3Jack Swing Progress Journal

[Richie3Jack]

I didn't practice on Tuesday because I wanted to take a day off from after the tournament and then come up with a plan on what to work on. For this week I will continue to work on what I have been working on and just trying to sustain a swing and then I will probably send in a video to Lucas to see what he thinks.

I'm also working on some pre-tourney nutrition. Before a tournament round, I want to avoid sugar. Obviously, there is sugar in tons of foods, but I'm trying to stay away from high sugar foods and avoid soda, juice and lemonade 24-hours prior to the event and stock up on water. My concentration levels on Sunday in the practice round were excellent despite feeling like I went 15 rounds with Ernie Shavers the day before. I didn't eat a whole lot, but I didn't have any high sugar foods and just drank water leading up to that Sunday. Then on Sunday I had soda in the afternoon and didn't sleep all that well and just felt off on Monday (tournament day). So, I'll be trying that out today as my dad and I play tomorrow.

I was pleased with my putting at the event. I really like The Brick. Very easy to line up and my putting from 3-6 feet with the putter has been excellent. I figure the longer putts will start to drop eventually and most of the issue was a speed-control issue. I did come up with a quick way to work on speed control.

I take 2 of the fake Odyssey cups and put them 30-feet from each other on a planar slope. This gives me uphill and downhill putts. I then putt from roughly 3 different distances:

- 7 feet
- 15 feet
- 22 feet

So I will putt 3 balls from 7 feet uphill and then putt from that same spot to the downhill cup (putting from roughly 22 feet downhill). Then I'll go to the other end and putt from 22 feet uphill and then from that same spot to have an 8-foot downhill putt. Then I finish off with the middle position and have 15-feet uphill putts and 15-feet downhill putts.

The Short Game Play has been very good as well, I just need to get myself in more reasonable positions to get up-and-down. My bunker play has been great .

[Richie3Jack]

I played this weekend, Saturday up in The Villages with my dad and Sunday at Metrowest with a few of my friends.

At the Villages I shot 74 (+2) and hit 15 GIR. The greens were horrendous there. Slow and extremely bumpy. I had actually 2-putted the first 17 holes and then needed to hit the pin on a 192 yard shot on the 18th hole (we thought it went in for eagle) in order to finally make a birdie and have a 1-putt.

The driving at The Villages was excellent. That Enlow Grip I think is a game-changer to my driving. Hopefully it can produce results with other clubs. I think at the very least it may be good with the hybrids and the 3-wood. I was hitting the Srixon's fairly well, but still pulling them a bit (had yet to get the lie angles bent). But the driving was awesome. I only missed 2 fairways on a very crusty course and both were struck well. I have found that I have some struggles on the holes where the fairway runs more diagonally from the tee and out to the right. And those are the fairways that I missed. Still, each shot was struck well and had a nice trajectory and curve to it.

I shot 75 (+3) at Metrowest which was a disappointment. I just had issues on holes #7 (bogey on a par-5), #8 (bogey on a par-3 off a poor iron shot and missed 5-footer) and #9 (double off a weak tee shot and a poor approach shot. Then I doubled #16 off a poor tee shot.

At Metrowest I started missing some of the drives to the right, but that was because my right femur was adducting instead of abducting and the right hip wasn't getting into External Rotation.



That really doesn't happen often for me, but occasionally it does. The positive is that when I miss right or get a little 'wipey' with my shots, I know it's the right femur/right hip that is a problem and that is throwing me out of sequence a bit and causing those shots. And I really believe that the Enlow Grip is going to greatly curb those leftward misses, so there's a lot of good things going on.

Unfortunately, my putting was shot at Metrowest. I thought my practice putting was very good this week, especially when I used the Pelz Putting Tudor. I also think my speed was good, but I struggled feeling the putts and had issues on left-to-right putts. I think the time at The Villages hurt my putting. I'll have to keep that in mind before I play tournaments.

This week is the National Junior College Golf Championship at Duran. Supposedly the members are allowed to hit balls at the back of the range. I'll try to get some work in and maybe on Wednesday get a film session in and send it to Lucas for his thoughts.

[Richie3Jack]

It was kind of weird weekend of golf for me. On Saturday I went to Rio Pinar and shot 69 (-3), but there were a lot of smoke and mirrors going on. I had felt like my game was close to shooting in the 60's, soon...I just didn't expect it to happen the way it did at Rio Pinar.

I started off on fire, going +8 on the 15/5 score in the first 5 holes. There was a par-5 on the first hole, but that hole at Rio Pinar is very tough. In fact, that was the best I have ever played that hole from a ballstriking perspective as I bombed a drive right down the middle, layed-up perfectly (which I never do on that hole) and stuck a LW that spun back about 8-feet to 3-feet to the hole.

