Tightdraw's swing

[tightdraw]

I'm back. god, i remember playing golf and now I can't imagine playing golf for real independently of playing golf swing -- or not until I feel good about my golf swing. And all of a sudden it seems like there is so much to work on just to have a workable swing. All I want are the puzzle pieces in rough outline form and close enough together that I can make out the picture. Then I feel like I can play in good conscience and work on getting the swing really good.
Without going into details I am working on increasing secondary axis tilt, keeping my upper center behind the ball, hopefully improving impact alignments and then post impact positions.
today i worked on a drill I picked up reading Slicefixer. It's the one where you turn the clubface very closed and then try to hit the shot with as square a clubface as you can. flipping under these circumstances would pretty much make it impossible to get the ball airborn :-)







Here's a video of my practicing straight line delivery as suggested by iTeach
still have the problem here of getting my head moving forward and thus not keeping my upper center back. Man that is so hard for me to do. i feel like an incompetent sometimes. make that most of the time

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq_lBlb0Tbc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

[moradman]

Tightdraw, the drill with the closed face would be suitable to increase the amount of dorsiflexion in the left wrist and have maximum reverse roll through the hit.

The overtaking rate of the club is related to how slowly you extend the vertebrae in the spine after the hips have gone forward.

Every shot should have maximum extension (including the neck), with the longest arc.

[tightdraw]

thanks Moradman. Been working on that as well of course. these were vids of drills each recommended to reduce flipping as well. that is why i put them up.
Played yesterday. Had my worst scoring round in three months: 80. but hit the ball much much better. couldn't putt. ironic since I normally putt well. more ironic. it was my first day putting since I was fitted fro a new Edel putter. one thing i learned at the fitting is that the putter type i use normally leads to people like me to think they are aimed straight when in fact they are aimed to the right of the hole. so i tried compensating and was ALL over the place. And I don't know about the rest of you, but once i lost putting confidence I just carried around all over the course :-(
it killed my focus
also irritating: my brother and I played with a very nice couple: man and woman. At one tee he decides to tell me that I am killing my game by straighening my right leg in teh backswing. I tell him that is the style of swing i am working on. I say, Stack and Tilt, Dorame, Tiger Woods, .... He says, well son, you are an amateur not a pro and you need to....
God, I hate unsolicited and wrongheaded advise, get upset and then my brother starts laughing and says to me, No one on earth gives more unsolicited and unwelcome advise than you do.

[tightdraw]

some swings after playing on Thursday.
lots to go, and of course same problem with losing lag pressure, but this was before I played and i want to be honest. I haven't felt this good about my swing in fifteen years, maybe longer. I know what I am striving for and I know what still needs to be done. Lots, but all in its place
meanwhile i love the backswing. I am going to work next on features of teh downswing including adding lag in the transition, then on the delivery path and slowing the overtaking rate and finally on the through swing. The motion is just what I want in terms of compactness, rhythm and flow; and body movement. now within that framework i want to make this the best golf swing I can and then just try to go out there and see if I can have fun and play well (though obviously not necessarily in that order).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1brgVpUwLDk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oqgim54FcI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Pkfbjp5cQ

[gmbtempe]

I think that looks tremendous, yes you lose the wedge a little early but the basic motion is there.

[tightdraw]

Have had a few good days of practice. Whether the practice is good bad or ugly seems to have virtually no impact on my scoring on the golf course. Makes me wonder some times why i am working so hard to improve :-(
Today I focused primarily on holding the wedge better and to be honest i did the best job of it that i have so far. My thought was more 'down' on the downswing Have a look and let me know what you think I appreciate the support.

