Darrell Klassen

[blues]

I have studied his lesson material...even bought an ebook and video once a while back.  The cost was insignificant.  I am not a Klassen disciple but I do think some of what he says makes sense.  The idea of swinging down a hammer behind my right side with my left hand is very powerful for me.  It keeps me from casting the club and it "single-handedly" solved the reverse C I'd slip into because I was too much on balls of feet.  For driver, I stand tall, keep weight in my arches, keep right elbow close, bring club back and make sure I extend my arms, have loose grip so my 50 year old wrists tilt the club closer to parallel than not and my only swing thought it driving my left hand down like I am hammering a spike into the ground.  All of his other stuff like swinging to a target outside the ball, opening or closing clubface, etc. was just putting more swing thoughts in my head do I don't think about it.  I get all I need off the tee and hit the ball down the line.  I rarely need to work the ball off the tee but if I need a sharp fade, for example, I open my stance and clubface and swing away.  That's it.

Weight in arches and hammer down.  I agree 100 percent with previous post.  If I knew about his simple explanations when I started, I would have saved a lot of frustration along the way.  I don't know if he is still selling anything but it might be worth a peek

[boston blackie]

Thanks, OP, for bringing this out.  I never heard of Klassen till I read this.

I watched some youtube vids.  Tried hitting a few balls - left arm hammering, swinging to a point one foot forward of the ball, and about 6 inches right.  I like it!   Got solid hits.

Nice thing about Sand Trap, I'm always learning something.

[boston blackie]

Doing some more research, I found Klassen's kindle editions on Amazon.  The reviews are remarkably similar to posts in this thread.  It's either one star or five stars.  It seems that you get all or nothing from his method.

[iacas]

Doing some more research, I found Klassen's kindle editions on Amazon.  The reviews are remarkably similar to posts in this thread.  It's either one star or five stars.  It seems that you get all or nothing from his method.

Or the people who are "voting it up" have some incentive to do so…

[boston blackie]

Or the people who are "voting it up" have some incentive to do so…

Yup! It's possible, but not probable.  Other than Klassen, who has anything to gain?

[Ernest Jones]

Or the people who are "voting it up" have some incentive to do so…

[quote name="boston blackie" url="/t/53906/darrell-klassen/0_100#post_979665"]Yup! It's possible, but not probable.  Other than Klassen, who has anything to gain? [/quote] Maybe that's the only way to get your money back. :-P

[hacker100]

I know. Some don't get it. Actually, Klassen is same as Merrins, Bender, Humphries, Toski and others. Just communicated differently and more effectively and simply for........ME (and many others) not necessarily for the world.

[chichi]

I would like to better understand the Klassen swing.

On youtube, he has a drill in which the club is swung shoulder to shoulder. He says it helps to break you of an "arm swing" which he says is a problem. I have a bad back and barely play any more. I would like a swing that minimizes big pivot to the back etc. It seems like this wristy swing would be easy on the body. Can a Klassen practitioner please comment.

Thanks.,

[Lee Eustace]

I have read many golf instruction books, and subscribed to both Golf Digest and Golf Magazine. My experience is that Klassen's instuctions are the best I have come across.  Clear and to the point. My ball striking improved immediately after reading his book and incorporating his ideas (particularly with regard to weight shift).

[jbishop15]

I like to use Klassen as background noise when I'm working on something else. I do that with a lot of bad golf instruction. 

[Ernest Jones]

I bought one of his sweaters, but it made me itch so I gave it away. 

[mythbuster]

13 hours ago, Lee Eustace said:

I have read many golf instruction books, and subscribed to both Golf Digest and Golf Magazine. My experience is that Klassen's instuctions are the best I have come across.  Clear and to the point. My ball striking improved immediately after reading his book and incorporating his ideas (particularly with regard to weight shift).

ok, this is my view on darrell so obviously you should all listen.

i was once an inner Circle Member just for a month. what he teaches is absolute truth to a "degree". what i mean by that is , he is probably the greatest teacher for all those golfers that have his same flexibility.

ok, you can look at his physique and ask yourself- what flexibility.

he has the "born" flexibility' to turn his shoulders freely.

i am only guessing at percentages, but i would say that  most golfers here are actually  blessed with natural flexibility, but sadly  just lacking a bit of flexibility between the ears.

that said, i hope a lot of you will revert to his teaching method .

you must remember that i am only here to see the game progress, regardless of my own obvious, physical  shortcomings.

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2015 by mythbuster

[Ernest Jones]

3 hours ago, mythbuster said:

ok, this is my view on darrell so obviously you should all listen.

i was once an inner Circle Member just for a month. what he teaches is absolute truth to a "degree". what i mean by that is , he is probably the greatest teacher for all those golfers that have his same flexibility.

ok, you can look at his physique and ask yourself- what flexibility.

he has the "born" flexibility' to turn his shoulders freely.

i am only guessing at percentages, but i would say that  most golfers here are actually  blessed with natural flexibility, but sadly  just lacking a bit of flexibility between the ears.

that said, i hope a lot of you will revert to his teaching method .

you must remember that i am only here to see the game progress, regardless of my own obvious, physical  shortcomings.

