I like to read old threads over at LynnBlakeGolf.com. Here's a thread worth checking out on the swing sequence of a young Bobby Clampett with commentary from The Golfing Machine author, Homer Kelley (http://www.lynnblakegolf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2680)
A book I recommend as a "must read" for beginners and can help players of all levels is Bobby Clampett's 'The Impact Zone.'
Most people recognize Clampett as an announcer for CBS and then hear about this book and think "those who can't, teach (and announce)." But in reality, at one point Clampett was one of the greatest players in the world and had an incredibly bright future. He has Hogan-esque ball striking with arguably an even better short game. Early in his career, it seemed like he was a sure thing to win a few majors and become a Hall of Famer.
But as well all know, there are no sure things in golf.
One of Clampett's problems was he had a very flat swing. Seeking some instruction when he started to struggle a little, he wound up going to all sorts of swing instructors who focused on his swing plane and other issues (Clampett calls it "swing style") instead of working on his Impact Zone (Clampett calls it "swing dynamics"). Clampett grew up under the tutelage of Ben Doyle and had his greatest success with Doyle focusing more on "swing dynamics" than "swing style." Once he got away from Doyle's instruction, his game took a turn for the worse and he wound up being known sort of as the Ian Baker-Finch of his time (great golfer who suddenly had the full swing yips). Eventually Clampett went back to Doyle and his game turned right around. However, by then he was a lot older and with the effect Tiger Woods had on the game, he didn't have the distance and time to dedicate himself (he's a family man) to compete with the young guys on a consistent basis.
Anyway, here's a look at Clampett's swing today.
Looks pretty darn good, right?
This book has three excellent aspects to it, IMO.
1. It teaches what the clubhead is supposed to do through the impact zone so it's easy to understand (down, out and forward)>
2. It teaches how to get to master the impact zone.
3. It teaches how to practice.
While #1 is important, I sort of believe that #3 is just as important. If I've said it once I'll say it a million times. This game needs to be taught from green to fairway to tee, not the other way around. In any walk of life, when we are learning something we learn the easy and simple stuff first and once we have a good grasp of that, we move on to more difficult and complex stuff.
Except for golf...
In golf so many golfers and instructors have us learn the difficult and complex stuff first (full swing) and the easy and simple stuff is almost an afterthought. And after reading 'The Impact Zone' (and seeing some of Ben Doyle's teaching videos) it drives me nuts whenever I see somebody getting a lesson and they start out by pulling the driver out of the bag and giving a few rips.
The "Green to Tee" teaching method is how the old time golf instructors used to teach the game. Harvey Penick was a big believer in teaching chipping first because in his words it was a miniature version of the game. Now it seems like instructors are worried about swing plane and length of swing which only causes more confusion, no improvement in play and shelling out more money for new clubs that won't work and more instruction that won't work.
I've actually had this notion that the game should be taught this way for some time, but couldn't exactly justify the reasoning. The Impact Zone justifies the reasoning for you. So while this is a GREAT book for beginners and mid-handicappers who really don't know much about the swing and are looking to improve, it shows that even low handicappers should practice in this fashion as well.
'The Impact Zone' can be found at almost every book store for around $19.99.
I've been reading a lot of Geoff Mangum's Web site over at http://www.puttingzone.com/. It's a great Web site and I like his work much more than Pelz's or even Utley's and I recommend it to anybody who likes to play the game and wants to get better.
Back in the day the "yips" were a pretty big part of the game. Both Snead and Hogan suffered from them in their latter days, prompting Snead to use the putting stroke in the pic above, which was later banned. Then there was Langer and his historical yips, which he went out of his way to cure and is one of the better putters in the world.
I personally have never had a bad case of the yips. I *believe* that this is due to my left eye being dominant. I *believe* that being right handed and left eye dominant causes a right aim bias. And as David Orr's studies have shown, those with right aim bias tend to change their stroke path in order to get the ball to the hole (so they use a cutting across motion to make up for aiming right of the target). Left aim bias golfers tend to manipulate the *clubface* in order to get the ball to the target. Meaning, their stroke is fine until the last second before impact they will open the face to get the ball to the target. And manipulating the face by opening it before impact has always equated to "the yips", IMO. (Which would explain Snead's straight on putting style...you can aim better straight on than off to the side of the ball. Snead being able to aim better would allow him to take a better stroke)
I do believe that the putting yips are not that big of an issue on the professional level today than they were say even 20 years ago. Why? Because extensive studies done on putting have found ways to cure them or at least curb the impact they have on a pros putting. I believe that years ago somebody like Sergio may have faded into obscurity with the yips. But now with things like SAM puttlabs, belly putters, long putters and just better instruction you really don't see many golfers fade into obscurity because of putter yips (full swing yips is a different story).
