When a Weakness Turns Into a Weapon

[GPStyles]

Richie, I've been following your blog off and on and agree that its great to read about your development. Do you mind if I ask you to expand a little more on your background?

What age are you, do you work and is it your ambition to turn pro (now or at age 50)?

I'd love to know the answers to these questions.

Thanks.

[Richie3Jack]

Richie, I've been following your blog off and on and agree that its great to read about your development. Do you mind if I ask you to expand a little more on your background?

What age are you, do you work and is it your ambition to turn pro (now or at age 50)?

I'd love to know the answers to these questions.

Thanks.

Sure.

Started playing when I was 11 in Upstate NY and was pretty much self taught. Had a friend who was 6 years older than mean that played D-1 golf and some mini-tours and was considered a 'swing buff' and he would help me occasionally, but not much real instruction. I then went to play at Coastal Carolina and my swing really got screwed up and I couldn't correct it. Saw a bunch of teaching pros that taught 'position golf', 'learning mechanics from feel' and trying to create one swing for all the students. Really screwed me up. My friend suggested I see Tom Tomasello as he knew that he was a 'swing guru', but when I went to see Tom at Deer Track, he had unfortunately passed away. Met up with one of Tom's understudies, a GSED, and we worked on a 'swinging' pattern and he introduced me to TGM.

Tried to read TGM and understood about 4 pages of it, but I knew the concepts were pretty brilliant. Helped my game a bit too, but I was still a guy that basically had to really try and hit about 12 greens a round. Fortunately I had a fantastic short game, so if I hit 12 greens and stayed out of trouble, I could shoot under par easily. I played a few mini-tour events and I aspired to be a teaching pro. Really didn't want to be working at a club and be a glorified credit card swiper. I had a job lined up to develop into a teaching pro, but it fell thru the day before I was supposed to start. So after graduation, I just hung out in Myrtle Beach for about a year (I was dating a girl at the time that had another semester to graduate) and then I moved to Atlanta to get a 'real job.'

I was a bit burned out on golf at the time. Plus, at the time golf in Atlanta was pretty much unaffordable. It's affordable now because the club I'm a member at has a bit of a unique business model that makes golf affordable and I can play 23 different golf courses. But back then any decent golf course in Atlanta pretty much was unaffordable to 95% of the golfing public. What pretty much happened is many of those courses were going bankrupt and the club I belong to bought them up as distressed properties.

Anyway, I quit playing the game for 8 years. Mainly playing about 2-3 times a year, if that. In 2008 I started getting sick and found that I needed a kidney transplant. I had one back on October 29, 2009 and the one thing I vowed was to get back into the game of golf. I had become a bit disillusioned with the game at times in my life, but I realized that whether I like it or not I am a golfer and life is to short to avoid doing things that you love and are passionate about. I couldn't play golf until January.

I had become a bit disillusioned by the golf instruction process as well. I knew I was violating the #1 imperative of TGM, but couldn't figure out why. So in the meantime I made a goal for myself to finally understand TGM. I reasoned that the way my mind works is that I am better off understanding everything I can because if I don't, I get MORE CONFUSED and try to emulate successful golfer when their swing is not for me. So learn the components of say, Hogan's swing or Moe Norman's swing and why it works and then I can figure out what components I need to make an effective and consistent golf swing.

I also tried to do the comeback by myself and it was working pretty well at first, but by month 2 I really did not like my progress and I called up Ted after a horrible round of golf.

At the time I was playing to 4.5 handicap. Now, about 5 months later I am at +0.5 and there's been many other small successes. If there's one hugecredit I have to give to Ted, it's that he believes I have some talent to play this game and be successful on some levels in this game. He's also freely answered any questions I've had about the yellow book. Other instructors pretty much gave the vibe that I probably wasn't going to do much with my golfing career and sort of got sick of me coming to them when I had struggles or got really frustrated if I came back from a bad showing at a tournament. I had far, far more potential back then versus today and it's sad to look back and see the difference in those instructor's attitude towards me and the game versus Ted's attitude and interest towards my game.

Hey, you gotta know your stuff and know how to convey your point, but Ted reminds me of what Bill Parcells once said when asked why he always goes to teams that are miserable and why not take over a team that has a pretty good record and just needs a little nudge over the top, Parcells would reply 'where's the fun in that?'

My main ambition right now is to win my Club Championship which doesn't take place until October. I have no idea whether I can win or not, I just want to put in a solid effort and see where my score falls from there.

Then after that, I would love to qualify for the US Amateur. My biggest goal would be to qualify for the US Open, my favorite tournament ever, but that would be an extremely lofty goal to say the least.

Sadly, I doubt there will even be a Champions Tour around by the time I turn 50, so I don't imagine myself turning pro in the near future or in 18 years when I'm eligible for a Champions Tour.




3JACK

[GPStyles]

Thanks for that informative reply! Wow, sorry to hear about your kidney problems, I have a friend who has had a transplant, if its something you might be interested in, he represented Ireland in Golf at (I think) The Transplant Games. Something like that anyway. Might be something for you to look in to.

