A Scottish view of the Swamp
 

Hey all,

As you all know I have just got back from 3 days at the Swamp (1 afternoon with Ted and 2 'half' days with Lynn) and I can tell you these guys know their stuff!!
Both Lynn and Ted are great guys and can pure flat out teach from the little yellow book, they both know the book inside out and can apply it to the student in question without bamboozling them or confusing them. All questions are welcomed and no question is stupid.
For those who are debating whether to make the 8 hour flight (9 hours for me as I had to fly down from Glasgow first) do it, you will not regret it, at first it does seem to be a lot of information to digest but once you have the concepts clear in your mind and can apply it, its bye bye to all the bad things that you have in your swing. Fix one thing and then suddenly one or two (or even more) bad habits disappear and you will end up with a beautiful golfing machine that produces 'Tour' like results time and time again.
I will write more about what we worked on later and put it elsewhere in the forum but for now I just like to say a big thanks to Lynn and Ted first of all for the kindness and friendship as well as the time and effort on the range.
Its a great feeling to be able to hit a shot when called for (see Lynn's post about me doing a quick demo for his private clinic on the Saturday) and even better to see Lynn getting excited as much as you with the improvement that you have made (I can still see Lynn's face when I pured those two shots and hear Ted saying 'that's right man...' :D)
Even better was the little demo that Lynn and Ted did with Lynn's Private Clinic on the Saturday evening. If you thought Ted's water bottle trick was impressive on video, you haven't really seen it until you witness it live and also seeing the two of them bounce off each other teaching the concepts of TGM is just great (have you thought about taking it on the road ;)) Lynn's party and I were suitably impressed with the enthusiasm and the ease that Lynn taught the concepts to us.
Its just a pity the Swamp is not closer otherwise I would of loved to work with Lynn and Ted even more but this is a start and for once I am very much looking forward to the winter months to work on the things that I have learned and apply them even better to my golfing machine.
Thanks!!
Alex

Good on you Alex, seems like you had a blast.

Now get down to the real stuff. Gimme more, gimme more NOW!

Patience my young padiwan learner....patience :D
Just need to sit down and spend some time writing it all out.
Alex

Swamp, here I come...
 

I am looking forward to my trip to the Swamp in January 2007!

Swamp Rats
 

Me, too, Slinger! :salut:

A Scottish view of the Swamp (Part 2)
 

Visit to the Swamp Part 2 (Wednesday 15th November 2006)

This was one of those days that worked out a lot better than what was originally planned. The plan for my first full day in Georgia was to play a round of golf with a few friends (Martee included) but due to the weather front that came into Georgia on Tuesday evening it was a complete washout (Tornado warnings and solid rain for about 10 hours! Just like home then!)

So with the golf cancelled we placed a quick phone call to Yodasluke aka Ted to see what he was up to during the day and to see if was free. Luckily he was!!

But before heading down to the Swamp for the first time (for me anyways) Martee and I paid a visit to the PGA Tour Store that is in Kennesaw as well as the Golfsmiths. I just wished that we had that kind of ‘superstore’ available to us here in the UK where you can get clubmaking equipment as well as OEM equipment all under one roof. Before you ask I walked out of both stores having only bought a dozen balls, a glove and 200 tees. Martee had his eye on a Ping stand bag.

So after the retail therapy we headed down to the Swamp! We took a bit of a scenic route but then again I was never known for my map reading abilities!!!

Once we were at the Swamp, we quickly introduced ourselves to Ted and cornered him before he could run away from us :laughing9
We had a quick chat about life, golf and the golf swing before heading out for some lunch where we talked more about golf and so on (thanks to Ted’s friend for picking up the tab)

After lunch we ventured back to the range and starting chatting about what I was looking for in my visit to the Swamp. Martee asked some questions that had been puzzling him for a while about his swing and the Golfing Machine in general. This carried on for about an hour by which point all of Ted’s students for that day had cancelled (all a bunch of sisses I tell ya…its only a wee bit of rain!! :))

Before I even hit a golf ball, Ted explained a few concepts to Martee and I. The visual with the hula hoop and the dowel was pretty eye opening and light up a light bulb in my head. The concepts of the golf swing and The Golfing Machine was explained in a clear and concise manner that it was easy for a newbie like myself to understand. There is a reason why this man is the Georgia PGA Section Teacher of the year, he can teach!

