Powerchute

For the past month I’ve worked with a swing trainer called the Powerchute. I’ve given it an extensive test and the results are in.

What is the Powerchute?

It’s a swing training aid that aims to increase clubhead speed and lag, and improve timing and lag. In addition it strengthens the fast twitch muscles.

You attach the powerchute to your club and it becomes a small sail, that uses the wind created by your swing as the resistance you swing against. I was skeptical at first. I watched the videos on the website and Jack Nicklaus using it and I was still skeptical. It wasn’t until I took my first few swings with the powerchute, and then without it, that the wow factor hit me.

The first swing after you take the powerchute off your club is an amazing. The club feels lighter. The backswing feels normal, and then you start your downswing. My first swing without the Powerchute was so fast that it threw me almost off balance.

After using the Powerchute for a few months now, my old weakness: driving, has turned into a strength. Working with the powerchute daily has really helped with that trouble spot for me. I find that I’ve developed much better sequencing, even better lag, but more importantly I am able to use that lag properly. The resitance from the Powerchute has forced me to use my body and my hands properly to finish the swing correctly.

Over the last few months, the Powerchute has become my favorite swing trainer. I really enjoy heading down to the basement, where I have my golf practice area setup, to make some Powerchute swings. I feel that not only am I practicing solid fundamentals, but I am developing good golf fitness, and in the right muscles.

I can honestly say that the more I use the Powerchute, the more I want to use it. I’ve found new uses for it to help my game overall. It really is the only swing trainer I use now.

Golf Fitness

Now, to the fitness part of the powerchute. I’ve been told that the Powerchute, strengthens the fast twitch muscles that you use in the golf swing. These are the muscles needed to generate speed and power. The Powerchute achieves this by providing a plyometric workout. What are plyometrics? The following is from Wikipedia.

“Plyometrics (also known as “plyos”) is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. Plyometric exercises may also be referred to as explosive exercises.”

The golf swing is all about controlled explosive power. It requires finesse, touch, feel, and power. Plyometric training is a perfect fit for golf. A friend of mine trains using Kettle Bells to achieve this, and he happens to be a director of golf so I know that those are great exercies for golf.

I do find that the Powerchute provides a plyometric workout and a very good one at that. The faster you can swing with the powerchute, the more resistance you create, and the more you work out those fast twitch muscles.

At first I found I struggled when I switched from Powerchute swings, to iron swings. They felt too fast. Over the past few months everything that’s gone into the driver has also gone in to improve my iron play.

Conclusion

The Powerchute has been amazing to work with. I was so skeptical at first, but it has improved my power with all clubs, my balance, and my fitness. I have zero hesitations about recommending it. It is worth every penny.  Check it out at: http://www.powerchutegolf.com/

I’ve tried a lot of different things to maintain a good tempo, but a quick thought came into my head that made for a really good swing thought.  ”Lazy Explosion”.

It may sound a bit funny, but it really worked for me.  The feeling that resulted was one where the swing felt slow, especially the downswing, but the ball just EXPLODED off the club face and flew very far consistently.  When I was doing it right, I never felt rushed and it felt like power built up in a very subtle way.  Of course I still fought my tendency to swing hard, but this idea of a lazy explosion really cut through that most of the time.  I was compressing the ball way more than usual and it felt like it stuck on the clubhead for a split second, before blasting off into space.  Even though my irons are very stiff, with shafts designed for a lower ball flight, the ball flew higher, farther than I’m used to, with no balooning.

Obviously the swing itself wasn’t slow, but it felt that way.  In fact it felt like I had a lot of time between the top of the swing and the start of my downswing and the resulting shots were really exciting to watch.

• accurate distances
• satellite views of the holes
• fly overs
• scoring for multiple players
• club recommendations
• No subscription fees

How does the application work in real life?

In order to start using Mobitee you need to create at least one golfer in the system.  The process is simple and painless and then you can start using the application.

On course Mobitee is an accurate GPS.  The target selector allows you to pick out any target and get the distance to it, in the same way that advanced gps units like the SkyCaddie SGX allow.

One of the nicest features of the application is a fly over of the hole.  It’s perfect for holes with blind shots.

As new courses are added, the application is automatically updated.  There is no need to manually download any courses, as they are downloaded automatically when you want to play them.

