While Bryson DeChambeau's shoulder is the big news from Thursday, we don't have any real details on the severity of his injury yet. So I decided to post another teaching video instead. This is an older Golf Monthly video featuring teaching pro Alex Nicolson, who demonstrates a couple of drills to help you smooth out your swing by being more target-oriented.
The second drill is simply a club-throwing drill. I'll leave that one to your imagination, if you need help throwing clubs! Instead, we'll focus on the first drill, which is quite interesting.
In order to make your actual swing more closely match your practice swing, Nicolson recommends hitting shots with your eyes closed!
Yeah, that was my reaction as well. But if you can find a place on the range where you aren't afraid you'll hit someone, there's a lot of value to this suggested drill.
If you focus on a mental picture of your target, you'll be forced to think more about hitting to the target and less about actual ball contact. (Sort of like putting with your eyes closed.) And if you can't see when you're about to strike the ball, you're less likely to tense up and ruin the rhythm and sequence of your swing.
I would advise teeing the ball up so you don't worry about hitting the ground so much, and also starting with a half-swing or even less, to build your confidence that you can actually hit the ball with your eyes closed.
While it is a bit odd-sounding, this drill might actually help smooth out your swing. Anything that helps you gain confidence in your ability to hit the ball solidly should do that, because tension can usually be traced to the fear that you won't. If you struggle with a belief in your swing, it's worth a try.
Showing posts with label rhythm and tempo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rhythm and tempo. Show all posts
Friday, July 13, 2018
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Martin Hall Remembers Manuel de la Torre (Video)
One of my favorite golf teachers is the late Manuel de la Torre, who taught many pros like LPGA legend Carol Mann (who died just a week or so ago). However, he devoted most of his life to teaching amateurs and is best known for the simplicity of his teaching methods.
Martin Hall did this short video focusing on just one of de la Torre's many teachings about the golf swing, and this one may help many of you hit better shots with very little practice.
"Leave it alone." It's deceptively simple advice that few players consciously work on these days.
When you tighten your grip on the club during your swing, you change the position of the clubface and sometimes even your swing plane... and you do it without ever consciously trying to. If you don't understand why, just sit down in an armchair, rest your elbow and forearm on the chair's arm and make a loose fist. Then rhythmically tighten and loosen that fist -- your forearm will bounce up and down on the chair arm like you're having convulsions!
While tightening and loosening your grip during your swing won't have quite as dramatic a result, it will cause unintended changes in clubface angles. To battle this, you MUST CONSCIOUSLY try to keep a nice, even grip and forearm tension throughout your swing. I can tell you from personal experience that it helps to try and relax all of your upper body muscles -- shoulders, neck, back and even jaw muscles -- as you swing.
As Martin says, you won't be able to keep that tension perfectly the same all the way through your swing. But your goal is to minimize the changes. It will not only improve your ball contact (and as a result, your distance and accuracy), but it will improve your rhythm, the smoothness of your change of direction at the top of your swing, and even help minimize the stress on your back.
And once you get good at it, you'll find that you can make a faster swing without losing control of the club. Sounds crazy, I know, but it's true. Proper rhythm does that for you.
So give it a try. You might be surprised at the results.
Martin Hall did this short video focusing on just one of de la Torre's many teachings about the golf swing, and this one may help many of you hit better shots with very little practice.
"Leave it alone." It's deceptively simple advice that few players consciously work on these days.
When you tighten your grip on the club during your swing, you change the position of the clubface and sometimes even your swing plane... and you do it without ever consciously trying to. If you don't understand why, just sit down in an armchair, rest your elbow and forearm on the chair's arm and make a loose fist. Then rhythmically tighten and loosen that fist -- your forearm will bounce up and down on the chair arm like you're having convulsions!
While tightening and loosening your grip during your swing won't have quite as dramatic a result, it will cause unintended changes in clubface angles. To battle this, you MUST CONSCIOUSLY try to keep a nice, even grip and forearm tension throughout your swing. I can tell you from personal experience that it helps to try and relax all of your upper body muscles -- shoulders, neck, back and even jaw muscles -- as you swing.
