Visit to Long Island

[Phana24JG]

I finally made it down to Long Island for a full day lesson with Mike. What an EXCELLENT investment of my time and money. Mike is an outstanding teacher and provides a solid mixture of discussion, demonstration, and technology (Casio and Flightscope). I could see what I was doing wrong, and understood what I should be doing and why. In addition to great instruction, Mike is quite personable, and it was fun as well as informative.

I just concluded my first practice session with my Casio and I could not be happier with my ball-striking. I still have a lot of work to do, but the improvement was dramatic. As soon as I am out of the wife's doghouse, she will post some videos for everyone to critique.

I will conclude by suggesting to anyone who follows Mike's forum and can make arrangements to go to Long Island to JUST DO IT! The videos and DVDs are great, but nothing replaces real world instruction. Even if your budget is limited like mine, forego the new toy you saw at the store or in the golf media and spend the money where you get the maximum return, top quality instruction. Thank you very much Mike, I cannot wait to play tomorrow and show-off Phana Version 2.0.

P.S. Make sure your lesson concludes LONG before 3pm if you driving through New York City on the way home.

[Phana24JG]

I finally managed to get a few swings uploaded.

Jun 5 Face-on Pull

Jun 5 Face-on Straight

Jun 5 DTL Slight Draw

Jun 5 DTL Straight

Every one of these drives easily cleared the 250 sign and the hits are very tightly clustered around the center with a slight tendency for the toe. After viewing these vids at the range, I thought I was getting my left arm a little too far across the chest. When I brought my hands closer to mid shoulder, I was crushing the irons, but losing the mid-to high trajectory I like and hitting the ball very high with the driver. I only got in 10 holes yesterday before the t'storms arrived, but I am playing a whole new game. However, I have a couple of questions.

Is my shoulder turn and trunk rotation at acceptable levels, or do I still need more work? I know it is not a good practice to have "two swings," but the results from a "flatter" drive swing and an "upright" iron swing are the best ball-striking I can remember. Should I stay with the two swings or find a compromise that gets acceptable results with both shots?

[trickyric]

doesn't the lie of the club and the lenth of the shaft dictate plane angle?
with a wedge you would be more "on top" of the ball and with a driver more to the side of the ball. Also ball position should also dictate a certain degree of VSP as the ball moves forward of low point with the driver a shallower VSP would naturally be created.

[Phana24JG]

You make a good point Rick. I should have posted some six irons as well. My recollection of the 6-irons I videoed were that they were indeed more upright, but I was still barely above left shoulder. When I made a conscious effort to keep the arms "between the shoulders" I was pounding the irons, but the driver and 3 wood seemed to suffer.

[trickyric]

While it is true that feel is not real. it is also true that if what you feel is working than go with it!

[Michael Jacobs]

Vertical Swing Plane Angle:

The measurement of the Vertical Swing Plane Angle is the Angle between the club head and the ground irrespective of the shaft of the club.

So happens that 'normal' vertical swing plane numbers on irons somewhat match the lie angle of the club but a 'normalized' driver vertical swing plane angle is less than the Lie of a driver.

New ball flight laws have shown more importance in the club head to ground measurement than the shaft to ground traditional measurement.


Phana,

Enjoyed your visit very much and I am glad that you feel like you got the most out the experience. It is always nice to have a student who knows the language and can personalize all of the instruction. Keep us posted continually on your progress

[Phana24JG]

Phana,

Enjoyed your visit very much and I am glad that you feel like you got the most out the experience. It is always nice to have a student who knows the language and can personalize all of the instruction. Keep us posted continually on your progress

All phases of the game continue to improve. My putting still sucks, but improving. Misses are closer, distance control beginning to kick in. Wedge game is really rocking. Scoring is better, already down from 5 to 4.

Two problems seem to be emerging. I will occasionally pick a short iron clean or just a bit thin. My guess is lack of transmitting down the shaft and reverting to my through the ball tendency. However, since most of the "misses" tend to be almost on-line and often acceptable or good shots, I hate to spend a lot of time on something that is not costing me. The problem that is costing me is the tendency to yank left or snap hook the driver.

