the clock method

i have just bought the phil mickleson short game dvd for £18 of ebay so im going to give this a go and if he mentions the clock method then i will defiantly give it a go as he is the star of the short game after all ;)
 
Its quite a thick book mate, ive not plucked up the courage to read it yet but im getting there. If you remind me I will bring it to Formby and let you have a browse to see if its the sort of thing that would interest you.

Im gonna start reading over winter as im guessing wrong too much with the short game :rofl:

in nearly sure its about to drop in my letterbox any day now. Like bread, the thicker the better! :rofl:
 
its not just the clock bit that interests me. I want to hear what he has to say about getting good contact, where the hands should be, weight distribution, bounce etc.

there is a world of fun in the short game. :)
 
I use it and it works a treat. However you MUST swing to a full finish and once you have calculated the yardages and written them down, you have to trust them. They do work. It is a bit too mechanical for many, it does try to take feel out of the shot and like Foxholer I found the 7:30 position difficult, but it has improved my 100 yards and in game hugely.

Shouldn't be a need to write the yardages down. If you can remember your 7-iron or 150 yard club, theres little additional memory required. And the 'full finish' that you are talking about is 'his' finesse one, not the full 5/6 iron one - so about 10:30-11 on the follow through.

Its quite a thick book mate, ive not plucked up the courage to read it yet but im getting there. If you remind me I will bring it to Formby and let you have a browse to see if its the sort of thing that would interest you.

Im gonna start reading over winter as im guessing wrong too much with the short game :rofl:

Only the first 70 pages or so are really needed, though a scan of the later couple of hundred do show some subtleties that are worthwhile - choking down and opening the stance to adjust distances with the same standard swing.

@Homer. I'd seriously suggest that you persist with Pelz - or another 'method' - and try to make it natural, even if you have to modify some of the 'rigidity' that you noted. If your pitching is as bad as you suggest, then I believe you need something that improves your confidence. I know a guy who's pitching was diabolical who committed to this approach and - with 5 wedges! - is now off 6 (from 12-13). Still looks mechanical, but I can't fault the results!
 
Phil says that if someone tries to teach you the clock method then 'RUN' They are crazy :)


[video=youtube;vZWPee66M1s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZWPee66M1s[/video]
 
Phil says that if someone tries to teach you the clock method then 'RUN' They are crazy :)


[video=youtube;vZWPee66M1s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZWPee66M1s[/video]


If you watch him take his shot he goes back to 7.30 and accelerates through.
That is basically the clockface drill.
If he needed a longer shot he would take it back further,say to 9 oclock and accelerate through.
What hes basically saying is don't take the club back to 9 oclock if you only need a 7.30 shot.
 
Had a flick through this tonight and theres a lot i found boring early on but im liking the how to score section. Looks an interesting way of going about the shorter shots.
 
It isn't pitching per se that's the problem. I could be more accurate from 40-100 yards but think that applies to most on here. My issues are all around chipping and arguably all in the head these days. Got a better set up with more neutral position to use the bounce and working hard with the v-easy. I think two years of fatting and skulling shots has bled into the psyche and so there is zero confidence in the ability to achieve. No coincidence that if I start chipping well at the start of a round confidence grows and vice versa if I duff the first one

I find the clock face and the thought of trying to hit specific lengths just adds one more thought and variable to a simple task I've already over complicated and over thought. The winter is about getting a bulletproof technique and clearing the chocolate frogs from the head. When I get it right the natural feel and distance control is spot on. It's the getting it right that's the issue
 
If you watch him take his shot he goes back to 7.30 and accelerates through.
That is basically the clockface drill.
If he needed a longer shot he would take it back further,say to 9 oclock and accelerate through.
What hes basically saying is don't take the club back to 9 oclock if you only need a 7.30 shot.

He is saying that taking the club back to 9 or 10 is too much and encourages you giving in on the shot as it will create too much power. His method is to take the club back only a short distance and use the hinge to create that power.
 
Phil says that if someone tries to teach you the clock method then 'RUN' They are crazy :)


[video=youtube;vZWPee66M1s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZWPee66M1s[/video]
What Phil says in the video is that it is wrong to go back as far as you want to swing through eg. 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock. This is not what Pelz teaches. He says you should use the clock method for your backswing and always swing to a full finish. This ensures that the ball always goes the same distance and that you accelerate through the ball. Exactly what Phil says you must do.
 