The earlier studies found no causal relation between anxiety and dystonia, but the Mayo Clinic team appears to reject this finding. The key difference in analysis is that the Mayo Clinic team believes episodic anxiety in golf can produce dystonia-like performance deficits over time. From this proposition, the team credits a prominent but not total causal role for anxiety in the yips. The team hence aligns itself with anecdotal accounts of golfers and the prevailing lore of the yips among golf's sports psychologists and gurus who reject the neurological underpinnings of the phenomenon in favor of a psychological explanation.
I have forgotten about the 9-3 drill video, created by Geoff Jones (aka 'Slicefixer' over at GolfWRX.com).
I've gotten some questions on him in the past. It's pretty obvious that his methods can work as seen in the video with the players he teaches.
One of the great things Pure Ball Striker inventor Jeff Evans talks about is 'subjective feels.' There's certain principles in the swing that all golfers have to have in order to strike a ball correctly (for instance, the clubhead going down, out and then forward at impact). But, the golfer has to find a way to get to those proper principles. Feel plays a big part in getting them in the proper, must have positions and unfortunately feels are very subjective in golf. A swing thought or feel that may work for one golfer may not work for another golfer. I'm not really sure that Sevam1's "horizontal tug and vertical drop" feel will work for everybody. Doesn't mean that it's crap or can't work (in fact, just the opposite), it's just another idea of giving the golfer a possible key to the door of ballstriking success. Brian Manzella talks about using your pivot to snap your kinetic chain. Hogan just wanted us to concentrate on starting the downswing with a hip turn. None of these are wrong, just trying to find a way to get the light to go on in the golfer's head.
If there's one thing you can notice about the video is Geoff's students are excellent with their pivot and this is the drill he has them doing in order to get that pivot.
If there's a problem here it's that I would think it is easy to come over the top since you can start swinging left too early. And with that, you're probably much much better off getting a personal, private lesson instead of reading about it. But again, the name of the game in the golfswing is pivot and this drill has had great success teaching that.
Here's the thread on the 9-3 drill at the GolfWRX forum (http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=146842)
Problem is that the tire is a bit cumbersome to carry around, so if you have a spare tire around, you're better off doing this at home. Otherwise, just get an impact bag. The Dr. Gary Wiren bag is the most popular, but it's roughly TWICE as much as the Izzo and SKLZ impact bags which are virtually the same exact thing.
Was reading this old post over at http://www.lynnblakegolf.com/ forum (I'm considering getting Blake's Alignment Golf DVD set as well) from PGA Tour caddy, Overkill.
Using a line is becoming very common both on the greens and off the tee.
On tee shots some Pros have the line parallel to the clubface because looking down at it bothers them visually.
However, I would not take a manuf. at face value that the line is in the best location. If you put one of the most popular balls on a "scope" you will find that the line on the ball and the "scope" do not often match. Because of this, I am aware of one pro who wants all the balls he gets scoped by the manuf. before he gets them.
Overkill then replied later on in the thread.
Yoda (Lynn Blake),
Sorry about that, I was talking about a type of Gyroscope; by spinning the ball at high speed you can locate its balance point and mark it with a line or a dot.
I believe that a ball struck where it is in balance will fly straighter and have a truer roll ; we all know how a ball flies when it gets a glob of mud on one side which really puts it out of balance.
I'm sure we all like to think that when we buy top line balls that they are just that, top line; however, I have had some vibrate so much they would not stay on the Gyro. The one I use is made by Technasonic but I'm sure there are others; they can be found in most Golf stores (PGA for sure) and on-line.
I actually have the Technasonic Check-Go that Overkill is talking about. I got it as a Xmas present awhile back, but didn't use it because I thought it wasn't anything special. Plus, I didn't like the line...although Overkill talks about how you can just put a dot on the ball instead (just aim the dot off to the side so it is pointing between your feet.
I would also suggest not using a line on the ball anyway. Why? Because according to Orr, his studies show that there's only a marginal improvement in golfers who use the line on the ball from 6 feet. From 8 feet out, there is improvement, but it's so small that it's almost extinct. And as David Edel has shown with his putters, using the line on your putter has made golfers WORSE at aligning shots.
Tiger uses the line on his putts, but I've watched Tiger pretty closely and he doesn't seem to get to focused on aligning the line on the ball to the target. So either he's so incredibly talented that he can align the ball quickly, or he uses the line mostly on short putts and on longer putts it's just a reference point while he's using the putter head to actually align his putts.
Even still, I thought it was interesting that if you read the thread, even Blake (a renowned teacher to many tour pros) didn't even know that players were using the scope to find the balance on their golf balls. I'll try this out and give an update on what I think.
Again, I'm not a big fan of his personality and I probably wouldn't teach his swing to anybody anytime soon...but it's easy to see why Sergio hits the ball so well.
A book I recommend as a "must read" for beginners and can help players of all levels is Bobby Clampett's 'The Impact Zone.'
Was reading this old post over at http://www.lynnblakegolf.com/ forum (I'm considering getting Blake's Alignment Golf DVD set as well) from PGA Tour caddy, Overkill.