Overall, Mobitee is an excellent golf GPS.  It compares nicely to stand alone units.  While I can’t say that it is as accurate as something like a SkyCaddie,  it is accurate for most recreational use.  One glitch I ran into is that unlike traditional gps units, it’s best to turn off the setting for getting your location from wireless networks.  This setting can interefere with the performance of the gps and provide some wrong yardages.

Mobitee is priced at 24.90 for the full version.  A lite version is good for showing you up to the first 5 holes on each course.

One of my favorite uses for Mobitee is tournament or course preparation.  Because you can see each hole and move the pointers around you can plan your on course strategy.  It becomes like an interactive yardage book and it’s a lot of fun to do.  This way you can plan angles and shots into the greens and give yourself an opportunity to shoot a low score.

Mobitee has created a fun contest to win $250 just for downloading Mobitee Lite.

I was encouraged by my practice session on Monday evening.  This morning it was a slightly different story.  I hit a couple of toppers which right away told me that I had too little shaft lean.  When I corrected that I hit a number of low flat stingers.  The balls took off low, stayed lower than 30 yards high and carried about 175 yards into the fog.  They felt solid.

I decided to reach out to Martin Chuck, the inventor of the Tour Striker to tell him about this month long test with his product as well as to get some advice on how best to take advantage of the time.

Based on his suggestions I will be working on the following over the next 30 days.

Tour Striker Practice Game Plan

1. Learn how to let the club land with forward lean. Do this with both hands and with each hand individually.
2. Monitor where you are touching the ground with hands together and individually. Seek to get similar results with the club landing inside the left heel.
3. Hit some “9 to 3″ shots trying to get the leading edge of the TS as close to the ground as possible. Keep the left arm on the upper chest, don’t chase the target line.
4. Get use to anticipating the “thud” of touching the ground, not smashing, just touching.
5. Take this “9 to 3″ into fuller swings with a focus on balance and rhythm.

I plan to take about a week with each of these guidelines (give or take a few days).

Low Flat Bombs

The exciting thing about hearing from Martin was that to cure my low flat bombs I need just a touch more shaft lean.  So things are not that far off.  All in all it was an encouraging session.  I had a lot of very solid strikes and my distance control feels somewhat more consistent.

I’ll be working to add that little bit extra shaft lean and see what happens with these low flat bombs.

Watching Morning Drive this morning, I was in total agreement with the comments that Brandel Chamblee (@BrandelChamblee) made about Rickie Fowler.

“You understand the best way to play golf, this is my opinion, is to go out there and try to hit shots…You know,it’s the big lie to me, that you can go out there and swing perfectly.  And I understand why guys do it.  I mean literally they’re trying to play this game in the most organized fashion, there’s so much money out there, and if you can stay on tour a long time, you can get ridiculously rich. So what are you gonna do? You’re gonna work out, you’re gonna get a sports psychologist And you’re going to take all these lessons ’cause you want everything to be perfect. And Rickie’s like ‘No, I’m gonna go out and I’m gonna hit golf shots. I’m gonna hit it high, I’m gonna hit it low, I’m gonna draw it, fade it.’  And I know it’s because of the way he was taught the game. His teacher was very much into hitting golf shots. And that’s why he plays fast.  Because he’s not out there thinking about a pre-shot routine, and he’s not out there thinking about swing mechanics. He’s out there thinking about golf shots.”

There’s a ton of wisdom in what Brandel said this morning.  This is why Rickie is the future of golf.  And I think he is going to stun us with what he is going to accomplish in his career.

I want to contrast this style of play with Tiger Woods.  And my intention is not to bash Tiger but to look at differences.

Tiger Woods when he was dominant could hit every shot in the book and then some.  He created that famous stinger and it appears he doesn’t even have that shot any more.  Tiger said he is thinking about his swing and swing mechanics now before every shot and it looks that way.  When he gets off track, he goes into repair mode, and it’s mechanics, mechanics, mechanics.  The artfulness seems to be have left him, at least for now.

On the other hand, Rickie Fowler (and several other players, most notably Bubba Watson), look like golf artists.  They see shots, and they hit shots.  They use the golf course as their canvas and they create masterpieces of golf.  Plus they’re really fun to watch.

