Can you explain further about the target knee? What does it mean that it moves ‘over’ the target foot? Over in what way? Direction? Timing?

Thanks

You will have to work that out for yourself.

Can I get the English version thanks, lads :-)

It does sound like a code and probably has little meaning to a player who doesn’t consciously use his feet in the backswing and downswing to shift his centre of mass. The centre of mass shifts parrellel to the plane line in an efficient swing. When the centre of mass shifts towards the target to start the downswing, the target knee should move over the target foot which is that legs strongest position to have the club head advance on the hands in the through swing.

The right foot advances the hands on the club head while the left foot advances the club head on the hands.

It does sound like a code and probably has little meaning to a player who doesn’t consciously use his feet in the backswing and downswing to shift his centre of mass. The centre of mass shifts parrellel to the plane line in an efficient swing. When the centre of mass shifts towards the target to start the downswing, the target knee should move over the target foot which is that legs strongest position to have the club head advance on the hands in the through swing.

The right foot advances the hands on the club head while the left foot advances the club head on the hands.

The man who hits at the ball rather than through it has no sense of rhythm.
Secrets of the Master – The Best of Bobby Jones

Yep….What he said

Have done some waffle ball pitching practice in my backyard. And all is good. At the range I have found my pitching is solid when I warm up, but was deteriorating towards the end of the session. Given how long I can practice I am not going to worry myself over the shanks. In two nights hitting about 100 pitches I haven’t hit a shank. A couple thin! But no shanks.

The important thing for me is that I can go out Sunday with confidence.

May get a last range session tomorrow afternoon. Will have to wait and see. If I do the only full swing that I want to work on is left shoulder back and then pressing into my left foot. Want to try pressing more into the ball of the foot at first and then allow the cog to move back into the left heel as the hips and shoulders turn around the planted left leg. I did some research and found some cog mapping that has the cog moving a little right and back on the back swing, and then going left and moving steadily towards the ball on the down swing before settling into the heel.

Looks logical, supports what has worked for me before. Will give the ball rather than the instep a go as the target point to transition and down swing.

Thanks razaar for your thoughts.

Interesting video Dean. Not sure about the twisting as such, but certainly the feel of resisting the back swing is something I can relate to.

You are welcome, Weeti. Before I leave your thread, a word of advice – don’t make it complicated. The golf swing is quite simple when all the preparation work has been attended to. These are set-up and key moves in the backswing (I prefer upswing) and in the transition. The down/through swing takes about one second which is too quick for our conscious thoughts to change anything except interfer with the process we have set in motion.

Good luck, mate.:)

Your welcome any time mate.

Will certainly aim to keep it simple as you say.

Hit a quick bucket at the range this morning, just to settle some things in my mind before I play tomorrow.

Pitching was great. One shot that I hit thin/shanked. Rest were very solid. So won’t stress about it.

For full swings I wanted to test the down swing pressure in the front foot. And in the end I don’t think there is any benefit for me in taking any specific approach at this stage. It works better for me to simply get a good shoulder turn but maintain the intention to hit the ball hard. If I get lazy with regard to the down swing intention I can get some hooks going. The body stops, the arms keep going and the hands roll over. With better body action I tend to get a little push draw or straight.

The other thing that I worked on was ensuring my grip was strong enough in the left hand. It’s easy to tell at setup that the face is nice and square.

Also did a bit of sand practice, which I needed!

In the end was feeling much better about this. Just need to focus on the sand just behind the ball, aiming to bring the club through the ball through that spot. Club generally enters the sand about and inch behind that, and was hitting nice shots that had a good bit of height on them.

Previously had been aiming about and inch behind and was too inconsistent – taking too much sand I think.

No idea what the sand is like at Colonial, but feeling more confident about my sand play.

Now I’ll mess them up tomorrow! :-)

After the mountaintop comes the fall! :-) Finished with a 46 + 50 = 96, for 27 points. Winner on the day had 34 points. Course was in good condition with just a bit of dampness in play from the rain during the week. The greens were fantastic – ran fast and true all day.

Weather though was very windy, getting up to a 2 and 3 club wind after a few holes. And that definitely had an effect, but the biggest effect on my scoring was … well 2 things actually.

