I am 7'10" tall 150 lb ( lost 5) and closer to 60 yrs now. I average about 270 yards and more than few times I hit 300 or over. I can surely say I am long and I am not shy of saying that because I can prove it anytime.
I was 180-190 yards with my driver most of my golfing days until recently and steadily I broke each barrier and I am at the peak of my golf game at this ripe old age. I am having tons of fun with game and want other people to have some fun.
I initially thought that golf was magic science or something. And thought only those who were gifted had game and pros were preordained by golf god or something. I am not afraid of any body even so called pros. I can match their games. ( he he he)
My mere mortal golfing friends ( they are as old as I am) are turning into black magic equipment that promise Tiger Wood distances. As long as they are obsesses with voodoo equipment, I can beat them in distance and strokes.
Here is how I swing these days;
1) Haunch (round) my back at address
2) Move my head Up & up as back swing progresses
3) End my back swing on Right Hill and straitened right leg
3) End my back swing uncomfortable by lifted arms but left arm is parallel to shoulder line or slightly higher
4)Initiate down swing with hips turning aggressively to left and back. Still maintain weight on the ball of right foot. It feels as if right leg is fulcrum of whole down swing.
5) On downswing,keep the hands high on right side and wide as long as I can while turning hips
6) push off right leg to stand up to left to finish.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Rotation Rotation to Fix Flip Release -My Final (?) golf swing break through
Up to this point I had some success on my game. I became a long hitter of my group and "long" became adjective to describe my name. But I was fighting with hooks and draws and left elbow pain. Some said that because I swung faster than my old body can afford, causes elbow pain. Some days, I get worse elbow pain than other and worse hook than other days. I kind saw correlation between elbow pain and hooks. I started suspect their origin.
At this time I discovered George Gankas on Youtube and stared to watch his clips. I also started using Hudle golf app to tape my indoor practice swings. I conclude I am flipping my hands at the bottom of swing and my hip is sliding to far to left on down swing.
I tried nearly a year to stop sliding and flipping. Initially, I thought that moving head and hips too much to the right on back swing was the culprit. For close to 60 year old body, keeping head still at back swing was near impossible. By back was not flexible enough any more. But keeping the hips from sway to right was not that hard. Steady hips improve the condition some what but it was not the cure for the problem.
One day I stumbled into Stewart Cink's slow motion driver swing and saw his hip rotation. He rotates his hips way before start of down swing and his hips are already open when his arms are parallel to ground. ( he is about same age as me?) He rotates his left hip to the back of his left hill causing his left toe to move slightly off the ground ahead of down swing. To achieve that, I practiced to rotate my hip while holding every thing still- arms, shoulders, legs. I initiate transition by turning my hip to left and back. This made my left hip low and cleared before down swing and my release is getting closer to drive and hold type.
Elbow pain is gone! and no hooks!! Some of my shots even fade now!!!
At this time I discovered George Gankas on Youtube and stared to watch his clips. I also started using Hudle golf app to tape my indoor practice swings. I conclude I am flipping my hands at the bottom of swing and my hip is sliding to far to left on down swing.
I tried nearly a year to stop sliding and flipping. Initially, I thought that moving head and hips too much to the right on back swing was the culprit. For close to 60 year old body, keeping head still at back swing was near impossible. By back was not flexible enough any more. But keeping the hips from sway to right was not that hard. Steady hips improve the condition some what but it was not the cure for the problem.
One day I stumbled into Stewart Cink's slow motion driver swing and saw his hip rotation. He rotates his hips way before start of down swing and his hips are already open when his arms are parallel to ground. ( he is about same age as me?) He rotates his left hip to the back of his left hill causing his left toe to move slightly off the ground ahead of down swing. To achieve that, I practiced to rotate my hip while holding every thing still- arms, shoulders, legs. I initiate transition by turning my hip to left and back. This made my left hip low and cleared before down swing and my release is getting closer to drive and hold type.
Elbow pain is gone! and no hooks!! Some of my shots even fade now!!!
My second major golf swing break through
With help of laser guided club and correct club orientations during swing propelled my swing to the 95 mph swing speed. My swing became more normal looking than my ugly compact flat swing.
In my mind golf swing is all about X-Factor. I try to twist my back as much as I can without moving lower body. I had to give up on back twist once I broke my back. My back disc problem gave me ultimatum of moving away from obsession of X-Factor or else.
Thanks to Kelvin Miyahira's videos, I start to learn about vertical components of golf swing. On my back swing my head dropped lower & move closer to ball and left hip dropped. My instep of right foot braced right hip but did not move weight to right hill. As a matter of fact, I think weight was more on right toe than hill on the top of back swing.
I modified my ti-chi back swing routine to;
1) Gradually stand taller in back swing- move my head up & back
2) Lift left hip from dropping
3) Move more weight to right hill
4) Lift the hands as high as I can toward to end of back swing.
This modifications on my back swing opened up my hips at impact about 15 degree or so and resulted 10 to 15 yard longer driver. I averaged 250 yard on the driver but my shots were mostly hooks and draws. On some dry fairways, I shot near 300 yards more than few occasions.
