One reason why the golf swing is so difficult is that many golfers do not have a good idea from one day to the next just exactly how they swing the club. They often rely on the groove they got into last time at the range, but the move they thought was The Difference can't be found the next time out. Now what?
You would have to have daily lessons and daily practice to remember every detail in your golf swing and know just what to do to correct yourself when something goes wrong. The best bet for a recreational golfer is to remember how to perform five critical parts of the swing and just work on performing them the same way every time. If so, what happens in between has to be happening the same way, too.
The five parts of the swing to remember are: the takeaway, the end of the backswing, the start of the downswing, impact, and the finish.
Takeaway defines your club path and the plane of your backswing. The end of the backswing is the furthest limit of your being able to feel that the clubhead is still connected to the ball. The start of the downswing can be led in many ways, but never with your hands. Impact is, of course, impact, but it is a dynamic position, one of moving through, not of arriving at, a spot. The finish is where this all leads to. When the finish is right, likely everything that came before it was, too.
You can practice each one of these positions separately. The task is to memorize what each one feels like, installing the feeling into our subconscious awareness so that the movements in between will automatically seek the next position. When you play, you could take a slow practice swing to rehearse hitting all the right feelings.
Good golf is not played by having a great swing. It's played by making your best swing more often. Learning these five basic positions, given a fundamentally sound grip, stance, posture, and alignment, will take care of that.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Long Irons
I get a few ideas for what to write about in this space from the keywords that people use to find it. Lately there have been a few searches concerning long irons. I give you from today's list:
faster swing speed with long irons
how far do you hit a 4-iron
anyone play gi irons in their long irons?
These are good questions that deserve good answers. Most of us feel comfortable up to about 160 yards and then from 200 yards and up. It's that gap that we find difficult to fill. We're still trying to hit the ball a selected distance, and straight, and that's not easy for a recreational golfer to do.
You have two options in terms of equipment -- long irons or hybrid irons. Long irons were what I grew up playing with. Iron sets came 2-9. The pitching wedge was a separate purchase. In those days, instruction books had sections, and golf magazines had tips, on how to hit your long irons. There were as many of those articles then as there are "How to get out of a bunker" articles today. They were the clubs recreational golfers just couldn't get off the ground or hit the distance advertised.
It's the same thing today. Long irons are still hard to hit. I can hit a good shot with my 4-iron about two out of three times, with my 3-iron about one out of three times, and my 2-iron is strictly to be hit off a tee. At least that's what I would have said if you had asked me eight years ago.
I went to a Ben Hogan demo day at my driving range and tried out one of these new hybrid clubs. I borrowed a 3. The first ball I hit, with no expectations, was as good as any 3-iron shot I had ever hit. Same thing for the next two balls. Three rockets in a row. I needed no more convincing, and a few weeks later bought a 2, 3, and 4 Ben Hogan hybrid, which I still use in addition to the 5 which I picked up three years ago.
So let's get to those questions.
faster swing speed with long irons -- you definitely need a high swing speed to hit these clubs well. If your drives carry about 250 yards, that's 250 in the air, not air plus roll equals 250, then you have enough swing speed for a long iron to give you its due. You don't swing faster with a long iron. You swing with what you have. If you don't have it with your driver, you don't have it period.
how far do you hit a 4-iron -- as far as I hit my 4-hybrid, but not nearly as often.
anyone play gi irons in their long irons? -- honestly, if you use gi irons, you don't have a long iron swing.
Sometimes I take my long irons to the range and hit them just for fun, but I would never play with them. There's no reason for you to, either, not when you can use clubs that are so easy to hit it's almost cheating.
faster swing speed with long irons
how far do you hit a 4-iron
anyone play gi irons in their long irons?
These are good questions that deserve good answers. Most of us feel comfortable up to about 160 yards and then from 200 yards and up. It's that gap that we find difficult to fill. We're still trying to hit the ball a selected distance, and straight, and that's not easy for a recreational golfer to do.
You have two options in terms of equipment -- long irons or hybrid irons. Long irons were what I grew up playing with. Iron sets came 2-9. The pitching wedge was a separate purchase. In those days, instruction books had sections, and golf magazines had tips, on how to hit your long irons. There were as many of those articles then as there are "How to get out of a bunker" articles today. They were the clubs recreational golfers just couldn't get off the ground or hit the distance advertised.
It's the same thing today. Long irons are still hard to hit. I can hit a good shot with my 4-iron about two out of three times, with my 3-iron about one out of three times, and my 2-iron is strictly to be hit off a tee. At least that's what I would have said if you had asked me eight years ago.
I went to a Ben Hogan demo day at my driving range and tried out one of these new hybrid clubs. I borrowed a 3. The first ball I hit, with no expectations, was as good as any 3-iron shot I had ever hit. Same thing for the next two balls. Three rockets in a row. I needed no more convincing, and a few weeks later bought a 2, 3, and 4 Ben Hogan hybrid, which I still use in addition to the 5 which I picked up three years ago.
So let's get to those questions.
faster swing speed with long irons -- you definitely need a high swing speed to hit these clubs well. If your drives carry about 250 yards, that's 250 in the air, not air plus roll equals 250, then you have enough swing speed for a long iron to give you its due. You don't swing faster with a long iron. You swing with what you have. If you don't have it with your driver, you don't have it period.
how far do you hit a 4-iron -- as far as I hit my 4-hybrid, but not nearly as often.
anyone play gi irons in their long irons? -- honestly, if you use gi irons, you don't have a long iron swing.
