Fred Griffin on Iron Shots That Stop Quickly (Video)

GCA coach Fred Griffin shared a feel-oriented approach to hitting a high iron shot that lands softly on the green. It's simpler than many methods you might have heard.



Fred gives you three simple steps.

• Put the ball slightly forward of center in your stance. If you stop the video around the :54 second mark, there's a good ground level image of the ball position. You can see that the ball is still inside your lead heel. You don't want to put the ball too far forward or you'll hit it thin.
• He says to feel as if you "sink" a bit on your backswing, but he just wants you to keep your trailing knee slightly flexed on the way back. You don't want to straighten your trail knee when you make this shot! This gives you a more level approach to the ball, as opposed to (a) raising up and hitting it thin or (b) dropping during your downswing and hitting it low.
• And then there's that "waiter's tray" image. He wants you to swing to a high finish, and that's a good image to help you straighten up as you finish your swing. Yes, if you stayed level during your downswing, you'll be using the ground here!

The key to hitting the ball high is to make a small adjustment to the ball position -- just a little forward -- and then hit the ball cleanly. And a ball that flies high drops down more vertically onto the green, which means it doesn't bounce forward as much.

Make sure you understand the images. If you can imagine how the shot feels, you'll be able to hit it much better than you expect. Never underestimate the value of a good mental image of your shot!

T.J. Tomasi on Muscle Memory

I have a copy of an (I believe) out-of-print book called The 30-Second Golf Swing, by T.J. Tomasi. It was published around 15 years ago, so it's not unusual for a book that old to be out-of-print. (Everybody's always looking for the next magic technique, right?)

To be honest, I can understand why this one went OP. The technique seems overly complicated to me, a complex procedure that you go through before, during and after each shot that will hopefully eliminate thinking about the wrong thing at the wrong time. Don't get me wrong -- the concept makes sense to me. This particular implementation just seems overthought.

However, Tomasi says something in the first chapter that I think most weekend players -- and perhaps a few pros -- need to realize:

Once you learn your swing, it's in your brain for good. Unless there is a brain injury, it's in there and you won't lose it, as in, An hour ago I had my wallet and now it's gone forever 'cause I left it on the airplane.

Studies in motor learning show that once a skill is learned it is never forgotten. Furthermore, after a year without practice, the performance level returns to 80 percent after ten days of retraining. So your swing is in there all right, just like other motor skills such as shoe tying, bike riding, running, and swimming. You cannot forget them because they're captured in neural networks. Rather than thinking in terms of forgetting how to swing, I suggest that there are circumstances that deny you full access to the motor program called your golf swing. Your "A Swing" -- the one that fires on all cylinders when your game is under control -- is temporarily unavailable. (p7)

Obviously his "30-Second Golf Swing" technique is about maintaining full access to that motor program, which is what a pre-shot routine is supposed to do. (Tomasi's routine is more than just pre-shot, of course, or it wouldn't need an entire book!)

But what I want you to remember is that your golf swing is in your brain for good. That's why, after a particularly tough stretch on the course, you can simply put those misbehaving clubs away for a week or a month and the problem miraculously fixes itself. According to Tomasi, even a year away won't wipe the imprint from your muscle memory -- you'll just need some time to get used to the feelings again.

As the weather gets worse and you have fewer chances to get out and play or even practice, this is something you need to remember. A few moments spent swinging a club in the garage or backyard every few days may be all you need to keep your swing "fresh" in your mind until better weather returns. A few moments spent mentally practicing your swing -- that is, just imagining how it feels to swing a club -- may do the same job. And once you can play again, it won't take all that long to get it back in shape.

Because your swing doesn't leave you. Lydia Ko may have spoken more truth than she realized when she said her clubs simply "got tired of her" and needed some time away during the off-season.

Don't beat yourself up this off-season, during the bad weather. Your swing isn't going anywhere.

Martin Hall on Swinging Freely During Your Drive (Video)

This is an extremely simple mental tip -- well, simple to say but maybe not so simple to do. This Martin Hall clip aired on Morning Drive the week Russell Knox was defending at the WGC in China. It's a driving tip Russell got from Lynn Marriott at VISION54.


Mental tips like this, despite their simplicity, can be unimaginably difficult to use under pressure. That's why you need to spend a little time practicing them on the range before you try them during a round.

