5-minute lesson

[ubizmo]

I went to the practice range this morning, to work with the driver a bit. My irons have been working well, but drives still tend to go...anywhere. I experimented with various things, but didn't feel I was making progress. I wasn't swinging outside in, but I still wasn't squaring up the club, it seems.

I got a soda and when I got back, there was this guy standing around. He was a skinny guy, with a couple days' growth of whiskers, matted hair that looked like he had slept in the parking lot, disheveled clothes, and a cigarette hanging from his lip. He said to me "Imagine how that ball would go if you hit it square."

I said, "Well, yeah."

He said, "You'd have better luck if you slow it down. Show me your slow motion swing."

I did that, and he said "You call that slow motion? I mean like this.." and he picked up my club, put a ball on the tee, and took a long slow swing and hit it about 250 yards. Then he said "Try that."

So I did. I hit a straight ball, about 230, carry.

He said, "Your swing ain't bad, but you sure need to slow it way down. Even that one was a little quick, but it wasn't bad."

So I did a few more, and he said, "Slower."

I swung like I was underwater, or so it felt. Another straight shot...farther this time. A few more, and I was out of balls. The guys said to me, "Well if you ever want a lesson just let me know, I'll help you out."

I asked for his card or number or something, and he fumbled around and said, "Well you can find me here most days." I realized he probably doesn't have a phone.

So that was my lesson from what appeared to be a homeless golf instructor.

[snowman]

Re: 5-minute lesson

I went to the practice range this morning, to work with the driver a bit. My irons have been working well, but drives still tend to go...anywhere. I experimented with various things, but didn't feel I was making progress. I wasn't swinging outside in, but I still wasn't squaring up the club, it seems.

I got a soda and when I got back, there was this guy standing around. He was a skinny guy, with a couple days' growth of whiskers, matted hair that looked like he had slept in the parking lot, disheveled clothes, and a cigarette hanging from his lip. He said to me "Imagine how that ball would go if you hit it square."

I said, "Well, yeah."

He said, "You'd have better luck if you slow it down. Show me your slow motion swing."

I did that, and he said "You call that slow motion? I mean like this.." and he picked up my club, put a ball on the tee, and took a long slow swing and hit it about 250 yards. Then he said "Try that."

So I did. I hit a straight ball, about 230, carry.

He said, "Your swing ain't bad, but you sure need to slow it way down. Even that one was a little quick, but it wasn't bad."

So I did a few more, and he said, "Slower."

I swung like I was underwater, or so it felt. Another straight shot...farther this time. A few more, and I was out of balls. The guys said to me, "Well if you ever want a lesson just let me know, I'll help you out."

I asked for his card or number or something, and he fumbled around and said, "Well you can find me here most days." I realized he probably doesn't have a phone.

So that was my lesson from what appeared to be a homeless golf instructor.

When you go back and ask the guy handing out the balls he'll say, "that sounds like old Bill, but he died 10 years ago......."

An icy chill will come over you as it slowly dawns on you that you received a lesson from a ghost instructor, haunting the driving range that gipped him all those years ago, curing slices to teach the local pros a lesson and run them out of business......

All joking aside, that sounds great and I will give that a try on my next outing. I am struggling with a push-slice at the moment and it could be that I am trying to belt the ball and casting etc.

[bulldog2k]

Re: 5-minute lesson

When you go back and ask the guy handing out the balls he'll say, "that sounds like old Bill, but he died 10 years ago......."

An icy chill will come over you as it slowly dawns on you that you received a lesson from a ghost instructor, haunting the driving range that gipped him all those years ago, curing slices to teach the local pros a lesson and run them out of business......

LOL! Like it, Snowman

[Ian Hancock]

Re: 5-minute lesson

A great story Todd,

Even if he was a homeless guy, he still showed you some charity.

You can't buy this game or rich people would all be off scratch.


Ian.

[takinitdeep]

Re: 5-minute lesson

Slower is always better but also make sure you are standing far enough from the ball to swing out. Many slicers/pushers suffer from standing too close to clear at impact and wind up hitting out to in just to get to the ball.
Many have found that especially with driver they do better at address with the toe of the club about mid ball.

[bill reed]

Re: 5-minute lesson

hi takinitdeep
I'm with you about taking it slow, i think you can find your timing better and hit the ball cleaner too. one other think i see with the guy's that tends to hit the ball with a slice/push is that there right elbow moves away from there hip rather than dropping in behind the hip, if you slice then try and keep the elbow near the right hip on the downswing and you tend to come in more in to out that if you let the elbow fly away from the hip.
bill

[BrianW]

Re: 5-minute lesson

For distance you should swing the club as fast as you can whilst maintaining control of the clubface through impact. If you can only control the clubface at slow speed then that's how you should swing. You should be able to increase this speed as your ball contact becomes repeatable but not such that you loose balance or control.

