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30 Day Challenge – Day 12 – Balance in the golf swing continued
So yesterday I began talking about balance in the swing. My main concern was that thinking about my spine angle would put the focus where it shouldn’t be and take me away from visualizing, feeling and executing the shot.
I did quite a bit of work today on balance and naturally creating the setup without having it be contrived. The results are very encouraging.
Using a mirror, I practice a balanced setup. What I found was that when I comfortably and naturally got setup to the ball everything did in fact get setup properly. My spine was at the right tilt and I felt comfortable. I felt no confusion the way I did yesterday. I spent some time with Eben to understand how to get into that position naturally and that time spent is paying off.
My body felt in a dynamic athletic position that was ready to swing without compensations. It definitely felt different from what I’ve been doing.
As I said yesterday in martial arts you spend a lot of time working on balance. Being out of balance, means being inefficient. Being in balance leads to efficiency. I never really understood how that applied to golf until yesterday and today.
So what else have I felt since this change?
The club felt lighter. My body seemed to resists less, because it was setup in a nice position. I also felt more freedom to move through the swing. It was a different sensation and it felt great. I will keep posting about balance. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll be able to hit some golf balls and get some ball flight feedback.
Sometimes in golf we need to unlearn before we can learn
June 14, 2010 - 11:05 am
Posted in Game Sense, Mental Game, Practice | No comments
The last couple of weeks have been up and down in terms of my scores, but I have learned some very valuable lessons along the way.
In my last five rounds I have two of my best scores for the season, two of my worst, and an average round. What does that tell you? It tells [...]
Get to know your tendencies
May 10, 2010 - 6:50 am
Posted in Fundamentals, Practice | 1 comment
While I’ve been playing pretty consistent golf, I have not been practicing my long game as much. I think one of the things that happens when you play a lot of golf without going to the driving range is that you can start to get into some bad habits. For me, it was with my [...]
Gain more confidence by challenging your fears and doubts
May 9, 2010 - 12:38 pm
Posted in Mental Game | No comments
A sure way to ruin a golf shot is to step up to it and hit without being fully committed to the shot. There are a number of reasons that can cause us to not commit to the shot.
Sometimes it’s our equipment. There’s a 4 wood in my bag that doesn’t fit my swing anymore. [...]
New strategy for effortless golf has surprising results
April 29, 2010 - 12:12 pm
Posted in Driving Range, Swing Theory | No comments
Today was one of the great practice sessions. Even though I set out to do something I was practicing on the simulator, I ended up going in a completely different direction with my driving range session.
At home I had been practicing with the driving range portion of my golf simulator. I noticed that I had [...]
30 Day Challenge: Wedges – Day 5
March 31, 2010 - 11:56 am
Posted in 30 Day Challenge | No comments
The last few days of practice were pretty much rained out by one of the seemingly many tropical storms that’s hitting the north east. Luckily the skies will clear up for about a week.
I continued to practice short shots at the range, devoting 80% of the bucket of balls to them.
The positive thing is that [...]
Control distance with trajectory
March 30, 2010 - 12:58 pm
Posted in 30 Day Challenge, Getting better, ball striking | 1 comment
There are many excellent reasons to learn to control your distance with trajectory. Here are some of my favorites:
Not every shot is a full shot. The more you can learn to master partial shots, the more control you’ll have approaching greens.
Dealing with the wind. Lower trajectory shots fly better in the wind and are less [...]
How to warm up properly to play your best golf
March 20, 2010 - 9:38 am
Posted in Course Management, Driving Range, Mental Game, Practice | No comments
Do you ever show up to golf course only minutes before your tee time, dash to give yourself a quick stretch, take 2 swings, and then hit your first tee shot deep into the woods, OB or in the rough? Does this happen all the time?
How can we give ourselves the best opportunity to play [...]
Review: Divot Mat
The DivotMat is an excellent practice/training aid. It identifies your impact characteristics in a unique way for indoor or outdoor use.
The Divot Mat consists of a few key pieces. 1) The Divot Mat Sheets, 2) The Divot Pad (Lie Board), 3) The Divot Mat, a soft mat on which to put the Divot Pad including [...]
How to keep breakthroughs from slipping away
February 22, 2010 - 8:22 am
Posted in Getting better, Mental Game, Practice | No comments
So I read something interesting on a a forum last night.
The poster wrote that he often experiences breakthroughs while on the range, but they disappear as quickly as they came the next time he plays golf or practices.
I would bet almost everybody goes through this.
So how can you take a breakthrough and build on it, [...]
30 Day Challenge – Day 8
February 19, 2010 - 1:40 pm
Posted in 30 Day Challenge | 2 comments
Today the weather at the driving range was a bit warmer. The temperature reached 42 degrees. Woo hoo!
I experimented with what I was feeling. I’ve found that my hands remain the best place to focus for me. By feeling what my hands need to feel it really eliminates a lot of the swing thoughts I [...]
February 24, 2010 - 10:19 am
I’ve been working on my posture as well. I have a tendency to stand up(straighten my legs) on my swing which often leads to a thin shot. By keeping my posture I have been making better contact. Great post. Keep at it.
February 24, 2010 - 10:28 am
@Dexter(QuoteGuy): Hi Dexter,
Posture is important, but I’ve been thinking about it on a deeper level. It’s about being in a position that lets you be efficient, that lets everything work together. So inline with the posture think about balance and efficiency. Remember what you are trying to do is transfer as much of the energy generated in the golf swing, through the golf ball and towards your target.
February 28, 2010 - 3:17 pm
Awesome. I will keep that in mind and practice it as well. Thanks for the advice.