Let's Have Your Best "Ah-ha" Moment in your Golf Development

[nevets88]

Here's an aha I got this year. I lined up 2 mirrors, face on and down the line and took all sorts of variations of swings and observed. You wouldn't think it, but You get a different perspective being able to see both angles at once.

[boogielicious]

At the risk of sounding sycophantic, it came 5 years ago right here, when I was first introduced to the true laws of ball flight.

OK, I admit I had to look up "sycophantic".  Thanks for the SAT word @David in FL !

I never really had one "ah-ha" moment.  But in 2009 I spent a lot of time reading and had a very good clinic with Dave, Erik and James.  There are still challenges though.

[Ernest Jones]

OK, I admit I had to look up "sycophantic".

It's fancy talk for "brown nosing suck-hole" as in, "At the risk of sounding like a big, brown nosing suck-hole…"

[bruce36]

I struggled with a small but persistent slice, and it finally dawned on me a few weeks ago that it was due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what happens during the downswing.

Everyone says swing in to out, and I always thought this meant you have to somehow swing your *arms* in such a way that they are entirely moving from the inside to out.

I've realized your arms, especially your left arm, is almost describing a pendulum motion at the bottom of the swing arc and is moving  basically parallel with the target line. The in-to-out effect arises from your arm and wrist rotation that happen from around where your hands are around hip high (and the club pointing almost directly behind you) to the point of impact. EDIT: Oops, the club points down the target line I meant, not behind you.

Basically, what I'm saying is I finally understand that I was always swinging over the top, and it took me forever to realize that even though the right way was plain to see in any video of decent golf swings. Sometimes you just have to figure it out for yourself I guess.

[tqcishark]

this is a great topic.  played a round with a decent golfer (from basketball) we have good comms he told me matteroffactly

i had a "typical hacker" swing.  for the next two months i studied paul wilson's videos, hit the weights, stretched, and hit about 2000 range balls making corrections.  through the effort I had most of the ah-has mentioned here, got a real swing, and acquired bogey golfing consistency at some tough courses.  i capped the three month turn around with a seven round in four day trip.  then i took a couple of weeks off.

for me the real ah ha...golf is like speaking another language.  if i don't practice and lift and play alot, i am not a good golfer.  i guess its true you get out of it what you put in, some people it takes more than others

sorry for the typing i'm one handed

[0ldblu3]

OK, here is mine. Here is how my instructor demonstrated the power of lag and the inherent perfection of allowing the wrists to release on their own.

In one of my lessons my instructor had me make my back swing and hold it. Then, and this is a little weird, he had me drop my hands slowly down (this is while holding a club) until they reached the bottom of...my arms I guess you would say. So at that point he had me continue to drop my hands down without releasing the lag... I had to bend my knees a bunch, but eventually my hands and the whole club were on the ground. Then he asked "Where is the club head?", and I noticed that it was behind me a little bit, which would result in an inside-to-outside swing path as the lag releases. Additionally, the lag will release on it own accord when my hands get to the bottom, because it has to...my wrists have to hinge at that point. The way I think about it, at the bottom of the swing my hands move a tiny amount (2 - 3 inches, maybe less) and the club head goes 3 feet...that's where club head acceleration comes from. Oh, and if you think you can time that, well, you can't. It just has to happen.

This is why casting essentially throws away all your power, that 3 feet of acceleration at the bottom of the swing becomes only 2 feet, which equals less speed. This was the moment that I understood power. Of course, there is much more to learn, but I have never had issues with power since, and the sound of a compressed ball is the hallmark trait of my swing.

[jclark]

What lagging the club feels like.

[dfreuter415]

... lets have your best "ah-ha" moment of discovery ... GO

I have always believed that golf is a journey, not a destination. As I travel on my golf journey, I have encountered a series of "Ah-ha" moments that have lead to the insight necessary for game maintenance, improvement, and enjoyment.  But, since you asked for our best...

I was able to develop my pitching/chipping style using anything from a 6 iron to a lob wedge by discovering and then incorporating Greg Norman's tips and lessons.  This has helped me to turn bogies into pars and reduce the number of the dreaded "doubles" in my game. Every time I get up and down successfully inwardly I yell, "Ah-ha."