So where does this leave us (the amateur golfer)?  Well, for one, I know when I’m playing my best it’s when I’m seeing and hitting shots and when I’m not thinking about mechanics.  There are times when golf seems so much easier.  Conversely, when I’m playing poorly, it’s all about mechanics.  The swing ends up feeling like it’s separate from me. And it feels forced.

If you’ve read this blog for a while you know that I’ve moved away from mechanics to a feel based approach, where I not only see the shots I’m trying to create, but try to feel what it’ll feel like to hit them.  And every shot is unique and feels differently.  This makes golf more fun, and the end result for me has been better scores, more fun, and not having to practice as much.

Other posts about Rickie Fowler:

Pro’s slow motion swings

Rickie Fowler – a result of Consistent Coaching

Stuck in a slump?

When I’ve had a good session with my coach, I know it because what he is trying to get me to do feels strange.  It’s not something I’m used to.  It’s important to remember that feeling of it being strange.  I think though because it’s strange, it’s unfamiliar and it doesn’t stick.  It feels uncomfortable and on some level we don’t want to do it, but we need to get familiar with the unfamiliar in order to change.

If you look at most amateur golfers, they take lessons, but they don’t really get better.  Part of that is practice time and not having enough of it.  But I think a more significant reason is that as soon as the lesson ends, we start forgetting what was being taught.  We start forgetting how it feels.  And we start intellectualizing it.  And a golf swing, is not something you want to do intellectually.  You want to feel it, and you want to do it.  You want it to be automatic.

Recently I met with a golf pro friend and we talked about the swing changes I’ve been working on over the winter.  He acknowledged that I’ve made solid progress and then had me implement a little adjustment, to bring my hands closer to my body on the down swing.

It felt good, but it definitely felt strange.  Over the past few days, I’ve concentrated on maintaining that feeling.  I’ve made hundreds of practice swings with that thought, and I can feel it becoming a part of me.  It’s not a hundred percent there, but I know I’m making progress.

I think it’s important to ingrain these feelings at first without a ball, as the introduction of the ball, messes up a lot of players.  The tensions that ball can create, limits how much you can feel, it’s distracting and it leads to going back to old habits.  Practice the feeling without the ball, until you can really really feel it, the gradually introduce the ball.  It will make all the difference and help those swing changes stick.

The episodes I have so far are: Michael Breed, Brandel and Frank, Martin Hall, Greg Normal, Mediate and Ballard, Annika Sorenstam, and Sean Foley.

Strong Episodes

For me, the two most impactful episodes have been Brandel and Frank and Sean Foley.

I was surprised at how good and useful Brandel and Frank’s content was for players of any level. The they did a terrific job showing impact and providing drills.  My favorite drill was dragging the club from a foot and half behind the ball.

The other episode that made an impact was Sean Foley’s.  I am a big fan of the swings of Hunter Mahan and Sean O’Hair.  They both have awesome rotational swings, and hit the ball a long way and accurately.  What I like that Sean Foley did was emphasize hitting it solid by hitting the ball first and minizing sway away from the ball.  He said you there is lateral movement in the golf swing but you want to it to be toward the target.  This episode works really well with the Brandel and Frank’s episode on Impact Position.

Unfortunately I was less than enthusiastic about the other episodes.  I felt that Annika’s, Rocco’s were for the most part aimed at higher handicap golfers.  There’s nothing wrong with that but I personally got very little out of them.

Weak Episodes

Michael Breed’s episode was middle of the road for me.  Not fantastic but not bad.  He had some very good things to say about spin, and his demonstration of how left to right spin cuts distance was solid. I also like the tip his dad gave him about feeling like he’s swinging in a shampoo bottle to improve tempo.

Martin Hall

Although I liked a lot of what he has to say about the golf swing, he is a bit quirky for me.  Understandably he seemed a little bit nervous as this is a huge moment and opportunity for him.  However I found him to be very gadget focused.  Not many people will go out and build a swing plane, attach lasers to their clubs, or build the bungee cord contraption.  That being said he made a lot of valid points aimed, in my opinion at the mid and high handicapper.

Overall I’ve enjoyed the series so far and I’m looking forward to see what Player, Palmer and Nicklaus have to say, along with Dave Stockton.

What are your thoughts? Do you like the show?  What is the most important thing you have learned from it?

It’s also been about a year since ZenChili.com was started and this blog was born.  It’s been quite an amazing year and I wanted to thank all of you who have come to read the blog, comment and inspire me.

