In the past 7-8 months I have poured a lot of time into reading here, studying TGM, and working on what I learned from Brian in two lessons this fall. After Brian blew up some of my "junk" in the lessons, I have really been erratic and struggled. In early December I felt enormously frustrated because there were signs of something better, but I still had big issues. My most basic issue before seeing Brian was an inability to get to the inside of the ball (even if that is only supposed to be a half a dimple). Pulling and pull-hooking have been driving me absolutely crazy. I just could not hit a push draw to save my life and if I tried to use the pull path to play a fade it was just too weak to want to play. My contact was erratic on longer shots, although off the tee I was still hitting some passable drives.
Frankly, I was afraid after Brian saw my lack of progress over the winter, he'd fire me as a student. A teacher can only take so much. And then I was going to have to quit playing golf. So I went back to Building Blocks to see if I could figure out what I wasn't learning.
I have spent a ton of time watching that video (Brian, I know where all the gumbo is in that!) and doing the swings while watching in the mirror and then comparing them to my current swing. Over and over again. It took a lot of time, but I finally saw and felt the takeaway and pivot issue Brian has been trying to fix. I had this little right hip slide and arms and hip kick out (rather than turning my hips in the barrel) that I had no idea I had, and I had this tripod like thing going on (that is hard to get over!). Doing Building Blocks and standing straight up and practicing swings with my arms in front of me allowed me to finally begin to fix the hips. With the better pivot, I finally got to where I could hit at least hit little 60 yard pitch shots that had tight trajectory, some whoosh on them, and started just a tad right and moved back to center.
I really thought I had it all licked two weeks ago. It warmed up enough outside to play a week ago and on the range I could hit great, tight, controlled pitch shots, but my fulls shots were just the same old stuff. Slight pulls and soft high cream-puffs on full shots. My group decided because it was winter and soaking wet to play from the white tees. I decided to play half swing shots the whole round and shot a 76, with four 3-putts, which is much better than I have been playing recently. My swings during that round made Allen Doyle look like Fred Couples. If all courses were 6200 yards, this strategy might be ok, but they aren't.
Yesterday was balmy for wintertime, and I had a couple hours to hit. During the first hour, I could not hit a full shot with zip and everything was going a little left of target from impact -- on the full swing shots. I thought about a rhetorical question Brian asked during my second lesson - at one point he asked me if there was maybe a little flipping issue left to work out as well, but I was sure I had eliminated that months ago. While I was on the range, I started doing a "Flipper" sequence drill (belly button, hands, club) and thought about Brian's comment about whether Tiger could see the logo on the back of his glove at the top of his backswing. I began to think maybe I had been flipping the full-swing shots, and I think also cocking my right wrist some on those shots as well for some reason but not doing so on my pitches.
Within 5 minutes I was zipping the ball on a much lower trajectory, starting the ball right of target and drawing it back to target. My 5-irons were suddenly twenty yards longer as well and my only downswing thought became trying to leave my hands behind me and to keep my right wrist bent. I literally had no idea how I was hitting the ball, as my only thought was let my pivot move my hands to in front of the ball before impact and keep my right wrist bent as far as possible. I was sure i was going to miss the ball by a foot on every swing, but I hit the ball and the sound and cleanness of impact was enormously different. I hit balls like this for 45 minutes, and I hit until fifteen minutes after dark. I just cannot get over the difference. Finally I had some serious zip in terms of the sound on full shots, a "push-draw," 15-20 yards more in distance with my irons, and a feeling of control instead of fear of a big pull hook. That's the difference between wanting to quit and wanting to play golf in the dark.
So I was definitely still flipping some on full shots and also, for some reason, cocking my right wrist on full shots but not half shots? Combine that little flipping and double-cocking with a tripod and exagerrated "never hook again" pivot and you have something that will drive a person nearly crazy. I still do not understand how my pivot moves my hands to the right place when I totally forget about my hands and just focus on keeping my right wrist bent. I think I was associating the feel of throw-away with the right feel of release on the full shots but not short shots and also cocking my right wrist for some reason. Anyway, this is all very exciting to me.
Brian may not have to fire me this spring after all.
There is hope.
Frankly, I was afraid after Brian saw my lack of progress over the winter, he'd fire me as a student. A teacher can only take so much. And then I was going to have to quit playing golf. So I went back to Building Blocks to see if I could figure out what I wasn't learning.
I have spent a ton of time watching that video (Brian, I know where all the gumbo is in that!) and doing the swings while watching in the mirror and then comparing them to my current swing. Over and over again. It took a lot of time, but I finally saw and felt the takeaway and pivot issue Brian has been trying to fix. I had this little right hip slide and arms and hip kick out (rather than turning my hips in the barrel) that I had no idea I had, and I had this tripod like thing going on (that is hard to get over!). Doing Building Blocks and standing straight up and practicing swings with my arms in front of me allowed me to finally begin to fix the hips. With the better pivot, I finally got to where I could hit at least hit little 60 yard pitch shots that had tight trajectory, some whoosh on them, and started just a tad right and moved back to center.
I really thought I had it all licked two weeks ago. It warmed up enough outside to play a week ago and on the range I could hit great, tight, controlled pitch shots, but my fulls shots were just the same old stuff. Slight pulls and soft high cream-puffs on full shots. My group decided because it was winter and soaking wet to play from the white tees. I decided to play half swing shots the whole round and shot a 76, with four 3-putts, which is much better than I have been playing recently. My swings during that round made Allen Doyle look like Fred Couples. If all courses were 6200 yards, this strategy might be ok, but they aren't.
Yesterday was balmy for wintertime, and I had a couple hours to hit. During the first hour, I could not hit a full shot with zip and everything was going a little left of target from impact -- on the full swing shots. I thought about a rhetorical question Brian asked during my second lesson - at one point he asked me if there was maybe a little flipping issue left to work out as well, but I was sure I had eliminated that months ago. While I was on the range, I started doing a "Flipper" sequence drill (belly button, hands, club) and thought about Brian's comment about whether Tiger could see the logo on the back of his glove at the top of his backswing. I began to think maybe I had been flipping the full-swing shots, and I think also cocking my right wrist some on those shots as well for some reason but not doing so on my pitches.
Within 5 minutes I was zipping the ball on a much lower trajectory, starting the ball right of target and drawing it back to target. My 5-irons were suddenly twenty yards longer as well and my only downswing thought became trying to leave my hands behind me and to keep my right wrist bent. I literally had no idea how I was hitting the ball, as my only thought was let my pivot move my hands to in front of the ball before impact and keep my right wrist bent as far as possible. I was sure i was going to miss the ball by a foot on every swing, but I hit the ball and the sound and cleanness of impact was enormously different. I hit balls like this for 45 minutes, and I hit until fifteen minutes after dark. I just cannot get over the difference. Finally I had some serious zip in terms of the sound on full shots, a "push-draw," 15-20 yards more in distance with my irons, and a feeling of control instead of fear of a big pull hook. That's the difference between wanting to quit and wanting to play golf in the dark.
So I was definitely still flipping some on full shots and also, for some reason, cocking my right wrist on full shots but not half shots? Combine that little flipping and double-cocking with a tripod and exagerrated "never hook again" pivot and you have something that will drive a person nearly crazy. I still do not understand how my pivot moves my hands to the right place when I totally forget about my hands and just focus on keeping my right wrist bent. I think I was associating the feel of throw-away with the right feel of release on the full shots but not short shots and also cocking my right wrist for some reason. Anyway, this is all very exciting to me.
Brian may not have to fire me this spring after all.
There is hope.
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