Hi, Im Dave.  I was formerlly a professional golfer registered with the PGA.  A career ending knee injury stopped my junior tour journey to a full stop.

Through injury disgust and impatience, I gave

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I have been giving one particular friend some 1-on-1 tuition at the local range. Andy, plays from a respectable 16 handicap and is a fine striker of the ball. Being 16st and 6ft 3 he is a big block and a player you’d expect to tonk it 320 yards with ease.

So I turn up to the range with only my 7 iron and surprised Andy with, right you are getting a lesson camera in hand….

ok, so Picture 1 here we have the initial take-away position, which is spot on! Look from the hip height position, the club shaft point at the target – perfect parallel.

However as we progress through Andy’s swing we can see where the slice comes from.

Picture 2 where the club is at the top of the swing it reveals a cub position pointing considerably left of the target, compare this with the aiming of his feet.
 

 3 things to look for when analysing a slice, fade or cut.

1.  Hand position.  Hand position here is weakened from picture 1, where it was near perfect.  notice from Andy’s left arm, his wrist has collapsed and thus is pointing the club left of the target your feet.  It also loses masses amounts of energy.

2.  Weight Distribution.  Notice Andy’s Right leg has not fully taken the weight of his swing to his right.  This on the downswing contributes of being ahead of the ball at impact and therefore added slice spin (see the blog entry about “patience! hit it later!”.  

This is seen even more clearly when you see the finish position and the left elbow pointing out.

Its all about the belt buckle for Andy.

If you imagine, all through your own swing where your belt buckle starts, moves and ends its generally a sign of where the ball will end up.

For example, take picture 1.  This reveals a straight to target club at hip height, however, look where the belt buckle is.  Its pointing right of the target, an indicator the hips are active, which potentially means at impact the belt buckle is reversed and pointing left thus slice spin is created (see picture 3)

Now im going to change tact a little bit and suggest that this swing isnt actually all that bad in fact there are some good positives.  The things I’d like fix in this swing are;

1.  Posture.  Andy is a big block and standing taller (and closer) to the ball will give him a better drive through impact position and therefore straighter and longer drives.

2.  Weight Distribution.  Andy’s weight distribution is all to muck.  However, we must give him a little grace, a considerable time repairing a very nasty ankle injury has this to blame.

This said, balance and weight distribution is locked with posture.  Bad posture will throw your swing out of kilter in no time at all and Andy’s injury has given him some tuff range work to face.

3.  Hand position.  All through Andy’s swing the position of his hands does the chance or ability to draw the ball no justice.  In fact, a self professed “If you can put a draw on my drives, the bar is on me!” will hopefully start to realise what I am teaching?!

I have given Andy 3 lessons so far this summer.  1 on putting – would you believe when addressing the ball he actually forgot to think about holing it!….tut tut!  Anyways, the next 2 have been on weight distribution – the evidence I will blog soon!

4.  Timing.  The key for Andy is timing.  Knowing when to put that 16st, 6ft 3 into action for maximum drive length and I suspect personal sanity!

This is a classic Rugby players swing.  Big hands, wide shoulders and plenty of leg action.  All the wrong timing components for hitting a golf ball straight (with a bit of draw).

His timing will improve with better posture, weight distribution, hand positioning.

The main complaint is that of the “big dog”, this is mudded by good ones that are 260 yards middle right of the fairway but all too many leak big right.  I think there is 30-50 yards to gain here and a beach full of consistency with some range work.

Andy text me this morning with a “dismal” score of 84 (par 72) and was choked by not breaking 80 due to 2 triple bogeys and a couple of 3 putts….40 points stableford ….?

I’ll blog next week on swing progress, hopefully some comments from the student himself?

;-)

I stumbled on a great little web based music application called musicovery…so impressed at something free could be so good I thought I would share it with my readers.

If you love your music and love variety – combine this with your mood – musicovery

Click here to select music to your mood!

Enjoy

David

Worth £6 of anyone’s money and Bob is an excellent Author.

