Head down at contact

Been sick since last weekend but I'm finally over it and went to the range yesterday and played a round today. Really have been working on keeping head down at impact. I finally figured out an exercise to help which is consists of basically hitting some balls without looking at where they're going. Then what I do is see the ball go out the corner of my left eye and I even see kind of what the trajectory is. Then I look up after a while to see where the ball has gone. This allows my right shoulder to stay more square at impact and not come down to hit fat. It feels a little like I'm swinging across my body. Just another thing which I'm getting down to really make my swing better. I think it looks a lot better now. I'll have to film it while hitting balls to verify.

I've also been doing the exercise of swinging with my feet together. This also helps to let the club head do the work. Feeling better about my swing lately.

Oh yeah finally changed grips on my trusty vokey 56*/11*. What a difference it makes. It really is my go to club.

Hogan

Back in France and reading Ben Hogan's book. Wow the thing is dense. Other golfers said that it really helped them and after reading some of it I didn't believe it would help me that much. Last weekend I played horrible. Like 15 over par. Well I've tried several things in the book:

1. keep elbows as close together as possible
2. point inside of elbows out
3. supinate the left wrist

Well this definately felt weird but it helped to keep my left arm straight and maintain my triangle better. Then the other thing I did that really helped my out was lifting my left arm higher on the backswing so that I could get get more left arm going backwards flexibility like the pros. Well the combination of the two worked even though I had just a little time to groove it in I shot my best score ever. A one over par 28. This swing gives me a slight fade though since my arm is higher my swing is more outside in. I'll slowly try to correct that with my swing plane and swinging around my torso and keeping my head down at contact. I was even able to hit my driver with a nice high fade.

So once again I completely changed my swing. It's amazing how I can go back to other swings like stack and tilt or really hitting down on the ball with my weight forward and see how they feel compared to this new swing.

Oh yeah. Marc gave us a super simple putting exercise which consists of putting a club on the ground and sliding the putter along it. I did this with Ryo and me and it helps immensely just getting the putter to go down a straight line. And he said that if you do it enough you see the club on the ground even when it's not there. Well all we think about now is just sliding the putter and the ball goes a lot straighter. I'm so much more confident in my putting now.

Swing 1.8: Hawaii

Took a lesson with Marc at Hawaii Kai. Told me I needed to work on using my arms more because I've been getting too down on the ball. So the exercise he gave me to do is just hit with my feet together. That way my arms go around my body more. The other thing I have to do a lot is watch the club hit the ball and then raise my head. What happens when you raise your head before you hit the ball is your shoulder dips and then you hit it fat. Helped my swing be a little more consistent and got rid of all slices. Now my problem is a hook!

Da boys golfing in Hawaii Kai

3 iron

Played a longer course for the first time today at Marolles. Par 33 I think with a few par 4's and one par 5. The boys told me the fairways were pretty narrow and that it was hard to find balls once they're in the bushes so I figured I wouldn't even hit any driver or woods. So all I did friday was practice hitting 3 iron and grooving my swing for that. Well it worked out pretty good. I consistently hit the fairway and on the 9th hole hit it about 185 meters into the wind. I only pulled one shot to the left and it wasn't so bad. So overall a good day but still shot a 48 because of a meltdown on one hole and two lost balls. Otherwise mainly a bogey round which is pretty good for me.

When we go to Hawaii in a week I'll pick up a 3 wood hybrid and then start grooving and playing that.

Swing thoughts now are that I looked at my swing and have a major chicken wing going on. So I shortened my backswing and trying to really keep my left arm straight to have a solid triangle. Am also trying to remember to accelerate through and really extend through the finish. All the while shifting my weight forward to hit down on the ball. Sounds like a lot but it's working pretty good for now. Will probably take some lessons in Hawaii.

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.

Swing 1.1a: s & t

Stumbled upon Stack and Tilt a few weeks ago and had to try it out. Well it worked as advertised for a few sessions and the last time I tried it I got all confused and it stopped working. But it has done one really good thing for me in that it taught me how to hit down on the ball and to know what if feels like to hit the ball correctly. So I think I'm back to my old swing but with s&t influence.

I don't need to worry about my hands being closed at the top of my backswing. I get a really nice draw now and even hook too much. The slice is completely gone.

I keep my weight on my front foot and move even more weight through impact. This makes a lot of sense to me now and the ball flies a lot lower and further now. On my approaches I get more backspin since I'm hitting down on the ball.

My driver was awesome for about two sessions and then it completely went to hell. I still don't know what's going on but it's keeping me from playing on a long course. I even had to stick with my 5 wood off the tee that's how bad my swing is right now. The irons are ok and wedges are getting pretty good. I can hit off grass without hitting fat now thanks to s&t.