Sometimes I take my long irons to the range and hit them just for fun, but I would never play with them. There's no reason for you to, either, not when you can use clubs that are so easy to hit it's almost cheating.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Belly Putters - Part II
When Keegan Bradley won the PGA last summer and used a belly putter, and Webb Simpson won twice with the same, the BP controversy erupted. Everybody had an opinion about the long stick, and I wrote the definitive piece myself. In the December 2011 Golf Digest, there is a huge section about the pros and cons of "unconventional" putting.
The people who say that anchoring the putter to your body in some way, "Just isn't golf," are probably just upset because they didn't try it themselves sooner. I don't mind if you anchor the putter. If you want to get a long driver and anchor that, fine with me.
We don't anchor the club we swing because if you want to hit the ball a long ways, you have to wind the club around your body and unwind it back around so you can give the ball a good whack. That's physics, and that will not change because there's no other way a human can hit the ball a long way.
On the putting green, though, you're not trying to hit the ball a long way. You're trying to coax the ball across a manicured surface into the hole. Winding the club around you isn't the swing model that applies here. Why would anyone think it should? Why would anyone think that because you have to hit a 5-iron in a particular way, that you automatically have to hit a completely different shot using a miniature version of that same way?
Another argument you hear is that the belly putter gives the players who use it an unfair advantage. Over . . . ?? Players who don't use one? Then they should use one!
All the grousing comes down to tradition. Ah, tradition. The way we have always done it. It was good enough for me, so there's no reason to change things. What about the records.
Well, there is only one tradition in golf. That is, you hit a ball sitting on the ground with a stick, with your own effort, until the ball goes into a hole. Period. As long as that doesn't change, it's golf.
Let's not forget that more than fifty percent of putting comes down to how you use your mind. People who think that a different style will revolutionize putting are neglecting the power of the mind in playing good golf. Which would help you sink more putts -- a different club, or more confidence?
All the grousing over the belly putter neglects that first fundamental. You can belly putt all you want, but if your mind gets agitated on the green, I'll beat you one-handed with my Bullseye.
The people who say that anchoring the putter to your body in some way, "Just isn't golf," are probably just upset because they didn't try it themselves sooner. I don't mind if you anchor the putter. If you want to get a long driver and anchor that, fine with me.
We don't anchor the club we swing because if you want to hit the ball a long ways, you have to wind the club around your body and unwind it back around so you can give the ball a good whack. That's physics, and that will not change because there's no other way a human can hit the ball a long way.
On the putting green, though, you're not trying to hit the ball a long way. You're trying to coax the ball across a manicured surface into the hole. Winding the club around you isn't the swing model that applies here. Why would anyone think it should? Why would anyone think that because you have to hit a 5-iron in a particular way, that you automatically have to hit a completely different shot using a miniature version of that same way?
Another argument you hear is that the belly putter gives the players who use it an unfair advantage. Over . . . ?? Players who don't use one? Then they should use one!
All the grousing comes down to tradition. Ah, tradition. The way we have always done it. It was good enough for me, so there's no reason to change things. What about the records.
Well, there is only one tradition in golf. That is, you hit a ball sitting on the ground with a stick, with your own effort, until the ball goes into a hole. Period. As long as that doesn't change, it's golf.
Let's not forget that more than fifty percent of putting comes down to how you use your mind. People who think that a different style will revolutionize putting are neglecting the power of the mind in playing good golf. Which would help you sink more putts -- a different club, or more confidence?
All the grousing over the belly putter neglects that first fundamental. You can belly putt all you want, but if your mind gets agitated on the green, I'll beat you one-handed with my Bullseye.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Ball Position
This variable is so critical to hitting your best shot and it is so easy to get right. Along with grip and aim, getting ball position right makes the difference between success and failure before you even start your swing. You can get everything else right but if the ball is in the wrong position for your swing you will only hit a weak, glancing blow and be robbed of your full power.
There are two dimensions to ball position -- how far it is away from you, and where it sits forward or back of the center of your stance. Figure out how far away the ball should be by setting up without a ball. Swing a few times and watch where the top of the club flashes past you toward the target. That is where your swing delivers the clubhead, and that is where the ball goes. Simple.
The forward and back matter is also easily resolved. Harvey Penick told us in his Little Red Book that all you have to do is pick up the club, take your grip and stance, and set the clubhead down on the ground. It will go by itself to the right place. Try it. Pick up your 7-iron, take your grip, get into your stance and lower the club to the ground. It will probably land in the center of your stance, midway between your left foot and your right.
Now do the same thing with a 3-iron. I would bet that if you do nothing to influence the outcome, the club will land about two balls in front of center -- about halfway between the center of your stance and the inside edge of your left heel. You have read that longer clubs need to be played progressively closer to your left heel, but you were never sure how close. This method shows you.
Remember, don't take this little detail for granted. Ball position is a critical element of good ball-striking. Get it right before you make any stroke at the ball.
There are two dimensions to ball position -- how far it is away from you, and where it sits forward or back of the center of your stance. Figure out how far away the ball should be by setting up without a ball. Swing a few times and watch where the top of the club flashes past you toward the target. That is where your swing delivers the clubhead, and that is where the ball goes. Simple.
The forward and back matter is also easily resolved. Harvey Penick told us in his Little Red Book that all you have to do is pick up the club, take your grip and stance, and set the clubhead down on the ground. It will go by itself to the right place. Try it. Pick up your 7-iron, take your grip, get into your stance and lower the club to the ground. It will probably land in the center of your stance, midway between your left foot and your right.
Now do the same thing with a 3-iron. I would bet that if you do nothing to influence the outcome, the club will land about two balls in front of center -- about halfway between the center of your stance and the inside edge of your left heel. You have read that longer clubs need to be played progressively closer to your left heel, but you were never sure how close. This method shows you.
Remember, don't take this little detail for granted. Ball position is a critical element of good ball-striking. Get it right before you make any stroke at the ball.
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