Highlights of the first year of “Journey to Scratch” on ZenChili.com

Great Coach

I got introduced to an amazing coach who has really changed my game and outlook on golf.  No matter what I’m working on, practicing or thinking about when it comes to golf, it has forever been altered by his influence.  Eben Dennis is his name and you should check out Power Feel Golf when you have a moment.  He has taken me from being overly analytical and technical to more fluid, creative, and feel based.  His coaching has made the game simpler and more fun.

If you ever have the opportunity to get a lesson from him, do it, you’ll be glad you did.

Golf Marathon with the New York Jets for the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation

I had an amazing opportunity to help out a great cause, and play some excellent golf.  Rob Pritts of Back 9 Promotions organized the event with Brandon Moore and his buddies from the New York Jets.  I ended up playing over 50 holes of golf with Danny Woodhead and Jim Leonard.  It was an amazing experience.  Great guys who were a blast to play some seriously fun golf with.

Game Sense Golf

I worked with Eben to put together this program.  It beautifully captures the strategies Eben has learned not only from some of the legends of golf (Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret, Jackie Burke Jr), but those he has learned over a lifetime of playing and teaching the game.  It was a pleasure working with him to put this program together, and I expect some great things in the next year for the Game Sense Golf platform.

Product Reviews

Over the last year I’ve had the chance to review some great products and training aids.  Some of my favorites include the Optishot from Dancin’ Dogg, the Vharness, the Taly Mind Set, the Tour Striker, and Aaron Baddeley: Putting from See It Golf, and The Orange Whip.

The products make bold claims, but live up to the hype.  They are excellent tools to improve your golf game.  Some of these I use every day, others when I need a tune up in some area.  My criteria is simple, do they work and do they help you improve your golf game?

PGA Tour

No, I’m not ready yet for the PGA Tour.  However, I have had some phenomenal opportunities recently to meet and greet players from the Tour.  I had the chance to meet Rickie Fowler, Anthony Kim, Matt Kuchar, Camillo Villegas and several others.

Straight Down the Middle

Josh Karp, the author of this excellent book, got in touch with me to take a look at his book.  I felt like we had gone on a similar journey.  I hope one day to play golf with Josh and swap stories on the 19th hole.  This book captures the ride that in some way we are all on when we pick up a club, get hooked on the game, and try the next thing to get better.

Stay Tuned

So a lot has happened in the past year.  I don’t know what’s in store for year 2 of “Journey to Scratch” but I’m sure I’ll be as surprised as you.  I plan to have some new and exciting reviews, events, and of course I’ll be passing on lessons that improve my game and hopefully yours as well.

Thank you for visiting and I hope that some of what I’ve shared has had a positive impact in your golf life.

Practicing bunker shots can improve your rhythm and tempo

Bunker play.  What comes to mind for you?  Does it fill you with fear?  Do you think, “how many shots will it take to get out”?

This is one of the areas that amateur golfers practice the least.  And it’s one area where the average golfer can really save a ton of strokes.  So practicing bunker shots can save you shots and has a number of extra benefits.

1. Bunker shots become much easier.
2. Lose the fear of being in a green-side bunker.
3. Help with rhythm and tempo.
4. Smooth out your swing.

The first two benefits are pretty obvious.  Practice from the bunker and not only will it get easier, but yes, you will lose the fear of being in a bunker.

The last two benefits are not obvious.  How could practicing bunker shots help with rhythm and tempo, and smooth out your swing?

The other day I decided to practice for one full hour hitting shots from the greenside bunker in the short game practice area at my local course.  It was an area I had neglected recently as I, for some reason, almost never end up in a greenside bunker.  I don’t know why that is, but it’s true.  Regardless, I wanted to become more comfortable with bunker shots.

As I practiced I realized something.  I have a fairly quick transition in my swing, when it gets too quick, I start losing accuracy and my ball striking degrades.  In the bunker,  too quick of transition led to bunker shots that were too fat or too thin where I caught too much ball.  I also felt on my good bunker shots, that the transition was just right, and I felt the forgiveness of the bunker really help smooth things out.

