Lack of updates

I have got away from writing for the blog.

Honestly speaking the shanks have hit me bad this past month and have to a large extent sucked the joy out of my golf.  I played in a winter qualifying comp on the 27^th March and the shanks cost me 6 shots, I had 5 of them with one going into a water hazard for a penalty. In all I scored 91 in that comp or 40 points as it was Stableford, but due to the winter CSS being 66 I got no cut L

I’m due to play the first monthly medal on Saturday, but I’m playing like a tool at the moment so I have low expectations. Apart from that I’m trying with the help of a camera to figure out how to stop shanking. Until that happens (if ever) I doubt there will be many updates from me.

Drills and hitting balls.

I decided on going to the range today and probably will be using it a lot more in the short term, despite my dislike of hitting from the mats. Right now I have to concentrate on drills to groove specific swing motions and repeat them time and again, not caring where the ball ends up to much, just how it flies. At the pitch n’ putt, I can only hit 5 maybe 10 balls, before I have to go find them and you end up trying to remember where the balls ended rather than what you’re supposed to be doing. Also, now I’m coming into the ball from the inside the impact on the range mat is less jarring on my elbow; anyway, at this time it feels like the right place to practice.

I have a list of drills to work though, well two lists actually, an inside list and an outside list. The first is doing positional stuff like grip and set up, takeaway that I can do at home. The second list has those drills that require space or a ball to be hit.

So on the range I think I made a break through by figuring something out to do with how my hips move. I have always had a straight right leg at the top of my backswing. Watching a down the line video last night of Zach Johnson I noticed that his hips move differently to mine. Whereas I move my right hip back from where it is at address, he moved his left hip in and his right hip stayed fairly static, certainly did not push backwards away from the ball like I was doing. When I checked other pro’s on video they were all the same. Although the right hip seems like it is moving back away from the ball, in fact it is not. When I copied that move with my hips, bingo! Right knee flex was maintained.

Today I tested it on the range and it does make a difference, I could use the right leg as a spring board to get over into my left side for the first time. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to figure this out but it just makes the whole down swing work more freely.

I worked mainly on wedges and on the drills I have been shown, I’m pleased to say I was killing it with my short clubs today. Solid long hits (even on half swings), It’s no exaggeration to say that today I hit my pitching wedge as far as I normally hit an 8 iron. I’m going to continue to work on getting that solid strike and leverage, moving onto my mid irons and eventually all clubs.

Exciting times for me.

Touch versus technique

To someone who does not know me it could seam that I put in a large amount of practice time without much disenable improvement? This is a thought that crossed my own mind the other night. However having spent some time thinking about it I would say that’s a slightly incorrect assessment. My scores may not be tumbling much at the moment, and despite all the practice my short game & putting touch can be way off. But I think the reason is down to the type of practice I have been doing over the past two months. It has all been very much technique focussed. I feel I have hugely improved my chipping and pitching technique, my swing is on the way to a big and lasting improvement. And my putting stroke is solid.

Soon I will have to decide when to switch the emphasis to target and touch practice rather than mechanical practice. I believe that there has to be a distinction between these types of practice. Once you get into scoring mode you need to just forget about the technique totally, trust whatever swing you have and focus only on the job of getting the ball in the hole as efficiently as possible.

Medal comps are fast approaching, do I continue to work on swing technique into comp season or do I switch focus now in time to develop some feel for the short game before the first Medal?

Where did the winter go? I was going to practice so hard and in the end wasted months doing other non-Golf stuff.

Well, having invested in my big lesson and swing change I’m committed now to work on it, for better or worse to my comp scores.

New swing test

I went out and played 11 holes, the first thing to say is that it's hard to score when your thinking about your swing, my putter was cold and my short game pitching was tentative. The iron game was almost all solid strikes (one huge fat duff on a down hill lie), but I did not have the same control over my ball or my distance as I did on the range. I alternated between straight shots and draws, Then the woods need a lot of work to sort out a big slinging hook. Still, I'm happy with the ball striking, and I know touch on the course will come with playing more. It must be progress when your not happy with only 3 pars out of 11 holes.

In the practice net afterwards I worked out another piece of the swing puzzle and started flushing it with my pitching wedge. I think I will need to hit balls in the nets and at the driving range for a while just to work on swing stuff without worrying about where the ball went.

11 holes
Score 51, 8 over par.
44% fairways hit.
3/11 GiR
21 putt's (1.91/hole - 2.33/GiR)
Penalties 0

Dan Whittaker lesson review.

