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Posts tagged Swing
New DVD available with the Taly Mindset
Sep 15th
There’s a new video that now comes with the Taly Mindset. The opening credits, certainly set the stage.
The Taly Mindset is a device that challenges conventional thinking in golf. It was invented by an engineer who loved the game of golf and wanted to play better. You can read my full review here. The device is now used by many touring pros and teaching pros across the country. One of the most famous teachers who routinely uses the Mindset to teach is Lynn Blake.
The DVD is a big improvement over what used to come with the Mindset. Although the pamphlet the came with it before gave some indication as to how it should be used, it really was not detailed enough and left questions unanswered. It left it up to the golfer through trial and error to figure out what to actually do and how to do it.
The new DVD answers the questions that every golfer needs answered when using the Taly Mindset. If you can understand the thought that went into the development of the Taly Mindset then you can learn to use it effectively. And it will change the way you approach golf.
Tour Striker – Day 3 of 30 – a plan comes into focus
Apr 27th
This morning I headed to the driving range early. Got there around 6:50 am, got set up and hit balls into the foggy morning.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Vharness
Aug 27th
The Vharness is a swing trainer with the goal of teaching anyone to swing like a pro. The Vharness is endorsed by Rocco Mediate, who I think is a brilliant spokesperson for this product because of how well heconnects with average golfers. He looks like a guy in your foursome. But of course he has tremendous game. His performance at Torrey Pines in the US Open made him a household name. He plays what seems to be off the shelf game improvement clubs. He doesn’t have the fluid easy motion of a Fred Couples, or the power of JB Holmes or Bubba Watson. These reasons though make him ideal as a representative of this product because he, of all tour players, looks the most like an average Joe, and almost everybody can relate to him.
So does the Vharness achieve it’s lofty goal of teaching anyone to swing like a pro? No, but it is an excellent swing trainer, and if used effectively especially with some guidance from an instructor it can really help the average golfer to feel their swing better. Frankly I don’t think there is a single device that can teach anyone to swing like a pro. Swinging like a pro requires coordination, talent, strength and flexibility. Provided you have those things, with a good instructor and dedication you can learn to swing like a pro. What I did find is that the Vharness can enable you to not only create a better swing, but really feel what it feels to swing better.
I have a number of swing trainers in my collection, and they all fulfill different purposes. I’ve been using the Vharness for about a month. I wanted to give it a full test before I wrote about it. The Vharness is definitely different from my other swing trainers. It gives me feedback that I never got from anywhere else and really helped me to understand and feel my swing better. It almost acts as a sensation amplifier and you really feel what the club head, path and hands are doing.
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
You don’t need to reshaft to lower your spin rate
Oct 26th
So an interesting thing happened the other day. I popped into my local club builder because I had been thinking of switching out a shaft in a driver and I needed to a pick up a three wood that was going to go into Adams for repair.
We started talking about why I wanted to change the shaft in the driver and before I knew it I was on the launch monitor hitting some balls.
He looks at my swing and starts making some suggestions about releasing the club. Lo and behold my spin rate drops from a high of 5000 (the average was closer to mid 3k), down to an all time low for me of 1758. Same club and same shaft. Wow!
On the launch monitor that equated to a baby draw (from a fade) and about 60 yards more distance.
Observations from today’s round
Oct 21st
I am pretty happy with the progress I’m making. My handicap is steadily going down, my consistency in scoring is much better, and my swing feels like it’s on solid ground. Some things to still bug me.
I don’t get up and down enough. I know that I have to improve my short game. I need to leave short game shots close enough to easily one putt but it’s tricky. This is my next challenge. I feel like I’m plateauing around the 79-81 range. And yet walking off the course I know where I left shots on the table. Today I had an 81, which is one under for my course handicap so again, it was a solid round. Although I do feel it could easily have been 4 or 5 strokes better.
