I’ll stick with it for the moment Paul. I must admit I’ve been slack with the last lot of exercises and haven’t really got into them as much as I should have. There’s been a lot of other stuff going on in my life that got in the way. Now that my retirement date is set, I should be OK to get going on them as much as I can.

Phil,

That is the nice thing about golf. You go at it anytime that suits you.

Happy hunting.

Thanks Paul.
We played a 4BBB on Saturday. I kept a record of my individual stats. It was another 41 point round for me personally, which was again a score of 82 off the stick. 40 on the front nine (7 over par) and 42 on the back (8 over par). The interesting thing for me with this round was not the quality of the shots, but the fact that on at least six or seven of the tee shots, I noticed that my feet finished in the position of the follow through drill. Plus I noticed it for several other shots off the fairway during the round. I wasn’t trying to get into that position, it’s just how I ended up after I had swung the club. It was interesting to notice especially since each of the swings where it happened produced a good shot.

I am ready to resume the drills. I will let you know how I am going and when I am ready for my next screening.

Is it OK to do that in this thread, or would you prefer a personal e-mail?

Phil,

Here is good.

I was hoping that foot work would start to look tidy. It just shows that if you do a few things right more nice things happen.

Nice work Captain.

I have never had a yipper come to me.

Why do you think that is? I’ve just bought ClearKeys and really looking to address the chipping yips. I’m convinced it’s all mental as I practice perfectly and then only yip on the course proper.

Ben,

Good for you.

I think the yippers are too embarrassed.

I was partnered with a guy that could not get it in from a foot until he chose Mary Mary quite contrary as a clear key. He was brilliant on the day but did keep it up.

Stay in touch with Carey. He likes to help and will show you the ropes.

Paul,

I have been giving your preferred swing pattern a serious try.

There are several new ideas that I have taken from this, but your pattern also brings me back to a mystery that I would love to understand.

I don’t understand how acc #2 contributes to the hitting action. I can see that acc #2 cocks and uncocks, but acc #2 always seems to me to be acting in the wrong direction, at right angles to where I am putting effort, which is aft of the grip via pp1 and pp3. So, I can see that acc #2 moves, but I cannot see how it adds power or speed.

In swinging, it makes more sense, because as your rotate your forearms, you get to the point where acc #2 is now in plane and pointing at the ball. If you try and swing with lag in acc #2, then it snaps at some point very quickly, and then you just have to pull off the miracle of squaring the club at the last moment.

I find this impossible to do, which is why I like hitting. But I am left with the worry that I am supposed to be doing something with acc #2 and I can’t see what it could possibly add to hitting.

Am I missing a key idea here and, if so, can you explain or point me in the right direction to understand this, please?

Or, maybe the answer is simply that I can forget about acc #2 in hitting?

Many thanks

Devonhacker,

Well, you can build any action you like but you have to know what you are doing. It is possible to zero out #2 and go with #1 and #3. if you are muscular.

You can get a good look at #2 if you use a very strong single action underhand grip 10-2-F. It is designed to cock and uncock on plane with no hand action.

Once you see it you can decide to use it or not. The wrist cock is the only part of the swing the makes the arc narrower and wider. Great with zero Plane Angle Variation.

Tell me if you don’t get it.

Paul,
Thanks for the reply.
I’ll try 10-2-F today, and let you know.

I think there is a clue in your reply as well. You say that 10-2-F is designed to cock and uncock on plane with no hand action.

Does that mean that 10-2-B requires hand action to get acc #2 on plane, even in hitting? Is this the point I have been missing?

Sorry if this is the dumbest question ever.

Paul,
just back from the course. Had a chance to try the 10-2-F grip.

Very interesting, thanks for the tip. I needed to make some other adjustments to stop hooking, but once I had sorted those out, the new grip played quite well.

The point of trying the grip was to see if I could get the feel of acc2. I definitely felt that I needed a very different hand action. Rather than simply pushing on pp1 and 3 throughout, which I was doing, with this grip, the acc 2 cocking action was in plane from quite early in the takeway.

It felt like I would sort of throw the shaft for the first 2/3rds of the downswing with a stone skipping wrist uncocking action, and then push on pp1 and pp3 much closer to impact, as the shaft rotated.

Is this what you wanted me to feel?

The answer is in the difference between the sweetspot plane (which is the true plane) and the shaft plane. Swingers put the shaft on the sweetspot plane with a takeaway swivel and a release swivel. Hitters don’t.

Devonhacker,

As long at you get #2 I am happy and yes #2 is a big part of the Under Arm Pitch feel we must all have.

Now you can use it any way you like.

I would rather hear you say smooth throw and pressure all the way to follow through point.

Hitting is the simplest way to move a club. We have all done it from under trees at some point. You drive the down swing against the backswing with the elbow behind the hip, swingers in front.

Paul,
thanks for the tips. I know that I have a long way to go, the feeling of drive loading, in particular, is still elusive.

This journey has been very interesting and every now and again there is an “ah ha” moment.