I then struggled pretty badly on holes 6-10, but managed to maintain a decent score, then I got hot on holes 11-16 before playing 17 and 18 so-so.

I then went to Eagle Creek on Sunday and shot 73 (even par, it's a par-73 course). I struggled quite a bit on the front nine and there were 25 mph winds. I managed to be +4 thru the first 8 holes. Then I birdied 9, 10, 12, 14 and 15. Only #9 was a par-5. So I went 39-34 and shot 73 for the day. I hit 8 greens on the back with a +10 15/5 score.

I was struggling a little with the driver with the Enlow Grip, but I still don't miss left with that grip and it's super-forgiving on toe hits. A small miss off the toe flies off the club like a center strike and a bad mis-shit off the toe finds its way down the middle of the fairway. I was missing a bit right at times, but I started to figure out the issue, my sequencing was off and I wasn't hitting that stop-sign move.

I was more executing the stop-sign move first and then rotating the sacrum instead of the other way around.

Sadlowski appears to be hitting the stop sign move right around here in the downswing.



But when we look at his swing from this view, we can see the sacrum rotating immediately as he transitions to the downswing.

My guess is that by getting the stop sign move too early, it threw me out of sequence and I would start to either adduct the right femur (which causes a spin-out action and a wipe) and/or it would get the path moving too far to the right and if the face was a little open, it was push/block city.

I started to figure that out on the 7th hole at Eagle Creek and it really caught on as I got on #9 and birdied 5 of the next 7 holes and my longest putt made was a 35-footer, after that the longest putt made was a 12-footer.

So, I will be working on getting that sequence correct for this week.  Hopefully I will get it down in the next few days and send what I can to Lucas on video.

[Richie3Jack]

I had some struggles on the range on Thursday, but I thought about them afterward and focused on what I felt was wrong and had a great Friday range session as I headed into the weekend. From there, I shot 71 (-1), 66 (-6) and 69 (-3) thru the weekend.

The 71 came at The Villages. The greens are shit there and they are terribly designed. I missed 3-putts I should have made, but also made a couple of putts I should not have made. But, that's what separates the constant 60's shooters from the rest; they make the putts they should make and get some putts to drop that they shouldn't make. I was really on fire there with my ballstriking.

The 66 came at Duran Golf Club. We had went down to PGA Village to play, but got rained out. We drove back and found the weather was perfect in Melbourne and decided to play Duran instead. The first hole I hit an okay drive. I had a huge mound in front of me and I took out my 2-hybrid to clear it. I crushed it and hit it about 260 yards. On the 2nd hole I hit a drive just like I wanted to and couldn't find it. That's because I had 125 yards into the green and had never been that far. That was roughly a 335 yard drive. I hit a so-so shot on #3 and that traveled 300 yards. Flushed one on #4 right over the flag. Then after a week drive on #5, I flushed a 5-iron from to 12-feet. From there, I knew I was really on my game and I blistered the course.

The 69 came at Falcon's Fire. That's a very gettable course, but I was also -6 thru 12 holes with a couple of short par-4's, a short par-3 (they moved the tees way up on #15 so I only had SW into the green) and a gettable par-5. Unfortunately, I played those holes +3 and shot 69 for the day. By the end, my swing was leaking oil a bit.

I had talked about getting a video out to Lucas and I do need to do that soon. But, I also felt that my likely next step was to work on the lateral bend. When I struggled with my swing on Thursday, I felt that I wasn't getting proper right hip IR at the top of the swing. But, I also felt that I needed to work on that shoulder tilt at impact otherwise I would continue to run into the same problems from time-to-time. And I figured that if I could get the shoulder tilt at impact down, I would at least have a start in getting the lateral bend down.

So, I watched a lot of this video:



I have been watching that video a lot to see how the sacrum moves as well as the abduction movement of both femurs. When I would hook it up to the Ikkos and go thru the swing training process, I would often find myself emulating Sadlowski's impact position naturally.

But, when I would start hitting balls, I was more focused on the sacrum movement and femur abduction movements.

You can see the difference in Sadlowski's impact versus Rickie Fowler's (middle) and Stuart Appleby's (right)

For me, what stands out is I can see the butt of the grip in Sadlowski's impact and can't see the butt of the grip of Fowler and Appleby (both roll release players).  Also, Sadowski's swing has the shaft vertical.

That's just what stood out to me from a visual standpoint which is what Ikkos is about.

From there, I basically connected the dots and figured out that in order to get Sadlowski's impact, the shoulders have to tilt more.  And as we can see, Sadlowski has far more shoulder tilt than Fowler and Appleby.

