Young Yoda
 

I was going through some old boxes this weekend and came up with these photos. They were taken in 1983 at a golf school I conducted at Sawgrass. At least I think it was Sawgrass. May have been at Raintree C.C. in Charlotte. Before I "went away a spell," I was already stirring the TGM pot pretty good. That's Dr. Gary Wiren, then Director of Instruction, PGA of America, at the far left in the PGA-crested blazer. He and two of his associates flew in from PGA Headquarters -- a Men in Black sort of thing -- and spent a full day at the school. Gary walked away with a yellow pad full of notes and his incubator humming.

By the way, notice that in this little set-up -- you can't see it but the Clubshaft is resting on a straight stick suspended between two chairs -- if you Trace a Straight Plane Line, the Clubhead automatically moves in the most perfect curve. In other words, Tracing the true Geometric Plane Line automatically produces the Arc of Approach.

This Arc of Approach is now the New Big Thing in conventional instruction. They don't call it the Arc of Approach (or anything else for that matter), but the big deal is all about visualizing curves on the ground and 'going left' with the Hands and Clubhead through Impact and Follow-Through. All being done, of course, with absolutely nothing to guide the Clubhead in its curving path.

The solution to all this confusion is to do what Homer Kelley taught me 24 years ago and what I have taught countless others since: Trace a Straight Plane Line with the Right Forearm and #3 Pressure Point.

It is the Third Imperative.

Youth
 

Nice pic..

How about a video sample of your first Golfing Machine home school.

Living Room Yoda
 

:shock:

Doug, did we look at that when you visited?

Lynn,
Nice wear spot on your wedge in the pic!!

How about any handout materials?

I love the setup of the mirrors and plane and stance lines.

Can you compare progress between indoor teaching and outdoor, ball flight affect on motion between the two?

Thanks,

Todd

I remember watching some of the Sawgrass video last spring. It's weird - yet encouraging - that the info is exactly the same now as it was almost 25 years ago. While the clothes and hairstyles have been updated, the information remains consistent. Same easel and 'geometry of the circle' illustration as well.

How about that brochure too Lynn? I remember you saying, "How many other instructors today could use their pamphlet from 25 years ago and not have to change a word on it?" :D

movie
 

Yes ...It was a late night movie..

It was a week that I'll never forget.

The more things change...
 

The more they stay the same.

Didn't Dr. Gary Wiren base his concept "Laws, Principles, and Preferences" on Homer's work, only to get them mixed up?

They Know Who They Are
 

That's right, Drew. And it always rankled Homer that the only acknowledgement of that fact came in the book's Foreward, something to the effect: "This book is based on the work of others. They know who they are."

Hot-wiren'
 

The Law should explain the Principle, not the other way arround?

BTW, even back then you had a preference for green (nice sweater).

Very Cool Stuff!!

What are those circular things in front of the students? mirrors?

I think that in the first shot Yoda is either holding a light sabre (darth maul style) or two flashlights joined at the ends.

Best wishes
Milan

very very cool. what no dowels???

Young Yoda Meets Euclid
 

Digging deeper into the box for you, Matt. Hmmm...that brochure is around here somewhere. Hey, while I look, how about this one? As you said, that Circle Geometry ain't changin' any time soon!

who's the young guy
 

Who's the strapping young lad with the dark hair?

When I Was 635...It Was A Very Good Year!
 

Enough of that, young Luke!

I was only 635 years old at the time. And the hair was blond. That B&W photo has an attitude! :D

Bertholy's Mirrors and Kelley's Alignments
 

Yes, Milan, those would be mirrors. I got the idea from Paul Bertholy, one of the more famous names in golf instruction in those days, when I trained under him during a three-day course at his home. Below is a September 1983 photo of Paul and me in his back yard near Pinehurst, North Carolina. Note the famed Bertholy Swing Bar in my left hand. And see, Luke, I told you my hair was blond!

