Visit to the Swamp Part 3a (Thursday 16th November 2006)
Today was the day that I was due to meet the one and only Yoda himself. Lynn had spent the previous 3 days in Orlando doing a private clinic with Brian Gay and Verizon. But all credit to Lynn he said that he would be back in the Swamp by the Thursday (he had drove back to Marietta from Orlando during the Wednesday evening and Thursday morning)
Martee and I had gone down earlier to the Swamp to warm up as I was not due to meet up with Lynn till about midday. That warm up session was interesting as I was still processing the information from the previous afternoon with Ted (Martee and I discussed what Ted and I had worked on the previous evening just to make sure that my thick noodle received and processed it correctly!) Some bad shots here and there but had some good ones too but the main reason was to get ready and warmed up for when Lynn turned up.
When Lynn arrived back in the Swamp, we had a chat in the range’s clubhouse about what I was looking for from the 2 days of work and what my goals were with regards to my game. I was a bit surprised when Lynn asked if I had any professional aspirations but sadly being 29, my dreams of taking the Tour by storm are long gone.. (Champions Tour maybe…….21 years should be enough to get my game ready right?? ) I told Lynn that all I wanted was to improve my game and to be the best player that I can be. I did however tell Lynn that I was there with an open mind and that my golfing brain was going to be a sponge, I was ready to soak in all the information that Lynn was willing to share with me with regards to the Golfing Machine.
So after that quick chat, we headed off to the short game area to work on the fundamentals and the basics.
Even before a ball was hit, Yoda began the session with him describing as well as demonstrating the flying wedges, extensor action, plane angle and much much more!!
I would recommend that if you do go down to the Swamp that you take your camcorder with you (along with plenty of tapes and back up batteries….between the 3 of us, we managed to get just about everything on tape. Hopefully, with the help of Martee, I will be able to get them all onto CD in a format that I can view) in that one afternoon there were plenty of little nuggets of information that will lead to many 'a-ha' moments down the line.
Lynn is one of the best teachers that I have the privilege to work with; he is a wonderful communicator and motivator. One of the best things about Lynn’s teaching is that he demonstrates everything that he explains to the student. The Golfing Machine focuses on precision, as does Lynn, so when you do something right he will say so and you really have.
So we worked on Basic Motion for the afternoon, made sure that I could execute the Basic Motion properly and that I could do it with all three hinge actions (Horizontal, Angled and Vertical) Since I am a Swinger of the golf club, the Horizontal Hinging felt more natural to me but since we were there to learn, Yoda got me to do all three. Vertical Hinging still gives me the fits, but after a few tries I managed to get it right J
By working on Basic Motion, we could see what needed to be worked on in my game. It was amazing to see that all the faults that I had in my Basic Motion (additional right wrist bend, flipping, lack of extensor action, dragging the club back too far inside and lack of proper execution of the Horizontal Hinge) would be the common flaws all the way through my game. I admit my short game is not the best in the world, but with all this new information, I feel that come next summer, I can improve a lot.
A drill that Yoda had me doing was to set up normally with the ball but then turn my body to face the target and then I had to hit balls using this stance, this taught me more about the Horizontal Hinge and also forced me to hit down on the ball instead of helping it up into the air. Looks strange but it does work!! He also got me tracing the plane line with my right forearm, this fixed my age old habit of dragging the club too far back inside.
After the session on the practice area, we had a quick break before heading out to the mats to work on some Acquired Motion shots (the grass range was closed due to the 10 hours worth of rain the previous day)
Again with Acquired Motion, you could see the common theme that ran through my game with the flipping, addition wrist bend and so on.
The first thing that Yoda changed was my set up (see previous post) whilst Ted got me to go into Impact Fix to get my ideal set up, Yoda had another idea. He got me to set up with a little more weight on my left foot, flared out my toes (left about 30* and the right about 20*) to aid my turn on the way back and through the swing. It was almost like setting up in Impact Fix (I think its Special Address or Fix)
Also by lowering my right shoulder my right forearm was immediately softened and moved more inline with the shaft. Now I looked more like a golfer at address and as Yoda says 'I don’t think you can miss a shot from there…'
One thing that was noticed with my Acquired Motion was that I was not letting my head 'swivel' through the shot, I had become a bit too 'ball bound' so we worked to get rid of that so that I could let the body do its job and let the motion of the swing flow more freely.