Had a flick through this tonight and theres a lot i found boring early on but im liking the how to score section. Looks an interesting way of going about the shorter shots.
I enjoyed the early bits, as he uses quite interesting stories to illustrate his lessons. How he got into teaching, how he came to realise 100 yards and in was the most important aspect of the game, scoring wise.
 
Shouldn't be a need to write the yardages down. If you can remember your 7-iron or 150 yard club, theres little additional memory required. And the 'full finish' that you are talking about is 'his' finesse one, not the full 5/6 iron one - so about 10:30-11 on the follow through.
I use the system on 3 wedges with three clock face positions with both choked down and full grip, so that gives me 18 yardages. If you can remember all those without writing them down, then you have a better head for figures than me, and thats before you add in 9 iron, 8 iron etc. I just have them written inside my scorecard holder. I may have to refer to it once, maybe twice a round. Pelz himself suggests you do this. The full finish I was referring to is the finesse swing for 100 yards and in.
 
It isn't pitching per se that's the problem. I could be more accurate from 40-100 yards but think that applies to most on here. My issues are all around chipping and arguably all in the head these days. Got a better set up with more neutral position to use the bounce and working hard with the v-easy. I think two years of fatting and skulling shots has bled into the psyche and so there is zero confidence in the ability to achieve. No coincidence that if I start chipping well at the start of a round confidence grows and vice versa if I duff the first one

That is indeed a different issue - and chipping isn't really associated with Pelz's clock approach. I've had similar issues re duffs and thins - and I'd suggest most have really - but overcame it with a bit of a technique change (from my chipping yipping Pro mate!) and a slightly more relaxed approach to the whole business. So can certainly agree that it's almost all in the head and, at least in my case, the fewer thoughts, the better. I'm inclined to believe, without being too critical, that you have far to many thoughts when chipping. I chip a few before a round, but don't get hung up by any I duff - at least in the first few - and am only interested in, eventually, getting good contact.

I find the clock face and the thought of trying to hit specific lengths just adds one more thought and variable to a simple task I've already over complicated and over thought. The winter is about getting a bulletproof technique and clearing the chocolate frogs from the head. When I get it right the natural feel and distance control is spot on. It's the getting it right that's the issue

And more on the subject of thoughts! I found that where I was using a Pelz swing, the fact that I know that I've already determined that the swing I'm about to make is 'perfect' for the distance, actually means that I don't need to have any thoughts abouit distance, so can simply concentrate on the swing - which should be the same as the one I've practiced hundreds of times before!
 
To those people who are saying it takes too long or feels unnatural just start with the 9 oclock swing. Get comfortable doing that until it feels natural and note down your yardages. Then progress to the 1030. And when you can happily alternate between the 9 and 1030 you can think about 730. What I've found is that I rarely need the 730 as I can usually take one club less and use the 9 oclock :)
 
when I teach someone new to the game how to play a chip shot I always teach phil's hinge and hold method.

I simply tell them to take it half way back and follow all the way through. the pre-set shaft lean promotes and downward strike and solid contact.

getting newbies to use the bounce and essentially cast the club can lead to problems in getting consistent contact. they will make contact but the degree of consistency varies greatly I find.

that's not to say I never chip using the bounce. if the ground is any way soft ill use the bounce. under pressure, I will always go hinge and hold.

if you think about normal "impact position" on a regular shot you want some shaft lean. this gives solid contact and a repeatable flight. when you cast the club you add an unknown amount of loft leading to poor distance control. the same applies with chip shot.
 
I use the system on 3 wedges with three clock face positions with both choked down and full grip, so that gives me 18 yardages. If you can remember all those without writing them down, then you have a better head for figures than me, and thats before you add in 9 iron, 8 iron etc. I just have them written inside my scorecard holder. I may have to refer to it once, maybe twice a round. Pelz himself suggests you do this. The full finish I was referring to is the finesse swing for 100 yards and in.

No need to remember all 18! The beauty of Mathematics comes to your rescue! You only need to remember the 'base' ones and the difference choking down actually makes, as it will make the same (for practical purposes) difference to all yardages - probably 3-5 yards! Likewise the difference a slightly open face makes to the distances, which will probably be about the same. And that's what I mean about slavery to the system! I believe you've gone OTT on it imo and, unless you are prepared to devote the sort of time a Professional does to it, could well be better served with a simplified approach. That's not a criticism of either you or the system. Merely an 'admission that, as Amateurs, our contact is not sufficiently consistent to go to that level of accuracy! And even the Pros dont - though their grouping would be much tighter than ours!
 
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