[tightdraw]

I'm no expert and so take my thoughts with the appropriate grainery of salt -- a grain does not express enough skepticism :-)
But I have learned something that I think may hold up under scrutiny and further testing; and it is this.
I have been plagued by at least two phenomena: an inablility to keep the bent right wrist and thus to flip; and an inability to keep the upper center back while moving the lower center forward more substantially. I have solved the latter I believe and in doing so have made some strides on the former and therefore want to share.
The key for me is this. One has to drive the lower left side down as well as forward -- to compress the midsection as it were. you can see if you are doing this by your head going down rather than up in the first half of the downswing. the angle created in the body -- the angle of the thrust of force -- of going down and forward, actually encourages the upper center to stay back a bit, whereas the just going forward sensation encourages taking the entire body along
I strongly believe this. I hit many balls yesterday and looked at my vids of all of them and it confirmed that where my focus was 'as much down' in energy and focus to start as well as forward my upper center was much more back than otherwise and my delivery path more direct and the angles in the right wrist much better -- for me.
Interested in hearing what others think.
TD

[Richie3Jack]

Nice. Tough to hold the wedge hitting off of mats because there is no grass to help slow down the overtaking rate.





3JACK

[tightdraw]

Haven't posted my swing in a while as I have been making a couple of changes. Somewhere between DAROME, TGM and S&T there is the swing that works for me, but i haven't been able to find it yet. I found someone to work with on it on pretty much a daily basis and to do so one piece at a time; and I work under his direction every day. I need that daily feedback to really improve. I am an obsessive type and I need: a big picture; a list of the parts that make it up and the step by step roadmap that explains why each part is important to the big picture and how to perform that part; then how to integrate, etc. I have learned a lot from the instructors on this site, but I need more personal direction and explanation. I found this person a week ago and have been wildly enthused about my progress. What sold me was that one of my worst faults was moving my head forward or my upper swing center forward in the forward swing. I couldn't kick it. This instructor gave me one drill to try and I haven't had the problem since. If it all works out as I think it will I will pass on his name but i don't want him blamed for my failures if it fails.
Today, I spent two hours working on a few of the basic pieces at Great River Golf Course in CT. It is rated as CT's best daily fee course and is a Fazio design. I have played it once with Jeff Mann last fall in 35 mile/hr winds. It is a very difficult course that has a great practice facility. But like most courses it's in trouble -- which makes sense since it costs more than 100 to play and it cost me 40 to have two hours on the practice facility. Not quite a bargain. I ran into two people on this beautiful day on the practice range. One turned out to be an old friend from my days at New Haven CC. That course is down to 250 members so I may rejoin. Golf clubs are in trouble.

Back to my swing.
Some are things I worked on today have worked on before but never with this level of detail or success. Basically I am working on the punch shot and on some I have increased the back swing to a full swing and swang through to punch shot follow through. Some swings were full at 75% speed, but the basic was the punch shot, but with emphasis on every part and every detail including banking the right leg, rolling the back ankle, etc. etc.
Here are some vids. If you want to see the bulk of them they are on my youtube channel 0865-0879.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR_6Leyd_Nc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwKa_UKAon0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEZbjIQRqSY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=32OD94RXng0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DM50cVz654

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0v1MnXypcc

I'm the worst judge of course but I really believe that I am on to something here and well on my way.

Anxious to know what you think
TD

[natep]

Looks great! Keep us updated.

[rohlio]

Motion is looking good, your footwork on those is looking very good to my eye.

You have mentioned you are going to be focusing on fitness and I would say you really want to target your transverse abdominus and external hip rotators and IT band area. You are going to need to strengthen and elongate those in order to continue to have that excellent footwork with full swings as you add velocity and torque.

On an entirely different note buy one of these:

cgi.ebay.com/50-Tripod-CANON-SONY-PANASONIC-CAMERA-CAMCORDER-/160589738274?pt=US_Tripods&hash=item2563e4f122

It is 17" long when folded up and is less than a pound in weight. You can keep it in your bag and it going to make your life so much better filming your swing. It is $12 well spent.

[tightdraw]

thanks Rohlio
Right now I am working on several fitness related things, but all preliminary to the full on attack starting this fall.
I am working in cardiac rehab on overall fitness
i am working on speed training in golf following the one month Jaacob Bowden system -- which I am enjoying
and in August I start yoga in earnest. when you are an obsessive anally compulsive guy it's hard not to do something full on :-)
but right now i am happy with the progress i am making on my golf swing for the first time in over a decade.