Why is this "imagine you're driving your ball into the ocean" swing thought so difficult? It's because your actual drive MEANS SOMETHING TO YOU. You can do the practice swing where you aren't actually hitting a ball just fine but, once you set your driver behind that teed-up ball, your mind simply says, "HEY, BUDDY. THIS TIME IT'S FOR REAL." And if you've been having trouble hitting the fairway anyway, that's all it takes to tighten you up.

And once you tighten up, there's a good chance you'll miss the fairway again.

It may help you to remember what Martin says in the video -- namely, that you won't hit every ball perfectly by doing this. However, your overall percentage of fairways hit will go up. This is an "improvement" drill, not a "do it perfectly" drill.

And this is one place where all my recent posts on learning to square the clubface by using your arms and hands more will help you. The ball goes where the clubface is aimed at impact. If you focus on squaring your clubface instead of steering the ball, that's where the ball will go. It may curve a bit if your swing path is off, but it will still curve toward the spot where your clubface is aimed.

Where the ball lands is what matters. This tip should help you land it where you want it to land, and land there more often.

A Better Way to Practice

This is one of the cooler articles I've seen lately... and it originated with a clarinetist. (That's somebody who plays the clarinet, in case you wonder.) I'll 'fess up -- I found out about her work because golfdigest.com wrote about it.

Golfers often listen to music when they practice. And apparently both musicians and golfers approach practice all wrong -- at least, they do if they really want to see lasting improvement.

According to the bio on an article by Dr. Noa Kageyama at bulletproofmusician.com, Dr. Christine Carter has played at a number of places like "Carnegie Hall, the ancient cloisters in Avignon France, the Sydney Opera House, the Heritage Theatre in rural Newfoundland, and a Baroque Palace in the South of Germany. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts at Manhattan School of Music, where she now teaches the Woodwind Lab." Those are pretty good credentials.

What she says, in golfing terms, is that standing on the range and shotgunning balls with the same club until you get it right isn't an effective method for improvement. Musicians often practice the same way, playing a difficult passage over and over until they get it right. In both cases, you think you're making progress because you eventually get it right during practice. It sounds logical.

But according to Dr. Carter, "Practicing in a way that optimizes performance in the practice room does not optimize learning." That's NOT the way you actually perform, either on a stage or a golf course, so the skills don't necessarily carry over. She recommends mixing it up with what she calls a blocked or interleaved practice schedule. As Dr. Kageyama puts it in his original article:

"In a random practice schedule, the performer must keep restarting different tasks. Because beginnings are always the hardest part, it will not feel as comfortable as practicing the same thing over and over again. But this challenge lies at the heart of why random practice schedules are more effective. When we come back to a task after an intervening task, our brain must reconstruct the action plan for what we are about to do. And it is at this moment of reconstruction that our brains are the most active. More mental activity leads to greater long-term learning."

So next time you head to the practice range, don't just hit wedge after wedge, then 9-iron after 9-iron, etc. Don't hit the same club twice in a row; instead, mix them up the way you would playing a regular round of golf. If you would normally hit each club 10 times, you can still do it; just don't hit the same club twice in a row.

Dr. Kageyama's article, Why the Progress You Make in the Practice Room Seems to Disappear Overnight, can be found at this link.

And the Golf Digest summary article, You've Been Practicing Golf All Wrong, and There's Science to Prove It, can be found here. But I'd advise reading them both, as the original article is far more detailed.

Feeling Where the Club Face Is Aimed

This little video from Mike Malaska -- he used to work with the late Jim Flick, among other teachers -- goes through some simple drills and practice techniques for learning to feel which way the club face is pointed at impact.



That's really pretty simple. You can do the "cellphone drill" during spare moments during the day, and you can practice the swing drill using plastic balls in your backyard when you can't get to the range.

One important point here that Malaska mentions at the end: When you practice with a club, swing slowly. That makes it much easier to feel where the club face is pointed because the swing is slow enough for you to recognize where your hands are pointed.

Don't underestimate the importance of simple drills like this. Watch the video several times if necessary to make sure you understand what he's telling you to do. Eye-hand coordination isn't complicated; it just takes repetition over time. If you practice, it will come.

