The Gateway To Better Golf

Casting

2011-01-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have had numerous insights over the years. Admittedly I have had to change my opinions on some things and casting is a great example.

I used to think casting was a result of the "hitters" impulse and people just trying to mash the ball. Really there hasn't been any good reason to believe that other than conjecture on my part and on the part of others who I learned from.

So what's the REAL reason for casting? Well, here is my response to Monte Sheinblum's blog post about casting.

I think a lot of people are looking for the answer in the wrong place when it comes to casting.

It's all about the clubface!

Contrary to popular belief, OTT is NOT the #1 swing fault. The #1 swing fault is not getting the clubface closed. The way many golfers try to overcome an open clubface is by closing it sooner!

Guess what happens when you try to rotate the clubface sooner in the downswing? You roll your arms counter-clockwise. When you roll your arms counter-clockwise you are not just closing the clubface, but you are throwing the club out toward the ball. Voila! Insta-casting!

As better players try to cope with casting they fix it by actually getting more UNDER plane on the downswing before doing the cast/arm roll. They can then cast/roll as hard as they feel is normal and produce halfway decent results but can be erratic if the timing or ball position isn't perfect.

I am willing to bet a lot of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

Overall this "new" theory makes a ton more sense. In order to make the ball go left the golfer tries to close the face early. The result of trying to close the clubface early IS to also go OTT. As the right arm tries to roll over the left arm sooner, this throws your right shoulder higher and out. Just put your right arm out in front of you and turn it counter-clockwise. You'll see your shoulder go up with it just as it would for an OTT move.

Shear force

2011-01-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Something popped back up on my radar today with a discussion about shear force. Some people don't know what it is, most don't know how it's useful, and some know what it is but don't think it's important at all.

I'm here to tell you that shear force is the foundation of power.

I've gone on and on about the kenitic sequence in the past. It may seem overly complicated to some of you and that's fine. But we all pretty much universally know something, you just may not know why it works the way it does.

Shear force is any force that prevents two objects from sliding against one another. The shear force that is directly relevant to the golf swing is essentially our spikes sinking into the ground. Those spikes help prevent our feet from sliding. That prevention allows us to leverage our legs against the ground. This is the very first action that starts the kinetic sequence. Without it you will have less power and you will be starting your kinetic sequence too early in the forward swing.

If you think about it, you actually already knew this.

Ask yourself under which of these two circumstances would you be able to generate more power:

A) Velcro on the bottom of your shoes that sticks to velcro on the ground.
B) Wearing a pair of Penny Loafers while standing on solid ice.

The answer should be a pretty obvious A.

That is shear force at work. Your ability to use the resistance of your spikes in the ground to push your legs is essential to power in the golf swing. Just simply "falling" to the left doesn't explain why A is better than B in our scenario as some people might have suggested to you.

Getting Stuck

2011-01-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

Stuck is OTT with laid off arms.

Most people try to fix it by either limiting lower body movement, trying to speed up the upper body, or deeper hands in the backswing with limited arm rotation. IMO, none of these ways are sustainable and all are restrictive to generating speed.

OTT happens when the right shoulder fires OUT towards the ball. The right shoulder does that usually because of a combination of early hip rotation and lack of axis tilt. The problem people are facing is that they know instinctively they NEED to rotate fast to generate speed. But fast rotation by it's very nature throws the hands out. So, you have to TILT to that the hand throw out happens more from the inside to out than what our natural inclination is.

If you stand up straight and spin hard you're going to swing OTT. But if you tilt back away from the target and spin hard, you'll stay inside.

Head BEHIND THE BALL, and get the hands AHEAD of the ball so that you don't hit behind it.

Take the following swing posted on FreeGolfInfo.com

In the backswing the arms are not rotating much but as the torso twists violently and his shoulder is being thrown out, his arms are rotating clockwise at the same time. It is the only way he can maintain any sense of being on plane, but it leads to wide open clubfaces.

Also, watch his swing from face on and you'll notice very little tilt to his swing. His backswing has tilt but as he goes forward his hips spin pretty much in place while his shoulder twist violently around. This has the effect of putting him on his left heel and his right shoulder is very high in the finish. It's about as OTT as a person can get.

Not all OTT's become slices, some of them just get stuck with laid off arms as he does.

I don't think this is too hard

2011-01-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

I read the following advice given to someone in a forum (edited to just the important part). The poster is a golf professional.

remember, if the ball is back you will pull/hook, if it is too forward, you will fade/slice.

also, set up with your left shoulder closed.

should help you alot.

Huh?? I do not understand what this person is thinking, nor do I know how someone gets to be a professional when they think this is how ball position effects the ball flight. It's simple. The further back in the stance, the more from the inside the path will be and open the clubface (push/push fade). The further forward in the stance the more from the outside the path will be with a closed clubface (pull/pull hook). It really doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the clubface is closing while the clubhead is traveling along an arc. Yet year after year, day after day there is stuff like this out there. Guys like me get hounded for how arrogant, ignorant, or foolish I am for thinking this needs to be rectified.

Please folks. The geometry is so simple a 3rd grader could understand it.

Add to the simple geometry of a clubface rotating while traveling around an arc with this simple statement:

"The ball will start MOSTLY in the direction that the clubface is aimed at impact, and curve AWAY from the path it was traveling at impact." That's the D-Plane in a nutshell.

You could go on further to say, "The greater the difference between clubface and path during impact, the more the ball will spin."

Really, with just that little bit of information you can base the rest of your golfing life on. Find a way to manipulate the ball knowing these things and you can win tournaments.

"How do I fix my slice?"

2010-12-29T16:29:00.002-07:00

It's a common question with a ton of answers, but all of them boil down to this simple thing.

The ball starts mostly in the direction of where the clubface is aimed at impact. It curves away from the path.

Based on that you should be able to figure out that the clubface is open relative to the path you're swinging on. If you get the clubface closed and start hitting dead pulls left, THEN start to work on your path going out to the right more.

Non-specific questions and fixing only your stuff

2010-12-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Probably the worst thing you can do to your game is be non-specific with what you are looking to change. Take this forum post for example:

Was not a good day out with my irons need plenty of advice. Help me please.

Without a doubt there will be at minimum 5 entirely different suggestions on what this player needs to do. They may all work, they may all suck. This player is just inviting people to fill his head with information that will likely result in no real progress. No doubt he will probably try EVERYTHING that gets suggested.

If you want to see real results, figure out what specifically you want to know. For example:

"I keep ending up with my weight on my back foot. Is there a drill out there that can help me finish on my front foot?"

Even better, get your swing posted online somewhere. I recommend SwingAcademy.com but youtube.com is fine also. When your swing gets posted, be prepared for everyone and their mother to form an opinion of what you need to fix. Don't listen to any of it except the parts you already knew you needed to fix. Just because someone says "you need to change your grip" or "your ball position is too far forward" doesn't mean that you should go out and change it. Even professionals cannot agree on what needs to be fixed first.

However, if you know precisely what it is you want to know an answer for then ask about it. Filter everything else out. "Is my grip too strong?" should elicit a direct response and an explanation of why. That last part is important. If you ask if your grip is too strong and you get someone talking to you about shoulder plane needing to be changed, forget it. Move on to the next person.

Why I teach

2010-12-27T09:32:00.001-07:00

There is a very long thread in Brian Manzella's forum (www.brianmanzella.com/forum) that I think represents most amateurs trying to improve.

Our poor hapless golfer who goes by the nickname of Rugby, posted his swing for everyone to look at. You can find the thread here.

Rugby's swing is actually not that bad. It's very athletic and he can definitely hit the ball well. A bit of an open clubface at times and he's struggling to close it in time to hit the ball. But the core of his problem is the lack of lower body action. Now, there are two ways he could go about fixing this. Fix the arm-swing so that he manages to close the face and still get his hands ahead of the ball (eliminate the flip). Then after fixing that ideally his own brain will determine what to do with his lower body to straighten out the inevitable errant shots that will come with it.

Another option is to fix his lower body action with a proper pivot. In fact, his swing prompted me to make my last video on backward leaning tilt.

The third option is to do both.

I believe the third option would be the best. The reason is simple. If he fixes the face he won't KNOW how to hit it where he wants it to go. It will just be going in a new direction than where it was going. If he fixes the pivot it's essentially the same problem. But doing both will give him two parameters to tinker with until he gets it right. He has to learn the balance between the two. That's what the full swing is all about. Finding the balance between all the different elements at work.

Despite there being only two things that he really needs to work on, the thread has grown to 16 pages long full of at least 2 dozen different ideas on how to fix it. How can anyone expect to get better with that many different things to try?

New video lesson - Leftward tilt in the backswing

2010-12-20T22:38:00.002-07:00

Got another video completed. This one is on leftward tilt in the backswing and transition. It covers how your plane is affected, how your shoulder plane is affected, what you have to do with your hips and head as a result, and lastly how the right arm now works just to hit the ball.

New video lesson - Backswing Tilt

2010-12-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, some good news for those of you waiting to see a new video lesson. I just created and released a quick video on backswing tilt that might be of some help to you. You can find it on Youtube at:

Please let me know what you think and have a HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Some changes for now

2010-12-17T08:23:00.002-07:00

I brought the nabble system back into the site because of it's seamless embed feature. By using Nabble I can embed the forum and the blog right into the Student section. Ultimately I am hoping once Rick has some time he can work on some embedding features for the forum that is currently set up at swingacademy. Right now he has a ton on his plate as it is, so I thought I might as well use something now that I know works.

If I can find a way to embed the fullgolfswing.blogspot.com blog into the blog area instead of Nabble, I will do it. Unfortunately using IFrames makes it look crappy with slider bars all along the side. Nabble looks clean and matches up well with the site. The only draw back is that you have to register with Nabble to post in the forum or blog. That means two layers of registration which I really don't like and that's why I want to ultimately use the forum Rick has set up for us.

That will all happen in time.

In the mean time, thank you everyone for the support you have given us at The Gateway To Better Golf. We are trying hard to make this game easier, and more fun to play.

Rediscovering an old adage

2010-12-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hands ahead, head back.

It's an old tried and true adage that you want your head behind the ball and your hands ahead of it. But there's more to this nugget than you may think.

The role of the right shoulder in the golf swing cannot be stressed enough. It isn't so much what the shoulder does that's important, but rather that it's a marker for the direction your swing is going. Wherever the right shoulder is going, the arms, hands, and club are working in the same direction.

EVERYONE fights an OTT move. EVERYONE. It's simply a matter of how we all deal with it.

Why do I say that? Well because when you rotate your body as hard as you can, your right shoulder wants to rotate around your spine. It doesn't naturally want to go "down" closer to your ribcage. It wants to just turn 90 degrees to your upper spine. The faster you try to turn your shoulder, the less likely you will be able to force it downward before it makes this outward move.

Now, a lot of people have come up with ingenious ways to fight this. You can swing your hands much more inside with no clockwise rotation of the arms ala S&T. That puts your hands very deep and around you. Combine that with putting the swing center a bit more forward and you can then catch the ball before your club reaches low point.

You could rotate the arms clockwise so much, hold off any sort of release, drop the right elbow down and in the "tray" position that it's nearly impossible to throw the right shoulder out (ala Hogan).

You can limit the hip rotation by not allowing the right foot to come off the ground until after impact. That too forces your right shoulder to work more from the inside instead of going out and around.

And then there's the popular method of trying to drop the hands down first to start the forward swing (drop it into the slot).

Essentially EVERYONE is trying to get around their natural tendency to have the right shoulder turn out first causing an OTT move.

So what does this have to do with our old adage?

Well, when you keep your head behind the ball and let your hips shift onto the left with a strong lower leg action this creates that amazing thing called tilt. What that tilt does (tilt away from the target) is position your right shoulder to rotate on a completely different plane. That ALLOWS you to actually do the normal thing of throwing the right shoulder out. In fact, any amount of "right shoulder throw out" can be compensated with just adding more tilt.

In short, tilt allows you to turn as hard as you want and to generate as much speed as you want.

But there is a problem.

The more you tilt back, the further behind the ball your club wants to ground out. We don't want to hit fat chunky shots now do we? But that's where hands ahead fixes the problem.

If your hands stay ahead of the clubhead all the way to and through impact, then the club will have a much more difficult time bottoming out.