Golf is a Game of Confidence By Bob Rotella List Price: £7.99 Price: £5.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery on orders over £5. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 25 new or used available from £2.92 Average customer review:

Editorial Reviews

In golf our wrists are key to impact, with a limp wrist you lose distance and control. I personally got up to 21,315 revvs, which is a household record! The kids obviously love playing against each other.

You basically grab the Powerball and start rotating your wrist to gain some momentum, the ball records your maximum speed so there are no arguments! The heavier ball spinning in the middle makes its own gravity and eventually if you slow down you can feel it fight the forces of nature against your wrist.

Its a kids toy at the end of the day, but they are great fun and a side effect, you get longer drives! (and you score points with the Mrs for entertaining the kids!)

See the store for your selection of colors and weights.

Im trying to make a play for amateur champs later this season and starting the season from 5 is tough with a family and busy job, I need to lose at least 2 or 3 shots from my handicap by August and scoring to it regularly.  

Its all about dealing with pressure on these competitions and im not close enough to rival the social golfer with these scores let alone the polished amateur :-(

So why did I have a howler without making excuses and teach as a golf coach?  Well for me, from the start of my game it was tough.  It was an early rise at 6.15am followed by a quick drive to the course for 7am and planned tee off, which ordinarily is ok.

This particular course (mention no names) is in my opinion one of the worst locally to me and most of my playing colleagues agreed after the 18 holes, So I knew scoring would be tough (greens unevenly cut etc).   I particularly have an issue with this course and have a history of walking away disgusted.

I agreed only to play it as it was a friends stag doo and according to the stag it had been late being organised.

On arrival I discovered to my horror the driving range was shut due to assistant not having safety cage on the ball collecting tractor! later discovered another excuse of ball machine not working SO, I had not practised or played for a month!

To  make the best of a bad situation, I thought I would practice the short game…so over to the chipping hole followed by some putting.  Positive chipping and was happy pre-play with this part of my game.

I had left the house and checked on the weather to see a clear sky and some high cloud – as it has been all week – lovelly!  Took my Mizuno Aerolite bag, no umbrella or waterproofs expecting a nice morning…1st Tee to 6th green heavy rain!!!

Grips and “Dave” now thoroughly wet and no dry towel to dry me or clubs!  My hands by now are nice and cold for my first tee shot, which was topped a complete head up moment and very embarrassing after assuring the starter that I could hit the people 320 yards away on the green and having at least 40 people at the tee watch me top the ball and it trickle over a bridge of a ditch (ironically, my only good luck of the day!).  

Amongst this several leaked (slipped) shots right and hard to recover from positions lead to high scores.

Anyway, on reflection I was not fully prepared for the weather and had all the bad luck in the world, from plugged sand shots having seen them trickle into the sand, to sprinkler heads mid fairway and the following “overshot” having landed 5 yards before the green and see it bounce like a rubber ball! then the embarrasing walk past the green to locate your ball (yet again OOB!)

Unrepaired pitch marks on solid made putting strokes and unbelievable bounces to OOB from landing on the middle of the fairway.

Here’s the facts, by the nice we were all in t-shirts and loving the weather – really really nice! I shot 48 (+13)  front 9 and 38 (+2) on the back 9 once I had warmed up.  I had 7 birdie chances in all, 31 putts, 2 sand saves (1 plugged) only 1 person from 14 scored A birdie all day due to the greens being terrible!  I am convinced I could have putt 3 or maybe 4 of the birdies to make a respectable 81.

My first 6 holes were absolute howlers losing my 5 handicap shots after 3 holes.  Double, Single, Double bogeys on the first 3 holes.  I steadied the ship with a par from a plugged bunker shot and a 9 footer uphill on the 6th.

So what did I learn from Saturday?  Wet grips don’t improve your game! several caridinal sins that I am kicking myself for was choice of shot in bad situations and of course I do take some blame for badly struck shots.

Although, I am happy with 90% of my escapes, I shouldn’t have been escaping in the first place!  But sometimes, luck puts you there!  Im still trying to decide if my mood made my luck and expecting the course to be rubbish or that simply I just didnt play well.

