2-16-09:
Another disappointing visit to the range over the weekend. Almost nothing went well. Scott did take some video and stills for me to look at and post on my blog.

I need to figure out how to make the throwing motion, throwing swing, throwing it (ie: swing hitting ball).
Also I notice that every swing is as hard and fast as I can make it. I need to develop and easy swing.

Also I need to go to the range with the idea of working on only 1 or 2 things.

It seems like once I start my swing it just goes on it's own, and its my old awkward feeling swing - so, as far as awareness goes, well there is no awareness, that's the problem, or at least part of the problem, all awareness just goes out the window.

Maybe this is the time I should just try to be aware of what I'm doing as things go to hell.

The "no backswing" method at least gives me chance to stop this from happening.

Also worth considering is Gladwell's 10,000 hours of practice rule.

Well, I'll try some swings before I leave tonight.

2-11-09:

Feel good today.
Swung a 8 lb medicine ball at the club this morning to loosen and stretch my back muscles.
My swings at the lab this morning really felt good!
After having a cappuccino and recovering from my morning work-out for about 20 min. I tried some swings in front of the bathroom mirror.

I was happy with what I saw, which is a good thing, because, in spite of everything, I need my swing to look good, to look right.

I have been thinking that all my swing experimentation is leading me nowhere, and that maybe the fundamentals of my swing are so far off that no matter what I do I don't have a chance of developing a smooth, consistent swing.

This morning my thoughts were that I wish I was starting to refine my swing instead of wondering if I needed to start over again from ground zero.

I think, I hope, that I've put all that behind me now and can start working the kinks out of my swing.

Also thought of a name for my blog - "breakin 80" or "breakingeighty". I need to get video of some swings, including my old crazy swing to show that I've made some progress.

Speaking of progress, that reminds me of what it was I was so excited about as I sat down to write this morning, my first two swings I hit the quarter!

Not the ground and the quarter, but just the quarter.
And you (whoever you are) have to realize that when I say I hit the quarter, I'm talking about hitting the edge of the quarter. Six out of ten times no less!
Anyway, I do feel good about my swing.
I wish that instead of just swinging the driver at a quarter this morning I was connecting with a teed up golf ball and watching it fly straight and true down the fairway.

I am certainly hopeful that my next driving range experience will prove out my swing.

Random thoughts:
It's not just that I want to improve, I feel compelled to post mortem, discuss everything I'm working on, and this discussing, obsessing does not seem to be of interest to many people, so I'm hoping the blog will turn out to be therapeutic as well as entertaining.

2-9-09:

Went to the indoor range on Sat.
Wish I could say that things went swimmingly, that all my work in the "lab" came to fruition, but such was not the case. Things did not go well.

I hit a few good drives, but no more than I would have in any random session.

Why does having a golf ball teed up change everything?

I could not find my swing, could not keep my head still, and most definitely could not keep my eye on the ball.
Focus went completely from swinging the club to hitting the ball.
And, could not seem to make up my mind on what to focus on.
Had this happened during the "season" I would be ready to give up - it was that bad.

Felt like negative progress.
However, now that I'm a couple of days removed, and my emotions have settled, I can see I must change my course a bit.
First of all, I did notice a few things.
In all my range sessions my first or second drive is perfect.
It's like I check my position at the top of my backswing, and then swing with a completely blank mind - like my swing starts while I'm still checking my position and continues on before my awareness can catch up with it and the club hits the ball and the ball sails away straight and true and it's a perfect drive.

But this only happens once.
After that I'm careful that nothing gets under the radar.

And I don't try to duplicate the blank state because it seems to be just the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish; instead of being totally aware during this swing I'm completely blank - aware of nothing. I'm not quite sure how I could duplicate this state even if I wanted to, but maybe, just for the hell of it, I should try.

Anyway, what were the positives?
Well, right at the end I decide to hit a few drives taking a big wind-up - but not my normal wind up (the term "backswing" doesn't really describe what I was doing).

I took the throwing swing to the max.

I tried to twist my upper body all the way around and just unleash it and my swing.
It was kind of a frustrated, "oh, what the hell" kind of swing.
I remember thinking as the impulse to do this entered my mind that I'm sure it will be impossible to even see the ball with my body twisted around so severely - but surprisingly it wasn't.
I could still keep my head relatively still and my eye on the ball - at least to the extent that I'm ever capable of doing so.
And I hit the ball pretty well.
Not perfect.
Not wonderful.
Not "Eureka, I've found it".
But pretty well.
If I had tried this at the beginning or even the middle of the session I might have played around with it a bit, but the way things had gone I decided to leave before I ruined this one glimmer of hope - plus I was already running late.
And, I thought this will give me something new to work on in the lab.

In the lab...
Just took about 40 swings.
Just doesn't feel natural.
Without the club I'm fine, but I can't seem to find the same rhythm once I've got the club in my hands.
It's like I twist my body back and then swing my arms forward.