I had a thought that was helpful on the golf course today. The image of the inner workings of a clock, seeing all the gears moving, synchronized, no one gear speeding up. It seemed to keep me much more synchronized and helped with the long game. I had a really good driving day and I had a lot of good shots. It does get to me when I have a wonderful tee shot, and a bad approach shot. It’s a nice drive wasted and it drives me crazy. I had two of those, with the approach shots coming up way short (I had enough club but actually hit the ball fat). I’m pretty sure that is just a mental game thing.
A couple of things were interesting. I really felt comfortable driving the ball, and I also felt really comfortable with my fairway woods. I’m not sure why that was but it was nice. On 18 I hit my drive off the toe but still got it out with pretty good distance and in the fairway. I had about 230 up hill and I hit a nice 4 wood, pin high, but in the rough on the left side of the green. I ended up 1 putting for a par 5 but could easily have had a birdie if I had chipped it close.
A good fall round
Oct 20th
Another fall round today. Actually, it’s my first time on the course since last week. Anyway I posted a 79. I hit 6 GIR, 9/14 Fairways and had 32 putts. Not a bad score considering only 6 GIR. I shot par for my course handicap so I’m pretty happy with the score. I didn’t make any birdies though which was disappointing.
Overall I was pretty happy with my ball striking today. I had a couple of bad chips and a few bad putts, but as I said I felt I scored well, all things considered. I had a few errant drives, and although I hit some fades I didn’t have any big slices. I basically kept the ball in play and recovered from a couple of miscues. I know that I need to hit more greens. That will definitely lower my scores. I crushed a few drives but I’m still not sure the driver fits me totally, but it’s kind of too late in the season to change it up.
On the 9th hole, a very short par 3, I hit sand wedge from 109 yards. I landed the ball pin high (then pin was about 10 feet from the front of the green), then spun it back to about 10 feet off the green (for a total spin back of about 20 ft). That’s what happens when you’ve been playing a low spin ball and decide to switch to a tour ball. Way too much spin. I only needed some controlled spin and it just over spun on me. Oh well, at least I got up and down for par.
Simulator up and running
Oct 19th
So I finally setup the simulator. This will be my practice “facility” for the winter. I will get actual rounds on course when the weather cooperates.
The nice thing about the simulator is that it tells me a few keys stats about my swing. It tells me the swing path (inside out, straight or outside in and by how many degrees). It also tells me whether the club face is square at impact or how many degrees closed or open it is, and it tells me my club head speed at impact.
In my practice session today I have confirmed through hard numbers that indeeed the over the top move is basically history. 9 out of 10 swings where either coming in straight or from the inside. 10 percent were coming in from the outside but only by 3 degrees, which is not too bad at all.
The one thing I did notice consistently which bugged me is that on 8 out of 10 swings my club face was open. Most of the time it was open less than 8 degrees (which is still too much), but every once in a while I’d get one open 12 degrees or more. Really annoyed me. On a 160 yard shot, 12 degrees open face will send the ball 12 yards right of target. This is something I will definitely work on. I want the club head coming in square, or maybe even a degree or two closed through impact, with an inside out swing.
Full Release
Oct 16th
With the over-the-top issue a thing of the past it is time to improve other parts of my swing.
Today I tried something while practicing that led to an eye opening experience. I decided to try to create a fuller release.
I recorded two swings with the first one being my normal swing and second being a full release swing. The full release swing looked much better. It encouraged me to get wider in back and in trying to create a fuller release it ended up creating effortless power. It didn’t take any more effort to create a fuller release, but when I played back the videos I was startled by how much more club head speed the full release swing seemed to be generating. I didn’t have a launch monitor handy so I took an old fashioned approach and counted up the frames for the downswing.
The regular down swing took 7 frames. The full release took 5. And yet I wasn’t trying to swing faster. All I was focusing on was making a full release and the speed generated was effortless. I need to see what this does on the range but I was definitely surprised.
Interesting discussion on Golf WRX
Oct 3rd
I’ve been discussing the psychological effect of the ball on the swing over at GolfWRX and some very interesting things have come up. I want to synthesize the best nuggets of information from it, but I recommend reading it.
The Psychological Effect of the Ball on GolfWRX