TD

[tightdraw]

Two things.
First, some folks on the site wanted to know what the drill was that I have worked on to keep my upper centers stable while moving my lower center forward. Basically, it is to have only one thought in the forward swing and that is to stretch out the front side of the body in the following sense. To feel there is a line or muscle from the front ankle to the front upper chest along the side and to think that the only thing you are trying to do in the forswing is to stretch that muscle or make that line as taught at possible. Do not think of any rotation at all. It turns out that if you do this you will rotate of course but that is not the intention. The intention is to stretch the front side. I found this thought a million times more helpful than standing up or pushing the pelvis under the shoulders or thrusting or whatever. It also shortens the last part of the follow through to a really nice position. Between this and the punch drill i have been working on I am 80% there to eliminating the flip and keeping my angles better. Not there yet. a couple of more pieces. But as I did this drill at first, no surprise that my ball flight was higher, but as I did it more I was able to control trajectory a bit as well -- with comfort and confidence from using it more.

Here are links to two vids showing my swing emphasizing the drill.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bGOODwcOP4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iU0mDwCY5s

Today i start working consciously on one more piece to try to eliminate the flip entirely. We'll see how this goes.

Let me know what you think of these vids
TD

[tightdraw]

sorry, i see these are already posted on my youtube channel, but you can find them there CIM 0858 and 0859. Those are the drill
Sorry about that. first time i posted them here, but apparently not the first time there :-)
TD

[tightdraw]