Martin Hall's "Key in the Keyhole" Technique for Hitting a Draw

Sometimes the solution to a problem comes when you change the way you think about it. That's why I cover much of the same material over and over but with a slightly different approach each time. And since weekend golfers typically struggle to hit draws, I make an extra effort to find new ways of approaching that problem.

Here is a recent School of Golf clip where Martin Hall attempts to teach Sara Brown how to hit a draw instead of the pull hook she often gets:



Note that Martin is using the "new ball laws" where you leave the face slightly open to create a draw -- something that seems counterproductive to most of us. And combined with the idea of hitting the ball from the inside -- that is, starting the club path out to the right for a right-hander -- the whole method may sound doomed from the start.

But please note that Martin is also recommending an unusual image to help you square up the face. He says to think of your trailing thumb as a key and your lead shoulder as a keyhole... and he wants you to try and stick the key into the keyhole as you make your swing. Let's think about this for a moment.

With the club face slightly open at address --and the hands leaning the shaft slightly ahead of the ball, which also helps square the club face as you swing through -- this "key in the keyhole" image should help you square up the club face at impact, not close it down for a hook. The ball's path is not going straight and then curving; it's starting out on a curve (caused by the slightly open face and more open path) and then straightening out as it lands.

Note that Martin says the ball should NOT cross the aim line where Sara is lined up. An almost square club face hitting the ball slightly from inside will cause the ball to draw back toward the aim line. Martin's image will NOT cause the club face to go past square at impact because the image of sticking your thumb into your shoulder at the top of your finish should put you on plane. If you twist your forearms, your trailing thumb will point straight out behind you. That's bad!

This "key in the keyhole" image can be a very useful one to help you square up the club at impact. You might want to try it if you're leaving the club face open and hitting too many slices.

And in case the video didn't embed in this post, here's the link.

How Martin Kaymer Mastered His Driver

Alan Shipnuck has done an article over at golf.com about how Martin Kaymer became the player he is. Mostly it talks about how he has performed in the past, and how that foreshadowed the way he closes out rounds and tournaments now.

But the third paragraph includes an interesting note about how Martin learned to control one of the clubs that really distinguishes him from the rest of the pack -- namely, the driver:

Kaymer grew up in Dusseldorf playing the Mettmann Golf Club, which was close enough to home that he and his older brother, Philip, would occasionally ride their bikes to the course. Almost from the beginning, their father, Horst, compelled the boys to play from the tips on a 6,700-yard course, and he forbade the use of a tee even when they were wielding drivers. “He wanted to make it more challenging for us, so when we were allowed to use tees in tournaments hitting the driver would seem easy,” says Martin.

Although this goes against the advice of most instructors and the top players like Jack Nicklaus, who say you should always use a tee if you can, there's a certain logic about it. If your practice is more difficult than what you do in your games, you should find it easier to get the job done during a game. If you can hit a driver off the deck in practice, hitting it off a tee during a match should seem very easy indeed!

While you probably wouldn't want to do it all the time, it might be worthwhile to try hitting a few drivers off the deck when you're at the range.  If you do, just remember to position the ball where you would for a fairway wood -- after all, you want to hit down on the ball to get it up in the air. You don't want to swing up when the ball isn't on a tee!

However, I have to include this disclaimer: Practicing this way is no guarantee that you'll shoot back-to-back 65s like Martin did on Thursday and Friday. I just want to make that clear...

Sean Foley Drops the Ball... Literally!

I found this Sean Foley video over at Golf Digest and I just had to pass it on. (It's brand new for the April 2014 issue.) This is a drill that I've mentioned several times on the blog -- typically using a basketball -- but this video really gives you a good sense of how it works.



Please note that Sean is stopping at various points to emphasize the moves. When you actually do this drill, you want to do it in one smooth motion. Do it slowly at first, then speed up as you get used to the feel of it. You can practice this drill in the backyard without a golf ball as well as using it for hitting shots on the range. (Obviously you'll need a basketball or something similar whether you're hitting a golf ball or not!)

Let me take a moment to explain why I am so big on this drill and periodically repeat it.

