Never Hook Again Pattern Question

[cmk6234]

I have had a chance to practice and play a few times since watching NHA. As someone who has struggled with a hook for a while, I have been extremely encouraged by my initial results and would highly recommend this video to those who fight the left side of the course.

While my results have been great I still see the occasional hook. However, for the most part, I have not felt like I’m coming in on a too shallow/too far inside out path and flipping the club closed at the bottom. Instead my swing generally feels o.k. (i.e., no flipping feel at the bottom of the swing) but at impact I feel like the club face is totally closed (the ball flight is either straight with a big left turn or a double crossed hook). Not seeing myself on video it is hard for me to say for sure but my hunch is that I am not keeping my left wrist flat and getting my thumb under the shaft at the top. Is there a more likely cause of the closed face?

 

[vjcapron]

Hit a small bucket of drivers "off the deck" like Brian explains in the video. If your grip is even slightly too strong, you won't be able to get the ball off the ground.

Off of a decent lie, you should be able to get the ball in the air and hit nice fades with a line-drive trajectory. It also helps to hit slightly down on the ball.

Another tip with the driver that works for me on the golf course is to tee the ball lower than normal when using the NHA pattern. This is also good whenever you are trying to squeeze a fade to block out the left side of the course.

With today's deep faced drivers, teeing up the ball so it is just higher than the sweet spot is good for the NHA.

If you try NHA off of a super-high tee with the driver, you will instinctively lower your downswing plane to make contact in the center of the clubface, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do with that pattern.

I first worked with this pattern in 2005. It has pretty much de-hooked me for good. When I get a "case of the hooks" I know what to do now and can cure my woes in about 10 minutes. I remember how very weak my left hand grip felt when I first made the adjustment. If you are going from a three or four knuckle grip to a one or two knuckle grip, the weight of the clubhead and your sense of the clubface feels drastically different in your hands.

 

[cmk6234]

NHA Question

Thanks for the reply VJ. I'm looking forward to getting back to the range to try out your suggestions.

One thing I did notice as I started working on NHA is that my ball flight is higher with the driver (too high on alot of shots). Would you anticipate the need to go to a bit lower loft on the driver with the NHA pattern or does the lower tee height take care of any trajectory issues?

 

[vjcapron]

Thanks for the reply VJ. I'm looking forward to getting back to the range to try out your suggestions.

One thing I did notice as I started working on NHA is that my ball flight is higher with the driver (too high on alot of shots). Would you anticipate the need to go to a bit lower loft on the driver with the NHA pattern or does the lower tee height take care of any trajectory issues?

The ball flight should definitely be higher with NHA compared to your old hook, but still on a decent trajectory. You may hit some high balooning spinners with the driver at first. I believe that this is usually caused by the fact that swinging down more steeply on the ball also helps to get the club "left of the wall" post impact.

Once you get the hang of swinging left, you should be able to refine it so you can swing left and still take a shallow approach through impact. This is when your trajectory will get back to normal.

First things first. You should focus first on clubface and then clubpath. When you can aim square at a sign on the left side of the driving range and hit an entire bucket of balls without missing a shot to the left of that sign, you are ready to "move back to the middle" and start fiddling with trajectory and angle of approach. If you're a hooker, you need to become a slicer first, then it becomes very easy to become a fader.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

vjcapron is correct for the most part, but one thing to correct:

First focus more on the plane and get that down, then you can work on controlling the face. Usually with hookers and the NHA pattern if you try to fix the face before the plane line you end up with some really nasty shots