For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Swing Plane
TrackMan: A valuable teaching tool
Jan 23rd
I had an opportunity to get on TrackMan today. If you have not had the opportunity to try it I highly recommend it. Sterling Farms, in Stamford CT will let you get on the TrackMan launch monitor for $110/hr.
What a great experience! Trackman is much more advanced than I had thought based on what I’ve seen on the Golf Channel. It is so much more than just getting your launch numbers.
I was really surprised at the amount of information that it generates, especially when you see the teaching modules for it. Along with tracking the golf ball, it also tracks the clubhead through the impact zone. The 3D club view is awesome and it was truly eye opening to see what the club was doing through impact in a way that video analysis just can’t do.
Six Finger Swing
Jan 13th
Gotham Golf Blog has an excellent drill posted on it. It’s called the four finger swing.
I practiced with a variation of it today(the 6 finger swing) and I found it extremely helpful. You hold the club with the thumb, index, and middle finger of each hand in a golf grip. That gives you just enough leverage that it’s easier to do a full swing, but it gives the club enough freedom to move around.
What I found doing this was that when I did the 6-finger swing, the club would set in the right place at the top of the swing on plane and in the right place. Because you can’t manipulate it as much with your hands, the club follows a natural path. It gets on plane quickly and stays that way.
On the downswing, again because you only have 6 fingers on the grip, you can’t manipulate the path. The club takes the natural path down which, for me kept it beautifully on plane.
Spotlight Swing: Hunter Mahan
Jan 11th
Hunter Mahan has a wonderful swing that we can learn from.
Hunter’s swing is uncomplicated and allows him to be very consistent. Watch how he gets on plane, and stays on the same plane coming down. There is no wasted movement, no extra effort added. It is a swing that conserves as much energy as possible to be transferred into the ball instead of into compensations.
Doesn’t it just look like a simple, repeatable motion?
Spine Angle: Maintain or increase through impact
Dec 28th
Maintaining or increasing your spine angle is a good fundamental that promotes solid ball striking for a number of reasons.
The role of the spine in the swing
Your spine is the axis around which the swing happens. If you change your spine angle, say toward the target during the swing, you are changing the axis around which the swing happens and introducing compensations. Your body will need to compensate in order to try to square the club head at impact. Tilting your spine angle towards the target forces the club to come from an outside-to-inside path, also known as the slicer’s swing path. Maintaining or increasing your spine tilt away from the target promotes an inside-to-outside swing path that leads to solid ball striking.
In the following two images you can see where my spine angle started, and how I’ve increased my spine angle away from the target at impact. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: SwingJacket
Dec 7th
Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend I got the opportunity to attend a golf show in the Albany area.
All of the local pros brought merchandise to sell at moderate to deep discounts and I made some good purchases.
At the last exhibitor, hidden in a corner of their display I spotted a gem. It was a new, in box, SwingJacket. Several years ago I had looked into them and really wanted one after seeing the infomercial and reading reviews.
Use your left knee to generate a powerful on plane swing
Dec 4th
Sounds weird doesn’t it? How does the left knee (for a right handed golfer) play a role in a powerful on plane swing?
The answer lies in how it affects two key characteristics of an on plane swing.
1) Spine Tilt
