[Yoda]

I'm a TGM newbie, but I've been lurking around here and the Chuck Evans forum for a few weeks. I'm starting to get excited about all this, because I find that the more time I put into the book and the forums the more clear it all becomes. What a surprise.

This morning I was reading the book and browsing the forums and ran across a post that said, if I understood it correctly, that the right elbow should bend immediately in the takeaway, so that the forearm moves up very early in the swing. I made a note to try it at the range.

When I bent the elbow so that the forearm went vertical, leaving the elbow basically unmoved (horizontally) in relation to my right side, everything changed. The club got on plane. All the power I generated began to flow down the target line, rather than out and around. My hips began to clear instead of getting in the way of my right elbow on the way down. I could swing as hard as I wanted and it felt like all the power was being channeled straight down the line into and through the ball.

I've got a long way to go, but I really feel like I've crossed a big hurdle. If I'm off track with any of this, please let me know.

Oh, and I finally figured out what the Law of the Flail means. What I'm figuring out more and more is that Homer didn't write things lightly. You have to slow down, read carefully, and think about every sentence.

Welcome Aboard, sdbyrd,

Wonderful stuff!

You will find that everything in TGM you understand -- and correctly execute -- works. And it will keep working! You will hit plateaus, of course, but only as preparation for your 'next' level. I know this for a fact.

I've been at it some 25 years now, and I'm more excited than ever!