What most amateur golfers don’t realize is that a bunker shot has the most margin for error of basically any shot in golf.  You can hit the sand from 1 to 6 inches behind the ball and still have a reasonable result.  I noticed that when my transition was smooth, I hit beautiful shots out of the bunker that went high, landed soft, and spun to a quick stop.  Over the course of that hour, my bunker shots got better and better where I could land 6 to 8 out of 10 within a couple of feet of my intended target.  But the most powerful effect was the smoothness that I felt in the shots.  My swings out of the bunker felt so right.  The timing was good, the rhythm was great, and they just flowed.

After 1 hour of hitting bunker shots, I proceeded to practice chips, pitches and lob shots.  The tempo from the bunker stayed with me, and I hit some really great short game shots.

I think the main reason that bunker shots encourage such great rhythm is that you’re not actually trying to hit the ball.  You have an area of sand behind the ball that you want your sand wedge to enter, and like I said, you’re not actually trying to hit the ball.  So you are practicing 3/4 to half swings that are real shots but where you’re not hitting the golf ball, you’re hitting the sand, and this changes the focus.

I have found this to be a really great part of the game to practice because in the process of becoming a better bunker player, you’ll improve your rhythm and timing, which will help your overall game.

They were using their feel and imagination not thinking about their backswing or swing plane. They were artists with the club being their paint brush. They played golf and not golf swing. They understood the tools they were using like a carpenter understands his. They developed routines that would allow them to repeat how they prepared to play the shot at hand. They prepared for the golf course as if it were a chess match. As Hogan once said a golfer playing golf without feel would be like a deaf man trying to play the piano by ear.  They knew the equipment was built for ease of use and respected its value.

Most from that era also learned to play during the wooden shaft era and if they swung too hard they would break the clubs so they stayed with that feeling when steel shafts came along and allowed players to slash at the ball without penalty of a broken club. They also understood as many of the best players do today that the golf ball just gets in the way of going forward toward the target instead of hitting at it like most players do. The best understood that you can control the club effectively only from your fingers and that everything supports what they do.

In short they were doing little thinking and mostly creating.

How often have you played golf with a state of mind like this?  How often have you thought of yourself as an artist, with the golf club and ball as your paint brush, and the golf course as your canvas.

Eben also shared a story with me about the time he had a chance to play 9 holes with the Champions Golf club founder Jimmy Demaret.  Mr. Demaret hadn’t competed in about 10 years and hadn’t swung a club in months,  yet played nine holes with Eben and shot 31, making it look effortless and easy.  Afer the fifth time of Eben asking him how he could make it look so easy after not swinging a club for so long, Mr. Demaret looked at him and said “I just look where I want to go, then feel the shot and go there.”

On Wednesday, May 19th, I played in the golf marathon for the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation at Crystal Springs resort in New Jersey.

It was one of the best golf experiences I have had in my life.  The resort is beautiful and the Crystal Springs golf course is a very challenging layout.  Although it’s not as long as some other courses, you must keep the ball in play and on the fairway.  And even if you manage to hit the fairway you need to be in the correct side of the fairway.  There are very few flat lies on the fairways and even less of them in the rough.  The rough is full of punishing grass moguls that make it difficult hit good shots to the large, but fast undulating greens.  This course has some of the largest greens I have played on, but you must be in the right part of the green to have a good putt at birdie or even par.

Besides the beauty and difficulty of the golf course, the whole day was so much fun.  Once I checked in with Rob Pritts of Back9Promotions, the man behind the golf marathon, we got some breakfast and an opportunity to meet some of the other golfers and participants including about 10 players from the New York Jets.  I ended up playing with 3 of the Jets, 2 of them for over 50 holes of golf.

I ended up playing a total of 63 holes of golf.  It was the most I have ever played in one day, and although it was tiring, the whole experience was amazing.  The two Jets I played with were wide receiver Danny Woodhead and safety Jim Leonard.  Both of these guys have excellent golf games.  One of the contests during the day was to see who could play the most number of holes with a Bridgestone ball that was handed out at the beginning of the day.  Danny Woodhead ended up playing his Bridgestone for 33 holes and ended up winning the prize (a very nice Bridgestone Staff Bag).  I unfortunately lost mine on the 2nd hole.

One of the my favorite holes on the Crystal Springs course was the 2nd hold on the Classic 9.  It was also the hole on which I started my day.  It is a 185 yard hole 75 feet below the tee, across a quarry pool to a bow tie (or dog bone) shaped green.  The first time I played the hole, I over clubbed and hit a 5 iron off the roof of the house that bounced back onto the green from where I made my par.

