For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Posts tagged Swing
Today’s round
Sep 30th
Today I had an intersting round. I started off on the first hole with a tee shot that almost went OB, left me with a 180 yd shot to the green, hit a five iron to about 12 feet and sank the putt for birdie.
I proceeded to have a bit of an up and down day with my ball striking, but my putting was pretty good. I only needed 29 putts today, and I sank several 10 -15 foot putts to save par.
I had a few shots where I really felt that I was able to match my actual swing with my practice swing, and on those I hit the ball as pure as winter snow. Throughout the round, after hitting each shot I would rate it on a scale of 1 to 5, to how closely the actual swing matched the practice swing, with 1 being the most different and 5 being an exact match. I had my fair share of 1s and 2s, but I noticed that anything at 3 or above was always a good shot. On the 7th hole, I had a 145 yards to a back pin, with a slight uphill lie in the rough behind a bunker, and an elevated green. I took my practice swing with an 8-iron, and it felt just right. I was able to match the swing perfectly, and ended up 4 feet from the cup for birdie, and I sank the putt.
On a few holes early in the back 9 I got a bit out of synch and it showed. I sprayed some shots and got very frustrated for about 3 holes.
I shortened up my backswing, and I was able to get some 3s and 4s and right the ship. I came to 17, which required a carry of about 210, to a back pin at about 223. Into the wind I hit my 2 hybrid, and got on the green in regulation. It was a pretty pure shot that managed to hold the right side of the green. I gave that shot a 4. I hit a poor putt that left me with about 12 feet to go. But I was able sink hat 12-footer for my par. A 3 is always a good score on that tough hole.
On 18, after a poor drive, I was in the rough on the right side, roughly 250 from the green (par 5). I hit a decent 2 hybrid but ended up in the fairway bunker, with about 120 into the wind for my 3rd shot. I shanked the bunker shot and ended up about 30 yards right of the green. I needed a 5 in order to get up and down from there. I took my 60 degree lob wedge, and took a nice short practice swing. It felt right. I did the exact same swing when I hit the ball and I ended up about 10 feet from the pin with a downhill putt. I sank the putt to finish with a par.
I wanted to write about these shots because they showcase what I’m trying to achieve with the practice swing and actual swing challenge. Up above you can see why I believe that retraining the hit impulse, and becoming consitent with having my actual swing match my practice swing is a game changer.
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.
How to build more clubhead speed with less effort
Sep 24th
I think that many of us, because we want to hit the ball far, end up with an over the top move. We are trying to use our muscles to speed the club head. So we start down quick. There are two problems with this:
Problem #1
We can’t sustain it.
If we start down quickly, we need to sustain it otherwise we end up slowing down before we get to the ball. This leads to an actual decrease of clubhead speed. If we were able to sustain the acceleration with our core turning quickly out of the way we would be ok. However most of us don’t have that kind of core strength or flexibility. Since we lack that flexibility and strenght, we then must allow our body to to catch up to the swing. However the way that we do this is we allow the swing to slow down to match up with the core. If we did not slow the swing down we would probably pull hook it.
Problem #2
We are working against gravity.
Gravity is our friend and if we allow it to work with our swing we can actually create a ton of clubhead speed.
If we allow gravity to help us accelerate the clubhead then we can begin to feel a gradual acceleration, resulting in actually much greater clubhead speed than rushing down at the ball. But we can’t really feel a gradual acceleration because the downswing happens in such a short time. If we can’t feel a gradual acceleration how do we create it?
Allowing gravity to speed up the clubhead
Rather than thinking of creating it, we need to allow it to happen.
As we reach the top of our back swing, the club slows down then comes to a stop, then changes direction. This is the point at which gravity can help us build club head speed. As our arms drop, the the club head lags somewhat behind them. If we don’ rush it and we don’t tighten our muscles then we can allow the rest of our body to contribute to the club head speed we are generating. If we don’t force it, we can allow our arms to remain supple, instead of tightening the muscles. Supple arms generate more clubhead speed. As we allow the clubhead to lag, gravity acts on it, and our body rotation, multiplies the speed. It becomes like a bull whip, where a simple, not quick motion, ends up creating a ton of speed (so much speed that it breaks the sound barrier and you hear that CRACK!).
Because we are not rushing with our arms we don’t need to slow the core down to let the arms catch up, in fact we can increase core rotational velocity leading to more speed. At this point it is a matter of allowing gravity to work, trusting that it can move the club head faster than our muscles. In short if you are rushing down from the top you are working against gravity and slowing down the clubhead.
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 .
Achieving a flat left wrist at impact
Sep 19th
So in my practice session today I decided to work on flattening my wrist at impact. I realized that when one has the the tendency to come over the top, that a flip of the wrist is probably happening as well.
A flip of the wrist is bad because it adds loft at impact and slows down the club head. If you have a tendency to lose the ball high and to the right, there is a good chance you are flipping at impact.
So I took the first 20 balls of the bucket, and a short swing, and worked on keeping the wrist flat at impact with the club head slightly lagging behind. The swing thought was something like “don’t let the clubhead pass the hands”. It actually felt very different then my normal swing. It felt more solid, and like there was less extra motion. It felt more compact. However these short swings (probably half swings) were carrying as far as a full swing with a better trajectory. The trajcetory was flatter. I don’t consider myself a short hitter. I’m normally pretty happy if I’m carrying my pitching wedge around 125 – 130 yards.
With the flat left wrist at impact I was carrying the pitching wedge between 145 and 150 yds into a slight breeze, and I was still using what felt like a pretty short swing. I started to see the same kind of distance increases and flattening of the trajectory with the other clubs. It was more difficult to do consistently with the driver. I think part of the reason has to do with the driver being so much longer than the other other clubs.
There is still a lot of work left to do to get this consistently into the swing. I think it might take a couple of months of practice to ingrain this feeling, but the results should well be worth it. Not every shot was perfect. Because it is a new swing technique for me I had my share of bad swings with it. I also have not yet figured out how to hit like this accurately but I think it will come with practice, and trusting it. The trust in it will take some time as well. I hit some 4-woods with it that were just awesome. They felt different and took off like rockets. Some I’m sure the driver will come around at some point. Still gaining 20 yds per club and a better trajectory is good enough for me to keep me practicing like this.
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.
Play like you
Sep 14th
I have a little unique move in my swing. I haven’t seen anyone else do it. I don’t think it’s wrong, per se, but it is unique. On the backswing, I let my head rotate with my torso, then when its time to start the downswing, my head quickly rotates back forward, like it was at address. It seems that when I try to keep my head from rotating at all, the dreaded OTT move shows up, and when I let it rotate, it doesn’t show up. I hit a lot of great shots today letting it rotate. Like I said, I have never seen anyone else with this move, but a lot of great players, have their own way of doing things. If it works right. Maybe this is an important part of my swing. Besides getting rid of the OTT move, this quirk in my swing, also gives me a lower ballflight. I think that’s because I’m coming in a lot shallower. I was a bit surprised at how straight many of my shots were today.
When you look at the PGA tour, a lot of great players have unique moves. Look at Jim Furyk, JB Holmes, Camilo Villegas, Lee Trevino, Jack Nickalus, etc. I don’t think my goal should be to have a text book swing, I think my goal should be to have the best swing, that I can have, based on my body type and what what works best.
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.
