I suppose this is an obvious point, but the value embedded in the old posts here is incredible.
Take me for instance.
I've had tremendous improvement this year in my abilities in many regards, but I've struggled to combine my distance and compression gains of the past year, based on learning TGM principles, with some moderate to decent Soft Draw success. At times, I thought I was on the verge of a huge jump from the 5-7 handicap level with much longer shots and much better compression to scratch, but it never quite happened for me this summer.
Pull draws kept killing me, and I felt like i just couldn't really release and take advantage of some good swing speed improvement and great compression improvement and a pattern built for me. The D-plane stuff from the two live Manzela shows was eye-opening, but I couldn't figure out how to get less lean and still hit it a decent distance with Soft Draw. I have been watching the Nicklaus Youtube videos repeatedly but couldn't get close to what he was doing in terms of basic form. I watched his videos almost every day for a month.
So two days ago I am digging around in the archives on ideas related to "pull draws." I found an old thread from "wanole" that matched all my issues - pull draws that have me shooting in 70's one day and high scores the next, I can't really do the "point" of SD pattern as I go way left on finish, i have trouble hitting push-draw. I can't figure out toss on SD. So I find an old thread here started by "wanole" that I just posted a reply to on this forum.
"Wanole" has all my issues in that thread. Various people say various things about solving issues there. Brian says maybe it is "bent plane line, stop shoulders sooner, release accumulator 4 earlier, finish with higher hands." I go to the range to try this and have one back-up plan to try (underplane fixes). I release 4 earlier and stop shoulders and think about club going up same plane it went down on. Lefts gone. Push draw in place. Tempo seems slow. This is the best I have ever hit a golf ball in my life within 30 minutes. The Nicklaus backswing thing seems to work.
I called my wife. We can't go out tonight - I have to go play golf late this afternoon, it's a golf emergency. "We'll go out tomorrow, I promise." I go play. Boom. -2 playing the tough course of the two I play. I only made the putts inside 8 feet. The best ballstriking round of my life. Only one left shot.
I thought my "left issue" of the past year was a backswing issue. It was not releasing 4 early enough and trying to rotate through impact keeping maximum pressure on pp4. Stopping my shoulders sooner and faster was what I needed and using the SD finish with high hands allowed me to go up the impact plane. ENORMOUS AND IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT.
My goal this summer was to be competitive in the open, non-pro division of my club championships. I didn't sign-up last week because i couldn't stand the thought of possibly shooting an 80 in it. It starts tomorrow. Now I wish I had signed up, but I am going to be ready next year.
Bent plane line, and too much accumulator 4. I would have never figured this out, ever, and am not sure how brian guessed this a couple years ago about "wanole." Now I also understand how follow-through plane line can be bent from downswing plane line. Mine was bent from trying to max all my accumulators and get max compression and max shaft lean: wrong approach.
Great archives. Thanks to Brian (and to "wanole").
Take me for instance.
I've had tremendous improvement this year in my abilities in many regards, but I've struggled to combine my distance and compression gains of the past year, based on learning TGM principles, with some moderate to decent Soft Draw success. At times, I thought I was on the verge of a huge jump from the 5-7 handicap level with much longer shots and much better compression to scratch, but it never quite happened for me this summer.
Pull draws kept killing me, and I felt like i just couldn't really release and take advantage of some good swing speed improvement and great compression improvement and a pattern built for me. The D-plane stuff from the two live Manzela shows was eye-opening, but I couldn't figure out how to get less lean and still hit it a decent distance with Soft Draw. I have been watching the Nicklaus Youtube videos repeatedly but couldn't get close to what he was doing in terms of basic form. I watched his videos almost every day for a month.
So two days ago I am digging around in the archives on ideas related to "pull draws." I found an old thread from "wanole" that matched all my issues - pull draws that have me shooting in 70's one day and high scores the next, I can't really do the "point" of SD pattern as I go way left on finish, i have trouble hitting push-draw. I can't figure out toss on SD. So I find an old thread here started by "wanole" that I just posted a reply to on this forum.
"Wanole" has all my issues in that thread. Various people say various things about solving issues there. Brian says maybe it is "bent plane line, stop shoulders sooner, release accumulator 4 earlier, finish with higher hands." I go to the range to try this and have one back-up plan to try (underplane fixes). I release 4 earlier and stop shoulders and think about club going up same plane it went down on. Lefts gone. Push draw in place. Tempo seems slow. This is the best I have ever hit a golf ball in my life within 30 minutes. The Nicklaus backswing thing seems to work.
I called my wife. We can't go out tonight - I have to go play golf late this afternoon, it's a golf emergency. "We'll go out tomorrow, I promise." I go play. Boom. -2 playing the tough course of the two I play. I only made the putts inside 8 feet. The best ballstriking round of my life. Only one left shot.
I thought my "left issue" of the past year was a backswing issue. It was not releasing 4 early enough and trying to rotate through impact keeping maximum pressure on pp4. Stopping my shoulders sooner and faster was what I needed and using the SD finish with high hands allowed me to go up the impact plane. ENORMOUS AND IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT.
My goal this summer was to be competitive in the open, non-pro division of my club championships. I didn't sign-up last week because i couldn't stand the thought of possibly shooting an 80 in it. It starts tomorrow. Now I wish I had signed up, but I am going to be ready next year.
Bent plane line, and too much accumulator 4. I would have never figured this out, ever, and am not sure how brian guessed this a couple years ago about "wanole." Now I also understand how follow-through plane line can be bent from downswing plane line. Mine was bent from trying to max all my accumulators and get max compression and max shaft lean: wrong approach.
Great archives. Thanks to Brian (and to "wanole").