I'm not sure what to try, I'm at a bit of a loss here.

2-6-09:
Took a few swings.
Felt weary this morning after arriving from the gym, muscles still tired.
Tried again after drinking my cappuccino - a little better.

I've found it helps to try to feel the motion while taking some throwing swings w/o the club.
I'm still trying to zero in on the difference between the 2 motions.

The Throwing Swing seems to start somewhere between my thighs and mid-section. Kind of reminds my of a swing I used to do just after college where I would start my swing by snapping my hips, opening them up so they faced the target. Might experiment with this - but - the TS is more flowing, and more toward the target.

Also, still working on my left arm.
In most sports some of your power comes from straightening out your bent arm (tennis serve, throwing, chopping wood to name a few), but for whatever reason golf does not seem to work that way.

I've always thought that the straight left arm had more to do with making your swing repeatable than generating power, but maybe that's not the case.

I noticed today that the first couple of times I tried to keep my left arm perfectly straight I felt my wrists snap or release at the contact point.

I have been trying to pay attention to my hands but until this morning haven't had much success. I've been concerned that although my swing is starting to feel pretty good that I'm still not releasing - which means I still might be slicing if I was actually hitting a ball.

I'll have to investigate the straight left arm - wrist snap connection next time I swing.

Also, no matter what else I'm working on, I need to be aware of my head - is it still?

2-5-09

Let me summarize my progress so far:

1. I'm starting to get more of a feel for the difference between the Throwing(TS) and Non-Throwing(NT) swings:

• (TS): much more of a body swing. torso rotates away from the target and downswing starts with the hips rotating and moving toward the target.

• (NT): more of an arm swing that goes up,down,up instead of back,around,through.

2. I don't know whether to consider this part of the throwing swing or something independent, but my most recent discovery is of something that my right arm does, and the way it feels at the terminus of my backswing. The feeling and position is almost like making a muscle, showing off your bicep - and - I feel like this helps me either straighten out, or keep my left arm straight. And I'm feeling my right arm more during the swing which makes my swing feel smoother and more natural - and - I hope is helping my hands to release as I hit the ball - I will be very interested to see what happens at the range.

3. Progress does not happen as fast as I want it to. In fact, until I actually see how I'm hitting the ball, I can't be sure I've even made any progress. After reading or thinking about what I want to try in the "lab", I'm always expecting immediate results. They don't come that quick. But at the same time I'm kind of amazed at the progress I have made (or that I think I've made). My swing, esp with the driver, has never, ever felt natural, smooth or comfortable - now it's starting to. And I seem to be on a steady path of improvement and discovery - which is exactly what I was hoping for. I still haven't been able to come to any awareness of what my hands are doing - but I'm still hopeful that this will be my next breakthrough because I think the hands will prove to be very important.

4. Head still, eyes on the ball - I work on this every session with the hope that it will eventually become automatic.

I interviewed Scottish golf pro Kendal McWade for my tennis website www.AutomaticTennis.com about his unconventional methods of teaching. Kendal mentioned that he was influenced by Fred Shoemaker, and that he made the trip to America to learn his (Shoemaker's) methods.

With a little research I found that Shoemaker had written a book call "Extraordinary Golf". In this book Shoemaker describes an exercise that has his students throwing golf clubs, instead of swinging them.

His discussion of this exercise along with the "before" and "after" pictures is one of the things that inspired my own experiments.

The realization came to me that I was in a perfect position to experiment.

There was absolutely no part of my swing I was afraid of screwing up or losing.
I felt willing to try just about anything, even while out on the links.

But I was especially interesting in seeing what this club throwing actually felt like.
To this end I went to a local indoor driving range and tried to imagine I was throwing the club while still holding onto it.

I was surprised by both how much more natural swinging this way felt and how different is was from my normal swing.

I was hitting a 5-iron and was stunned when my first two shots were as close to perfect as I had ever come. Effortless. Smooth. Long, high shots with just a bit of draw.

Then things went to hell. Almost instantly.

I don't know why, but for the remaining 25 minutes we were at the range there were but a few jewels mixed in with the mud clods of my "normal" wild slices and sidewinding worm-burners.

Those few great shots were enough however to convince me that I was on to something.

I felt that this "throwing" swing was at least the right approach to the problem.

Throughout the week I found my thoughts returning to the driving range experience, and one morning threw my driver and six iron into the trunk of my car.

I thought that the ceilings at our store might be high enough to swing a club and that I didn't really need a range to get a feeling for what I had started thinking of as the "throwing swing".

After playing with the swing on a couple of mornings before work I decided to record my thoughts, feelings and progress in a diary.

The following posts will be those first diary entries.

2-4-09:

Just swung for about 5 min here in the office. Felt good.