I also see this tying into how long someone holds onto the "lag" in their swing. I think lag is irrelevant from a speed perspective but it is important for an alignment and ball striking perspective. That's for another post though.

I hate being sick

2010-12-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have been sick the last few days and mostly stayed in bed. Nasty cold. Anyway, sorry about not posting a bunch. It's tough to keep thinking of new things to say especially when you're trying to keep snot off of the keyboard. Probably could have done without that mental picture eh?

You know that the "leftward spine tilt" that everyone refers to when they talk about their displeasure with the Stack & Tilt golf swing? Yeah well I've learned that it's not leftward "toward the target" but rather leftward toward THE BALL. In fact they teach a somewhat rightward tilting spine.

The A frame stuff is a bunch of crap, but that's Leadbetter and not S&T. A reverse K or semi-reverse K is what you want.

I still have my beefs with S&T such as the lower body action they teach. I want to use shear force on the ground with my back foot, they're more interested in keeping the weight on the front foot. They prefer a straight right leg but I want some knee bend to stay athletic.

I'm not 100% against their arm-swing, but I'm not at all convinced flat arms with steep shoulders is the way to go. It's very unnatural for most people. That being said, it's a doable swing. You can actually hit the ball that way. I just never see anyone look comfortable doing it... not even their guys on tour.

Usage of the armswing is probably the least understood aspect of the swing. Everyone is going to a "trunk" or "core muscles" swing and trying to somehow eliminate the arms. That seems like a big waste of time. Yes the body turns and the arms follow, but the way the arms fold and rotate is essential to good contact.

Jimmy Ballard wanted elbows down for the whole swing. In some ways this makes sense, but again I think this is more of a restrictive action than a positive.

There is no "one way" to swing the arms, but there are some correlations that make it easier to understand. For starters, use your left elbow to point in the direction of your path.... and use the face of a wrist watch to point in the direction of the face of the club. It's a relatively new idea I've been working with but so far it's given people 100% positive results.

For a slicer, point the left elbow out to the right as long as you can, but rotate your wrist watch to the target. You CAN make those two moves independently of one another and start to hit a draw.

For a hooker of the ball, try to point the left elbow at the target or left of the target and rotate the wrist watch face to the target. You should start to hit a fade.

From there on it's about tinkering until you get it perfect.

Lastly, the position of the right arm has a LOT to do with how the left arm rotates.

If you were to hold a tray in the palm of your right hand out in front of you this would cause you to rotate your upper right arm and forearm. Now if you put your left hand palm down on top of your right hand in this "holding a tray" position, you'll notice that your left arm must also rotate. Left elbow points out away from your ribcage and the wrist watch face is up to the sky.

Now, still with your hands out in front of you rotate your hands counter-clockwise until your thumbs are vertical but DON'T MOVE YOUR ELBOWS. This is face control with both forearms. You can rotate your hands without having to rotate your body or upper arms. It's the essential key to hitting consistent quality shots. Essentially every swing method out there is trying to get you to do this whether they know it or not. They may be trying to get you to do it early or late in the downswing, but you must do it.

Setup and balance

2010-12-10T15:41:00.001-07:00

One of the things I watch consistently is the change in balance mid swing. They call it dynamic balance, but when I watch it I think of "automatic balance". The brain is so powerful that it works when we aren't even thinking it's at work. In the golf swing, our balance is proof of this. Let me show you.

Here are three different high speed golf swings that I gathered on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urosP6UlAI8 - Phil Mickelson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-aO6gDsilE - Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD0nZvkloKk - Mark Burke (Director of Coaching at The Golf Institute at Fraserview Vancouver BC)

[NOTE: Click on the pictures to enlarge them]

What all three of these positions have at the top of the backswing is the balance over the back foot. Notice that in all three swings the ears are the same distance in front of the toes as the rear end. The equilibrium has taken over control of the swing and put us INTO balance.

But how does this balanced position compare to the swings at setup?

If you look carefully, Phil is just about dead solid perfect from heel to toe. I am slightly favoring my toes, and Mark is much further on his heels. We all start out at three different points of balance, but at the top of our backswing we end up dead center with our weight over our back foots. As long as there is nothing intentionally done that would throw this balance off, it will happen this way universally. Our equilibrium dictates this. No matter how out of balance you set up, you will swing INTO balance.

Now. Since Phil is set up with the same balance he has at the top of his backswing, there is very little change between the relationship of his chest to the ball.

My setup pulls me away from the ball at the top of my backswing. I must counter this by getting closer to the ball in the forward swing. Either I'll shift my weight back to my toes or I'll have to squat down and bend my knees more.

As for Mark, he straightens his right leg which causes his hind end to get more tucked under him. This stands him upright. It puts him into balance, but he is also further away from the ball at the top of his backswing than he was at the setup. From there he has to drop down to get to the ball either by squatting (as he does at the setup) or leaning over the ball.

Three completely different ways that the weight shift is being affected with three different setups. But they ALL move into balance. Similarly, at impact the weight will be shifting to the middle of the front foot.

There are also exceptions to this such as people who are trying to open their hips up as much as possible or changing their swing planes to go more right or left.

Inside half of the ball

2010-12-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

If you are going to hit the inside half of the golf ball relative to the target line (for those of you who don't know the target line is a line drawn directly from the center of the ball to the target) then the clubface MUST be open relative to the target line.

If you are going to hit the inside half of the golf ball relative to YOU the player, the clubface MUST be open relative to YOU the player at impact.

The only way that we could in any way say that the clubface would be in a closed position and hit the inside half of the ball is if we change the perspective we are talking about in mid sentence.

You can strike the inside half of the golf ball relative to the target line, with a closed clubface relative to the player.

IMO that just makes the whole thing very murky. It's easier to just say the clubface has to be open to hit the inside of the ball.

As an addendum, one dimple on the ball is somewhere around 6-8 degree's of the ball's circumference. Ergo hitting the inside half of the ball by a dimple results in a miss that is approximately 10-15 yards offline for every 100 yards the ball travels. That's assuming a straight line with no fade or draw spin.

I don't think hitting the "inside aft quadrant" is all that accurate. It might get you to do something in your swing you should be doing, but as far as the science goes... it just isn't there.

Shoulders turn 90 degrees to the top of the spine?

2010-12-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

Probably one of the best lines I've read today came from someone I've butted heads with more than a few times. But I give credit where credit is due.

Shrug one shoulder up, now turn. It's still going to turn in a "circle" and the center of that circle is still the spine... just that the two shoulders won't be tracing the same circle.

This was said by iacas, a Stack & Tilt teacher who runs his own forum called thesandtrap.com. He made the statement on one of my favorite up and coming forums, Richie3jack.proboards.com.

The important part here is that yes the shoulders can move independently of the spine, but no matter where they are when they turn, they turn around your spine. So you can shrug the left shoulder up, but when you turn it's still going around the spine.

You can both shrug and turn simultaneously which gives the appearance that it's not going 90 degrees around the spine, but in fact it is.

Something to ponder

2010-12-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

In order to hit the inside part of the golf ball, the clubface MUST be OPEN. That actually will cause the ball to start to the right.

You can still feel like the club is swinging inside out which makes you feel like you are going to hit the inside part of the ball, but the point of contact between the face and ball has more to do with face orientation.

So maybe trying to hit the "inside aft-quadrant" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

An oldie but a goodie

2010-12-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

I gave a lesson on Tuesday where my student had a huge inside out swing with a strong grip and very little lower body action. I neutralized his grip by opening the clubface at the setup, fixed a bit of a weight issue on his heels, and had him do the following drill:

When he did it, he was hitting fades that were starting left of the target and landing at or slightly to the right of the target. When he didn't walk, he was WAY out to the right.

Moral of the story? Closing the clubface is a WHOLE BODY movement.

We can isolate it down to just what the left or right arm is doing, but ultimately your body has to move in such a way that allows the left or right arm to do it. The walk through drill is ESSENTIAL to every level of player. You learn to transfer your weight in a proper sequence, it helps learn how to turn the body powerfully, and for some it helps with their timing. Just get out there and DO IT!

Me.... how I generate power.

2010-12-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked the following question:

steve, how do you power your golf swing?

This was my reply:

Torque, torque, torque, and more torque on plane.

In the backswing I'm trying to get flatter with my plane with a big body turn. Still keeping my right knee flexed to induce some stress in my right quad. That stress is what I feel starts my forward swing. This flatter swing around my body rotationally instead of vertically allows me to utilize my big turn to generate the speed.

In the forward swing the shear force to the ground with my feet helps me rotate my hips hard and I WALK toward the target with my lower body as quickly as my legs will take me. This causes my torso and shoulders to turn. You'll notice very little difference in rotation between my lower and upper body. They rotate at nearly the same rate.

I then pull down HARD with my right arm (I used to do this with my left) in a "skipping a stone" maneuver.

The "skip the stone" really only works now because of my flatter (and slightly more laid off than before) backswing. The right arm is already tucked under the left arm flying wedge. Before in my older swings my right elbow was too high to permit such a move. That was why previously my left arm was so dominant in the pull.

Happy Thanksgiving... late

2010-11-28T00:13:00.002-07:00

Sorry everyone but I have been out of town visiting family for Thanksgiving and never got to say it. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving spending it with their loved ones.

Determining what we need

2010-11-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

I think we've all taken bits and pieces from others and made up our own swing "patterns" from them. IMO, we should all be striving to find out what OUR pattern or method is, not what someone else wants it to be.

This has been probably the single greatest setback to playing better golf. Too many people seeing a good golfer swinging a certain way and thinking they want to emulate it. It's all fine and good to mimic a swing when you're just having fun, but when you want to score your best you HAVE to seek what parts you NEED to make that happen.

For as long as I have been a golf instructor I have encouraged students to see other instructors besides me. I simply cannot know everything about everything. No one can. I built my success by taking little bits and pieces from so many different people that I cannot fathom why anyone should solely seek information from one individual instructor. Much less a "cookie cutter" swing model.

If there are parts of the "modern" golf swing that make you hit it better, GREAT! Just don't expect ALL OF IT make you hit it better.

Quick site update

2010-11-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

I'm adding some of Monte Scheinblum's youtube videos to the video collection in the student section. It will take some time to categorize them all so look for new ones posted periodically. Today I've got his 3 releases video, his Stack & Tilt setup video, and his Golf Channel submission video posted.

Golf invention of the century

2010-11-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

Frankly, this is amazing. I'm almost surprised no one has put one together before but it's going to change the industry completely.

A new video from me - Camera position relative to swing plane

2010-11-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Had an interesting discussion going on about the importance of the swing plane. Not everyone has a perfectly straight swing plane and it's rounded, but for the most part it's pretty close. The closer you are to a straight swing plane the better off you'll be. They key is in understanding if your swing is going out to the right or left. The camera position can fool you into making swing changes that aren't really necessary.

Some interesting stuff from Jeff Mann

2010-11-16T22:44:00.001-07:00

Jeff has some very unique ideas about the golf swing. I don't always agree with him, but I like to have stuff to consider. Here is his latest video. A bit of a warning though, it is a lot of TGM stuff and you may want to avoid it if you're looking to just keep things simple. I still feel it's good to present to you all though so you at least know what kind of information is being discussed out there.

We'll see how it goes

2010-11-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a particular movement of my arms that may increase my accuracy. Up to this point in my life I have always fought a weak right fade with the club being toe deep at impact. It's a result of a steep forward swing and upright hands.

Recently through posting my swing video there were some comments made by Richie3Jack and gmbtempe that really resonated with me. gmbtempe got it right and Richie said something accurate with the right arm, but unfortunately Richie kinda missed the boat with the lag idea. You can find that thread here at Richie3Jacks Forum.

Now I'm the type of person who will do something immediately in my swing if I understand it. I'm just very good at tying in the action (kinesthetic) with the intention (auditory). I don't really recommend making the changes I am making either, they are for me and not really anyone else unless they have my specific issue. Ultimately I will be translating these changes down into something specific that I want to do with the club, but for right now I have to focus on one particular action. That is the action of my right arm going back.