I was also proud to be wearing a golf shirt donated by L.O.F.T. golf of Hartford, CT.  And I was able to deliver a putter donated by the Roll-Master Golf called “The Ringer“, which makes a sweet sound, like fine crystal, when you hit a putt on the sweet spot, for the $10,000 putting contest.

Although the day was about golf, it was also very rewarding to raise money for a great cause.  The Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation creates wow experiences for families with a parent diagnosed with late stage cancer.  It is very sad to think that the kids in those families are going to lose a mom or a dad.  In the end we raised about 35,000 for the foundation.

http://www.hernco.com/golfclub/ac51522.htm

To buy game sense or to get more information about it go to www.gamesensegolf.com.

After hitting a few wayward drives (two that went OB on me) I decided to also leave the driver in the bag the rest of the round.  I just wasn’t feeling comfortable with it and it just wasn’t working well with the swing changes.  Besides Richter Park is not so long that I would miss the driver.  So I spent most of the round teeing off my 18 degree Cobra Baffler pro hybrid and decided that I would play the par 5s as 3 shot holes.

I was hitting the hybrid probably 20 yards behind where I would normally hit my driver and so much straighter.  On one hole I went hybrid – lob wedge and ended up about 8 feet from the pin slightly above the hole.  The only hole where driver would really have made a difference for me was 18.  I thinned the hybrid and ended up with 205 to the back of the green, to a green perched roughly 15 yards above me.  I would have proffered a shorter second shot but that’s golf.

I was pretty amazed at how well the swing changes worked.  My irons were crisp and very straight.  I ended up with an 81 that could have been even better had I left the driver in the car from the beginning.  I had 2 drives that went OB on me, and without those penalties the score could have been much lower.  However, my irons were crisp, as were my wedges.  I had really solid distance control all day and I’m excited for what these swing changes will bring.

During the round I also decided to implement the strategy from this article about asking the right questions.  The other thing that has improved my scoring is Game Sense.  Even when I don’t hit pure shots, I’m leaving myself good opportunities to save my score.  Deciding on the correct strategy based on what I brought to the course that day has now become second nature and it really makes the game so much more fun.  I recognize what the course architects are trying to do to trick golfers and I can very easily select the right strategy.  Sun Tzu said, and I’m paraphrasingm that every battle is won or lost before it has even begun.  Although golf is not a battle it is a competition between you and the golf course.  Use the right strategies and make the best decisions and you give yourself good opportunities to play well.

As you can imagine being diagnosed with a late stage cancer is a tragic event.  Even more so, when a parent has young children.  There are countless memories that they will never get to share.  Graduations, weddings, first jobs, first apartment and untold more.

The Jack and Jill Foundation steps in to help children with a parent that has been diagnosed with late stage cancer to have an opportunity to get a vacation from the cancer, and to help them create some lasting memories.  I am very proud to be a supporter of the Jack and Jill Foundation and I hope that you will join me.  Click here to see a video of what this foundation is doing.

On May 19, I am participating in the FORE! Jack and Jill Golf Marathon.  This is a one day event of golf and fun to help raise funds to so that the foundation can meets its goals of helping as many children as possible who are going through these incredibly difficult circumstances and who are going to experience a tragic loss.

If you would like to help, please follow this link to the pledge page to make donation.  Just a dollar per hole can make a tremendous difference.  Thank you for your support.

At home I had been practicing with the driving range portion of my golf simulator.  I noticed that I had difficulty squaring the face, but once I concentrated on having an inside path and getting the face slightly closed at impact I hit beautiful draws.

I wanted to see how that would translate on the driving range I go to, to hit actual golf balls.  So I started out doing that, and quickly got bored of it.  I followed an intuition I had and instead practiced in a different way.

I started with the pitching wedge and picked out a target about 75 yards away.  And the thought I had in preparing for the swing was this “What is the smoothest slowest full swing I can do to hit it to that target 75 yards away.”  So I felt the smooth swing in my body, and then did the same thing with a golf ball.  That smooth swing created a gorgeous pitching wedge shot.  It arced high, and went right at the my aim point but effortlessly carried to 130 yards.

