I can sure understand how 6 months basic motion can help the stroke. It is just so much easier to sense the alignments on shorter strokes. I read somewhere that Freddi Couples loved to do full motion in slow motion. That is probably a good exercise too.
Anyway I think I'll try this one. (Thanks for the quote Kevin)
Quote:
In 7-2:
Quote:
adjust the Knee Bend, the Waist Bend and the #3 Accumulator Angle (per 6-B-3-B) until the Left Wrist is Flat, Level and Vertical (4-0, 7- with the Clubface “Soled” and aligned per 2-J-1 and 7-6. The effect of Opening and Closing the Plane Line is discussed in 2-J-3-B and 6-E-2-2. Study 6-C-2-A and 10-23-0.
And of course with MY left forearm on the inclined plane.
I think I need to firm up my power pack assembly. It is just too flimsy right now. It wasn't always like that. It has just slipped away sometime somewhere.
Basic motion is probably a very good idea too.
I picked out this frame from impact without a ball and have a question about the impact position.
I was surprised to see where my shoulders at impact. I was expecting them to be open. But they seem to be pointing almost at the target. Is this good or bad?
I still don't know the significant difference between the bad and the better strokes I've posted. If anybody is able to spot a difference in there please I'd sure love to hear about it.
I can certainly become more consistent if I can have the left forearm more level at address. And I will try that out some more.
But it doesn't address the biggest stroke waster in my game.
Originally Posted by BerntR
I can sure understand how 6 months basic motion can help the stroke. It is just so much easier to sense the alignments on shorter strokes. I read somewhere that Freddi Couples loved to do full motion in slow motion. That is probably a good exercise too.
Anyway I think I'll try this one. (Thanks for the quote Kevin)
. . .
I think I need to firm up my power pack assembly. It is just too flimsy right now. It wasn't always like that. It has just slipped away sometime somewhere.
Basic motion is probably a very good idea too.
[Bold emphasis by Yoda.]
Bernt,
With all due respect to your Left-Handed Stroke . . .
We will now discuss it in this thread in RIGHT-HANDED terms.
All of us here -- lefties and righties -- are cool with that.
Now, to the instant case . . .
Your posts engender just way too much self-described try and think and probably and sometime somewhere. If I may be so bold -- -- Yoda says there is no "try" or "think" or "probably" or "sometime somewhere". There is only "do" or "do not." Therefore . . .
DO as Kevin has suggested in his post #10 . . .
Address the ball with your Left WristLevel and your Right Forearm On Plane. This is hugely different from your current Cocked Left Wrist and Above Plane Right Forearm at Address (and will feel very strange!).
Practice this Address for three weeks.
In fact, make this new alignment the subject of your next post. Revel in it. Shoot a still down-the-line photo and prove to us that you really want to change.
Then . . .
Film again and submit for comment.
Including my own.
Until you do this, we are wasting your time (and you ours) in a sea of compensations.
PS Somebody please flip the BG '07 Honda 'Level Left Wrist' Address photo and compare to Bernt's 'Cocked' Left Wrist Address. Bernt has much work to do, all long before the club leaves the back of the ball. Once that hill is won, true progress beckons. Thanks!
PPS Bernt, order -- TODAY -- a copy of Percy Boomer's great work On Learning Golf (1946). You'll be glad you did!
The transition of an inquisitory mind (was: Zone #1 questions)
I actually tried to change the title of the thread. Referring to stubborn middle aged men with plenty of ideas and mediocre motoric skils - like myself. We are possible the most difficult case for a teaching pro. But maybe it should have been renamed to BerntR's golf stroke blog instead.
I'm bringing a quote in from the "tracing the plane line thread". This comment was very fitting as to where I have been with my golf the last days. And since it was addressed to me, I take it as a token of empathy (Thank you Yoda).
Originally Posted by Yoda
Time spent actually THINKING about your golf alignments and procedures is ALWAYS time well-spent. Time spent WRITING about what you THINK is worth ten times more.
In lieu of that thinking and writing, most people just 'hit balls'.
It takes someone special to make 'hitting balls' meaningful.
I have spent quite a few days now, searching for the true meaning of a level left wrist and an on-plane right forearm. It is not easy. The stroke I posess is not really a sea of compensation. It is a symphony with a few compensations that keep everything together. Compensations are a good thing. They are the band-aids and the glue that separates a 35 HCP-er from a 5 HCP-er. The difficult part is to change the parts that calls for compensation.
I started in the mirror. Used real time video too. To check the fix position. Basic motion at the brickwall outside. That was a piece of cake. After one week I took it to the driving range.