After a couple of swings, Ted could tell straight away that I was a swinger of the golf club rather than a hitter. He did not do anything to change it and said that there was no point in doing so if that is your natural inclination with the golf swing.

The first thing that he changed were my set up. My old set up had my right shoulder too high which caused the right forearm to be off plane. Too many years of ‘conventional’ teaching caused my set up to be wrong and as everyone knows once you go wrong with the set up, you have a job of a time to get things right at impact.

We spent a while working on Impact Fix, trying to get right shoulder lower, the right forearm more on plane and to get my head into more of an impact position. Ted and Martee both noticed that face on when I took my Impact Fix position, I was just moving my hands forward and that there was not any movement in my hips or my legs. So worked on it more with my hips clearing and moving my weight forward (this in turned moved my head forward, but Ted let this slide as previously my weight and head moved backwards so it was the lesser of the two evils)
It was pretty amazing how by working on Impact Fix the swing suddenly moves up a notch, I was beginning to hit the ball a bit better, more cleaner contact but I was still getting my ‘dying quail’ high fades. Ted said that the Impact Alignments in the swing happen naturally if you let it happen and the by product of getting a flat left wrist/bent right wrist at impact is that your right forearm is on plane and your right shoulder will goes downplane and is on plane.

The next thing that Ted’s expert eye noticed was that I was ‘Roundhousing’ on my downswing. So this is where the Downstroke Waggle comes to the fore. Ted had me doing a few dry swings to make sure that I was going it correctly. Again, I was just doing the waggle with the arms and had left the hips stationary. He showed me that it was a more dynamic movement that involved the whole pivot as well as the hands.

By doing the downstroke waggle, we could work on a whole multitude of things, we could see that I need to slide my hips first before turning them in the downswing (delayed hip turn) and when it was executed properly I could see the right shoulder go down plane and it felt that my right shoulder was going down a lot more than I was used to. I had never felt my swing like that before. Also by doing this, my swing path was changed and I was hitting the ball from a more inside path as opposed to hitting it with an OTT movement. ‘Down and out man..’ Ted would say and I can still hear him when I execute a good swing ‘That’s right man…’ :)

At this point a lot of bells were going off in my head, suddenly things that I did not understand were suddenly becoming more clearer, I understood things more and could finally see in the flesh how the Golfing Machine could be applied to me.

From then on it was just hitting balls and making sure that I could do what Ted wanted me to do. We did talk about hinge action but we did not concentrate much on that as Ted felt that once I got everything else right that the hinge action would take care of itself as I was not fighting it.

One of the phrases that I learned or kept hearing all day was put your ‘head in your hands’ as once I thought about something else I would inevitably hit a poor shot. So put you ‘head in your hands’ and monitor what they are doing.

So in Summary the afternoon with Ted, we worked on the following:

1) Impact Fix
2) Proper Alignments
3) Downstroke Waggle

This was a good start to the week and I could see things starting to improve. Again, thanks to Ted for spending the time with me, helping me go further along this journey with the Golfing Machine.

My first day with Yoda (Part 3) will be posted up later on in the week.
Alex

Thanks Alex. Part 3 eagerly awaited.

Yours in jealousy. :mrgreen:

yah, you and me both pops!!! too cool al.

too cool!!!!

A Scottish view of the Swamp (Part 3)
 

Visit to the Swamp Part 3a (Thursday 16th November 2006)

Today was the day that I was due to meet the one and only Yoda himself. Lynn had spent the previous 3 days in Orlando doing a private clinic with Brian Gay and Verizon. But all credit to Lynn he said that he would be back in the Swamp by the Thursday (he had drove back to Marietta from Orlando during the Wednesday evening and Thursday morning)
Martee and I had gone down earlier to the Swamp to warm up as I was not due to meet up with Lynn till about midday. That warm up session was interesting as I was still processing the information from the previous afternoon with Ted (Martee and I discussed what Ted and I had worked on the previous evening just to make sure that my thick noodle received and processed it correctly!) Some bad shots here and there but had some good ones too but the main reason was to get ready and warmed up for when Lynn turned up.

