Aimpoint Golf

Thought some of you may be interested in Aimpoint Golf, a golf green visualizer. If you've every watched tournaments on The Golf Channel, that blue line that shows the break of the putt is designed by Aimpoint Golf and is only a *part* of what they do. Here's a video on it.



Lots of interesting stuff over at their Web site at www.aimpointgolf.com

More On Golf Shoes

A few days ago I took a look at golf shoes (http://3jack.blogspot.com/2009/01/look-at-golf-shoes.html) and only received one response (from Nike) on why golf shoe companies are using the 7 cleat pattern instead of Hogan's 13 spike pattern. I decided to look around for golf shoes and see what I could also find.

Footjoy has some 11 spike and 9 spike patterns. However, nothing under the ball of the foot. This to me is the most important part and while no golf shoe today will have a spike under the ball of the foot, there platform (or sole of the shoe) needs to be designed for the golfer to get good traction under the ball of the foot. There really wasn't much traction under the ball of the foot for the Footjoy's, regardless if they were 11, 9 or 7 spike patterns. I'll probably stay away from those. Footjoy (and many other shoe companies) seems to be more concerned with waterproofing and comfort.

Ecco has some 11 spike patterns in their shoes, but it's only in the 'World Class' line and those go for $400+. Furthermore, there's absolutely no traction in the sole of the shoe as it's a classic shoe look, but with soft spikes.

I also looked at Nike's Air Zoom TW's (thanks again for the response, Ryan) and liked what I saw. I currently have some Callaway shoes and both the Callaways and Nike's have the 7 spike pattern, but there's quite a bit of traction in the sole of the shoe. I felt there's more traction in the Nike than the Callaway.

However, the shoe that I really liked was:

These are the Adidas 360 Tour 3.0. They go for about $180, have a ten spike pattern and lots of traction under the ball of the foot. They also have a similar Adidas 360 Tour Ltd. which goes for about $250.





3JACK

Hip Flexibility Drill

Here's a video from Titleist Performance Institute's Lance Gill on helping with pivoting the hips in the golf swing. I do believe that part of being able to pivot is flexibility. Flexibility in the hips, hamstrings and even the calfs. On a side note, Lance and I grew up playing junior golf together. Small, small world.






3JACK

The Combo Drill Video

On this blog and in other parts of the Web I've talked about something I call "the combo drill" in order to help improve a golfer's pivot action in the golf swing. First, I would like to once again show the Brian Manzella video of what more or less needs to happen in the downswing. Here it is:




I think Manzella is pretty much dead on. In fact, I like to think of my hands being behind the zipper on my pants in the downswing. And if you watch any of the players on any of the tours, they will have rotated those hips so the zipper is starting to get more towards facing the target at impact. In fact, usually the longer the player hits the ball, the more those hips have rotated so the zipper is getting more and more towards the target at impact. Bubba Watson is a perfect example:

Unfortunately, it's easier said than done. But this "combo drill" that I came up with really helped.

Here's some instructions followed by the video.

PART ONE

The first part of the drill is just a left side connection drill. This drill was originally invented by Sam Byrd and was later used by Ben Hogan. Byrd believes the left side connection drill cured Hogan's hook. The left side connection drill was then made popular by Jimmy Ballard.

This drill is pretty simple. Take a golf glove and stick it under your left arm pit (if you're a righty). Next, grab your club without letting the glove drop out of your arm pit. If you do this, you will now feel the upper part of your left arm pressed up against your left chest, upper left rib cage and up against the side of your left nipple.

Now you want to swing without letting the glove drop until the halfway point of the follow through. In fact, you should try to keep the upper part of the left arm pressed up against the left part of the chest from address to top of the swing to impact to the halfway part of the follow through. Then make your finish.

As always, I suggest doing this part of the drill with chip shots first. Then move on to pitch shots. Then move onto punch shots. THEN move onto the full swing. Remember, easiest and simple swings first (chip shot) then once you get the hang of it, move onto more difficult and complex swings until you reach the most difficult and complex swing (full swing with the driver).


PART TWO

Once you've grooved the left side connection drill, the second part of the "combo drill" is to take your right index finger and right thumb off the grip. While I believe that pivot is the most important part of the swing and pivot is the main cause for flipping, you can still flip if you use too much right hand in the swing. Particularly the right index finger and right thumb are culprits of the flip. It's very hard to bend the left wrist at impact if the right index finger and thumb are not doing the flipping. In fact, Ben Hogan used to call the right index finger and right thumb "swing wreckers."

So when you combine the two (left side connection + right thumb/index finger off the grip) it's *almost* impossible to not utilize your pivot to hit the ball. Where you might run into some problems is you might start losing your left side connection to your chest and start moving those arms instead of pivoting to hit the ball. You may also subconsiously re-grip the club with your right thumb and index finger and flip through. But if you keep the left side connection and have the right index finger and thumb off the grip, you instantly feel the pivot doing it's work.

However, it's important to have the practice down. It goes in this order:

1) Chip shots
2) Pitch Shots (half backswing, half follow through)
3) Punch shots (Full backswing, half follow through)
4) Full Swing - short irons
5) Full Swing - long irons
6) Full Swing - Driver

Do it in that exact sequence. You have to truly grasp how to hit each shot before you move onto the next shot doing the combo drill. I believe that this drill will not only give you the feel of using your pivot in the downswing, but will also FORCE you to use your pivot and keep the zipper in front of the hands. You can also use it on an impact bag if you would like.

Here's the video in regards to the "combo drill."





3JACK

Corey Pavin's Pivot

In my "comeback", I wanted to improve my ballstriking and become more consistent. I understood the importance of keeping the left wrist flat and "sustaining the lag", but felt there was more to it than just that because lord only knows how much I focused on keeping the left wrist flat to no avail.

