For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Posts tagged Muscle memory
Are practice swings unnecessary?
Sep 26th
It’s amazing how I keep learning so much at the practice range. Today I had another mind blowing experience.
I always thought that the reason I came over the top was because I was trying to hit the ball hard . Which, intellectually, makes sense. Practice swings feel loose and easy, the goal being to feel what you want to do. Put the ball in front of me and I want to hit it as hard as I can. Right? So an OTT move is caused by overswinging.
I don’t believe that is the cause for me. I believe the cause is somewhat more elusive.
I did an experiment and recorded three practice swings with the driver, a slow one, a medium speed one, and a 100%, pedal to the metal swing. The results shocked me.
Before watching the video I imagined that the first swing would have none to maybe a slight over the top move, the middle one might have a noticable move, and the fast one, with the highest clubhead speed would have a very visible over the top move.
May I have the envelop please?…
There was no noticeable over the top move in those swings at all. No matter how hard I swung, if I wasn’t hitting a ball, I had no over the top move.
Let this sink in for a second. No matter how hard I swung my practice swing (i.e. trying to get the club moving as fast as possible) there was no over the top move.
I did another little experiment. This time I would take a very short and slow practice swing, and then tried to do the exact same slow practice swing but actually hit a ball. Time after time, the practice swing was beautiful, but as soon as the ball was there, there would be an over the top move.
It’s the ball.
Well, actually, it is my reaction to the ball. When I’m hitting an actual ball, the feeling in my body is different (although it shouldn’t be), and the swing is different (although it shouldn’t be). I think the change happens even before I hit the ball. As I steup up to the ball, and set my club behind it, there’s a different sensation. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I’m not feeling as loose. I’m a little more deliberate in my movements. I’m not trying to do that but it happens, and I noticed it.
I know that I shouldn’t be hitting at the ball, but that the ball should just get in the way of my swing. But it doesn’t feel that way. Whenever I see my swing on video hitting a ball, I am just shocked and amazed that I can hit as well as I can, because the swing on video looks so flawed to me.
So, I have discovered I have two completely different swings. A practice swing, and a hit the ball swing. They feel different, they have different goals, and this could be part of the problem. My practice swing does not end up being a rehearsal of my actual swing, it just ends up being a repetition of my practice swing. Are practice swings unnecessary?
Dr. Joseph parent in Zen Golf talks about getting ready for a shot. He says that you should do a programming swing. This is not a full swing, it is done slowly, and allows you to program in a specific movement that you want to have happen. He says it should be done slowly so that you feel your muscles do the movement that you want to happen in your full swing. Then you trust that you’re programming move will be incorporated in you swing, and you swing. I think this is worth practicing with.
Winged Foot – HSBC Premier Golf Outing
Sep 22nd
Photo by: Joe Vericker, PhotoBeaureau Inc.
Yesterday was a pretty amazing day. My good friend, Greg Tobler , who runs an Audio Video services company, specializing in corporate events, film and tv sound production, and professional sports broadcasts, invited me to help him out with a gig at Winged Foot Golf Club. Truly hallowed ground in the golf world, and an absolutely amazing place to see the sunrise.
We were there to help HSBC Premier with their AV needs for their golf outing. I think HSBC ran a great event. Everybody at HSBC was so nice including Theresa Childs and all the volunteers. I met Paul Lawrence, President and CEO for HSBC Bank USA and he was charming and personable. I learned a bit about the HSBC Premier product and I wish I would have known about it earlier because it’s great if you travel, live or are moving overseas. It seemed like everybody at the outing had a great time. Not only did they play in an incredible setting, but everybody played a shot or two with Retief Goosen. Retief Goosen is European and PGA Tour player, winner of 2 US Opens and the 19th ranked player in the world. I even got the chance to spend a couple of minutes with him. I was a bit nervous approaching him, but he was really classy, down to earth, and easy to talk to. I asked him a couple of questions and you could tell that he really thought about the answer he was about to give.
Being that this blog is about becoming a scratch golfer, I asked him for one piece of advice that he could give aspiring scratch golfers. He said “If someone is a solid golfer then they should improve their short game. Most amateurs that I play with would halve their handicap by improving their short game.” I realize this is not earth shattering advice but it rings true. My best rounds come when I’m chipping and putting well, and the closer you get your chips to the hole, the easier the putts are. The better your short game, the better you can score at any level .
If you’ve been reading my blog then you know one of my nagging issues is not being able to get my actual swing to match my practice swing. I asked him his thoughts about that. He said that the only way to really address that is to go to the range with a teaching pro who could really see what is happening. Although I wish I could have gotten “the answer” to this nagging problem, I appreciated his honesty. It’s not something that’s easy to fix but I remain as determined as ever to fix it. From the main dining room at Winged Foot I saw him tee off, and I was humbled by how easy he makes the game look.
After the awards ceremony he took the time to do a little QA session with the group. When asked who the best young players in the game are he replied that “Anthony Kim and Rory McIlroy are the young players to watch.” He thinks that Rory McIlroy is underacheiving currently but expects him to really break through in the next couple of years. It was a special and memorable day for me, and I feel fortunate to have experienced this.