As Martin says, you won't be able to keep that tension perfectly the same all the way through your swing. But your goal is to minimize the changes. It will not only improve your ball contact (and as a result, your distance and accuracy), but it will improve your rhythm, the smoothness of your change of direction at the top of your swing, and even help minimize the stress on your back.
And once you get good at it, you'll find that you can make a faster swing without losing control of the club. Sounds crazy, I know, but it's true. Proper rhythm does that for you.
So give it a try. You might be surprised at the results.
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Nick Faldo on Tempo (Video)
This short video from Nick Faldo has a number of drills to help you improve your tempo. What more do I need to say?
Note that he differentiates between a slow swing and a smooth swing. This is something that many players never understand. As Nick says, you can make swing after swing and each can be smoother than the one before... but there's a limit to how slow you can swing and still keep anything like a usable swing.
Nick suggests watching the pros, picking someone whose swing is similar to yours and then trying to mimic it. This is a good thing to do, even when you aren't swinging a club! I find that watching a player swing and then trying to feel that swing in my imagination makes me much more sensitive to the tempo of my own swing.
The first drill is to hit a number of shots with the same club -- he suggests a 6-iron -- starting with a pitching motion and then trying to make each shot just a bit longer than the last. You may remember that this was one of the competitions on the old Big Break show.
Nick also recommends counting during your swing to help your tempo. I have to say, I've never had any luck with that one -- counting ruins my ability to swing smoothly. It may be that I get too mechanical as I try to match the count. However, I find that humming a song -- NO WORDS! -- as I swing can help me swing more smoothly. Just a thought to consider if the counting doesn't work for you.
Then Nick has you hit shots with your feet together -- heels almost touching -- using the old L-to-L swing drill. (Here's a post I did with videos showing two versions of it.) This is a classic drill that instructors have recommended for years. That's because it works. ;-)
And as his last drill, Nick suggests taking five different clubs, hitting three balls with each, and trying to keep the tempo the same with each shot. (Nowadays you can tape the shots and compare them after you hit them all.)
So there you have a variety of tempo drills from a six-time major champion. It's hard to go wrong with that kind of advice!
Note that he differentiates between a slow swing and a smooth swing. This is something that many players never understand. As Nick says, you can make swing after swing and each can be smoother than the one before... but there's a limit to how slow you can swing and still keep anything like a usable swing.
Nick suggests watching the pros, picking someone whose swing is similar to yours and then trying to mimic it. This is a good thing to do, even when you aren't swinging a club! I find that watching a player swing and then trying to feel that swing in my imagination makes me much more sensitive to the tempo of my own swing.
The first drill is to hit a number of shots with the same club -- he suggests a 6-iron -- starting with a pitching motion and then trying to make each shot just a bit longer than the last. You may remember that this was one of the competitions on the old Big Break show.
Nick also recommends counting during your swing to help your tempo. I have to say, I've never had any luck with that one -- counting ruins my ability to swing smoothly. It may be that I get too mechanical as I try to match the count. However, I find that humming a song -- NO WORDS! -- as I swing can help me swing more smoothly. Just a thought to consider if the counting doesn't work for you.
Then Nick has you hit shots with your feet together -- heels almost touching -- using the old L-to-L swing drill. (Here's a post I did with videos showing two versions of it.) This is a classic drill that instructors have recommended for years. That's because it works. ;-)
And as his last drill, Nick suggests taking five different clubs, hitting three balls with each, and trying to keep the tempo the same with each shot. (Nowadays you can tape the shots and compare them after you hit them all.)
So there you have a variety of tempo drills from a six-time major champion. It's hard to go wrong with that kind of advice!
Friday, December 1, 2017
So Yeon Ryu's Favorite Drill
This is from a Golf Digest article called The Drill You Need When Your Swing Falls Apart. So Yeon calls it the Stomping Drill, which she says fixes a multitude of problems in your swing.
Do this drill with an iron and address the ball with your feet close together. Essentially you just step away from the target with your trail foot to start your backswing, then step toward the target with your lead foot to start your downswing. That's it.
So Yeon says it takes some practice so you have to start out slow. But she also says it will cure a lot of ills in your swing.
