David D. came out to the range again yesterday and spent a few hours with me discussing the swing and hitting some balls.
Once more, we probably did more talking than hitting, especially as one of his favourite golfers just happened to win the PGA Championship last weekend.
David’s just starting to hit balls again after an extended time off playing due to various ailments, and we were able to discuss his swing a little as he is in the process of shaking off the rust and getting back into the “swing” of things, excuse the pun.
Today, he was watching how I start my take-away (he describes it as a solid motion with the body and arms) without any hand or arm action, just the pivot into the back swing using the hips and legs and weight shift.
Driver – Facing the Camera
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This impact position was a big improvement on earlier in the day, and it’s only going to get better.
I also showed him a little of how the left foot “stomp” and spine tilt would help him generate speed and power just using his own body instead of trying to use muscle power.
David’s in his late 60′s, so I feel that a more mechanically-proper swing will help him not only increase his speed and distance (which is already happening for him), but to maintain it with the coming years.
Driver – Down the Line
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Using muscle power to swing the golf club instead of the body becomes more difficult as we age, but as long as we can move with relative ease, we can still create leverage with our bodies to move that golf club.
Anyways, it was a far-ranging discussion about the golf swing, classic versus modern, various pro golfers- even a little philosophy and world events thrown in there, why not?
So, with just some initial work on his swing, David hit a couple of surprising drives, distance-wise, by the end of the day. Like cracking a few drives a good 20-30 yards further in the air than his early balls surprising. But one could tell by the sound and flight of the balls that he was getting more out of his action once he began to put it together.
He was also getting a good feel for his metal-woods and my 3 rescue club, just hitting nice shots and letting the swing changes filter through the subconscious.
I daresay it’s so much easier to convey things in person to people, because you can dig so much deeper into the nuances and also discuss why this is more effective than that.
All in all, great improvement. The videos are simply to show what David’s doing right now, we’ve discussed what he can do to make his swing more efficient and powerful, and we’re just going to take it from there.
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D, work the flexibility and mobility in your hips and back and it be a lot better.
Solid motion as it is though.
Robert, David’s flexibility is an issue indeed, as he hasn’t really swung a club for over two years. He incurred an injury right around the time I was releasing the original MCS video back in July ’10, and various other ailments have kept him from swinging a club since then.
I expect that if (knock on wood) he can remain injury-free (and the MCS principles will help in that regard), he will see great improvements into next season. He’s very detail-oriented and loves the study of the swing, so I see him making big strides!
I always recomend Intu-flow for mobility. Best there is out there IMO.
Looks good David.
As per David’s ailments, can make no promises but I too am getting older physically and feeling the bumps bruises of tossing my body off cliffs, have embarked on a full thrust focus to health this year and for the most part, have given myself a full turnaround. I still eat most anything and am not at all strict but too, lack the cravings for the junk as I start the day off with two big glasses of a kale smoothie with yogurt. The greens and fresh fruit added are what I feel are the rejuvenators.
Some swing thoughts and only posting here as this is the recent thread.
I play my short irons in the middle to back and work my way forward and I wonder if this would be necessary if all my irons were the same length (believe it was the 7 iron was the ideal length) as it seems the shorter length requires that they be moved back? I agree with the the assertion that all shots could be played towards the front foot but the shorter shaft lengths for me, inhibit that determination.
And too, playing the shorter irons, the right arm lever is more of a thrust into the ground with a resulting divot that would make an excellent hairpiece whereas when the ball is moved forward, the thrust more resembles the “shortstop toss”.with no divot.
The ball is played back to compensate for the leading edge in the blade. When you play the ball forward of the ideal position for that club’s blade you add loft and have a thinner divot. When you play it behind the ideal position, you de-loft the face. and have a thicker divot. When played in the ideal placement, the ball will fly off the face at the angle associated with that club.
The length of the club will not change what angle the leading edge is, so you would still want to play the ball incrementally back. Nicklaus and Austin (in his later teaching at least) believed in playing the ball off of the left instep. That’s all well and fine, just remember they both added above optimal loft to the irons.
The biggest thing I would worry about when considering switching to same length irons is the effect the increase/decrease in a club’s length would have on the lie angle of a club. Just as an example, let’s consider you decide to have the length of all your irons leveled out to the 6 iron length of a Titleist AP2 which is 37.5 inches. This means that the 3 iron would need to be cut down 1.5 inches from 39 inches and a 9 iron to be increased 1.5 inches from 36 inches.
Now here comes the tricky part. For every inch you add to a club, you make the club more upright by 2 degrees. Conversely, for every inch you take away, you make the club flatter by 2 degrees. Although the lie angle stays the same on the blade, the club has to be soled differently to make up for the change in length. This is how the static lie angle is changed if you will. As a result of this static change, the 3 iron iron with an original lie of 60 degrees would now be soled and swung as if the club were 57 degrees. On the other side, the 9 iron with an original lie of 64 degrees, you would now sole and swing as if the lie was 67 degrees.
So if you choose to pursue this path, it would require one heck of a custom fitting.
“For every inch you add to a club, you make the club more upright by 2 degrees. Conversely, for every inch you take away, you make the club flatter by 2 degrees.”
rpm, wouldn’t that actually be the opposite? e.g. – if you make the shaft longer, the head would move away from you, making the shaft angle flatter, whereas if you shorten the shaft, the head moves closer to you, making the shaft angle more upright – am I missing something?
Yes the shaft angle does flatten as you increase club length. You have to remember that the lie angle of the club is fixed but the static lie angle changes. When you add length, the 9 iron’s lie angle will still be 64 degrees, however you are now addressing the ball with a static lie angle of 67 degrees because the toe in now more up in the air. When you decrease the length, you will be addressing the 3 iron with the toe more down, thus making the club play flatter.
I have added 3 lines representing club heads to the image above. To make it simple, I just put them at 90 degrees to the shaft. Notice how the line get’s steeper the longer the shaft gets. Steeper line means higher toe and more upright.
OK, I get you now, when you said “club” I took your meaning to be the shaft, not the head.
Golf is indeed, rocket science.
Material sport, many clubs are inlaid with ribbons of confidence, accuracy and fun and makes you a better golfer without even needed any time for practice! (wait a second what did I write) Rocket science is the need to mix stuff to make things go big boom. pretty much a driver swing.
Bloody simple game!
Striking a little ball into a little hole. All for a bit of fun and you can even keep clothes on if tha wants!
The ones who play it………..now that’s a different kettle of fish!