This may sound like hyperbole, but it's not.
I grew up a golf fanatic and was a decent player as a kid who worked on a driving range after school and played golf a tremendous amount in the summers(could break 80 but never got close to scratch). I learned golf reading Hogan and Nicklaus, and I took up the game in my 40's again once I had the time and money to be able to play again.
Two and a half years ago, after being stalled at a 5-6 handicap for many years, I decided I was going to read everything I could find, take lessons, and practice as much as it took to become a player who could, on occasion, break par.
The first teacher really did not know much more about the golf swing than I did. This was someone named as one of the top 100 golf teachers in the U.S. and who did some part-time national golf TV commentary. A second teacher, who I think does have something meaningful to offer works with several very good players in my region and helped me with very fundamental problems - flipping and clubface control (I have very good clubhead speed but tend to hit high, soft creampuff shots with a flip), but he was not able to help me with what I have felt were longtime fundamental issues of feeling like every swing was a check swing and a lack of good balance, tempo, and rhythym. Really, fundamentally, I learned pieces of mechanics from this person but couldn't get out of him how to make a complete, full swing. The anti-flipping teaching was very valuable but I couldn't get answers to my basic questions. I think this teacher had good insight but poor verbalizing skills.
I spent most of this year working diligently on One Plane Swing (Hardy) techniques and a variant of that and took lessons with another well-known instructor (not Hardy). By midsummer I was ready to quit golf and thought seriously about that for weeks. Instead I took a little break and in early September decided I had just gone down a rabbit hole of One Plane Swing Theory and needed to keep trying. I felt like I knew only two "valuable" things about golf with certainty - you can't flip the club and play consistently and when I swung the club right I felt I was dragging the weight of the club behind me and snapping it or cracking it at the ball. It's not much to really truly know after 30 years of playing, but oh well, such is life. I googled "flipping," "snapping" and "golf" and somehow found Manzella.
"Confessions of a Flipper" summarized what I had learned in a way that I finally understood why anti-flipping techniques were so valuable. I thought, hey, maybe this Manzella guy actually really knew something. (I have to say that the TGM-related terminology here scared me and made me think this might be another golf cult). I bought Never Hook Again and Never Slice Again (I'm a long-time hooker and have also been playing from a bent left wrist position). I read a tremendous number of posts here and then used Manzella to try to reprogram my golf brain. I watched the You Tube videos and NHA closely, carefully, and repeatedly over a three-week period with almost no playing. I had a definite "aha moment" when I heard Brian talking about not clearing his left side or hitting into a firm left side (me, check swings...hmmm) in video 7. I worked on getting getting my right shoulder downplane (wall then ball) and clearing my hips and hitting into a firm left side - practicing and feeling the movements without hitting a ball while I was on vacation.
The reprogrammed me finally went to the range two weeks ago. Day 1, I almost couldn't even hit the ball, literally almost missed it. So I worked on sequencing my body as in the NHA video and, again, while not flipping. On day two I hit the ball the best I have ever hit it in my life. Ever. In my life. I hadn't seen a power fade off my club since high school (the one thing I could do very well in golf at one point was drive the ball, even with my Ben Hogan persimmon driver). I was so excited about playing golf the next day (a Saturday morning) that I woke up at 4 a.m. in the morning, like a kid on Christmas. I hit the ball the best I have in years and was 5 shots better than I had been in months. Sunday I played 15 holes at the end of the day, shooting 1-over without making a putt over 5 feet (almost all summer my scores have been in the 79-83 range). The difference in ballstriking is more than those shots per round might indicate. On two holes I hit drives longer than I have in a decade of playing the same course.
I also ordered the Ben Doyle video on how to build a golf swing. I watched it twice this week and stayed up very late at night trying to wade through The Golfing Machine. (one aside - a person would be hard-pressed to find a more effective way to bury incredibly valuable information than in the almost incomprehensible way The Gofing Machine is written). Watching Ben swing the club so many times and listening to what he was really saying (and demonstrating) was a tonic. I understood, finally, that my balance and fast jerky-feeling swing that didn't even swing to a full finish were the result of not letting my pivot hit the ball, trying to guide the ball with my hands, a lot of tension in my arms, and general over-use of the hands.
Late yesterday I walked 9 holes visualizing the relaxed way Ben Doyle swings. I had a flow and a tempo, and the check-swing feeling was totally gone. I didn't play perfectly, but I hit the ball extremely well and felt like I actually had a smooth "swing" instead of a randomly assembled set of movements. I am not sure I would have understood the depth of the Ben Doyle video without watching a lot of Manzella first. Watching the Ben Doyle video makes me want to go take a lesson from him, by the way, as much for the pleasure of meeting the man as for the instruction. And next week I am headed for my first lesson with Brian and am very excited about that.
I am sorry if this post sounds too much like an infomercial, but I feel like I am finally getting meaningful answers to my essential questions (essential to me, at least) about balance, tempo, and swinging to a finish, and how to fundamentally have a swing. I feel like I am part of the way there on controlling the clubface and not flipping, a quarter of the way there on how to load/drag the clubhead, and have only the vaguest of ideas about how to really draw a straight plane line with the clubshaft.
Golf is fun again.