I am staying with friends in Tucson and just returned from dinner, opened up the forum to see that Denny had posted on our 14 hrs of lessons together. Of course in true Denny fashion he posted no pictures of me at all. And I don't look anything like either of these guys :-)
OK, for the past month or so I have been communicating with Denny and he has been looking at my swing on video and making some suggestions. I was near despair when I finally decided to bite the bullet and spend whatever it took to come out to Tucson and give it a real shot. I arrived in Phoenix naear midnite, stayed in a local hotel and drove to Tucson in the morning. I had lived in tucson from 1980 to 1984 and have been back a handful of times since. it has surely changed in the intervening years and to my chagrin shows no signs of not being able to flourish without me.
In any case, I have been something of a golf lesson whore for the past few years trying to recapture my 'swing' or some romantic vision of what my swing must have been when I was a good player -- before a series of injuries and health issues did me in. Or maybe I just wanted to reinvent myself -- who knows. The memory tends both to fade and torture as one ages.
I have sought out lessons from a number of people. none really failed me, but nothing really worked either. It's not that nothing stuck. nothing really clicked. I don't blame anyone else. I really began to feel that i was limited in ways -- physical and psychological -- that I could no undo what damage I had wrought. I began to feel that golf for me would be like the boilerplate of our early youth. While not quite set in stone, it defines the limits of what we can be and who we are.
I was thinking the unthinkable: I would have to learn how to embrace the sad facts of who i am and what I would be capable of in my swing. I would have to learn how to focus on playing the game and scoring well and not on the sounds of compression and the joys of controlling ball flight. Perhaps I would never make the sound that would bring a smile to my face.
So in quiet desperation, I contacted Denny over a month ago. Sent him lots of vids to look at, spoke a dozen times over the phone and ultimately arranged to come out for lessons.
Why Denny?
Well it began for two reasons. First, I really got hooked on the Darome method in the little time I spent with George Hunt while I was in Florida recovering from heart surgery last year. But i didn't respond well to the sense of a 'cult.' I admire brilliance, but having grown up till my teenage years in an orthodox jewish household, I rebel against 'the MYSTERIOUS' and the mystical. Of course I am drawn to it as well since I am a philosopher by training and temperament -- but one whose research is thankfully devoted to demystifying deep moral concepts like law, justice, responsiiblity and so on. Denny had the knowledge of DAROME but he was and is a 'free thinker'. He doesn't do dogma of any sort. He also knows what he doesn't know, which I admire. He views his teaching like a mutual quest for understanding and improvement. He is not a conduit for knowledge passed down, but someone who teaches as part of his own quest for understanding. So it always feels fresh when I speak with Denny, watch his videos or now when in his presence. He wants to know as much about you and what you do and are and how you can both improve as he wants you to appreciate what he can do. More even. So the time flies with him. And he is smart. any body who as a teacher tells you that David Lee, Jack Kuykendall, Jimmy Ballard and Gary Edwin all have a little bit of something importantly right and helpful and sends you to look at their stuff has got the kind of open mind that all teachers should have. And he'll even tell you what he learned from them that benefitted him in his own swing -- which is really quite beautiful in fact -- and quite efficient.
The second thing was he told that while all these guys have something valuable, MAC is really the guy, and Denny spent around 200 hrs with him. And he told me that MOG told him that it was Homer that put him on track and that Homer had so much insight. And Denny doesn't get the Homer bashing. And I agree. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. And only little kids growing up feel the need to slay their fathers. They confuse psychological necessity with truth.
And Denny will try anything that he thinks will work for you! But he doesn't feel good about bandaids. And he thinks that lots of 'methods' are just overblown bandaids.
And finally, if you are going to work with Denny seriously, you are going to have to let him treat you as a project -- a scientific experiment -- and not as a robot. He throws a million different devices and tools and training aids at you, but they are not designed to see which works and how to cure you. They are designed primarily to diagnose where the real problem lies -- or better, where the cure that will stick might be found. And this is as much about learning how to be a good student as it is about how to be a good teacher.
ON the first day which lasted about eight hours with a lunch break, we tried 'everything you can imagine' It began pretty much with Denny making me stand on swivelling casters and gripping the club in my right hand upside down with my pinky where my index finger #3 pressure point would be and hitting balls at various heights off a plastic cutting board. When I got the hang of hit, we took pictures -- all short shots of no more than fifty yards -- and there wasn't a picture that didn't have great alignments. The goal was established. Get me to be able to get those alignment with every club and every distance at every speed I was capable of with the ball on the ground while having a 'normal' grip.
We spent the day working on elements that would have to be in my swing no matter what else we would add: these would be the basics: one basic at a time. The first: free hip turn in both directions. Never really had one. Looked at a million swings of mine and others here on this site and on you tube when I got to my friends house at nite. Not many people do. So i was not alone
Second. find the right grip. Here not only did I realize that mine was wrong, but why it was. The issue is which muscles get activated with which grip. The goal was to find one that worked on the body and on the shaft that made them both behave the way you want them to in a golf swing. This was project.
Third, getting the wrist behavior right. I had it all wrong
Well I don't want to say too much -- it would bore anyone -- but after eight hours I was depressed and I knew I had found a good teacher. I had experienced what it looks and feels like to hit good shots with compression and proper alignments, but doubted that I would ever experience either. Seriously.
We had tried a million ideas in one day: a million pictures, and i had a great practice swing -- but then again I always have. But put that two ounce white ball on the ground in front of me and it was a constant impediment to a good swing. The next post will be about how I went from that to someone who for six hours the next day felt who couldn't hit a bad shot or one with poor alighments: a person who after one hour of work hit four hours of balls -- not all great, some fat, some thin -- but even those didn't deter me: someone who hit maybe 300 drives with five different drivers of all lengths, at speeds from 20 mph to 85mph -- drivers from 38 inches to 46 inches -- anywhere i wanted through the same window about 85% of the time -- maybe more. Who if the fairway was 30yds wide missed left or right less than 2% of the time -- and NO EXAGGERATION.
And later today maybe Denny will have the pictures that go along with this.
Last lesson today.
But I'll be back; and you know why. for the first time ever, I've got rhythm; my golf swing is a 'wrecking ball' i know where the weight is; i can manage it; and best of all, the golf ball is not an impediment to my swing. it's my friend, and i can't wait to have a go at it.
There is so much more i learned and felt -- and as Richie would say -- felt as a result of the proper mechanics -- that I hope to share soon. But here out in the desert, it's time for breakfast.