Make THIS your BEST EVER GOLF YEAR

Make THIS your BEST-EVER Golf Year

In the new video with this title (in this blog, in the section ‘golf videos’) are some ‘helpful hints’ on what you might consider doing to make the New Year an exciting one for you – GOLF-wise.

Have posted several videos over the past few weeks which give a good picture of what you could do better, once you get a clearer idea of what needs doing, by watching all of the videos in the sequence described below (you could simply click on the links below; go to the ‘golf videos’ section of this blog where they pop up one after the other; or see them on youtube):

The BODY’s ROLE in the GOLF SWING                                                                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM_DbMyHIo8

Over-the-Top GOLF SWING – Best Definition                                                                     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCnDGq_q-7s

Is YOUR golf swing a lot of BS?                                                                                                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UosXcURDg0Y

How to hit your best shot – ALWAYS                                                                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5_TF7Mfzk8

Is YOUR GOLF SWING Over-the-Top?                                                                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO_uFyhuwyo

Putting – A Pendulum-like Motion. Yes or No?                                                                                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMFGCENGQD8

Make THIS your BEST-EVER GOLF YEAR                                                                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCdzp0ntp0

Putting – a Pendulum-Like Motion. Yes or No?

Putting – a Pendulum-Like Motion. Yes or No?

What does a pendulum-like motion involve? Is the putting stroke a pendulum-like motion? Should it be one?

Those who make the probably most commonly used putting stroke – by rocking-the-shoulders. Could you have a greater margin for error with a stroke which has a shallower-bottoming-of-the-arc that a pendulum?

The latest video in the golf-videos section of this blog (titled Putting – a pendulum-Like Motion. Yes or No?) explains, and is the lead-in for the soon-to-be-published video titled, “In-Swing Thoracic Rotation – Boon or Bane?“

Hit the Ball Further, Straighter, Higher EVERY TIME

Hit the Ball Further, Straighter, Higher EVERY TIME

If a ball in not connected below its equator and on it’s inside/near right quadrant (for a right-handed golfer), where CAN it be connected? Above its equator or on it’s outside right quadrant.

Anyway you look at it, that IS an over-the-top – OF THE BALL – impact, and does not give you the best ball-flight you are capable of – maximum distance, straight direction and ideal trajectory!

Two new videos (in the GOLF VIDEOS section of this blog), titled How to Hit YOUR Best Shot – ALWAYS and IS YOUR GOLF SWING Over-the-Top together show body (joint) -positions at the top of the backswing which are the opposite of what is required for correct impact.

When multiple joints require to be repositioned, in sequential order, during the short duration of the downswing, the brain says, “no time, why bother” and simply follows the path of least resistance and drops the club over the top of the ball. hence a ‘bludgeoned’ or ‘smothered’ impact, where the golfer puts in ‘x’ amount of effort, but only a portion of it (cosine of ‘x’) goes into the ball, the rest is wasted in the dirt or air around the ball.

Once certain joints are mis-placed at the top, the golfer – depending on his/her level of skill and experience – makes individual compensatory movements in order to try to re-position upper-body and trail (right) arm joints properly. The re-positioning gives the body two opportunities to deliver the club over-the-top of the ball. You have to be very skilled and have years of practice to avoid both OTT opportunities and deliver the club from a shallow, inside path!

Ironically, the fitness experts tell you you have physical limitations which need correction in order to make a better swing, when in fact all you need is better joint placement and minimal movement during the swing!

Is YOUR golf swing a lot of BS – and you don’t even know it?

Is YOUR golf swing a lot of BS – and you don’t even know it?

A new video in the golf videos section of this blog tells you how your golf swing might have a lot of BS to it, and how you may not even realize it, and finally what to do about it.

Is YOUR golf swing a lot of BS – and you don’t even know it?

Is YOUR golf swing a lot of BS – and you don’t even know it?

A new video in the golf videos section of this blog tells you how your golf swing might have a lot of BS to it, and how you may not even realize it, and finally what to do about it.

