Thoughts on AY/BBG Video (Practice)

[Phil McGleno]

Adam says he knows the swing inside and out but I do not know if he does.

I do not think that golfers will get a lot better just working on the golf swing like AY does-If golfers hit the ball off the toe the fix is often not just telling them this and getting them to hit it more on the center of the face.-They do something that tends to lead to toe contact and you can often find the thing before they do.

Left to their own devices-Golfers will often solve the problem by creating MORE problems. So yeah if you are striking the ball fat, you can try to fix it, but what if you fix it by just staying forward and moving your head forward-and the ball back in your stance? Is that the right way to fix it?-Probably not.

Bad golfers have horrible swings.-Sure, if they are toe-ing the ball they can get better by hitting it more centered-But if they fix that by doing bad things they might NOT actually get better even if that one thing got better.

Those are my Thoughts-What are yours???

[iacas]

Nobody?

[saevel25]

In general, what he describes as important factors to hitting a good struck ball is not bad. I do not think he then explains well how a golfer would actually achieve that. He is giving us the results of a good golf swing with out telling us how to go about achieving that good golf swing. 

The question on his definition of internal versus external golf swing learning is old method of just swinging and feeling your body versus training with something that can give you instant feedback? The external is like that divot board and the launch monitor? I think that can be beneficial. For most golfers, they do not have someone to tell them what to even look for when using an external tool. If you told a golfer too, "Hey just use a camera to fix your golf swing." They would have no clue what to look for. 

For me, this video gets a D. 

 

[nevets88]

You just can't change that bit of the swing just before and after contact not thinking about the rest of the swing.  Sounds counterintuitive. Another way of saying it's all about impact. I'm only 4:30 in though, you're asking me to devote 20 minutes to a video? Come on? I'm not made of time. Editing!

[GolfLug]

So the idea is if you focus on striking ball first (external).. the body aligns (internal) to make it happen, is that it? Above my pay grade to say for sure but is it really that simple?? Bobby Clampett would agree though.. I think.

[chspeed]

My 2 cents is that this could help beginners or people really caught in swing thoughts during a round. Sometimes I have so many thoughts in my head that if there was a voice that said, "hit the ball first with the center of the clubface and forget about your swing" I'd probably play better for a bit.

As for long-term swing improvement, I don't think so.

[iacas]

20 hours ago, saevel25 said:

I do not think he then explains well how a golfer would actually achieve that.

"You're hitting it on the toe? Well, hit it more toward the heel so that you can hit the center of the face!"

20 hours ago, saevel25 said:

He is giving us the results of a good golf swing with out telling us how to go about achieving that good golf swing.

I'm inclined to agree.

20 hours ago, saevel25 said:

The question on his definition of internal versus external golf swing learning is old method of just swinging and feeling your body versus training with something that can give you instant feedback? The external is like that divot board and the launch monitor? I think that can be beneficial. For most golfers, they do not have someone to tell them what to even look for when using an external tool. If you told a golfer too, "Hey just use a camera to fix your golf swing." They would have no clue what to look for.

External is (generally) "miss this stick to swing to the right" versus "move your hands out to the right."

4 hours ago, nevets88 said:

You just can't change that bit of the swing just before and after contact not thinking about the rest of the swing.  Sounds counterintuitive. Another way of saying it's all about impact. I'm only 4:30 in though, you're asking me to devote 20 minutes to a video? Come on? I'm not made of time. Editing!

Okay.

2 hours ago, GolfLug said:

So the idea is if you focus on striking ball first (external).. the body aligns (internal) to make it happen, is that it? Above my pay grade to say for sure but is it really that simple?? Bobby Clampett would agree though.. I think.

Years ago Adam wrote an article about someone with a very bad swing hitting the ball way off the toe. I think their 7I was going like 135 yards, and not accurately.

Adam showed him that he was hitting it off the toe, and they worked on hitting the ball on the center of the face.

The swing was unchanged, mostly.

Thing is… the swing leads to hitting the ball off the toe… likely because he learned to pull the sweet spot in or he'd shank it, because he gets over the top and has to pull it in from there.

So was that a good lesson? It might be a good band-aid, but IMO… it wasn't going to result in a lasting, good change. The swing was effectively the same.

