Never Hook Again

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self-mastery

self-mastery

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How do I never hook the ball again?

There was a time when I would do anything to have a right-to-left ball flight, now that's all I have. How do I start hitting a fade? I've been working on neutralizing my grip, but what else should i do?
 
birdie_man

birdie_man

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Hmm... opening up the clubface more would be one solution (just call me Captain Obvious...)

I'm sure there are other things...I've been screwing around on the range with a different kind of swing (less forearm rotation...more of a outside takeaway w/ clubface pointing at the ball more).
I hit crazy hooks with this swing, expecially with long irons and driver...I think it's because I'm used to having to unroll my arms on the downswing. True???

I'm still screwing around with it...I think it's more of a timing/tempo thing but it seems to help to follow through more to the right (more up to the sky and less around myself). I think it helps to clear my hips more agressively (straighten left knee more on downswing) so my hands don't flip over as much.

If I wasn't so stubborn I'd have gone to see a pro by now but I'll prolly screw around until I can't play golf anymore or until I start killing the ball.

Dunno...I'll post if I discover anything else.
 
self-mastery

self-mastery

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My draw is playable, but hooks if I swing to hard. Funny thing is that my best round of golf occured when I intentionally played a hook from the tee.
 
B

Brian Manzella

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It's called "up the wall-down the wall-and LEFT of the wall" and is a video on the drawing board.

Hook No More!

But....I will find the post on this forum (or maybe FGI that explains it, and I out it up later).
 
D

DDL

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This also sounds like a solution to my problem. At the top of my BS, I usually have my hands at or behind my backpocket line.

Not sure if I am supposed to pose questions on the other section, but here goes.

Why is it, that hands positioned too far behind ,promote an over the top move with hooking tendencies? A flatter angle from the hands to the ball should be easier to execute a down and out motion, so I thought. Well that would explain why I made my hook problem worse by stretching my hands and arms more behind me, trying what I thought was a better position to swing down and out.

I recall 6B saying Yoda repeatedly had him positon his hands in front of his right knee at the top. I thought that was peculiar to those Masonic-like hitters I have heard about.
 
D

DDL

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Here is Brian's previous post on this nice piece of instruction he had Toms execute:

Posted - 06/02/2004 : 11:54:10
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Ok folks...

When I spent those three days with David in early 1997 in Dallas, his swing had gotten flat and he was swinging back to the ball too inside-out and he was not 'un-wound' enough at impact.

The cure was BRIAN MANZELLA's UP THE WALL-DOWN THE WALL-LEFT OF THE WALL(LIFT-DROP-ROTATE) SWING FEEL/THOUGHT/VISUALIZATION REMEDY.

The 'wall' is a VERTICAL wall just outside the ball parallel to the target line.

David was----in 'wall speak'----IN FROM THE WALL(BACKSWING)-TOWARD THE WALL(DOWNSWING TO THE BALL)-UP THE WALL(PAST THE BALL)...

I GAVE HIM THE OPPOSITE... 'remedy' I developed trying to simulate FRED COUPLES' swing...it was a SLIGHT exaggeration for effect. I would have 'normalized' his backswing over time, but he (and RA) stuck with it and now it as part of the package.

There are dozens of reasons why it works for David and for others that I have taught the same thing to.

One of which is you can DROP IT on plane. You can't do that from a flat backswing or even as much from a noraml one...

The other benifits....I'll leave it for ya'll to figure out...;)

Posted - 06/03/2004 : 12:55:09
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remember!

go left of the wall as you rotate...

hip then hands then clubhead




Followup questions. How would have 'normalized' this slightly exaggerated effect. And is the 'left of the wall via rotation the same as dual horizontal hinging?

Thanks a bunch
 
B

Brian Manzella

Administrator
I would have made David take it less outside (too late now. I didn't change it when I worked with him this year and last).

No, it is not the same as Horizontal Higing, it is what Hogan did.....he swung LEFT!