Their suggestion essentially was that my swing is too long and across the top, they point out it's the collapsing of my right arm to a bent angle more than 90 degrees. Now, what wasn't really delved into about this was that it really depends on the position of the right elbow throughout the backswing and the forearm rotation of the right arm. This really gets lost in a lot of the laid off vs across the line at the top. Where the right elbow is in relation to the left arm and how much counter rotation the right forearm has is what will determine if a swing is laid off, parallel, or across the line.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that if the club is at all pointing to the left of the target when someone finishes their backswing, that they are laid off. This is not true. It is only when the club reaches parallel with the ground that it should be parallel with the target. Not everyone makes as complete of a backswing as I do, Davis Love III or John Daly does. If a person comes short of bringing the club parallel to the ground at the top, then you have to look at the butt end of the club and see if it is pointing at the plane line. If you want to know what I mean by that, you should watch the video I submitted to TGC.

Anyway, what this all boils down to is I am working on one significant change in the way my right arm works. Essentially I am trying to keep my right forearm rotated clockwise so that the inside of my forearm faces my head and the palm of my right hand is more skyward. When I do this it causes my right elbow to stay much more out in front of my chest. This rotation of the forearm also lays the club off a bit more. For me laid off it good but only because of my gigantic pivot. The steepness of my regular swing was troublesome for as quick as my body wants to turn. Steep is fine, but you'd better have some serious strength in your lats to pull the arms down in time to hit the ball, otherwise you end up with high hands and outside in path. My pivot is simply too quick for my arm pull. Lots of speed, but control could get squirrelly.

We'll see how this change goes. I'll get some video of it soon I promise. Probably do a side by side comparison for you all.

Bent right wrist

2010-11-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

Out chipping today and found myself hitting some poor chips. My hands were not staying ahead of the clubhead. A quick fix was for me to focus on keeping my right wrist bent and let my body turn for the follow through. The crispness to impact returned. It's a good reminder to make sure you keep the grip end of the club ahead of the clubhead all the way past impact. One way to do that is by focusing on keeping that right hand bent back all the way through your shot.

I really only recommend doing this for chip shots.

My swing in slow motion

2010-11-09T20:19:00.001-07:00

I am not really working on anything at this point. There was no "swing thought" at all during my quick range session today. But I did notice my setup is a bit back on my heels. I need to get back into my pre-shot routine to fix little things like that before the season gets heated up.

Need to start redirecting my focus

2010-11-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

I've been spending an awful lot of time getting into the details of how the swing works, how ball flight works, and other such things. They are very important to understand, but I think it's time I start redirecting my efforts to good ol useful information. How to fix a hook, shank, pop up.. etc.

Look for some new things to come, and hopefully some more work on the fault matrix. I've been slacking on it lately.

Another good post I think

2010-11-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

I posted this on Richie3Jack's forum a few days ago and it should really help clear the fog of where lag stands in the order of importance.

Everyone will have different amounts of lag at different times of their swing. Even the best players in the world have completely different lag characteristics. Hence, we should try to understand why all of them can do it effectively but so varied.

Torque is the answer.

Torque is simply a force that moves an object rotationally around a fixed axis. In our golf swing we have three monumentally important torques and a few other smaller areas of torque that make up the kinetic sequence.

The three big ones are:

1) The left arm pivoting around the left shoulder.
2) The club shaft pivoting around the left wrist.
3) The rotation of the wrist, or twist. (Used for both speed and clubface alignment)

Now, the key to POWER is in timing the amount of torque you apply to each lever to maximize your distance. The key is to not run out of the final torque at the wrong time.

We have probably all seen the graph of the kinetic sequence in the body, but that same sequence continues on into the arms and lastly the club.

Now, here is the BIG BIG BIG POINT. You must start to apply torque to the next successive lever in the chain before the previous one dies out if you are to maximize each lever. But you must also do it at the rate your muscles are strong enough to do it at!

So those who break the lag early may be doing it because they HAVE to. They have to start applying torque to the club a bit sooner than big strong armed peopled otherwise they will not have applied as much of it as they could by the time impact is reached.

However if they apply it too soon then have no more torque to apply to the final lever before impact is reached. They can decrease speed and loose clubface control.

So focusing on sustaining the torque (continuously applying force) is much preferred over an idea of holding out as long as possible to produce the last torque. You may effectively be decreasing the potential speed you have to deliver simply because you started your application too late for a person of your muscular build.

Oddly enough, Manuel de la Torre bangs it into his students heads to gradually accelerate and never abruptly. Now we have a scientific reason why he was right.

My Swing 10-4-10

2010-11-05T16:33:00.003-07:00

Here was some video taken last night at the driving range. 9 Iron down the line.

Brian Manzella and Jeff Mann debate

2010-11-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

This was a very interesting debate between Brian Manzella, a PGA member with prior TGM certification, and Jeff Mann who is more or less a TGM advocate. Brian has strayed from the TGM science in favor of more recent data that suggests some of what Homer Kelley thought about the golf swing was incorrect. Jeff seems to be of the opinion that no new data is actually around that refutes Homers thoughts on the golf swing.

It's quite long, but interesting for those of us in the know.

Some interesting images

2010-11-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

I have long said the weight goes back to the inside arch of the back foot. Clearly in both professional players this is indeed the case. It makes sense that our equilibrium would make us do this. Arches are there to help evenly distribute the weight over a structure. In this case it's over our back foot. The more your weight shifts to the back foot, the more important for it to be structurally sound. The subconscious would react to this by making us shift our weight to over the arch of our back foot.

The other thing of note is that the two LONGER hitters, get their weight back where as the shorter hitter does not.

I prefer to "pre-set" some weight onto the back foot because it promotes keeping the right leg flexed and compressing the right foot on the ground. That compression helps to create shear force that we use to push off with. If we straighten the right leg in the back swing, then we have no muscular tension in the right leg to push with and we have no shear force. In effect we have nothing to use for leverage to torque the hips.

So why it torquing the hips so important? The left lat muscle.

In our backswing we are pulling our left lat muscle. This is a major link between the arms and hips. The function of the lat is to pull DOWN our arms toward our pelvis. Pulling down is precisely what we want our arms to do as HARD as they can. If you can stretch your lat you will have greater range of motion and faster pull of the arms down.

So to stretch the left lat muscle, if we can pull our left hip away from our left arm we increase the range of motion our left arm can make in the downswing. Hello power.

But, it ALL STARTS by loading up the right side. You MUST torque the hips by pushing our right hip with our right leg. That starts the kinetic chain and leads to greater distance.

Cannot stand this BS

2010-11-02T21:48:00.001-07:00

Well I found out today that they no longer want to let me teach at Coldwater. Apparently they're afraid I'm taking money from the guys behind the counter. That is the state of golf instruction today. Toss out the guy who has a clue in favor of guys who don't have any time to really study the swing and work with people.

And people wonder why instruction is in the poor state it is today.

I have a few leads on other places to go. I could probably go back to Rio Salado but I haven't spoken to the guys over there for a while. It's a great facility for driving, chipping, and sand practice. Course is always kept in great shape too. Unfortunately it's off the beaten path and right under the flight path of those pesky planes. There's a driving range not far from Coldwater that a friend knows the owner. It's lit and has grass.

I hate when things like this happen but when one door closes....

Anyway on to bigger and better things.

The Casio is on it's way

2010-10-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

I finally purchased a Casio EX-FH20 so I can record at much higher speeds and with better quality video. This will also finally give me the quality of camera I've been needing to put my DVD together. Look for some better video lessons and some remakes of oldies-but-goodies.

Swing Analysis - Lee Davis

2010-10-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

Here is another quick analysis I performed on SwingAcademy.

This is Lee Davis's swing from DTL.

Here is what I noted:

Setup (Frame 0) - Weight is a bit back on your heels. Good posture though.

Takeaway (Frame 8) - Almost no shoulder turn taking the club away. Instead you have rolled your lead arm.

Backswing (Frame 18) - Early wrist set, upper lead arm is rolled, and now you're somewhat flat. This is setting up for a hook.

Transition (Frame 24) - Good job keeping the back knee flexed and turning into it to create tension in the lower body. Rear elbow is also in good shape by staying more out in front of you. Flat lead wrist with your slightly strong grip means you're doing everything you can to keep this clubface close.

Downswing (Frame 27) - Since the club is so flat, you're having to drop everything straight down so that it gets on plane to strike the ball. You've also widened the gap between your elbows a bit trying to help facilitate this drop. We can see your knees really working early in the forward swing. Solid power from this swing.

Delivery (Frame 29) - You have two opposing directions going on here. You're pulling away from the ball with your uppper body to create room for your arms to swing, but that is causing everything to get thrown out away from you. That movement is causing this club to remain very flat. The swing is steep, but the club is laid off. Controling this is very difficult.

Impact (Frame 31) - Standing nearly straight up and down now, and your arms are very close to the body. Very crowded. Hello pull or pul hook.

Follow Through (Frame 35) - You can see how much more of your weight is on your heel than your toes of the front foot. A clear indication that you're pulling away from the ball during the swing. Also we can see the shaft still swinging flatly.

Finish (Frame 40) - Rear shoulder is still lower than the lead which is excellent. We can see your lead knee staying bent to help facilitate the weight being back on your heel.

I may have to just blog some of my posts

2010-10-29T15:45:00.002-07:00

Here is another post I think does a good job of explaining the role of torque in the golf swing. This was in response to the claim someone made that there wasn't ANY torque.

Well there is torque in the golf swing. There are three axis's and since the swing is circular, there is an obvious torque creating motion around the axis.

1st axis is the swing center. Most people swing around an axis which is in their sternum. Their shoulders rotate around this axis point and the pulling effect of the left shoulder on the muscles of the left arm is what causes the arm to swing.

2nd axis is the axis of the wrist joint where torque CAN BE applied by either the left thumb, left thumb pad, or extension action of the right shoulder and arm pushing. Exhaustion of this torque too soon causes casting (and usually flipping), too late and you can miss the ball completely.

3rd axis is somewhat up for debate about it's specific location, but as a general rule it's down the shaft of the club. The toe effectively rotates around the heel of the club and this requires torque. That torque is usually applied through a "swivel" action of the left arm or a complimentary action of the right arm.

There are also other torques that are part of the kinetic sequence (chain/link) where the right leg pushes the right hip around an axis point in the pelvis, this rotation applies torque to the abs all the way up to the shoulders. There are other various small amounts of torque that really aren't important for the purposes of this discussion (torque on the ankles, knees, hip joints), but none-the-less they do exist.

A Swing analysis

2010-10-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be good to post some of my swing analysis's of various amateurs who post their videos on SwingAcademy.com

If you want your swing analyzed, sign up for my group at http://www.swingacademy.com/gateway

SETUP (Frame 198)
Setup looks great! Well balanced from heel to toe, could perhaps use just ever so slightly more knee flex, and a fairly straight spine.

TAKEAWAY (Frame 217)
Almost no shoulder rotation to start the swing and that's pinning your left arm against your chest very early. Looks like your trying to tuck your right elbow under and early.

BACKSWING (Frame 221)
Not bad, shoulders are starting to follow the hands. The club is pretty close to on plane. Right leg is starting to straighten out.

TRANSITION (Frame 231)
Right elbow is bent way behind you which is causing your shaft to go accross the line at the top and rotating your left arm counter clockwise. This helps to shut the face for you but also steepens your plane. Right leg is nearly completely straight which means there's not way for you to push off of it from here and use the shear force from the ground.

DOWNSWING (Frame 238)
We see the shaft very veritcal, the shoulders opening up considerably, while keeping the left arm pinned to the chest and right elbow behind your rib cage. You'll be swinging off of your right hip and relying on a big turn of the body.

DELIVERY (Frame 240)
Butt end is pointed to the right indicating an inside path to the ball from here. Shoulders are way open and pulling hard. Right elbow tucked to the side of your ribcage instead of out in front.

IMPACT (Frame 241)
Really swinging out to the right now. Look at the direction the club will have to go to meet the ball. This has push or hook written all over it depending on where the clubface ends up. Right now the face is open which would hit a big push.

RELEASE (Frame 244)
Ball went right with an inside out path. Push with maybe a bit of a draw.You also flipped at it which is why the face never quite closes.

FINISH (Frame 258)
Never get the butt end of the club pointed at the target. Looks like you do everything you can not to let the face close on you and cause a pull hook.

