The most important thing i have ever learned from Brian

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Jim Kobylinski

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Is the following:

The ball only knows what the clubface was when it was hit and where it was at separation and in what direction the clubhead was traveling.

Everything is kind of a moot point, the ball didn't know so why should we care? To make it look pretty?

I slowly incorporated this thinking into my swing towards the end of last year and began scoring much better. I have even expanded on this idea and began experimenting playing a soft pull draw on purpose.

I am one of those people who will always have issues losing it right just like there are those who have the lefts. I've decided to simply eliminate the right side of the golf course and play a slight OTT pull draw and see what happens. I was able to hit some balls on the range on sunday with it once i became comfortable with how to aim it and how much to close my stance, i hit the prettiest 2-4 yard draws shot after shot with awesome impact conditions.

I was actually there with a former student who wanted to show me his swing after seeing brian (phenominal improvement btw) and he pretty much said what i expected:

Looked kind of ugly, but the ballflight was beautiful.

Personally i don't care. I'm built like a running back and am very wide and it's just a lot easier for me to play a slight OTT move. It worked for Snead and is currently working for KJ Choi (even though snead drew it and choi fades it). We'll see what happens when i bring it to the course.
 
Believe it or not I am GLAD my swing has some (so-called) "quirks"......or at least I hope it always does. I like the quirks. And I don't worry about them. I'll let everyone else do that.

Not that it's set in stone....but for example- I don't think the arched left wrist and Duval/Annika "head swivel" are going anytime soon.

Same deal with the bent knees. (though that is still in Testing Phase 2.6)

And I am doubtful about increasing my trigger delay very much at all. (still Testing however)

...

It is important to stick to the imperatives though because the only real benchmark is the ball and your score. Period.

AND.....it makes things so much more simple if I know not to get caught up in all this other BS. It simplifies my swing in it's execution and it prevents me from going off on some weird tangent and trying to change things I shouldn't.

Brian's signiture is what it is for a reason and to me the approach IS "the way it is" plain and simple.

Like I said I ain't done yet but I'm doing pretty well on my own I think. (though this site is like cheating ;))
 
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Jim, If the ball dont know what your doing as long as your club face is square, could a person just makes sure that he would take the club head in his mind visulize it were it is at the top and comming down and squaring his clubface. with out thinking about what his body is doing?? In other words just walk up to the ball hit it trying to square the clubface...joe
 

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
Jim, If the ball dont know what your doing as long as your club face is square, could a person just makes sure that he would take the club head in his mind visulize it were it is at the top and comming down and squaring his clubface. with out thinking about what his body is doing?? In other words just walk up to the ball hit it trying to square the clubface...joe

You could come up with all kinds of different compensations to make the ball do what you want, the key is how efficient is it?
 
What i have learned from Brian from only watching "Confessions of a former flipper"

The Waggle:
- Not only is this the rehearsal, it is a way for me to keep my grip firm while maintaining soft wrist.
I'm not worried about being wristy because if i firm up my wrist, since i don't have enough strength to maintain it by sheer strength with my clubhead speed, it will break.
However, if i let the momentum of my hands, arms and club to all the work, my wrist will maintain the hinge all the way to impact. So it's important for me to keep my wrist passive.

The Club Drag straight back at takeaway:
- This is crucial for me as it gets my arms in sync with my shoulder turn. Also it prevents me from pulling my club too inside.
Also i don't worry about keep my left arm straight. It should be ingrained in my mind that it is supposed to but i don't think about it.

At the top:
- Once at the top, i just leave it to the clubhead to hinge my right wrist and cock my left wrist naturally.

At the start of downswing:
- Pretty much like what Brian explained on Jack N's downswing, once i feel the clubhead set my wrists, i start to bump my hips slighly left and down to the target. i make sure i keep turning my hips until the finish.

My hands and arms then moves along for the ride. Impact and release is just a consequence of all the above, as Brian said.

When i do my weight shift correctly, i get a nice divot, which is like a long scrape of the turf after the ball. No chunks of soil flying but just a nice sounding "zzzzzziiip!".

When i need to check that i am doing it right, i put the ball in front of my left foot so it's like a foot in front of what i am adressing. I usually hit that ball straight and true but of course it's a 10 yards shorter that the normal shot since it is past the fastest point of my clubhead speed.

That's about it. I certainly took a lot out of that video. This reminds of the Golf Digest's issue on Jack N. The picture you see with him at mid backswing, which his head turned, and his full arm extention which is almost parallel to the ground WITH the shaft at chest level, that's when i understood that he was practically doing the same thing, letting the clubhead do the work, even on backswing. In Brian's case, he calls it float loading.
 
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Jim, it must be quite a site to see you cruising around on that moped...

Yo Jim:

fat-moped.jpg


lol...
 
I hate it when people judge a swing on aesthetics alone. If it works use it, all else gets flushed. I hope to never know what my swing looks like, but know what my mechanics feel like.
 

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
Would it be fair to also add:

How REPEATABLE is it?

It's a blend, i know plently of hacker swings that are repeatable, however they are inefficient and are bad golfers.

You need to find a blend of what is:

efficient-enough
repeatable-enough
gets the ball in the hole

:D
 
When i need to check that i am doing it right, i put the ball in front of my left foot so it's like a foot in front of what i am adressing. I usually hit that ball straight and true but of course it's a 10 yards shorter that the normal shot since it is past the fastest point of my clubhead speed.

Not trying to nit pick or anything, as I have tried doing this to get rid of my flipping, but shouldn't the ball go left if it is that far forward ?
 
It's a blend, i know plently of hacker swings that are repeatable, however they are inefficient and are bad golfers.

You need to find a blend of what is:

efficient-enough
repeatable-enough
gets the ball in the hole

:D

Gotcha.

Not sure if I agree with the hacker swing being repeatable thing though. Most hacks may consistently slice if that's what you mean, but it's not the same "repeatable" shot.
 
Not trying to nit pick or anything, as I have tried doing this to get rid of my flipping, but shouldn't the ball go left if it is that far forward ?

I'm not an expert but i think it's something like throwing a baseball.

Imagine throwing it slow, you would have to throw it high to get there, so the arc radius is great.

However, if you throw it hard, the radius reduces significantly and your ball moves pretty much in a straight line (to the human eye although it doesn't actually go straight).

So if we assume:
1. Swing speed is fairly fast and we are using the momentum of the clubhead as well.
2. Swing path is correct, coming to the adress ball slightly from the inside just before impact.

Then the clubhead has no way to go as you go through impact and release but pretty much straight (again, it doesn't do this in actual but it looks and feels like this) until you ran out of arms, which will then take the club up and left as you finish.

If you are creating swingspeed with your body, not your arms, then you should be able to hit that ball in front of your left toe pretty much straight.
 
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