November 2007 Issue

This month's articles

-FREE UP YOUR DRIVER—Reducing muscle tension is good advice for every swing, not just the driver. Only shorten the backswing if you feel the length of your backswing makes you tense.

-FOCUS ON THE LANDING—I don’t doubt that Tiger is accurately relating a drill that he practices. However, I have never found a person who “tosses” (under hand toss) a ball to a flag while focusing on the landing area. It is just the other way around. We focus on the target. The same works very well for chipping.

-MY FIRST MOVE DOWN—Tiger’s most common error with the driver is to hit the ball to the right. When we “bump” our hips to the left it is difficult to return the club to the ball square. Start with the arms and all will be well. (Are Tigers pants long enough in this photo?)

-ADJUST THE BALL—Lew was a great player. However, putts break varying amounts. So, we would have to decide what to do if the putt broke left-to-right one inch vs. one foot. Play the club in the center for all putts. You won’t make them all. No one does. But you will be closer more often because you are being consistent.

-STOP SKULLING YOUR IRONS—I like Butch’s analysis of the problem. One of the reasons we can top the ball is because we shift our weight forward which moves the bottom of the swing from just in front of the ball to points well left of the ball. There is a simpler and more obvious solution to the problem. Don’t shift your weight on the forward swing.

SHORT-SIDED SOLUTION—Ok. But don’t change the shape of your swing. It’s always circular.

CHIPPING TO A BACK PIN—Classic de la Torre but no need to “play the ball back just behind center”.

“UNLOCK YOUR HIDDEN POWER—As we noted in Ernie’s article above, tension almost always creates problems. It is peculiar that Jim says to “maintain a soft right knee” (a knee is a bone!) but “flex the right knee”. Then he concludes by saying “relaxation assists fluidity” and “Focus on flexing”. I’m not sure what Jim means but tension is most often a negative.

FIX YOUR FOCUS—This article suggests a strategy for keeping yourself from negative thoughts. That’s a good idea. But a better idea is to implement a strategy for focusing on positive thoughts.

TREVOR—This is classic “swing key” instead of “swing cause” babble. Trevor does things with his body to remind him of what he wants to do. These things do not cause the improvement. Trevor’s logic is that if he gets his body to do certain things that the shot will be better. Remember, shots only improve if the club movement improves.

HOW TO START YOUR SWING—This instruction is so riddled with problems its hard to know where to start (and even harder to invest the time to review it). Here goes. First, Jerome wrongly presumes that the body has to “wait for the arms and club to catch up” during the back swing. They don’t have to catch up. They are traveling faster and so therefore arrive at the same time. Second, note his instruction in the fourth paragraph that says, “without moving your hands from their address position.” Notice the second photo in the sequence of photos labeled “GOOD”. His hands have not remained in the address position. Third (and there are yet other problems with this instruction), notice the last photo in the sequence. The backswing is shorter and the club face is open, meaning the ball will not go as far and will be sprayed off to the right. Maybe this article should be titled, “how to start ruining your swing.”

-BREAKING 100/90/80/70
Master the impact zone—Bobby’s observation regarding where the club should reach the bottom of its arc, has a lot to do with ball placement. If you play the ball back in your stance, the bottom of the swing will be forward of the ball.

100—I couldn’t agree more with Bobby’s quest to make chip shots that are not chunky. I couldn’t disagree more with his strategy. Chunky shots are primarily the result of one thing—using the right hand. Players will use the right hand when they are trying to “get the ball up” and when they want to create a hitting action instead of a swinging motion.

90—Set up at address. Now, leave the club head resting behind the ball while your hands and the grip of the club move to the left of your belt buckle a few inches. Notice how the club face gets either delofted or aiming to the right. For a player like Clampett, he won’t let the club face aim to the right so instead his club is delofted at impact. Notice how later in this article he said it took him three to get out of the bunker. If you are delofting your clubs you loose loft and that’s a problem for deep bunker shots and other shots as well. Lag happens in the swing during the initial phase of the forward swing. However, by the time the club reaches the ball the lag is gone. (see Bobby’s photo on page 172).

80—If Vijay had done what Bobby reports (contacting the ball with the driver on descending part of the swing arc, the ball trajectory would not have been 50 feet in the air.

70--Regarding the aiming point, let me know who you find that can see the first ten feet of the flight of the ball as it leaves the tee at over 100 mph.