Progress - Midsole Pitch - FINALLY, I GOT IT!!!

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d0n

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I was going to wait till this weekend to make my first update BUT I'm so excited I thought I'd share with you all... :D

I got personal instruction from Brian last week on "how" to do the midsole pitch. I actually seemed to get it last week but I honestly didn't know how I was doing it. It's pretty easy with Brian standing over your shoulder. Both of my trips to the range this week resulted in me NOT being able to recreate the pitch. Today at the range I figured out how to recreate it on my own. After I got it, I just started plopping balls right up on the practice green with a full length swing from all different distances - even as close as 20'. No divots, no roll outs, no duffs, no jamming the clubface into the ground, no opening the clubface, no opening my stance, NO sliding the clubface under the ball.... From 50 yards I had the ball dancing sideways. I didn't even have to think about it, I just thought about how hard I needed to swing the club to get the ball where I wanted it. It's freaking magic! Another two weeks of practice and I might have to go on tour... :D
 
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d0n

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I kind of got a little help/reminder. I read this post earlier and remembered "I have the friends video," so I went and watched it again. Nothing really struck me watching the video but it reminded me of a couple of things. When I got the range I just started experimenting and I put all the parts together, remembered how things were supposed to feel, and it just started happening. It's really hard to explain the steps, it was a lot more about remembering how things were supposed to feel. The main thing I was doing wrong - I wasn't using the bounce rather i was using the leading edge (lots of forward press on the handle through impact.) It was causing me to chunk up the ground and the ball was rolling out too far. The other thing that REALLY helped, I started trusting myself to make a full backswing and control how hard I swung on the downswing.

Again, it's hard for me to put the "what I did" into words. Brian showed me a LOT of stuff last week and I'm still digesting a lot of it. I thought I forgot 3/4's of the stuff (there was SO much information) but the things I can't remember seem to resurface when I'm practicing. It's like "oh yea I need to do this" or "when that happens it's because I did this."

I've got almost every Manzella video and none of them were as valuable as getting a day of instruction from Brian. With that being said, after the day of instruction the videos are a lot more valuable! They are the closest thing I have to having my session recorded and they make a LOT more sense to me now.
 
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d0n

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curtisj76 said:
Hells bells, I thought you slid the clubface under the ball for a "midsole pitch". Back to the drawing board!
Click to expand...

Oh no, I'm talking about opening the face and literally sliding the clubface under the ball - as in the the clubface digs under the ball, BARELY touches the ball and the ball barely moves from it's location or only goes 1/4 of the planned distance.

I could dig some serious trenches...
 
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Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
Simply put, instead of taking a divot with the leading edge of the sole take a divot with the middle of the sole. Only way to do this is to have a more "soft impact" which deadens the ball speed.
 
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teris

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Jim, sorry to be dense, but what is "soft impact"? Is this pitch shot accomplished with a bit of throwaway? No forward lean at impact? Thanks for the info!
 
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welshdentist

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If you have access to an impact board they use for custom fitting, it's great for feeling the midsole hit rather than the leading edge
 
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