i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

[bill reed]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi Ian
don't know if you mean that a pro hits the ball on the sweet spot of the club face time after time after time and also with the clubhead square, this gives them a constant distance and ball flight where us high handicap players do not have that that consistence sweetspot ball striking and the ball flight and distance both vary. the big difference is in the impact zone.
bill

[Ian Hancock]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

Third time lucky


I wrote this on a previous page Twice:

I have just returned from the British Masters, I followed the winner Westwood, Monty, Sterne, Poulter and many more:

1) I pre-shot the same
2) I set-up the same
3) I use the same equipment
4) I swing on the similar plane
5) My ball position is the same
6) I use the same balls
7) I look stronger than a few, some are tall, some are short, fat and thin also..!!!

So I ask myself what is different It is there ball striking, it is so much more solid and powerfull.......?????


How is this achieved I ask myself...................3skills springs to mind.


I can believe that I have posted this note 3 times now and not one person has picked up on the meaning or the notion that this is the thinking behind the 3skills book.....................................for goodness sake ask yourself what is different between you and a pro....!!!!

Ian.

Hi Bill,

The thing is when I had a 3skills lesson with Kevin, at Arden I was instantly impressed, I'm off single figures anyway so some of this I was probably doing just not all the time etc......................the 3skills seems to take everything away and zero swing thoughts just a 'mind set' what you are going to do.

I thought long and hard at home that night and just couldn't get my head around how something so simple has not been snatched up by Butch Harmen or maybe this is there secret...!!!

Back to the masters last week I walked around with my son for 12 hours watching loads of swings, the only thing they did better than me was striking the ball, not always in the right direction but with power and crisp contact. yes they putt/chip a little better they do it for a living, but I do everything they do except hit the ball the same. Again after serious thought to this, it is the 3skills that make them different.

I suspect this is what Joe thought when he wrote his book................!!


Thanks

ian.

[BrianW]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

Third time lucky


I wrote this on a previous page Twice:

I have just returned from the British Masters, I followed the winner Westwood, Monty, Sterne, Poulter and many more:

1) I pre-shot the same
2) I set-up the same
3) I use the same equipment
4) I swing on the similar plane
5) My ball position is the same
6) I use the same balls
7) I look stronger than a few, some are tall, some are short, fat and thin also..!!!

So I ask myself what is different It is there ball striking, it is so much more solid and powerfull.......?????


How is this achieved I ask myself...................3skills springs to mind.


I can believe that I have posted this note 3 times now and not one person has picked up on the meaning or the notion that this is the thinking behind the 3skills book.....................................for goodness sake ask yourself what is different between you and a pro....!!!!

Welcome back Robin: ADI....Advanced Driving Instructor............or.........Advanced downswing Instructor.

Ian.

Hi Ian,

They earn more money and for some reason they look better in those hats as well.

Well, I just agree with what you have said there, it echos very much my own view.

Did you read my last post where I am coming round to believe that you can actually let the swing happen as long as the skills are being produced?

I spent a bit of time studying many pros swings using my VI software, it is absolutely true that they do not all swing the same but in just around every case they are executing 3Sks (I think I will use the abbreviation 3Sks now).

During my recent range sessions I have taken the length of my backswing, how I follow through (no puns please!) hip rotation etc out of my consciousness and thought only on the clubface coming down into and through impact. I am finding if I do that correctly then I cant help but make a decent swing. OK, the argument might be that I have already grooved that part of my swing but I think it's getting better all on it's own. For example, I had the feeling that I was using a limited backswing but found that the ball was going a good distance, when I asked a mate if my backswing looked cramped he said it didn't, he said it looked very good.

I have a friend who has always struggled with his short game, his pitch shots were a disaster, he had a tendency to create either horrible slices or bad pushes and tops with his wedges, it had just about ruined his confidence. Last week he was about to take part in a matchplay comp and was so wound up about his pitching he considered pulling out just before. I took him over to the practice green and spent around 20 minutes with him showing him skills 1 & 2. Without exaggeration he was getting the ball up in the air and straight, time after time. He came back from his game full of renewed confidence and ordered the book.

[Ian Hancock]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

Brian,

I have had something similar happen to my swing, I must admit this 3SKs malarky had me worried about my swing, after a video clip I was definatlely a little steeper on the backswing, I have always been a little to flat, hence hitting good shots but always quite thin.

Great story about the guy's pitching before the comp.

It does work 'that' fast.

Ian.