I grew up a golf fanatic and was a decent player as a kid who worked on a driving range after school and played golf a tremendous amount in the summers(could break 80 but never got close to scratch). I learned golf reading Hogan and Nicklaus, and I took up the game in my 40's again once I had the time and money to be able to play again.
Two and a half years ago, after being stalled at a 5-6 handicap for many years, I decided I was going to read everything I could find, take lessons, and practice as much as it took to become a player who could, on occasion, break par.
The first teacher really did not know much more about the golf swing than I did. This was someone named as one of the top 100 golf teachers in the U.S. and who did some part-time national golf TV commentary. A second teacher, who I think does have something meaningful to offer works with several very good players in my region and helped me with very fundamental problems - flipping and clubface control (I have very good clubhead speed but tend to hit high, soft creampuff shots with a flip), but he was not able to help me with what I have felt were longtime fundamental issues of feeling like every swing was a check swing and a lack of good balance, tempo, and rhythym. Really, fundamentally, I learned pieces of mechanics from this person but couldn't get out of him how to make a complete, full swing. The anti-flipping teaching was very valuable but I couldn't get answers to my basic questions. I think this teacher had good insight but poor verbalizing skills.
I spent most of this year working diligently on One Plane Swing (Hardy) techniques and a variant of that and took lessons with another well-known instructor (not Hardy). By midsummer I was ready to quit golf and thought seriously about that for weeks. Instead I took a little break and in early September decided I had just gone down a rabbit hole of One Plane Swing Theory and needed to keep trying. I felt like I knew only two "valuable" things about golf with certainty - you can't flip the club and play consistently and when I swung the club right I felt I was dragging the weight of the club behind me and snapping it or cracking it at the ball. It's not much to really truly know after 30 years of playing, but oh well, such is life. I googled "flipping," "snapping" and "golf" and somehow found Manzella.
"Confessions of a Flipper" summarized what I had learned in a way that I finally understood why anti-flipping techniques were so valuable. I thought, hey, maybe this Manzella guy actually really knew something. (I have to say that the TGM-related terminology here scared me and made me think this might be another golf cult). I bought Never Hook Again and Never Slice Again (I'm a long-time hooker and have also been playing from a bent left wrist position). I read a tremendous number of posts here and then used Manzella to try to reprogram my golf brain. I watched the You Tube videos and NHA closely, carefully, and repeatedly over a three-week period with almost no playing. I had a definite "aha moment" when I heard Brian talking about not clearing his left side or hitting into a firm left side (me, check swings...hmmm) in video 7. I worked on getting getting my right shoulder downplane (wall then ball) and clearing my hips and hitting into a firm left side - practicing and feeling the movements without hitting a ball while I was on vacation.
The reprogrammed me finally went to the range two weeks ago. Day 1, I almost couldn't even hit the ball, literally almost missed it. So I worked on sequencing my body as in the NHA video and, again, while not flipping. On day two I hit the ball the best I have ever hit it in my life. Ever. In my life. I hadn't seen a power fade off my club since high school (the one thing I could do very well in golf at one point was drive the ball, even with my Ben Hogan persimmon driver). I was so excited about playing golf the next day (a Saturday morning) that I woke up at 4 a.m. in the morning, like a kid on Christmas. I hit the ball the best I have in years and was 5 shots better than I had been in months. Sunday I played 15 holes at the end of the day, shooting 1-over without making a putt over 5 feet (almost all summer my scores have been in the 79-83 range). The difference in ballstriking is more than those shots per round might indicate. On two holes I hit drives longer than I have in a decade of playing the same course.
I also ordered the Ben Doyle video on how to build a golf swing. I watched it twice this week and stayed up very late at night trying to wade through The Golfing Machine. (one aside - a person would be hard-pressed to find a more effective way to bury incredibly valuable information than in the almost incomprehensible way The Gofing Machine is written). Watching Ben swing the club so many times and listening to what he was really saying (and demonstrating) was a tonic. I understood, finally, that my balance and fast jerky-feeling swing that didn't even swing to a full finish were the result of not letting my pivot hit the ball, trying to guide the ball with my hands, a lot of tension in my arms, and general over-use of the hands.
Late yesterday I walked 9 holes visualizing the relaxed way Ben Doyle swings. I had a flow and a tempo, and the check-swing feeling was totally gone. I didn't play perfectly, but I hit the ball extremely well and felt like I actually had a smooth "swing" instead of a randomly assembled set of movements. I am not sure I would have understood the depth of the Ben Doyle video without watching a lot of Manzella first. Watching the Ben Doyle video makes me want to go take a lesson from him, by the way, as much for the pleasure of meeting the man as for the instruction. And next week I am headed for my first lesson with Brian and am very excited about that.
I am sorry if this post sounds too much like an infomercial, but I feel like I am finally getting meaningful answers to my essential questions (essential to me, at least) about balance, tempo, and swinging to a finish, and how to fundamentally have a swing. I feel like I am part of the way there on controlling the clubface and not flipping, a quarter of the way there on how to load/drag the clubhead, and have only the vaguest of ideas about how to really draw a straight plane line with the clubshaft.
Golf is fun again.
Last edited:
At first when you watch the video, you're thinking "good god light symbol of truth...what!?" and then you rewind to make sure you heard what you've just heard. I thought the guy was nuts! Anyway, the whole video is priceless. 