I felt no effort in the swing.  In fact, it almost felt as if there was anti-effort.  That was interesting so I wondered if I could do that consistently.  I hit about 10 more shots, to the exact spot give or take a couple of feet.  The ball just exploded off the face and the sound was completely different from the way it sounded at the beginning of the session.

Earlier in the session I had been trying the ideas from the simulator session and I was hitting my 7 iron about 165.  I wondered if it would work the 7 iron.  I grabbed my 7 iron and picked out a spot 125 yards from me on the line I wanted to hit the shot to.  Again I thought, what is the easiest smoothest and slowest swing that will take it to 125.  Once I felt that I had it, I stepped up to the ball.  The swing felt slow and smooth, and the ball sailed to 175 yards, bouncing off the back of the green at the range.  Again it felt effortless.  I was trying to do less and ended with a better result.

Have you ever experienced this?  Give it a shot, I think you’ll like it.

After his win at the Copperhead Golf course at Innisbrook, Jim Furyk spoke to Michael Breed on Monday night’s “The Golf Fix.” Jim Furyk mentioned that his father has been his only coach throughout his career and that Fuyk considers himself the least mechanical player on tour.

Here are some of the things he said when asked about being a feel player.

“I let my dad worry about the golf swing, for me its a feel issue.  I worry about setup and putting myself in a good position.”

“I may be the least mechanical player on tour”

“The golf swing happens in maybe a second and a half.  I’m not a connect the dots player…  It’s about you’ve got a very small amount of time to make a golf swing…  Your mind can do some pretty magical things…  Relate the club face to a feel…  It’s repeatable because it’s natural.  I never broke down the swing and tried to do things that felt uncomfortable or unnatural.”

What Furyk talked about is absolute gold.  It matches a lot of what I talked about in the 30 Day Challenge.  He let’s his dad worry about the swing.  I think it’s the same thing other feel players say.  They don’t want to know the details because it doesn’t help them make a repeatable swing.  Furyk went on to say that he can’t think about all the pieces and retain his feel.  The conscious mind can only handle so much, when you cram it with a million swing thoughts you are going to get inconsistent results and you are going to lose feel.  It’s amazing watching Furyk because he does appear to be mechanical.  He has very exacting pre-shot routines. But then you hear him talking it’s all about feel.

He goes on to say that “your mind can do some pretty magical things.”  That is a great quote.  By letting your mind focus on the feel, it can really do wonderful things and execute great shots.  The problem most people is that they never really learn to tap into it.  Getting away from technical positions, video, and all those swing thoughts, can really free up your creativity and allow your mind to feel the golf swing, rather than trying to “connect the dots” as Furyk puts it.

The last point I want to make is that he never did things that felt uncomfortable or unnatural.  When I look at the swings of most golfers they really do look uncomfortable.  They try to twist their bodies into certain positions because that what they think they should be doing.  The reality is that those uncomfortable feelings are there to tell you that you are not doing things right.

I’ve had instances where an instructor told me to get into a certain position.  The idea itself wasn’t wrong, but forcing myself into the position was.  I needed to find a way to get into that position in a way that felt was natural.  Once I did that, it made perfect sense and I was able to feel it and use it effectively.  But the important point is that I found a way to get into it naturally.

One plane vs Two plane, Natural Golf, Lever Golf, Rotary Swings, Swing the Handle, Swing the Club Head, The Dog Wags the Tail, The Golfing Machine, Stack & Tilt, The 5 Lessons, Swing Like a Pro, and ON and ON. Are they right or are they wrong? Can we argue that many observations and opinions have not helped many golfers become better? It is obvious that ideology, methodology and opinions contribute to success. The better question is…have golfers improved consistently with all the technology, fitness, mental training improvements available? The answer is NO!

Why? The communication and information of “how to teach” typically has ideas and methods, the “what” to teach is most often opinion based and pseudo science. The physics and laws of motion are what they are. If you can skip a rock off water, you have experienced the laws of motion subconsciously. Playing golf is a right brain creative process. My meaning here is that understanding what you see and feel leads to a sound swing. A sound swing does not lead to understanding. The brain controls the body, the body controls the club and the club controls the ball.

