Magic!
What a difference a day makes.
Last night at the range, I worked my way through a bucket of balls with my 6 iron. I was working on my weight shift - trying desperately to keep my weight on the inside of my back foot on my backswing. Sometimes I was able to, but even when it felt right I still wasn't able to hit a quality golf shot. I tried a number of adjustments and nothing worked. I left the range frustrated and wondering what I could be doing wrong to have devolved into the poor excuse for a golfer that I have become.
As I lay in bed last night I visualized my golf swing. I have been able to memorize the professional impact position - that position where all the pros seem to be at impact, no matter the different ways that they get there. How could I get to that position with my godawful golf swing?
Then I thought that I "saw" something. The position of my club at the apex of my back swing was too vertical. I was breaking Hogan's "pane of glass". My problem was that I wasn't able to get from there to the impact position with any authority without making adjustments - and I wasn't making those adjustments in my swing.
I got up and went to the garage and took some practice swings. At the top of my swing I turned my left wrist slightly towards the ground - so that the club was in a more horizontal position. I found that if I made that adjustment - and it wasn't a huge one - maybe only 10 degrees or so - I was able to move into impact with great authority. I visualized my left wrist as a sledgehammer, with the bottom of my fist the impact point of the hammer. As my hands reached the impact position though, just at the last moment I flipped my wrist so the the back of the wrist was in the impact postion. It felt right.
So tonight it was back to the range, this time with a full complement of clubs. I started with the short irons. Concentrating on the weight shift and the flatter swing plane I hit a few shots, and like magic, the stars were suddenly aligned. I was suddenly striking the ball as well as I ever have. I worked my way down through the bag with no loss in quality of shot. Amazing.
For me, there aren't too many highs better than puring an iron, but when you can pure iron after iron after iron... well that's nirvana!
posted by p2h @ 4:59 PM
3 Comments:
I'm really happy for you in your success, but I want to point out something important I saw in your post that you mentioned only incidentally.
You went to the range, you said, and left there without having seemed to gain any advantage. Then "that night" as you "lay in your bed", it hit you!
I imagine you are as aware as I am of how much more effective it is to cram for an exam a day early, then SLEEP, before taking the exam, vs cramming on the day of the exam. But I bring up the point because it's such an important one, and because I've seen such an "on, then off, then on again" principle is so many ways in golf.
It seems that the learning process is two-phased, with input being the first, and assimilation being the second, and assimilation is best accomplished while you're unconscious, such as sleeping.
But other on-off-on or skip phenomena are like the time at Lake Wright when I had a pitch of 26 yards to the hole. I paced if off precisely, then didnt get it all that close.
Next hole, had another shot of similar length, I FLEW the pitch INTO the hole. Skipper.
I had not broken 90 in the days when I was playing only Sleepy Hole, so I sat down and filled out a scorecard with scores for each hole that I should be able to easily accomplish, scores that I had actually performed on those holes a majority of the time.
It added up to about 85. All I had to do is play moderately well with no tragic holes.
Well, I took that card along on Sunday and did not begin to play to it. BUT!, the following Thursday, I played Sleepy in a very lacadaisical way, just enjoying the company and "I hit ball! I hit ball!"
My buddy added em up after 18, I had shot 87! And my card was almost identical to the plan card.
Skipper.
What actually happened here is that I found a key - the angle of the club shaft at the top of the backswing - that works to get me into the right position to get the club "in the slot" on the downswing.
I've been working on this for quite awhile, and have at times had the swing right only to lose it again in unexplained fashion.
I've noticed from videos of my swing that at the top of the backswing my club points right of the target. I knew that wasn't right, but never really understood why until I had that bedtime relelation of how the backswing should look when done proberly.
So I guess it's less a revelation than just a culmination of a long time thought process.
Hallo I absolutely adore your site. You have beautiful graphics I have ever seen.
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