......past the ball...;)
 
D

DDL

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quote:Originally posted by brianman

I would have made David take it less outside (too late now. I didn't change it when I worked with him this year and last).

No, it is not the same as Horizontal Higing, it is what Hogan did.....he swung LEFT!

......past the ball...;)
Click to expand...

Is that a curved or bending plane line? On the BS, my hands are in front of my backpocket line and above my head. By swinging left, my hands would go behind my backpocket line when my hands are not yet at shoulder height. Doesn't this promote and outside in swing? I used to swing left , unintentionally, but steepened my post impact plane to match the position of my hands on the BS and pre-impact DS. At the beginning of the DS, should I be thinking to myself to swing left?
 
B

Brian Manzella

Administrator
Think about this:

The left ARM goes down and out to low point...

BUT! ...If LOW POINT is where the left arm bottoms out, but there is STILL an out-of-line condition of the clubhead at this point...

...where does the left arm go NOW?

LEFT!!!!!!

EVEN THOUGH the clubhead is STILL going down and out.

Ben Hogan style!
 
D

DDL

New
Thanks. I'm off to the range, so something for me to munch on.

BTW, that up the wall down the wall resulted in perhaps my best mid iron striking ever. Yesterday, I used the Manzella grip, which seemed to correct the hook for the most part. Feels strange, but at the same time, feels oh so right. I had slipped into a strong grip after reading the Martee makeover. My 'natural' grip is super strong. With my arms hanging down, the back of my hands face almost directly away from my face.

However ,I completely lost my driver swing for 2 days (nothing but popups, shanks, chips, barely anything went past 40 yds), which I 'fixed' by upper body sway control via ACC.#4.
UTWDTW is pretty potent. Too potent perhaps.
Thanks again!!
 
D

DDL

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quote:Originally posted by brianman

Too potent??
Click to expand...


G'Morning:

Made my driver swing too erratic without the swing hard left part. I started swaying my upper body, and only recently detected a reverse tilt. That UTWDTW and worked very well when I swung left with the driver. I don't understand why, but it worked. I setup in impact hands position, and hip interference wasn't a problem since my hands were far enough away from my body. I took the wedges up the wall, left wrist cocked a bit, right wrist fell asleep, swung the wedges down the wall, then I just took a lucky guess,( felt like it was the correct time to do it), and swung hard left. Pow!!

Flight was similar to a southpaw's pitch that starts slightly outside the strike zone, then breaks sharply to catch the outside corner of the plate as the ump punches out the batter caught looking at strike three. Well that was what was going through my head at the time.


COuldn't make it work for my short and mid irons. More to work on this morning.
 
D

DDL

New
My hooks could have been caused by my faulty backswing pivot. Correcting the upper body reverse tilt didn't help. Only just realized I was unknowingly sliding my right hip to the right on the BS.

When I first started to rotate around my right leg, and "crack the right nut", I felt like I was sliding to the right. However, I verified in the mirror that I was only rotating so all was well for a few weeks. TOnight as USC was kicking OU's butt, I checked out my hip action in the mirror. Uh oh. That sliding feeling had 'normalized' , and to continue to achieve that feeling, my hips were now actually sliding to the right along with the rotation. Now a proper BS rotation sans slide should NOT feel like sliding as it once did.

A couple of good things occured while I didn't address my faulty pivot. I relearned the neutral/weak grip, which solidifies the structure and aids the monitoring functions of the wedges. Also ,by practicing swinging to the left, I am now able to actually finish on my left heel. Now I need to wine and dine the ground. My relationship with the ground needs work.
 
D

DDL

New
Is this UYW DTW swing left supposed to only be hook therapy, or an actual swing method? This works great for the driver, but not for the irons. Results in loss of power and compression. If I take my hands more inside, up the plane in stead of up the wall, I get better results with the irons. Had worked great for a while with the mid iron, but no longer.

Thanks again
 
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