My newest YouTube video is now posted. It is titled, “Unfreezing Your Golf Swing.” It concerns the habit of stepping up to the ball and waiting far too long to take the club back.
Learn also about the sequence of using the conscious mind and the subconscious mind when hitting a shot, which applies to everyone.
You, however, don’t have to go to YouTube. You can watch it right here.
I use these two drills to keep my sense of touch in approach putting in good shape. They’re easy to do and have an incredible payoff on the course.
When you have to fly the ball onto the green from close range, but don’t have much green to work with, the ball has to stop in a hurry. Here’s how to hit that shot.
You can hit the best shot ever, but unless you’re aimed where you and the ball to go, it won’t go there. Getting your aim right takes constant practice. Here’s how to do it.
Remember, do this drill every time you go to the range. Proper aim is not something you can learn once and then not worry about again.
This later post goes into a clear explanation of what I mean by the “picture” you see when you are properly aimed.
See my earlier video, on how to aim yourself, in case you have forgotten. This method does not compete with the video above, but compliments it.
Chipping to a green that slopes away from you is easy. It’s all in the setup.
Since the club is not hitting through the ball, the chance of blading the ball is reduced to virtually zero.
You can hit this shot almost any distance, not just the shortie you see in the video.
Here’s a fascinating video of what impact looks like. Notice two things: first, how much the club slows down at impact, especially in the driver swings. A lot of swing speed gets removed when the club meets the ball.
It looks like the club doesn’t slow down when you see players hit on TV, but I’ve read that impact removes about 30% of swing speed (Newton’s Third Law), and this video confirms that number to be in the ball park.
The second thing to notice is what happens to the clubface when the ball is hit off center. Do you see the clubface turning? That’s because impact was off-center. That decreases the distance of the shot, because some of the energy of impact is being used to rotate the clubface.
Note also that the film of the sand wedge does not support the myth of backspin being created by the the ball rolling up the clubface. It’s time to put that notion to rest.
The clubs, in order, are:
Sand wedge
9-iron
7-iron
5-iron
3-iron
Driver
Putter
Did you also notice, with the putter, how the ball skids across the grass before it starts rotating?
You might not think that a putt has trajectory, but it does. The skid you’re seeing here is what you want. If your putter face is too lofted at impact, or too delofted, the ball will hop, not slide, and distance will be affected.
Contact between the club and the ball in these shots lasts 1/2,000th of a second.
Before you leave home to play next time, spend three minutes watching this video clip over and over. Do it with the sound turned off so you can concentrate on the image. Absorb the feeling of ease and economy of movement turning into graceful, unforced power. Then go out with that feeling and play your best.