The range was great fun. After an hour's struggle I was able to reproduce the pressure point monitoring as per 12-1 and 12-2 - something I've never been able to do before. For the first time I could feel the basic patterns in the book somehow. After two hours I could even hit with angled hinging and dual horizontal hinging. And I could swing with and without PP#1 driveloading. I was able to do all kinds of stuff. But the lag pressure I achieved with my usual low hands was far greater than with hitting and swinging. And to tell the truth, that was a bit of a downer.
I have learned that my symphony has driveloading as well as pivot driven Accumulator #4 loading. I think I am using a 4 barrel stroke. Lots of swinging components but also a significant portion of pp#1 driveloading. More for shotmaking and control than for power really.
Today I made further progress. I was able to find good balance and more power with the on-plane right forearm and level left wrist. The chips that I hit at the brick wall today was top notch as far as lag pressure control is concerned. It was "inside 1 yard lag pressure control". And the full stroke started to feel better too.
I'll produce a video when things have settled a bit. This is still a bit of trial and error, but a lot of fun still.
I took the on-plane right forearm to the course on a Nicklaus course in Cozumel, Mexico a few days ago. It started out OK with several fairways, GIR's and pars through the first holes. But even the best shots only felt about 85% good and I consistently was 1/2-1 clublength shorter than expected. Eventually everything fell apart and I reverted to the old stroke for the three final holes just to complete the game.
The day after I went to the driving range, trying to sort things out. After quite a few balls I was convinced that it was impossible for me to hit it really solid with the on-plane right forearm. I had an outside-in feeling at address, and it felt like there wer not enough lag at fix with the higher hands and the ball further away. I just wasn't able to hit the ball with the feet.
I eventually proceeded to hit balls with the old method and had really solid ball contact in the end. When I left I was convinced that it was impossible for an endomorphic person like me to look like Brian at Fix and not waist a lot of lag before impact - In other words - throw the club at the ball.
In fact, make this new alignment the subject of your next post. Revel in it. Shoot a still down-the-line photo and prove to us that you really want to change.
Photographic illustrations will follow. But this is the Revelation post you asked for Yoda.
As long as the player is able to keep the ball in play, I guess all flaws comes in pairs or threesomes or foursomes. Inbetween all the miserable ball striking with the right forearm on plane I read the entire book for the n-th time, looking for a complementary issue - something that I could change to make the TGM wedges work for me. Because it clearly didn't work when I tried to power the shot. But Homer doesn't make it easy. The puzzle pieces are spread throughout the book. And vital info is presented as digressions.
7-2-2: The right forearm on plane
6-B-3-1: Much of the same, plus: "Then, ideally, the Left Wrist is always Flat and the Right Wrist is always Level".
With my (until now) grip, I had to uncock the Right Wrist at fix to get the right forearm on plane. Not so strange then that I had the throw-away feeling before starting the back-stroke.
I didn't think of this as a grip issue, but treated it strictly as a forearm issue. But the grip is (as usual) very important. Where the V's are pointing aren't really that exact indicator of the grip. Neither is the location of pp # 3. But there aren't many ways to grip the club with the right forearm on plane and a level right wrist. I can only think of one.
Grip the club with a level right wrist. Then, rotate the grip until the forearm is on plane.
That was me, talking to myself.
Of course I had to try this on the range yesterday. It felt much more right than everything I've tried for the last weeks as soon as I addressed the ball. The first 15 balls or so were all good misses. Then I started to nail it. I could hear the ball turbulence - the swish - for the first 30-40 yards or so while stiking a 7 iron without going all in. Several times in a row. That was a "first" for me. I tried the old swing for comparison and the swish was gone. The trajectory was clearly more piercing with all clubs than I have ever produced on a driving range before. Many of the balls were so good I couldn't believe what I saw and what I felt. I was laughing.
After the first bucket I had fullfilled all my aspirations for the day and then some. Since I had bought two buckets I went through the bag from 60* to the 5 iron, shooting for the 70 yards flag. There's a lot of work to do before have this change properly integrated, but direction control was much better than I'm used to.
Finally I took out the driver and hit quite a few that were at least on par with my very best drives on my very best driving days.
I feel like a reborn golfer.
PS: Percy Boomer was a great read, Yoda. I particularly enjoyed the anecdotes and his investigations in H2 translate sound mechanics to feel. Is this one of Homer's hidden references?
I made a film a few days ago. However, I wasn't satisfied with how it felt and how it looked. So I'll shoot a new one later.
I am still doing basic motion, but I'm also doing full motion into a net in the back-yard. Now I think it's time to replace the two range balls I've been using
It is pretty easy by now to have level wrists and an on-plane right forearm at address and hit decent strokes with it. But
I am still searching for a fix and a start of back swing that is repeatable and provides the alignments that enables me to strike the ball as hard as I wish.
