300 yard carry....

[Brian Manzella]

One of my students hitting a TrackMan verified 300.9 yard carry tee shot. His lesson featured strengthening his grip, taking his angle of attack with the driver from 2° down to 2° up, and keeping his arms as under his shoulders during the swing as he could.



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[spktho]

Do you have video in full speed? What's his clubhead speed?

 

[Brian Manzella]

Don't have full speed video....if I remember correctly, mph about 115 or so.

 

[mgranato]

That's impressive, especially with a white driver.

(side bar: how do you like the retro driver?)

 

[Brian Manzella]

David is using it, and like it a lot.

We worked for two days last week, and the numbers were really good with it.

He let me try an extra he had, but it was 40-million inches long and way too stiff for me.

 

[Bigwill]

Why did he need a stronger grip? How much carry did he pick up?

 

[Brian Manzella]

Will, really don't want to go into the lesson more than the thread starter.

The point to all of these videos recently is to show the wide variety of swings of my students.

Centered pivots, big shift pivots.
Sweep releases, snap releases.
Strong grips, dead neutral grips.
Single shifts, triple shifts.
Forward lean supreme, vertical shafts.

That's the ticket.

The epitome of the Soft Draw Pattern, the epitome of the Never Hook Again pattern.

Folks can try all they want to say I teach x, y, & z, but I teach the whole alphabet.

YOU CAN NOT BE THE BEST EVER TEACHING ONE SET OF RULES TO EVERYONE.

I could easily teach Tom Watson, Serio Garcia, Mark Calcavecchia, Ricky Fowler, a 6- year old 10-capper, and Kevin Sheilds all in one day, improve all of them, and not leave a mess behind.

This business is about batting averages, and slugging percentages, per se.

Everyday for the last 28 years, except for a few month period or two, I have upgraded my teaching.

I have some ideas to go test out tomorrow. Can't wait!

 

[ReefBoy]

Hi Brian,

Amazing swing!

Got a question for you, in the ideas vid you talked about the out toss which made a lot of sense to me and has been very useful. Combining that with what other teachers have been telling me for a few years of keeping the shaft horizontal to the ground on the top of the back swing has improved my swing. But I still have a tendency to over swing and when I do there is zero out toss. Looking at the swing above there also seams to be no out toss, but I notice that he maintains the width in the arms and shoulders through transition and into the down swing.

So my question is out toss even needed in some swings as long as the width is maintained through the downswing and the club is released freely?

Christopher

 

[SteveT]

Loved watching him "go normal" into impact, and especially the position of his torquing left shoulder!!!

Brian... am I correct on what I think I see on the vimeo? I couldn't stop it at impact but it appears his arm swing radius was straight from his left shoulder to the clubhead at impact while cranking his shoulders. (Of course his upper torso rotation axis defines his centripetal radius.)

 

[Brian Manzella]

The out-toss is a drill.

Or a feel.

Just like any drill, it was conceived to combat a problem. On the case of the out-toss, the problem was golfers trying to PULL THE GRIP END OF THE CLUB directly at the ball.

Haven't used in while, because I have figured out some better ones.

Having said that, I mentioned at day two of AS2 that when I do Ideas 2.0, it probably would not be in the video. 10 minutes later at the break, a golfer came up to tell me it help him a lot.

Drills come and go.

I had a dozen tumble drills, haven't used one in months.

I used a drill the other day from the 80's.

I am king of on the spot drills, always looking for a prop and using whatever is available.

For the haters who love to hate with the "out-toss," they should see the flop, another drill I've used that looks really wrong.

The best drills are the ones that pretty much get you to do EXACTLY what you want to do. The whole world is going to see a few of those one of these days.

To answer your last question—no.

As we study the "tug", it turns out that it is more of the root cause than anything else. I could give you 10 no-tugs right now.


If you hook it, and swing 10° inside-out, do you think you need the "under-the-stick" drill??

 

[pokerlife]

That Sounds like a man who loves what he does in life! Coming down this summer with a buddy to get a lesson, I'm in Texas so not to bad of a drive

 

[Kevin Shields]

Hi Brian,

Amazing swing!

Got a question for you, in the ideas vid you talked about the out toss which made a lot of sense to me and has been very useful. Combining that with what other teachers have been telling me for a few years of keeping the shaft horizontal to the ground on the top of the back swing has improved my swing. But I still have a tendency to over swing and when I do there is zero out toss. Looking at the swing above there also seams to be no out toss, but I notice that he maintains the width in the arms and shoulders through transition and into the down swing.

So my question is out toss even needed in some swings as long as the width is maintained through the downswing and the club is released freely?

Christopher

Reef, please understand I'm not singling you out. But for the last time, you CANNOT see someone's intent to do an "out toss" on video. It is impossible to see with some people. It is a small feel that works but it cannot be seen on video.

 

[ReefBoy]

Reef, please understand I'm not singling you out. But for the last time, you CANNOT see someone's intent to do an "out toss" on video. It is impossible to see with some people. It is a small feel that works but it cannot be seen on video.

Hi Kevin,

No offense taken and I do get your point. The reason I assumed there was no out toss intent was because of the final wrist position at the top. My assumption was that with that angle the out toss move would have been more obvious. Instead it looks to me like the wrist becomes more passive in the early stage of the down swing and therefore the width in the swing was maintained.