The first was that I was just not trying to hit the ball hard enough. My setup was fine, but I was holding off and pushing the ball much of the day. And with lots of water right, and a good head wind to penalise any bend in the flight, it was a very poor approach.

Basically I was just not releasing the club. When I went for it more aggressively I generally got better results – straighter and longer. It is a confidence thing, and a mental thing. And I have learned a lesson.

The second was my putting. I’ll get into some stats later but today I could not read the greens, and I totally forgot about rhythm. Actually to say that I couldn’t read the greens is not right – I made some good reads – but I left a lot of those short because of not making a rhythmic stroke. But I missed a lot of short putts especially because of reads. I read break that didn’t appear, and I massively under read break at other times. I have to expect that when I play different greens every game I suppose but it does make life difficult!

Some key stats. 3 pars 8 bogies 5 doubles 2 triples. 9/14 fairways. 1 GIR (only 3 holes in total where I didn’t have a pitch, chip or sand shot). 3 up & down / 15.

42 full shots 54 short. 4 balls in the water. 4 pitches 9 chips 4 sand 2 Texas 35 putts. I missed 2 putts inside 3 feet on the first 3 holes! I hit some very poor pitches and chips today, generally fat. The damp ground didn’t help because it negated the bounce.

Takeaways for me were to hit the ball – release the club. Will work on a couple of things at the range. I suspect that the chicken wing was in full flight today. I think that I have become psychologically very anti-hook.

Putting focus needs to be on rhythm – one-potato-two-potato!

Pitching and chipping needs to be also about rhythm. Not sure about the best timing so will experiment with that too. Will see whether the same rhythm is the go.

G’day weetie….

Holy crap Batman, your keepin alot of stats.

This works for me maybe it can help you too.

Damp ground: Take an extra club (Sometime I take 2 clubs longer) as you said the bounce is negated and I find I rarely hit the full distance if I do well there is rarely danger at the back of the hole (a good miss).

Putting: Think I learn’t this here and it really has helped. Putt using the shoulders not the arms and from me don’t watch your ball just wait to hear it drop.

Chipping: Same as putting use the shoulders to make the stroke the only difference that works for me is I lean the club forward and have the ball back in my stance and make contact with the ball closer to the toe as the heal is raised slightly chipping this way. But hey it works well for me most of the time. There is no wrist in this shot the only movement is the shoulders. (I also play my sand shots using this shoulder turn and no wrist, even though my set up is different.)

Hope it helps mate, great to see your still out there and enjoying it!

Thanks mate. Will definitely keep that in mind for the wet tracks.

Agree with the short game and the shoulders. Cheers

BTW Good to see you back.

Mate did your handicap move any after the weekend?

No mate. The game that dropped off didn’t count.

Had a couple of range sessions since Colonial. Started getting the shanks on my pitching big time! Very very very ugly. Been doing some experimenting and thinking abut the cause. And determined that it is that I am swinging my hands out towards the ball.

So went today to test my solution, with good results. Back to solid pitching and chipping. So very pleased. And relieved.

Also been thinking a lot about how my right arm and shoulder work on the back swing. I know that my right elbow moves behind me, so it is not a surprise that I can get a strong in to out swing path. And it is something I want to make my next thing to work on.

So today I started some testing. I tried extensor action. I tried squeezing my right armpit on the back swing to keep the right arm more in front. I tried swinging the club and my hands more straight back. All of these things made a difference, but I’m nit sure what will work best for me yet. So this is my next area of focus, while I continue to groove the front foot balance and the ‘down’swing.

Hit the arrange again today for a couple of buckets and some chipping.

Chipping was pretty solid. Just need to keep up the practice and build touch with both wedges. On course it is all about putting a solid strike on the back of the ball, and trusting my body with distance control. – a la putting.

Happily I pitched well today. I did hit 2 shanks but they were while messing around with some footwork. Otherwise I struc them solid today. Only thing to keep an eye on is that I have gone from a bit of a push with the pitches to a bit of a pull.