What do I like about it? If you do this properly, you won't slide your hips and tilt your spine during the drill. That causes problems in more swings than most players realize. Give the drill a try and see what you think.
Do this drill with an iron and address the ball with your feet close together. Essentially you just step away from the target with your trail foot to start your backswing, then step toward the target with your lead foot to start your downswing. That's it.
So Yeon says it takes some practice so you have to start out slow. But she also says it will cure a lot of ills in your swing.
What do I like about it? If you do this properly, you won't slide your hips and tilt your spine during the drill. That causes problems in more swings than most players realize. Give the drill a try and see what you think.
Friday, June 9, 2017
A Nicklaus Putting Tip
I'm going back a ways here, to an old Golf Digest (print copy!) from April 2013, to get you an image to help your putting from none other than Jack Nicklaus.
In that issue Jack wrote that, in order to help him hit putts more softly on fast greens, he used to imagine his putter shaft was made of rope. Those of you who have read Ruthless Putting know that I have a drill that actually uses a weighted rope, but what Jack's after here is something different. While my drill is designed to help you hit your putts more decisively with less tension, Jack's image is intended to create a softer hit. Remember, he's putting on fast greens and he already has a pretty firm stroke... plus this tip was in a Masters issue.
What Jack said he found to be more successful was imagining that his putter shaft was made of glass. If he hit the ball with too much force, the shaft would shatter. He said the glass image was key to winning the 1986 Masters, when he used that bigheaded Response putter. That putter had more loft, so his tendency was to get the ball airborne with his normal stroke.
Most of you don't play greens as fast as Augusta. However, you probably see quite a few fast downhill putts during your round. Imagining that your putter shaft is made of glass could help you avoid hitting your putt too hard and leaving yourself a long comebacker. Just remember that this is a technique for hitting fast putts, NOT your normal run-of-the-mill putts.
Btw, the photo came from this post at the Golf Digest site, from another putting article by Nicklaus and the late Jim Flick. You might want to take a look at that post as well.
In that issue Jack wrote that, in order to help him hit putts more softly on fast greens, he used to imagine his putter shaft was made of rope. Those of you who have read Ruthless Putting know that I have a drill that actually uses a weighted rope, but what Jack's after here is something different. While my drill is designed to help you hit your putts more decisively with less tension, Jack's image is intended to create a softer hit. Remember, he's putting on fast greens and he already has a pretty firm stroke... plus this tip was in a Masters issue.
What Jack said he found to be more successful was imagining that his putter shaft was made of glass. If he hit the ball with too much force, the shaft would shatter. He said the glass image was key to winning the 1986 Masters, when he used that bigheaded Response putter. That putter had more loft, so his tendency was to get the ball airborne with his normal stroke.
Most of you don't play greens as fast as Augusta. However, you probably see quite a few fast downhill putts during your round. Imagining that your putter shaft is made of glass could help you avoid hitting your putt too hard and leaving yourself a long comebacker. Just remember that this is a technique for hitting fast putts, NOT your normal run-of-the-mill putts.
Btw, the photo came from this post at the Golf Digest site, from another putting article by Nicklaus and the late Jim Flick. You might want to take a look at that post as well.
Friday, February 24, 2017
"Feel" Fred Couples's Swing for 38 Seconds (Video)
The Champions Tour posted this video of EVERY full swing Fred hit on the back 9 at the Chubb Classic on Sunday. If you want to get a good sense of how smooth his swing is, this will definitely help.
Bear in mind that Fred hits the ball a long way WITHOUT shoving his hips way out ahead of his upper body. His spine doesn't bend backwards at impact. And he never looks to be straining.
Want to hit the ball better? Copying the rhythm and tempo of Fred's swing is a good place to start.
Every full swing from Fred Couples' Sunday back nine at the @ChubbClassic. pic.twitter.com/4WrmQeLxMq— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) February 23, 2017
Bear in mind that Fred hits the ball a long way WITHOUT shoving his hips way out ahead of his upper body. His spine doesn't bend backwards at impact. And he never looks to be straining.
Want to hit the ball better? Copying the rhythm and tempo of Fred's swing is a good place to start.
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