You gave me the clue when you said that acc #2 was key and to try to strengthen the grip. In 40 years of playing and lessons, every time any pro or article talked about the grip it was in the context of closing the face. Strong grip to close the face, weaker grip if you need to fix hooking.

I know you know this, but for the rest of the forum, the ah ha moment this week has been that the strength of the grip also affects the angle of the wrist cock (#2), and that affects how much rotation you need to get acc 2 into plane. For me, in a hitting action, my grip was too weak to allow this wrist cock to fit into the action.

My logic this week, for the first time, has been: I need a stronger grip to get acc 2 working, but now I am hooking. I can’t go back to a weaker grip, so what else is going on? The ah ha moment came when I realised that I must have club head throwaway causing the hooks, that this has to have been a long term flaw and that I had been unknowingly compensating for with too weak a grip.

I kept going on the stronger grip, but made sure to work hard on FLW and hands ahead at impact, and the ball went straight! But now I can get some wrist cock into the action as well!

Most likely, the grip I am now using is not as extreme as 10-2-F, and the grip I had before, that I thought was 10-2-B, was too weak.

The hardest thing in this game is when you assign the wrong cause to an effect, isn’t it?

I would like you to simply sway past the ball 2 feet as you hit. This stops throwaway and delays the hinge action.

If you don’t like these ideas after a couple of day let me know but they work for most of the guys.

Old OTT guys are always hanging back. Go forward like any athletic action.

Excuse the unorthodox words but they have to sink in.

Ha, why is it I always drop by and read your words telling someone else what I need to hear? Tell me why? :)

Yep, needed to hear that.

Stink,

Why you drop in, is a miracle. Why you should sway forward is to activate the legs and body.

Amazing how bad words work sometimes.

Help Dart please….?

Drives, fairway woods and irons have been the longest and most accurate ever with good stopping power on full 7-9is and wedges etc but half chipping is causing serious issues with both skinnying on very short grass and concrete lies, AND chunking on soft grass/dirt to uphill greens – thin and fat shots where none existed prior – eeek kkk!

I’m asking for a miracle because you have no idea how I swing etc, but any explanation on why this may be happening would be brilliant and much appreciated.

cheers

maggie,

Like one of my pupils says when asked how come he pitches so well, if I told you, you would not believe me.

I hear a lot about keeping still while chipping and pitching from people who are having trouble. I would prefer them to left shoulder out on the back swing and shoulder in thru the ball. The fun part is that the club has to feel like an inside loop on the down swing to balance out the body opening. I like a bit of reverse pivot on pitch shots. Yes the weight moves forward, towards the hole on the backswing.

Everything with golf is optional, so don’t be afraid to go against some of the old rules. If it occurs in the back of your mind, it is worth a small test.

This is the main value of TGM. It expands your thinking on how to do things. I even go against TGM on keeping you head still. While learning I like plenty of movement.

Paul,

Any chance you can load up a video of the Gyro club in use?

It looks like a normal club but it has a wheel spinning at 20000rpm. When you swing the club it flips open and shut so fast it leads you to a very active pivot through the ball to balance out the hook. Just the opposite to hanging back to square the clubface from dead hands.

hey paul

thanks for the round / lesson yest

enjoyed Duntry League….....its a challenge for a first timer

cu on the 19th ready to conquer Duntry :)

chrs steve

Steve,

I love you liked it. It will be great to watch you go.

Thanks.

Hi, Dart,
I have a question about hip action. As you know, I am following your preferred swing model (TGM hitting).

I think I might be getting into problems with my hips.

I am setting up with my spine tilting slightly right and I am delaying the hip action on the way back by turning the shoulders and letting the hips follow and bracing the right knee. Both of these seem fine.

What I am struggling with is the sequencing and amount of hip turn. If I try to start with the hips, I seem to swing the upper body OTT.

It almost feels like I need to start down with the right hip still back, then let the hips follow through with the shot, rather than lead, but that seems to contradict TGM and conventional wisdom.

Any thoughts or pointers?

Devon,

Sympathies but your idea is right as you can see.

Hip Action is so slight as to be not effective if done consciously. Following is a good feeling for now. Most of the hip talk is post impact which is Rhythm maintenance.

Think Power Package. Fire THAT and lower body will behave.

Most people would play better if they did an small elongation 12-5-2.

Homer says that hands are not educated until they control the pivot. Hard idea to get hold of but if you can’t believe it let me know.

Dart,

thanks for the reply.

Hands controlled pivot does seem to contradict the lag principle of sequencing knees, hips, shoulders, arms etc.

I can believe Hands Controlled Pivot, but only if I go with something like 10-15-C Short hip action (the hips power the shoulder turn on the way back, but let the shoulders take over on the Downstroke).

The other way I can sort of get there is to just maintain a nice stable spine and focus entirely on the hands, letting the hips do whatever. I was doing this a couple of weeks ago, then got distracted by the lag idea and the whole thing went wrong for me.

The other thing I want to try is to stick my bum out a bit more, I think that might give me more room to get the hands past the right hip without going round.

Anyway, your reply is helping me because you did not insist on leading with the hips, so I will try different combinations in a couple of days and see what happens

thanks again