Also, I've included another shot of how I trained students using the mirrors. First of all, check out that video set-up. It is commonplace today, but I promise it was 'anything but' in 1982! Students would pose in the Twelve Sections of the Stroke (except Preliminary Address, of course) as I called out the G.O.L.F. alignments and walked around adjusting everybody. Take a look at these guys in Section Eleven -- the Follow-Through (Both Arms Straight position). These are 'average guys' and they look like TOUR players! In the interest of full disclosure, I'm still working on the lady in front. Got to Flatten that Left Wrist and get those Arms extended!

The Flail and The Circle Old Skool
 

Cool! Do you still have that prop? that is an awesome teaching tool.

Low Maintenance Brochure
 

Here we go, Matt. This is my brochure exactly as it was printed in 1982. Every word is there, and I wouldn't change one. No need to! :)

Notice that Young Yoda in the large photo is Swinging with Horizontal Hinging. How can you tell? The toe of that Club is pointing right along the Plane Line.

There is one other thing that I thought was very important (and still do). Homer Kelley had trademarked the names Star System of G.O.L.F. and Star System Press,and he specifically approved my proprietary use of the name Star System Schools of Golf. I personally designed and had printed the brochure you see. Even so, my own name is mentioned only once in the entire piece...in small type at the bottom of the last page within an address block.

It was my intention that the brochure serve a world-wide network of competent Instructors and that each individual personalize it for his or her own marketing purposes. Even then I knew that Homer's work is far bigger than any one person or any one life and that it will take an army to take its message to the Golf World. Whether heralded as The Golfing Machine or some specific application of same, its concepts, principles and procedures will one day dominate the world of golf instruction. It is not a question of if...it is a question of when.

Inside And Out Back
 

Here are a few more photos from my second TGM school (winter 1982). I conducted it at my home...in the living room (actually the den) and in the back yard. The captions (in order):

1. Demonstrating Vertical Hinge Action with the model I built from Homer's plans.

2. As I was making some obviously important point to the class, Doug White is look, LOOK LOOKING!

3. My own not-too-stable version of the Inclined Plane.

4. Doug really got into the program. He actually built a plane board that he kept in his garage. And that was long before anybody ever heard of a plane board. Doug was a 16-handicap when he signed up for the class. Some eighteen months later, in the fall of 1983, he was down to a 4-handicap and shot a one-under par 71 in a club competition on a true Championship layout. Doug's 63-years-old now and still limping along with that 4 (although he went as low as 3 before Father Time started doing his thing). Moral of the story? With diligent application of precision TGM principles and procedures, progress can be very rapid...and permanent.

Those were the days, my friends...

So cool Yoda! So Cool.

One day I'm going to build a plane board - pictures like these go into my motivation incubator.

Chris

Back Into the Box
 

Chris,

I notice the little home-made device you've got in your avatar. Interestingly, I took a snapshot of Homer Kelley demonstrating the Flying Wedges with clapped hands. I had Greg McHatton, a fellow class member and now a GSED and PGA teaching professional in California, put some cardboard in the same configuration as your avatar device to demonstrate the relationships. I'll see if I can't find that photo and put it up. :)

Thanks for sharing...
 

Lynn,

Thank you for sharing all these precious photos...now I finally know where those drills originated from!

Computer Age?
 

Thanks for these great photos Lynn.

I always wondered why Homer called it the Computer Age Approach to Golf. To my knowledge most of his research was done without a Computer or any other high-tech equipment.

history
 

A lot of history in those photos. It's the foundation of what we have been benefiting from for the last two years (seems like a lot more). Way cool.

more....

Yesterday's Today
 

Yoda,

This is so cool! Were these pics taken after the 6th Edition was published?

Also, you continue to teach the same principles today. But what if anything do you teach differently? Have there been any "ah ha!" discoveries that have changed the way you do your thing?

Thanks so much for sharing!

B

Nice endorsement on your brochure from Mike Holder!