When Lynn arrived back in the Swamp, we had a chat in the range’s clubhouse about what I was looking for from the 2 days of work and what my goals were with regards to my game. I was a bit surprised when Lynn asked if I had any professional aspirations but sadly being 29, my dreams of taking the Tour by storm are long gone.. (Champions Tour maybe…….21 years should be enough to get my game ready right?? ;-)) I told Lynn that all I wanted was to improve my game and to be the best player that I can be. I did however tell Lynn that I was there with an open mind and that my golfing brain was going to be a sponge, I was ready to soak in all the information that Lynn was willing to share with me with regards to the Golfing Machine.

So after that quick chat, we headed off to the short game area to work on the fundamentals and the basics.

Even before a ball was hit, Yoda began the session with him describing as well as demonstrating the flying wedges, extensor action, plane angle and much much more!!
I would recommend that if you do go down to the Swamp that you take your camcorder with you (along with plenty of tapes and back up batteries….between the 3 of us, we managed to get just about everything on tape. Hopefully, with the help of Martee, I will be able to get them all onto CD in a format that I can view) in that one afternoon there were plenty of little nuggets of information that will lead to many 'a-ha' moments down the line.

Lynn is one of the best teachers that I have the privilege to work with; he is a wonderful communicator and motivator. One of the best things about Lynn’s teaching is that he demonstrates everything that he explains to the student. The Golfing Machine focuses on precision, as does Lynn, so when you do something right he will say so and you really have.

So we worked on Basic Motion for the afternoon, made sure that I could execute the Basic Motion properly and that I could do it with all three hinge actions (Horizontal, Angled and Vertical) Since I am a Swinger of the golf club, the Horizontal Hinging felt more natural to me but since we were there to learn, Yoda got me to do all three. Vertical Hinging still gives me the fits, but after a few tries I managed to get it right J
By working on Basic Motion, we could see what needed to be worked on in my game. It was amazing to see that all the faults that I had in my Basic Motion (additional right wrist bend, flipping, lack of extensor action, dragging the club back too far inside and lack of proper execution of the Horizontal Hinge) would be the common flaws all the way through my game. I admit my short game is not the best in the world, but with all this new information, I feel that come next summer, I can improve a lot.

A drill that Yoda had me doing was to set up normally with the ball but then turn my body to face the target and then I had to hit balls using this stance, this taught me more about the Horizontal Hinge and also forced me to hit down on the ball instead of helping it up into the air. Looks strange but it does work!! He also got me tracing the plane line with my right forearm, this fixed my age old habit of dragging the club too far back inside.

After the session on the practice area, we had a quick break before heading out to the mats to work on some Acquired Motion shots (the grass range was closed due to the 10 hours worth of rain the previous day)
Again with Acquired Motion, you could see the common theme that ran through my game with the flipping, addition wrist bend and so on.

The first thing that Yoda changed was my set up (see previous post) whilst Ted got me to go into Impact Fix to get my ideal set up, Yoda had another idea. He got me to set up with a little more weight on my left foot, flared out my toes (left about 30* and the right about 20*) to aid my turn on the way back and through the swing. It was almost like setting up in Impact Fix (I think its Special Address or Fix)
Also by lowering my right shoulder my right forearm was immediately softened and moved more inline with the shaft. Now I looked more like a golfer at address and as Yoda says 'I don’t think you can miss a shot from there…'

One thing that was noticed with my Acquired Motion was that I was not letting my head 'swivel' through the shot, I had become a bit too 'ball bound' so we worked to get rid of that so that I could let the body do its job and let the motion of the swing flow more freely.

Like the Basic Motion a lot of time was spent on making sure that I was not adding anymore wrist bend to the right wrist as I took the club back and on tracing the club back on a straight line as I had a habit (in both my Basic Motion and Acquired Motions) of dragging the club back behind me. Add a bit of extensor action and whola! I finally had some structure to my swing and my Acquired Motion swing was getting better and better.

Once Yoda was sufficiently happy that I was grasping the concepts involved with the Basic and Acquired Motions, we moved onto the Total Motion……….(more in Part 3b)

Alex

too much fun! where is part 3B!!!! lol

Extreme Pivot Alignments As A Basic Motion Learning Drill
 

In this drill -- an exaggerated 'Open Body' Special Fix/Address (10-8-B / 10-9-D) -- the toes are actually pointed toward the Target with the Shoulders set Square. This 'extreme' condition Clears the Right Hip and most importantly, sets up an 'artificial' Pivot Lag, i.e., one requiring no motion to achieve.

