Yeri

This is something I am struggling with, how do you get the arms to move like that? I always end up with way too much shoulder, and swipe across the ball with poor contact. What kind of feels work for this, or even which muscles should fire in order to make that kind of move?

Age 37, 6' 4", 230 lbs, 92 mph

Hmm, 2012 goals were a) Break 100 b) Break 90 I succeeded with the first, and almost the second (best round was 91). So 2013 goals are a) Break 90 b) Break 85 c) Break 80 (This is a bit of a stretch goal, I don't know if it's achievable, but I'm gonna try!)

The Hammer driver is the key to 350 yard drives, every time! Ka-POW! Good golfers only use blades, no pro uses GI clubs Its the arrow that matters, not the Indian that shoots it Keep the left shoulder low 90% of your time should be spent practicing putting

Make sure there are a variety of bunkers to practice in, green side and fairway, with appropriate consistency of the sand in each.

I got my DVDs in today, and eagerly watched through them all. For reference, I'm a horrible golfer Disc 1 - Introduction , is a good overview of what the 5 simple keys are, with a fairly detailed explanation of what each key means, and some basic feels and demonstrations of each. As the keys progress, the explanations get more complex, but that's expected -- How could you otherwise explain sweet spot path or clubface control without explaining swing path, face angle, and all of that fun stuff. The good thing is that the explanations are kept at a fairly high level, and don't get bogged down in technicalities like Mike & Andy do on the S&T; DVDs. The interactions between Chuck, Dave, and Bob are natural, not forced, and very easy to follow along with. If you aren't a regular reader of this site & already familiar with the swing geometry, this is a fantastic introduction to how and why things happen the way they do in a golf swing. Disc 2 - Swings . This is where things really start to get interesting for me. This is broken into 3 sections, Chipping, Pitching, and Full swing. Chuck & Dave walk Bob through a series of small lessons demonstrating how to properly hit each type of shot. This DVD reminds me of The Impact Zone, except in video form. The principal of the flat left wrist is heavily worked on here. In the first section (chipping), Chuck grabs a few 2x4s, and uses those as training aids. To me, this is a fantastic drill, as I can see the benefits of laying them out the way they do, to control left wrist and face angle. However, this is where things start to break down a little for me as a horrible golfer. In the drill, Chuck mentions placing one of the 2x4s 6 inches behind the ball. Well me being who I am, I go in my garage, grab a 2x4 and a tape measure, place that sucker exactly 6 inches behind the ball, and proceed to fail miserably at the chipping drill. I found it completely impossible to avoid hitting the wood on the backswing, even if I kept my hands still and just broke my wrists back like a pitch instead of a chip. The only way I could even get close was to straighten my legs, lift my shoulders, bend my right arm up and break my wrists, all at once... Not something that you'd ever want to do in a backswing. The problem is that as a horrible golfer, I don't have the knowledge to know how far back the 2x4 should be placed, so I am counting on the DVD to tell me. After experimentation, I found that about 10 inches of distance was what was needed to have a reasonable chipping stroke. They also go a bit into educated hands here, starting the ball in different directions via clubface control. This was nice to see as it's not something that I've really ever seen mentioned in other golf DVDs. The pitching drill was unsurprising for the most part, pretty much what I expected after watching the chipping portion. The section on followthrough was good, that was something I hadn't been doing properly and it was a good explanation on how to achieve that post-impact look of extension. The full swing was even less surprising than the pitching, once you get to this part it's obvious how things are going to go. Overall good stuff on this one, but I wish it was remotely as easy to do as they make it look Disc 3 - Speed and Setup Behold, a wild and mysterious James appears! The first segment shows James hitting a driver, demonstrating how to sequence the body to generate more clubhead speed by leveraging the body properly. Later, the dvd starts going into educated hands, and what that means. Then a segment on the grip, with a emphasis on the pressure point that's on the trail hand index finger (don't remember what that's called). Finally a segment on general posture, with notes about head, back, and shoulder positions. Disc 4 - Drills Another aptly-titled DVD, this is all about drills. There are several for each key, some of which have been seen on here before a few times (the wall drill, for example). All look to be good ones, I especially liked the bunker drills for forward shaft lean, I'll have to try those next time I'm out somewhere that has practice bunkers. Disc 5 - Lessons I'll be honest, I didn't pay as close attention to this one as the others. It shows several students, each with some swing faults, and Chuck & Dave set them on the path to glory & low scores. It's a good quiz to see if you can find out the problems in the swing before they get into fixing things. Overall thoughts Overall, this is a good set of DVDs. The production value is pretty good, not as good as the Tom Watson or Phil Mickelson DVDs, but better than the S&T; 2.0 ones. There's some audio leveling issues, Chuck's microphone was much louder than anyone else's, so I had to keep adjusting the tv volume. The content that was there is solid, but as a horrible golfer I wish there was more detail in some areas. For example, they talk a lot about sliding the hips, and then bringing the sweet spot to the ball -- ok, how do I do that? Pull my hands? Rotate shoulders? Turn hips? I can come up with lots of ways to do that, and 99% of them are probably wrong and will instantly add 20 strokes to your game just by thinking about them. I wish they would have went into more detail about all of the movements necessary so that I wouldn't need to go try and figure it out myself. In the end, I am happy that I bought these, and I think that golfers of nearly any skill level would benefit from them.

68 today for 9 holes. 35.8/126 course. Would have been quite a bit higher but our league rules state that you must pick up when you reach 2x par. Needless to say I am not happy with my game right now....

11-25% for me. My overall game is much worse, my last two times out have set record high scores (64 and 68 on 9 holes). My current good hits are better, my putting is better, wedges are much better, heck even my driver is quite a bit better than 1 year ago. However my irons have gone from bad to not even worth playing the game bad. I'll usually hit a decent drive of about 200 (yes, 200, that's not a typo) into the fairway, take about 5 more strokes to get within 60 yards of the green, then get it in with 2-4 shots from there (1-2 pitches / chips, 1-2 putts - usually takes about 3 shots on average). Oh, and this is on a par 4 :) On the very, very rare days that my irons behave, I can shoot great scores, even managed to break 100 this year. Those days are few and far between though.

For what it's worth, I checked my order status and it shows that it shipped today, with an expected delivery of Monday

I lurk a lot, primarily because I absolutely hate to talk about things that I am not knowledgeable about. So I quietly read threads, occasionally ask a question, but don't do much beyond that, letting the more advanced members do the talking...

[SPOILER=Warning: Spoiler!][/SPOILER][quote name="iacas" url="/t/55426/introducing-five-simple-keys/144#post_725575"] We have the first 20 or so, we did some training in April. Where are you located? [/quote] Orlando.

Any updates on when the instructors are going to be announced? I could definitely use some hands-on help, I'm feeling exceptionally dense at the moment :)

Legends was in pretty good shape, the only rough spot that stood out was #9 green had a pretty big bare spot on the front half of the green. Otherwise everything was healthy and maintained. Of course all the rain we've been getting the past few weeks has helped tremendously, I'm sure. Sanctuary Ridge is very high up on my short list of courses to try, just waiting till my buddy gets up this side of town again so we can go play it.

But he's got a spiffy hat, so that makes it OK :)