Wide Narrow Wide

Saw a fascinating video the other day

For the first time it explained how laying off the club helps close the face. It's physics proved by simulation. I love golf research instead of golf instruction based on ideas or methodologies. So I started working again on laying off the club and wondering how to do that. Then I got back onto Bradley Hughes and how he talked about starting the club upright on the backswing helps to create a loop that then helps layoff the club at the top at the transition. Martin Ayers kinda gets into this too with his power move.

Anyway I've tried doing this "transition" move before and really struggled with it as it just felt like I was trying to whip the club and I had no control over the club. This time just thinking about it differently and introducing a wide-narrow-wide into the loop and it made more sense or felt more natural. Then while also hitting I saw this guy who really bombs it from the back and he has that wide-narrow-wide move as well and you can just see how it concentrates all the power into impact. He looked like a baseball hitter on his follow through.

I'm also wondering if this will affect my timing and help with my right elbow problem?

Well here's the proof of the change which you can see with Skypro really easily.

You can really see how it's just two very different swings.
It's also done several other things all at once:

• I'm getting that "crunching" and shifting forward on the transition that I noticed all the good players have and throughout the years I've tried to imitate by really shifting my weight to the left or sticking out my left hip. These techniques made the swing look a little better but still not quite right. Now it just looks right.
• I have a head drop on the downswing now which all the good players have. And I'm doing this without even thinking about it.

So I would consider wide-narrow-wide one of the simple fundamental things to include in a swing to make it correct. The hard part was finding a swing thought or image to make it feel natural. I showed it to my son who was already doing it a little bit but is now doing it more and he said it definitely changed his ball flight and gave him more power. So this is staying in the bag. Here's an after video.

Lag and Power

I brushed off the Skypro the other day since I saw that they had put up Natalie Gulbis' swing. I compared her swing to mine and one thing that really stood out to me as a difference was the wide-narrow-wide in her swing and how mine was basically getting to be narrow-narrow-narrow. I've also been using the swing speed radar to see if there are any changes to speed with the different swing changes that I'm making. Well I was at the range and had three different swings that each hit the ball ok but with different ball flights. One was my current swing, one was really concentrating on rotating through the ball and trying to keep my right elbow bent before impact, and one was going back to the Bradley Hughes swing which I somehow got away from. This last swing gave me the highest swing speed and is probably the most correct one but I didn't have my camera so I couldn't verify!! But after thinking about the swing and looking at pro swings I think it's correct. I don't know how I drifted away from this swing.

It goes back to trying to get more lag speed in my swing. I need to go wide-narrow-wide and find the slot. Then just groove this swing except this time incorporating the other moves that I've since learned such as swinging under plane. Also I'm thinking that before when I was learning this swing I tried to keep my right elbow off my hip like Jim Furyk but this time I'll try to get it more in my belly. I'm hoping this will also help with the right elbow being bent by changing the timing of my swing. Another thing to try differently this time is being flat with this swing like Ben Hogan, last time I was real upright.

Baseball Swing, another breakthrough

Well the new grip is holding up and I'm able to continue to swing slightly under plane so I'm happy about that.  The other thing that I really thought about was the constant quest to keep my right elbow even more bent at impact.  I thought that it can't be about holding my wrists back or trying to keep my elbow tucked in or feeling like I'm hitting with my elbow on my hip because those swing thoughts only got me so far.  I had to rethink it.

So I thought about baseball swings.  I started looking at slow motion baseball swings at a home run derby and how they all hit the ball with their right arm bent and then released it after impact.  Just like how you're supposed to with golf.  So I figure if two sports do it that way then it must be the most powerful way to swing. So when I swing a baseball bat it makes perfect sense to hit with my right arm bent and turn in to it with my body for power.  Trying to hit a baseball timing a release with the wrists and extended arms just doesn't feel right. So I tried to just really visualize and apply that thought to the golf ball lying on the ground. It's a lot harder because I think since you're afraid to hit the ground you naturally want to extend your arms so that you're maxed out at impact and can't hit the ground. And going into a swing with a bent right arm feels like you will just hit straight into the ground. I had to really imagine that I was swinging at a baseball on the ground and hit the ball with my whole right side and getting my right shoulder down on the ground. So just a complete rethinking of the impact position. A different swing thought that changed the timing of my whole swing. It's hard because you have to relearn to trust that you're not going to hit fat but I was able to abstract out the ground and do it. And it worked! The results are below.

One thing that changed without even trying was my finish. No more chicken wings. I can't wait to work on this more. The combo of my new wrist position and new baseball swing thought at impact is making my swing look way more correct. More correct than it's ever been. Hopefully this will hold up and then I want to work on getting more lag and power.

Under Plane and Breakthrough

My swing has been pretty stable for the past few months so I've been happy with that.  Since it's winter it's not really a good time to be playing so I continued to work on my swing.  One thing that had been bothering me is my left leg at impact.  For me it was too bent and I wasn't fully posting up until my club was horizontal after impact.  Even though Ben Hogan says to keep the left leg bent at impact in order to keep the hips rotating.  I looked at all the pros swings and they post up.  I guess this is for more speed. Well changing my timing is really hard!