What have 3 dimensional swing technologies brought to golf? – CLARITY AND EDUCATION. Outside of equipment, fitness, mental aptitude and creative short game skills, we now have measurable, quantitative, scientific documentation of how the golf club and body move in space effortlessly, efficiently, and according to the laws of motion. Are there differences in the machine? We know from personal ball flight, conditions, body traits and mental strategies, styles may vary accordingly. However, why you hit it solid, straight or far according to physics will remain the same.

Whether you shank, top, hit off the toe, hit fat, slice, pull, push, hook, hit it too high or low, we now can tell you why. 3 dimensional video will enhance understanding, visual and sensation awareness or feel. The clubface, club path, angle of approach, centeredness of contact, and speed are the only influences of the ball’s flight. 3 dimensional video arms every student and teacher with the cause of the effect – PERIOD! The swing is an action where certain things are caused to happen and certain things are allowed to happen. Faults arise in trying to cause what should be allowed.

3 dimensional video observations of the best players in the world show superior kinematical sequence or how the club and body move in space efficiently without effort or thought. There is order but without conscious orientation to positions of the club or body. Sequence creates positions not vice versa. The best teachers in the game study learning styles, physical traits, club fitting, short game skills and the differences in the machine. But now we all can see and feel in real time, how the body and club move in harmony for consistent solid, straight and long golf shots without ideology, methodology or opinion. Golf is not a subject; it is a motor skill and we all, as human beings can improve our understanding, visual and sensation awareness according to physics and the laws of motion. I highly recommend you to experience 3 dimensional technology.

Buck Mayers is the Director of Instruction for Buck Mayers Golf Academy located at Grey Rock Golf Club in Austin, TX and the National Director of Instruction for Motion Golf. He can be reached at 512.695-2270 or buck.mayers@gmail.com

One of the important points in the post is how Rickie Fowler has stuck with one coach throughout his career.  He hasn’t bounced from style to style and philosophy to philosophy.   I think too many golfers bounce around trying different ideas.  True, it can lead them to something that eventually works, but it also may confuse them and actually hinder their learning.  When somebody goes through so many ideas, tips, etc, it becomes hard to find your unique style and refine that.

I think there are too many people claiming they have THE answer to the golf swing.  There needs to be a match between the instructor and the student, and the swing should be based on the things that makes that student unique.

One of the most frustrating things in golf for me is to hit a great drive and follow it up with a lousy iron approach. It really bugs me to have placed the ball in perfect position and not get home.  I don’t know if it’s happened to you but I always feel like I wasted a good opportunity when that happens.

I can only imagine how many more greens I would have hit if I could have just improved on that shot and how much more it would have changed my scores and my handicap.

So how can I hit more greens in regulation?

There are a number of things you can do to hit more greens in regulation. I’ll talk about the things I’m doing now, as well as cover other effective techniques.

During the 30 Day Challenge I’ve been working on improving my feel. This has paid a lot dividends including improving my consistency with the driver. It has also really helped to improve my iron game. I feel very confident now that not only will the irons go in the intended direction, but that I can bring them in from the right or the left. I think this alone will have a tremendous effect on my approach shots to the green.  My ball striking has become so much more solid by simply feeling what my hands need to feel during the swing.  It’s not the same as using my hands, it’s more like feeling their role throughout the swing.  It’s very interesting to work on it really simplifies the game.

On the technical side of things there are things you can do as well. The first is to shorten your back swing. Irons should be hit with a 3/4 swing with a descending blow. Hit the ball before you hit the ground and you should see your ball striking improve. One way to ingrain this faster and save yourself some time on the range is to use a hinged iron to improve your mechanics and hit more greens in regulation. The hinged club will break when you’re swing is off and as you correct those problems, you should be able to hit it more solid.

I think a lot of it has to do with confidence as well. I think if you’re not used hitting a great drive, and I wasn’t used to it as driving was the weakest part of my game last year, is that when you do hit it well, you get a bit excited, or very excited. This in turn creates pressure to execute. If your not comfortable with the pressure, you won’t hit a good shot.

This 30 day challenge has changed my confidence greatly. I feel differently approaching the ball. I am better able to plan a shot and actually execute it without thinking about the mechanics of the shot. That is probably the most helpful result of the challenge so far. It simplifies the game, takes mechanics out, and makes it simply more fun to be a shot maker. Sign up for the 30 Day Challenge here if you’re interested in taking complicated mechanics out of your game and gaining confidence over the ball.