I paid some attention on down swings but I was more obsessed with back swing. My shots were longer but high because of flip release at impact. I developed left elbow pain as a result.
Left elbow pain was severe enough, it woke me up middle of night because of pain. At this point, I had to find cause and fix because it ripped pleasure out of my game. I was afraid to go to the range because of pain.
In my mind golf swing is all about X-Factor. I try to twist my back as much as I can without moving lower body. I had to give up on back twist once I broke my back. My back disc problem gave me ultimatum of moving away from obsession of X-Factor or else.
Thanks to Kelvin Miyahira's videos, I start to learn about vertical components of golf swing. On my back swing my head dropped lower & move closer to ball and left hip dropped. My instep of right foot braced right hip but did not move weight to right hill. As a matter of fact, I think weight was more on right toe than hill on the top of back swing.
I modified my ti-chi back swing routine to;
1) Gradually stand taller in back swing- move my head up & back
2) Lift left hip from dropping
3) Move more weight to right hill
4) Lift the hands as high as I can toward to end of back swing.
This modifications on my back swing opened up my hips at impact about 15 degree or so and resulted 10 to 15 yard longer driver. I averaged 250 yard on the driver but my shots were mostly hooks and draws. On some dry fairways, I shot near 300 yards more than few occasions.
I paid some attention on down swings but I was more obsessed with back swing. My shots were longer but high because of flip release at impact. I developed left elbow pain as a result.
Left elbow pain was severe enough, it woke me up middle of night because of pain. At this point, I had to find cause and fix because it ripped pleasure out of my game. I was afraid to go to the range because of pain.
My first major golf swing break through
In my mind, I was closer to Tiger Wood than Charles Barkley when it comes to swing. Sine I bout Canon slow motion camera, I had to admit that I am more of Charles B than Wood. One day out of nowhere, I thought about monitoring myself while in action by using laser pointer. I bought cheap laser pointer on ebay and drilled into chopped off butt end of Wilson lob wedge. I rehearsed back swing in slow motion ( ti-chi style?) while checking laser beam.
1) At address laser points left of my belly button.
2) Laser remains same position until both hands barely passes right thigh. ( one piece take away)
3) Laser point to target when club is parallel to ground
4) Laser glides on the between target to ball as body turns back.
5) Laser points parallel to target line at the top of back swing.
I rehearsed through out the day for 5 minutes or less each time. I did not do anything on down swing. Once I reached top of back swing, I started down swing as hard as I can. At the moment, I believed that If my back swing is right, correct down swing should occur naturally!
With this laser pointer ti-chi back swing, I broke 250 yard mark on more than few occasions. I was told previous 200 yard average was ordinary distance for my age and statue and shouldn't be obsessed with distance too much.
In retrospect, I kind start doing left lateral bend without knowing and was key to breaking 250 marks. I started to gain some respect on distance on the tee boxes. I was slowly moving away from low flat back swing to higher back swing. It took me more than diligent 3 months to erase my long standing flat back swing. My conscious mind knows where to place my hands on back swing and how it feels like as long as if I swung slow.
I own most of " As Seen on TV" teaching aids. Laser pointer was only teaching aid that really changed my swing and gave me the new hope in my game.
1) At address laser points left of my belly button.
2) Laser remains same position until both hands barely passes right thigh. ( one piece take away)
3) Laser point to target when club is parallel to ground
4) Laser glides on the between target to ball as body turns back.
5) Laser points parallel to target line at the top of back swing.
I rehearsed through out the day for 5 minutes or less each time. I did not do anything on down swing. Once I reached top of back swing, I started down swing as hard as I can. At the moment, I believed that If my back swing is right, correct down swing should occur naturally!
With this laser pointer ti-chi back swing, I broke 250 yard mark on more than few occasions. I was told previous 200 yard average was ordinary distance for my age and statue and shouldn't be obsessed with distance too much.
In retrospect, I kind start doing left lateral bend without knowing and was key to breaking 250 marks. I started to gain some respect on distance on the tee boxes. I was slowly moving away from low flat back swing to higher back swing. It took me more than diligent 3 months to erase my long standing flat back swing. My conscious mind knows where to place my hands on back swing and how it feels like as long as if I swung slow.
I own most of " As Seen on TV" teaching aids. Laser pointer was only teaching aid that really changed my swing and gave me the new hope in my game.
Introduction - My Golffing History
I am in my mid fifties, 5' 10" tall & 155lb. I started golfing since 1980's. I was very enthusiastic weekend golfer believing in all the hypes I could hear from any media about golf and equipment. I bought lots of golf magazines until golf channel came along. I went to the range at least once and played one round of golf each week during season. I could not break 90's until year 2014. My driver was 190~200 yard long and in my prim. I don't think it ever passed 250 yard marks. My ball flight was mostly slice or duck hook and pitching wedge could not passed 90 yards .
I practiced mostly on full swing but not much on chip and putt. Some low handicapper told me to spend more time on chip and putt but when your driver is short and nowhere on the fairways, it is hard not to practice full swing and as a result not much of time left to practice chip and putt.