A official source of information

2010-10-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

It has been by goal to consolidate the best information available about the game of golf. It is also my goal to have the information reviewed by PEERS to establish a more scientific analysis of ALL the information contained. I believe I have the solution finally in place.

http://wiki.gatewaytobettergolf.com

Articles can be freely submitted and accounts to the wiki are free. Really anyone and everyone is free to create an article. However, only certain articles will have a "Seal of Approval".

This is just in beta stage right now and certainly changes will be made in how we process the articles but I think it's a good start.

I am now sitting on the other side of the aisle

2010-10-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know me from years back. I was an admirer of Manuel de la Torre, Ernest Jones Jr., Chuck Hogan, and others. They taught simplicity of the golf stroke. "Swing the Clubhead". All very good information and a great start to understanding.

I butted heads with many of the TGM (The Golfing Machine) group. It seemed too complex, and the arrogance of the people was off putting. Their attitudes just entrenched mine. Despite that I went out and bought the book. I studied it for several months trying to assimilate just what it said.

IMO, I had the ADVANTAGE of not having someone walk me through it. If I had gone to see someone who taught TGM then it would have confused me. I still see references to certain sections during a debate, and when I go read their citing it has NOTHING to do with the conversation. They have somehow managed to derive some other meaning from the passage than I ever could. Either Homer Kelley didn't write clearly enough for me to understand it, or the person citing the passage has distorted the words to fit their own interpretations. Either way it does a dis-service to the book.

Now, I am not at all an endorser of TGM. I think it's a good attempt to categorize components of the golf swing but it shouldn't be considered the end-all be-all.

This brings me to my point. Now that I have some solid science to support some of my long held beliefs, I know how it empowers you to make bold statements that many people don't like. Just reading one of my discussions recently regarding lag would probably make some of you vomit.

The real irony is though they lack the real evidence because they are so dead set on being "simple". I used to raise that banner of simplicity all the time. I too used to belong to the "KISS" crowd but now I see how I was mortgaging real knowledge for that endeavor. KISS is fine when relaying specific information to one student at a time, but KISS should not be a learning philosophy.

Please take a moment to read

2010-10-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have posted a very important message on our forum that outlines some goals I have for The Gateway To Better Golf.
These goals are important to everyone involved, both student and instructor.
The thread can be found here:
http://www.swingacademy.com/forums/yaf_postsm855_An-important-statement.aspx

A new instructor to the Gateway To Better Golf

2010-10-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, I am very pleased to announce that we have a new instructor here at the Gateway To Better Golf. Some of you probably already know him. He is the 1992 ReMax long drive champion, Monte Scheinblum.

I have corresponded with Monte numerous times over the course of this last year and found him to be an excellent student of the game. He has helped many players get better with their game with simple instruction that is easy to understand.

If you are interested in learning more about Monte you can check out his blog, his website, or his forum.

We also have a new section that profiles our teachers. You can check it out on the main page by clicking on the "Teachers" link at the top of the page. We're gathering more information to put up there but it's a start.

Lag... it ain't important

2010-10-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

One of the biggie topics covered at the symposium was lag. I have steered clear of the lag concept since I got into golf. I produced a video on it but really didn't say it was important. I never really had a take on it especially because I knew that I could bomb it 300 yards with so little of it Homer Kelley would probably cry.

The idea of lag is simple and the "science" behind it is angular momentum.

But here we have a deception. You may be able to rotate faster, but the clubhead isn't traveling faster.

Lets go to the infamous ice skater analogy. Arms out and they slow their turn. Arms in and they speed up their turn. Sounds great except for one problem. How FAST are their hands going?

When those hands are tucked into their chest, do you REALLY think they're going 80-90 mph like they are when they're stretched out? Nope. The skater may be rotating faster, but their hands have significantly slowed down in speed.

Also think about this. The skater starts out with their arms out. Imagine in your mind how fast they are going. Now they pull their arms in and they speed up. Ok great. But what happens when their arms go back out again? Are they traveling FASTER than they where when they started? Nope, they've slowed down just as much as they would have if their arms stayed out the entire time.

When the club swings away from your center, it's like the skaters arms are stretching out. There's no advantage in speed.

So why do we hinge the wrists at all? To add torque. It's the last part of the kinetic link. The timing of the torque is based on the individual. Longer smoother swings apply torque sooner in the forward swing. Harder and more abrupt swings apply torque later. That has more to do with physical makeup and the strength in the arms.

New lesson packages

2010-10-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

We have dropped the idea of subscribing to the members section. Instead the members area is free but you will have to pay to have an analysis done.

1 x Basic Analysis - Text based swing analysis. ($9.99)
1 x Premium Analysis - Skillcast (video response) swing analysis. ($14.99)
1 x Ultimate Analysis - Skillcast (video response) swing analysis with 30 minute phone call. ($24.99)

We also have packages of 5 for the cost of 4.

Basic Student Package - 5 Text based swing analysis's ($39.99)
Premium Student Package - 5 Skillcast (video response) swing analysis's. ($59.99)
Ultimate Student Package - 5 Skillcast (video response) swing analysis's with 30 minute phone call. ($99.99)

Today's lesson

2010-10-16T22:26:00.001-07:00

Today I gave a lesson to a nice young man named Eric.

Eric came to me with a VERY outside to in, across the body swing. Almost no lower body participation. He just came off of hernia surgery so obviously this would not be the ideal time to get into the kinetic link. But I did "fix" him in very short order. His swing went from this:

To this:

It took me 15 minutes to get him from the first swing to the second swing. We spent another 15 minutes just ingraining the new swing.

So let's talk for a moment about how I did this so quickly.

First, I needed to identify Eric's learning strength and weakness. HOW should I communicate is just as important as WHAT I communicate. I identified him as an auditory learner with a kinesthetic weakness. In other words, tell him what I want in precise words and use a few mental images... but DON'T talk about touch or feel. How I identified his learning strength and weakness is a secret. Needless to say you don't want to play me at poker.

So now that I identified his learning style I needed to observe his swing. Clearly out to in with no body turn to speak of. All arms. Poor release. Flippy. Hits a relatively straight ball but fades about 10 yards. Mind you, he hit about 5 balls within 10 yards of each other with THAT swing you see above. His goal was to learn to hit a draw since he hadn't seen one in about 4 years.

Since his ball flight was relatively close to the target, there wasn't much to teach him about face just yet. Path was the primary concern. So the goal was to have him hit PUSH shots with as little fade as possible. I got him to do this by pointing his left elbow out to the right longer in the forward swing AND working the right shoulder down under his chin. I just let him work on those two things for 5 minutes. After about 10 balls he was hitting straight pushes, with the occasional BIG push slice.

Now it was time to fix the face.

I showed him how the lower forearm can rotate (turn the door knob) independently of where the elbow is pointing. I told him to turn the door knob with his forearm only. I also taught him to "wipe the table" with his right. I demonstrated how if I had a cloth in my right hand I would swipe it across the table and twist the cloth at the same time. I did so by again just rotating my forearm and always keeping the palm down to the table.

It took a few swings but after 10 minutes I had him hitting a draw.

The last 15 minutes was honing in which two conscious moves helped him hit the draw. He stuck with right shoulder down and turn the knob.

Now, something I'm always talking about is how the INTENTION of the forward swing dictates what you do in the backswing. So, here's some eye opening stuff.

Takeaway: (Left is before/Right is after in all pictures)

Backswing:

Transition:

Again I said absolutely NOTHING about the backswing. Not a single word for the entire lesson. He did this all on his own as a reaction to the intention we determined. Funny how that works.

His finish was also DRAMATICALLY different.

At the end of the 30 minute lesson I showed him the difference in finishes and quickly pointed it out as a good checkpoint to see if he performed the action correctly.

The next lesson will be to reinforce this finish. We might work a little on his turn if he feels up to it.

The road to improvement

2010-10-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

I gave some quick thought about what progression a golfer should go through in order to improve their golf swing. What should they focus on?

Here is what I broke it down to.

1st step - Get them making contact consistently. Don't care about direction, just as long as it's on the face.

2nd step - Controlling the face. Since the majority of direction relies on the face, it's the obvious thing to teach someone about.

3rd step - Controlling the path. Now that they understand how to control the face, lets fix the slice or hook with path control.

4th step - Power accumulation. This is really where the men get separated from the boys. If you know the first 3 steps inside and out you can play scratch. But if you can do all 3 with power, you can play championship golf.

Believe it or not, I think the SAME steps need to be done with the short game... but the 4th step in the short game is power MANAGEMENT. How do you control the energy. Power management = Distance control. The short game steps will go up independently of the full game steps. For example, you may may give a lesson to the student to help them with clubface control and then a short game lesson about controlling the speed. They may be more advanced in the short game than their long game.

Ultimately I think these steps should be taken in their order. Trying to teach someone power before contact makes 0 sense. To me so does trying to teach them path before they've learned to control the face.

I'd like some input on this...

2010-10-10T12:46:00.002-07:00

It could best be summed up like this.

Where the left elbow points is where the path is going. Where the back of the left wrist is facing is where the clubface will be facing (for neutral grips). So to control path, point your elbow where you want the clubhead to travel. To control the face, turn your wrist with your forearm.

The right arm has a roll in this as well. The more the right elbow points to the right hip, the more inside to out the path is (and flatter). Wherever the face of the right wrist bone is facing (for neutral grips) is where the clubface will be facing.

I am not at all opposed to using the back of the left wrist and palm of the right for more clubface control including loft and low point.

Announcement Announcement Annooouuuuuuncement!

2010-10-09T17:52:00.002-07:00

We have a new golf instructor to welcome to the Gateway To Better Golf.

Please welcome Dereck Moore from Lake Heffner Golf Course in Oklahoma City!

He will be available to give lessons in the student section and will be here to answer any questions on the forum. He will also be posting on the blog occasionally so look for his posts.

I have watched Dereck over the years giving advice and found him to be just what The Gateway To Better Golf needs. With his insights into the golf swing I think he can be a BIG asset to us all. This is about instructors working TOGETHER to develop the best plan of action to help students. Dereck can spot things or explain things in ways I cannot, and working as a TEAM we can help you all reach your goals much faster.

Also I would like to inform everyone that there will be more changes coming about for the structure of the website. We are slowly migrating things over more and more to the SwingAcademy group section. Soon we will have our own forum there which we will be moving to. Eventually there are plans to bring the Blog over there as well so that people will only have to do 1 sign up to access everything. I think this will make everyone a lot happier since the site navigation will be much simpler.

Squaring the clubface

2010-10-06T08:34:00.001-07:00

Here is the latest video I put together regarding squaring up the clubface and the deceptive nature of a cupped/flat/arches left wrist.

Some big plans

2010-10-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

I have plans to develop the site into something very big.

Here are just a few ideas of where I want to ultimately take The Gateway To Better Golf.

Student Section: I want to expand this out to include other instructors. I am hoping to bring on a few teachers that can use the idea of student correspondence and video analysis to reach players they may not otherwise be able to help due to location issues.

Information exchange: I would like to bring on these teachers to also add their content to the page. Have someone else besides me posting video's, answering questions, contributing to the blog, and chatting in the forum. I am not doing this to encourage debate but rather develop consensus. There is a simple philosophy that I want to bring to the masses and with a little help I think it can be done.

The GTBG method: It is NOT a method of mechanics but a method of coaching. There are different ideals for what the golf swing should look like and I am not interested it making everyone a carbon copy of each other. I am interested in helping the teacher teach and the student learn. The 5 cornerstones are categories to target and develop. By helping the teacher understand how those cornerstones relate to each other they can develop a strategy of fixing a swing simply and effectively.

Building a brand: I want to make GTBG a recognized certification that this teacher knows WTF he/she is doing. I want GTBG to mean a student can feel confident they are getting a qualified teacher to help them. It's about creating quality for the teachers and the students alike.

These are some simple but lofty goals. I hope to achieve them with some help. If you are an instructor and are interested in becoming part of the GTBG movement please email me. sbishop@gatewaytobettergolf.com

Swing analysis for someone with upper body sway

2010-10-02T20:28:00.001-07:00

Kelly has a pretty obvious sway to her swing. She gets very far behind it with her upper body, then her lower body slides in under her upper body. Then on the forward swing she leans forward with her upper body to start the forward swing and once again slides her hips under her upper body. By the time she gets to impact she is almost straight up and down with both legs straight.

