Post by Richie3Jack on Jan 21, 2010 22:00:33 GMT -5
While many of the things in regards to The Golfing Machine are debatable, I thought something invaluable that Homer Kelley discussed in the book is how to practice.
Understanding the role of feel in the game, treating driving range time as a laboratory experience, and how to catologue the components of the swing are all very valuable parts to improving your game. If there's one thing that can be said about TGM, it is a system for the golfer to develop their own golf swing.
One of the things that HK states in the book is when the golfer is practicing the golfer needs to look, LOOK, LOOK.
That is exactly how HK wrote 'look, LOOK, LOOK' in the book. The first 'look' is in small case. The second 'LOOK' is in caps. And then the last LOOK is in the caps and italicised. HK was quite particular with the way he wrote words in the book and if he capitalized a word, that was important. If he capitalized it and italicised it, then it was even more important. To write the work 3 times like Homer did, means that he felt it was of the utmost importance.
HK wanted the golfer to just manually look at their swing. I'm not sure how involved he was with mirrors and the golf swing because the book doesn't mention it much. From what I read and heard, Hogan liked to work a lot with mirrors, but wasn't a big 'camera guy.' But the camera technology was almost pre-historic in his era and trying record the swing and develop the film or to be able to see what the swing looked like back then probably took some work and time.
I believe that Hogan would have been a big camcorder guy if he played today. To me, the camcorder is a great way to 'look, LOOK, LOOK.' Especially with today's Casio slo-mo cameras, they are extremely helpful.
I record my swing almost every practice. Especially as I work on new things in my swing in order to make sure that I do what I'm supposed to do or get on the right track immediately.
I know there are many instructors, even downright excellent ones, that are not too keen on the camera.
I can understand that to a point, because the camera takes away time from when you are hitting the ball and whatever the instructor is working on. However, I think it's important to show *some* camera footage to show the student what it will look like when they are following the instructor's instruction and what it looks like when they don't follow the instruction. Then, the golfer can use that info and bring it to the range with them and record their swing on the range and compare it to what the teacher instructed them to do in the lesson.
Trackman gives a bit of a different way for the golfer to 'look, LOOK, LOOK by giving actual dimensions of the club in the downswing and thru impact. However, I think it's a tool that requires an instructor to help achieve the numbers you are looking for or a very good player who know the golf swing pretty well and can figure out what they are doing on their own. It's also not cheap to get Trackman time either. But, it's still a phenomenal tool for golfers, but more of a phenomenal tool for instructors.
The only issue with camera work is that often times you just need to hit golf balls to keep your rhythm, to not thing about too many things at once and to get some repitition involved in your swing. But I prefer that to 'mirror work' because what you do when you are actually hitting a golf ball is usually much different than when you are looking at yourself in the mirror.
But I'm always curious to know how other people do things and how they 'look' at their swing.
3JACK
Understanding the role of feel in the game, treating driving range time as a laboratory experience, and how to catologue the components of the swing are all very valuable parts to improving your game. If there's one thing that can be said about TGM, it is a system for the golfer to develop their own golf swing.
One of the things that HK states in the book is when the golfer is practicing the golfer needs to look, LOOK, LOOK.
That is exactly how HK wrote 'look, LOOK, LOOK' in the book. The first 'look' is in small case. The second 'LOOK' is in caps. And then the last LOOK is in the caps and italicised. HK was quite particular with the way he wrote words in the book and if he capitalized a word, that was important. If he capitalized it and italicised it, then it was even more important. To write the work 3 times like Homer did, means that he felt it was of the utmost importance.
HK wanted the golfer to just manually look at their swing. I'm not sure how involved he was with mirrors and the golf swing because the book doesn't mention it much. From what I read and heard, Hogan liked to work a lot with mirrors, but wasn't a big 'camera guy.' But the camera technology was almost pre-historic in his era and trying record the swing and develop the film or to be able to see what the swing looked like back then probably took some work and time.
I believe that Hogan would have been a big camcorder guy if he played today. To me, the camcorder is a great way to 'look, LOOK, LOOK.' Especially with today's Casio slo-mo cameras, they are extremely helpful.
I record my swing almost every practice. Especially as I work on new things in my swing in order to make sure that I do what I'm supposed to do or get on the right track immediately.
I know there are many instructors, even downright excellent ones, that are not too keen on the camera.
I can understand that to a point, because the camera takes away time from when you are hitting the ball and whatever the instructor is working on. However, I think it's important to show *some* camera footage to show the student what it will look like when they are following the instructor's instruction and what it looks like when they don't follow the instruction. Then, the golfer can use that info and bring it to the range with them and record their swing on the range and compare it to what the teacher instructed them to do in the lesson.
Trackman gives a bit of a different way for the golfer to 'look, LOOK, LOOK by giving actual dimensions of the club in the downswing and thru impact. However, I think it's a tool that requires an instructor to help achieve the numbers you are looking for or a very good player who know the golf swing pretty well and can figure out what they are doing on their own. It's also not cheap to get Trackman time either. But, it's still a phenomenal tool for golfers, but more of a phenomenal tool for instructors.
The only issue with camera work is that often times you just need to hit golf balls to keep your rhythm, to not thing about too many things at once and to get some repitition involved in your swing. But I prefer that to 'mirror work' because what you do when you are actually hitting a golf ball is usually much different than when you are looking at yourself in the mirror.
But I'm always curious to know how other people do things and how they 'look' at their swing.
3JACK
), but at least I have a more realistic idea of where I'm at now. 