The Body’s Role in the Golf Swing

A new video in the golf videos section (the Body’s Role in the Golf Swing) explains why it is not enough to simply look at club shaft plane or clubface position, not to require a golfer to shift weight or rotate the torso but not the hips.

CAN the body actually place the club in position no matter what?

CAN the body bump and twist and unbump and untwist to order?

See the video to understand the role of the body – not just in golf, but in other sports too.

Coming soon – based on the abovementioned video – Over-the-top the BEST DEFINITION. Why best? Once again because it describes over-the-top in body – not club terms.

To all those who believe in ‘swing the clubhead’ or some version of it, I urge you to beef up on a bit of human anatomy. Anything the club does the body is making it do!

Ball Flight Laws for the SHORT GAME – A TEST of UNDERSTANDING

Ball Flight Laws for the SHORT GAME – A TEST of UNDERSTANDING

If both these ‘finish’ positions are for the short game, would you expect identical or different BALL FLIGHTS to result from the two positions below?

In other words, as the main aspect of BALL FLIGHT for the short game is trajectory, would both the finish positions shown here result in the same BALL TRAJECTORY (ie. high vs low shot)?

We know that Ball Flight is governed strictly by the BALL FLIGHT LAWS of how the club arrives at the ball, and connects with the ball. After impact, insist many folks, the ball is gone and what the club does will not matter.

So, to get back to the question above. If you answered both positions WILL result in the same trajectory, then WHICH aspects of the BALL FLIGHT LAWS make it so?

If you answered that both positions will NOT result in the same ball trajectory, then you’re saying FINISH DOES MATTER. So, in that case, which BALL FLIGHT LAW (BFL) governs that?

This is a TRAP for all the so-called Ball Flight experts in India and the USA and everywhere in between. So, am posting this on the LPGA T&CP and the National Golf Academy of India facebook pages as well as on my blog and hope to get MANY RESPONSES to this IMPORTANT CHALLENGE to the BFL!

Winter Golf Plan – Swing vs Fitness Improvement

Winter Golf Plan – swing vs fitness improvement

The ‘typical’ golf swing requires you to shift weight over the back leg and rotate, and then shift weight to the front leg and rotate. While you do this your spine must not straighten out from its forward bend, nor fall back towards target going back or away from target going through. Your wrists should be able to set an angle and maintain it until impact, and your shaft should be on or slightly under the shaft plane at least from halfway down until impact.

Now if you cannot do all of this, you have fitness/restriction issues and should spend hour upon hour in the gym – or so the folks at TPI and other golf fitness organizations will tell us.

But here are the ACTUAL PROBLEMS:

Suppose you shift a bit too much before starting to turn/rotate? ‘They’ll’ say you swayed! Same move on the downswing – a slide! Wouldn’t you be able to calibrate your backswingshift-and-turn amount more accurately if it was completed during the set-up phase?

If you lift your upper body on the downswing, you’ve ‘early extended’ and apparently 75% of golfers do it! ‘They’ claim it’s because you cannot do a ‘deep overhead squat’ (ie your legs are not strong enough). MGSS says naturally if you tilt your left/lead shoulder going back (which ‘they’ want – dire things can happen if your shoulder plane is shallow), your body HAS to find a way for the trail shoulder to drop down during the downswing, so your spine might have to straighten up! AND, if your right/trail side is lower at address and at impact, why raise it at all and then have to rely on perfect timing to drop it precisely!

AS to the ‘wrist angle’ requirement? It’s just asking for trouble. Why bother with wrist set going back? Do you hit the ball on the backswing? What if the wrists could set NATURALLY, WHEN REQUIRED, during the downswing?

Finally, what is the guarantee that after one became loose in the tight muscles and strong in the weak ones, worked on power and speed, one would be able to deliver the club to the correct spot on the ball at the correct time?

So, it’d be nice if half the visitors to this blog worked on fitness and the other half on making a good MGSS full-swing, and we could compare notes at the beginning of the summer of 2013!

Details of the ‘twelve most common swing faults’ in the new ‘fitness’ section of this blog.

From short fade to long baby-draw – Case Study for teachers and players

From short fade to long baby-draw a Case Study for teachers and players.

