September 05 blog
Abolish Your Backswing
If your ball comes to rest in an area in which you can’t get a
full swing on the ball, you may want to hit with only part of
your swing.
Lets say your ball comes to rest close to a tree. If you can
swing your club back to calf level or, better still, to the
height of your knees, and if the lie isn’t too difficult, there
still is a shot you can play.
Address the ball with a lofted club. Then, very slowly, swing
the club back as far as it will go. Now freeze. Your wrists
should be cocked.
From here, chop down into the back of the ball. It should pop
out-not that far, but away from further trouble.
This shot is especially valuable when your only other option is
to drop the ball in an area where a drop will mean even more
trouble.
Richard,
I want to Thank You and Body Golf for changing how I think about
hitting the ball. I'm told I have a beautiful golf swing but, I
had way too many "swing" thoughts. I received the DVD's about
three weeks ago and I'm now hitting the ball farther, straighter
and with more confidance. I did not like irons and now I can't
wait to hit one! I just finished playing in our club
championship and came in 2nd place! I feel confident, by next
year, I can be club champion! I love swinging the club and
having the ball just get in the way. This is how I used to
think when I started golfing six years ago. And the "magic
move" is perfect! I also like Mark's way of practicing. I will
never take another lesson from a "pro" again! Thank YOU!
Lisa
09/21/05
When the average golfer gets into a sand trap 75 yards or so from the green, he wants to play an explosion shot "like the pros." He takes in the healthy distance to the green and says to himself, "Now I'll really have to blast it to get it there." The results don't help his frame of mind much, or his score either.
To begin with, the average golfer is wrong when he thinks the pros play an explosion shot from that far out. The clubhead, of course, sometimes displaces quite a bit of sand after the ball has been struck, and maybe this is what gives the illusion that the pros hit the sand before the ball on this kind of shot. They don't—or at least they try not to. They try to "pick" the ball on a long trap shot, contacting it cleanly and hitting it just below the center.
On this shot there's very little shifting of weight. You keep the body anchored, for you play this shot just about entirely with the arms and wrists. You have to cock the wrists correctly going back to execute the shot well. And you must concentrate, for no shot in which the club has to make precise contact with the ball is an easy one. One further point: always use the sand wedge.
Until next week…good golfing!
Dr Richard Myers
09/20/05
Since most of us miss more greens than we hit-and I was no exception to this rule, we know how important it is to be sharp with our chips.
Chipping is primarily a matter of touch. To illustrate, notice that your chips are seldom more than a foot or so off line. Thus, if you could chip the ball hole-high every time, you would never have a putt of more than a foot or so in length. The point, then is to stop the ball as nearly hole-high as possible. And that takes touch. Now touch originates in the right hand; and I found that I could enhance this right-hand touch by letting the right hand play the predominant role in the shot. I did this by employing the reverse-overlapping grip with my chips, just as I did with my putts. By reverse-overlap, I mean that the index finger of my left hand overlapped the little finger and ring finger of my right-the reverse of the usual overlapping grip.
09/12/05
There isn’t a golfer alive who hasn’t felt the pressure of a match while putting. Despite my reputation as a pressure putter, I too often felt tension creeping into my stroke. Although I (or anyone else) never completely conquered this feeling of pressure, I did learn to cope with it. As we all well know, the putting stroke is the most easily affected shot in golf. After a few jerked putts, your confidence goes. And then your whole game comes apart at the seams.
My problem, then, was to learn how to loosen up after I had jerked a putt or two. To accomplish this, I used a simple little trick which anybody can use. I placed a golf ball between the shaft and the last two fingers of my left hand, thus placing the pressure of that hand more on the fingers, with which you are less apt to jerk a putt than with the palm of the hand.
Try this little gimmick a few times, and I’m sure you will be surprised at how quickly it loosens up your stroke, how much more easily you can return to your natural free stroke.
It’s very simple. Place the ball between the shaft and the last two fingers of the left hand, thus placing the pressure of that hand more in the fingers, with which you are less apt to jerk a putt than with the palm of the hand.
Simple, proven putting techniques
http://www.thinkandreachpar.com/bodygolf.htm#short
09/11/05
Want extra distance without extra effort? If so, simply turn
your shoulders
a little farther on the backswing.