Like the Basic Motion a lot of time was spent on making sure that I was not adding anymore wrist bend to the right wrist as I took the club back and on tracing the club back on a straight line as I had a habit (in both my Basic Motion and Acquired Motions) of dragging the club back behind me. Add a bit of extensor action and whola! I finally had some structure to my swing and my Acquired Motion swing was getting better and better.
Once Yoda was sufficiently happy that I was grasping the concepts involved with the Basic and Acquired Motions, we moved onto the Total Motion……….(more in Part 3b)
Alex
Last edited by alex_chung : 11-24-2006 at 05:05 PM.
Extreme Pivot Alignments As A Basic Motion Learning Drill
Originally Posted by alex_chung
A drill that Yoda had me doing was to set up normally with the ball but then turn my body to face the target and then I had to hit balls using this stance, this taught me more about the Horizontal Hinge and also forced me to hit down on the ball instead of helping it up into the air. Looks strange but it does work!!
In this drill -- an exaggerated 'Open Body' Special Fix/Address (10-8-B / 10-9-D) -- the toes are actually pointed toward the Target with the Shoulders set Square. This 'extreme' condition Clears the Right Hip and most importantly, sets up an 'artificial' Pivot Lag, i.e., one requiring no motion to achieve.
During the Downstroke, the Shoulders (with the inert Left Arm welded at Pressure Point #4) then move effortlessly to 'catch up' with the pre-positioned leading Hips. This action Loads the Lag and pulls the Left Arm into Release. This is 'Body Power' for the Swinger -- even in the little Acquired Motion Pitch Shots-- and it sets up a perfect Horizontal Hinge, i.e, the Left Wrist staying Vertical to the ground in perfect concert with the Body's rotation. It also establishes the Right Shoulder 'Launching Pad' for the Hitter and his Driving Right Arm and Angled Hinge Action.
Visit to the Swamp Part 3b (Thursday 16th November 2006)
Cont from Part 3a
Once Yoda was sufficiently happy that I was grasping the concepts involved with the Basic and Acquired Motions, we moved onto the Total Motion. I even managed to execute all three hinge motions before we moved on….amazing how the brain works when you let it process information in its on time.
Again the problems that were found out were in the Total Motion swings.
In fact since the swing was longer, it was magnified ten fold and caused all manners of problems if I did not compensate fully. Yoda called my shots ‘dying quail’ high fades. Man, it was ugly and I must have been losing about 15-20 yards off my irons and even more with my driver.
So with the new set up that we worked on in the Acquired Motion, it was a case of taking the club further back and we had the Total Motion. But the problem with me is that club for me goes well beyond shoulder height (end) or even parallel (top) With the driver at times it was Mickelson or Daly-esque.
So with a 7 iron, we worked on taking the club only as far back as the Top as well as monitoring that I was not adding any extra right wrist bend as I took the club back. Again the things that we worked on earlier in the day were as relevant to the Total Motion as they were to the Basic and Acquired Motions.
Focussing on the right wrist bend, tracing the straight planeline and applying extensor action, the length of the backswing gradually got shorter.
Adding extensor action just added a lot of precision and structure to the backswing (Ted showed me how it is supposed to be applied the day before and I could not believe how much pressure it was!!) Yoda noticed that I tended to also let go of the club with the last three fingers of my left hand at the top so he got me to apply a bit more pressure point #2 and this again added extra stability and structure to the backswing. No more wobble at the top of the swing. Which for me is a major thing as I have always had a long backswing.
This does sound like a lot, but after a while I found that just one or two thoughts covered what I was trying to achieve and monitor in the swing.
Now once we had the backswing to the point where Yoda was pleased we moved onto the downswing. Again, the work done with Ted the day before paid dividends, by the afternoon session with Yoda, my brain had already started to process what where the correct sequence and feelings for the downswing.
Again, the downstroke waggle came to the fore. ‘Roundhousing’ is an affliction that affects about 95% of all club golfers and I am/was one of those.