Photo by: Joe Vericker, PhotoBeaureau Inc.
The Practice Swing/Actual Swing Dillema
Sep 21st
I have been talking about this issue now for a while. I wanted to show exactly what is going on so that you see the extent of the problem. I also want you to keep in mind that with the actual swing, I still manage to hit the ball reasonable long and straight.
I would love to hear opinions on what you think is causing this, and of course I am very open to suggestions on how to fix it.
Practice Swing
Actual Swing
The hardest thing to do in golf
Sep 20th
The hardest thing for me to do in the entire game of golf is to have my actual swing look like my practice swing. This is the one thing that I believe will completely transform the game for me when I achieve it.
I had an awesome practice session today. Recorded a lot of 9-iron swings and driver swings. The same thing that I’ve written about kept happening over and over. I would have a beautiful practice swing, and I would follow it with an over the top swing. There were several times when I could have sworn that my actual swing matched the practice swing, until I looked at the video. On those shots were I thought I nailed it, I hit some really solid iron shots. But when I checked the video, still an over the top swing. Ugh!
When it came time to hit driver, I knew I was going to be over the top, the only question was how much over the top. I still managed to hit some bombs. Long, straight and with the right trajectory, from an “ugly” OTT move.
Tim said that it takes 10,000 swings to ingrain a golf move. I’ve heard other theories. 60 reps a day for 21 days. Don’t know which is true. What I do know is that a practice swing is easy and a thing of beauty, and then you put a ball in front of me and I have this urge to HIT IT.
What shocks me is that even with an OTT move I hit the ball as solidly as I do. I wonder if it is going to take me months or years to change this. I know this is a key to great golf .
A friend on Golf Channel’s “The Golf Fix”
Sep 18th
One of my friends, Tim Richman sent his swing to the Golf Fix and it actually aired. You can see the swing below:
He wrote the following message to Michael Breed:
Michael,
Here’s a video of my golf swing in slow-motion. I am very consistent with my driver…and I hit a nice draw – but my iron shots are mediocre at times. My consistent flaw is that I either pull or top my irons. PLEASE HELP!
Thanks, love the show,
Tim from Irvington, NY
During the show, Michale viewed the video from the top of the back swing and said that the shaft was too steep on the way down. He suggested that Tim hit balls off a tee with the driver taking slow, half-swings, to get the feeling of a shallower plane.
I think Michael Breed was right on. It is important to get on a shallower plane. Most amateurs (myself included come into the ball way too steep). If you watch the pros, many of them have a steep back backswing and transition into a flat downswing. Below is the swing of Rickie Fowler. What you’ll notice is how flat both his backswing and his downswing are. Now, this is an extreme example. I have never seen anyone with a swing this flat. But it works for Rickie and allows him to really power through the ball.
Trusting your insticts
Sep 15th
When it comes to putting I think as amateurs we often don’t trust our instincts. When I’m putting poorly my speed is off. But what happens is that I will take some practice strokes that feel right, but when it’s time to actually putt, I won’t trust my initial practice strokes and I’ll either hit it harder than I need to or not give it enough juice.
Today I set out to reproduce my practice strokes. And my speed was pretty much right on all day. I think though this is one of those habits that just needs time. It takes time to trust your instincts. At least for me it does. But I think in the long run this will be a key to reaching scratch.
Hitting the ball with your entire body
Sep 13th
After a few days away from the game (10 actually) I went to the driving range today. Amazingly the swing thought of throwing the club down the range was still firmly ingrained and I was hitting some really good shots. I began to play around with a new swing thought to see what would happen.
1. The no shoulders swing.
As I’ve been documenting a battle with an OTT move I realized that the first thing that usually happens with an OTT move is that the shoulders turn before the hips do, sending the club over the top. So this thought went like this: don’t rotate the shoulders on the downswing. Now obviously you can’t not turn and still hit the golf ball. This thought does really force the hips and lower body to turn first. I had one swing with this thought that felt like the perfect swing. It was with the driver, the club I fight OTT with the most.
I hit one drive with this no shoulder swing, and the swing felt slow. At impact it felt like I hit the ball with my entire body , and even though the swing felt slow, the contact was completely solid. The ball sailed over the back fence at 240 yds. It seemed that it hit the apex just above the fence, and I have no idea how much further it carried but it was the best drive I had hit in some time. It was dead straight and it had an awesome trajectory. In Five lessons, Ben Hogan talks about hitting the ball with your entire body. I don’t think I had ever truly experienced that until this swing. It was pretty amazing and something I want to feel on every shot.
Throwing the club down the line and ingraining new motions
Sep 3rd
The more I work with this swing thought, the more I like it. It really is a different sensation to feel like you are throwing the club down the line. It makes an inside-out swing much more natural for me. Although it is still too early to tell, I think this will make a huge difference in my ball striking. I am continuing to practice with my video camera there. I want to see what happens on all my swings, both the good ones and the bad ones.
I read something interesting to ingrain swing motions. 60 repetitions, every day for 21 days. That’s the minimum to ingrain a new motion. The beauty is that I can swing at home without having to go to the range. Although I’m not actually hitting balls, I can video tape my swing, and make sure that I’m ingraining the correct motion. 19 days to go.