You seem to be the man who brought "hitting" back into the mainstream ( Thank you, thank you, thank you!!). Did you teach as much hitting back then as you do now?

A Big Idea
 

Regarding the above brochure, there is one other thing that I thought was very important (and still do). Homer Kelley had trademarked the names Star System of G.O.L.F. and Star System Press,and he specifically approved my proprietary use of the name Star System Schools of Golf. I personally designed and had printed the brochure you see. Even so, my own name is mentioned only once in the entire piece...in small type at the bottom of the last page with an address block.

It was my intention that the brochure serve a world-wide network of competent Instructors and that each individual personalize it for his or her own marketing purposes. Even then I knew that Homer Kelley's work is far bigger than any one person or any one life and that it will take an army to take its message to the Golf World. Whether heralded as The Golfing Machine or some specific application of same, its concepts, principles and procedures will one day dominate the world of golf instruction. It is not a question of if...it is a question of when.

Mike Holder's Endorsement
 

Mike Holder and I were together in Homer Kelley's GSEM training class in January 1982. He didn't bring a recorder -- I'm tellin' you guys, all this now 'everyday' stuff was still very new back then! -- so I made him copies of my own tapes. Later, when I put together the brochure, he provided the ringing endorsement you read.

Regarding your question, I taught Hitting conceptually in the School's lecture, but centered the training around a Swinging Pattern. That was because most students were -- then and now -- Swingers. It was important that I get a handle on 'who was what' as quickly as possible, so I would video-tape each Student's Stroke before Class began the first day as they hit into a big net in our indoor ballroom setting. I also shot a Stroke Sequence with a high-speed camera bought especially for that purpose. I would then send the film out for 'instant' processing -- there were no 'one hour' services available so I paid a good bit extra to muscle my way to the front of the line -- and the Students would get a little flip-chart booklet of their own Golf Strokes on the third day, fully marked up with a grease pencil and accompanied by my personal recorded analysis. Our classes averaged from twelve to twenty students, and I had to get all that work done at night, so Young Yoda was a busy little fellow. But, as a result, I absolutely knew what I had to work with in each individual case.

The training was rooted in the precision alignments of the Mechanical Checklist For All Strokes (12-3) and the Twelve Sections of the Stroke (Chapter Eight). We would first learn to identify the boundaries of each Section -- Students would call out the name as they moved to it ("Start Up"..."Backstroke"..."Top," etc.) -- and then pose for ten seconds in each, monitoring the Alignments as I called them out. We also worked hard on the three-step Address Routine of 3-F-5. Over a period of three days, these alignments became more and more habitual, and students learned to both train and check themselves. We moved from Posed Positions to very Slow Motion Strokes through the Positions to Normal Speed Strokes. Much of this was done first with a ClubSHAFT only and only later with a real Club. And always without a Ball (except as a reference point to Swing through!). As a consequence, quite a bit of real learning went on -- not just Ball-beating -- and many of my students enjoyed rapid success. Several became the Most Improved Player at their club during the year of their training, and one 5-handicapper in the Spring -- Tim Rash -- won the Richmond (Virginia) City Amateur Championship in the Summer. He wasn't a 'five' anymore!

Oh, back to your Hitting question....

When the video and sequence photos showed I had a Hitter on my hands, I taught that Pattern. As the Class went through the Swinging procedure, I modified the Pattern and pointed out the differences along the way. I often would use them as a contra-example for the entire Class. Still, I had not worked much on Hitting personally and consequently did not understand it nearly as well as I do now. That is why it is important for the competent Instructor to master both Patterns. To most effectively teach, it is not enough simply to remember and regurgitate...

One must know.

Lynn,

What was the fee for your schools?


todd

Pricing Perfection
 

The School ran 2 1/2 days. We would begin on a Friday afternoon and close shop late Sunday afternoon. The fee was a flat $500, and it included a textbook (The Golfing Machine); handout materials in a three-ring notebook; the Sequence Photo analysis; and lunch on Saturday and Sunday. It was a good deal, but maybe not quite as good as it sounds. Remember...

