KenStone

I actually got a full membeship at Stone Creek for 2011. I was a member at U of I, but everytime I played Stone Creek I was dismayed at U of I. The range at SC is just so much better than U of I.

I found out today that I won my flight in our club's Halloween tournament. It was one of those "funny" tournaments where they jack up the course to make it super hard. So I won my flight with a 115. No matter. I'll take the $40.

I don't have it licked yet, but I have video after video of me swinging the club without a ball and I don't flip. It looks great. Lag, flying wedge, the works. But as soon as I put a ball in front of me -- boom, flip. So I thought I'd put something else instead of the ball. Something soft and "unthreatening".... flip. Take the thing away, no flip. 2 practice swings, no flip. Put something there, flip. ???

Yeah. I drove 3 hours to meet with the guy and he knew that I came to him specifically because he was a TGM instructor. At the start he showed me a poster from Ben Doyle that was pretty cool, but when we got into the actual lesson everytime he got near something that had a name in TGM, he skipped it and said he wouldn't bother me with the terminology. As a software engineer by profession, I wanted him to use the terminology so I could use it for reference but instead we reverted to "feelings".

as having a stack and tilt swing by a new instructor I was trying out today. He was not happy to see it and was doing his to best eliminate it. In a way I was honored because I've only read the book and have not had a SnT lesson so it made me feel like I had at least done something right (even though he didn't like it). Of course it was difficult for me to do some of the things he asked..at one point he had me stacked....on my right side. I'm guessing he was just trying to get me to balance out and transfer to my right side. Meh. I got some good things out of the lesson, but I'm going to ignore parts of his teaching. He was actually a certified TGM instructor which is why I went to him (GSEM). But he sort of refused to use the TGM terminology which kinda bothered me.

I figured it was a handle and used it as such. Those buggers can be hard to get on/off.

I think so. Haven't received anything, though.

I can't friggin' wait for this.

Yeah, it's there. In doing some drills today after learning (thanks buds) when the cross should actually happen, to me it's clear that I just didn't know what to do with my left arm leading to some chicken winging along with the flip. So still there to some extent in this latest video. However, the flip is better than previous videos I have of myself. And I'm confident that the next vid I take it'll be even better. But really the biggest improvement I made in the past two weeks is when I discovered that my first move was to roll my arms open and I never really hinged my right wrist. Once I figured that out, squaring the clubhead has been, surprise surprise, not that big of a deal. My clubface at the top of my swing was pointing straight to my right. Now, it's at more of a 45* angle.

I'm surprised nobody has responded to this already. I'm not commenting on the quality of the instruction as I am not remotely qualified. But I did watch the entire video and was intrigued to see the parts of the swing that the instructor highlighted as he went through it. He was pointing out things that I never knew to look at and for that I appreciate your post. I wish my instructor did video.

Shanks, Is there something I can look for in the video (this one or future ones) to determine if I'm still flipping? I can see obvious flipping when I see it demonstrated slowly (typically very far behind the ball with the head going way past the hands), but I feel like mine is more subtle in this past video and so it's not as obvious to me. I know the hands should be in front of the clubhead at impact, ya? And/Or the angle between the right forearm and the club at impact should be < 180* ? Doesn't the clubhead at some point in the follow through have to go past the hands? Is it still flipping if it does that? Don't get me wrong, I agree that I still am. I'm just trying to figure out how to analyze my video a little better.

2 weeks later. Here is an 8 iron face on. In these two weeks I've really worked on the flying wedge and trying not to flip. I guess I can't tell from the video if I still am. It doesn't feel like I am, but we know how real that can be. Today was the best ball striking day at the range I've ever had. But the season's over, so the grass in front of me has been closed and we're relegated to the mats until next year. 2 swings at full speed and 25% speed. Added bonus: in the right edge of the frame you can see the Univ. of Illinois Women's Golf Team practicing.

I used iMovie on the Mac. My camera (canon 7d) records video in QuickTime (.mov) so the two go together nicely.

That sounds good. I wonder if I've been faking the wrist cock and position at the top by rolling my forearms open on the backswing and then somehow trying to get them back into position on the downswing.

So wait. The right wrist hinges back on itself, not cocks (flat wrist) and the power is the unhinging on that wrist? I ask this because, while I may not actually have been cocking the right wrist (because now it seems almost impossible to do so), that's the feeling that I've been doing this entire year. I've been sort of rotating my arms and trying to cock the right wrist. But as I now look at my address position, the right wrist is almost all the way cocked. There's not much more room for it to go. AND... at the top, it looks as if my right wrist was only barely hinged, not nearly to the degree that the wrist CAN hinge. Does this also explain how if you have a bent right wrist at impact, then you're guaranteed that the fastest part of the swing will be in front of the ball (the whip will be forward) because the fastest part of the swing is when the right wrist has completely unhinged? I hope this is correct, because it seems to make so much more sense. I guess it could just be a terminology issue. When you view swing videos, it really does look like the right wrist is cocking, but I think that's nearly impossible for me.