How do you know you've got power?
 

Something's been bothering me. How do you know if you're using your accumulators correctly, if at all?

Please consider the following:

Someone has been interested in golf for a long time, but never actually taken a lesson. Instead, curiosoty and many late evenings on empty ranges through the years have led to a sort of a trail and error swing based on the following simple assumption: if a change hits the ball farhter, it helps building a sounder swing. That is- the swing (total motion) that hits a specific club the farthest (assuming the desired trajectory), is also the best swing.

Then this golfer stumbles upon TGM and sees all these nice concepts. Because of lack of formal training it might be difficult to gauge how much of TGM that is actually already incorporated in the existing swing.
And assuming that everything can always become better the golfer now tries to develop 'true' power based on TGM in an effort to maximize potential.
In line with prior experiences the golfer now studies the book and, with use of available online material, tries to incorporate on his own, methods he has read about. But since 'feel' isn't always accurate, and look, look, LOOKING for the wrong things isn't all THAT, he might mess up things that were 'accidentally good', substituting them for intent that leads to tension (trying to hold/reach certain positions.
I know that the above described tension isn't part of the curriculum, of course, but still...

Maybe the false belief that learing G.O.L.F the right way will add distance (assuming distance is already good) might put hurdles in the way of a newbie- forcing overswinging thinking THERE HAS TO BE MORE.
When do you stop "worrying" about power and start looking on other things?

I carry (give or take) a 9 iron 135 yds, 7 iron 165 yds. 3 iron I don't really know the carry, but it typically stops 200-220 yds out. My drives come to rest at about 265 yds (give or take).

I play to just below 10 HCP, still improving.

Power
 

Andretti,

Interesting questions - I'll give you my two cents.

The yardage carry numbers you mentioned are IMO good enough for someone to play at a low single-digit handicap, if not at zero or even better. Accuracy, short game skills, course management, etc are the other components that define how "good" the player gets and how well he/she scores. To me, G.O.L.F is about gaining the precision that balances power with accuracy. It also means developing a variety of short game shots required to score well. I suspect you know when your hitting it "solid" which to me means compressing it with reasonable distance and not way off line. If it's getting "wild" then your focus may be skewed to the power side. As you get more consistent with hitting it with accuracy, then you can ratchet things up a little if you feel the need for speed.

CG

Thanks for your input.

It's already been decided that this season primarily deals with short game <100 yds/meters. I know I need that to really get a grip on consistantly low scores.

Apart from that my questions actually has more to do with understanding than power itself. Like you said- on most courses I typically have a wedge or short iron on par 4s, so I'm not that obsessed with power. But to me, as stated in the first post, only the cleanest, most correct swing/contact will generate max power.

Distance has actually been the no. 1 proof of a good swing for me. I realize there are those that hit the ball much farther, but it would be interesting to know what my body knows that my mind doesn't! :)

Maybe the road to go, if possible, is to lessen the effort with maintained distance?

When i was a leakage hooker with no compression i could still get a 9 iron to go 135-145 with not much issue.

As i learned G.O.L.F. at first, the distance was about the same or possibly a little shorter because i didn't have the confidence yet and swung a little slower.

Now my normal 9 iron goes the same distance as before but i have a bunch in reserve ;). Plus my technique is much better therefore my accuracy has improved as well.

I'd say i've seen most of my distance gains in the 5 iron on down.

andretti, you have all the distance you need. To CONTROL that distance is the next step.

Effort not Distance
 

For me it's the effort I use to hit the ball a certain distance. I don't know how "hard" you are swinging to hit the distances you quoted but for me I try to use 70-80% of my max effort when I am on the course. I can hit a 9 iron 130-140 yards but a lot of times I would ratehr hit a 8-iron at 70% because of the accuaracy I gain in swinging with less effort.

I have certainly gained more yardage applying TGM methodology but the real rewards have been in accuracy. Having a great chance at getting on in two (or one on most par 3's) and/or chipping and pitching the ball within 6 feet consistently is, for me, what TGM has provided and where the true value lies.

There a lot of GREAT people that are on this forum to help you improve but we as human beings sometimes can't see the forest for the trees and need someone else to take a look, look, look for us. My next goal is to see a TGM Instructor to get a professional point of view. I want to get my handicap down to 8, 9 or 10 (I'm about a 12 now)by summers end and I believe having someone from this teaching mothodology can help me accomplish that.

Best of luck, you're probably much closer than you think.

Indeed Michael, you have come a long ways! We here on LBG are very proud of your progress.

It takes a village...
 

Thanks so much Justin. Without question I would not be improving without the selfless contribution of you and other folks on this site.

Thank you all for the input!

a

To the original question, how do you know when you have power - when you can 'hear' your shots and your divots make the ball sound like sizzling bacon.