One escape I was proud of, following a slightly pushed 10th Tee shot which hit top of the biggest tree and fell 20ft directly behind it!…to its right (4ft away) another substantially sized tree.  Wind from the right and a gap through the trees, a bank to the right of the green.  approx 185 yards to pin-high slight breeze in face, 5 iron.  Hit 5 iron and found the gap between the tree’s, low penetrating flight, hit the bank and landed 6ft from hole, missed birdie!

On the 11th, Stroke Index 1.  Dogleg right by 30 degrees, tee shot downhill.  280 yards a 9ft ditch across and up the right hand side of the fairway and back up hill to the green, OOB left, right 18th fairway.

Hit driver into the wind, cleared ditch middle of the fairway (slight slope right to left (down)) big bounce to the left of 40 yards with some roll and OOB!.  3 off the tee, toed driver short of ditch by 3 yards.  180 yards to hit directly into the wind and 80ft trees directly at flag.  Decided to cut a 4 iron left of tree’s using the wind in the face to assist, landed 15 ft from hole, 2 putts for a rescued 6 and 1 point (having lipped out for 2 points).

I played some majestic irons in the 2nd half of my game and was delighted with this, my chipping was excellent but with greens that didn’t react at all it was difficult to hold for easier putts, but thankfully some good putts were sunk too.

I parred from the 12th home with the ambition of 30 points with a couple of potential birdies but it was the front 9 that killed my score.  I will put the score into golfshake and see what my handicap is next week.

What can I teach you?  Well, despite my 86 (+14) or 9 over my handicap it could have been a lot worse.  Imagine a double 48 from a 5 handicap?!

I think the best thing I can teach you is temperance, I guess without wishing to sound hipocritical.  I knew I was going to score badly from 3 holes in, I really remained on the course to enjoy the company and to try and practice once I knew I couldn’t win or score that well I re-adjusted my goals in terms of hitting 30 points and finishing with some dignity or respect of some shots I could play.

I tried to play each shot with the mind of “just keep scoring”. 

I knew my playing partner was miles ahead and tracking to 36-38 points playing from 11, but equally if he is my marker as the “front runner”, I may only need a couple of birdies and he a couple of miss-shots or suffer the same course conditions as I for the game to change and it nearly paid off.

The point is, “just keep scoring”.  Even if the game is a complete right off its good to relax and sometimes just enjoy the game and who knows your score may improve the next time you play.

All I did to improve my score was 2 things.

1.  ”Take some speed off” – slow the swing down either imagine a timer of 1-2-3-4 (3 being strike of ball) in your head on-course or practise the heavy duty broom tip on “lose 5 shots this summer”

2.  Keep the head still and watch the ball impacted by the club on the downswing and through the ball.

Its range work for me and I will be working on my driving and my long irons.  It was really good at times and others I pulled, due to gripping too hard when having wet grips to loosening the grip and getting slappy forged blade sounds!

Then off to play the PGA Course at the Belfry mid-week on business – no course excuses there!

This is golf, not cricket and not Tennis although you can akin many sports to having similar traits too the golf swing.   For example, Tennis.

When you see Andy Murray or Pete Sampras smash a tennis ball down the line at 140 mph think of their technique (in slow mo!). 

First start with the swing of the arm as they serve, watch the poised position of the players legs, hips and shoulders as they “swipe” the ball, followed by 100% commitment as their bodies catch up, the shoulders, hips and legs power through after the ball has gone – “The uncoil”.

Essentially, like golf.  We try and emulate this tennis swing but with both arms and one needing to be straight it means the shoulders play big part our “coil” and because the ball is stationary we address it psychologically different.

I mean it cant be that hard…stand here and hit this stationary ball, sometimes even prepared nicely to your choice once every  hole!

Well the natural instinct is to smash the living daylights out of it! and yes we have, and continue to be in this place sometimes many times per round.  Even the top pro’s still suffer from the odd “grip it and rip it” mentality often with negative commentary.

The facts are this, timing is essential.  See broom or 3 club practise technique earlier in the blog.  Without timing the ball isn’t going straight.  With out a good left side (at impact) the results are loss of direction and 70% loss of power.

Let me explain.  So you’ve read a couple of  books and practised at the range and things might be getting better, which is great. 

