerate through ball
3. Stay on swing plane

As I practice more I get the muscle memory so I don't have to think about them any more. Will have to go back as usual to groove it in and see what sticks and if it still works over the long run.