During the Downstroke, the Shoulders (with the inert Left Arm welded at Pressure Point #4) then move effortlessly to 'catch up' with the pre-positioned leading Hips. This action Loads the Lag and pulls the Left Arm into Release. This is 'Body Power' for the Swinger -- even in the little Acquired Motion Pitch Shots-- and it sets up a perfect Horizontal Hinge, i.e, the Left Wrist staying Vertical to the ground in perfect concert with the Body's rotation. It also establishes the Right Shoulder 'Launching Pad' for the Hitter and his Driving Right Arm and Angled Hinge Action.

Here you go Jerome! Enjoy!
Yoda thanks for clarifying and expanding the drill that I was trying to explain.
Alex

Visit to the Swamp Part 3b (Thursday 16th November 2006)

Cont from Part 3a

Once Yoda was sufficiently happy that I was grasping the concepts involved with the Basic and Acquired Motions, we moved onto the Total Motion. I even managed to execute all three hinge motions before we moved on….amazing how the brain works when you let it process information in its on time.

Again the problems that were found out were in the Total Motion swings.
In fact since the swing was longer, it was magnified ten fold and caused all manners of problems if I did not compensate fully. Yoda called my shots ‘dying quail’ high fades. Man, it was ugly and I must have been losing about 15-20 yards off my irons and even more with my driver.

So with the new set up that we worked on in the Acquired Motion, it was a case of taking the club further back and we had the Total Motion. But the problem with me is that club for me goes well beyond shoulder height (end) or even parallel (top) With the driver at times it was Mickelson or Daly-esque.

So with a 7 iron, we worked on taking the club only as far back as the Top as well as monitoring that I was not adding any extra right wrist bend as I took the club back. Again the things that we worked on earlier in the day were as relevant to the Total Motion as they were to the Basic and Acquired Motions.
Focussing on the right wrist bend, tracing the straight planeline and applying extensor action, the length of the backswing gradually got shorter.

Adding extensor action just added a lot of precision and structure to the backswing (Ted showed me how it is supposed to be applied the day before and I could not believe how much pressure it was!!) Yoda noticed that I tended to also let go of the club with the last three fingers of my left hand at the top so he got me to apply a bit more pressure point #2 and this again added extra stability and structure to the backswing. No more wobble at the top of the swing. Which for me is a major thing as I have always had a long backswing.

This does sound like a lot, but after a while I found that just one or two thoughts covered what I was trying to achieve and monitor in the swing.

Now once we had the backswing to the point where Yoda was pleased we moved onto the downswing. Again, the work done with Ted the day before paid dividends, by the afternoon session with Yoda, my brain had already started to process what where the correct sequence and feelings for the downswing.

Again, the downstroke waggle came to the fore. ‘Roundhousing’ is an affliction that affects about 95% of all club golfers and I am/was one of those.

Yoda also had me practising one downstroke waggle after another till I got it right and could do it in the Total Motion. First it was with a club, where you take the club to the top (I found that I could monitor my Pressure Point #3, extensor action and right wrist bend too!) and then start the downstroke with a small hip slide then turn which brought the right shoulder down on plane and the right forearm into its correct impact alignments (Yoda had me bring the right forearm all the way down so that it was inline with the ball as I viewed it)
I did not realise how far down the right shoulder goes down in the swing, it was such an eye opener.
Another way of performing this drill is to do it without the club and put the back of your right hand to the back of your left hand. Make a backstroke as per normal, feel that stretch and then execute your slight hip slight, turn and bring the right shoulder down and onplane. Again, you get the feelings and sensations that you are supposed to have in a properly executed downswing.

What we found was that the above drills fixed the majority of problems that I had with my startdown (hips were getting in the way of my arms…shank city, not having a good pivot and so on)

We were slowly building the swing up again and I could see it having a dramatic effect on my swing, I was starting to get a bit more distance and better contact but it could still be better.