Here are a couple of web pages that define this method.

http://www.shark.com/sharkwatch/instruction/lesson36.php

http://www.shark.com/sharkwatch/instruction/lesson41.php

As I get older and my ball goes shorter distances, I am hoping that my future "Ah-ha" moments will allow me to figure out how I can keep a single digit handicap for the next decade or more.

[bjwestner]

I used to have an epiphany quite frequently at the range and think that I had found something that was the one key and make me improve so much.  The next time I'd be at the range and it would be something else that I had to work on.  Finally, only just a few months ago I stopped analyzing every little thing and stopped having "breakthroughs".  I just focused on hitting the ball and making adjustments based on how the ball flies.

Instead of copying what a swing looks like from someone else or from a book, ball flight is what really matters and adjustments to a swing should be made based on ball flight.  In other words, you can have the ugliest golf swing but if the ball flies the way you want it to, that is all that really matters.  History has proven that there is no one right golf swing and there are no pictures on the scorecard.  With that being said I am not saying to not pay attention to the fundamentals of a good golf swing, you should, but you could have mirrored a swing very well but if the ball flight is not what you want then  you still have to end up addressing that real problem....

[RickK]

Mine happens frequently.  Everytime I go to a golf store and pick up some putter I have never had in my hands.  It is Ah-ha or WOW, I am making every putt.  Of course, as soon as I pay for the putter and go to the course...is no longer Ah-ha...it is more like "what the he!!" and it ultimately ends up in the "putter bag" in my garage.  There is a long line of failures in that bag. Probably why the putter I am using, and have been using, for the most part of 10 years now is my wife's old putter - a mid 80s Macgregor putter.

[Lihu]

My golf "Ah-ha" moment was not really a self discovered one. It was thrust upon me by Mike (MVMAC) and Dana.

A good instructor will have you do something that just puts things together nicely.

[Chanceman]

I think it was when I realized I needed to watch the ball

[CJBurke1971]

An older gentleman I have been working with about a year suggested I use my knees to start the rotation slowly while keeping the "V" and the when the knees go as far as they can then pull the right arm back into position and keep the left shoulder pointing at the ball and get the right shoulder under the chin on the downswing. When it is done right the ball has a beautiful flight and a slight draw to it. Once I got this method down I knocked about 8 strokes off of my handicap this past year.

[Lihu]

I think I just had another "Aha" moment last week, when I switched to clubs that were way too stiff and heavy for me on the course.

My last lesson had me me get into a deeper stance and a 2:00-2:30 spine angle. This gives me a lot more freedom of movement. Of course, they said it would during my lesson, but it didn't click then mainly because I was not used to this deeper stance and needed to build up the strength to do get into it.

What the "Aha" moment is that I was able to swing these heavy solid steel rods with ease, and let the club propel the ball and cut through turf. I've been working hard to produce this feeling every stroke. I found that I can reproduce this feeling up to the 7 iron pretty reliably, less so with the 6 iron, getting a few good shots with the 5 an 4 irons, and very limited few with the 3. I can still hit them every time, but they make a clack sound rather than a poof type sound on contact.

However, this got me thinking a bit. All of my "good" shots up to the 5 iron were about the same ~30 yard height. I even swung my wedges (52 and 60 degree) the same way. Also, there is way more spin and height with no distance loss. Repeatability was much better.

I have always used these clubs at home against a net, but never really knew how far the shots would really go. Then just decided to take them out on the course for a round.

Still have a lot of work to do to be more reliable with this new found "ease of movement". After which, I'll be ready for the next lesson!

[BuckeyeNut]

I've never really had an AHA moment.

Well, except for once when it was really cold.   I tee'd off in single digit temps and half the ball sliced off to the left, and the other half sliced off to the right.  It was as much as an "Oh Sh!t moment as it was Ah Hah"....LOL

[Lihu]

I've never really had an AHA moment.

Well, except for once when it was really cold.   I tee'd off in single digit temps and half the ball sliced off to the left, and the other half sliced off to the right.  It was as much as an "Oh Sh!t moment as it was Ah Hah"....LOL

Did that count as 2 off the tee? Plus the penalty for playing two balls without declaring your provisional?