How do we fix that? Here I advised her to do one thing for right now. Just get her right knee to catch up to her left knee as soon as possible. IMO, this cannot be overdone by anyone so long as the upper body stays tilted over the ball and back. In fact the sooner you do it, the more torque you'll be applying.

Changes to the website

2010-10-01T09:43:00.002-07:00

I consulted someone who has been in the website business for a long time about any changes I should make to the site. He liked it a lot but did make a few suggestions. So here are some of the changes I have made.

1) Made the background pictures rotate on the home page.
2) Make the background pictures include more "golf course" stuff.
3) Replace the link in the center of the page with "Student Section" since that is where I want everyone to go.
4) Make sure the text is concise on the main page.
5) Modified the student section page to just open in an IFrame instead of having people go through a link.
6) Modified the student page so that the logo only appears once in the upper left and the menu has been moved over.
7) Got rid of the arrow and text in the upper right corner of the page.

I had over 1000 hits in the month of September but 0 conversions to the student section. Hopefully these changes will help people get an easier flow towards posting their swings and joining the student section.

More on learning

2010-09-29T16:32:00.002-07:00

In my last post I just wanted to make a broad statement about not over emphasizing a particular move.

Today I just want to go a bit deeper into this subject.

There is a long standing teaching concept that basically says, if you are doing something wrong, exaggerate the opposite wrong and you'll end up in the middle. I don't fully agree with this and I'll tell you why.

Ultimately our goal is to get someone to a particular place in their swing. If we teach them where that space is, the FEEL will be exaggerated all by itself. But we should not replace one problem with a new one. Follow this past the first stage and you'll see what I mean. Think through the consiquences.

Typical scenario.

Student has a problem topping it. Teacher tells him to put the ball further back in his stance. This fixes the problem almost instantly! End of lesson.

Student goes out and plays 18 holes. First couple holes he tops it a few times. Student remembers what the teacher said.... so they put the ball back in their stance. Holes 3 through 6 are going great but now all of a sudden the balls are starting to fly low and right PLUS a few fat shots are creeping in. What does the student do? Any number of things at this point.

1) Continues to put the ball back in their stance until eventually they are hitting 6 irons 10 feet off the ground. What looked like a promising round with a promising end to the tops is replaced by a complete unknown new problem.

a) Student goes back to the teacher to learn how to fix the new problems.

b) Student decides the teacher wasn't very good and continues struggling while trying all the fixes they find that are free.

2) Gives up on the change and goes back to toping the ball.

a) Student decides to try another lesson to fix the same problem with the teacher.

b) Student thinks the teacher is worthless and will find someone else or look online for the answer.

3) Figures out that they are overdoing it a bit and pushes the ball up a little in their stance. Golfer then struggles all day with bad shots both topped and fat as they continually mess around with ball position. Player becomes totally disillusioned with the "fix" and doesn't really understand when it's right or when it's wrong.

a) Student decides to go back to the instructor and get a more precise answer to ball position.

b) Student thinks the teacher should have told them a more precise answer to begin with and looks for the answers elsewhere.

This is far from uncommon. In fact I think it happens to everyone who takes a lesson at some point. Maybe not this exact scenario, but something similar. It really stems from a lack of precise answers to solve the problem. Instead they are give quick fixes that help them hit better on the range while the teacher is there. But once the teacher is gone, a whole new set of problems arise. Either the teacher will make lots of money off the student for repeat business, or the teacher will never see them again because the student thinks they aren't getting anywhere with them.

BTW, if you are looking for a "correct" ball position it depends on the student.... however in general the ball should be just under the left shoulder for tee'd up shots. It should be just inside of the left shoulder (about where the logo of your golf shirt is) for irons. I do not believe it should progressively get further back for shorter irons. The only thing that changes with clubs is the width of your stance. Ball positions relative to the upper body should remain the same through the whole set.

Don't fall into this trap

2010-09-28T08:45:00.001-07:00

You do not need to teach yourself an exaggerated move to fix the bad one you make.

Simply put, just do it RIGHT. It will feel exaggerated enough for you to know the change in feel. You don't need to do this.....

Time to re-iterate

2010-09-24T10:16:00.002-07:00

1) Equipment
2) Setup
3) Finish
4) Balance
5) Relax

Work on these 5 cornerstones IN THEIR ORDER.

Equipment is an essential part of the results. If you want to see the ball fly consistently in the direction you swing, then the club MUST compliment that swing. Not having your clubs checked by a qualified Equipment specialist means you could be making a perfectly good swing with bad results. You could also be making a bad swing with good results making changes to your swing near impossible.

Setup is simple to change because it's static. There's no motion in the setup. You just have to know what to do and do it. Grip is neutral, weight on the arches of your feet, butt out gut out, flex the knees just enough to keep the blood flowing and facilitate butt out gut out, hands off the left thigh, and head behind the ball.

Finishing properly goes a LONG LONG LONG way to fixing ball flight. Some simple things to remember about the finish. Weight on your front foot. Belt buckle facing the target and your right knee even with your left knee. Left elbow is IN FRONT OF YOUR CHEST!! Right shoulder stays lower than your left for as long as possible.

Balancing during the swing sounds easy, but it's not if everything else is out of whack. Start in balance, and finish in balance. Don't know if you are balancing well in your swing? Close your eyes and swing. See what your mind tells you about it instead of relying on your eyes.

Relaxing is more technical than it sounds. If you aren't applying force on the plane, then your arms will feel it in the form of tension. If it doesn't make the swing easier, it means you're throwing the club off plane. Like pushing a car sideways vs pushing it forward. The same amount of effort moves the car better when you push it in the right direction. Same goes for the club. Move it along a single plane and things get easier, not harder.

If I were to teach a "method" that would be it. Can it be done other ways? Absolutely. But using this baseline "method" makes it easier to identify when one part goes errant, what other parts do we need to change to make up for it.

Can you pull and push?

2010-09-22T13:33:00.002-07:00

There was recently a very interesting thread going on over at Richie3Jack's forum regarding whether or not you can pull and push the club at the same time of the golf swing. Mikesloc made the assertion that you could, while others said you could not.

This primarily stems from this particular quote of Homer Kelley:

"Lag Loading is classified according to difference(s) in the procedures for accelerating the Secondary Lever Assembly(the Club). That is Radially or Longitudinally - which are mutually exclusive. That is - both cannot be applied at the same time."

This is a true statement by Homer, but there is also truth to what Mike is saying. The difference is WHAT object are we measuring the forces on. This makes a big difference in physics. That's why Einstein's theory of relativity was so briliant.

Let me try to simplify this for you so that it doesn't cause any confusion.

Let's say you and your girlfriend or wife are shopping. She is in front of the cart pulling on it while you are behind the cart pushing on it. If you start to push the cart faster than she pulls, then she is no longer pulling on the cart. In fact the moment her and the cart go at the same speed, she is applying no force to the cart. Once the carts goes faster than her, then it actually starts to impart force on her.

So, Homer was right. There can only be a push or a pull force acting on THE CLUB one at a time. They can alternate though. Say your girlfriend or wife suddenly speeds up, then she can start to pull on the cart and conversely pull on you. Then she may slow down again while you speed up... again reversing it.

So where was Mikesloc right?

If you consider YOU, the CART, and HER all as one.

To make all three of you move, your wife/girlfriend may be moving fast enough to make herself go forward. That requires force. She is PULLING on herself, while you are pushing the other 2/3rds of the total (yourself and the cart). So looking at the WHOLE, she accounts for 1/3rd of the force pulling on the entire setup, while you are accouting for 2/3rds of the force pushing on the entire setup.

The key to the whole thing is understand WHAT you are measuring. It's all relative.

A misconception about putting

2010-09-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

Many people think speed is controlled by how far back you take the putter in the backswing. Not true at all! It's how must speed you have going forward. This is why I prefer a motion of shorter backstrokes with longer follow throughs. It's speed judgement, not backswing judgement. PUSH the ball on your line, don't try taking the club back a specific distance and pop the ball.

It's similar to how I teach the chipping stroke.

One VERY important factor here is the speed you go back. The faster you take the putter back, the harder it is to transfer to the forward swing. Slow back, accelerate through.

Eyes over the ball when putting?

2010-09-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

I have never been an advocate of this theory that your eyes should be directly over the ball. IMO it promotes a stroke that has the arms too close to the body. Stan Utley who is world renowned as one of the best putters out there is in the same boat.

Tiger Woods, Brad Faxon, and Stan Utley

Eyes are inside of the ball allowing for an INSIDE to INSIDE path. It's much more rounded for these guys like a regular swing and not Straight-back Straight-through.

Putting philosophy

2010-09-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

Monte Sheinblum put up an excellent post today about putting. I recommend you head over there and look it over.

My own little addition to what he says is simple. Every putt is straight for the first 6 inches. Some people like to pick out a spot just in front of the ball but I prefer imagining the line I want my ball to start on and just stroking the putter right down that line. I struggle with my putting when I start to really concern myself with where the hole is and trying to determine if I'm aiming the right amount left or right of it.

You have to toss that mentality out the window.

Just putt the ball straight, that's all you can do. Let gravity be the one that makes the ball curve on the green.

Passive or active arms?

2010-09-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Alright all, I figure it's time to shed a little light on this subject.

There are passive arms, active arms, and (for lack of a better term) negative arms.

Passive arms are the ones that just go limp and follow whatever the shoulder turn does. Active arms is where the arms are intentionally brought to impact and the shoulder essentially either assist or play no part at all in the delivery of the hands. Negative arms are ones that are pinned back intentionally so that the pivot does everything and the arms are essentially just "connected" to the body.

In passive arms, the delivery of the hands to impact rely on something called the "kinetic chain". When the shoulder slow down, the arms and club throw out away from the body. The timing of the "pivot stall" is crucial to the timing of the arms.

In active arms, the goal is more or less to actively get the hands ahead of the ball and in front of the left hip (for right handers) as soon as possible. If the pivot helps, then so be it.

In negative arms, the hands hang back off the right rib cage (see Furyk at impact). This means there is little to no timing of the armswing required to hit the ball and instead a very open body position is required for impact. You are essentially hitting entirely with the right side turn.

Active arms require some timing and arm strength. Passive arms require timing of the body turn (kinetic chain). Negative arms require proper wrist angles for face and head alignment with a perfectly balanced pivot.

Some changes to the website

2010-09-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

I have added a "Swing Analysis" section to the videos on our main page. This will hopefully highlight the incredible value I am offering to people for such a small price. $30 a month for all the lessons you want. Who else offers such a deal? Really?

Anyway, I am going to be picking a few swings here and there to analyze and post up there in the new section. Take a look at them and tell me what you think.

FGI Desert Storm 2010 - 1st round

2010-09-09T21:40:00.002-07:00

FreeGolfInfo.com has a tournament every year held down here in Phoenix. It's 3 rounds of golf with the first one (today) being the "money game". It's a 2 man best ball. My round went fairly well today up until a missed eagle opportunity. A few poor swings with one resulting in a lost ball off the tee. Mostly though I would say my ball striking was just slightly below average. A lot of missed opportunities due to mis-clubbing, or bad lies. What was really my downfall today was my short game. I managed to miss a 3 footer for eagle. That was actually where my round really went down hill. The birdie there put my round back to even after 12, but I went on a nasty Double, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey binge. I mentally fell apart but it also had a lot to do with my chipping.

Dinosaur Mountain has undulations around every green. If you miss the greens at all you have to pitch it up to a green 3 feet up and where the pin is usually just a couple of paces on. Every pin placement was tight to something. I probably should have just stuck to middle of the green for everything and hoped to make a few putts. Oh well.

If there was anything to learn from the experience today, it's that I have been severely neglecting my chipping. Hope to do better tomorrow at We-ko-pa Cholla. Tomorrow is a match play event and I'm up against a 3 or 4 handicapper. The course is much longer than Dinosaur mountain. Nothing like having a 615 yard par 5 that is reachable in 2 for me. :D

Brian Manzella's essential D-Plane video

2010-09-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Some really interesting things to learn from this video. Gotta give credit to Brian for fitting a few more pieces of the puzzle together.

