Dynamic Alignment

One of Sevam1's best videos








3JACK

Low Point Control

3Jack Top 50 Instructor and co-founder of the S&T, Mike Bennett, showing how it's done. Great video for so many golfers, particularly beginners....NO DIVOT UNDER OR BEHIND THE BALL!






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Flop Shots with Shawn Clement

Here's a very good video done by 3Jack Top 50 Instructor, Shawn Clement, on the flop shot.



One thing should be noted, in the past almost 2 years since I've started the blog I have asked about a dozen current and former PGA Tour pros on hitting pitches and short game shots and most of them were not big fans of hitting the flop shot.

Why?

Because ideally they want to get the ball on the green and rolling as soon as possible in the flight and roll of the golf ball. That's why the Rule of 12 chipping method appealed to me...it gets the golfer the right club to hit good shots by getting the ball on the green and rolling as soon as possible.

I find the issue with trying to carry the ball more is that it's more difficult to hit the spot if it's further away from you and there's other factors like controlling the spin. But, some people have had such good success with it, like Hubert Green, that using a SW is all they need.

Raymond Floyd is also considered with Green as one of the greatest chippers of all time and he used a bunch of different clubs. Mickelson was a lot like Green and usually sticking to a SW or a LW, but eventually has changed to more of a Rule of 12 method.

Either way, if you're using the flop shot a lot, you're either using it too much or you're hitting a lot of poor approach shots into the green.





3JACK

Attack Angle and Paths

One question I've received is *why* the Attack Angle will effect the path.

Let's revisit with the attack angle is.




As the diagrams above show, attack angle is measured from the face on view and it's the angle of the clubhead coming at the ball. The problem is that when you hear somebody talk about 'coming down too steep', they often mistake an upright downswing plane (aka 'coming over the top') with the attack angle. In Trackman terms, the downswing plane is the 'vertical swing plane', but downswing plane will suffice. But that and attack angle are two entirely different aspects of the golf swing.

What we know is that if you make your attack angle steeper (for instance, a -3* attack angle becomes a -6* attack angle), that steeper attack angle will shift the path more inside-to-out. If the face is square to the target at impact and you have now made the AoA steeper, you're going to hit a draw. Conversely, if you shallow out the attack angle, the path moves more to the left.

So why is this?

The Geometry of the Circle.


Technically, the swing does not move in a circle. But it moves in something that somewhat represents a circle. The bottom of the circle is the lowest point the clubhead will be at in the swing. And as you can see, the low point is opposite approximately where the left shoulder is.

So, BEFORE the low point, the clubhead is moving downward.

But, AFTER the low point, the clubhead is moving upward

Before we go further, let's think about how that knowledge should apply to how we hit golf shots.

With irons, we hit DOWN on the ball. So, we can deduct that if the clubhead is still moving downward BEFORE it reaches the low point, then we need to have the ball BEHIND the low point at address so we can hit down on the ball. Thus, when you hear about 'moving the low point forward', it's basically trying to get the golfer to hit more down on the ball. With the hacker, it's an attempt to get them to stop flipping at impact and to get them to compress the golf ball better. But with the more advanced player, it's usually to get them to hit the ball lower.

With the driver, we *can* hit up on the ball if we choose to. This is a great way to pick up distance off the tee. If we want to hit up on the driver, we need to find a way to get the low point behind the ball. Why? Because after the clubhead reaches the low point, it moves upward.

But getting back to how and why the AoA influences the path, remember that we swing on an inclined plane.


If the ball is located before the low point, not only will the clubhead go downward after it hits the ball (until it reaches the low point), but the clubhead will also go out to the right (if you're a righty). On the flip side, if you hit up on the ball, that means the low point is behind the ball. So not only does the clubhead reach the low point and then go upward, but it goes leftward as well.

If you want to hit upward and hit a draw, which goes against the 'natural way' of hitting up on the ball, you'll need to get the clubhead pointing near the target at impact and get your 'circle' pointing out to the right.

If you want to hit down on an iron and hit a fade, which also goes against the 'natural way' of hitting down on the ball, you'll need to get the clubhead pointing near the target and get your 'circle' pointing to the left.






3JACK

Swing Update 8.12.10

Here's the latest update on my swing



Saturday I will be attending a clinic with 3Jack Top 50 Instructor Dan Carraher (iteachgolf) and we'll see how that goes. Lately I've been striking the ball pretty well, but there's always room for improvement.




3JACK

Playing Golf Tall

I was asked the other day about my experiences playing competitive golf at 6'4" tall. This is an excellent question.

When I think of tall golfers, I usually think of Phil Blackmar (6'8" video above), George Archer (6'6"), Nick Faldo (6'4"), Ernie Els (6'4") and Phil Mickelson (6'4"). Knudson was probably over 6 feet tall and he seemed lanky, but I don't now his exact size. But, one thing you notice is that in general, golfers are short.

It reminds me a bit of the line Baseball Prospectus writer Bill James had once after declaring that his analysis showed that pitchers who have more strikeouts usually have longer careers 'is like noticing that NBA players tend to be tall.'

I'd say the majority of PGA Tour golfers today are under 6 feet tall and for professional sports in today's world....that's pretty rare.

One big thing you notice is that the taller the 'good' player, usually the more they flex their knees at address. It's like there's a certain type of height good players want to be at address and the shorter eight players want to stand up more to get to that height and the taller players want to flex their knees and hunch over more to get to that height.



Another thing about being a tall golfer is that you have bigger 'moving parts.' And when a big part moves out of position, it just seems like it can throw everything out of whack very easily. I know Faldo, Blackmar, Els and Mickelson have worked tirelessly over the years on their swing because when things go wrong, they really go wrong and then it's a lot of work to get things corrected.

Taller players tend to hit the ball further because the radius of the swing is longer, so the clubhead speed will increase. However, I find it difficult to move the low point forward and thus the attack angle shallows out and thus you're likely to hit the ball higher, which can cause problems playing in the wind.

Putting is nice because you can just take a 35" putter and address it with your arms hanging down naturally. You can do that if you're a short golfer as well, but now you're fooling with the weight of the putter and the flex of the shaft if you decide to cut the putter length down.

I think footwork becomes even more important when you're taller because it's harder to lower the Center of Gravity on the downswing.

Lastly, just because you're tall doesn't mean you need upright lie angles. Here's my latest swing.



And that's with lie angles about 6* flat. In fact, if you want to 'swing left', I think the worst thing you can do is play with clubs more than 1* upright.





3JACK

Drawing the Ball

3Jack Top 50 Instructors Dana Dahlquist and Dan Carraher discuss the proper way to learn how to draw the golf ball.







3JACK