[bill reed]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi Brian
i have a question but you might not know or be able to help me understand? Lee Trevino hits the ball with an in-to-out swing and then pushed his hands away from the body to keep the clubface open or at least pointing down the line he wants the ball to start out. he keeps the club face looking in line longer than any other pro that i know off and as a result he is still one of the best ball strikes ever to play. can you use 3 skills with this type of swing. i mean not letting the club face close till long after impact. why i ask is thats how i play and it works really well. i had Bonnar's dvd but his (home run) would not work with my type of swing as it resulted in me hitting the ball in the same direction as my stance, ie my wide open stance and the ball would fly way to the left.
any help on any of this i would be great.
thanks again
bill

[oldwease]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi Brian
i have a question but you might not know or be able to help me understand? Lee Trevino hits the ball with an in-to-out swing and then pushed his hands away from the body to keep the clubface open or at least pointing down the line he wants the ball to start out. he keeps the club face looking in line longer than any other pro that i know off and as a result he is still one of the best ball strikes ever to play. can you use 3 skills with this type of swing. i mean not letting the club face close till long after impact. why i ask is thats how i play and it works really well. i had Bonnar's dvd but his (home run) would not work with my type of swing as it resulted in me hitting the ball in the same direction as my stance, ie my wide open stance and the ball would fly way to the left.
any help on any of this i would be great.
thanks again
bill

If I could jump in here, Bill. That wouldn't be the 3SKs since it does not apply SK2 (squaring the club face to target at the farthest point of the swing arc) or SK3 (rotating the club face through impact). Using SK2, the club head should return inside the target line immediately after impact.

[bill reed]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi oldwease
when you say, (sk2 squaring the face to target at the farthest point of the swing.) do you mean just as the club head comes in behind the ball its square and then it starts to close, sorry i don't know the difference from sk2 and sk3.
but i think i understand in that you are saying my system would not work with this system as i try and keep my club face on line after impact and not let the club head close.
do i have that right.
thanks oldwease.
bill

[BrianW]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi Brian
i have a question but you might not know or be able to help me understand? Lee Trevino hits the ball with an in-to-out swing and then pushed his hands away from the body to keep the clubface open or at least pointing down the line he wants the ball to start out. he keeps the club face looking in line longer than any other pro that i know off and as a result he is still one of the best ball strikes ever to play. can you use 3 skills with this type of swing. i mean not letting the club face close till long after impact. why i ask is thats how i play and it works really well. i had Bonnar's dvd but his (home run) would not work with my type of swing as it resulted in me hitting the ball in the same direction as my stance, ie my wide open stance and the ball would fly way to the left.
any help on any of this i would be great.
thanks again
bill

Bill,

Something that is pressed home very loud and clear in 3SKs is that there are no straight lines in the golf swing, the clubface should approach from the inside then pass to the inside, squaring only at impact. This is Skill 2. think of a nail in a piece of wood, the hammer would take a path that rotates from the inside towards the nail then squares only at the point of impact.

The system does teach to hit a draw so that the ball should be hit out to the right by varying degrees as the club gets longer. Skill 3 allows the clubface to approach with an open face and follow with a closing face, this will create effortless power to the shot and generate the draw.

I hope this helps you.

[bill reed]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

thanks Brian
yes it does help, you have explained what i did think about it but was not to sure if i was right. with my (Trevino's) system, the point of off doing it is to keep the face looking at the target longer and that way giving you more chance to hit the ball with the sweet spot.
thanks for taking the time to help me understand more about 3 skills and like Ian says most pros do swing in the manner you describe. look forward to hearing how well you all are doing with this system.
cheers
bill

[oldwease]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi oldwease
when you say, (sk2 squaring the face to target at the farthest point of the swing.) do you mean just as the club head comes in behind the ball its square and then it starts to close, sorry i don't know the difference from sk2 and sk3.
but i think i understand in that you are saying my system would not work with this system as i try and keep my club face on line after impact and not let the club head close.
do i have that right.
thanks oldwease.
bill

Yes, that's it Bill.

If you think of SK2 as looking down from above the swing arc, on the downswing, the clubhead traces it's arc and is inside the target line (on which the ball is sitting) - so, the classic in to out path. The target line basically forms a tangent with the swing arc so the clubhead meets the ball whilst tracing out its natural arc (at the farthest point on the arc, if you will). The clubface would naturally start to square up at that point. Since the club head stays on the arc, after impact, it starts to move inside the target line once again.