When I started to add that to my swing on Friday, the results were excellent.

This also ties right into the parametric acceleration because as the left shoulder rises, it pulls up butt of the club and thusly lengthens the 3D flat spot just as these players show in this video.

I just felt that I needed to get the lower body movements and right shoulder ER down first and then I could move on to the shoulder tilts and eventually the lateral bend.

What I found over the weekend was that my misses to the right were occurring less often. And if I missed right it was likely something going awry with my lower body action.  And if I missed left, it was likely that I didn't quite hit the Stop Sign move.

I also worked on something with my putter to help with the speed control.  I started to give myself 1 more last look going from the hole to the ball and trying to visualize the actual speed of the ball rolling into the cup.  I found that helped me not miss short. 

Lastly, the Enlow Grips were great.  They are a fantastic match with the Srixon irons and I was surprised how well they worked with my S-Wedge.  I have to get used to them on pitch shots and bunker shots with my S-Wedge and L-Wedge, but on full swings they are money.  Definitely a keeper.

[Richie3Jack]

Well...

I haven't posted in over a month.

Reason being is that I moved to Boca Raton to start a new job. I was actually laid-off from my old job...only to have them call me back and say 'hey, we want you back' two weeks later. So I really wasn't laid-off per say, more of just a hiatus and by then I was set to put all of the hard work I had put into applying and interviewing for jobs to work and see what came my way. Then I had to move and get all of my other shit together and in the end, it was certainly no vacation.

I got a nice severance out of the deal, but when you're up-in-the-air about employment, you tend to play less and cut back on expenses. It was tough to leave the Space Coast area because I started to enjoy it quite a bit and started to meet new friends. Cocoa Beach isn't exactly the ritziest areas, but people are there to have fun and enjoy themselves. And it was nice to have Duran Golf Club's range which is lighted and open until 9:00 every night. I met a lot of good friends there.

***

I have been hitting balls at a course called Osprey Point. It's owned by the county of Palm Beach. It's actually a very neat area as it's part of the large park complex which includes an enormous dog park, amphitheater (the band 311 is playing there...remember them?), plenty of tennis courts and basketball courts and an assembly hall.

Despite being publicly owned, the course is gorgeous. The practice facilities are pristine and I think they are probably better than a lot of the high-end private clubs. I really liked the Dye Preserve, but its practice facility doesn't compare to Osprey Point.

I'm still working with the Ikkos advanced motor learning system and I still focus on the rotation of the sacrum.

I think I have that down pretty well, so now I work more on what the butt of the club is doing.

In this frame, which I have referenced in the past:



One of the big things is you can see the butt of the club at this point.  

You cannot see the butt of the club if you're flipping or rolling the release.



Part of it has to do with the hand/wrist action with relation to the club head.  Another part of it has to do with the pelvic rotation that Sadlowski achieves.

It's funny because if you just visualize Sadlowski's position, it is easy for me to figure out what he does...his shoulders are more tilted which goes into the lateral bend/coupling action.

The other part is getting the butt of the club to pull up to create more parametric acceleration and lengthen out the flat spot.

With that, I started to figure out one of the big issues I had with low, spinning pitch shots.

An old habit of mine was to straighten out the left knee into impact. I would take a good sized divot, but that would kill the spin rate.

The idea is to rotate the knees more and keep the knees flexed thru impact.  

I think what was happening was that because I was crashing down with the club head, I would straighten out the left knee in order to get the butt of the club to 'pull up' in order to lengthen the flat-spot.  But, that really doesn't do the trick.  So now I have to keep in mind to raise the handle and therefore there is no need to straighten the left knee.

The other thing I've been thinking about is how the raising of the butt of the club offsets the club-head 'dropping' towards the ground.  So I tend to think 'rotate the tailbone, drop the head and raise the handle.'







3JACK

[Richie3Jack]

I'm starting to get closer and closer back to my old self. I got on Trackman on Saturday and was averaging 114 mph club speed with the driver and maxed out at 116 mph. One interesting part is that when my right shoulder went into internal rotation too early, it would cost me about 4 mph of club speed. Like Kelvin says, it's the fastest joint in the body.

Dustin Johnson externally rotates the right shoulder about as good as one can do it.



This is often referred to as 'pitch elbow' from TGM terms, but I think of it more as a perspective of the shoulder rotating than the elbow. I think there are golfers that externally rotate the right shoulder, but don't quite get that pitch elbow.

I just like how DJ's right humerus is snug to the body because it has to be with that external rotation, unlike Furyk who gets external rotation, but then gets into internal rotation and doesn't have that 'snug' look.