Full swing was great. Still getting consistent with my grip, but when I started getting it right I was getting very straight shots with a little draw. Feeling the swing through the left foot is going very well. I just need to remind myself to not get caught up in the back swing. If I feel the weight move out of my left foot and keep balanced on my left foot on the down swing it seems to regulate the back swing pretty well. Just keep my eye on the ball and feel the left foot. Simple!

Here’s hoping that it continues to work!

Quick trip to the range again – wasn’t intending to go but had nothing to do so hit a bucket and a half and had a bit of a chip.

Been trying to find a comfortable way to get the swing kicked off that doesn’t get me too focussed on the back swing – I want to concentrate on my balance through the left foot. I am finding that I am most comfortable with what is most natural – swinging the club head away with my hands.

Was hitting it very well tonight. When I don’t focus on the left foot variation is greater, with mostly pushes and the odd hook. But with good footwork pushing the left foot into the ground it changes to gentle fades to small draws. And a few pretty much dead straight. Very good feeling.

Continued to do some experimenting with the pitching as well, along the lines of the full swing. I’ve given the left shoulder directing the back swing a good try but it just doesn’t want to work for me. So I am happy to go back to swinging the club head with the hands.

And that is the same for pitching. Perhaps even more important … or maybe reliable is a better word. But more than the back swing focussing again on feeling the swing through the left foot is key, just as for the full swing.

So from our session with Peter I have made the grip changes and the posture changes, but I’m returning to my old back swing.

I only had a quick chip tonight, but I was really happy with it. With the chipping the basic approach is the same as the full swing – balance through the left foot (well with chipping it is more on than through the left foot) and swinging the club head with the hands. But with chipping I focus a bit more on the hands for touch. However I am following Geoff Mangum’s advice on touch and relying on my body’s natural touch and not trying to hit it the right speed consciously controlled.

Was hitting the ball solidly, and with good touch. I want to do a lot more chipping and putting practice over the coming weeks.

Having fun! :-)

Yet another range session! One bucket and an hour on bunkers and chipping practice.

Pitching was good today. Made the mistake about 3/4 through the bucket of noting to myself that I hadn’t hit a shank. Hit 3 or 4 after that! :-)

Otherwise though pitching is getting back to where I want it. Not overthinking it is important. Especially the back swing (seems to be popping up as a recurring theme in this thread!). Feel the swing through the left foot and hit the ball solid. Which is exactly the same as my chipping needs to be.

Still getting settled with my grip. It alternates between how it should be and one that is too weak. Good grip generally = straight or a little push draw. Weak grip = push or a stronger draw if I catch it with the hands. But overall my full swing feels good. Feeling it through the left foot continues to help get solid contact and good rhythm. Helps me not overswing, swing through the ball, and finish on my left side.

Sand was OK. I am aiming closer to the ball now than I used to and that helps my not thin it. That may sound strange but I was thinning it because the club would bounce back out of the sand into the ball. Moving in the right direction now.

Chipping was good. Building confidence to trust my body to put a good swing on it and hit it the right distance, so I am just focussing on hitting the ball solidly, and keeping on my left foot a bit more.

Was a good range session.

Also did some putting on the mat, and need to keep up the practice here. Build confidence inside 8 feet. Setup is very different for putting, as is the stroke pattern Geoff Mangum recommends. But the stable left leg and swinging the club head and just aiming to put a solid strike on the back of the ball and let the body deal with the stroke and distance control is the same as for chipping and pitching.

Hopefully the short game will start to click in consistently.

Did a bit of chipping and wiffle ball pitching in the backyard yesterday too – gunna get this short game firing for Gailes! Gotta get my name on that trophy! :-)

Borrow it when Sandy is not looking.:)

Did a bit of chipping and wiffle ball pitching in the backyard yesterday too – gunna get this short game firing for Gailes! Gotta get my name on that trophy! :-)

Starting 2012 on unofficial 17, target 12 then single figures
Member of the South East Queensland Golf Group
LEARN then PERFORM – Geoff Mangum

you will do good at Gailes mate. Putting will win it on the day. I did 90 minutes on the practice green this week.

Borrow it when Sandy is not looking.:)

The man who hits at the ball rather than through it has no sense of rhythm.
Secrets of the Master – The Best of Bobby Jones

I think big Don has it now!