Anybody clear on Clampett's "Aiming Point"
 

In "The Impact zone, Bobby Clampett stresses that to move the swing bottom 4" forward of the ball (?Low point?) is the Holy Grail of the golf swing. To facilitate this he uses the aiming point, a spot on the target line ahead of the ball towards which the hands should be directed on the down swing. When I set up with a wedge for example, even in forward press, there is no point on the plane line that intersects my eye and my hands which appear well inside of the plane line at address. Am I doing something basic that is wrong here?

Dude's a little mixed up on his concepts . . . kinda mixes up impact hand location and aiming point. check 'em out in the book should clear up the confusion.

Nicely put. The title of his book how he defines it are not consistent with Homers book......weird.

golf illusions
 

My recent lesson with golfgnome was enlightening. I fight pulling. I guess tracing the plane line was inadequate to stop it. My devious brain had overcome the benefits of tracing and my alignments were screwed up. So he set up a hitting station with the yellow dowels and two dowels down the plane line set up a vertical dowel with a big orange noodle on it. I was stunned at how far left it appeared(I am left handed) with the driver. So now swinging down the plane line, tracing so that I can hit that noodle I feel more inside out. As I practice on the range others on the hitting line see balls hit the noodle and veer every which way. I am certainly the center of attention. But I am overcoming my problem. The plane line has an infinite set of points on it that can be "aiming points" . I place golf balls at various points on it and experiment. I use the left forearm as one guide. So now I see the "railroad" tracks with the plane line passing thru my distant target. But if I swing down toward that distant target I tend to pull. If I swing down and out at one of the selected points on the plane line I am straight. So when I am on the course what can I do. I am not sure I can swing at something in the distance on line with where a noodle would be two dowels down plane. So I am trying to swing at a point in front of the ball about a foot like nicklaus as my aiming point. I used to trace from the ball to this point, now I feel I go directly to it. Golf remains challenging, and the brain deceptive.

Ive never had a lesson with Jeff Hull but I had the honor of playing with him once and got some free advice. Really helpful stuff that I still think about. He knows Alignment Golf inside out and can flat out play the game.

Why dont you send him a p.m.

this is interesting . . . can you explain how the station is set up a little more for an inbred southern type humaniod? sounds good . . . .

setting up station
 

Using yellow or orange driveway markers available at Lowes I select a distant target on the range. Then I establish a plane(target)line with the orange dowels. I use two in front of the ball and one behind. I use a forth to align my feet. Then I place a orange dowel in the ground vertically out in front of the furtherst dowel down the plane line. Then I place a Noodle(used in swimming pools and water sports) over the vertical dowel. This places it about 7 or 8 feet in front of the ball location. The goal is to hit the golf ball into the noodle. What was surprising to me was how far left of the target it appeared. I have used to vertical dowels and tried to hit ball thru them but never a big vertical target. I have always tried to visualize the plane line going to target and beyond but the big vertical made me realize I perceived the target to the right of where it was. Obviously those laser sticks would help but this is cheap. So I now have the plane line to trace, the magic of the forearm, the alternate target line to consider, aiming point, stepping into the ball left foot right foot squaring to target. setting the club with the left arm to adjust shoulder height, ball distance etc. Then putting the right hand on making sure I don't change my alignments. After all this I should be driving straighter using these left hand striker guides. . In fact at the range today I aimed at a number of targets and hit it succesfully at them. Tomorrow I play and we will see how many balls I loose. Jeff had set this up at Cuscowilla and I missed it. Also I guess you could throw balls at the noodle or even your club.

Need to translate the lefts and rights for a right handed golfer, but thanks. I think there used to be a video of Bam Bam hitting a dowel stuck in the ground at the Homecoming. I looked for it but maybe it's not with us anymore. Now I know the logic behind that set up and who was behind the scenes. Great stuff. Gonna try that this week.

More illusions, more facts, more good shots.

I shot that bit of video. I will see if I can find it and post it up later in the week.
Bambam did have all of the clips I took that week so he may beat me to the punch :)

illusions
 

I love it when right handers have to translate left handed golf speak ! The goal of course is to have the ball hit the noodle. Remember the ball is traveling above the plane you are trying to swing on. So - Your hand are tracing the plane line which leads thru the base of the noodle not a point higher up on the noodle. What is stunning is the visual appearance of how far left the noodle is of the target. Over the years the plane line has appeared to be closed to my stance. I am hoping that I can stand in this hitting station and reprogram my old brain to see it as parallel to my stance. Anyway down and out, inside aft quadrant of the ball, aiming point, alternate target line have taken on a new meaning. One of my pet peeves is taking a lesson and have the instructor correct my alignments and ball position. One would think you could have a least gotten that right. I do think that using Ben Doyles walking into the ball with Lynn's modifications, using dowels on the ground has helped. But I know my brain is unreliable, therefore that is why it helps to have a human observe you. If I can get the straight right and the distance right I will have to learn to make those birdie putts.

Got it now . . . so basically the pool noodle thingie is your start line reference . . . reckon you could start it left or right of it and hit curves back to the target as well no?

Here it is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lynnblak...361288 374434

For those who were there, you may remember watching Jeff Hull hit the dowel (sans noodle) 6 or 7 times in a row, including the last one with a driver pretty far back of the dowel!

Thanks Bambam

Im really glad this came up .........never knew what was going on there. Im going to set up a station like that and give it a go. Ive always been really good at hitting tree trunks when trying to come out of the woods......

Bucket touched on another great way to use this setup for practice. You can intentionally hit the ball to the right or left of the stick to work on different shot shapes, or if you're struggling with a pull or push, you can work on hitting it to the opposite side of the stick to correct your motion. Adding the noodle would be good for that type of practice, as you'd have to really get the ball out and around the dowel.

Trying to hit that little dowel is a fun drill, and you get some funny looks at the range when you hit it.

I have seen Vijay Singh set his umbrella up like this and hit fades around it. I can see the need for something to buffer the impact on the dowel.

I like it, cut a pool noodle a couple inches more than the dowel and you have a pretty neat training device!

Yea that was a good day that. I was further down the line trying my damm hardest to hit the bloody dowel. I think I was the last one to hit it, even my roomie Burner managed to hit the dowel several times before I did :sad2:
Alex

Ha, I didn't hit it very many times either. It was pure dumb luck that golfguru happened to catch it on camera!

Happy Days
 

Brings back pleasant memories.:)

Now, if only there were some decent practice facilities it would be well worth another visit.:rolleyes:

Yea I know...sheesh I don't know how Yoda puts up with it :laughing9
Alex

Thanks Bambam. I knew you would hit it with the masters instruction :)

Thanks for providing this one, guru:

I was reading earlier posts by Yoda. I dont think aiming point and low point is the same. Aiming point is where the right arm thrust towards and used by hitters. The aiming point can be the ball or on in front of the ball or even behind the ball and is definitely where one wants to direct the PP3 or PP1