Yoda also had me practising one downstroke waggle after another till I got it right and could do it in the Total Motion. First it was with a club, where you take the club to the top (I found that I could monitor my Pressure Point #3, extensor action and right wrist bend too!) and then start the downstroke with a small hip slide then turn which brought the right shoulder down on plane and the right forearm into its correct impact alignments (Yoda had me bring the right forearm all the way down so that it was inline with the ball as I viewed it)
I did not realise how far down the right shoulder goes down in the swing, it was such an eye opener.
Another way of performing this drill is to do it without the club and put the back of your right hand to the back of your left hand. Make a backstroke as per normal, feel that stretch and then execute your slight hip slight, turn and bring the right shoulder down and onplane. Again, you get the feelings and sensations that you are supposed to have in a properly executed downswing.
What we found was that the above drills fixed the majority of problems that I had with my startdown (hips were getting in the way of my arms…shank city, not having a good pivot and so on)
We were slowly building the swing up again and I could see it having a dramatic effect on my swing, I was starting to get a bit more distance and better contact but it could still be better.
The next thing that Yoda wanted to change was my lack of any horizontal hinging and swivel after impact. I was doing this ‘hold off’ and ‘blocking’ the ball really and that was were the power was lost (along with the flipping)
I was trying to do some funky thing where I tried to keep the left wrist flat and then ended up holding on and blocking it through (if you can imagine the club at halfway point of the through swing the club face would be pointing towards the target and my left wrist would be bowed and facing the target also!)
The first thing that Yoda got me to do was to hold the club up on a horizontal plane with only the left hand gripping the club, then taking the club round (to what was the end of the swing) and then back down to impact, follow through. This was to show me what the club face was doing on the swing (but on the horizontal plane) and also to show me what the throw out felt like and what the proper movement of the left hand/wrist were after impact. At first it was done in painfully slow motions until I got it right and then it got faster and faster as long I could keep the club on the horizontal plane.
You might remember the drill from the Jeff Hull tapes (if you haven’t seen them, go and download them from the Gallery section!!) but Yoda gave me a dowel and got me to hold it in my left fist and concentrate on really giving the dowel a good swoosh through the ball. It was hard at first as I was trying to do something or force something that wasn’t going to happen. I was fighting Centripetal Force and everyone should know when you go against gravity and physics they always win!! (only took me about 20 odd years of playing golf to realise that one!!)
A good check at the end of the swing for me was that I could cock and uncock the left wrist easily, whereas before I would have been able to and I would of not achieved a full finish.
This goes back to something that Ted said the day before, he told me to ‘let go..’ now I know what he meant, by doing the dowel drill, I could free up the swing and I felt I could really put some power into a shot.
Getting towards the end of the bucket of balls, Yoda had me hit some drivers just to finish things off. Again, the block rights appeared and the route cause of which was…you guess it ‘Roundhousing’ My right hip was getting in the way of things as well so Yoda suggested that I’d set up with a closed stance (I can’t remember whether it was 10-5-C or 10-5-E that was suggested…..Yoda??) This allowed my to hit the ball from the inside with the driver and stop the roundhousing (coupled with the downstroke waggles) when I did this right, I was hitting the driver a lot better and started even drawing it too!!! For someone who has lived with a slice or a push fade all his golfing life, this was amazing thing to see.
So in one afternoon (it turned out much longer than that) Yoda was patient enough with me to have worked through a lot of stuff and I have to admit despite my head spinning with all this information, the fog had definitely lifted. Now it was a guided struggle as opposed to a blind struggle and I knew what I had to work on to improve my swing and game.
After a hard days work by all of us (I know it probably wasn’t fun for either Martee or Yoda to stand there all day and watch me hit balls) we packed up about 6pm and headed out for some dinner.
The dinner was great (Longhorn I think it was) despite it not being Yoda’s first choice (Outback had closed down) and the company was again great (Yoda, Martee thanks!) We talked about golf, life and just general things; it was good to be able to do that. Lynn is a great guy as well as a great teacher, I am honoured to have met him and to be able to call him a friend. Martee you ain’t so bad yourself
But the best bit of the night was when Lynn invited both of us to his abode and showed us his extensive golf library and well as the World Premiere of the new Brian Gay video. I am not going to say much about the video but lets just say you guys and gals are in for a treat!
We also put on some video of my swing as well and Lynn looked a bit concerned when we paused my swing at impact, that dang right wrist was still flattening out and worst of all Lynn thought that my pivot was not being used properly but he had an idea on how to fix that……….
