VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 22:35:01 06/20/00 Tue
Author: Peter
Subject: Re: Uh oh, Ed's thinkin' again...
In reply to: Phys Ed 's message, "Re: Uh oh, Ed's thinkin' again..." on 20:34:20 06/20/00 Tue

> When I check the balance, by taking a swing and then
> letting the club come down straight out in front of
> me, it is inevitably a little closed and not square as
> I would think it should be. I think my wrists are put
> on crooked.
>
Amazing the way this process works. Next time after you take the practice swing and adjust, do the process again. If the club is still in the same place, face the ball again. Without changing your left hand grip, take the right hand off and use it to support the club in a horizontal position. Make sure the back of your left wrist is flat and point your left hand at the ball. Note the position of the club face relative to vertical. This should be a good reference position for you to set up in vs. the club head on the ground. This process is somewhere in the Ask Scott archives.

> On the higher irons (5 & up), I generally hit the ball
> pretty well but pull it to the left a little (no
> curve). On the lower irons and woods, I generally hit
> a slice (curving into the trees or into someone's
> swimming pool). The ball starts off straight, though.
>
You are probably setting up (shoulders if not feet) pointed left of the target(open). You then set the club square to the target line. In higher lofted clubs this will give you a mostly straight left result because of the higher amount of back spin. On lower lofted clubs the side spin takes over giving a curving flight. Practice with parallel lines on the ground (clubs, chalk or I use fiberglass driveway markers) and try to be certain your shoulders are also parallel to the target line. At IMA school Scott asked me if I thought I was parallel to the target line at one point on the range. I said yes and he then put a club accross the front of my shoulders. I wasn't even close.

> On the higher irons, I normally get clean contact and
> take the divot afterward. On the lower clubs, I don't
> think I normally take much of a divot, except for the
> occasional divot that occurs 3 inches before the
> ball... doh!

> My better shots have a medium to high trajectory and I
> think you could say they are steady.

Perhaps I am overly paranoid on this point now but this sounds like breakdown of the left wrist through impact. At impact the club should for a straight line with the left arm (or the hands slightly ahead of the clubhead) and the right arm should be slightly flexed. Breakdown is indicated by the clubhead being ahead of the hands at impact. This is easy to see in video.

The symptoms I look for in myself are thin/fat shots (especially with longer clubs where the plane is not so vertical) and the lack of rising trajectory due to reduced spin because the the club is not hitting the ball on a descending path. Even on a partial shot (like a chip or pitch) if you hit the ball correctly you will get a lot of backspin.

When the left wrist 'breaks down' the bottom of the arc happens behind the ball giving either fat or thin shots. In this case it is impossible to get correct contact unless you move the ball way back in your stance.

My whole effort to sustain the left arm shaft angle is to fix this. If you want a less radical fix, set the left wrist flat and squeeze hard with the left hand to put tension in to hold the left wrist flat.

For me this problem was worse until I began to insure that my wrist stayed flat in the transition to the downswing. Clubhead momentum in transition will tend to cup the wrist which will have the effect of opening the club face if not corrected before impact (and believe me, it won't be if you have breakdown) giving a monster slice with the driver and loger clubs.

Peter

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-6
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.