Matrix Update

2010-09-05T01:51:00.000-07:00

For those of you with a student account I have updated the Pull section. What is really neat about it is the new template I have put in place regarding how each swing fault will be explained. As you already know I have my 5 cornerstones of Equipment, Setup, Finish, Balance, and Relax. I have further broken each one of these down into checkpoints. They are as follows:

Equipment

Loft
Lie Angle
Length
Loading
Lightness

Setup

Grip
Alignment
Posture
Feet
Weight
Knee Flex
Ball position

Finish

Weight
Shoulders
Elbows
Plane
Feet

Balance

Arches
Tilt
Hips/legs

Relax

Takeaway
Backswing
Transition
Delivery
Impact
Release
Follow Through
Finish
Extended finish

I don't expect everyone to remember all of these. I don't even have them memorized, but I think they encompass a LOT of useful information. This will also allow me to standardize the instruction and actually keep things simple. Think of it more like subcategories of the main categories. Everyone is dealing with something on this list.

Soon I will update the sections already put up in the matrix to reflect this new template.

When and what?

2010-09-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

Next time you go out and practice, pay attention for 5 swings to see if you can feel when and what you tense up. What is the FIRST time you feel your arms get a little tighter. Is it the takeaway? Lifting to the top? Transition? Impact? Release? Follow through? Finish? But not just where, WHAT tenses? Your right arm? Left arm? Hands? Shoulder? Neck? This isn't to confuse you but to just make you aware that it's happening. Once you become aware that it's happening I want you to experiment. Try tensing it up harder and then relaxing it. See what results you get. But first you need to be able to identify it. This is a MAJOR key for many people.

Balance

2010-09-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

Equilibrium rules all.

No matter where you start off with your weight, eventually your equilibrium will put you into balance. So starting in balance is important. That being said, I would MUCH prefer someone start more on their toes than on their heels. When you start on your heels, your equilibrium will cause you to get slightly closer to the ball in the backswing. From there you are too close to it and don't have room to swing your arms. The result is a pull away or up from the ball so that your arms can extend without hitting your body. NOT good.

But if you start on your toes, you end up extending and releasing the club just to get to the ball. That's better than being cramped up with no room.

My swing

2010-09-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

Here is some video of my swing for those of you interested.

The Golf Channel is looking for a new instructor

2010-08-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

And I put my name in the ring.

Here is the main page explaining the contest:
http://www.thegolfchannel.com/instructor-search/

The video I submitted was just shot in the Arizona 100 degree heat yesterday. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rm7Hc5_feQ

A rant

2010-08-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ever since I can remember the idea of "impact" being upheld as the sole important aspect of the golf swing has been thrust upon me. Although I understand how it causes the ball to fly as it does, and thus our scores are derived, I cannot help but fall back to the position that impact is merely a tiny fraction of a second. There is no way we can possibly control anything for that moment or to be in a specific point at that moment. It would be as if I were to ask you to draw a segment of a circle that is exactly one thousandth in length of the entire circumference with the precise curvature required so that if we copied your segment one thousand times around the rest of the circle it would make a perfect circle. It would be so statistically improbable that we can say it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE. However if I were to ask you to just draw a circle where part of it dissects a dot on the page, talk about EASY.

That is essentially the difference between "impact" instruction and "Whole Swing" instruction. No one is saying that dot isn't important, we're just saying learn how to draw a circle, and drawing it through the dot becomes a piece of cake.

Now, why am I bringing this up right now? Well there are certain aspects of the swing, as a whole, that get left out in favor of "I hit it straight and that's all that matters, impact baby, impact".

Those of you who have read my blog and have taken lessons from me know the importance I place on the finish. I would doubt there is a single instructor out there who knows more about it than I do. I am not saying this to boast but rather to point out a VERY sad reality. One of the first things you are taught is that you should finish in balance with your belly facing the target. Why doesn't ANYONE think beyond that? It's a total black hole for instruction.

But I'm not claiming to be the smartest cookie in the bunch here either. I just think instructors simply don't find it relevant and so only some basic superficial ideas are covered (weight on front foot, belly facing target). If they did think about it I don't think they could argue that the club should STILL be ON PLANE. Want to know what a finish looks like that's on plane? Just look at the picture I posted yesterday.

Yet, do you know how many people I see that achieve that position? Less than 1%. Why? In a golf world where "The Plane" is obsessed over to the point of near OCD would they leave out the finish? It is still mind boggling to me. Do they seriously think that a swing that finishes off plane was somehow on plane the entire other parts?

BUT! If you can achieve that position you see in yesterday's picture, you will have one of the sweetest releases of the club you have ever felt in your life. The club will be free moving along it's path, and the clubface will rotate seemingly all on it's own. Also, since it is at the END of the swing, it easily becomes a goal. It takes some serious dedication. You have to forget impact and ball flight for a while until you get comfortable getting there. But when you do impact just happens and it's one of the most glorious sensations any golfer can achieve. A GOOD release where the ball just gets in the way.

An Example of an "On Plane" Finish

2010-08-23T14:17:00.003-07:00

Sometimes you just come across one of those swings where you see everything you believe in is vindicated. For a long time I have been pointing to the high point of the follow through (aka "real finish") and saying the butt end of the club should be pointing at the target. Left elbow out in front of the chest and right shoulder down.

Here is a picture that embodies everything that the release of the club should be up to the finish.

Right shoulder down, left elbow out in front of the chest and close to the right elbow, butt end of the club pointing at the target.

Beautiful.

VViking's Swing Analysis

2010-08-21T13:41:00.001-07:00

I did an analysis of VViking’s golf swing from the website FreeGolfInfo.com.

Here is the thread. http://www.freegolfinfo.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=2681379

Player Name: VViking
Analysis #: 1
Date: 8-21-10
Need To Work On:
1) Need to setup over the arches instead of on the heels.
2) Take the WHOLE club away to start the swing, not just the clubhead.
3) Finish with the right shoulder down lower.
4) Finish with the left elbow more out in front of your chest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbN3nnrj7A

Steve Bishop

Lead Golf Instructor

The Gateway To Better Golf

(602) 740-1277

sbishop@gatewaytobettergolf.com

http://www.gatewaytobettergolf.com

Elbows on the finish

2010-08-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've stated many times that on the finish the elbows should be out in front of the chest. Frequently we see the left elbow pointing behind the player or way out to the side.

The reason for the elbows being out in front of the chest is that it is easier for the release to happen. If you let the left elbow "fly" then you are essentially redirecting the club upright on the finish instead of allowing it to go over the left shoulder.

Ideally you want the right shoulder to remain low while the right arm folds accross the chest. You'll notice that naturally your left elbow will still want to point down when you just let the right fold accross your chest.

Right shoulder on the finish

2010-08-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

The right shoulder should continually try to be lower than the left shoulder all the way through to the finish. If it ends up level that's fine, but preferably we should be trying to keep it lower to the ground than the left. Doing this combined with just letting the right arm go across the chest makes for a very powerful driving blow to the golf ball.

Stance width

2010-08-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

I continually hear that the width of your stance should be with your feet "shoulder width" apart. I literally have NO IDEA how far apart that is. Nor do I think that stance width is an exact science. Some people have too narrow, and some people have too wide.

On the whole, I believe people in general have their stances too wide. The reason is simple. The wider the base, the more resistance there is to the turn. When we feel resistance between our upper body and lower body we FEEL like there is more power. Although I do believe resistance does add some quickness to our swing, it is not always a good thing. As I've said in an earlier post, resistance causes blisters. I can certainly see resistance causing other problems.

I have generally gone by a simple rule of thumb. Imagine lifting a weight off the ground. The longer the club, the heavier the object to be lifted. For a driver you could imagine lifting a 75-100 lbs object. You would take a fairly wide stance for that. But when it comes to your wedges, 5-10 lbs is all that is needed. The stance width would not get very wide at all. So try to think of this next time you are concerned about how wide your feet are apart. How much weight should you be lifting?

Equipment and posture

2010-08-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

I know this echo's a post I made before, but I am constantly adjusting players postures and in more than a few cases it's because of improper shaft lengths. Too short of a shaft will tend to make the player either bend their knees more, or tilt at their waist far more than is stable.

Now, shaft length and lie angle go together to get the sole of the club flat at impact. But they also affect the posture someone takes when setting up to the ball. Instinctively most of us try to set up to the ball with the bottom of the club flat to the ground. This could prop the club up, or set it down low depending on the lie angle and length of the shaft. As the shaft gets longer, the flatter the lie angle needed to make the sole of the club level. As the shaft gets shorter, the more upright the lie angle needed to make the sole of the club level.

If a club is too short with too flat of a lie angle, you can bet the player will either bend at the knees or waist much more than is necessary or prudent. Conversely if the club is too long with too upright of a lie angle you can bet they will stand up quite tall and have to stick their hands out Moe Norman style.

Consistency vs. Shot shaping?

2010-08-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

First of all, sorry for not posting for a few days. Been very busy with work and home life. I'm sure you have all been there. This blog and my website are a passion of mine, but they aren't my work. I do this for the enjoyment of helping others achieve their best golf. I hope you are all becoming better players because of my teaching. If I have, please tell me. I sincerely find it to be one of the finest things in life knowing that I have helped someone.

Now, recently a student of mine said in a discussion about his golf swing that he was seeking consistency. Then not long after that he stated his intention for shot shaping. Not many of us would blink at these two notions but I see an inherent contradiction. Would consistency be nice? Yes. Would shot shaping ability be nice? Yes. Can you do both? Maybe, but it requires 4 times the work.

Here is the problem. If you want consistency then you want to see one type of shot with one type of swing. But with shot shaping you have to see several types of shots with several types of swings!

Now there is a way out of this conundrum.

The better of the two routes is to seek shot shaping. If you know how to hit a draw and how to hit a fade WITH YOUR SWING (not just setup), then that knowledge will tell you what type of shot you are biased towards. Then when pressure situations come about, just plan for that shot and go. This eliminate the technical because you gain confidence in the knowledge. When you truly KNOW how to perform something and why it happens that way, you have an instant boost in confidence of execution.

Got blisters?

2010-08-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

Nearly everyone develops blisters. But when it comes to determining why, it is easy to get caught up in technical deficiencies of the swing. However, there is a simple statement that blankets 95% of all reasons why you develop blisters.

You are not moving with the club, you are moving against it.

Think about it. The ONLY way you develop blisters is if your hands are trying to go one direction while the club is trying to move another. Some people may call this tempo or rhythm. I just simply call it moving with the club.

The biggest area that I see this happen is during the transition. The back-swing is very fast and the club is still trying to go back, but the body starts the forward swing and tugs on the hands. Since the body and hands want to go forward but the club is still trying to go back, that is a blister in the making. From there on it is simply a matter of which finger is at the wrong place at the wrong time.

There are many ways to fix this. Sometimes just being made aware of it is enough. For others thinking of a 3 beat swing helps where you count 1, 2 to make the back-swing and on 3 you strike the ball. This slows down the tempo going back and thus the club is not still trying to swing backwards when you decide to swing forwards.

What I would prefer to emphasize is that it's not so much tempo, but rather your ability to swing relaxed. If your arms are relaxed and you swing in a relaxed manner, you are not likely to rush the back-swing to begin with. The 3 beat idea is ok for a while, but it messes with your internal swing clock. Ultimately I think it leads to a dependency on tempo where there wasn't a dependency before.

The distinction between staying relaxed and tempo is a BIG one and deserves another posting some other time. Perhaps I will discuss it tomorrow.

Balancing

2010-07-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

I commonly use two lines to determine someone's balance on video. I draw a line from behind their tush down, and from where their shoulders meet their neck. When you draw them straight down you get a good idea which part of the foot the majority of someone's weight is. If the tush line is further away from their heel than their shoulder line is from their toes, then you know they are on their heels.

What is interesting to observe is how many people start OUT of balance at the setup but move INTO balance by the time they get to the top of their backswing. Take a look at your own video some time and try drawing these two lines periodically through your swing. From there, you can make your own determinations about what you might need to change to improve your balance.

Remember, your balance is essential to keeping a steady axis. The axis and the radius should be constant to keep your swing from loosing consistency. Just like when you use a compass to draw a circle, if you move the central point which everything turns around, you lose the circle. If you move the central part of your swing then you lose the circular arc of the swing.

