Forward shaft lean / Line of compression arghhh!

[bobmac]

You are losing your lag which means the club approaches the ball from a very shallow angle like a plane coming in to land.
To improve your lag, you need to increase the angle of attack.
Position a ball 12in behind your target ball and try and hit the target ball without hitting the back ball.
That will increase your angle of attack and therefor your lag. And you'll get bigger divots.

[video=youtube;bJ2oBmW37eY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ2oBmW37eY&list=PL7Uf2W3sfvqYBJ3OUldKvQT7ZWYEmPOyW[/video]

 

[Foxholer]

You are losing your lag which means the club approaches the ball from a very shallow angle like a plane coming in to land.
To improve your lag, you need to increase the angle of attack.
Position a ball 12in behind your target ball and try and hit the target ball without hitting the back ball.
That will increase your angle of attack and therefor your lag. And you'll get bigger divots.

Bob,

Seems the way to go - and a very simple and effective drill. Should/could the distance between the balls be reduced after a period?

Does that eliminate the early release? Or simply move it to after impact? And does that matter? Does the body simply adjust in the same way that the head-cover drill forces it to?

Isn't 'increase angle of attack' just another way of saying 'hit down on the ball'? Is that a bit of Pro-speak jargon? The bigger divots are simply the evidence that the change has happened too.

 

[bobmac]

Should/could the distance between the balls be reduced after a period?

For the longer clubs I'd say keep to the 12in. maybe decrease it for the mid irons but certainly no closer than 6in for the wedges

Does the body simply adjust in the same way that the head-cover drill forces it to?

That's the idea.
Some would tell the golfer to do this with the left hip and that with the right knee and this with the weight transfer and that with the left elbow and so on and so on.

Hit the front ball, not the back ball is the only thought.

It keeps it simple and the body adapts to a new feeling in order to miss the back ball without trying to piece together 6 swing thoughts in half a second.

 

[Foxholer]

That's the idea.
Some would tell the golfer to do this with the left hip and that with the right knee and this with the weight transfer and that with the left elbow and so on and so on.

Hit the front ball, not the back ball is the only thought.

It keeps it simple and the body adapts to a new feeling in order to miss the back ball without trying to piece together 6 swing thoughts in half a second.

:thup::clap:

That's the sort of practical drill that really appeals to me!

Though I can a bit of a crowded (and dangerous) bay with head-covers and balls all over the place if it goes wrong!

 

[SocketRocket]

For the longer clubs I'd say keep to the 12in. maybe decrease it for the mid irons but certainly no closer than 6in for the wedges



That's the idea.
Some would tell the golfer to do this with the left hip and that with the right knee and this with the weight transfer and that with the left elbow and so on and so on.

Hit the front ball, not the back ball is the only thought.

It keeps it simple and the body adapts to a new feeling in order to miss the back ball without trying to piece together 6 swing thoughts in half a second.

I agree Bob. Focusing on a task like 'missing the back ball' is a better way of achieving the correct result than focus on lots of body parts that will take care of themselves.

I also like the drill of hitting another ball set three inches or so in front of the struck ball.

 

[CMAC]

I agree Bob. Focusing on a task like 'missing the back ball' is a better way of achieving the correct result than focus on lots of body parts that will take care of themselves.

I also like the drill of hitting another ball set three inches or so in front of the struck ball.

havent seen that one before, what feeling or physical movement is that supposed to impart? (apart from fear for me anyway)

 

[Foxholer]

I agree Bob. Focusing on a task like 'missing the back ball' is a better way of achieving the correct result than focus on lots of body parts that will take care of themselves.

I also like the drill of hitting another ball set three inches or so in front of the struck ball.

Add that and the anti-shank one and balls and head-covers definitely will be flying all over the place!

@Darth Finishing the swing/swinging through the ball as opposed to hitting at the ball!

 

[SocketRocket]

havent seen that one before, what feeling or physical movement is that supposed to impart? (apart from fear for me anyway)

It teaches you to stay down in the shot preventing early extension, it also gives you the correct feel of hitting down and through as to flipping the wrists. In fact it engrains lots of good things.

 

[SocketRocket]

Add that and the anti-shank one and balls and head-covers definitely will be flying all over the place!

 

[lyden]

Bob how long before you would expect me to stop thinning the front ball?

