Help - myself and instructor baffled !

[smooth]

Hi there,

Last night had a lesson with an instructor i've seen a number of times. Progress has been good but we've reached a sticking point and ended up not being able to move past it.

Tendency is to get onto the left side too quickly with too much lateral movement, the clubhead gets too far behind and inside my hands. Basically i'm not dropping my arms enough and getting them 'in front' in the downswing before pivoting and closing the clubface enough with the body. It needs to feel for me that i'm staying on my right side longer.

We've both agreed that point and understand in theory what needs to happen but have both struggled to find a drill to help ingrain the feel while hitting balls. The only thing so far is the so called 'pump drill'. Have seen never hook again which is close to what we are working on... just can't get the 'drop' happening in sequence.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[suns11111]

Good idea is to just bring your club up to the top of your backswing static (hold for a few seconds), nudge the club back a bit more to start the downswing and pretend to step on a can with your left foot and let it all happen. Even develop a pre shot routine to correct this fault and get up to the ball with just instinct (no mind). Mind just gets in the way. Feeling: to see how quite your body gets when it works together. Several pros use this when there is something out of sequence, or a hybrid of it.

 

[smooth]

Thanks suns... any other ideas?

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

Have you seen "Never Hook Again"? You need to learn the "drop." If you haven't it's a good buy and/or if you don't want too i believe Brian did do some very basic NHA type stuff in one of his free video responses however i don't know which one. Maybe another member can help you.

 

[Little Brit]

I have the same problem. Brian's fiddle drill has helped me recently. You can find it on his flipper video. I think he might have it on somewhere else too but the video is well worth the purchase anyway.

 

[mrodock]

Hi there,

Last night had a lesson with an instructor i've seen a number of times. Progress has been good but we've reached a sticking point and ended up not being able to move past it.

Tendency is to get onto the left side too quickly with too much lateral movement, the clubhead gets too far behind and inside my hands. Basically i'm not dropping my arms enough and getting them 'in front' in the downswing before pivoting and closing the clubface enough with the body. It needs to feel for me that i'm staying on my right side longer.

We've both agreed that point and understand in theory what needs to happen but have both struggled to find a drill to help ingrain the feel while hitting balls. The only thing so far is the so called 'pump drill'. Have seen never hook again which is close to what we are working on... just can't get the 'drop' happening in sequence.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Are you standing up early or getting your hips going toward the plane line? You may need to keep your chest down . . . if you stand up or get out of your waist bend it makes the shaft lay down and you get stuck.

 

[Brian Manzella]

How to NOT GET "Stuck"...

Brian's top 5 drills/ideas for NOT GETTING "Stuck"...(which simply means below plane)...no particular order....

Towel Plane Board

Hit the ball after the ball TOO!

Hit JUST the "ball after the ball" out to left field

Ball Hurdle drill

Retain some hip turn in the "fall" then go left hard​

 

[pecky987]

Brian's top 5 drills/ideas for NOT GETTING "Stuck"...(which simply means below plane)...no particular order....

Towel Plane Board

Hit the ball after the ball TOO!

Hit JUST the "ball after the ball" out to left field

Ball Hurdle drill

Retain some hip turn in the "fall" then go left hard​

can you explain some of the above drills please. im not sure on 'Hit the ball after the ball TOO!' as well as 'Hit JUST the "ball after the ball" out to left field' and 'Ball Hurdle drill'

 

[Brian Manzella]

Hit 'Em Both!

Hit 'Em Both:

Measure with your foot...size 11 us works best...then remove foot.

Or...

to "Hit JUST the "ball after the ball" out to left field,"

simply remove the first ball, set up with the club where it was when there WAS a first ball, and then hit JUST the second ball SOLID...on the way down.

Of course, the ball will fly very far left...but it will have the desired effect on the golfer's feel.

The "Hurdle" drill is just holding the club in the top-of-the-backswing position, while you pivot, and then letting it come down FAR in front of a regularly placed ball.

Sounds easy....but I have only had one person do it right on the first try in 25 years.

 

[smooth]

Thanks Brian!

Retain some hip turn in the "fall" then go left hard[/INDENT]

Thanks Brian for those drills and great explanations. Actually it's the one above that has struck a chord with me - the feeling of keeping your hips still turned, dropping then going left hard. I tend to go turn, drop, left rather than drop, turn, left.

 

[smooth]

Thanks Brian for those drills and great explanations. Actually it's the one above that has struck a chord with me - the feeling of keeping your hips still turned, dropping then going left hard. I tend to go turn, drop, left rather than drop, turn, left.

Actually got in some range time this morning.... i was amazed 'how far left' i could swing and still hit the ball straight - AS LONG AS i dropped the club down as the first move in the downswing before pivoting. If i rotated then dropped i was getting pulls straight left of course.

