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'Getting it'


ZaPPPa
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After having played a 12 hole round two days ago with one par, two bogeys, couple of doubles and the rest blowup holes, I decided that my tee-off was mostly responsible for whether I blow up or not.

I have never been able to hit a consistent solid drive.. I luck out mostly if I do hit straight.. So earlier today I was on the range with the driver: little slice here, topped shot there, shank and then... BOOM.. I was in the zone. First time ever, but drive after drive went straight as an arrow. Within 20 balls I added 40 yards to my carry and if it wasn't for the stiff breeze I'd probably have beaten my personal best by at least 60 yards. I was driving so well that the guy next to me stopped at one point and stood behind me to watch my swing.. something I do myself on occasion with others.

My swing suddenly made sense. Power came from my torso and speed from the wrists instead of everything from the arms. Instead of trying to figure out what suddenly went 'right', I decided to try and capture the feel as much as possible. Walk away from the mat, wait five minutes to lose the short-term muscle memory and then try again to really repeat and ingrain the feeling. Having a photographic memory helps to remember the exact ball position and feet position, so I lucked out there. I was pretty exciting to be able to reproduce this swing.

Anyway, this is why people play golf I guess...

I wonder.. does anybody remember any such breakthrough in their own learning process and how you captured that feeling?

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when I first started to learn to "move" the ball with control... R to L and L to R. I am still not perfect, but last season it sort of snapped and took hold... I can now usually call upon a draw or fade when needed, now I just need to perfect the art of "how much". I am getting closer... usually being able to hit mild, moderate and severe... but still not perfect.

congrats on the breakthrough... more will come

and most importantly don't get frustrated when you loose it for a few days or weeks.
My Clubs: Callaway FT-i Tour LCG 9.5° w/ Matrix Ozik Xcon 6 stiff; Sonartec GS Tour 14° w/ Graphite Design Red Ice 70 stiff; Adams Idea Pro 2h(18°) & 3h(20°) w/ Aldila VS Proto 80 stiff; Adams Idea Pro Forged 4-PW w/ TT Black Gold stiff; Cleveland CG12 DSG RTG 52°-10° & 58°-10°; Odyssey...
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Yes I'm having the feeling right now. About half way though my second round yesterday, all of a sudden, everything I've read about the proper swing made sense in my head. I hit my drivers and irons farther and straighter than I ever have before. Had I not been playing best ball with a few friends, I believe my score would have dropped considerably on the back nine.

Like you said, power from the torso and speed from the wrists, not everything from the arms The big test will be tomorrow, when I play another round to see if I can repeat this swing.


Mike
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I want through something similiar to the OP. I knew my iron play wasnt the best but decided if I was going to fix my tee to green part of my game I wanted to start with the "tee" portion of it.

So I decide to go to the range and warm up... once warm, I was going to hit nothing but my driver until I figured out the correct swing. After 10-15 erratic shots I backed away from the tee box and saw a guy swinging a few boxes down. I learn by seeing someone do something and I can get a feel for the correct swing just by watching then I repeat it. Sure enough... this guy had the swing I was looking for so I stole it. Walked up to the tee box and I've been hitting nothing but straight long (or slight draw) tee shots ever since.

Sometimes it just clicks... I think most people have had that moment where things started making sense to them.

13 Wedges
1 Putter

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I think your biggest breakthrough was when you realized the golf swing was about a feeling. I detest swing thoughts on the course; I'm all about the feel.

One big breakthrough I've had on the range had to do with the feel of my shoulders. One day, maybe a couple months ago, I could not for the life of me figure out why I was hitting shank after shank. Finally I got frustrated in the hot sun and just decided to speed hit through the last 20 or so balls in the bucket. Shank, shank, shank, POW! I swung so hard and forcefully that my right shoulder jacked me pretty good on the left side of my jaw. But what a shot. I bought another bucket.

I've remembered that feel to this day. Now I try to make sure my right shoulder is firing under and through my chin. I don't really shank anymore, and my shots from my 64* wedge to my driver come out with some sort of authority. With this swing feeling, more than swing thought, I think I've cured several ills of my swing at once, not the least of which was loosing my spine angle, standing up and hitting weak push cuts - especially under pressure.