So about my lesson the other day with Dan Whittaker. Well to start with I was initially a wee bit concerned that a 4 hour lesson would be over kill, perhaps not good value for money, I mean what if I did not get along with the guy?

In hindsight I need not have worried. It was worth every penny and I could have spent another few hours there with Dan quite happily. Although I was tired afterwards, that was as much mental tiredness as physical because there was a lot to take in.

The day started with me warming up and Dan filming a few swings from different angles and we talked about my game. I was hitting the ball OK so was quite interested to see what he would say. We then went up to the teaching studio and got to work. I was very happy to see that everything we did was recorded and that I was to be given a copy of the lesson to study afterwards. This is a critical thing because there is no way you could remember everything over the two hours we spent working to understand my swing,what needed to change, why and how.

The first thing was my grip. It was full of holes and not functioning as a unit, Dan correctly predicted the wear on gloves that I get, he also recommended thicker grips to suit my hands. Essentially I had to both strengthen my grip and make it one unit. As with everything Dan shows you real examples of what he wants to see via video or pictures of his students doing it. Not some pro who you can't really relate to, but real blokes who have taken lessons right there in the studio before you.

We then went onto my swing. The good news is that I do a lot of things already pretty good and not a whole lot had to change. Dan is quick to praise what's good not just pick apart the bad.

My set up and posture was hurting me badly, slightly twisting my spine angle. Because of that my right hip went high on the back swing with my straight right leg and I lost posture, pushing my upper body to much over the ball. Then in the down swing I don't transition, instead I spin out my hips, leaving weight on my right side and causing me get narrow and have to scoop the ball through impact. Seeing it clearly in slow mo was a bit of a ego killer!

Dan explained why I shank short shots, why I sometimes hit fat or thin's and why my shot shape was unpredictable.

And what do I do well? Apparently I set the club great on the back swing, on plane, layed off with width and in perfect synch with arms in front of my body at the top.

The changes I needed to make were in mainly in set-up, leg/hip work and then the big one was foot work and transitioning to my left side. When I made these changes something magical happened. I got a solid strike with visible extension through the ball and my scoop vanished.

Obviously this is a work in progress and a lot of practice is needed to make real changes, but wow just getting a bit to my left side gave me a wonderful solid, natural draw that penetrated instead of just launching airborne like before. the most amazing thing is that it feels like you actually controlled the shot rather than before when I never knew what result to expect off the club face. It's hard to explain but it feels great to think you have some real control over the ball flight.

Dan gave me a lot of drills to do to help ingrain the changes I need and the results I have already glimpsed just motivate me to do the drills and put in the work. I still have a good way to go with my swing, I'm still spinning out and leaving my arms behind, especially on short shots which can equal the dreaded shank. But I feel at last I have the knowledge and the road map to get to where I want my swing to be. And the best thing is it's not a million miles away!

A lot of stuff from Dan can be found on the Gotham Golf blog (click his name in the list of tags towards the bottom right of the blog) and on Golfwrx's instruction forum where he goes by the name  DFW1500.

I'm including a short clip from my lesson file here to give you a taste of what it is like.

Watershed lesson

Wow, what a day.

I'm really on cloud nine, because today I hit the golf ball in a totally different way, a solid compressing strike resulting in a driving penetrating, natural draw that both felt and looked class. Night and day when comparing it to my old scoopy high flying ball flight.

How did this miracle happen?

Well I had a 4 hour lesson with a great teaching pro

Not only did he explain what I was doing in my old swing, but he explained what I had to change and why along with how to change it and why! In fact the lesson was also night versus day compared to any of my other lessons from the past. I now have a 1 hour video file with my personal analysis, drills and examples on it to review at my leisure. For the first time I feel that I understand my own swing a little bit, understand why I shanked, why I had the high ball flight and what was causing me issues. Most importantly I have a clear path to work towards what is IMO a great way to hit the ball.

Damn, if I can hit it like today even half the time I will have a permanent grin on my face, not only was the strike so solid, but so in control and repeatable. I feel like I could go out and nail shot after shot almost exactly where I want it to go. Is this what single figure golfers feel like? I hope so :)

I'm still getting my head around all that has happened today, but as a taster, this is a slow mo of a 7iron after the instruction.