• The slight squatting motion ensures that you start shifting your weight onto your lead foot as you start down.
• As a result, you start using your feet properly early in your downswing.
• The forward movement of your lead knee helps your lead hip start moving out of the way, promoting a better turn.
• The squat gets your body moving slightly downward. Many of you straighten your knees and stand up as you begin your downswing. This move helps you stop "lifting your head" by focusing your mind on your knees -- that's where the real problem is.
• Since you're moving downward, you've started the downswing in a way that promotes hitting down on the ball. That's a necessary fundamental for proper contact.
• For those of you who want to "use the ground" and move upward as you hit the ball (when it's on a tee, that is), this move gets you into a position where you can do that.
• It helps prevent the reverse pivot some of you are struggling with.

That's why I keep recommending this drill. Give it a try, okay?

Click the link at the beginning of the post if the video isn't embedded like it's supposed to be.

Playing Lessons from the Match Play

The golf world is still buzzing about the finals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play. Jason Day got a big win, Victor Dubuisson got unlimited sponsor invites, and Victor's runner-up finish gave me the best results I've had in a long time when picking this event. ;-)



But there's more that we can learn from the Final Four in this tournament. Today I thought we'd take a quick look at some easy-to-apply lessons we can all use.

From 4th place Ernie Els we can learn the importance of proper equipment. Ernie has been struggling to regain the putting prowess he used to have, trying almost anything to make putts. However, he finally moved to a shorter, counterweighted putter (I talked about them in detail a couple of days ago) and found a piece of equipment that suits him to a tee. It allows him to rely on the same rhythm that makes his full swing so smooth and dependable. Many of us are using sticks that we just aren't comfortable with, and that's a problem that's easily corrected.

From 3rd place Rickie Fowler we can learn to double-check our fundamentals when we have swing problems. Far too often, our response to a persistent swing problem is to try an entirely different way to swing -- and as a result we just end up with a swing that's a mix of different techniques that don't work together. When Rickie went to Butch Harmon, Butch didn't rebuild his swing, according to Rickie in this Golf Digest article:

"[There are] no major changes, just taking what I have and cleaning it up, making it consistent and more repeatable."

Fowler says the essence of the effort is to get started in the right takeaway position and to shorten his backswing a bit. "My tendency," he says, "is to get a little long and the club gets stuck behind me."

No major changes, just cleaning things up. Note that Rickie specifically mentions working on a proper takeaway position. That's why I keep harping on a properly-done one-piece takeaway; even the pros tend to get into bad habits there. Keep your eyes on your fundamentals.

From runner-up Victor Dubuisson you can learn to trust what you know. A number of people on social media felt that Victor was too careless over those amazing shots he hit to keep the match going. But Victor's nickname is "Golden Hands" and the word is that he doesn't practice as much as the other guys; he prefers to play more. You don't find those kind of lies on the range, but you can end up in all kinds of bad lies out on the course so Victor has a good sense of what he has to do when he hits into something unusual like teddy bear cholla. As a result, he doesn't second guess himself; he decides what he's going to try and then he tries it. And he doesn't beat himself up if it doesn't come off the way he planned -- as he said, "I just played it like I had nothing to lose." Don't overthink your game.

Finally, from winner Jason Day we can learn simple mental toughness. After a couple of miraculous saves by Victor, Jason said he started to wonder if he should just hand over the trophy right then. But as Helen Ross wrote for PGATOUR.com:

After all the shots that left him shaking his head in disbelief like the rest of us on Sunday afternoon, especially Victor Dubuisson's stunning escape from beside that small cholla and the other ball he liberated from the branches of a bush, Jason Day was still focused on one thing.

He wanted to win the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Yes, it was that simple. Jason simply didn't give up. You don't have to, either. Just keep your head in the game, trying to make the best score you can. You might be surprised what you can do.

These aren't complex techniques that let these players triumph over 60 other players. But then, victory usually comes down to just not quitting. And you can do that as well as they can.

Some Indoor Drills from the University of Mississippi

I continue to be amazed at how many places around the world -- California, Australia, Colombia, South Africa, even Florida -- have weather nice enough to play golf in. For the rest of us, the picture isn't so pretty.

So I spent some time hunting for some different indoor drills that we snowlanders could do. And I found a page (from 13 months ago) with some unusual suggestions at theolemissgolfcourse.com's blog.



Not surprisingly, most of the drills deal with putting. You can click on the post link above to check those out. (Some of them are new to me, and sound quite interesting.)