I am trying to regain my old distance and using the LCT to try and get more float loading to build up more clubhead speed. At first it seems to really launch the ball, but as I try and increase it, the snap hooks appear Should I simply accept that 107-109 is my driver speed and scrap the LCT work, or should I perhaps add a quarter swivel on the backswing to ensure I do not shut the face with the LCT?

[Michael Jacobs]

All phases of the game continue to improve. My putting still sucks, but improving. Misses are closer, distance control beginning to kick in. Wedge game is really rocking. Scoring is better, already down from 5 to 4.

Two problems seem to be emerging. I will occasionally pick a short iron clean or just a bit thin. My guess is lack of transmitting down the shaft and reverting to my through the ball tendency. However, since most of the "misses" tend to be almost on-line and often acceptable or good shots, I hate to spend a lot of time on something that is not costing me. The problem that is costing me is the tendency to yank left or snap hook the driver.

I am trying to regain my old distance and using the LCT to try and get more float loading to build up more clubhead speed. At first it seems to really launch the ball, but as I try and increase it, the snap hooks appear Should I simply accept that 107-109 is my driver speed and scrap the LCT work, or should I perhaps add a quarter swivel on the backswing to ensure I do not shut the face with the LCT?

Phana,

Good radar on what would be causing the thin shots ...

As for the club face issue you are sensing, are the hook shots center face contact?? Driver speeds aren't going to shift all that much. Based on the videos I see above the swing direction is going hard left with the driver, on the backswing the arms are going very low around forcing a lot of carry on the way down which is pulling the swing direction left. Toe hits taking place????

[Phana24JG]

Phana,

Good radar on what would be causing the thin shots ...

As for the club face issue you are sensing, are the hook shots center face contact?? Driver speeds aren't going to shift all that much. Based on the videos I see above the swing direction is going hard left with the driver, on the backswing the arms are going very low around forcing a lot of carry on the way down which is pulling the swing direction left. Toe hits taking place????

The radar is not as good as the Casio. I can see the irons come up closer to my head on the follow through with a DTL look. The hooks are both center face contact and toe jammers. I am having some trouble reconciling the more horizontal shoulder turn with the arms wanting to cross my chest far too much. When I try and get the hands on or near shoulder plane (a la Vol 3) I seem to bring back the steep turn.

It is actually not causing me a problem, except for the 15-20 yds I lose using the "wrong" driver. The driver you indicated had the wrong shaft happens to love that swing and the error(s) seem to cancel each other out. However, I know that playing two wrongs making a right is neither going to last long nor be a long-term solution. The game plan for today's practice and league play is to just focus on torso turn with hands to the shoulder. I was playing around in the yard last night and tried swinging with a very open stance. That got the turn and club position decent, then tried to duplicate the position with a normal stance. Any other suggestions?

[Michael Jacobs]

The radar is not as good as the Casio. I can see the irons come up closer to my head on the follow through with a DTL look. The hooks are both center face contact and toe jammers. I am having some trouble reconciling the more horizontal shoulder turn with the arms wanting to cross my chest far too much. When I try and get the hands on or near shoulder plane (a la Vol 3) I seem to bring back the steep turn.

It is actually not causing me a problem, except for the 15-20 yds I lose using the "wrong" driver. The driver you indicated had the wrong shaft happens to love that swing and the error(s) seem to cancel each other out. However, I know that playing two wrongs making a right is neither going to last long nor be a long-term solution. The game plan for today's practice and league play is to just focus on torso turn with hands to the shoulder. I was playing around in the yard last night and tried swinging with a very open stance. That got the turn and club position decent, then tried to duplicate the position with a normal stance. Any other suggestions?

Phana,

Indeed a flatter trunk movement needs to be trained completely separate from your arm movements. A lot of times when someone is trying to flatten their trunk they end up whipping their arms to far across the chest causing either an 'underneath' move coming down or an extreme throw out of arms and club towards contact.

Although in this video the left arm is taking a pretty favorable route and the issue is on the downswing as you are creating 'too far' of a left swing direction. Sequencing the body movements to create some more right side bend will help you have more of a 'right' swing direction and limit the 'pull / hooks' being created from too far left of a swing direction. Trying to put more force down the shaft will help as well as we worked on during our session. I wouldn't aim more an open set up!