Just thought I would share this personal revelation:
Had a terrible range session yesterday. Really terrible. Something just didn't feel right. I couldn't muster any power in my golf swing and contact was absolutely poor.
"What happened?" I asked myself. This is not the swing I played with on Friday breaking 80. I couldn't break 100 with the way I was hitting.
My shots were alternating thin, fat, hook, block, thin, fat, hook, block. I tried choking down on a seven iron and working on keeping my balance with some short swings. Couldn't do it. I was falling all over the place.
Just about ready to call it quits for the day, I decided to take a "back to basics approach" to my setup. First thing was ball position. I had two options really:
1) The Jack Nicklaus approach, ball off left heel.
2) The variable ball position approach.
For the record, when I started playing, I used method 1. It just made so much sense, I never wanted to fool with it. However, about a year ago, when I first took a lesson, the instructor had me put the ball in the middle of the stance for wedge through 7 iron, and move it just a bit forward after that.
This reaked havoc on my entire swing. For a while I did ok, but as I tried to apply any power to the swing, I couldn't make solid contact. Everything was a hook.
I've been tooling around with ball position ever since, mostly leaning towards a more centered placement. Why? Now that I think of it, the worst reason of all: asthetics. Yep, I thought it looked better having it more centered. Sheeeeezzz....
Yesterday confirmed that fooling with what worked in the first place was a bad idea. As a result of trying to play the ball farther back, I've compensated in my swing by using my hands to square the clubface very quickly on the downswing, thereby ruining my sequence to impact. The result has been less power (we're talking 10 mph or more in swing speed), and a nightmare experience of brilliant one day, then horrible ball the next ball striking.
It occured to me that my hooks are the result of positioning the ball over time so far back (for my swing) that the path is now unavoidably in-out, at an angle where I have to rotate my hands excessively to square the face. My attack angle also had become excessively downward (to compensate for the fact that normally, my swing would not even be ready to hit the ground at that point). This resulted in heavy divot patterns and sore hands.
So yesterday I went back to the Jack Nicklaus position. It occured to me that for my build (weak upper body, strong lower body, 5' 11"... hehe... sound familiar?), reaching contact at this "near maximum extension" point is more efficient. The club has more time to square on its own, retain more lag, and produce more speed. It also enables me to make a straight takeaway move, rather than immediately sucking the club inside (something I have been fighting to fix, without success, from a farther back ball position).
Maybe there is a way to get used to the center ball position, and for some it probably has its merit. But it's not the way for me. My body is completely stuck trying to hit the ball in that position. Granted, right now the "ball off left heel" looks rediculous to me, especially with woods and short irons. But the ball flight doesn't lie. I'm back to a slight draw with every club but the driver (driver is just kinda all over the place atm, mostly big fades). The best news is that I was definitely getting WAY more clubhead speed with all clubs. I could release fully through the ball and not feel off balance. Maybe now I can perform a LCHT successfully.
Once again... Jack Nicklaus had it right, and Phil Mickelson's infamous quote applies.
"...I'm such an idiot"
Oh btw, there are some new videos up on Youtube with Jack Nicklaus' swing from early in his career. Really neat to watch if you get the chance.
Had a terrible range session yesterday. Really terrible. Something just didn't feel right. I couldn't muster any power in my golf swing and contact was absolutely poor.
"What happened?" I asked myself. This is not the swing I played with on Friday breaking 80. I couldn't break 100 with the way I was hitting.
My shots were alternating thin, fat, hook, block, thin, fat, hook, block. I tried choking down on a seven iron and working on keeping my balance with some short swings. Couldn't do it. I was falling all over the place.
Just about ready to call it quits for the day, I decided to take a "back to basics approach" to my setup. First thing was ball position. I had two options really:
1) The Jack Nicklaus approach, ball off left heel.
2) The variable ball position approach.
For the record, when I started playing, I used method 1. It just made so much sense, I never wanted to fool with it. However, about a year ago, when I first took a lesson, the instructor had me put the ball in the middle of the stance for wedge through 7 iron, and move it just a bit forward after that.
This reaked havoc on my entire swing. For a while I did ok, but as I tried to apply any power to the swing, I couldn't make solid contact. Everything was a hook.
I've been tooling around with ball position ever since, mostly leaning towards a more centered placement. Why? Now that I think of it, the worst reason of all: asthetics. Yep, I thought it looked better having it more centered. Sheeeeezzz....
Yesterday confirmed that fooling with what worked in the first place was a bad idea. As a result of trying to play the ball farther back, I've compensated in my swing by using my hands to square the clubface very quickly on the downswing, thereby ruining my sequence to impact. The result has been less power (we're talking 10 mph or more in swing speed), and a nightmare experience of brilliant one day, then horrible ball the next ball striking.
It occured to me that my hooks are the result of positioning the ball over time so far back (for my swing) that the path is now unavoidably in-out, at an angle where I have to rotate my hands excessively to square the face. My attack angle also had become excessively downward (to compensate for the fact that normally, my swing would not even be ready to hit the ground at that point). This resulted in heavy divot patterns and sore hands.
So yesterday I went back to the Jack Nicklaus position. It occured to me that for my build (weak upper body, strong lower body, 5' 11"... hehe... sound familiar?), reaching contact at this "near maximum extension" point is more efficient. The club has more time to square on its own, retain more lag, and produce more speed. It also enables me to make a straight takeaway move, rather than immediately sucking the club inside (something I have been fighting to fix, without success, from a farther back ball position).
Maybe there is a way to get used to the center ball position, and for some it probably has its merit. But it's not the way for me. My body is completely stuck trying to hit the ball in that position. Granted, right now the "ball off left heel" looks rediculous to me, especially with woods and short irons. But the ball flight doesn't lie. I'm back to a slight draw with every club but the driver (driver is just kinda all over the place atm, mostly big fades). The best news is that I was definitely getting WAY more clubhead speed with all clubs. I could release fully through the ball and not feel off balance. Maybe now I can perform a LCHT successfully.
Once again... Jack Nicklaus had it right, and Phil Mickelson's infamous quote applies.
"...I'm such an idiot"
Oh btw, there are some new videos up on Youtube with Jack Nicklaus' swing from early in his career. Really neat to watch if you get the chance.