However, there is one drill listed for improving your range of motion during your backswing. I want to include that one here:

Sit down in a dining room chair with your feet flat on the floor and spread widely apart. Hold the club head in one hand and the grip in the other and place the shaft of the club on the back of your neck. Twist your shoulders to the right, holding the position for five seconds. If done properly, you'll feel the torque on the left side of your body. Turn back to your starting position and relax. Repeat this process 10 times.

It's not a new move but it's the first time I've seen it done from a sitting position. I'd suggest doing the drill on BOTH sides to improve your overall muscular balance.

Since you can do it sitting down, it's a good one to use while watching TV. It's not like we can go out and play golf or anything...

Some Practice Tips

I know, I know. The pros may be playing in California and the Bahamas, where the weather is gorgeous, but the rest of us aren't so lucky. (When I took the dog out for a walk Friday, I looked like a refugee from the Charlie Brown Christmas special... and North Carolina isn't even getting the worst of it!) So why do a post on practice?



Eventually the weather is going to cooperate and let us get in a little practice. And we'll need it -- with all this cold weather, we're going to have a bit more rust than usual and have a little less time to get ready for the start of the season. Rick Sessinghaus of the PGA did this 4-page article at golftipsmag.com about practicing like a professional, and some of the ideas can be adapted to your living room.

I'm not going to summarize the article because it's basically a summary to begin with! However, I'll note a couple of his tips that you can use indoors, right now.

You can do some stretching. I don't have the ceiling height or floor space to make swings, but I can still make the "shoulder twists" Rick demonstrates in the article.

You can also check your alignment. You don't have to swing clubs to get comfortable with a correct address position. Best of all, you can watch TV while you stand in the proper position for short stretches!

As for the rest of the tips, you can begin thinking about them. Decide which areas of your game need the most work, perhaps start thinking about the best way (and maybe best times) to work on them. There are ways to do some of the work in your backyard, and that will allow you to get in 5- and 10-minute practice sessions once the weather improves. And once we reach that point, I'll try to include a few posts with ideas that won't require a special trip to the range.

In the meantime, we can at least dream about playing well...

A-Wrist-ed Development

Sorry, but I couldn't resist the joke.

This is another Practice BRAINge drill, although you can do it with a club also. In fact, if you have enough room to do it inside, I'd advise using a club. You don't need room to swing it, per se; just enough room to move it around a little. What we're going to focus on is grip pressure.

Here's all I want you to do: Take your stance, gripping a club as lightly as you can. (A wedge is fine; not only is the shaft short, but the head is heavier.) After you take your stance, try to move the club around without tightening your grip anymore than necessary. Tilt the club up and down; bend your elbows so the club shaft is over your shoulder, like you're chopping wood; even swing the club like a baseball bat if you have room. (Don't break anything!) While you do, consciously try to relax your grip as much as possible without losing control of the club.

Don't try to do anything fancy. All we want is to build a habit of holding the club as gently as possible, even when we're moving it around. If you do this until spring, it should help you form a mental habit of gripping the club lightly.

No room to swing a club? Then use your imagination... and your remote. You're probably just vegging in front of the TV anyway, aren't you? Or find something roughly grip-shaped and heavy. Just grip it like a club and make some "swings" with it.

It's a simple thing, but too much grip pressure is a major problem for weekend golfers. This is a good way to get a grip on the problem.

Falling into Your Shot

This is another Practice BRAINge image, but it’s extremely simple and more helpful than you might expect. The first time you try it, though, you may want to have a golf ball handy. And just what are you going to do with that golf ball?

You’re going to drop it.

That’s all, just drop it. From shoulder height, to be exact.

What I want you to do is get a feel for how long it takes the ball to drop from shoulder height and hit the ground. You don’t even have to look at it; no, you’ll know when you let go of the ball… and you’ll hear when it lands.

Just listen. Feel how long it takes the ball to cover the distance from shoulder to ground… then imagine your downswing taking the same amount of time. Feel your muscles moving from the top of the swing and down to strike the ball during that time. Let your lower body start the motion; feel your arms start down slowly, then gradually speed up until they blast the clubhead through the golf ball and send it screaming down the middle of the fairway. Feel the club start down just a split second before your upper body starts to uncoil. Imagine that you have all the time in the world to get the club from here to there, and just let it happen.