The next thing that Yoda wanted to change was my lack of any horizontal hinging and swivel after impact. I was doing this ‘hold off’ and ‘blocking’ the ball really and that was were the power was lost (along with the flipping)

I was trying to do some funky thing where I tried to keep the left wrist flat and then ended up holding on and blocking it through (if you can imagine the club at halfway point of the through swing the club face would be pointing towards the target and my left wrist would be bowed and facing the target also!)

The first thing that Yoda got me to do was to hold the club up on a horizontal plane with only the left hand gripping the club, then taking the club round (to what was the end of the swing) and then back down to impact, follow through. This was to show me what the club face was doing on the swing (but on the horizontal plane) and also to show me what the throw out felt like and what the proper movement of the left hand/wrist were after impact. At first it was done in painfully slow motions until I got it right and then it got faster and faster as long I could keep the club on the horizontal plane.

You might remember the drill from the Jeff Hull tapes (if you haven’t seen them, go and download them from the Gallery section!!) but Yoda gave me a dowel and got me to hold it in my left fist and concentrate on really giving the dowel a good swoosh through the ball. It was hard at first as I was trying to do something or force something that wasn’t going to happen. I was fighting Centripetal Force and everyone should know when you go against gravity and physics they always win!! (only took me about 20 odd years of playing golf to realise that one!!)

A good check at the end of the swing for me was that I could cock and uncock the left wrist easily, whereas before I would have been able to and I would of not achieved a full finish.

This goes back to something that Ted said the day before, he told me to ‘let go..’ now I know what he meant, by doing the dowel drill, I could free up the swing and I felt I could really put some power into a shot.

Getting towards the end of the bucket of balls, Yoda had me hit some drivers just to finish things off. Again, the block rights appeared and the route cause of which was…you guess it ‘Roundhousing’ My right hip was getting in the way of things as well so Yoda suggested that I’d set up with a closed stance (I can’t remember whether it was 10-5-C or 10-5-E that was suggested…..Yoda??) This allowed my to hit the ball from the inside with the driver and stop the roundhousing (coupled with the downstroke waggles) when I did this right, I was hitting the driver a lot better and started even drawing it too!!! For someone who has lived with a slice or a push fade all his golfing life, this was amazing thing to see.

So in one afternoon (it turned out much longer than that) Yoda was patient enough with me to have worked through a lot of stuff and I have to admit despite my head spinning with all this information, the fog had definitely lifted. Now it was a guided struggle as opposed to a blind struggle and I knew what I had to work on to improve my swing and game.
After a hard days work by all of us (I know it probably wasn’t fun for either Martee or Yoda to stand there all day and watch me hit balls) we packed up about 6pm and headed out for some dinner.

The dinner was great (Longhorn I think it was) despite it not being Yoda’s first choice (Outback had closed down) and the company was again great (Yoda, Martee thanks!) We talked about golf, life and just general things; it was good to be able to do that. Lynn is a great guy as well as a great teacher, I am honoured to have met him and to be able to call him a friend. Martee you ain’t so bad yourself ;-)

But the best bit of the night was when Lynn invited both of us to his abode and showed us his extensive golf library and well as the World Premiere of the new Brian Gay video. I am not going to say much about the video but lets just say you guys and gals are in for a treat!

We also put on some video of my swing as well and Lynn looked a bit concerned when we paused my swing at impact, that dang right wrist was still flattening out and worst of all Lynn thought that my pivot was not being used properly but he had an idea on how to fix that……….

Thanks again to Lynn for being the gracious host and for welcoming us into your home.

A lot to take in for the first session…boy was I pooped out at the end of the day.

Hope you are enjoying these posts,

Alex

I am definitely enjoying your posts, thank you very much Alex.

Thanks, I am glad that you are enjoying them. Its a good thing for me as well as I need to think about what we did last week and try to put it into words rather than just feels.
Alex

Roundhouser No More
 

In conjunction with numerous, correctly-performed Start Down Waggles, Alex used the Closed Plane Line and Stance Line of 10-5-E to rid him of his Roundhousing Down Stroke.

Tracing the slightly-Closed Plane Line promoted a true Inside-Out Stroke and its Draw tendency. The Closed Stance Line took the Right Hip out of the way of the Right Elbow (in both directions) and enabled his Hands to remain On Plane (a delightful alternative to his old Over-the-Top move).