So, I've been working on the right shoulder ER which is something I struggle with.  I also saw some stalling of the pelvis and I think those two facets feed off each other.  It's all about delivering the club head to the ball and I really have to get that sensation of letting the pelvis do most of the work instead of just throwing hands into the ball.

I like the visual of the 'snug' right humerus look and I'll be working on that until I start getting back into the groove with my pelvic rotation and then I start to add the shoulder tilt to get drive the hand path more upward.

[Richie3Jack]

Past few sessions haven't been awful, but I'm not quite where I was before the move.

Thankfully, Kelvin's swing philosophies are fairly simple and it's more of a case of doing them and getting to a point where you can do them without consciously thinking about it. So all I have had to do is go back and remember some of the things I've been working on and what I noticed. Thankfully, this swing journal serves that purpose. And with slow motion practice and the Ikkos Advanced Motor Learning System, I can gradually ingrain that swing without consciously thinking about it beforehand.

When I practice, I try to move the ball back in my stance and then move it way up in my stance. Mike Hebron talked to me about that as a way to randomize practice. For whatever reason, it occurred to me of some extra benefit to moving the ball forward and back in my stance.

With the ball in back of my stance = really makes you focus on getting enough pelvic rotation and to get the shoulder tilt at impact to make good contact. If you don't do those two things, it's easy to hit the ball heavy and to hit pushes or low hooks. My goal of moving the ball forward and back in my stance is to help randomize the practice so I can ingrain the swing better, but you also want to make similar type of contact, similar type of divot, etc. Just laying the sod over it and hitting a low push or low hook does you no good. It's alright if the ball flies a little lower than normal, but the divot should be pretty similar. And you I can't do that without proper pelvic rotation.


With the ball way up in my stance = This forces me to shift the CoP to the left side in transition and get that shoulder tilt. If I don't do those two things, I will usually hit the ball a bit thin and/or off the toe. I also tend to hit a huge block or a toe-hook.


What I started to notice with my swing today is that I was having some Right Pelvic Tilt issues as well as adducting the right femur instead of abducting the right femur (getting the Sam Snead squat) early in the downswing. I had to remember one of the things I discovered a while ago...it's really difficult to spin out and hit a wipe if that right femur is abducted and you don't get into RPT too early in the downswing.

I'm finding more and more that the beauty of Kelvin's swing philosophies is that the pelvis can do most of the work, if you know what the pelvis and femurs are supposed to be doing and you allow the pelvis to do that work for you.

[Richie3Jack]

Got some work on FlightScope today. This time I wanted to see a performance difference between a regular sized (and shaped) grip and my Enlow Grips



Again, the Enlow Grips are reverse tapered (normal size on the butt end, fatter towards the mouth). I was curious to see if I was losing any distance with them or if my recent swing issues were more of a culprit.

I warmed up with them and wasn't hitting it well and only generating 93 mph with the 3-iron. I then grab a Hogan Ft Worth 3-iron they had with a normal grip. I started to gain more speed right away, but I was still working out the kinks of my swing. Finally, I got the Hogan 3-iron to 98 mph which is at the Tour average (Trackman is accurate at recording iron club speeds, but struggles with driver speeds, so whatever I had for speed with the 3-iron on FS, it should be the same as if I were on Trackman).

Eventually I started to figure some things out, mostly by focusing on speed. I think this is something so many golfers and instructors overlook...if your speed increases, your likely doing enough things 'right' to create better mechanics and hit the ball more accurately and consistently as well.

I ended the day getting to 100 mph with the 3-iron and finally getting one at 101 mph. Not bad for a badly out-of-shape, hasn't practiced much lately Gen-X'er when the Tour avg with a 3-iron is 98 mph.

Eventually I moved to the driver and here's where I started to see more of a speed loss. However, I did get a couple of drives up to 116 mph at the end.

My thinking is that the Enlow Grips have some real positives, but I may want to warm up with a normal sized grip and then move to the Enlow grip. I get a conscious about losing club speed, even when you're just starting out because it can be a confidence wrecker and that can screw up your swing unconsciously.

And maybe I need to look at other variations of the reverse taper grip on the driver. I did conclude that I can swing the Enlow grip with the driver just as fast, if I make a good swing.

Anyway, I count this is a productive range session. I started to remember a couple of key things:

1. My lumbar lordosis in the backswing really needs work. DJ does it so well here.



I did catch this video from my friend Dana Dahlquist that I thought was interesting.



Some key parts don't jive with Kelvin's work, but I don't think Dana is wrong either.

I started to notice some problems with my swing (loss of speed, steeper attack angle) when I started golfing again after the move much like Bio Kim.

