For any golfer who wants to play great golf
30 Day Challenge – Day 4
Today’s driving range session was eye opening for a number of reasons. I experienced some significant changes.
1) Improved center contact on irons
As I was hitting shots with both an 8 iron and Lob wedge, I noticed that I was seeing a dime sized circle in the center of the face fill with white strips in the grooves. I realized that my strikes were in the center even though I wasn’t focusing on that. All I was focusing on was feeling the shot in my hands and finding the most effective path for my hands to travel.
The result was some of the most solid ball striking I’ve had in 6 months.
2) Working the driver
Simply by feeling where my hands should be I was able to hit high draws, high fades, and low draws with about 60% success. When the shots did not come out as designed, I could feel why. I could tell that my hands had not done what I wanted them to.
But even the shots that missed were playable misses. The driver had been my weakest club lately, but today’s session made it one of my strongest. It was a dramatic change.
It was an excellent session.
February 16, 2010 - 10:51 am
Great posts as always. I’m very interested in what you mean by feel in the hands? I’ve been working on really using my lower body to dictate my swing shape but am curious as to what keys you’re getting from your hands?
Thanks!
February 16, 2010 - 1:00 pm
@Randy: That is a great question.
Before I answer that I do want to clarify something. When I’m talking about using and feeling the hands I don’t mean that the swing should be handsy. However your hands are your connection to the golf club and the club goes where the hands go.
The feedback I get is that I know, or am beginning to know and understand, how my hands are supposed to feel depending on the shot I’m trying to create. I’m trying to create a high draw, my hands feel one way. If I’m trying to create a fade my hands feel another way. This has come about over the last 4 days. I must say that before that I had very little awareness of my hands in the swing.
What also happens, for me, is that focusing on my hands takes away any other thoughts of mechanics. I guess it is allowing my body to handle that while I try to create a shot in my mind, and in my hands. And amazingly enough what I feel in my hands, does create the shots that I visualize a large percentage of the time. However when it doesn’t create it, Iknow as soon as the swing is over, because I realize that what I felt in my hands, didn’t match what I rehearsed to feel.
Does that make sense to you? Let me know if it doesn’t and I’ll try to clarify more.
February 22, 2010 - 9:17 am
It does make sense. I’m not as bold as you so I haven’t ventured to a driving range here in Brooklyn yet, but when I do, I’ll be sure to see if focusing on the hands works for me. Another question though: Are your hands an indicator as to what you did correctly/incorrectly after you hit the shot or do you use it to get the correct swing thought? Let’s say you want to hit a fade. What are you thinking about as far as your hands are concerned? Or is it mainly a feedback device? Thanks for clarifying.
February 22, 2010 - 9:32 am
@Randy: It’s not so much that the hands are an indicator of what I did correctly or incorrectly. It’s more about whether the feeling I rehearsed of how I want the hands to feel is actually what I felt when I executed the shot. Example, if I want to hit a high fade, I’ll feel what my hands need to feel to hit it. Then I hit the shot trying to feel my hands do that. I’ll know right away before seeing ball flight if the shot was executed properly based on how my hands felt through the shot.
So it goes beyond feedback and is an integral part of the shot, from visualizing through to execution.