Day Five: The Big Sticks

Today I focused on the big sticks - Driver, 3-wood and Hybrid - however I warmed up with my 8-iron and hit about 15 balls to loosen up.

I pulled out my Driver and hit about 20 or 25 drives – at first, pretty inconsistently.

I was focusing more on the mechanics of the swing versus being fluid and loose. I wanted to make sure that I was making a full shoulder turn.

In the Ben Hogan book, he emphasizes that most people do not make a full shoulder turn and stated that all of his golf shirts are worn out on the left shoulder where his chin hits his shoulder. After I read that, I realized that most times I was not even hitting my chin with my shoulder. I was bringing my arms up instead of bringing them back and creating a wider arc.

Today, I was trying to focus on the plane of the swing – brining my arms back instead of up, turning my back to the target with my shoulders and having my left shoulder hit my chin at the top of my back swing.

Something that I need to continue to remember is to be very still during my swing. I feel like sometimes my head is moving around, which is pulling my body all around – ultimately, making me come through at the ball at all different angles - hence the inconsistency in my tee shots. In my quest to create a repeatable swing with consistent results, I need to keep my head completely still during the set-up, backswing and downswing.

After I worked up a little sweat with my Driver, I grabbed my 3-wood and hit it off the carpet. I am feeling really good about the way I am hitting this club. I take a stance that is about shoulder width apart. I bend at the knees as if my butt is propped up on a ledge. I take a flatter swing with a nice big turn and really come at the ball from the inside. For some reason, it is easier for me to come at the ball with this club from the inside out and I can see it - I am really smoking it - hitting a low screamer that lands well past the 200 marker and rolls for another who knows. Even though I am hitting this club well, I still have a hunch that my hips are a little late to the swing party. Hogan says to get your hips going first during the downswing (hips, shoulders, arms then hands in that order) and to rotate the hips as fast as possible through the shot. I feel like I am still a little slow in the hips and that if I was able to get my hips through, I would be able to have a little more accuracy with this club. Nonetheless, the slice is definitely going away. I maybe only saw it but a few times with this club today. I took about the same amount of shots with the 3-wood as with the Driver (20 to 25 balls).

I then starting hitting the Hybrid. At first, I was hitting the ball fat and popping it up with the ball landing about 150 yards up. I then started choking up on the club a little bit and striking the ball a lot better. I would take the 3-wood stance (bend at the knees like your butt is on a ledge) but have the ball a little more left of center (not as far up as the heel of my left foot with my driver). It seemed like the flatter the swing I took, the more I had a tendency to get my hands through a little early and hook the ball.

Next time I hit this club at the range, I am going to focus on really going at the ball from the inside and extending through the shot as long as possible while releasing the club head. I have a feeling that as I get really comfortable with this club (not sure when) I will be able to really work the ball. Doesn't everyone say that Hybrids are so easy to hit? Well, I am far from that point, but I get the feeling that this is going to be the case after I have a chance to figure it out.

Nonetheless, I hit about 20 to 25 balls and was putting the balls out about 210, but the flatter the swing, the lower the trajectory. I was hitting it 210 and it was rolling some more (like the 3-wood screamer), so it was not a high, soft fluffy 210 that could back up if stuck on a green. The flatter swing produced a lot of topspin and no back spin. I think if I want that high fluffer that will stick, I will need to come at the ball a lot steeper, but I do not really want to worry about that yet - I am still trying to find that nice, consistent, repeatable, sound swing.

With the remaining 25 or so balls, I went back to the Driver. I thought about a David Leadbetter video I saw about the baseball swing drill (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc1kt6MASDY&feature=related) for the shape of the swing. This also helps with releasing the club head and turning your hands over. With the shoulder turn feeling pretty good now, I focused on trying to swing smoothly through the ball and not try and kill it. Well, I'll be damned - I started hitting some pretty solid shots down the target line. They weren't monster drives, but I liked the control. I figure that if I can get the hang of the swing that comes with keeping my head still and making that swing real smooth, then I can add power later. I just want to continue to make solid contact on a straight ball.

I felt good when I was done - I feel like I made good progress today.