Your handicap reduction is amazing and testament to Ted's instruction and your own hard work.

Can I ask what you work as, you do seem to be very flexible and get to play a lot.

Keep up the good work, I'm trying to get to scratch myself and have gone from 3.9 to 2.6 recently. The biggest challenge for me is to really go low, I mean 5 or 6 under. At the minute 1 or 2 under is as good as I expect to do.

I'm sure the Champs Tour will be around when you turn 50, the only problem is a certain Eldrick Woods might be playing on it!

[Richie3Jack]

I am currently unemployed. I used to work in the field of sales/data analysis and statistics.




3JACK

[gmbtempe]

Richie,

I am glad you got your transplant and have taken up the game again, golf is better with you around!

I saw you got into a pretty good thread with Brian M on hitting and swinging a week or so ago, till our friend Jeff jumped in and got it closed down (errrr, not saying he was right or wrong, it just always happens). I dont like how he deleted other peoples posts and cherry picked the info so I might have missed some of your posts compared to what I read today.

I understood what Brian was saying that there is no true hitter or swinger and what feels like hitting is invariably still a swinging motion. I guess what I don't understand is for a guy who seems to promote patterns of swinging a club he is so opposed to using a hitting stroke, which to me could be just as much one of his patterns as NSA. Its also disconcerting to hear him say how trying to hit has ruined many a golfer, as you know I am digging into hitting.

I really studied the hitting posts around here all weekend and made a serious attempt to hit last night, too many changes to implement to make any determination but I can say for certain I did not go from 85% to 65% power as he suggested in that thread. What caught me by the biggest surprise is even with new impact fix hands which made the club look open at address I was still pulling the ball, is that the typical miss hitting, a pull or pull cut?

[KevCarter]

Richie,

I am glad you got your transplant and have taken up the game again, golf is better with you around!

I saw you got into a pretty good thread with Brian M on hitting and swinging a week or so ago, till our friend Jeff jumped in and got it closed down (errrr, not saying he was right or wrong, it just always happens). I dont like how he deleted other peoples posts and cherry picked the info so I might have missed some of your posts compared to what I read today.

I understood what Brian was saying that there is no true hitter or swinger and what feels like hitting is invariably still a swinging motion. I guess what I don't understand is for a guy who seems to promote patterns of swinging a club he is so opposed to using a hitting stroke, which to me could be just as much one of his patterns as NSA. Its also disconcerting to hear him say how trying to hit has ruined many a golfer, as you know I am digging into hitting.

I really studied the hitting posts around here all weekend and made a serious attempt to hit last night, too many changes to implement to make any determination but I can say for certain I did not go from 85% to 65% power as he suggested in that thread. What caught me by the biggest surprise is even with new impact fix hands which made the club look open at address I was still pulling the ball, is that the typical miss hitting, a pull or pull cut?

I think the study of 2-J-1 and 2-J-2 and 2-J-3 would be of great benefit. You must understand these sections to learn where to drive that magic right forearm.

Kevin

[gmbtempe]

I think the study of 2-J-1 and 2-J-2 and 2-J-3 would be of great benefit. You must understand these sections to learn where to drive that magic right forearm.

Kevin

Thanks, I got the book on order. I bought it on ebay from some GSEM, first one was lost shipping according to USPS, second was the wrong address so going on three weeks.....maybe its a sign on TGM for me

I will be sure to check out those sections, thanks.

[KevCarter]

Please shoot me your email address:

kevinpgapro1234@mac.com

Kevin

[Richie3Jack]

What caught me by the biggest surprise is even with new impact fix hands which made the club look open at address I was still pulling the ball, is that the typical miss hitting, a pull or pull cut?

As Yoda has mentioned, you don't need to have impact fix when hitting. Yoda doesn't do it...I don't either. Impact or mid-body with the hitting procedure is preferential. I only ue impact fix when I want to keep the ball low. One of the things I love about impact fix is that you can clearly see the right forearm flying wedge and just maintain that wedge throughout the swing.

But again, impact or mid-body hands are preferential. I prefer mid-body because I can more easily use the right forearm takeaway with that.

As far as the pull, that's probably my most common leave. I do come down on the Turned Shoulder Plane which is common for hitters IIRC and since that is a bit steeper of a plane, the leave is likely to the left. You may be doing the same thing.

As far as hitting vs. swinging goes, in my experience most teachers...even TGM AI's avoid teaching hitting. I hear a lot of 'only 10% of golfer are meant for hitting' and stuff like that. I certainly do not buy that or have yet to see evidence that can convince me that's true. Especially since hitting is known best for golfers with a lack of flexibility and it's not like I am seeing a bunch of yoga instructors when I go out to the range. So if an instructor is against hitting, get used to it.




3JACK

[O.B.Left]

Im seeing Hitters all over the place now. Swingers who thrust. Even little kids, women you name it, if the lever is too heavy for them they push it with there dominant side I guess. Whether you agree with me or not as to their numbers you have to agree that these types are ignored by swing centric golf magazines. In fact most tips are contra indicated for the hitter Id say. Let the hitter beware.