Friday, August 04, 2006
I Cured My Slice (At Least For Today)
Kindof selfishly, this post is really more for my reference than for you guys. I was at the driving range today and I figured out how to hit the ball straight, which is much harder than you would think it is if you've not played golf. So I want to write down how I did it for when I forget, which will most likely be the next time I go to play.
As usual, I'll tell the long version of the story. As I mentioned earlier, my friend Kiran gave me his old clubs when he got a new set. Farther back in the past someone had gifted him the clubs as well when he started playing. So my clubs are third hand and a little out of date with today's hyper technological clubs. For the most part I don't feel like it really affects my game. I'm a beginner and at this point my game needs to improve by doing things technically correct rather than trying to improve on the margins with more advanced equipment. The one exception to that I felt was noticeable was with my driver. I felt like I couldn't really drive the ball with the club and never really used it much when I would go play since I would hit the ball about the same distance as the 3 wood, the next club down, but much more erratically. If you can't drive the ball with the driver, then it's just a useless club, isn't it.
Today I went out to this golf store to look for a driver on the cheap side with a big ass club face. I found a cheap one with a big face so I decided to buy it and at the store that particular brand was on a special where if I bought a 3 woodalong with the driver, the 5 wood was free. So I was looking for one club that would be cheap (in golf terms that means under $100) and I ended up with 3 clubs for just under $100. I was pretty happy about that.
Like a nerd I went straight from the golf store to the driving range with my new clubs. At first it was just a disaster between my terrible swing and my trying to adjust to the new clubs. Then I had a realization that cured everything.
Just about everyone will tell you when you start to play golf to make sure you keep your front arm straight on the backswing. They say that most bad swings come from bending your arms at some point in the backswing. Up until now I've been concentrating on keeping my arm straight on the backswing and keeping my feet aligned properly. Everything else was different on every shot.
Two things came to me today that made my swing very consistent and very straight. The first is to keep your eye on the ball, which sounds like a stupid cliche, but is actually hard to do while your arms are swinging back and forth between your chin, which is pointed down looking at the ball. The second thing is what made all the difference, though. I realized at some poit that if I was keeping my arm straight on the backswing, then I ought to keep it stright when I swing through the ball as well. Once I did that, almost every ball went straight and long (that's what she said).
I came to this realization because I was trying to convince myself to do it the wrong way. I would change the way my arm would bend on every swing trying to hit it straight and compensate for a slice or an occasional hook and I would just end up pulling the club out of line with the ball. Not only does this cause slices, which I can feel even before I hit the ball now, but about half of the time it would cause me to just mis-hit the ball altogether. I would pop it up or hit a ground ball and it would rarely go straight.
I was trying to think through the swing and decide why, if I was starting with the club aligned with the ball, it was coming down on a different trajectory, thus hitting the ball on a different spot on the club than where I aligned it. Then I thought that if I'm bringing the club back, then I should bring it forward in the exact same way to keep it aligned with the ball. Therefore, if I'm not bending my arm on the way back, I shouldn't bend it on the way forward.
As soon as I made that change I hit the majority of my balls straight. And sometimes the other parts of my swing would fall apart, my head or my footwork, which alters my balance, but if I keep the arms straight it is often enough to compensate for those mistakes and keep the ball on a trajectory that is at least close to where I was aiming. This is a huge revelation. Before this any slight change in what was my previous swing would spell disaster.
So, as I say, I need to remember this next time I go play. If I write it here, I know I'll look it over at least a couple times. Of course, if any of you out there are having similar issues, you might want to think about the arm thing because it worked wonders for me.
As usual, I'll tell the long version of the story. As I mentioned earlier, my friend Kiran gave me his old clubs when he got a new set. Farther back in the past someone had gifted him the clubs as well when he started playing. So my clubs are third hand and a little out of date with today's hyper technological clubs. For the most part I don't feel like it really affects my game. I'm a beginner and at this point my game needs to improve by doing things technically correct rather than trying to improve on the margins with more advanced equipment. The one exception to that I felt was noticeable was with my driver. I felt like I couldn't really drive the ball with the club and never really used it much when I would go play since I would hit the ball about the same distance as the 3 wood, the next club down, but much more erratically. If you can't drive the ball with the driver, then it's just a useless club, isn't it.
Today I went out to this golf store to look for a driver on the cheap side with a big ass club face. I found a cheap one with a big face so I decided to buy it and at the store that particular brand was on a special where if I bought a 3 woodalong with the driver, the 5 wood was free. So I was looking for one club that would be cheap (in golf terms that means under $100) and I ended up with 3 clubs for just under $100. I was pretty happy about that.
Like a nerd I went straight from the golf store to the driving range with my new clubs. At first it was just a disaster between my terrible swing and my trying to adjust to the new clubs. Then I had a realization that cured everything.
Just about everyone will tell you when you start to play golf to make sure you keep your front arm straight on the backswing. They say that most bad swings come from bending your arms at some point in the backswing. Up until now I've been concentrating on keeping my arm straight on the backswing and keeping my feet aligned properly. Everything else was different on every shot.
Two things came to me today that made my swing very consistent and very straight. The first is to keep your eye on the ball, which sounds like a stupid cliche, but is actually hard to do while your arms are swinging back and forth between your chin, which is pointed down looking at the ball. The second thing is what made all the difference, though. I realized at some poit that if I was keeping my arm straight on the backswing, then I ought to keep it stright when I swing through the ball as well. Once I did that, almost every ball went straight and long (that's what she said).
I came to this realization because I was trying to convince myself to do it the wrong way. I would change the way my arm would bend on every swing trying to hit it straight and compensate for a slice or an occasional hook and I would just end up pulling the club out of line with the ball. Not only does this cause slices, which I can feel even before I hit the ball now, but about half of the time it would cause me to just mis-hit the ball altogether. I would pop it up or hit a ground ball and it would rarely go straight.
I was trying to think through the swing and decide why, if I was starting with the club aligned with the ball, it was coming down on a different trajectory, thus hitting the ball on a different spot on the club than where I aligned it. Then I thought that if I'm bringing the club back, then I should bring it forward in the exact same way to keep it aligned with the ball. Therefore, if I'm not bending my arm on the way back, I shouldn't bend it on the way forward.
As soon as I made that change I hit the majority of my balls straight. And sometimes the other parts of my swing would fall apart, my head or my footwork, which alters my balance, but if I keep the arms straight it is often enough to compensate for those mistakes and keep the ball on a trajectory that is at least close to where I was aiming. This is a huge revelation. Before this any slight change in what was my previous swing would spell disaster.
So, as I say, I need to remember this next time I go play. If I write it here, I know I'll look it over at least a couple times. Of course, if any of you out there are having similar issues, you might want to think about the arm thing because it worked wonders for me.
# posted by ChuckJerry : 8/04/2006 06:51:00 PM