That’s the image, and it will help you learn to feel how fast your swing should be. It will internalize the speed of the motion, so you can focus on just swinging. It will particularly help you stop jerking the club at the start of the downswing. And you won’t need a club to practice it, so you can do it anywhere, anytime.

It’s perfect for winter practice sessions.

Crack the Whip

The first Practice BRAINge image may seem a bit strange to some of you. I've mentioned that you can play a mental round of golf, trying to imagine every aspect of the round as you play. You would try to employ all your senses, and feel all your muscles as you make your strokes. This is one very effective way to literally "play mindgames."

But swing thoughts don't need to be so literal or complex. In fact, designing an image to counteract a specific problem can lead to some unusual mental pictures.

In this one, I want you to summon your inner Indiana Jones and become a bullwhip.

Why a bullwhip?

• Because many of us get too tense standing over the ball.
• Because relaxed muscles create more speed, and that means more distance.

OK, here's the image:

A bullwhip is flexible without being a limp noodle. It's got some strength to it, so it won't encourage sloppiness. It's stiffer at the handle and gets more flexible as it moves to the tip. And it only takes a small amount of movement at the handle end to make a lot of movement at the tip. That small movement travels as a pulse, or a wave, or a ripple (choose the one that makes the most sense to you) from one end to the other.

The handle is in the foot closest to the target, the one that starts the downswing. (That's the left foot for a righty, the right foot for a lefty.) The whip stretches up through your body to your shoulders, down your arms, through the hands, and into the club. Of course, the tip is in the face of the club, where it will crack the ball with a snap.

And here's a rough description of how cracking the whip feels:

The small movement of the handle happens when you replant that foot to start the downswing. As the ripple runs up your leg, it successively causes your hip to open toward the target, the shoulders to turn back toward the ball, your relaxed wrists to start down toward the ball (which increases the wrist cock), and finally the head of the club to whip around and crack against the ball. It happens very rapidly, and what you're trying to feel is that pulse of power surging from your foot to the clubhead at lightning speed.

Obviously you aren't going to contort like a whip when you feel this. But what you should feel is a relaxed surge of power that rotates your body through its swing. This is your image; you can direct that energy in any direction you please! You might try using a club (you don't have to actually hit a ball) just to get a clear feeling of how your body is moving during the change of direction and downswing.

Focus on that relaxed power. This image should help you learn not to tense up when you swing.

Introducing the Practice BRAINge

Brian left a comment late Wednesday on this post to let me know that golf season was pretty much over in Canada. He also said that his last three rounds had been the best of the year, which makes me feel pretty darn good!

Still, it got me thinking. Many of us don't get to play much golf this time of year―some because of the weather, some just because of family obligations during the holidays. If we improved this year, how can we hold onto the gains when we can't get out and play? And if our game needs work, isn't there something we can do to get ready for the new season?

I think there may be. I've read about people who were prisoners of war or were imprisoned for their religious or political beliefs, who, in order to keep from being broken, began mentally playing sports. They would imagine a round of golf or a tennis match in extreme detail, trying to actually experience the memories; they would smell the freshly-mown fairways, or feel the fuzziness of the tennis balls. They would try to imagine their muscle movements, feeling the stretches and strains as they played the game.

What interests me is that many of these people actually improved their games while imprisoned!

Scientists say this happens because the brain can't distinguish between reality and imagination if the images are realistic enough. If you've ever had your heart race at a horror movie, you've experienced this phenomenon.

Therefore I'm introducing the practice BRAINge, which will show up as a new listing in the sidebar category list. Every so often, I'll add a new "practice session" that focuses on a vivid mental image, one that will help you to better feel a good golf swing. The idea is that, when you have a few seconds, you can focus on one of these images and help your mind "groove" this feel. Hopefully, when you get back to the course, these practice sessions will help you swing better.

Granted, this is an experiment, but it certainly won't hurt to try some of them over the winter. When the new season starts, I'll be interested to see if these images help any of you get off to a quicker start. You can just put a comment on the relevant post if it does.

I'll post the first BRAINge session tomorrow, and then I'll add a new one every so often. I hope you all find them helpful.