Alex combined these alignments with his new Horizontal Hinge Action Wrist Roll through Impact and, also, his strong Swivel into the Finish. The end result was consistent and truly spectacular: High, hard Draws 20-40 yards longer than his 'usual.'

Congratulations, Alex!

:salut:

Oh, one more thing...

The next day I brought out an old Alex Morrison book, Better Golf Without Practice, and turned to a Down-the-Line Driver sequence of a young Sam Snead. A white Line parallel to the Target Line had been painted down the entire length of the Fairway, and Sam's slightly-Closed alignments -- including his In-to-Out Tracing Right Forearm -- were apparent.

"Hey, that's just what I'm doing now!" said Alex.

"Right you are," beamed 'ol Yoda, "Right you are."

:)

great stuff once again...when is the Brian Gay thang coming out? sounds awesome.

Yep, that is right!! Its amazing how this was known all those years ago but yet no one really mentioned it.
Also another player by the name of Ben Hogan set up the exact same way. He was an ok player from what I heard too :D
Alex

This is good stuff! Brings back memories of my Swamp visit.

Pokechop . . . .

I have always wondered about Sam Snead and his "closed" stance. Would you say he is a True Swinger with a rotated Plane Line or a Manipulated Hand Swinger?

A Scottish view of the Swamp (Part 4)
 

Visit to the Swamp Part 4 (Friday 17th November 2006)

The third day at the Swamp started off with the famous Cracker Barrel breakfast with Yoda and Martee (there was supposed to be a Geometry lesson too but that came later on the journey back when Yoda gave me a lift back to the hotel) With the hotel being literally a stones throw away from it, Martee and I were becoming known regulars there (to the point where they would bring out a Diet Coke and a glass of water for me everytime I went in there!!) :-)

Anyways after a hearty breakfast and a quick discussion/summary of what went on the day before, Yoda announced that we were going to focus on my pivot and my right wrist that day and that he also had something up his sleeve that would teach me the proper way the pivot should work on the swing. So off we went to the range.

Once we got to the range we saw Ted and had a quick chat with him as Yoda set up the thing that was going to sort out my pivot problems. Yoda said before that my pivot in the downswing (in fact probably the whole swing) looked a bit 'dainty' and that I could probably generate a bit more power if I used it properly.

So at the side of the car park, Yoda has set up his Speed Chain (where can I get one in the UK???) and then started doing a 5 min demo on it and explained how you cannot get 'dainty' using it. After he showed us how to use it, it was my turn and boy you can really feel that chain when you take the grip back and through. It taught you about tracing a straight planeline (drag it inside and the chain hits you….), lag pressure (again the weight of the chain makes you feel it lagging being you, also you can’t flip the dang thing either as the chain is behind you…) and teaches you to really power that pivot through the ball. After a few minutes I felt that I really put a lot of effort into it, it really shows you how hard your body works in a golf swing. Once I had really warmed up using it, I could feel that I could make that chain taught and come off the ground (warning, build it up slowly with small swings before taking it further) Great training aid…wished that I thought of it!!

After the Speed Chain, we went onto the mats for a while (the grass tees were still damp from Wednesday’s drenching)

To start off the morning session, Yoda had me go through the Basic Motions from the day before. Making a few swings with the Horizontal Hinge, Angled Hinge and then the Vertical Hinge. Once he was satisfied with it, we went onto a few Acquired Motions and made sure that I could do things correctly.

The day’s work was mostly concentrating on Total Motion swings. We initially worked on the setup and making sure that I was setting up to the ball properly and that I had the proper alignments even before the club went back (I was not setting up at Impact Fix anymore but Ted mentioned that when I practice I could always play around with it and make sure that I was getting the proper alignments needed to hit a good golf shot)

We then spent the next couple of hours hitting balls working on the start down (see my previous post on the Downstroke Waggle) and making sure that I executed the proper hinging and swivel action from impact to follow through to finish.

This is something that I had gotten lost in. I was letting my right wrist straighten and left wrist bend and then I would somehow do a funky compensation to get the left wrist back to a flat position after impact before having that 'blocked' look to the end of the swing.