However, I think that is a problem when you teach a pattern that has more left pelvic tilt at the top of the swing. If you have a more level left hip, then you can use the lumbar lordosis to your advantage. But, I think it's interesting how lumbar lordosis can backfire when there are not compatible backswing mechanics.


2.  It so easy to forget how hard you have to swing to hit the ball far

It's also easy to get very lazy with the swing.  


So, I think the I need to work on the following over the next few months in order:

- lumbar lordosis in the backswing.

- Lower body action (pelvic rotation, LPT in downswing, femur movements, hip rotations)

- Moving the CoP towards the left foot in transition

- shoulder tilt at impact with left arm abduction to get the forward shaft lean with the butt of the club moving up to create more parametric acceleration.

[Richie3Jack]

Getting progressively better even though it didn't show on Saturday. Played Jacaranda East, a Bobby Weed design (he also designed TPC Tampa Bay which was far better than expected). Weed did a nice job here. My smash factor/face contact was horrendous and I just didn't feel right. But, I was focusing mostly on the backswing and getting the lumbar lordosis and while I didn't have that zip on the ball, my accuracy was much improved and for the most part the iron play was pretty and the short game was phenomenal. I chipped in twice and almost chipped in 4 times in total.

Today, I played Boca Greens. And old school Joe Lee design. I was looking for something similar to a Rio Pinar...a nearby course that was a quality track and didn't cost a fortune. I managed a 75 at Jacaranda East (+4), but a 71 at Boca Greens (-1). I didn't quite 'get it' until about the 16th hole. But, the ballstriking was much better overall.

Eventually I headed to the PGA Tour Superstore as it was going to pour and I wanted to get some practice in. What I found was the following:

1. My right hip internal rotation in the backswing was wayyyy off.

This is key to get because when it's done properly, it almost feels like you hips have coiled and you pelvis is fully rotated in the backswing and then they almost simply 'uncoil' and cause the pelvis to rotate on the downswing.


2. I was using too much arms and hands in transition.

I found that I simply need to rotate the tailbone in the downswing and the only work the arm really does is the right arm 'pulls back' with the Stop-Sign move getting that external shoulder rotation. The pelvis, hip joints and femurs do all of the work and give the arms and hands a 'free ride' down to the ball. All the right arm does is 'pull back' by externally rotating the shoulder.

With that said, the inability to internally rotate the right hip joint in the backswing set everything off askew in transition.


From there, I have to get used to going from right hip internal rotation to right hip external rotation in transition and also not get into right pelvic tilt.

Prior to today, I was swinging well on the practice range and I would hit it well for the first few holes on the course, but would go to hell afterward. It's simply because I had small mechanical issues that I did not *acknowledge*. So, I was only semi-'getting it' on the range and eventually after a few holes I would completely lose it. I think Moe Norman was spot-on with how important 'knowledge' is to the game of golf. And I think that is why many golfers, Tiger included, tend to fizzle out after hitting it well on the range and starting off well. They don't quite have that 'knowledge' of what they are doing. And for me, I had the knowledge, but it had been a while since I have had to worry about internally rotating the right hip properly in the backswing...so I had to acknowledge the issue first before I could fully get it.

I also started to experiment with some things to figure out why I stopped internally rotating the right hip properly. I finally came up with an answer.

I *believe* that I tend to stand too far away from the ball at address and I tend to crouch too much at address. That gets too much of the pressure towards my toes and while it's not impossible, it's certainly more difficult to get that right hip internal rotation when you're more up on your toes. So, I will work on the following this week:

1. distance from the ball at address.

2. Don't crouch and get up on your toes at address.

3. Full turn, get lumbar lordosis

4. The right hip internally rotates in the backswing. Focus on the HIP, not the right femur, knee, calf or shin.

5. The sacrum rotates, the right arm just pulls back in the downswing.

[Richie3Jack]

I'm making some real progress, but I've only been able to practice indoors due to the rain. So when I get outdoors we'll see if the indoors work is a true representation of what's going on with my swing.

The good news is that I hit 102 mph with my 3-iron indoors. And I got up to 99 mph using somebody else's 6-iron (Callaway Apex). All of the right hip internal rotation in the backswing was spot-on as far as a diagnosis.

The one thing I did notice was my launch angles were too high with the 3-iron (~17 degrees, Tour average is 10.6 degrees). I started to see where I was getting into Right Pelvic Tilt again. So, I started to focus on getting that right hip as high as I can as soon as possible. And that's when I started to hit 102 mph with the 3-iron...repeatedly. And the launch angle went down nicely. I was getting 235 yards carry with the 3-iron.

Before I started focusing on the right hip, I was only getting about 97-98 mph of club speed with the 3-iron. So the high right hip made up for about 5 mph of club speed.