My swing

2010-07-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Some of you may not have yet seen my swing. My lovely girlfriend was kind enough to video my swing a few days ago with her camera.

This is a 3 iron hit with a tiny bit of draw although my normal shot is a baby 5 yard fade. I get into trouble when it's a push fade and instead of landing at my target it ends up 15 yards right and short. Lately though, that hasn't been nearly as much of a problem.

Be specific

2010-07-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

When you are explaining problems with your ball flight, try to be specific about where the ball starts and where it ends up.

Just as an example, if you say to someone that you are slicing the ball, you may in fact be mischaracterizing the actual ball flight you have. If the ball starts to the right of the target (for right handers) and continues to curve more to the right, that is NOT a slice…. It is a push fade/push slice. If it starts at your target or even slightly left of the target and curves far to the right of the target, then THAT is a real slice. If your ball starts well left of the target and slices back at the target, that is a pull slice.

All three of these ball flights may be slices, but unless we know the initial direction that the ball takes off, it’s very difficult to diagnose exactly what the problem is. In one of those scenarios your path may be spot on at the target. In another your face may be spot on at the target. But unless you specify which it is, we can only guess as to what is actually happening.

Of course, the best evidence of what you are doing is video.

Steve Bishop

Lead Golf Instructor

The Gateway To Better Golf

(602) 740-1277

sbishop@gatewaytobettergolf.com

http://www.gatewaytobettergolf.com

More on the finish

2010-07-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

reviously I posted how the butt end of the club should be pointing at the target on the finish.

I just want to refine that a bit and say it should be pointing at the target when your hands are at their highest of the follow through. Only reason is because a good majority of you finish past this point. I call it the “real” finish, where as most of you probably continue on with body turn to make the “fake” finish. (I didn’t coin the term real and fake finish, it actually came from my long time ago coach Pat Damon)

So, when your hands are at their highest on the follow through, the butt end of the club should be pointing at the target. There is a geometrical significance to this.

In the image above the red lines are all parallel with each other. The red line on the bottom right is called the “plane line”. At all times the club should be pointing at, or parallel to this plane line. The majority of golfers concern themselves with the takaway, transition, impact, and in some cases halfway to the finish…. But RARELY do I ever see anyone emphasize the shaft being parallel to the plane line on the finish. That is what I am I trying to get you all to do. The reason is simple geometry and physics. If you get there on the finish, you HAVE to do something in the rest of your swing that will get you there. Most likely, it is achieving all of the other plane line alignments.

I have gone into some depth about this for those of you interest, but the bottom line is simple. Point the butt end of the club AT the target when your hands reach their highest point of the follow through.

Why are so many people just jerks?

2010-07-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

Wow the attitudes of some people... especially in the golf world. Been going around looking to perhaps sponsor some websites so I can get the name out a bit more. I've also posted a few posts regarding some advice on fixing an open clubface.

The responses have been unbelievably jerkish. Both personal messages and public posting. Is it just me or is anyone else just seeing this RAMPANT among the online community?

For the record I am HAPPY to be a new sponsor of GolfRewind.com and still am continuing the partnership with SwingAcademy.com. Both sites are tremendously worthwhile and full of good, well intentioned people. I hope they continue to stay that way. Happy golfing!

Steve Bishop

Lead Golf Instructor

The Gateway To Better Golf

(602) 740-1277

sbishop@gatewaytobettergolf.com

http://www.gatewaytobettergolf.com

The finish influences your release

2010-07-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

Too frequently I see players never get the butt end of the club pointing at the target. In order to achieve a finish (or at least the latter stage of the follow through) where the butt end of the club is aimed at the target, the right arm must fold across the chest, the forearms must have some roll, and the left elbow must be pointing down. The wrist must also re-hinge (or recock) the club letting the club pass the hands.

What I see instead is where the body turn continues much further than is necessary which drags the club through impact and release rather than actually letting the clubhead pass the hands.

Now, the hands should be ahead of the ball at impact, but not for very long. Otherwise the body is simply turning and pulling the club across the body instead of releasing it OUT away from the body.

So, finish as best you can with the butt end of the club pointing at your target, and your left elbow pointing DOWN to the ground. You'll find yourself actually increasing compression because you'll be properly releasing the club instead of holding the face open.

Having problems with sway?

2010-07-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Try a narrower stance. Quite often people stand too wide and as a result they sway back and forth. A little lean back is good, but if you are sacrificing stability you need to rethink it.

Now, this may seem a bit counter-intuitive but in fact it's not. A wider stance may "feel" more stable but all it does is give you more room to sway your weight. A wider base allows for you to move your weight back but still be on the inside of your back foot. Then on the forward swing you could potentially move your weight dramatically forward and end up still on the inside of your front foot. The wider base made you FEEL more stable, but in fact you were just allowing yourself to move all over the place.

Just look up and down the driving range some time and you'll see that generally the guys with wide stances have the most shift. Guys with narrower stances look stable and balanced.

New Domain!!

2010-07-24T01:42:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone just thought I would let you all know we now have an official domain.

www.gatewaytobettergolf.com

The other URL's will continue to work if you have them bookmarked, but from now on all things will be labeled accordingly. This is an obvious upgrade and will make the site more visible plus easy to remember.

Remember, blog posts are posted up over there just as they are here. I am going to continue to post blog entries here but if you want one easy place to look through everything, that's where you should go. www.gatewaytobettergolf.com

More on Iacas

2010-07-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

I know it again may be childish, but I think you should all know just what kind of treatment you can expect on "TheSandTrap.com" if you do not believe the same things the website owner believes. Here is my message sent to him regarding constant deleting of my posts, and his response.

Why must you continue to be a jerk to me? I have stayed away for a good long time, none of my posts are offense, I have been nothing but cordial. What you have done is to once again delete posts of mine and prevent me from posting a blog like you let everyone else do. I actually have experience and good information, I can contribute to many of the people on this board. Just look at some of the previous threads where people had stated I was one of the best instructors around. I was the original person to discuss the new ball flight laws on this forum and you outright rejected them at first. Now you shout from the rooftops and say anyone who doesn't teach them should be ran away from.

Yet you still hold a grudge.

Re: Hips

Originally Posted by Ringer
Why must you continue to be a jerk to me?
You ask this. You ask why I "hold a grudge."

Here's the simple truth: I don't hold a grudge. I don't think about you when you're gone and I don't care when you are here...

If ANYONE who knew the answer said "I don't understand" and then asked a question I'd be likely to delete it. It's obnoxious. Who are you to "test" the forum members? That kind of behavior is stupid.

Originally Posted by Ringer
I have stayed away for a good long time, none of my posts are offense, I have been nothing but cordial.
They're not offensive, but they do not add to the conversation. There's no value added in asking a question to which you already know the answer.

If you wanted to see if THAT GUY knew the answer, PM him or something.

Originally Posted by Ringer
What you have done is to once again delete posts of mine and prevent me from posting a blog like you let everyone else do.
What's with you and the blog? Post to it - I don't care. You're not "prevented." Heck, I added you to the Instructor group so you could post.

The world is not out to get you Steve. And whining to me about how everyone thinks you're awesome (they don't) isn't going to help your cause at all, either.

Erik J. Barzeski

Anyone who says that someone else's posts were deleted on their forum because they "do not add value" to the conversation, is the epitome of elitism. Seriously, this guy is elitist on a whole new level.

Finally, just want you all to know for the purposes of transparency, here was my reply to that message of Erik's.

Re: Hips

Originally Posted by iacas
Originally Posted by Ringer
Why must you continue to be a jerk to me?
You ask this. You ask why I "hold a grudge."

Here's the simple truth: I don't hold a grudge. I don't think about you when you're gone and I don't care when you are here...
That is quite clearly not the case, otherwise you would have no need to remove posts and take down blogs of mine. If you didn't care then they would have stayed up and I wouldn't have called you a jerk.

If ANYONE who knew the answer said "I don't understand" and then asked a question I'd be likely to delete it. It's obnoxious. Who are you to "test" the forum members? That kind of behavior is stupid.
Who are you to judge my motivations? I asked him a question because I didn't understand what he was trying to communicate. You decided to interpret it as some sort of... heck I don't even know WHAT you're interpreting it as. Apparently there's no room on your board for instructors to learn from other people.

Originally Posted by Ringer
I have stayed away for a good long time, none of my posts are offense, I have been nothing but cordial.
They're not offensive, but they do not add to the conversation. There's no value added in asking a question to which you already know the answer.
I DID NOT KNOW THE ANSWER. It was his own personal interpretation of what he was doing, how the HECK am I going to know the answer to what he's thinking.

If you wanted to see if THAT GUY knew the answer, PM him or something.
Funny you should mention it, because I DID. In fact I even told him you would probably delete my question after I posted it a second time. So I told him I had to ask him as a PM since I didn't think the question would be on the board long enough for him to answer it. How right I was. We talked for several messages while I asked him questions about what he was talking about. But now of course no one else can read that and gain any more information from it because you decided it was unimportant.

Originally Posted by Ringer
What you have done is to once again delete posts of mine and prevent me from posting a blog like you let everyone else do.
What's with you and the blog? Post to it - I don't care. You're not "prevented." Heck, I added you to the Instructor group so you could post.
I'm not prevented? Really? So you are changing your story from the original one about how only "members" could post blogs? Now my blog posting miraculously disappears again and you have no idea how it could have done that AGAIN? Really. Don't you do the coding for this board? I would think of all people who would know why my blog keeps disappearing after an hour of being available you would be the most interested in finding out why it keeps doing that. Maybe it's happening to others. But I get the sense you already know why my blog posts disappear.

The world is not out to get you Steve. And whining to me about how everyone thinks you're awesome (they don't) isn't going to help your cause at all, either.
First of all, I don't need to go around deleting posts because someone contradicts me. Just look at my youtube videos and I've left plenty of comments up there from rather odd people who will say just about anything. I could care less what they or you think of how good I am at teaching. But the FACT is that several people DO want to know what I have to say and have expressed it on your very own board. I don't think the "world" is out to "get" me.... I just KNOW that you DO hold a grudge. The evidence is in every post you delete and every blog you deny.

FWIW, I did PM the original poster my question because frankly I knew it would continue to be deleted. We carried on a nice conversation.

The original poster stated this:

Try and concentrate on keeping your weight forward -- that will keep you in a very good position to slide the hips on the downswing (I know some who actually begin the slide before the top of the backswing, but I can't/don't try for that).

I really think the key to a good hip slide is being in the right position at the top of the backswing -- and that is remaining centered over the ball (and not getting back over the outside of your back foot). In fact, I find it nearly impossible not to make a good slide of the hips when I am in a good position on the backswing.

Try working on this at home in slow motion...that will exagerate the feel of keeping the weight forward and you centered over the ball.

My subsequent question was that I didn't understand how he felt that if he already had his hips and weight shifted forward that he could then shift them even more. This didn't sound logical. .... I know, SO unimportant. How dare I!

Again, I know to some this is probably a childish argument. But I just want you all to know why I don't go there anymore. There are PLENTY of very well run forums out there. FreeGolfInfo.com, SwingAcademy.com, GEA, The Golf Channel, Richie3Jack, and many others.

The club is the boss

2010-07-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Whenever I try to work on a particular aspect of my personal golf swing, I'm constantly trying to understand how it relates to the motion of the club. After-all the path and clubface at impact are what it's all about. How we get there is called a swing, and how we make a swing is grouped into the 5 cornerstones.

I believe that positions are only important at the start and finish, everything between is feel. But when you are trying to "feel" you must have something that gives us reference. That is where the club comes in.

Let me give you an example.

Lets say your problem shot starts out to the right. We know that this means the clubface of the club is open. Until we determine WHAT is happening with the club, we cannot hope to understand what we must do with our body to fix it. It isn't until we make that connection between "Ball starts right = clubface open" that we can then ask "What do I need to do with the club to change that?". The answer is simple, "close the clubface".

Now that you have a definitive answer to what you must do with the club to fix the problem, you can then start to work on a FEEL within your body that accomplishes this fix. That feel can be club based, or body based. You could either "wrap the toe" of the club around the ball (club based feel), or let the palm of the right hand go at the target.