I find that anything that works with all the clubs must be a good thing. I don't want to do this with the 5 wood and that with the 8 iron. I think your feeling of using your body and not your arms to swing the clubs will get a lot of mileage in your golfing future
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Absolutely.

In fact I've had 2 break throughs in the last month.
The first was my driving, I went from hitting it 250-260 to 280's avg. with 100% more accuracy. That was due to increased coil and hip action. I just turned my hips a lil bit more at the top of my backswing ( say 50* or 60* and add another 10*) and used that as a trigger. Cocked my hips and released from the bottom of my body and let my arms go for a ride. If I try and use my arms or start with them I power fade/slice it. Some reason when I uncoil and have "light" arms everything just comes into plane and everything is natural, no swing thought.

The second was a couple weeks ago watching the Pro's on TV. I used to have a long swing, as in from top of backswing to end of followthru. But now, I have a compact backswing and come through the ball faster on a more level plane. If you watch the Pro's it looks like they have a short backswing and intermediate follow thru. I changed to a 45* hip turn 90* shoulder turn on backswing and a 90* hip and 120* shoulder on the follow thru, making sure my hips end up facing the target. It was extremely easy to groove and I got more accuracy and distance almost immediately. Now I just need to take more of a divot so I throw a huge toupie 30 yds like the Pros

in my EDGE bag:

10.5* XLS HiBore Driver, Fuji stiff VP70
15* XLS HiBore 3 Wood Gold stiff
22*, 25* XLS HiBore 3H, 4H, Gold stiff MP-57 5-PW, DG S300 MP-R 52 gap, MP-R 56 sandwedge SM Vokey 60 Lob Newport 2 Detour Pro-V1X, NXT Tour, Callaway Tour iXIgolf NEO GPS

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  • 4 weeks later...
Resurrecting this oldie...

Someone warned me that after finding the groove you are bound to lose it. This happened to me over the last couple of weeks. My swing was good, then ok, then horrible. I went with a colleague to the range two days ago to hit a bucket and enjoy the weather and then this happened: First five balls were ok then suddenly shank after shank after shank. I must have hit 40 shanks in a row. Checked everything in my setup I could think of, but I just didn't have it that day. For some obscure reason my driver was absolutely spot on, but the irons were horrid.

So, today I decided to go again and figure out step-by-step what was going on. I topped one, shanked one, one fat and then suddenly everything worked again.. It worked so well that I ended the session hitting my 9 iron 145-150 yards, about 20y over my average. It freaked me out a bit because A) either I was in a natural transition and this is my 'new swing' from now on (great!) or B) I got lucky with my timing and next week it'll be awful again.

Isn't golf awesome?
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Golf is certainly a game of feel. Feel however, is temporal, and will change day to day; zone today, gone tommorrow.

Educated feel on the other hand, tends to be more reliable. The valleys will not as deep if you have some pure fundamental keys (mechanical) which will trigger the feel when you get lost. I agree that mechanics should play a small role on the course, but if your swing is based on feel only, what do you do while playing and can't find the feel?

At any rate, that 145-150 nine iron is superb. Doesn't it feel great to strike that purely? Hope you can keep it going.
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Yep, I had a big break through on the range recently and actually took it to the course for about 13 holes. Then I had a breakdown and haven't been able to catch the feeling since. It's great when it just happens and you realize you are not really thinking but doing. I think that is a double edged sword. Suddenly you hit a really bad shot. You just say oh well, its only one shot. Then another crops up. You start thinking what am I doing wrong? What was I doing right before? If you cannot answer that second question, it becomes hard to get back where you were. I hope your good fortune continues. I wish mine would have lasted longer.