However, I had some struggles translating that 'high right hip' with the driver. But, when I came *close*, I got the club speed up to 117 mph with the driver.

There's still inconsistency which I didn't have much of prior to the move. I tend to internally rotate the right hip too soon.

As far as putting goes, I really haven't worked much on it lately other than working on address alignments. I tend to aim too far open with my stance and I start to slice left-to-right putts and hitting them too softly and then miss on the low side on right-to-left putts and it throws my entire speed/touch off. So I've been using a technique where I draw a line with my eyes from the target to the putter head and address the ball and then focus on the line formed where my elbows are and try to get them parallel to the target line.

[Richie3Jack]

Played on Saturday with my dad up at Pine Barrens, the Rolling Oaks course. I started to make more and more progress leading up to Saturday and one of the big things I saw was that I was maintaining too much rear knee flex at P4.

Maintaining rear knee flex is something I haven't done since I got back to the game in 2009, but I understood the issues it causes:

- Not enough pelvic rotation at p4
- Not enough shoulder rotation at p4
- Out of sequence downswing
- coming over the top
- loss of power.

I checkmarked all of those. The issue for me is that it hasn't been a problem in so long that I just didn't *recognize* the issue.

The big thing was to feel more like I am straightening/stretching the hamstring in my right leg.

The result on Saturday was much improved play. I hit 13 GIR and shot 74. I didn't putt well, but the pins were in terrible locations and it was tough to make anything on the greens.

I started off with a 310 yard drive on the first hole. I also reached a 570 yard par-5 in two shots (after a so-so drive) and carried one drive about 280 yards. The issue for me was that I had hurt my left scapula on Thursday and had to get a deep tissue massage and put some Icy Hot patches on there and I didn't quite feel like I could swing full bore.

But, what's nice is that feeling that the proper dual IR and lumbar lordosis at P4 provides a sense that the pelvis and hips are in place to rotate like you need them too. It almost feels like you have wound up a coil spring and you're just letting them unwind themselves.

So, I will probably work on the backswing for another week or so and then try to move onto the transition next week.

[Richie3Jack]

I only got out to practice a few times this week as I had stuff to do and had a slight pull of an oblique muscle that I wanted to rest for a day.

However, on Thursday when I got back into the swing of things I was trying something new and hit a new record for swing speed with my 3-iron.

104 mph!

I had been getting 101 mph and once in a while 102 mph with the 3-iron in the weeks before. I wasn't swinging that good to begin with in that practice session, but then I started to put it together and could 'only' get to 100 mph with the 3-iron. Then I felt like I was making good progress with the backswing with my lumbar lordosis, right hip interal rotation and pelvic rotation.

I wanted to see what type of speed I could generate by simply double cocking my wrists at the top of the swing. Like Sadlowski (and John Daly) does.



Lucas teaches this to his students, although it's not mandatory.

And PRESTO! 104 mph with a 3-iron (a Hogan Ft. Worth 3-iron)

There were a couple of issues though:

1. I struggled with control and precision with the move.

2. I couldn't generate that same speed with the Enlow Grips.

Believe it or not, I'm not actually worried about #1.

That's one of the biggest joys I have with Kelvin's and Lucas' teaching philosophies. I feel I can make as big of a swing as I want to and swing as hard as I want to and eventually learn how to control it.

I get a lot of people that complaint that Kelvin's articles are too complex, but they really serve as just a reference guide and to point out what he was researched and using the proper scientific terminology. In an actual lesson, it's very simple conceptually. Learning how to execute takes hard work, lots of reps and good practice habits.

For me, I know that the reasons why I was struggling with control and precision with the double wrist cock move is that I have some sequencing issues. I"m not accustomed to the double wrist cock move so I start to slide the pelvis instead of rotating it. I start to get into Right Pelvic Tilt because I've been doing RPT for so long that once I change something, my brain reverts back to what I used to do. I also have to re-learn the Stop Sign Move from the double wrist cock position. And I know there is a tendency for me to get lazy with my lumbar lordosis when I'm focusing on the double wrist cock move.

Once I get more reps and make the double wrist cock move more natural, I can get the sequencing down better and can easily control the ball flight and now hit the ball at elite club speeds (projected 119 mph with the driver) and generate a net positive in my performance.


As far as the Enlow Grips go, I tend to think because I'm not quite comfortable with the double wrist cock move yet, that trying them on the Enlow Grips is going to be difficult to do. So I'm going to use my Yonex irons again which have standard PURE Grips in them and bring my TaylorMade Driver with its PURE Grip in it and see how it goes. Hopefully, I can play some respectable golf with them and once I start to groove the double wrist cock move I can then try the Enlow Grips. And if I don't like the Enlow Grips with the double wrist cock move, I can try other reverse tapered grips that are not so big.