Of course in looking at my swing I saw some things once again my right elbow not being bent at impact which is something that Ben Hogan says is important. In trying to once again get my elbow really tucked in I was experimenting with wrist and hand positions to make it easier to tuck in my elbow during the downswing. I tried to get the right hand more in the fingers and swing more around my body like the whole open and shut the door metaphor. This got me in a better right elbow position which should be in front of the right hipbone again according to Ben Hogan. I then played around with keeping my elbows in at address and pointing then straight down like he says to do in the book. This also helped get my elbow tucked in and I'm able to I think keep it slightly more bent at impact. At least it feels easier to do keep it bent. My son filmed me of course to see if it did anything and the results were really nice. For the first time I'm slightly under plane in my downswing. I've been fighting this forever trying all sorts of stuff like:

• trying to really swing more inside out
• drop the hands down after transition
• layoff the club after transition
• point my right hand up to the sky on downswing
• let the club fall behind me after transition
• ...

All of these got my hands down but never shallowed out my club. And certainly didn't allow me to get under plane.

Before: perfectly on plane but a choppy motion at impact as I had to release early to get clubface squared up. I was fighting trying to keep my right arm bent but couldn't.

After: slightly under plane and turning into the ball with right elbow bent going into impact and not chopping at it straightening right arm just before impact. This is fundamentally more correct!

Once again it's a very different feeling and I'm amazed at how many different ways there are to swing a club. I was striping a couple of 7 irons so the ball flight is there.  It feels reproducible and different but not unnatural. It feels like a breakthrough and I'll see if it really leads to something or is another dead end.

To summarize the change is all on the right arm.  At address have the hand/wrist flex down. I think this is what lays off the club. I'm not sure but will have to play with this more. Point the right elbow down not out and slightly bent. Swing around body and really try to keep elbow in front of the right hipbone at impact.  Also bend over more than I think I need to on the downswing!

Swing work finally paying off

I've been able to take my swing to the course recently and have been playing well. Haven't done this in a long time.  I'm hitting most of the fairways and my approaches have never been this good.  I still have my tendencies to slice but I would call it more of a fade now.  I'm not hitting any real banana balls like I used to about 3 times a round.

My current swing thoughts.
1. Keep weight over left leg
2. Impact with my right elbow on my belly button

When I do these two things I get good contact and the ball goes far.

Next thing that I'll be working on is my post impact position.  I'm chicken winging a lot now and it doesn't look pretty.  I didn't really care that much since I was working on getting my impact down which is stable now.  But now I'll work on post impact positions and trying to keep my hands low after impact.  Right now they rise up.

Neck Pain

Took a break from golf after vacation in Hawaii.  Only payed a couple of times there.  When I came back I didn't pick up a club for a month.  It was a nice break and I was able to do a lot of stuff around the house.  It felt like I was free from prison.  I went back to hit and didn't miss it one bit.  Just didn't feel like working on my swing.  But in the last month I've gotten back into it and once again completely changed my swing.  This time the change was after looking at my swing and got sick of seeing my swing path being outside in.  So I really concentrated on getting more inside out which helped.  The other thing I really had to work on was my head since my neck started really hurting again.  I had to retrain my body to let my head fall.  Sometime it works but my bad habit of pulling up and not maintaining my spine angle keeps coming back and my neck hurts.

And the other big change is after studying Ben Hogan's swing and then something that Bradley Hughes said.  It's about your right hand facing up at the top of the backswing.  Again really working on my right elbow and getting it in front of my body and not to the side.

Safety Swing

A couple of weeks ago I was really working on my right elbow.  Lots of video filming each swing and trying to get my elbow in my gut and then keep bent over at impact.  This has been eluding me forever.

I don't remember why but I tried filming what I call my "safety swing".  This is a swing that I used about a year ago when I would hit gigantic banana slices with my driver.  I played with some friends for the first time and didn't want to hold up the group so I switched to it.  It consists of just keeping my arms straight and then just turning my body back and then forward around my body.  Like a robot.  It doesn't even feel like I cock my wrists or bend my arms.  I did this with 3/4 swings and it felt stiff.  The balls went straight and not far which I thought was normal since the swing is so simple and with no lag.  I looked at it on video though and was very surprised.  What felt like straight arms and no wrist cocking was actually a pretty normal swing.  Even better was that my backswing looked correct!  It just had a different quality to it, the angles were better, club positions better, it just looked correct.  The balls are going straighter and I don't think I lost any distance.  It's been at least 6 sessions that I've been grooving this and it's holding up so I know it's correct. One of the best things is that the swing thought for me is pretty simple.  I just say do my safety swing.  Now that I'm getting used to the feeling though I start to loose it so I just start swinging half swings with my arms straight out and just rotate around my body like a robot.  This is exactly what Ben Hogan was saying to do in this video.

Well here's my lastest.