This extra coiling creates a greater swing arc and thereby
produces greater leverage.
And the more leverage gained, the more clubspeed possible during
the release.
The results of that little extra turn will reveal that power
depends mainly on a full free swing and a delayed hitting action,
not upon a forced, speed-up tempo.
09/07/05
Golfers tend to confuse touch with control. They use the two
words as though they were interchangeable, which, of course, they
are not. Unless you have touch, or feel, as it is sometimes
called, you cannot have control. That is the kernel of it.
I was lucky enough to have started playing golf when I was young,
and learned the feel of golf shots then. A group of us kids would
go out and play a triangle of holes with just one club. We would
do everything with it—hit the ball high and low, run shots or
stop them with backspin. The next time out we would do the same
thing with another club. We didn't realize it then, but we were
getting a marvelous education in the uses of clubs. People
learning to play today generally are equipped with a club for
each distinct shot. They hit the ball full each time, but that is
the trouble with their game. They can only hit the ball full.
To acquire touch, I advise that you go back to where I began and
practice playing with a single club. You can play several holes
with the club. Or you might try the practice range. Select a
target (flag) down the range—say 50 to 125 yards away. Then hit
balls at it until you feel you have mastered the club. You might
try a long iron at first. Go to a higher iron after that. You
will find as you go through the irons that you will have to do a
lot of gripping up and down the shaft, that you will be opening
and closing your stance and lengthening and shortening your
swing. Eventually you will find yourself instinctively hitting
balls with the right spin and height and length. These are the
elements of control.
Developing Touch and Control
Golfers tend to confuse touch with control. They use the two
words as though they were interchangeable, which, of course, they
are not. Unless you have touch, or feel, as it is sometimes
called, you cannot have control. That is the kernel of it.
I was lucky enough to have started playing golf when I was young,
and learned the feel of golf shots then. A group of us kids would
go out and play a triangle of holes with just one club. We would
do everything with it—hit the ball high and low, run shots or
stop them with backspin. The next time out we would do the same
thing with another club. We didn't realize it then, but we were
getting a marvelous education in the uses of clubs. People
learning to play today generally are equipped with a club for
each distinct shot. They hit the ball full each time, but that is
the trouble with their game. They can only hit the ball full.
To acquire touch, I advise that you go back to where I began and
practice playing with a single club. You can play several holes
with the club. Or you might try the practice range. Select a
target (flag) down the range—say 50 to 125 yards away. Then hit
balls at it until you feel you have mastered the club. You might
try a long iron at first. Go to a higher iron after that. You
will find as you go through the irons that you will have to do a
lot of gripping up and down the shaft, that you will be opening
and closing your stance and lengthening and shortening your
swing. Eventually you will find yourself instinctively hitting
balls with the right spin and height and length. These are the
elements of control.
09/06/05
Swinging the Pitch Shot
The secret of scoring on the pro tour is getting down in two shots when you're
about a hundred yards from the green. The average club golfer has more modest
demands. He doesn't expect to get down in a pitch and a putt very often, but he
would like to be able to pitch well enough so that he has a crack at a one-putt
green every now and then and can at least count on regularly hitting the green
with his pitch. We don't always do that, you know. A good many times when we
scoop our shot the ball lands short and expire’s on the apron. Other times, when
we try to put a little punch into his shot, he pulls or pushes it far off the
line. These particular errors are hard for him to take because the pitch shot
doesn't require a full and powerful swing, as driving does or true finesse, as
trouble shots do. The pitch is one shot he thinks he ought to be able to handle
pretty well.
I believe in learning a standard pitch that is a swinging stroke as opposed to a
slapping hit. The concept the you should have is that this shot is quite similar
to the way you toss a ball underhand: just direct the right arm and hand toward
the target. On the short pitch there's no body turn to speak of—you use your left
side far less than you do on a full swing. As for your right arm and hand, you
shouldn't think of them until you're coming down into the ball. Then they swing
through the ball together and go right on out toward the target. There isn't an
easier shot to learn or a more reliable one.
http://www.thinkandreachpar.com/
http://www.superbabysitting.com/
http://www.golfforleftys.com/
864.675.0038
posted by Richard Myers at 2:00 PM
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