Warmed up a bit with just a throwing motion - w/out club, I think this got me into the right frame of mind.

Don't know how this will translate to actually hitting the ball, but the throwing motion seems to be a winner.
And its a quite different motion then the one I'm used to.

Somehow I've had the idea that you swing should be like a pendulum - which might be fine for your short irons, but utterly and completely wrong for your driver.

I'm sure this is the reason why I've always had an outside-in swing, and also why I've never been able to keep my left arm even the slightest bit straight.

Also, now that I'm twisting my body in prep for the throw/swing I'm feeling something in my right arm I've never felt before. It's a kind of a tension, but not a bad tension, more like it's part of the loading process - and, it seems to be what helps keep my left arm straight (do I obsess about the left arm too much?).

A little off topic here, but reminds me of an article I saw in the Dr.'s waiting room the other day showing 3 different swing paths/planes depending on body type, basically:

slender build bring the club up high,

wide build bring the club more around -

So maybe this is another reason why the twisting motion seems to suite me.

Anyway, I feel like I'm making some progress in finding my swing - and - if this does end up improving my game, it would seem to be the best thing you could do.

If (big if) this does help, than I will have to conclude that this off the course, club only awareness practice is extremely useful.

Also, I think I'm making steady progress in keeping my head still and my eye on the ball (or quarter that I use when swinging at the office). Anyway, I'm anxious to get to the range and see if my imagined success will transfer at least that far.

Here are the "ground rules" I've set up for this golf experiment.

1. Unlimited swing practice in the lab, but realistically I expect to spend about 15 minutes a day working on my swing.

2. Half an hour at the driving range once a week. This will be my chance to see if my lab work is bearing fruit.

3. 18 holes of golf every Saturday.

Now as far as my "Lab" goes, I found that if I move all the boxes out of the way in the back of our store there is just enough room to swing a driver. A quarter on the floor is my ersatz golf ball.

I live in Minnesota and it's winter here which means it's going to be a while before I'm able to get in my weekly 18.
This could be a good thing.

I'm hoping to develop a comfortable swing before being discouraged by the flight of the ball. After all, if the swing feels good I'm making progress, right?

Of course the flip side to this is that I'll end up perfecting a push slice swing.

That's where the weekly trip to the driving range comes in - as a real world proving ground for my discoveries in the lab.

Unfortunately, it's an indoor range, only about 50 or 60 yards long. So while it's easy to identify your terrible shots, you have to take what looks like a good shot with a grain of salt.

Edit Posts

Is it possible for a 55 year old man to go from the low 100's to the high 80's in one summer? And to make it more challenging, without taking any lessons?

At the beginning of February as I started down this path in earnest I started a diary to record my progress, thoughts, feelings and discoveries. Feeling there must be thousands of golfers trying to improve, I decided to make my efforts public in this blog with the hope of receiving advice, sympathy and criticism from anyone who cares to comment.


There are several reasons why 2009 seems like a good year to undertake this experiment, some of which I will get into at a later date. But for now let's just say it seems like it would be something interesting to try.



While researching information on the mental/psychological aspect of tennis I came across an incredible amount of information written about golf. Much of it was interesting, some of it was downright inspiring. The thought occurred to me that some of this stuff might actually work. "Sidesaddle putting" and "No Backswing golf swing" were two ideas that, for whatever reason, struck a chord. The idea of an experiment in golf also fit in well with some other ideas I become interested in over the last several years.



As far as my background goes, I'm a bad golfer.

I've played off and on for the last 40 years, but never with much regularity, and certainly without much "success". My youngest son videotaped me hitting golf balls into a net about seven years ago, and seeing my swing for the first time was so appalling that I gave up the game completely for the next couple of years. But, for various reasons, chief of which was the desire to spend some quality time with my boys, I came back into the fold - albeit reluctantly. My feelings toward golf can be summarized nicely by Mark Twain's quote:


"Golf is a good walk spoiled".

Also,


"Golf is a game that pits your skill and determination against the other guy's luck"
I think I read that in Reader's Digest.



And if I was to distill the one sure truth I've learned about golf over the last 40 years into a quote of my own it would be:


"No matter how well you're playing things can go to hell in an instant, and no matter how bad you're playing things can get worse"



Now if that hasn't scared off any golf purist who might have stumbled onto this blog, let me add the following.

I use the term "golf" loosely. Since I've gotten back into the game my play has been governed by a modified set of rules and regulations.

I make liberal and frequent use of my foot wedge. I refuse to let a good shot off the tee be ruined just because it lands in a fairway divot or behind some little piss ant tree.

If a ball flies so far off course so that it's out of bounds, lost in the woods, or lands in the water I usually walk where I estimate the ball left the fairway and play a new ball from there (in the fairway of course) without any penalty.

Balls landing in sand traps can be raked back onto the fairway.

I've probably made some other modifications that I can't think of right now, but you get the idea.