 

 

 

You misspelled psychological.  

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, Ernest Jones said:

You misspelled psychological.  

Hallucinogenic drugs do that to a person.

[collapse]

One question...can Klassen hit a solid golf shot consistently?

[EddieR]

I think Darrell presents golf in an easy simple way for the golfer to understand. I started with his chipping video ( I found them all on you tube for free). It made sense, the chopping motion with the hands. Easy, tension free and executable under pressure. Darrell teaches you how to hit a golf ball. He doesn't teach golf swing. A drill I like is to whistle or hum a song while hitting a golf shot. It felt so smooth and natural. It wasn't mechanical at all no tenseness just a fluid strike of the golf ball. His pitching method is also simple and built off the chipping method. It's so easy, my wedge game went from being an embarrassment to one that I enjoy showing off. I guess the negativity I read on this site about Darrell is hard to believe when his teachings are so simple. Thank god I found Darrell, golf has become fun again, I am carefree and when humming a tune in my head the swing comes naturally and I crush the damn ball without really thinking about anything other than swinging to my power point. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm nuts beating the heck out of a cardboard box at my power point, it freaking works. I now grip the club in my fingers and can feel the speed in my swing as I pass the ball position and hit my power point. So keep putting old Darrell down, the old codger will forget more about hitting a golf ball than you will ever know!

[dennwaf]

My experience. I'm a 78 year old hacker who was an arm swinging swaying sliding bag of swing mechanics that managed to play to a 9 handicap a couple times in my golfing life. Then I discovered Darrell Klassen a year ago, and I've learned a lot and am improving rapidly. I understand the game more and am able to detect and correct my problems quickly thanks to his teachings. I'm thinking I might be able to get back to that 9 handicap from the 20 I had a year ago. Mostly due to a much improved short game and hitting it much longer and keeping the ball in play. My approach shots still need a lot of work but improvement there also.

I've immersed myself in Darrell's teachings and understand we were all born with a natural golf swing weather we've played or not. The results of each of our swings will all differ. When we introduce a golf ball into the equation things change. We've moved from an unconscious movement of our body in a natural swing to focusing our conscious mind on aggressively attacking the ball resting at our feet. Everything has changed. Muscles become tense, our mind becomes cluttered with thoughts, we focus on far away tiny targets and hazards surrounding the target line. Darrell spends a lot of time on the psychological parts of the game that is so destructive. The battle between the conscious and sub-conscious mind. 

What if I could relieve myself of some of that baggage, wouldn't that be a good thing? Darrell has taught me to pull my focus away from the ball (not easy) and swing freely in a totally relaxed manner through the hitting area, not at the ball. He teaches this by starting with using relaxed wrists, hands and fingers to chop down to the ground under the golf ball (not the ball) and hit it a few inches. It's all about spin and contact. Using my hands, wrists and fingers and trying to chop down and hit the ball few inches farther, I notice my arms unconsciously moved also. Hey, there's one less thing to think about, it just happened. WOW! I gradually moved that to a full swing and found the follow through and finish just happened unconsciously too. One more thing I don't have to think about. Just wrists and hands up, wrists and hands down throwing the club-head down and feeling it whip beyond the ball dragging me along to a full finish. One of the most important things for me was tilting my spine back at address, stay tilted through the back swing and maintaining tilt at impact. No sliding.

Now I have to figure out how to control the ball. Darrell teaches that in an easy to understand way using physics, not swing mechanics. If I'm lined up to my target and my shots are going left, I must be swinging too far left. Two solutions, either swing more to the right or open the club-face and curve it back right. The mechanics method could possibly involve changing grip, stance, shoulders, elbows, hips, feet, ball position, body tilt, moving closer or farther from the ball on and on and on. This endless list of mechanical changes create more problems than they cure. After going through that list no wonder we get worse and eventually quit the game out of frustration. Unlike Iron Byron, our swing path is not always down the target line. We rotate and our swing path rotates too and it doesn't always point down the target line at impact. Most of the time for right handed golfers it's left. I've chosen Darrell's simple method, change the path of my swing at impact to get the ball flight on line. Envision a hula hoop resting on the ground at the golf ball, tilt it back representing the golf swing plane then point it left and right of the target line. Iron Byron doesn't have to deal with that, but we do.

I'm not going to be a scratch golfer but I'm a better golfer striking the ball better than I ever have and still improving and having more fun than ever. I step to the tee with a single swing thought and see what happens and know what I need to do to correct any problem. As Darrell says, "Move the ball forward relax and have fun". He's got lots of free content out there on the Web, YouTube and Facebook.