I guess the feel Vs. real theory comes in again.

Christopher

 

[Brian Manzella]

The out-toss is a drill.

Or a feel.

Just like any drill, it was conceived to combat a problem. On the case of the out-toss, the problem was golfers trying to PULL THE GRIP END OF THE CLUB directly at the ball.

Haven't used in while, because I have figured out some better ones.

Having said that, I mentioned at day two of AS2 that when I do Ideas 2.0, it probably would not be in the video. 10 minutes later at the break, a golfer came up to tell me it help him a lot.

Drills come and go.

I had a dozen tumble drills, haven't used one in months.

I used a drill the other day from the 80's.

I am king of on the spot drills, always looking for a prop and using whatever is available.

For the haters who love to hate with the "out-toss," they should see the flop, another drill I've used that looks really wrong.

The best drills are the ones that pretty much get you to do EXACTLY what you want to do. The whole world is going to see a few of those one of these days.

To answer your last question—no.

As we study the "tug", it turns out that it is more of the root cause than anything else. I could give you 10 no-tugs right now.


If you hook it, and swing 10° inside-out, do you think you need the "under-the-stick" drill??

Like I said...

 

[drewyallop]

Hi Brian,

Amazing swing!

Got a question for you, in the ideas vid you talked about the out toss which made a lot of sense to me and has been very useful. Combining that with what other teachers have been telling me for a few years of keeping the shaft horizontal to the ground on the top of the back swing has improved my swing. But I still have a tendency to over swing and when I do there is zero out toss. Looking at the swing above there also seams to be no out toss, but I notice that he maintains the width in the arms and shoulders through transition and into the down swing.

So my question is out toss even needed in some swings as long as the width is maintained through the downswing and the club is released freely?

Christopher

Christopher,

Look at .09 and on in the video. I see his upper torso moving left and his arms moving away from the target. An out toss effect achieved by moving the body? Another reason for keepin the back to the target as long as possible?

 

[Tony D'Antonio]

I have noticed that when I hit balls (2 or 3 times a week) I almost always have to concentrate on some different feel from the previous session. Back to the target, out toss (or I think of it as starting my hands down and away from the ball, ie. keeping width in my downswing), swinging left, staying closed, slight weight shift/ hip bump starting down, no weight shift/ hip bump starting down, and on and on. A couple of things occurred to me: this just may be normal instead of an indication that my swing isn't any good, and, I'm a better ball striker now than when I was younger because I have so many more ways to straighten out stray swings. When I was younger, if I was off, I was off and I'd shoot a million. I got accused of being a sandbagger by a prominent pro out here because he saw me one day flushing it and then saw me shoot 90 in the NorCal junior qualifying round. He thought I wanted to play in a crappy flight. I told him that was just the way my game went, good one day bad the next.

My two cents. Brian's posts on his many drills really ring true for me.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

I have noticed that when I hit balls (2 or 3 times a week) I almost always have to concentrate on some different feel from the previous session. Back to the target, out toss (or I think of it as starting my hands down and away from the ball, ie. keeping width in my downswing), swinging left, staying closed, slight weight shift/ hip bump starting down, no weight shift/ hip bump starting down, and on and on. A couple of things occurred to me: this just may be normal instead of an indication that my swing isn't any good, and, I'm a better ball striker now than when I was younger because I have so many more ways to straighten out stray swings. When I was younger, if I was off, I was off and I'd shoot a million. I got accused of being a sandbagger by a prominent pro out here because he saw me one day flushing it and then saw me shoot 90 in the NorCal junior qualifying round. He thought I wanted to play in a crappy flight. I told him that was just the way my game went, good one day bad the next.

My two cents. Brian's posts on his many drills really ring true for me.

I've found the secret to shooting a good score on any giving day is to hit the range before hand, find what "feel" you need "that day" to hit it where you want. Then go to the course and use it for that round and hope it sticks.

Feels come and go even on the big tour.

 

[SteveT]

I've found the secret to shooting a good score on any giving day is to hit the range before hand, find what "feel" you need "that day" to hit it where you want. Then go to the course and use it for that round and hope it sticks.

Feels come and go even on the big tour.

I've been asked many times by fellow golfers: "Steve, how can you remember all that scientific sh!t when you're playing??"

I respond: "I don't, because I've practiced diligently and when I step on the golf course I just perform artistically."

Of course, if I falter, I have the knowledge to correct myself, or at least make an educated guess... but I don't search for "feeel" because by then it's too late to get emotional.

I treat the golf course as a stage on which to "perform", not just to "play" for fun but for competition and to perform for accomplishment. I've done all my practicing in private and raised my competency to the highest level within my physical and mental capabilities. I'm not going to step on the golf course stage and be a golffing clown..!!!

You see, I'm "classically" trained and performing on the golf course stage is a tasty piece of cake... I don't depend solely on "feeel" which can come and go depending on how you "feeel".... I know my stuff and I get the job done to the best of my ability. Fun comes after you've succeeded.

How do you do it..???

 

[Tony D'Antonio]

Thanks Jim. Good to have some validation from a really good player. Steve, you keep tastin' that cake.

 

[spmurph]

Steve, given that you practice like a professional and perform like an artist, what keeps you from breaking 80? I'm not trying to be a smart ass, just curious.