Please review my thought process...

[Trane]

Ok guys and gals,

I have been trying to swing and have been struggling lately . My problem(s) seem to be uneducated hands, throwaway, using the right arms...way to much, flipping.

I have been working on basic, acquired, and total motions. I do really good on the basics, not quite as good on the acquired, and erratic on the total. I have been working on getting into better alignments going back to the top, at the top and back down.

Here is what I'm leading to...that is...when I go slow in the house, I feel that my alignments are pretty good, but as I add speed, I'm sure its way too much speed & trying to resist the tendency to hack at the ball....but, now have my above mentioned problems. Its been a couple of weeks since I hit the ball real good & as yall know its frusterating!

So, the more I've been reading TGM and this great site, it is apparent that I'm not really using CF in my swing. I really don't have conscious feeling of the PP either and obviously no lag, only throwing the club at the ball!! I know...bad news....very depressing.

So, as it snows & ices outside, I deciding to work on creating CF. I try to do this in my mind at the driving range, but can't be mentally strong enough to stay on task and before I know it, I'm home wondering why I didn't stay with my task! Also, this is upsetting! So, I got out my impact bag & a dowell. I setup, trace the plane line back and up. Pivot & slide my hip back to the target...drag loading. I can't hit balls, so I'm forced to do this. I have a different look in the mirror than before. I monitor my wrist conditions, the sounds of the dowell, my hips, knee flex (I use right anchor).

The results are very loud slap! My bag is only half filled, and it flips over (I thought I read somewhere that this isn't suppose to happen). I go at it hard, I'm not feeling that I'm hitting hard, but I now have CF and its throwout is creating some speed. It rolls the bag over, but in the both arm straight alignment, my left wrist is flat & my right wrist is bent, & it also points to the base of the plane. Is this ok to spin the bag over? Does it matter since my wrist are in their proper alignment? Or are they tricking me and I really have throwaway, but they quickly get re-aligned in the follow thru?

I feel that my left arm can swing now, I don't feel the right like I did before. I'm starting to feel the PP's. I must say that I'm think about the bump or slide while keeping the head still, and the club staying back, but then DOWN. I have read Yoda and others post that this "bump" is a reaction of the hands going down, but if I don't "bump" on purpose, I feel no CF.....so, am I mixed up or what?

Thanks

[cometgolfer]

T,

How goes it? I've been sent home early today due to the weather as well.

I think your thought process is correct, and the feelings that you're experiencing seem to be on track. You're hands could be fooling you, but if your getting the FLW and BRW at both arms straight I bet you're doing a lot of things well. To me throwaway feels very obvious.... a "chasing it, quick, no heaviness" feel.

When swinging, I think you'll be surprised at how much power CF can provide, without you having to "make" it happen. I was working on some swing changes at lunch yesterday and decided to really slow it down so I could get the feel of the changes and help ensure that I was executing them properly. You know how windy it was here yesterday, and I was hitting shots into that wind at what felt like half-speed and I would bet they were going within 10% of my normal "full speed" swing. I say it was because my alignments were better, and that CF was more efficient..... it is a very powerful force if not interfered with.

I think everyone who's serious about improving needs to spend time at a tour event at the range before the rounds. I am always amazed at how "easy" a lot of the pro's swing at it, and how solid they strike it (for some reason it never looks the same on TV). It really gives you a feel for how long you can hit it with a swing that looks so smooth and almost "lazy", but one in which CF is being utilized efficiently.

CG

[Trane]

I was going to call you & see if you wanted to go hit some balls, but I was worried that you would think I've totally lost my mine!!

I am looking forward in getting together when the weather improves!

Anybody else have anything to add??

Thanks,

[Burner]

I was going to call you & see if you wanted to go hit some balls, but I was worried that you would think I've totally lost my mine!!

I am looking forward in getting together when the weather improves!

Anybody else have anything to add??

Thanks,

Something you might like to consider and then, possibly, put a change of routine into practise.

Basic motion is relatively easy because we are not trying to hit the ball to a target destination - same with aquired motion. However, once we move up to total motion mentally, more sub-consciously really, we bring the destination of the shot into the equation and forget that our real target is the ball itself.

Provided we have set up correctly, all alignments verified and machine prepared for take off, then we can forget all about the target and focus solely on the ball. Hit the ball right and the target destination will take care of itself.

You will be surprised what a difference swinging down, out and through the ball, your real target, makes rather than swinging to a false target down the fairway.

[danny_shank]

Trane as far as feeling CF i think swinging with your left arm only is a great drill. I often do it when i've felt like i've lost the 'swinging' feel. I think it a good way to get the feel of the correct power source for a swinger. When i do it i'm often surprised at the physical effort demanded of the pivot to create power which shows i often lapse into muscling it with my arms. Try to really feel pp #2 and #4 then try to replicate those feels when you swing with both hands. I felt pp #2 properly for the first time this way. Prevously i had mistaken gripping with the last three fingers of the left hand as the pressure point (when it's the club pushing against the fingers).