Again, I was using the drill with the dowel where I would hold it in my left fist (see the Jeff Hull videos or Yoda’s videos on Hinging) making sure I was making a good solid and loud swoosh through impact and beyond, letting the dowel swivel back on plane. The check at the end was to make sure that I could cock the left wrist up and down. This is another one of those drills that covered a whole lot of things, it gave me a feeling that I could use my pivot a lot more in the swing and that I could finally experience that feeling of the left arm blasting off the chest.
A lot of the drill work that we did in the second session were from the day before and the one thing that Yoda drummed into me was 'Look, look, look…' and that you are forever monitoring the things that go on in your swing and that this constant monitoring is what will lead you to permanent improvement of your swing.

As we pieced my swing back slowly together, I could suddenly feel some lag pressure as I stuck the ball and feel that things were starting to finally work together. What we were building here is a more solid and structured G.O.L.F. stroke.

Finally, I began to understand things that were incubating in my head for all these past days, months and years. The fact that I was starting to strike the ball better than I ever had proved that the 10 hour flight was well worth it!

Just before we stopped for lunch, Ted stopped by to have a look to see how I was getting on and I think he was impressed as I was at the improvement that we (Yoda, Ted and I) had made. I think I managed to hit about 5 or 6 'frozen ropes' consecutively before we broke for lunch.

The 4 of us went for lunch together as Martee was heading back to NC that afternoon (we could not persuade him to stay longer) so off we went to get some Mexican food. Both Ted and Lynn can flat out teach but they could also flat out eat too :) Guess they need the fuel to feed their magnificent golfing brains :)

Martee, I just like to say thanks again for coming down to Marietta and meeting up with me (also for ferrying me around) it was good to see you and catch up. You are (along with Ted and Lynn) are always welcome to my place if you are ever in Glasgow. I hope that you got as much out of the lessons as I did and that spending time with Ted and Lynn helped further your journey with your swing.

After a hearty lunch, it was back to the range. By this time the grass tees were open so Lynn got a bucket of balls and off we headed down to the tees to work on some more things.

The afternoon session, we focussed on lag, more precisely lag pressure. I was still not quite getting the sensations of lag pressure. Yoda got me to hit a few shots with varying amounts of lag pressure and by the end of the day not only could I feel it but I could vary it enough to produce different length of shots.

Another experiment that we did was with the swing speed monitor. This was to show me that I could hit the ball just as far (or generate the same amount of swing speed) with a Total Motion 7 iron and an Acquired Motion 6 iron. I could not get it quite right but my results did show that I was not that far off (77 mph with the Total Motion 7 iron and then 74 with the Acquired Motion 6 iron) another shot that I could add to the shot-making repertoire.

We then went onto to hit more shots firstly with the 8 iron and then the 5 iron concentrating on what we worked on previously. A lot of downstroke waggles, drills focusing on making the Horizontal Hinge work, making sure that I had a solid and structured backstroke that stopped at the top (right shoulder high, this still needs worked on but its getting there!) and that I applied a good bit of extensor action on the swing.

Then it was time to get the driver out again :-)
Setting up with 10-5-E again (I think I will just do this every time I have the driver or the 3 wood in my hands) we focussed on tracing the slightly closed planeline and focusing on the start down, I managed to hit a couple of draws with the driver and for someone who was a chronic slicer/blocker of the ball it’s a great sight to see. If I did those wrong the ball would just start right and stay right. Now if I applied the Horizontal Hinge Action Wrist Roll through Impact as well as a strong Swivel into the Finish along with 10-5-E, the end result I got was a consistent high Draw and because of this, I was driving the ball further than I had before (now if I lose about 2 stone and work out during the winter, I might hit it further….)

By this time Ted had popped down to the grass tees and watched me hit a few shots, after a few 'iffy' ones, he said 'I challenge you your manhood if you don’t hook this one…' Nothing like pressure huh? So I just thought about hooking it and I did, the ball started off right of the target and hooked all the way back to the left hand side of the range. Now if only I could do that more :)

By now it was getting late, and it was time to wrap up the lesson. I hope that I have done Lynn and Ted proud with the progress that I had made over the past 3 days and that they had as much fun as I did.