But at some point the psychology of your game becomes pressured to score or continue hitting fairways or greens or holing putts and sometimes a good round is the killer the next time round.

To maintain balance, control and power we need timing and a good left side.  Most amateurs swing to hit the ball from the top position and in doing so HIT AT THE BALL moving their bodies into the hitting zone – remember Happy Gilmore!

In the process it generally results in swing plane changes and thus creating cut or hook spin on the ball.  I think its a well known fact the beginning amateur applies naturally cutting/fading/slicing the ball, occasionally a direct pull left and for the apparently better player a hook/draw/smother and occasional push shot.

This is normally a result of a weak left side.  If you can stop for a minute and imagine your swing at the very top position.

You should have a nice relaxed left leg with a very slight kink (or weight transference to your left) and a braced right leg with the knee pointing over your right toes (opposite for left hander’s!).

You should have completed a 90 degree turn of the shoulder and hips approx 10-20% – this is your “coiled position”.  You should feel a tightening sensation around your lower spine.

I can bet most people will have (with some knowledge)  have a rough swing position as described.  The trouble is from here.  I see many golfers from this position HITTING AT the ball.

A sudden loss of power from left leg movement that doesn’t need to happen!  A “collapse” of leg position before the ball is truck is not going to hit the ball straight or long.

In simple terms,

1.  You setup to the ball

2.  Take your swing to the top

3. Your address position is the same as your impact position!

Start your downswing only with your arms and continue down and through until impact at which point YOU NEED TO BE back to setup position as the ball is struck (legs, shoulders, hips exactly the same way as you setup but obviously you have inertia hitting the ball)

By doing this, you are hitting through the ball and keeping your body “coiled” and releasing through impact.  Once the ball has been struck the inertia should automatically push your hands, shoulders, hips and legs into motion to complete your swing where your hands finish nice and high.

If you want to draw the ball, you simply add more right hand around 2-3 inches from club to ball impact and include a release of grip for added measure.

In the same way the Tennis player sets up to smash their 140 mph aces by coiling their bodies, you need to apply the same to your golf swing the key bit is timing.  They hit and then uncoil or “release” through the shot.

The above can only be applied if your mind is set properly that after all your effort to create your coil you need to be in a position to strike the ball well by thinking “back to the start position”.  Any body movement (especially hips and legs) that isn’t your arms and hands will reduce power and accuracy.

A reminder to keep your left eye on the ball all the way through impact where you should see the ball fly off the clubface and wait for your right shoulder to hit your chin before starting to look up.

The inertia you have created in your backswing and by positioning of the hands, arms, shoulders back to impact position on the downswing, generally  means you will gain control over direction and power.

A great practise routine at home or on the range is to put your feet together so they touch and swing away.  If you lose balance, you are swinging to fast.  The fast bit is the final 12 inches of the club meeting the ball, not how much body movement you apply to your swing.

I would reduce your swing to 2/3rds to ensure you can keep your balance better to start with.  As you practise, rather than speed up your whole swing to get more distance just speed up the middle (on the downswing club is hip height) or just as you impact the ball.

A word on inertia.  The club you hold is heavy one end, normally between 200 grams to 340 grams in total weight (depending on the club). 

In the example of a Driver – your arm is perhaps 21”, plus a club length of 36” = 47” (1.5m) being swung towards a hard faced ball at 140-190 mph the club head will move approximately 16m in distance (circumference of your swing).

There is no need to put extra bodily effort into your swing – let nature work a little harder for you, so you can keep your concentration!

Look at Paul Casey’s post impact position – full release shown by arms being extended through shot, Paul’s head nicely still looking at where the ball used to be!

look at Paul’s right leg (left as we see it) it is braced for impact but the impact has already happened.  The commitment to the shot is shown in this picture perfectly, with many other professionals modelling the same position.

Jesper Parnevik’s caddie Ten Broeck carries Jesper’s bags in the morning, then gets in the tournament and nearly matches his boss’ score. Ten shot 70 today, but it looks like he’ll miss the cut by 2 strokes. But that’s three strokes better than his man. Jesper shot a 74 today to miss the cut.