Thanks again to Lynn for being the gracious host and for welcoming us into your home.
A lot to take in for the first session…boy was I pooped out at the end of the day.
I am definitely enjoying your posts, thank you very much Alex.
__________________
"In my experience, if you stay with the essentials you WILL build a repeatable swing undoubtedly. If you can master the Imperatives you have a champion" (Vikram).
The reason you can't sustain the lag is because you are so eager to make the club move fast (a reaction to the intent of "hitting it far"). So on a full shot you throw it away too early, which doesn't happen for your short chip. (bts)
I am definitely enjoying your posts, thank you very much Alex.
Thanks, I am glad that you are enjoying them. Its a good thing for me as well as I need to think about what we did last week and try to put it into words rather than just feels.
Alex
Getting towards the end of the bucket of balls, Yoda had me hit some drivers just to finish things off. Again, the block rights appeared and the route cause of which was…you guess it ‘Roundhousing’ My right hip was getting in the way of things as well so Yoda suggested that I’d set up with a closed stance (I can’t remember whether it was 10-5-C or 10-5-E that was suggested…..Yoda??) This allowed my to hit the ball from the inside with the driver and stop the roundhousing (coupled with the downstroke waggles) when I did this right, I was hitting the driver a lot better and started even drawing it too!!! For someone who has lived with a slice or a push fade all his golfing life, this was amazing thing to see.
In conjunction with numerous, correctly-performed Start Down Waggles, Alex used the Closed Plane Line and Stance Line of 10-5-E to rid him of his Roundhousing Down Stroke.
Tracing the slightly-Closed Plane Line promoted a true Inside-Out Stroke and its Draw tendency. The Closed Stance Line took the Right Hip out of the way of the Right Elbow (in both directions) and enabled his Hands to remain On Plane (a delightful alternative to his old Over-the-Top move).
Alex combined these alignments with his new Horizontal Hinge Action Wrist Roll through Impact and, also, his strong Swivel into the Finish. The end result was consistent and truly spectacular: High, hard Draws 20-40 yards longer than his 'usual.'
Congratulations, Alex!
Oh, one more thing...
The next day I brought out an old Alex Morrison book, Better Golf Without Practice, and turned to a Down-the-Line Driver sequence of a young Sam Snead. A white Line parallel to the Target Line had been painted down the entire length of the Fairway, and Sam's slightly-Closed alignments -- including his In-to-Out Tracing Right Forearm -- were apparent.
"Hey, that's just what I'm doing now!" said Alex.
"Right you are," beamed 'ol Yoda, "Right you are."
In conjunction with numerous, correctly-performed Start Down Waggles, Alex used the Closed Plane Line and Stance Line of 10-5-E to rid him of his Roundhousing Down Stroke.
Tracing the slightly-Closed Plane Line promoted a true Inside-Out Stroke and its Draw tendency. The Closed Stance Line took the Right Hip out of the way of the Right Elbow (in both directions) and enabled his Hands to remain On Plane (a delightful alternative to his old Over-the-Top move).
Alex combined these alignments with his new Horizontal Hinge Action Wrist Roll through Impact and, also, his strong Swivel into the Finish. The end result was consistent and truly spectacular: High, hard Draws 20-40 yards longer than his 'usual.'
Congratulations, Alex!
Oh, one more thing...
The next day I brought out an old Alex Morrison book, Better Golf Without Practice, and turned to a Down-the-Line Driver sequence of a young Sam Snead. A white Line parallel to the Target Line had been painted down the entire length of the Fairway, and Sam's slightly-Closed alignments -- including his In-to-Out Tracing Right Forearm -- were apparent.
"Hey, that's just what I'm doing now!" said Alex.
"Right you are," beamed 'ol Yoda, "Right you are."
Yep, that is right!! Its amazing how this was known all those years ago but yet no one really mentioned it.
Also another player by the name of Ben Hogan set up the exact same way. He was an ok player from what I heard too
Alex
) I told Lynn that all I wanted was to improve my game and to be the best player that I can be. I did however tell Lynn that I was there with an open mind and that my golfing brain was going to be a sponge, I was ready to soak in all the information that Lynn was willing to share with me with regards to the Golfing Machine.
Hybrid Mode