Swing and the short game

Best quote by a teaching pro I have ever read is this;

    'The best approach to improvement is to combine your swing practice with your short game work. 'The vast majority of swing work can be done with a sand wedge. You use the same swing motion with a wedge as all clubs, just with a different set up. If you cannot flight a sand wedge properly with consistent divots, trajectory and solidness then what makes you think you can hit a five iron better? Learn to work on things in your golf swing with a sand wedge. Become proficient at adjusting the set up to hit a knock down, then hit a floater, then a cut spinner, then a knock down draw, etc. If you can do it with a sand wedge you can do it with a driver.'



This philosophy is now what I'm basing my practice time on. Today was all about 40-60 yard pitch shots with a 54 degree wedge. For perhaps the first time ever I started coming into the ball from the inside and shallow. I just finally 'got it' and as a result I spent a happy 2 and a half hours just hitting magical spinning pitch shots. Controlling everything with my body turn and hips. Not even one came off the shank. and indeed I started to open my stance as the ball was pushing out slightly to the right instead of  the left :D

In another development I have contacted the new golf pro I mentioned in my last post and arranged to spend 4 hours with him on Friday. This will be a very expensive investment in my swing, but I'm content that it will be money better spent long term than getting new equipment. I'm very interested to work with him and intrigued to see what I bring away from such a long time under personal instruction.

Swing model

There has been no update to the blog in the last few days because I have been doing quite a bit of research, reading and watching video about different swing methodologies.

All this has been kicked off from my last lesson and the recurrence of shank city in my short game practice.

In hindsight I think I have made a mistake in using so many different pro’s for lessons, and using all of them without understanding where their teaching was coming from in terms of swing philosophies.

One of the reasons for this is my deep distrust of fad methods and pigeonholing myself with one kind of golf swing. Therefore I have always passed over discussions about stack and tilt, one plane swings, etc…

However as part of my last lesson the pro suggested that I read up on various methods and get more ownership about what I’m trying to achieve.

It seems I have been taught elements of different swing methodologies by different pro’s that don’t always go hand in hand. To be fair to the pro’s they often only saw me for half an hour, one time so they obviously tried to do the best with what they had.

Having looked at my swing it has natural elements that I think will fit most easily into a rotary swing model. Flattish backswing and especially a release low and left. I also now see that I have spent months fighting this by trying to restrict my right hip turn on the back swing and by sway loading back and bumping weight forward.

The other aspects leading me towards this swing philosophy is that one of its top instructors is based near Manchester not more than an hour and a half away. There is also an abundance of online video and literature dedicated to this swing, complete with common sense drills that can be practiced easily. The final clincher is that when trying it last night at the practice ground I was finding the centre of the club face instead of the heal!

I’m not taking this step lightly because it’s sure to need a lot of work that will stop me playing as much for fun this year, but I’m just still so inconstant in my swing that I think I need commit to one teaching method and understand what I’m working to achieve.

Basically the action I’m going to work on is a modern rotary swing like Hogan, Hunter Mahan, Matteo Manassero.

I’m still wading through tones of instruction info on this swing and how to learn it, so for the time being that’s almost all I’ll say about it. Apart from that my practice time while I begin to learn will continue to be based around short shots on the Pitch n Putt.

Working it out in the dirt

Just back from a late lunch time at my other office the PnP.

Earlier I had been thinking about swing plane and why I swing through flat left and why I sometimes over balance forward.

Swinging a club in practice with no ball I started by trying to keep better balance and making my arms naturally release more down the line than inside the line. I found that the way to make my arms naturally release more down the target line was making my left hip turn a  touch more aggressive and getting my weight to finish over my left heal on a straight left knee rather than on the ball of my left foot. It really counteracted my tendency to lean to much forward in the follow through and as a consequence felt like my arms were thrown out a little but the best thing was a feeling of much better balance.

I took this to the practice area and started off chipping, then pitching until I worked up to a full 7 iron.

Who knows if my timing was just good today of if I really have found a solution that will last? All I know is I don’t think I ever hit the ball better than today, my divots were much straighter, even had two that pointed a touch right. The ball was finding the middle of the club face and the ball flight was generally really straight, no shots with a lot of fade and no pulls even with my 54 degree wedge which always pulls normally. It was just a really fun ball striking session; I hope that I can replicate it next practice time.

I’m really starting to feel confident about how I’m going to play this coming year. One things for sure, getting off the range matts and onto the real grass is the best thing I could possibly have done for confidence in my play, you need to see the divot in the dirt!