[Richie3Jack]

I think perhaps the biggest key to golf instruction is being able to experiment effectively and inform your student of what is going on. That's part of the reason why I don't care for the standard 1-hour lesson session.

An instructor can find an issue with a golfer's swing, but there may be a half dozen ways to fix the problem. And in the end, 3 of those ways may work for the student and when it comes right down to it...1 of those ways fixes the issue much more quickly than the other two.

I think many teachers are afraid to experiment because if they try something with a student and it doesn't work, by acknowledging that it is not working, then they feel they are perceived as being 'wrong' and 'not knowing what they are talking about.'

Another issue is that the 1-hour timeframe may not allow them enough time to go thru the trial and error and figure out what is the best course of action. And some teachers are too stubborn to even conceive of a fixing an issue in more than 1 way.

On my last post I discussed the power surge I got from double-cocking my wrists at the top. I then went out to Boca Dunes and shot 73, but I didn't hit the ball all that great and when I went to Golfsmith afterward, my club speed dropped dramatically and I struggled to hit the ball well. It's not that I'm against the double wrist cock move, but it's too early to work on that now. And thru trial and error, I found that to be the case.

So for now, I'm going back to working the core fundamentals of what I worked on before.

I found one big issue...I was adducting the right femur in transition. That was something I worked on diligently and the other day I was hitting the ball with a consistently high club speed. I was averaging 101 mph with the 3-iron instead of topping out at 101 mph. And I did top out, once again, at 104 mph with the 3-iron.

I've gone back to the Ikkos Advanced Motor Learning System as it erased the Sadlowski video when the app updated.

I actually like the updates to the app. The picture is much clearer, the binaural beats are not so 'screetchy' and it's easier to trim the video.

I can now see some things in the Sadlowski video that I couldn't quite see before. Such as when Sadlowski rotates the sacrum in the downswing, the left side of the pelvis goes towards the target while the right side of the pelvis 'stays in the same position.' This 'spreads the pelvis' and allow him to move the CoP towards his left side in transition before the CoP shifts back towards the center of his stance at impact.

And not adducting the right femur too early does a lot of things. It helps prevent Right Pelvic Tilt and makes it much easier to get dual adduction of the femurs into impact.

The only problem now is that I have to get back into getting the Stop Sign Move.

I've just come to realize that I can't play good consistent golf if I'm in RPT and don't execute the Stop Sign move. That doesn't mean I will always play good golf with those moves, but without them I stand NO chance.

So once I get those implanted in my swing again, then I can start working on other things.

The other issue I had was I am still struggling with my lower body motion in the backswing. I started to focus on the right hip bone in the backswing and that helped me more and I started hitting the ball well. Now, I just need to get a consistent amount of reps in each day.

[Richie3Jack]

I haven't updated in about a month. My game was really struggling as I couldn't get much practice in. However, I found a lighted range at John Prince Park in Lake Worth to practice. It's a bit out of the way and the grass range isn't anything to brag about. However, the mats are very good as they have an adjustable tee. And the short game area and putting green are in spectacular shape for a lighted driving range. The only issue has been that the weather is so humid and hot that it's tough to get in all of the practice before my hands are too sweaty to swing.

I also started to get back to the Ikkos CopyMe Golf system. With the struggles I had when I wasn't using it to the improved performance when I got back into using it, I really hold the product in high regard. It's amazing how it works to get your brain into understanding the mechanics you want and I'm pretty darn close to swinging it like I was right before the move.

I did switch back to the PURE Grips from the Enlow Grips. I still have the Enlow Grips in my 3-wood and S-Wedge since I still hit those well. And I still have the Enlow Grips available to put on later, but with the issues with my swing and trying to get my mechanics back I was better off going to 'standard' grips. With that said, I like the reverse taper concept and have added 10 wraps of tape under my right hand.

I also purchased a TaylorMade M1 driver. It has a Fujikura 661 Speeder Evolution Tour Spec shaft. I can generate a lot of speed with it and I like the feel of it.



My experience tells me that when you're really struggling with your swing, that you can count on at least 3 major mechanical issues where those pieces have greatly altered from when you were hitting it well.

I think there are 2 ways somebody can go about it:

A. Work on and focus on 1 piece at a time.

B. Work on multiple pieces at once.

With choice A, you may better fix the problem permanently. However, you're likely to struggle with your swing because if you have 4 pieces to work on, if you fix that 1 piece, you still have 3 pieces to work on.

Choice B means that you can gt back to hitting the ball better sooner, but by the same token you may not quite fix the isue.