SK3 adds clubface rotation to the natural arc of the swing, going from open to closed.

I must say, this is something which I've always thought adds a lot of power to the shot, probably because there's a lot of built-in lag in there. If you want to try that, think of rotating the wrists rather than the arms. I know the wrist is fixed in terms of rotation to the arms but it's really the lower arm you want to rotate, not to get a trigger by flipping the right elbow or something like that.

[bill reed]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

thanks old wease
i understand now its a bit like ag boners home run where you get the extra distance and power from the opening to closing of the face at impact.
thanks again
bil

[bill reed]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi
golf is a easy game made more complicated by to many instruction and swing thought. all other sports you don't think about any of it like the way we are told to do in golf, the way you say 3 skills frees the mind of the many thoughts has to be a good thing and can only help you gain confidence in what your doing without having to think about it.
bill

[ubizmo]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi
golf is a easy game made more complicated by to many instruction and swing thought. all other sports you don't think about any of it like the way we are told to do in golf, the way you say 3 skills frees the mind of the many thoughts has to be a good thing and can only help you gain confidence in what your doing without having to think about it.
bill

I agree that if you can get rid of many thoughts, it's a good thing. But it's a definite "if". I can't agree that it's easy. If it were easy, we wouldn't need all the instruction and swing thoughts to begin with. If it were easy, we'd all just pick up clubs and start striking the ball cleanly and accurately from the gitgo. But we don't. I think there are a few "naturals" who strike the ball well from the time they first pick up a club, but I don't think there are many.

I'm also not sure that there are no parallels in other sports. I never played any team sports, but I did some recreational downhill skiing when I was a teenager. There too, there are some "naturals" who just get on skis and go flying down the mountain. The rest of us have to learn skiing "mechanics", i.e., how to use our legs, how not to "throw an edge," how to shift our weight in turns, and so on.

I learned some very important things from Joe Hagen's book. First and foremost, I learned what really matters in ball-striking: the three skills, especially the first two. I learned that it's important to have a clear and accurate understanding of what has to happen when the club strikes the ball, including the often overlooked truth that there are no straight lines in the golf swing. And I learned that swing mechanics only matter to the extent that they promote or interfere with the three skills, and there is so single or "right" way to implement the three skills.

However, I've also learned some things that are not stressed in the book. First, if I'm not making progress with one of the skills, merely repeating a drill badly executed will not fix it. I've learned that visualizing the correct "nail it" impact may be necessary for good ball striking, but it isn't sufficient. And I've learned that if I relax my vigilance, old faults come right back.

[Ian Hancock]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

hi Brian
i have a question but you might not know or be able to help me understand? Lee Trevino hits the ball with an in-to-out swing and then pushed his hands away from the body to keep the clubface open or at least pointing down the line he wants the ball to start out. he keeps the club face looking in line longer than any other pro that i know off and as a result he is still one of the best ball strikes ever to play. can you use 3 skills with this type of swing. i mean not letting the club face close till long after impact. why i ask is thats how i play and it works really well. i had Bonnar's dvd but his (home run) would not work with my type of swing as it resulted in me hitting the ball in the same direction as my stance, ie my wide open stance and the ball would fly way to the left.
any help on any of this i would be great.
thanks again
bill

Hi Bill,

I hope this is an open question now, and I think I have the answer:

Trevino, Monty and Singh hit a power fade, there are many tour player who hit this and it is a result of the 3SKs, the only difference being they approach the ball ever so slightly down the line as appose to coming from the inside..........this is exactly why there are so many different swings on tour, I have mentioned before, Furyk, Sabatini, Monty, Jimenez, Pampling, Couples all have many variations of backswing, set-up and strange manorisims..........they all get into the same position on the downswing then apply the 3SKs.

They still rotate the clubface for effortless power, it is the initial contact with ball and clubface that dictate the direction, with the above it just happens to be slightly down the line.........................thats all any pro does when he wants to hit a fade into a green or down a fairway.

Hope this helps,


Ian.

[Ian Hancock]

Re: i used the 3 skills and nailed it!

I've learned that if I relax my vigilance, old faults come right back.

Todd,

I suspect this is your problem, clearly here you are still concerned with your swing and not simply following the 3SKs instruction, how else would you know old swing faults are coming back.

You know if your doing it properly by ball flight alone so you are not practicing the wrong thing.

You must let go and give it a chance...................If it doesn't work then try going back to basics, maybe, just maybe you are no ready for the 3SKs.

Ian.