 

[Foxholer]

Bob how long before you would expect me to stop thinning the front ball?

:rofl:

Progress - of a sort!

 

[garyinderry]

missing that back ball and hitting the front thin sounds quite impressive.

try foxholer's idea of moving the back ball a little closer. you will HAVE to come in a little steeper and hit down on it.

 

[bobmac]

missing that back ball and hitting the front thin sounds quite impressive.

You'd have to be a magician to do that

 

[lyden]

Yeah sorry my knowledge of terminology isn't the best I mean blading it on the downswing.

 

[SocketRocket]

havent seen that one before, what feeling or physical movement is that supposed to impart? (apart from fear for me anyway)

Just realised Darth that I never explained this well (I know, I know! nothing new there). You have to hit both balls, the one at address and also the one a few inches in front of it.

 

[Foxholer]

Yeah sorry my knowledge of terminology isn't the best I mean blading it on the downswing.

Make sure that your hips have moved further forward than before. It may be tht you are just adjusting with your arms.

You should feel as if you are hitting down on the target ball. Focus on hitting (down on) the target ball, not voiding the back one.

 

[granters]

this is my bad swing too. The way i get round it is to feel like you're leaving the club behind at the top. Feels pretty strange at first but once you get used to hit your striking improves no end

 

[JustOne]

You are losing your lag which means the club approaches the ball from a very shallow angle like a plane coming in to land.
To improve your lag, you need to increase the angle of attack.

Not true.



Angle of attack has nothing to do with lag, you can have plenty of lag and still hit shallow, in fact NOT being steep is far better than being steep.

People who cast are (generally) already steep, so much so that they normally take a divot in the ground behind the ball and subsequently have to stand up (early extend) to stop the club hitting the ground in an attempt to shallow out their descent.

Lag is the angle created by the arms/wrists/club and as such this drill DOES work to an extent in bettering those angles, but the steepness of the attack angle has nothing to do with it. It's a feeling of hitting down that helps you find those angles but you don't actually want to be hitting down (too much) or else you'll have a whole host of other problems.

Players can have attack angles of -1 degree and still has plenty of lag, players like Tom Watson barely graze the grass but he's neither a caster or a flipper. When hitting a driver you can actually hit UP on the ball and still have plenty of lag. Someone with their hands in front of the ball can hit the ball nicely with 0 degrees of descent if they want, there's no need to try and hit into the ground or take 'bigger' divots.

Like I said, angle of attack isn't lag, to say it is is misleading at best. The last thing a player would want is to think they have to hit down at the ground to improve their lag, and be hitting more and more down in an effort to do so, it'll probably destroy their swing.


The drill (if anything) is good for making people understand that you don't want to be 'helping' the ball in the air.



To stop 'scooping' here's the drill......

[video=youtube;ydJZ9bFQQ24]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydJZ9bFQQ24[/video]

 

[Foxholer]

JO,

I think it's merely a (mis-)interpretation of the wording. The lag is being lost - early - and the angle to impact is shallow. The oft used expression 'retain the lag' could be mis-interpreted too. How efficient would the swing be if the lag at half way down was retained until after impact!

And 'hitting down on the ball' is the same. That's what that video's title is and the guy mentions it quite a lot, but it's not (purely) 'hitting down on the ball', just hitting more down on the ball - shows where Bob's 'increase the angle of attack' work better.

With a more down on the ball/increased angle of attack I'm pretty certain that the lag will naturally release better - something Bob may have neglected to mention because it simply happens automatically, though I don't want to make assumptions.

Btw. I like the setting up tip in the vid. It seems to me that returning to setup position at impact is a contributor to much of the problem, so if that 'feelage' can be changed, then a better impact will result.

 

[JustOne]

JO,

I think it's merely a (mis-)interpretation of the wording.

Indeed, I agree. I just wanted to point out that lag isn't about angle of attack.

I concede that the video itself is somewhat poorly titled, the idea is to get people not to hit UP at the ball... and the only way to do that is to say that you need to hit DOWN. Hit LEVEL with your hands ahead of the ball would be ideal.

I also agree with you in that I love the setting up tip in video where he says to "address the back ball then hit the front one" as this puts the shaft lean on the club before you start your backswing - very nice.

The angle of attack that he actually hits the ball is irrelevant, it could be 8 degrees down or 0, he will still have lag.