See the youtube video with the same title for details. Also on this blog in the ‘golf videos’ section.

Posted this series of pictures on two professional teachers blogs asking members to comment on what this student should do to go from his current situation where he consistently slices the ball with a big loss of distance to a long, superb trajectory, minimally curving back baby-draw.

The only five responses from two facebook-pages of golf-teachers-organizations were:

1. Check the fundamentals – grip, ball-position, alignment. Are they weak, strong, open, closed. Set up for a draw and have the student hit short shots off a tee. The student should feel,, see and expect something different.

2. Weight forward, handle forward, clubface open to target and closed to path.

3. The body is spinning on the back leg which has become the axis of rotation, with weight falling through that back leg and, as that happens, the club face opens causing a fade. You can see this in the 3rd pic. Get him to move the weight forward creating a better axis of rotation.

4. I would work on face position at impact which is related to the players present grip positions, and work on a  shallower swing plane to change the path.

5. Have you done a KCA for this player to see if he has any physical limitations which prevent him from moving onto the left side. Could be he has a problem with his thoracic spine which prevents him from loading up in the backswing thus causing him to fall back through impact.

MGSS responses:

1. Just as knowing one’s A, B, C’s does not convert to writing an essay in Newsweek or The Economist, the set-up or ‘fundamentals’ are only the starting point and do not convert to ‘poetry in motion’ in the golf swing – many things can go wrong in-swing, despite perfect starting positions, and the fundamentals are only the tip of the iceberg.
2. Weight forward, handle forward to my mind is a delofting of a club – why then bother to carry 14? It’s ‘settling’ and will not always work if joint positions at the top still force the golfer to come over the top, spin around on the trail leg and have a clubface that is opening (present continuous tense) through the impact area.
3. This analysis is great but once again, the golfer would surely ‘load’ through if they could. They usually cannot because their typical or traditional golf backswing has made the right side of their trunk higher and rotated away from target. Now the golfer has to make 3 independent moves in quick succession (rotate trunk forward, drop trail side down, drop arms down) and when there is no time the poor golfer can but come ‘over-the-top and spin around on the back leg!
4. We all want to work on face position at impact – how? even with a strong grip and a decent swing plane (as the golfer in the picture has) it is possible to slice the ball
5. The Titleist performance Institute lists as the top 4 most commonly seen swing ‘faults’ – early spinal extension, swinging over-the-top, and casting/early release during the backswing, and sway. These, they say are all muscular imbalances. While it is important to be able to assess such imbalances, a set-up and backswing with better positioned body joints can cure all of these 4 faults. So, the golfer must decide – work out every day forever or spend a week learning a more efficient swing!

CONCLUSION – the MGSS does not look at set-up or swing faults at all. Whatever they may be they get sorted out simply with better joint positions.

Ryder Cup 2012 – Forgotten and Forgettable except for the Lesson given to Tiger

The Ryder Cup 2012 – Forgotten and Forgettable

Who are the 45,000 masochists who want to stand frozen in place (no room to even raise an arm), for a couple of hours, on one of only four fairways, to be able to see a maximum of maybe 16 shots hit from that area!

Especially those masochists who are not a minimum of 6’ 5” tall and can thus at least see clearly over the heads of people standing 10 rows deep all around the limited fairways-in-play

Of course, the ambience of a Ryder Cup is awe-inspiring and the approximately 3500 volunteers make moving crowds into a logistical marvel. The Middle-Eastern-inspired club-house architecture is a sight to behold (huge dome, minarets and the name ‘Medinah’ – albeit pronounced differently!). And the ’mums in all their resplendent Fall glory were everywhere, as were the giant old trees in shades of yellow and red.

However, the 2012 Ryder Cup was forgettable and is, by now, surely forgotten.

The most standing-out factor was how Tiger, once again, was a mess. My personal highlight was getting my picture taken next to ‘him’ and telling him not to be so over-the-top with his right shoulder – he always is, and the MGSS philosophy explains that that is the fault of important body-joints not being in good positions at the top!