As we were leaving the range, we all had big smiles on our faces (me with the biggest probably…) Lynn said some really nice things and how he wished that I stayed closer to the Swamp so that they could monitor my progress as the winter went on (but with today's technology I am sure we can come up with something)

After a difficult start on the Thursday, I left the Swamp with more of clearer picture of what I need to do and what needs to be done on a proper G.O.L.F. stroke and the fact that I could hit the ball like a Tour Pro. That sound and feeling of proper compression is addictive I tell you.

But the best thing that I could take from the Swamp was that I felt I have made two lifelong friends as well as teachers in Lynn and Ted. They might be known as Golfing Machine Teachers on the site but to me they are my friends first and foremost.

Lynn, Ted….thank you for everything and for taking this mad Scotsman under your wing for 3 days. I enjoyed every minute of it and am secretly planning on a return trip (just need to be nice to the Bank Manager :))

If you ever plan a Scottish or even a UK Golf School, I will be there!!

Thank you again,
Alex

Thanks Alex, most enjoyable. Almost a book's worth of text so far and all of it very illuminating. :)

I think I have now got as much information out of your visit as you did and almost had as much fun too.

Lang may yer lum reek! Wi' ither folks coal!

Which, literally translated from your native tongue into TGM terms means

"Long may your game be on fire with fuel from the Swamp":exclaim:

Extensor presssure?
 

Alex can you explain what you mean when you say

"Adding extensor action just added a lot of precision and structure to the backswing (Ted showed me how it is supposed to be applied the day before and I could not believe how much pressure it was!!) "

Do you mean you were stretching so hard it created tension or are you referring to lag pressure?

Thanks

Its not tension, as everyone knows tension is not a good thing in a good swing. Its more of a taughtness, I could feel that downward/outward pull of the right hand against the left at address and all the way to the backstroke and all the way through the downstroke.
A little drill that you could do is to put on a jumper (sweater for the Stateside guys) but leave the left sleeve out. Now grab the left sleeve at the cuff area with your right hand and pull it taught. Make a backswing with the left sleeve taught. That is the feel that you want with extensor action and you maintain it all the way to top and then all the way down on the downstroke.
Lag pressure for me is felt on the right index finger/knuckle (PP#3) and I feel it most on the downstroke and at impact when I have that feeling of 'dragging the wet mop' You have to remember that the clubhead trails the hands and the pressure that you feel is lag pressure.
Alex

Alex, really enjoying your posts.

Speed Chains are pretty cool eh? I have em' and love em':).

Can someone post the best demonstrations of the downstroke waggle from the gallery?

Thanks,

Glad that you are enjoying the posts. I would have a Speed Chain in a second if the shipping wasn't so prohibitive......
For demo's on the Downstroke Waggle, have a look at the Jeff Hull series of videos and the Address Routine videos (if you are a swinger looking at Jeff's swing for the DS waggle is a fog lifter)
Alex

Alex,

Thanks for sharing your experience, I've come to the party late so have just read the whole thing in one go !

Could you explain what you mean by additional right wrist bend, is it simply bending the wrist too much ?

Hi Doug,

Yes, that is basically it. Your right wrist should bend just enough to flatten or keep you left wrist flat (you can't have one without the other) and I was doing this and then adding even more bend to the right wrist. To the untrained eye it looks as if my swing is wristy yea?
If you look at say Ted's Hitter swing, you note that he freezes the alignments at address and he does not add any more or take away any of the right wrist bend during the swing. For the swinger its almost the same apart from the fact that we start from a more Classical Address and then load the club on the way back. Its trying to do this without the addtional or excess right wrist bend that is the problem for me.
Alex

Sorry for the interuption but I have a similar problem to the one Alex is experiencing.

However, in my case, maybe his too, once the right wrist starts to involuntarily "over-bend" an element of cocking creeps in also. This is the real swing killer, causing problems common to both of us.

You hit the nail on the head my friend. That is exactly the problem. Too much right wrist bend leads to cocking of the right wrist and as we all know right wrist cocking is a no no!!!
Alex

Thanks for the response guys. I was thinking a while back that I may be overdoing it a bit and this thread made me remember to check it. Cant belive its 3:30am and I'm checking my alignments in the mirror :sleepy:

Now that is dedication :D
I have been known to check my alignments when I am in the middle of doing my shopping and in elevators :D
Alex

What is your Handicap please Alex?

My handicap is 13 at the moment. Hopefully that will be on its way down after a winter's work.
Alex