My address fix and startup has been very left side oriented for years. So right now I am trying to obtain a fix position where my right hip and my right forearm is as close to geometrically correct as it gets. And frome there produce a back stroke geometry that enables the down stroke physics that I'm currently capable of.
Does this make sense or should I rather use another approach?
I have to remind myself that I have hit a few exceptionally good shots (by my standard) with level wrists at address. Quite often it feels inferior to starting from low hands. I am not able to do it from level wrists with a consistent and full power delivery.
Today I've spent quite some time investigating why I produced better impact physics from low hands than from level wrist.
Eventually I found out that level wrists put me too far away from the ball. Not with the lob wedge which I use for basic motion and "turf dragging". Only with the hybrid - which I use to hit the ball into a net.
Low hands at address brings me closer to the ball and swing speed and ball contact gets much better. Why? The obvious answer is that I was more turned at impact than at impact fix. The left sholder was further back and the right shoulder was lower. But in reality, a compensation happened.
Just for fun, I tried to address the ball with level wrists and a shank alignment that would send the ball 45% to the right if I returned the club head to the same spot. From there I really smacked it. Of course I had to try the opposite too. Low hands and club inside the ball. Then I hit it really thin.
This triggered a minor geometric investigation. Hands lower - clubhed gets closer to the feet. Level wrist and clubhed gets further away. No surprise there. Then I switched between the hybrid and the lob wedge. The lob wedge works from level wrists. The hybrid too, if I grip down on the shaft. But not when used at full length. How come? After some more fiddling, I found that by adjusting my spine angle, and possibly my posture to - a sense of reaching out instead of leaning forward. Then low hands and level wrists produced the same club face location. (Mind you these low hands aren't as low as on the swings I showed earlier) I tried a few shots and smacked it pretty good. And the back stroke didn't feel to manufactured either.
I could check my posture by moving hands low and to level wrists. When I had adjusted my posture the two hands' locations produced approx. the same distance to the ball. And perhaps even better - all power accumulators seemed to be pretty well aligned. I got a clear GO signal.
I monitor the club path through the ball through the hands. It has become second nature. I have been able to feel when I have a decent address position for quite a few years now. I'd say the feel is about 80% reliable. But I don't posess the keys I need to fix the address when I don't see the shot I've decided to produce. Not for a full stroke anyway.
Percy Boomer wrote about building controls into the golf stroke. I need reliable keys at address & fix. It will be interesting to check if posture adjustment works tomorrow too. Or if it is just a WOOD method (Works Only One Day). If this is repeatable I will have at least two new and reliable keys for a proper address & fix: The wrist conditions and same ball distance with low hands and level wrists.
I am not convinced that level wrists at address are needed for a compensation free stroke. But the level wrists are so repeatable. And repeatability is a quality I need. When my address is good I play regulation golf. Not by a miraculous short game. But through a bunch of fairways and greens and two putts or short chips + 1 putt. But it rarely lasts for more than 6-12 holes. And then I find myself standing over the ball, unable to visualize proper impact alignments. I think I have had address drifting problems for years.
Yesterday I concluded that I had to have my hands lower than right forearm on plane at address & fix, basically because the ball was getting to far away from my stance line. I hit it thin, fat and a few very ugly high hooks that felt soo good until I saw the shape of the ball flight.
And today - when I eased on the level wrist conditions - I completely lost the sense of being aligned for a proper shot.
This hasn't been a huge concern since I started working on the level forearms at addres. So naturally I had to go back to the level forearm. And then the sense of being aligned came back.
Only this time I didn't level the forearm. I simply forward-pressed the hands on the inclined plane as far as they would go. And then the right forearm was on the inclined plane. Go figure
Then I really felt ready for the the stroke. I will not run out of left arm either. And more forward and less outward will hopefully turn the hook into a straight ball. Time will show.
The net in the back yard is about to give in. The first ball flew through today, so I had to go easy on the domestic ball striking today. Need to take this to the driving range and the course to see if I'm about to crack the code.
Now at the bottom. Unfortunately I am using two different clubs. 8 iron one month ago and a hybrid now.
At least the address position looks better. I actually thought everything would look more different.
Video from the garden:
It's almost embarrassing to compare this with the photo montage of Yoda and Hogan that I posted in another thread. It doesn't require a PhD in golf to see that there's room for improvement.
The swing key I am using here is throwing the club at impact with my Right Wrist. I read about it on another site, tested it in the garden and increased the swing speed immediately. The whole stroke feels different from address to impact. The thought is not very compatible with "sustain the lag" thinking, but impact feels solid.
I don't mind a long back swing, but this looks like overswinging produced by too much tilt. The footwork looks more loose than efficient. There's no reason stopping here. Question is what I should focus on next?
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