Where I started to get rid of flipping through impact was after watching a Mike Maves (aka Sevam1) video where he talks about asking Moe Norman what the most important part of the swing was and Moe replied 'the pivot.' That got me to thinking and one of the questions I asked myself was 'name a successful golfer who had a poor or weak pivot?' The only person I could think of is *maybe* Corey Pavin. Here's a pic of Pavin at impact.

Not exactly a great pivot, but not a bad pivot either. However, I would say by tour level standards, probably one of the weaker pivots out there as the hands have caught up to BUT HAVE NOT PASSED the zipper.

Here's another pic of Pavin just past impact:

Now the hips are really opening here. It *could* be that Pavin's pivot is such that the hands catch up to the zipper come impact which isn't the greatest pivot ever, but then just after impact he keeps on pivoting and the hands eventually trail behind it.

Again, nobody is teaching how to swing the club like Pavin does and he is one of the shortest hitters and arguably worst ballstrikers in the history of successful tour players. But I still would not consider him to have a poor pivot when you look at the big picture.

Unfortunately, popular instruction is almost infatuated with swing plane and if not that, then the grip and address positions. But the history of golf has seen successful players and even great ball strikers use all different sorts of grips, address positions, swing planes and downswing paths. But the history of golf has yet to see a successful player to have a truly poor pivot (Pavin's pivot may be poor by TOUR standards, but when it comes to golfers in general it's still pretty decent).

Thus, I am convinced that the pivot is the lifeblood of the golf swing and if you want to keep that left wrist flat through impact, you need a proper pivot to do it.




3JACK

A Look At Golf Shoes

I did play golf today, but only 11 holes because of the rain (it was supposed to be in the mid 60's and sunny, nice prediction Mr. Weather Man). I didn't swing a club the past three days, so I wasn't really getting the best out of testing out the stuff in "The Secret Is In The Dirt" e-book by Mike Maves (http://sevam1.blogspot.com) I was +4 through 12, but I was hitting the ball much better than I did last week. That being said, I really didn't "groove the move" today. I also only got to hit about 10 balls before we teed off. However, I crushed one drive and on my last hole I stuck a 4 iron from 210 yards in the rain (just missed the putt).

I'm also starting to learn some different things about the swing from The Golfing Machine people, so the series on the swing I'll wait for now.

A-N-Y-W-A-Y

If you read "The Secret Is In The Dirt", one of the reasons why Mike Maves quit the game was it happened during the soft spike revolution in the late 90's. For those who weren't around back then or don't remember, the soft spikes were not very good and with Maves' "secret" it requires good traction with the shoes.

A lot of this stems from Ben Hogan having golf shoes with 13 spikes. In particular, he had two extra spikes underneath the ball of the foot. This link shows what I mean (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAYc4gTjTSL1oeE-PYkWxczMeLKyA4zd8k5h2bbzAp_7MCZtedRltbtFGemRrU0zpksBATxnZ0WlMzT0uqX1V_qQUhjxFPo121Fx61ixdISNVmLh-SdX4Ip-a0BviF2m4eeL_iuBWmvrhn/s1600-h/hogansspike.jpg)

Most of today's modern golf shoes have a 7 spike pattern instead of Hogan's 13 spike pattern. So I e-mailed a bunch of shoe companies and asked them what the benefits are of having a 7 spike pattern over a 13 spike pattern. I got one e-mail back from Nike. Here's what the rep wrote:

Hey Rich,

What a great pair of cleats that you are looking to get. I appreciate you taking the time to send met he picture of the shoes Ben Hogan was wearing back in the day. I would love to answer your questions about the features and benefits of our new shoe.

Rich as I am sure you know, technology is always changing over time. No longer are this many cleats needed to provide the same great performance that Ben Hogan demonstrated. With new technology comes new intensive ways to research a person's foot. Our company is known to have the best research in the industry. We use graphs, charts, photos and thoroughly test our products to ensure that they fit the best golfer in the world.

Through this research we were able to find the key points on a foot that need spikes located when the transfer of weight and power goes through in the swing of the club. When Ben Hogan played, they were not able to do as extensive research as we have done and therefore, it is likely 13 cleats were placed instead of the 7 that are needed.

I can also tell from Ben Hogan's shoe that he did not have any flex grooves in his shoe. As the foot moves during your swing it bends. Without the shoe bending with the foot you lose power and stability. Our new shoes have a flex groove throughout the middle of the foot and at the sole and forefoot to bend with a golf players foot movement while swinging. Not only is it more comfortable but it helps transition the power of the swing through the ball while keeping the foot firmly on the ground.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Have a
great day!


Ryan
Nike Golf

I'll be interested in what Adidas, Callaway, and Footjoy have to say as well.

3JACK

Motion Golf

Here's a couple of videos of an interesting technology called 'Motion Golf.' I believe I've seen similar technologies used at the Taylor Made Performance Lab (www.tmplabs.com).







Funny how in the first video the instructor talks about how Sergio goes from "wide to narrow" in his swing. Essentially, Sergio never "sets the wrists in the takeaway." So he basically does the exact opposite of what Leadbetter taught for all these years. Leadbetter's "set the wrists in the takeaway" helps the golfer cast the club instead of creating more lag like Sergio does. Gives me the feeling that while Sergio was enrolled in Leabetter's academy as a teenager, he probably didn't listen to him much or Leadbetter really didn't change much of his golf swing.

Tomorrow I get to play some golf again, although I've had a 3 day break from the game and I just started to get a feel for Mike Maves' secret which I believe improved my pivot action dramatically. If it holds up tomorrow, I'll let you know and start posting a series on the swing that I think everybody will enjoy.





3JACK