My Clubs
Nicklaus Progressive XC Irons: 3H,4H, 5-GW
Ray Cook SW & Gyro 1 Putter
Taylor Made Burner Driver 10.5
Taylor Made V-Steel 3 & 5 MetalsMy Home Course: Indian RiverMy Blog: Rant-o-Rama-Ding-Dong

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There's a saying in pool, that the great players don't practice a shot until they learn how to make it, they practice a shot until they forget how to miss it. I try to do this when I'm at the range and hitting the ball really well. Once I get in a groove and strike a few shots the way I wish I hit every shot, I try to see how many times I can repeat it before I do anything else, to see if I can forget how do it wrong. It hasn't really worked for me as well as it does on a pool table (the pool setup and stroke are infinitely easier to make repeatable than golf due to the vastly fewer moving parts). But I keep trying, because one thing I think all great golfers have in common is a swing that is "grooved" and highly repeatable.

-Andrew
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I was getting it, 78 78 79 78. Then a great 91 today. That's why the tour guys make the big bucks, CONSISTENCY.
Driver Super Quad 10.5
3 Woodhibore xl
irons3-pw AP2
Wedges52 and 56 SV
PutterFuturaBall330-s
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Oh don't worry, you're all happy that you found your swing, but next time you go to the range, you'll be so hung up on trying not to hit it bad that every shot will be bad. You end up going to the range to NOT mess up, and in the end, you do. Maybe that's just me, I dunno.

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Still waiting on that moment myself! Heading to the range tonight though to try and do exactly that.

Driver: Burner Draw, Regular Flex Shaft, 10.5*
Irons: i3
Putter: White Hot XG Sabertooth
Ball: e6+ Pro V1x

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What I'm trying to do now, when I found a good swing, is to hit a couple, then stand back for a good five minutes and then return and see if I can still do it. I have noticed that it is taking me less and less swings to get back in the groove.

Last week it took me 5 holes on the course. I'm hoping that tonight it will be 4 or less.

Also, I have to mention that in the Bay Area the driving ranges are often aimed directly into the prevailing wind. This week we had wind coming in from land, so it was a very rare occasion that I could see my true distance. I do not expect to hit 145 with a 9 on the course. I always try to power down and keep it smooth. I admit I was blasting my last coupld of balls away on the range when I hit the 150y.
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Last night at the range I added another "getting it" fundamental to my swing. It was bend from the hips. Sometimes I would bend from the hips but other times I would get lazy and curve my lower back. So I made that my focus last night.

Then with the "relax" and "you know how to hit the golf ball thoughts" had a very consistant practice session.

Now to bring it out on the course.

In my Grom bag:

Driver........... Burner 9.5* S-Flex
3-Wood......... Burner 15* S-Flex
5-Wood......... Ovation 18* S-FlexIrons............. Pro Combos 3,5-PW Rifle 6.0Wedges......... CG12 52.10, 56.14, 60.10Putter............ 33" VP1 Milled PutterBall................ e6+ or B330-SRangefinder.....

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I was at the driving range with a friend and his kids. I was hitting the best long irons and 3 woods ever and consistently, every shot was pure and effortless, I played golf the next day and shot under par.

Titleist 910 D2 9.5 Driver
Titleist 910 F15 & 21 degree fairway wood
Titleist 910 hybrid 24 degree
Mizuno Mp33 5 - PW
52/1056/1160/5

"Yonex ADX Blade putter, odyssey two ball blade putter, both  33"

ProV-1

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Went out yesterday for a round of golf and hit ok first, then horrible. My playing partner said my swing changed on the 3rd hole and I never got it back. Driver was still not too bad, but irons were fat and shanks all over.

I did manage a 250y drive though, into the wind. Furthest drive ever. My partner only outdrove me by 10 yards and he regularly hits 280+.

Anyway, so I got frustrated and decided to go to the range to figure out what went wrong. Turned out to be very very simple: Tension. I was tense on the course and didn't allow my hands to relax so the club could find the proper plane.
Lately I have been taking my notebook to the range so I can jot down keywords to remind me what mistakes I tend to make or what to look out for in my setup. It has things like: "Butt out (bend from hips), Don't cup, relax arms, straight left arm".
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Note: This thread is 5677 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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