[takinitdeep]

Re: 5-minute lesson

The point I was trying(unsucessfully) to make was that by standing too close to the ball1. a person will swing out to in in order to hit the ball and, 2. sometimes will pull up and out of the shot due to crowding the ball.
Th, th, th,That's all folks!

sliceing maybe, but not pushing... pushing is an in to out path with the club face square to that path (being slightly open in reference to if there was a sqaure in to in path)

slice is not always from an out to in path. i am assuiming that snow had a slight slice (open face with square path),and tried to fix it listening to the bad advice of swing more in to out which is why he now has a slice push. if that was the case go back to your old swing with a square path and learn to get your clubface square at impact.

or maybe snow did have and out to in path with a very open face which cause the ball to start left a little but and go right very far.

people seem to use try to get an in to out path too much, in to out can be just as bad as and out to in.

we want a IN to IN path with sqaure club face = strait shots.

my advice, try to work on squaring your club face at impact. can do that by either changin your grip, or not griping so tight that u retard the rotation of the club, or a few other things i am sure the good people at this site can give you tips for. (but i dont wanna highjack the thread, i would suggest that you start a new forom about this and mayb put link in here so people know where to go and see it) but you gotta fix your main problem (push/slice being club not quare and path too in to out) learn the 9 rules of ball flight will help you alot more so you know WHAT to try to fix when you go wrong before you start listening to advise like (keep you head down, or stay over the ball ect.) learn why keeping your head down will help you and what it will do to yout path and or club rotation.

like takinitdeep, no offense you probly are a better golfer than i, but read carfully. your advise will help slicing maybe do to open face and could be good advise to someont... just not snow, because "standing too close to the ball or hitting out to in" doesn't sound like snow's problem since he is hitting a push (in to out path)

[mont86]

Re: 5-minute lesson

ubizmo when you say slow down you mean the backswing, right?

[ubizmo]

Re: 5-minute lesson

ubizmo when you say slow down you mean the backswing, right?

No, I mean the whole swing, start to finish.

This was the surprising thing about it. Although I was making a full swing, in terms of taking the club back, the force I was applying on the downswing felt like a lob shot. And I was amazed at how little distance I was giving up. Doing this, I was carrying about 220-230 yds, but straight, shot after shot. I felt I had complete control of the club head and was hitting on the sweet spot every time.

In contrast, swinging down hard I'd get 250 yds carry, but about 1 out of 5 would be straight, and of course I'd also get mis-hits that would only carry 150.

Lesson learned: when I can take this to the course and hit every fairway and carry about 230, then and only then should I think about putting more zip into the downswing.

[snowman]

Re: 5-minute lesson

Lesson learned: when I can take this to the course and hit every fairway and carry about 230, then and only then should I think about putting more zip into the downswing.

Absolutely! Once you get it ingrained and the gaining confidence of being in the fairway, you'll be able to increase your speed in small increments. Won't be long before you find what the threshold of speed vs control will be and then you just have to stay below that speed to hit good tee-shots.

Presumably though you still feel the club accelerating through the ball?

[ubizmo]

Re: 5-minute lesson

Presumably though you still feel the club accelerating through the ball?

Yes. Not accelerating is at least one bad habit I managed to shake some time back, even (especially!) for pitches and chips, lobs, etc. The feeling with the driver is that I'm taking a long swing and then coming down in a very relaxed way, with as little effort as I can manage. Mentally, I try to let go of any concern about distance, so I think "I'll let the club decide how far the ball goes; my job is just to put the club on the ball the right way." I don't mean to make it sound easy. It should be, but it isn't, but the difficulty is 100% mental. With the irons it's not so bad, but when I pick up the driver it's hard to get the idea out of my mind that the stroke I'm about to make is all about distance. That thought is the swing-killer for me. Picking out a small target helps, because that shifts my focus from distance to accuracy, and the two modes of thought tend to exclude each other. In any effort where you are trying for accuracy (darts, pool, free throws, etc.) you automatically don't think in terms of maximizing force. And when you do think about maximizing force and distance, it tends to push accuracy out of your mind--or that's what it does to me anyway.

[mont86]

Re: 5-minute lesson

This thread pin points something I have been thinking about, slowing my driver speed....Sat. I'll give it a shot..Slowing down the whole swing....


For some reason it sounds like good advice.

[chessbum]

Re: 5-minute lesson

Sounds like the Legend of Bagger Vance.... is back.

Very nice story, Ubizmo....

Chessbum....

[vp27519]

Re: 5-minute lesson

I'm obviously got a bit of time on my hands at work and thought I would cruise gto.

Interesting thread Ubizmo. It caught my eye. Very well written.

I too struggle hitting fairways. On average I'll hit 4 (excl the par 3's). On a good day I might hit 7.

I'll give your five minute lesson a go.

An interesting point Brian raised though regarding accellaration. My coach tells me that accellaration is most important after you have hit the ball.

How you hitting em off the tee now Ubizmo.

Nicole