For any golfer who wants to play great golf
30 Day Challenge
30 Day Challenge – Day 18
Mar 1st
My balance work has been going pretty well. I find my body reacts well to the energy in my hands and my shots are going where I want them to for the most part.
Today was a very windy day at the range, but at least the temperature is cooperating, the snow is begining to melt, although the golf course is still covered. Still I’m feeling like I’m making good progress.
Rob noticed something about me today since starting the 30 day challenge. He noticed that I’m smiling more and I’m not as intense. Now don’t get me wrong, intensity is important, but I think the way I had it going was putting pressure. Pressure creates tension, and tension, well, can ruin a golf swing. It’s funny but not focusing on how my golf swing looks has really had other effects than on just the swing.
My outlook on the game is different. It feels like a much easier game now, and that alone makes this challenge really worthwhile for me. Sure having better distance and accuracy helps, but not having 30,000 swing thoughts has helped even more and my progress continues.
30 Day Challenge – Day 16
Feb 27th
I wanted to take a bit of time and reflect on what I’ve experienced in the first 15 days of this challenge.
I started out a very analytical golfer. I was constantly doing video analysis, checking to make sure I was in the proper positions, very worried about having a swing that looked good and was technically good. All that has changed.
I’m much more concerned now with feel, visualization and using my body and my hands efficiently. I’m not so worried about positions anymore as I see them as an effect of doing the right things. I rely more on my mind and visualization to create the shots I want to create and have found that I’m learning to trust my swing.
I don’t really care how my swing looks now as I’m beginning to own it. Regardless of how it looks, it’s my swing,unique to me, and what matters is my results. It’s pretty cool approaching the game this way. It’s been liberating and quite an experience.
30 Day Challenge – Day 15
Feb 26th
I continued balance work. The snow came down really heavy today so that eliminated going to the driving range. The only thing I really could do was putting, maybe some chipping, and simulator work. I ended up doing some work on the simulator focusing on my balance.
My golf swing has felt freer. Being in balance like this seems also to be a key to more accuracy and distance. This better posture seems to allow me to rotate more cleanly around my hips, especially with my feet not feeling stuck to the ground. My hips also feel like they are clearing faster.
I tried working on a suggestion that Eben gave me which was to get into position, then feel my hands. For a few days I think I was so focused on balance that I seemed to lose touch with my hands. Now, that getting into position ready to hit a golf shot has become more natural, I seem to be getting the feel back in my hands. At the same time, I’m just a bit more aware of how my body allows the energy in my hands to work more efficiently. I feel like I’m making steady progress. Now if only the snow would melt and the temperature would rise so that I could go back to the range.
To sign up for the 30 Day challenge click here.
30 Day Challenge – Day 14 – Balance in a big box golf store simulator
Feb 25th
The weather in the northeast is making things difficult for the 30 day challenge momentarily. During the day I headed out and ended up hitting golfballs at GolfSmith. While I don’t fully trust the accuracy of their simlator/launch monitor I felt very good hitting golf balls. I tried not to pay too much attention to the distance since I know they routinely jack up the distances in order to sell drivers, but I was paying attention to the ball flight which I can trust more than their distances.
My swing felt balanced and under control. I was hitting baby draws and I didn’t have any shots leak right on me. I felt light on my feet and well balanced. My energy was focused first on balance, and then on the hands. What I felt was my body support the action of the hands without fighting them. Overall I was very pleased with the results, although as I said, I take the distances at GolfSmith with a grain of salt.
Now that I’ve practiced getting into a balance position the last few days, I feel that it is becoming much more natural.
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30 Day Challenge – Day 13 – Balance and the golf swing
Feb 24th
Today I finally got the chance to go to the driving range after working on the balance and setup exercises.
I definitely felt more stable, but at the same time felt that my body was in a more dynamic position. I didn’t feel stuck into the ground. I hit a lot of excellent shots, but what mattered to more than that was was that my swing felt freer. There was much less resistance from the body.
I did have to make some adjustments. This new position, although much more dynamic, is different from my old position. So, my hands, my eyes, and my body all need to adjust to how this new position feels in order to get the most accuracy. That being said, any misses I had were certainly playable and really not all that far off.
This has been one great side effect of the work that I’ve been doing. Essentially my misses are so much more playable. I mean, if Ben Hogan could only expect to hit 3 balls perfectly the way he imagined in a round that tells you that golf is a game of misses. If you want to play well, you need to have misses that are serviceable.
30 Day Challenge – Day 12 – Balance in the golf swing continued
Feb 23rd
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.
30 Day Challenge – Day 11 – The role of balance in the swing
Feb 22nd
Today was a mixed bag. I learned some great things, but I also saw room to improve. Well, a lot of room to improve.
One of the things that came up today was my spine angle (leaning away from the ball) at address, or not so much as the case may be, with the driver.
While I realize that it’s important to have solid fundamentals and spine angle is part of it, what I was feeling was confusion when trying to get into the position. Not only was my body confused by it, but it was uncomfortable. I think that you’re not supposed to force the body into those positions.
I think the best position from which to hit a golf ball fits the following criteria. Read the rest of this entry »
30 Day Challenge – Days 9 and 10
Feb 22nd
I was away this weekend on a ski trip. Still, I talked with Eben on Friday and he showed me some things I could work on even without a club. So over the weekend, after a bit of skiing I did two drills. A pointing drill, and a club balance drill. These drills replicate the motions you use in the swing and it’s a good thing to be natural with them.
I’ll be heading to the driving range in an hour or so and see how the my shot making feels today.
Sign up for the 30 day challenge here.
30 Day Challenge – Day 8
Feb 19th
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 would normally have.
As I said I experimented feeling other things, or parts of my body. I tried focusing on the shoulders, hips and the transition. Individually, all of those seemed to require more energy to think about and the results were less effective. I felt like I lost my connection to the club a bit when trying to think about something other than my hands and it threw me off for about a quarter of the bucket. Once I was able to focus on the hands again, the course seemed to correct itself. It was an interesting experiment to try though and I’m glad I did. Overall it was another good practice session. I’m really seeing some consistent results which is very encouraging. I’m also seeing that my misses are much more similar to my good shots than before.
In other words, my misses are getting better. This continues to be an exciting challenge for me and I’m curious to see how much of a change I will see in my swing when the 30 days are up. Before the challenge started I took one final set of swings on video. So I have 22 more days before I can compare them.
A shift in perspective is all you need sometimes
Feb 19th
Sometimes all it takes is a change of perspective to improve in leaps and bounds.
When I was in college, I had a dream to visit my father in Japan. I hadn’t seen him since I was a kid and I had always felt a void there. I spent the first two years of college learning Japanese well enough so that I could go to Japan and see him. He had no idea I was coming but it was an important, driving dream for me.
We managed to communicate and then I got to go spend some time with him. He lived in south of Japan and I got to spend 10 days with him. He had been a World Champion in Karate, and I had always wanted to ask him how he got to that level of success. I remember hearing stories about him, and about his tournament success. From when I was a kid, those stories about him really inspired me.
