huestisc
New
After roughly 6 months of very sporadic practice, things are starting to happen. I can't practice with a ball much due to work, 2 small kids and general demands of life in the big city. Most of my practice time is limited to home, with one 90 min range outing (off mats!) per week if I am lucky.
This past week, I saw some real breakthoughs thanks to Brian, 6B1D and others on this site (and Yoda's).
I started with a warm-up session at the short game area. I hit 10 consecutive nice little 25 yd lob wedges, taking beautiful little divots (as a former flipper, I never used to take divots, unless it was 6 inches behind the ball!). Flat wrist, nice rhythm, extensor action, steady head, pivot does the work. The majority were within 5 feet of the hole, and a couple nearly went in. I got some mumbles from the peanut gallery/tank top-wearing/backward hat crew passing by of "Seve, Seve" - I live in Spain after all. Well, with them watching, I proceeded to stick the next 2 within 3 feet of the hole.
I moved on to the mats. I made one change, from overlap grip to interlock, based on something I saw this week on the site. I have small hands, and have thought about switching to 10 finger, but the (Manzella style) interlock felt really good! The 2 main things I have been working on for the past couple of weeks have been hip movement with a steady head (I used to have a Jimmy Ballard sway with little or no axis tilt) and extensor action (never had any before and had a very limp left arm).
With the hip movements, I focus on slide/turn/slide/turn, with a steady head. On the slide, I was actually thinking about getting my right hip bone above my left on the backswing and the left above the right (therefore setting me up with some nice axis tilt) on the downswing. Since my hips never cleared properly before, my uneducated hands never had a clear path to the ball. Now, they had the path, and in their semi-educated state, they went after that inside-aft corner. I'm sure there was compression, but it was hard to tell by the sound of the marshmellows they have at this range.
I still have a long way to go, I still don't "own" the concepts, I still don't think my hands have a Ph D yet (but maybe a high school equivalancy degree or something
), but the concepts are there and they are clicking into place.
At the end of the session, my drives were nearly clearing the 50 foot high fence, the same fence where I could only reach it's base a couple weeks previously. I was hitting my 10 year old Cobra 14 degree 3 wood off the rock hard astroturf deck, and smoking it (with a slight draw), and this is the same club which previously I could only hit off the fairway from the fluffiest of lies.
As I said, I want to thank Brian for all his knowledge and enthusiasm. I also want to thank 6B1D, since his twin mantras of hip power and extensor action have been the driving forces in my recent changes.
Keep up the good work!
This past week, I saw some real breakthoughs thanks to Brian, 6B1D and others on this site (and Yoda's).
I started with a warm-up session at the short game area. I hit 10 consecutive nice little 25 yd lob wedges, taking beautiful little divots (as a former flipper, I never used to take divots, unless it was 6 inches behind the ball!). Flat wrist, nice rhythm, extensor action, steady head, pivot does the work. The majority were within 5 feet of the hole, and a couple nearly went in. I got some mumbles from the peanut gallery/tank top-wearing/backward hat crew passing by of "Seve, Seve" - I live in Spain after all. Well, with them watching, I proceeded to stick the next 2 within 3 feet of the hole.
I moved on to the mats. I made one change, from overlap grip to interlock, based on something I saw this week on the site. I have small hands, and have thought about switching to 10 finger, but the (Manzella style) interlock felt really good! The 2 main things I have been working on for the past couple of weeks have been hip movement with a steady head (I used to have a Jimmy Ballard sway with little or no axis tilt) and extensor action (never had any before and had a very limp left arm).
With the hip movements, I focus on slide/turn/slide/turn, with a steady head. On the slide, I was actually thinking about getting my right hip bone above my left on the backswing and the left above the right (therefore setting me up with some nice axis tilt) on the downswing. Since my hips never cleared properly before, my uneducated hands never had a clear path to the ball. Now, they had the path, and in their semi-educated state, they went after that inside-aft corner. I'm sure there was compression, but it was hard to tell by the sound of the marshmellows they have at this range.
I still have a long way to go, I still don't "own" the concepts, I still don't think my hands have a Ph D yet (but maybe a high school equivalancy degree or something
), but the concepts are there and they are clicking into place.At the end of the session, my drives were nearly clearing the 50 foot high fence, the same fence where I could only reach it's base a couple weeks previously. I was hitting my 10 year old Cobra 14 degree 3 wood off the rock hard astroturf deck, and smoking it (with a slight draw), and this is the same club which previously I could only hit off the fairway from the fluffiest of lies.
As I said, I want to thank Brian for all his knowledge and enthusiasm. I also want to thank 6B1D, since his twin mantras of hip power and extensor action have been the driving forces in my recent changes.
Keep up the good work!