I personally prefer a feeling that is within the 5 cornerstones. Relaxing through impact with an emphasis on the forearms is one I have used in the past to alleviate the push fade. Another good one is to finish with the left elbow pointing down. Both work and focus on one of the 5 cornerstones, but equally viable are the toe wrap or palm feeling. Whatever works, but just understand that everything you do is an effort to change the CLUB.

Please boycott a website

2010-07-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

I have posted many times over at TheSandTrap.com and find most of the patrons to be very nice. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about the owner. He has routinely deleted perfectly legitimate posts of mine for no other reason than a grudge.

Back in 2007 I posted a diagram illustrating the new ball flight laws.

See thread here - http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads/7153-How-Club-Path-and-Face-Angle-Determines-Ball-Flight

He disagreed with me and eventually held a grudge for this and a couple of other threads where we disagreed. He has since banned me a couple of times, removed several of my posts, locked down threads for no other reason than I was in them, deleted any blog which I attempt to start over there, and overall been a complete dictatorial jerk.

Ironically, he now touts the new ball flight laws and has stated that anyone who doesn't teach them should be avoided. 3 years ago, he was one of those that should have been avoided. Go figure.

Anyway, it has been a good long while since my last post there. I thought perhaps things had cooled down. Unfortunately when I asked a poster what they meant by something, my post was deleted for no reason given. I then reposted it. It was taken down again. This time it prompted a private message from the board owner giving me HIS response to my question. I said thank you and told him I was interested in what the original poster had to say. I posted the post once again only to have it removed again with a curt "I am not. (interested in what the OP had to say)".

So, I know it may sound childish to request such a thing as a boycott, but truly Iacas is a jerk. He has a couple of guys that he agree's with which he lets get away with all sorts of name calling and bashing. The childish behavior really comes from the owner and I would suggest you steer clear of it.

A general view of coil

2010-07-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

I am a firm believer in a firm RIGHT leg that the left shoulder turns around to create coil in the backswing. Then the right leg pushes forward which ever so slightly increases the torque. Then the body unwinds from the bottom up starting with the right leg, up the hips, torso, shoulders, and finally arms. Problems arise often when someone tries to circumvent this system. The MOST common I see is when the shoulders try to uncoil at the same time.

Just to clarify, the shoulders WILL turn when the hips turn, but they should essentially turn at the same rate until the hips begin to slow down. The shoulders do not turn in addition to the hip rotation at a simultaneous moment. Instead it is progressive.

Think of it like the tom tom drum from Karate Kid part 2. The ball on a string whips around a turning drum. If you turn the handle, the drum goes with it, and finally the strings whip around.

The trick to the golf swing is making sure you whip the arms around on the proper plane to swing the clubhead on a path where the ball lies.

Follow up to the parallax question

2010-07-18T12:11:00.001-07:00

par·al·lax

n. An apparent change in the direction of an object, caused by a change in observational position that provides a new line of sight.

The correct answer is 1!

Remember how train tracks seem to merge in the distance? Even though they run parallel then eventually seem to run into each other as they reach the horizon.

Think about this for a moment. We would likely say that Tiger's feet are aimed AT the target. Then if we were place a shaft where the ball is which is parallel with with Tigers feet, it would likely point just a few feet to the right of where his feet are aimed.

When you take into account that the camera (or artist) is only able to view down ONE of these two lines, then the other line MUST have some angle to it from the camera's perspective. This is parallax. It plagues us when we take video of our golf swings and think we are on plane, under plane, or over the plane. The mere position the camera is placed will change a lot of what we think we see. This is why camera positioning is so important. I prefer that it be directly behind the player where as others prefer it be directly behind the ball.

Parallax question.... do you know the answer?

2010-07-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Where do you think Tiger's target is?

How to setup for a draw and a fade

2010-07-16T11:11:00.002-07:00

I just created two illustrations to help you understand how you should setup to draw or fade the ball. I've also thrown in a tree so you can see that your clubface needs to aim to the side of the tree, and not at the target as once was previously thought.

Something to take note of. As a general rule aim your body double the distance from the target. So if your clubface is aimed 5 yards left, line up your body 10 yards left. If your clubface is aimed 5 yards right, aim your body 10 yards right.

This difference is greater when you hit shorter irons since the ball will curve less with shorter irons. That means you must aim even more left or more right. So say for a Pitching Wedge if you line up the clubface 5 yards to the right, you may have to aim your body as much as 15-20 yards to the right. THATS ALOT!

Posture is easy

2010-07-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

The quickest way to fix a "rounded" back is a little saying I coined several years ago...

Butt out, gut out.

Now, if you have a big gut, it may be simpler to think of butt out, chest out. Both are equally effective.

I don't want you to strain yourself, just push your butt back and stick your belly out. It instantly reduces slumping over as well as sets the shoulders back. It helps tremendously when trying to make a better shoulder turn since things simply get out of the way.

Shortening or lengthening your clubs

2010-07-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Length and lie angle go hand in hand when it comes to club fitting. But there is a reason to go shorter or longer aside from just adjusting how the sole of the club comes into impact, it's about posture.

Far too many taller people have short clubs and try to make up for it by lifting up. Of course a shorter shaft is going to steepen your swing. No amount of technical work is going to fix that ether. If you are having to bend over at the waist a lot just to get the club to the ground, chances are the club is too short. If you have to set your hands far away from your body and stand pretty tall, chances are the club is too long.

Here's a good way to tell.

Put your left hand on the grip end of the club as if you were addressing a ball.

Now with your right hand, spread your fingers as far apart as you can.

Now try to touch your pants with your pinky finger while touching the butt end of the club with your thumb. This is the appropriate amount of gap between the club and your pelvis. If you have to put the club closer to your body than this, chances are it's too short. If you have to put the club further away from you than this, chances are the club is too long.

Ultimately this affects your posture especially as you make adjustments over time.

Why did the old laws work?

2010-07-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to wrap my head around how the old ball flight laws even came into existence.

Ultimately I've come to the conclusion that it's basically the things:

1) You DO make the ball curve the way you intend by doing it.
2) Psychology
3) The sweet-spot toe of the club WANTS to be thrown out away from you.

First off, on point #1. If you set up closed to the target and close the clubface relative to the path you'll hit a draw. Even in the new laws that's still the way it works. Same for a fade. Set up open to the target and open the face to the path, you'll hit a fade.

On point #2. I think over time better players made adjustments to where the ball started by releasing a bit more than they realized to fade it, and blocking it a bit more than they realized when drawing it. But they were so close to getting it right with point #1 that just a little psychological adjusting with hand eye coordination could get them to make the ball fly how they wanted. It's easy to see how someone might over-correct the old ball flight laws and get the ball to do what they want.

On point #3, this one I think is over looked.

I know for myself that when that clubface is closed relative to my hands, something feels VERY awkward. The same goes for when the clubface is open. Ultimately it throws the balance of the club off. We KNOW we need to get the sweetspot in line with the shaft and so not only do we make a psychological adjustment, but the centripetal force is at work drawing the weight of the toe out away from us. What results from this is that the toe of the club closes a bit sooner in the forward swing when we start with the face is open. Conversely the toe tries to keep the face open longer in the forward swing when we start with the face closed.

Proof to me is in my first few shots when I make changes in setup. If I close my stance and close the clubface, I am actually more inclined to hit a push than a draw or fade. Conversely if I open my stance and the clubface I am actually more inclined to hit a pull. Both I and the club naturally want to square up the face to my path. Doing so even a fraction of a bit will make the old ball flight laws FEEL like they are working, when in fact what's actually happening is slightly different.

Right shoulder

2010-07-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

I've posted many times about the role of the right shoulder.

If you are experiencing a major OTT move as most people do, I have found three root causes. First, the counter rotation of the forearms which puts the club across the line at the top. From there the clubhead is already in a position where it must come step into the ball. A major counter move would have to be made which there simply is not enough time for and since the lower body is the part that turns the upper body, this time gets even shorter.

The second part is a spine tilt that leans forward to start the forward swing. There should be a weight shift forward which brings the whole body forward SOMETIMES. If the weight went back onto the right foot, then there is some shifting of the weight forward that again should be initiated by the lower body. It's not a separation of the lower body from the upper body but one where the lower body CARRIES the upper body along with it.

Thirdly, a right shoulder that does not move DOWN first but instead out. This is usually caused by the forward tilting of the upper body, but sometimes it happens because of a flat shoulder plane. The shoulder turn and spine tilt need to work together. You cannot have a right shoulder move down first if there isn't tilt. But tilt alone does not make the right shoulder go down, it only permits it to happen. If the shoulder turn is flat then an exaggerated move down must be made with the right shoulder.

The most common POPULAR fix for a right shoulder not moving down is to try to move the hands down first to start the forward swing without turning the shoulders. I don't like this action one bit. It was however, what Butch worked with Tiger on all those many years ago. He shortened Tigers backswing (so that the arms wouldn't lift his left shoulder up) and tried to keep the hands out in front of his torso going DOWN first. This completely neglected the right shoulder in the movement though. Only a VERY strong person could make the move first with the arms and still have enough speed to hit the ball far. Hence Tiger needed strength training.

The simple answer is to just make the right shoulder move down first while shifting the hips forward with the re-establishment of the left hip over the left heel. You'll find that moving the right shoulder down actually assists with this. It tends to tilt the spine back. Just like a teeter totter though, the other side of the spine will want to move in the counter direction. As the right shoulder moves down, the lower spine shifts forward.

Demonstration of an analysis

2010-07-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of a swing analysis. This will hopefully give you folks who have not signed up for the Student Section what type of advice to expect. You have probably already seen one of my dozens of demonstration videos that I also put together for students, but I wanted to give everyone a taste of what an analysis looks like.

Thank you to fufu for posting his swing for my review.

Across the line at the top

2010-07-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have a problem with being across the line at the top, understand that what is happening is your forearms have counter-rotated. Since they are counter rotated the club will come in very steep and be OTT.

To fix this a common feeling to try and achieve is one of hitting your right bicep with the shaft at the top of your backswing. I cannot be accomplished obviously but this will get you to keep the left forearm rotated over the top of the right.

In most cases it is the right hand trying to take over after the takeaway and begin lifting the club up. If that is the feeling you sense, try just making the backswing with just your left arm and see what happens. Then try to achieve the same feeling of left arm in control during the backswing with both hands. Video taping yourself while doing this left arm dominant move should reinforce that you can in fact get back into a better position.

Be wary of too laid off though. Too laid off is usually a sign that you didn't turn your shoulder enough in the backswing and are trying to do it entirely with the arms. But the correction for this is not to "under-rotate" the forearms, it is to turn your shoulders more.

Remember, this same post can be found on my website at http://golfswing.thruhere.net. Bookmark it to view all my videos, visit the forum, read our philosophy, and more!

The D-Plane Video (VERY important)

2010-07-04T10:54:00.002-07:00

Here is a video explaining the D-Plane. This is a very important video to watch because the D-Plane explains nearly everything that happens to cause the ball to slice or hook. It is based on the "New Ball Flight Laws". It also explains why higher lofted clubs are more difficult to draw or fade with. When you understand the D-Plane it becomes easier to determine what swing changes are needed to fix the ball flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP26-P7eYH8

Improving Balance Video

2010-07-03T11:09:00.001-07:00

This is actually a video I did several months ago but just never got around to editing. It is about balance and one of my favorite ways to work on balance.

Short irons tell us more than you think

2010-07-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

One of the interesting phenomenon that we know about the D-Plane (and really it's been partially known for a long time) is that you can curve the ball more with your longer clubs, and very little with the short ones.

We can use this to our advantage.

Practice PATH with long clubs.
Practice FACE with short clubs.

The reason is that the results are more dramatic with each. When you have a sharp draw with your 3 iron, the same swing with a PW would be a push right. The reason is because with a 3 iron the path can make up for the clubface being out of alignment. If you have the face a degree or two open of the target with your 3 iron, you can produce a 5-10 yard draw to bring the ball back to the target simply by swinging a little out to the right.

You cannot make the same path adjustments to hit a 9 iron at your target. The ball simply won't draw 5-10 yards unless you exaggerate the path the the point of almost duck hooking it.

This hopefully will be a light bulb to many of you who have one problem shot with shorter irons and a different problem with longer clubs.