I have chosen choice B.

Mainly, there were lower body issues in the backswing, some lower body issues in transition and that caused some pelvic stalling. However, the pelvis started to develop a habit of stalling itself even when the lower body mechanics were sound. And then there was/is some right elbow move issues.

What I have observed in the backswing is that I had some lumbar lordosis issues and not quite getting the dual internal hip rotation along with the dual femur adduction into P4. The other issue is that I was not moving the sacrum forward, towards the target at P4. This may have been caused by hurt my left shoulder and right elbow and not wanting to get that full turn in the backswing.

With Kelvin's philosophy, I find it very important to get the backswing with the right lower body pieces and rotations and Kelvin shows in the video below:



Of course, there are doubters of the Spine Engine theory. But regardless of the doubters, I can say from my experience using these mechanics that when I get the proper lumbar lordosis with the sacrum moving forward, towards the target at P4 and getting dual IR of the hips and dual adduction of the femurs...it not only creates that 'snapping action' for power, but all of the transition pieces more easily fall into place. While I've been able to increase club speed under Kelvin's work, getting up as high as 117 mph with the driver and 104 mph with a 3-iron, the accuracy and precision have improved just as much when I was getting the swing down pat.

One of the big components of this is simply making sure to get the left knee to kick in behind the ball at P4 like in the Snead photo above (or like Jack, below):



Brandel Chamblee's book reminded me of getting the left knee kicked in behind the ball. A lot of people disparage him being a proponent of getting the left heel off the ground. I think there's a way to do it...getting dual IR of the hips on the backswing. But, I think it's a great move to have because for people like myself, if we keep the left heel on the ground it's going to be more difficult for us to kick the left knee in behind the ball. And when that doesn't happen, it makes so many lower body pieces in transition very difficult to accomplish with any consistency.

In transition I had some issues with getting the right hip externally rotated and the right femur abducting.

The hard part about struggling with your swing or even struggling with a certain piece of the swing is that usually you have to figure out what is causing the problem and then correct that in order to allow you to be able to make the motion you want to make. And then subsequent pieces need to be trained so you can make the motion you want to make.

For me, getting the lower body motions I want in the backswing made it possible to more consistently execute the transition pieces. But, since I had been using those transition pieces for a while I started to ingrain them. And now that the backswing pieces have changed, sometimes my brain continues to use those bad pieces in transition.

I really don't believe the swing is about fixing one piece and everything else will fall into place. And I don't think it's about 'relying less on timing' (although I used to think that). I think the golf swing is about how mechanics affect what you can do in subsequent parts of the swing and the best ballstrikers had a swing that had a great margin for error, so they could be a bit off and still hit quality golf shots.

The other issue I had was with how the left foot was planting in transition after it had been lifted in the backswing. This is an issue that Lucas and I have worked on before as I tend to flare out the left foot even more in transition when the left foot plants into the ground.

This is something I've been working more diligently on to finally fix the problem once and for all and I started to notice that it's more difficult to flare out the left foot when it plants if I land more on the outside of left foot (towards the pinky toe side of the foot). I also started to notice more pop in my swing and better pelvic rotation. Lucas had a video on YouTube discussing this with a young Nicklaus doing it well, but I can't find the video.

From there, I still have some residual Right Pelvic Tilt issues that pop up along with some pelvis stalling even when I hit the mechanics well. But, the Ikkos system really started to make my brain more aware of those issues and jogged some memories of how I used to do it.

Tonight I started to get these issues down correctly and was even able to start to go back to work on raising the handle of the club in order to get so more parametric acceleration. But for now I will focus on the main issues:

1. Dual Hip IR with dual femur adduction at P4 (getting the left knee kicking in behind the ball)

2. Getting the sacrum to move forward, towards the target at P4

3. Landing more towards the outside edge of the left foot when planting the left foot in transition

4. Continuing to rotate the pelvis instead of stalling.

Then the residual issues to work on are:

- Right Pelvic Tilt (dip, stall and flip)
- Right Femur adduction in transitiion
- Early right shoulder internal rotation in the downswing.

Eventually, I will get to shoulder tilt at impact, left arm abduction into impact and the right elbow move.

[Richie3Jack]

Today we played up in The Villages and I shot -2 under with a 15/5 Score of +22.

That should translate to shooting -5 under, but I couldn't make the putts to get there. However, it's not easy putting in The Villages because of the steep undulations in the greens.

But, the ballstriking was really good. The M1 worked alright. I hit some big drives, but hit some pushes. I can't blame the club because I still need to get more reps in with regards to what I've been working on recently. But, the irons were really on. It also helped that there was no wind, but I was getting great distance control and being able to hit different windows with ease.'