Gas was only 47 cents a gallon!

Rich-Money Virginia
 

I can vouch for Rash. I worked in Richmond for about five years pimping insurance for Blue Cross Blue Shield. Rash has a very good insurance agency there. I have met him. I am also very good friends with his best friend. The two of them won the Virgina State Two-Ball. Rash can really play the game . . . still.

Yoda, you should be proud and Mr. K should be proud of you as well!

This is an awesome thread! Yoda are you working on any marketing materials now? Or is it all web based?

Yoda,
Any pics of the handout materials?
47 Cents a gallon??
I asked in a earlier thread your thoughts on teaching without a ball or indoors into a net, I am a believer that this maybe the best way to teach, although not practical in today's world, but I often see great progress destroyed but the hypnotic effect of distance and direction of ball flight as I believe Mr. Kelley stated it.
Just curious of your thoughts since you have experienced teaching both ways, most of us have only taught outdoors.

Thanks,

todd

By the way, compare the Geometric theory (the cardboard model in Post #12) with its demonstrated Equivalent (Ted Fort's avatar...his Left Arm and Club per Post #13 or elsewhere).

" The training was rooted in the precision alignments of the Mechanical Checklist For All Strokes (12-3) and the Twelve Sections of the Stroke (Chapter Eight). We would first learn to identify the boundaries of each Section -- Students would call out the name as they moved to it ("Start Up"..."Backstroke"..."Top," etc.) -- and then pose for ten seconds in each, monitoring the Alignments as I called them out. We also worked hard on the three-step Address Routine of 3-F-5. Over a period of three days, these alignments became more and more habitual, and students learned to both train and check themselves. We moved from Posed Positions to very Slow Motion Strokes through the Positions to Normal Speed Strokes. Much of this was done first with a ClubSHAFT only and only later with a real Club. And always without a Ball (except as a reference point to Swing through!)."

Yoda, is it possible to recreate this learning 'process'(or a detail of it) demonstrated in a downloadable gallery video? With you identifying "the precision alignments of the Mechanical Checklist For All Strokes (12-3) and the Twelve Sections of the Stroke (Chapter Eight)."

Moving from the posed positions to a slow motion stroke would 'cut to the chase'or essence more than anything else I can imagine.

These old photos are classic reinforcement of TGM principles unaltered by fad or latest trends.

Blade.

Awesome
 

Great, great, stuff Yoda!:D

Very cool brochure and pics, thanks for posting them!

Still Crazy After All These Years
 

"The wicked flee when no one pursues. But the righteous are bold as a lion."

--Proverbs 28:1

After my initial exposure to The Golfing Machine and especially after I had spent a week studying with Homer Kelley, it didn't take me long to begin the assault on conventional golf instruction. And it mattered not the target of my corrective efforts (in this case, one Jack William Nicklaus after his Golf Digest article in December 1982).

Arrogance?

Or The Truth articulated in polite but no uncertain terms?

You be the judge!

Great post yoda :)

Here Comes the Sun
 

Thanks, Mathew. It is old news, but still fresh as the morning dew.

Homer Kelley was far ahead of his time. Too far, really, for him to see the universal acceptance of his ideas.

But his time has come...

And it is now.

Isn't it interesting......
Your letter was dated December 18, 1982, yet I can go to the range today and still see the diagram. Years later and your information is still as true as the day you typed it. Unaffected by todays glitz and glammer, this is a sign of the real TRUTH.

Last night at the range I watched for an hour as one of the highest rated (rated by one of those magazines) instructors in Massachusetts was giving lessons. I was in the same place as his student..... just not getting it. Until, that is, I met Yoda and the fog lifted. I just wanted to shout "YOUR TEACHING IS ALL WRONG" but I held my breath and felt sorry of the student.

By the way, what word processor did you use for your letter? :)

Yoda, just curious----did Golf Digest or Mr. Nicklaus ever reply to your letter???