[alex_chung]

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