Well, what can I say? As you know I am as long-winded as I am filled with endless cheap metaphors,
Here is my issue today and it's a good one. I went and hit balls today. I thought I was going to do the swing caddie video thing but, I have no idea how it works and the instructions are horrible. I am still looking to get it going.
But I do have a problem. I posted earlier about being inconsistent. I feel like I do everything the way I have been taught but, I am missing "crispy" most of the time. It's not that I don't hit it well because I do but can't seem to get 2 or 3 in a row and when I say well I am misleading you a little. I think I am hitting it well and in reality, it's okay for duffworld.
Recently in the news, there has been a lot of talk about extraterrestrials and vehicles from another planet that have visited us and we have several "spaceships" in our possession and we have been trying to reverse engineer to figure out how they work. Now this post is not about spaceships of spacemen but, reverse engineering of sorts. I took my swing apart today because I was not happy and I have had better results and I didn't know why. So I did some reverse engineering of my own and what has happened it truly amazing and can't come at a better time. At the end of my 150-ball practice range session, I started hitting the ball with crispy delight and close to pinpoint accuracy. I worked everything down to the grip. Yes, the friggin grip. When I grip the club with my lead hand I feel I got it right but on the trial hand I have always wanted to make sure it felt right and that I was comfortable with how I held the club but, I was not covering my thumb as instructed by Mr. Saguto, only because I thought my hands weren't big enough to do it. I was wrong. And I was wrong on 2 counts. # 1 I made it comfortable for me because it is the way I always gripped the club with that hand. I was wrong when I tried to fold my hand over to cover my thumb. It wasn't because my hands are small like a carnival shill, it was because I did not have the club in the fingers the right way Once I maneuvered my fingers to where the palm could cover the thumb, I had that auto-hinge at the top I always thought felt weird and I hit the daylights out of the ball on a straight baby draw trajectory. Yes, it is a different feel but right now I am going to try and get the swing caddie video thing working from the garage and I am going to hit again tomorrow to make sure I am not out of my mind. If I have stumbled on what my issue was, I am going to kick myself for not doing as I was told to do from the very beginning. I hope to have a full report tomorrow. Yes, the friggin grip, trail hand. made all the difference in the world.
Most excellent, @Tom Holt. I've so often said to folks - and even have to remind myself when I'm out there tinkering with my own swing to address a ball flight issue - you should always first default to checking your setup before considering any kind of swing intervention. We all fall into the trap of getting too comfortable, and we then begin to take our grip, stance, posture, alignment, ball position, etc. for granted, but without proper attention these things do tend to creep on us over time. 90% of the result is already determined before we even take the club back, yet I've seen so many golfers make a mess out of an already sound swing because they overlooked or did not consider the foundational elements of the setup.
And yes - our grip is our only connection to the object that is going to deliver us blissful joy or deep anguish, yet it is perhaps also the most taken-for-granted basic setup element.
Nice reverse engieering job!!