This all seems to make sense but the opposite of what any other teacher has shown me in the past which has always been 'swing out to right field' including your hands, club and the body !!

 

[Bigwill]

Hit 'Em Both:

Measure with your foot...size 11 us works best...then remove foot.

Or...

to "Hit JUST the "ball after the ball" out to left field,"

Brian gave me this drill last year, and I love it. Be sure to get the proper adjustments if your foot isn't average (my foot is a size 14, so Brian had me set the first ball under the spot where my heel would be). It provided immediate feedback, and gave me a great mental image to use.

 

[curtisj76]

Bump!!!!!!!!

Just found this great thread doing a search for the towel plane. Gonna try a few of these.

Good stuff.

 

[barbben]

Brian

Re the Hit Em Both Drill

I was wondering whether I should be looking at an imaginery spot where the second golf ball would be when I'm actually on the course.

Will this drill help me hit my drives straighter and further?

Ben

 

[Brian Manzella]

I was wondering whether I should be looking at an imaginery spot where the second golf ball would be when I'm actually on the course.

Will this drill help me hit my drives straighter and further?

I might have you look there just before you look at the ball and start your takeaway.

But, if you do this drill, and the "yellow brick road" drill from "Never Hook Again," you'll find that you'll "see" a path on the course, and you simply swing down this path.

 

[wedgeplay]

Love the graphics!


That's what I'm talking about.

 

[curtisj76]

OK, so these drills are for someone that swings too far RIGHT. Is the path you're trying to achieve in these drills considered swinging pretty LEFT? Or is it just "NEUTRAL". I'd like to stick with SD but the hooks/pushes are telling me I swing too far to the right. If I try these drills will that mess up SD for me? For example, the "shoe drill" that's illustrated above. Would a "normal" SD swing hit that second ball or is that swinging too much left? I hope this makes sense. Thanks

PS I have NHA but that's a totally different pattern and I'd rather try to fix my SD swing. That's why I have a hard time trying to figure out the matrix. Sometimes you see members recommend NHA to someone that hooks the ball. But when you go to NHA, it takes away your hook but it also takes away your draw as well, correct? So what does one do when you don't want to hook but you still want to play with SD. I wish there was a NHA 4 SD. Does that make sense? Maybe not, I'm tired and have been sick for a few days. Any suggestions welcomed. Thanks

 

[dbl]

I think it depends on how bad your predominant swing flaw is. Maybe a slicer shouldn't play using a baby fade unless he has realllllly gone down a long road of breaking his old habits. Same for the hooker.

I have seen someone's earlier guess on traversing the matrix and it sounded great to me, that you cross over to the other side and then can come close to the middle pattern but basically stay on the other side of the middle of the matrix (until, I suppose, the predominant errors are reallllly worked out). Just a guess though!

 

[lookingtolearn]

How I see it...

OK, so these drills are for someone that swings too far RIGHT.

Yes.

Is the path you're trying to achieve in these drills considered swinging pretty LEFT? Or is it just "NEUTRAL".

Not sure. But I think it would be a little left since you're trying to correct too far to the right.

I'd like to stick with SD but the hooks/pushes are telling me I swing too far to the right. If I try these drills will that mess up SD for me?

I don't think so. Your just trying to overdo the other way a bit (swinging left) to end up where you need to be (not so far right).

PS I have NHA but that's a totally different pattern and I'd rather try to fix my SD swing. That's why I have a hard time trying to figure out the matrix. Sometimes you see members recommend NHA to someone that hooks the ball. But when you go to NHA, it takes away your hook but it also takes away your draw as well, correct? So what does one do when you don't want to hook but you still want to play with SD. I wish there was a NHA 4 SD. Does that make sense? Maybe not, I'm tired and have been sick for a few days. Any suggestions welcomed. Thanks

Brian has said that an SD backswing and transition + the NHA through the ball move would be a pretty "straight" pattern. So I think if you keep working on SD and add some NHA "through the ball" drills like the shoe drill, you'll stop swinging too far right. If you do it a lot and actually start swinging like in the drills, you'll end up with a pretty straight ball flight.

Or, on the other hand, you could try the SD adjustments (for when you start hooking) that Brian included in another thread.

 

[lookingtolearn]

I think it depends on how bad your predominant swing flaw is. Maybe a slicer shouldn't play using a baby fade unless he has realllllly gone down a long road of breaking his old habits. Same for the hooker.

I have seen someone's earlier guess on traversing the matrix and it sounded great to me, that you cross over to the other side and then can come close to the middle pattern but basically stay on the other side of the middle of the matrix (until, I suppose, the predominant errors are reallllly worked out). Just a guess though!

Yeah, to add to that, maybe curtis is actually a Soft Fade kind of guy (like glcoach).