14 minutes ago, chspeed said:

My 2 cents is that this could help beginners or people really caught in swing thoughts during a round. Sometimes I have so many thoughts in my head that if there was a voice that said, "hit the ball first with the center of the clubface and forget about your swing" I'd probably play better for a bit.

As for long-term swing improvement, I don't think so.

👍🏼

[GolfLug]

43 minutes ago, iacas said:

"You're hitting it on the toe? Well, hit it more toward the heel so that you can hit the center of the face!"

I'm inclined to agree.

External is (generally) "miss this stick to swing to the right" versus "move your hands out to the right."

Okay.

Years ago Adam wrote an article about someone with a very bad swing hitting the ball way off the toe. I think their 7I was going like 135 yards, and not accurately.

Adam showed him that he was hitting it off the toe, and they worked on hitting the ball on the center of the face.

The swing was unchanged, mostly.

Thing is… the swing leads to hitting the ball off the toe… likely because he learned to pull the sweet spot in or he'd shank it, because he gets over the top and has to pull it in from there.

So was that a good lesson? It might be a good band-aid, but IMO… it wasn't going to result in a lasting, good change. The swing was effectively the same.

👍🏼

Okay, so it's not a bad explanation of a ball strike, which is not ground breaking info, but it does not make sense that the body can figure out a way to swing a golf club from simply an external cue. Too many levers that vary from swing to swing.

 

43 minutes ago, iacas said:

"You're hitting it on the toe? Well, hit it more toward the heel so that you can hit the center of the face!"

I'm inclined to agree.

External is (generally) "miss this stick to swing to the right" versus "move your hands out to the right."

Okay.

Years ago Adam wrote an article about someone with a very bad swing hitting the ball way off the toe. I think their 7I was going like 135 yards, and not accurately.

Adam showed him that he was hitting it off the toe, and they worked on hitting the ball on the center of the face.

The swing was unchanged, mostly.

Thing is… the swing leads to hitting the ball off the toe… likely because he learned to pull the sweet spot in or he'd shank it, because he gets over the top and has to pull it in from there.

So was that a good lesson? It might be a good band-aid, but IMO… it wasn't going to result in a lasting, good change. The swing was effectively the same.

👍🏼

 

3 hours ago, chspeed said:

Sometimes I have so many thoughts in my head that if there was a voice that said, "hit the ball first with the center of the clubface and forget about your swing" I'd probably play better for a bit.

Yeah maybe to shake you out of some funky swing thought cocktail but agree that it would hardly rise above a temporary band aid solution.

Edited November 3, 2022 by GolfLug

[Vinsk]

I don’t see why it’s assumed hitting the sweet spot is just a matter of …hitting the sweet spot, or center. It’s like me hitting a shank then an instructor saying, ‘ ok you’re hitting the hosel. This time hit the center.’ Yeah, no shit. I was trying to on the last swing. 

[Darkfrog]

Is Adam Young the "hammer a nail through the ball" coach from Chasing Scratch?

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Darkfrog said:

Is Adam Young the "hammer a nail through the ball" coach from Chasing Scratch?

Yes.

[phillyk]

First 4min- the downswing happens in .25s for most. Whatever was going to happen in transition will happen, no matter what. For me the most important thing is to get the first .75s right. Impact and the “.75in” past is an effect of the swing. 

1in behind and in front of the ball and how it affects flight/distance, I feel like he completely made up. Hard to define that, as it depends on several factors, not just the swing. 

We all process information differently. This is the hardest thing for youtube videos. External vs internal cues. I love mirror work but I also work with people where mirrors still won’t click. They simply need to know internally what to do and feel. 

Just because backswings can be funky don’t mean we can ignore them. I usually tell my students ignore the arms and hands. How does the shoulders, chest, and pelvis move of the best players? Their sequence is similar. Their amount of movement can be different but the sequence is important. 

To the last part, I have people practice point of ground contact in bunkers (somewhat firm ones) but I also have them know what things change the point. You can’t just give someone a lie board and have them figure it out. They’ll likely produce some bad habits.

Really, what’s hard is to define who is this video for? I think it’s for people struggling to break 100 or 110. Not 80.