I went to the range today to see about my latest posting on the “inside move” subject.
What I found was startling – I already have the proper plane on my back swing, except perhaps for the Driver at times, and what Steve P. saw on the golf course was a change in my normal action, something caused completely by mental factors!
As proof, I have a video clip of myself today working on the proper take-away path, hitting 7 iron.
July 16 – 7 Iron Viewed Down the Line
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Take a look at the photo I captured from the second real-speed swing.
You can see clearly the swing path is inside, and I even have the club head “facing the ball” in the Austin manner, exactly what should be happening.
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Compare that action with a clip of myself hitting a 8 iron just under two weeks before I played that round with Steve and his guys. Below is the 8 iron clip from June 29th.
June 29th – 8 Iron Viewed Down the Line
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On the first clip, I am working consciously on the swing take away path, and in the second clip, I was not- and the actions are virtually identical.
Now, I won’t say Exactly Identical, because there is a little more “inside” action on today’s swing compared to two weeks ago, leading to less of the over-the-top flavor that I have, but the difference shouldn’t have been enough to cause the bad shots I was hitting last week.
Lesson: Not everyone takes their “range swing” to the golf course when they go to play. There are several factors as to why many people can hit the cover off the ball when at the range, or knock down flags (during the week of that 8 iron clip, I remember hitting several different flag sticks each session when hitting everything from 7 iron to wedge), and why they don’t do this out on the course. It’s called the “Ranger Rick” or “Driving Range Star” syndrome.
Remember that, last week, I talked about being out of my “comfort zone” when playing with Steve.
This was caused by several things – 1) playing a reasonably tough course I had never seen before that day, which made choosing lines off the tee very difficult, 2) playing with 3 other guys I’d just met that day who I knew would be looking very intently at my swing, and of course 3) trying very hard to be “DJ” to show Steve what the MCS swing could do.
Instead of doing that, I became “Ranger Rick,” very unfortunately at the time but very fortuitously for me- Steve found by accident the flaw I was exhibiting on the course – letting the outside forces get me off my concentration and causing strange things to happen to my balance and swing.
So, I have to now apply the lesson learned, and make sure that every shot I hit on the range is with the same focus that I applied today while thinking I was making a swing change, and to take that same focus and confidence with me to the golf course.
This has actually happened to me before, though not to the extent that happened last week. When I was playing golf several times a week back in ’09, I would play with the same fellows, and of course you gain a comfort zone doing so.
You know the course, all the lines and where to miss, and the distances more or less on each shot from memory, and the guys you play with have no expectations. They knew I could pelt the ball, and I did so with no effort, because there was no pressure. If I hit a bad shot in front of guys who knew me, they knew already what I could do.
But, when paired with other members with whom I’d never played before, and who’s first words on the No. 1 Tee were “Oh, so you’re the guy that can hit the ball a mile, can’t wait to see this!” you know what happened.
Gone was the comfort zone, and with the raised expectations, concentration and focus and subsequently natural rhythm and technique were altered, causing bad shots to appear everywhere out of the blue.
I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong back then, but the video from today is what showed me.
This is a valuable lesson learned.
Stay out of your comfort zone on the range. Make things difficult when you have built a repeating swing that you can groove on the range.
Simulate game conditions, pretend the whole range is watching your next shot – do things that make you focus not just stand there striping balls in a comfortable, nearly unconscious rhythm, because there’s no such thing out on the course.
Remember, I have never built this blog about playing golf, which I have less experience doing than studying the actual golf swing on video and the driving range. I am only now starting to think about serious golf and scoring rather than working on my swing on the golf course, and so what I learned this last week is something that many of you might already have learned.
But for me, it was a valuable lesson.
Its all about focus
, I’ve found that by going through the exact same steps to setup on each shot it leaves me with just swinging and I can get the proper focus that I need. Similar thing with putting exactly the same on each shot.
When you talk about practising that way it reminds me of how Tiger Woods dad used to throw balls at him as he swung and drop golf bags right in the middle of the swing to force him to focus on the task at hand.
I regularly play with other club members that I haven’t met before, so that helps force me to focus as well.
Trusting your equipment is also a must, since getting the new shafts in my irons I know where the ball is going, and getting the weight added into the driver with the very stiff shaft makes me sure about where I’m hitting it.
Actually you could always take you family to the range and get them to throw hot dogs at you or something
LOL.
That is why I sometimes tells people on the range to do this and go up and hit it long one after the other and then go, and then you can really go for it and hit even longer. Its a good way to do things under pressure for fun.
The guy I coach 5 or so years ago I did some caddie work for him, he putted badly so after, I went to the practice green put up the ball 3 yard away, said why dont you just do it this way and sank the putt. Handed him the putter, he made it also. His face was fun to watch after…
People seldom if ever practice pressure situations, I do that all the time.
Inside move…here’s an idea that reflects the biomechanics of the swing.
If you read Hogan’s “Power Golf” (1948), it says that the backswing appears to originate in the center of your body–which I take to mean “not the hands and arms.”
If you put a cursor on your right pocket on the video above, you’ll notice that your right pocket is getting pulled out of the way by how you initiate the backswing. When that happens, it’s highly unlikely that the backswing won’t have an inside path.
if the left heel is lifted, that creates inside move.
That is what makes it happen.
Result, not cause. If a right-hander turns his body to the right, from the right side, the rotation will un-weight the left heel as it pulls the backswing inside. So, you could say that getting off the left heel is what “lets” it happen–not makes it happen.
You could do like Bobby Jones said he did, push back from the left side–but unless the right side is turning too, it’s blocking any inside move. So, you’ll probably sway.
Only two possible things that can happen, lift the left heel go into backswing, either the individual moves weight to the inside of right foot the proper move with a slight pelvis arise pivot position or they do something else which PGA/forum/others teaches them to do.
Either way once the indvidual knows the angle and feel and have the evidence, they cant do it wrong. The left heel lift allows the angle to be created in the backswing in a Austin principle powered swing. Its how the body moves naturally.
You cant do a austin principle swing without the left heel lift. The angle has to happen and then the left heel is what causes the pivot to happen.
On sidenote: Played 12 holes today, pretty much good solid golf. 10 hole a 530y par 5, narrow tee shot for fairway, hit draw with driver, pulled out spoon, to much draw or else it had made the green, ended up 5y short green, chipped into hole for an eagle, made my day.