As far as the throw away goes in my experience i've found if your unsure about it most likely you are throwing it away. In the past i've thrown it away and then somehow caught it back up again in to give the impression of a flat left wrist. The only way you know for sure is if you feel the heavyness through impact.

[timm]

T,

How goes it? I've been sent home early today due to the weather as well.

I think your thought process is correct, and the feelings that you're experiencing seem to be on track. You're hands could be fooling you, but if your getting the FLW and BRW at both arms straight I bet you're doing a lot of things well. To me throwaway feels very obvious.... a "chasing it, quick, no heaviness" feel.

When swinging, I think you'll be surprised at how much power CF can provide, without you having to "make" it happen. I was working on some swing changes at lunch yesterday and decided to really slow it down so I could get the feel of the changes and help ensure that I was executing them properly. You know how windy it was here yesterday, and I was hitting shots into that wind at what felt like half-speed and I would bet they were going within 10% of my normal "full speed" swing. I say it was because my alignments were better, and that CF was more efficient..... it is a very powerful force if not interfered with.

I think everyone who's serious about improving needs to spend time at a tour event at the range before the rounds. I am always amazed at how "easy" a lot of the pro's swing at it, and how solid they strike it (for some reason it never looks the same on TV). It really gives you a feel for how long you can hit it with a swing that looks so smooth and almost "lazy", but one in which CF is being utilized efficiently.

CG

Cometgolfer and Trane,

Do you guys know of any AI in the DFW area. I leave in Corinth just north of Lewisville.

Tim

[Martee]

The greatest hazard this Component faces if the belief that "Effort" is "Power." No amount of effort will produce more than a player's maximum turning speed. Regardless of effort you simply cannot push anything faster than you can run.

One thing I have discovered, even though I can make a fast move, I can't maintain alignments. It has taken a while to discover why, the reason is the lack of strength in the supporting structure to maintain the alignments. Even though I can make a slower motion and maintain, when I add speed I lose control.

For Impact Drill you can always move the bag or forward. Move bag, louder noise, bags moves but you can definitely monitor you alignments. Move is forward to the point of Follow Through, quiet sound, and tip of the bag. Monitor your alignments here to see if you have lost them. The problem I have with these practices is that they both require an interruption of the stroke. Thus either conscientiously or by impact the stroke is disturbed. These are good to learn the feel, but I think at normal speed that they can be counter productive to monitor them.

The Left Arm Drill that Jeff Hull demonstrates is great IMO. You want to hear the sound at Impact or later. There is a right arm drill that is equally as good, but I seem to have lost my reference....

I think with most of these drills you need to use a mirror so you can Look, Look, Look.

Speed without control produces a product that is worse than moderate speed with control. 300 yds in the trees vs 250 yds in the middle of the fairway, Wide left of the green or on the dance floor, etc.

[Trane]

Thanks Martee, Danny_Shank, Tim, Comet, & Burner!

You guys all offer some great points and further thoughts to put into my incubator!

A quick report on today's results at the range. 1st off it was fairly brisk outside and I took the move I was making yesterday with the impact bag to the range. I started with basic motion, then acquired (I didn't stay with this, but maybe 6 balls), then went to total motion. This is the move that I've been missing!

Talk about CF and its power. The white flag today was at 170 yards and to my suprise, I was carrying my 7 iron to it! I hit much more consistant, then the last several weeks. I didn't feel that I was hitting with the right, but rather swing with the left. It starting from the ground up, hips, pivot, building pressure on my #4, then the #4 accumulator, #2 pressure point, then its accumulator, then the #3. At times I lost the #3, but my contact improoved considerably!!

I learned something from today that I would like to point out to the group....here goes:

When I trace with the #3 pressure point (right forearm) going back most of the time my body is so rigid in my set-up that it doesn't pull my pivot into its proper location. As a result, my club is outside the plane before it even gets all the way back. With this move or lack there of, it goes left for me....sometimes big time, most of the time its playable, but off of the intended target.

This only happens when both hands are on the club, and I concentrate on not swaying my body or head while maintaining the right knee flex. When I practice the pivot with just the right forearm, there is not an issue. What I figured out is if I allow my left knee to go outward or flex towards the base of the plane, maintain my right knee flex and head alignments, then I can take my club back on plane which allows for the move that I originally asked about to work. Does this make sense?

When I look at this in the mirror, it is such a stable base, then I drag load and it is starting to bump the hips!

Maybe, my posture, pivot, setup or whatever was preventing the natural slide from taken place to begin with, maybe this is a hand controlled pivot move that Yoda & Co. talk about and many of us dream about! This is only one day & I will not be foolish enough to think I got it after one day, but it shows promise.

Just wanted to share the fruit of our labors with you guys!!!

Thanks

[cometgolfer]

Sound like ya gettin it Trane!

CG