My major journey to improve golf swing started when I had near mental break down about golf in end of year 2012. I was at the cross road of quitting or major overhauling my game.
As soon as I admitted how bad my game was and result of tomorrow will be same as long as I stay in my comfort zone. When I said I am the worst guy on the busy range, I became humble and willing to try what ever because my game could not get any worse.
As a guy with a science back ground, I decide on bench mark test results of my improvements if I make any. In year 2012, I installed golf sim in my basement which can measure club head speed. If I made improvements to my swing, speed should increase on the golf sim as a proof.
Highest my driver swing speed was close to 90 mph and average was 85mph at the beginning of this journey. I spent few month on the sim to break 90mph. I even tried speed training with broken driver shaft at that time but it did no improvement what so ever. I kind wrote myself off thinking '" I am too old and may be not flexible enough and not strong enough". I even bought Somax Hip trainer to increase hip flexibility and I gave up on it after few month of hoping and dreaming with sweat.
In winter of 2012, out of frustration, I thought I should try opposite of what I have been doing those days. I strait jacketed my self with club head covers under both armpits. Swing was too restrictive and I could hardly swing the club. But my golf sim said, I swung 90 mph with 3 wood!!! I could not believe my sim reading and tried with the driver and I was getting more than 90mph consistently!!! So I tied my arms to my trunk using my son's martial art uniform belt so I did not need to re-stuff head covers under armpits. I spent couple months doing that drill but club head speed did not passes 95mph. But I ingrained my swing to ultra compact one.
Back in those days, Tiger Wood was big in golf and his coach Sean Foley made some youtube clips saying about centered rotation. I decided to give it a try and I made big break though on club head speed. I break through 95mph mark. I was extremely happy with result. In the season of 2013, my handicap went down to 14 and I won some league trophies as a result. But I did not know why I was doing better. I was super compact and flat. I ran into slump of hooks and slices and golf became hopeless again.
Early spring of 2015, my back broke down on me. I did little too much of winter woodworking and resulted herniated disc. I did not know how bad disc herniation can be. I could not stand straight and balance myself. I had hard time getting up from bed and walking to bathroom. I was consumed with thoughts of unable to work at my job and to function as a dad of family. Armed with determination and body anatomy, I worked diligently to fix my back. After a month and half of recuperation, I was able to grab a club. I was extremely happy about golfing possibility in future.
I practiced mostly on full swing but not much on chip and putt. Some low handicapper told me to spend more time on chip and putt but when your driver is short and nowhere on the fairways, it is hard not to practice full swing and as a result not much of time left to practice chip and putt.
My major journey to improve golf swing started when I had near mental break down about golf in end of year 2012. I was at the cross road of quitting or major overhauling my game.
As soon as I admitted how bad my game was and result of tomorrow will be same as long as I stay in my comfort zone. When I said I am the worst guy on the busy range, I became humble and willing to try what ever because my game could not get any worse.
As a guy with a science back ground, I decide on bench mark test results of my improvements if I make any. In year 2012, I installed golf sim in my basement which can measure club head speed. If I made improvements to my swing, speed should increase on the golf sim as a proof.
Highest my driver swing speed was close to 90 mph and average was 85mph at the beginning of this journey. I spent few month on the sim to break 90mph. I even tried speed training with broken driver shaft at that time but it did no improvement what so ever. I kind wrote myself off thinking '" I am too old and may be not flexible enough and not strong enough". I even bought Somax Hip trainer to increase hip flexibility and I gave up on it after few month of hoping and dreaming with sweat.
In winter of 2012, out of frustration, I thought I should try opposite of what I have been doing those days. I strait jacketed my self with club head covers under both armpits. Swing was too restrictive and I could hardly swing the club. But my golf sim said, I swung 90 mph with 3 wood!!! I could not believe my sim reading and tried with the driver and I was getting more than 90mph consistently!!! So I tied my arms to my trunk using my son's martial art uniform belt so I did not need to re-stuff head covers under armpits. I spent couple months doing that drill but club head speed did not passes 95mph. But I ingrained my swing to ultra compact one.
Back in those days, Tiger Wood was big in golf and his coach Sean Foley made some youtube clips saying about centered rotation. I decided to give it a try and I made big break though on club head speed. I break through 95mph mark. I was extremely happy with result. In the season of 2013, my handicap went down to 14 and I won some league trophies as a result. But I did not know why I was doing better. I was super compact and flat. I ran into slump of hooks and slices and golf became hopeless again.
Early spring of 2015, my back broke down on me. I did little too much of winter woodworking and resulted herniated disc. I did not know how bad disc herniation can be. I could not stand straight and balance myself. I had hard time getting up from bed and walking to bathroom. I was consumed with thoughts of unable to work at my job and to function as a dad of family. Armed with determination and body anatomy, I worked diligently to fix my back. After a month and half of recuperation, I was able to grab a club. I was extremely happy about golfing possibility in future.
After couple months from back problem, I was playing golf but extremely careful about my swing. I put conscious effort to protect my back and eventually looked for new swing that can incorporate lumbar lordosis. This is how I made 180 degree flip on my swing. I changed from restrictive compact flat to loosey goosey upright with flying elbow.
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