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What to focus on first?

Hey Tom,

It's the 55 yr old coach who sent you an email last week. I have a quick question & thought I would put it in the Office Hrs section in case someone else could benefit from your answer. I am totally rebuilding my swing with your stuff. I started with keeping my weight forward & gluing my arms to my side & it has helped TREMENDOUSLY. I am making much better contact with the ball. In the past, I have had trouble with too many swing thoughts when trying to improve my game & I am starting to run into that issue again. I know that you describe the Tilt, Turn, Extend drill as the best golf swing practice drill of all time and you suggest that I hammer on that until I get it down but I find myself, again, having too many swing thoughts. I was thinking of just really focusing on keeping my weight forward & my arms glued until it becomes second nature to me before I start to focus on the Tilt, Turn & Extension. Curious to know your thoughts?

Bill

Hales Corners, WI

7 answers6 replies

13 Comments

GolfLivesMatter

May 31, 2021

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I go to the range and hit 200 or so 7 iron shots with the 90% weight forward straight arm drill. It's like playing scales on the guitar or piano....it's a baseline learning drill that sheds the old "shift and lift" demons. I start off with 50-yard shots, then 75, 100, 125, etc, to full swings. Amazingly enough, once I'm warmed up, I can hit those drill shots nearly as far as my full swing shots because the swing (to me) is extremely efficient.

Today I hit the following irons in rotation (all 7 irons).:

1991 Wilson Staff FG51 Blade

2011 Mizuno MP69 Blade

2012 Ping G30

2019 Ping G410

It's kinda interesting that of all the clubs, the 1991 Staff Blade 7 iron was as good as the other irons....sometimes even better. I practice with blades because I can feel and assess shot shape which provides feedback. Then I move down to a Staff blade 1 iron off of a very low tee. Not for the faint of heart...but....

No pain no gain. LOL.

GolfLivesMatter

May 31, 2021

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Replying to

@Tom Saguto The FG51 one iron looks like a butter knife and it's one of the most intimidating-looking clubs on Earth!!! It makes a mid-iron look like a PW, so it's like an over-training exercise.

A guy during my range session yesterday looked at the one iron and said "wow, that's small". Then I told him the actual hitting area, or groove width was the same as any other iron. So he checked it against my Ping G30 4 iron. Identical. Clubmakers have done an excellent job enlarging overall iron widths as well as enlarging the top-line thickness to create the appearance of a larger hitting area when in reality the actual hitting area is identical to my old FG51s. They've also done a great job to mask the feel of off-center hits with foam or new alloys so it "feels like" the shot was better. This is why I blend in blade irons for my practice routine because I want to know exactly where I'm hitting the club on the iron face without having to keep applying tape on the face of my newer Ping G's.

I bet if everyone learned S&T the golf club industry that currently thrives upon shift and lift folks to continuously search for "more forgiving" irons would dry up. Lol.

Tom Saguto

Jun 01, 2021

Replying to

@GolfLivesMatter - Yet another reason add to the list of why the S&T "stigma" will never be lifted:

1) It renders "conventional" instruction irrelevant.

2) Brandel Chamblee would be out of a job.

3) Game improvement equipment is unnecessary and would , in fact, be detrimental.

4) The chiropractic and orthopedic industries would lose a substantial portion of their clientele.

Love the instant feedback those blades add to your practice sessions!

GolfLivesMatter

Jun 01, 2021

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Replying to

@Tom Saguto And most of the whacky golf gadget training aids would evaporate. How about those club categories they have now? "Players irons" exclude blades despite being widely used on tour, because we're told we cannot, and should not play blades.

Then we're told the "players irons" are for 0-9 hcp, then the "game improvement" irons are for 10+, and "SUPER Game Improvement" is for 20+ hcps. To this day I have yet to meet anyone who has actually shaved strokes off their game with game or super game improvement irons. The only avenue to lower scores is learning S&T. Once someone knows how to swing the irons, they can hit any iron, at least that's the case for me. But the industry has people going all mental over pieces of metal that hit a ball.

No one is perfect all the time with any club. Look at Spieth last weekend....sliced his drive and pulled the next shot into the water. If a shift and lifter weekend golfer does this they're thinking about buying a new driver AND a set of "more forgiving" irons.

Scott Pekrul

May 27, 2021

Hi! To chime in here, I’m really pleased with the structure of the courses on this site. I’m just getting started but plan to take Tom’s advice and park myself on drill 2.8. The great thing is I can practice the core move anywhere. I’m on vacation now and getting 100 reps in per day with my Impact Snap combined with the 2.8 movements.

wjaskulski

May 12, 2021

Thanks everyone...all great, reinforcing comments! Looks like I've found the right place. Thanks for building it Tom!

PatD

May 11, 2021

Weight forward, hands in, and staying connected has made a huge difference for me. Every once in a while I start to get sloppy and the old mechanics start to creep in. I've focused on those fundamentals. Also hand placement in set-up is a small nuance but key. Just keep grinding and you will see the results. There will always be set backs but stay the course!

thomas.linehan

May 11, 2021

I found that you need to hit a lot of balls before it feels comfortable. Once you do that you'll have no swing thoughts. Feel the weight on the front and swing. My neighbors joked about hitting into a net and not seeing the results. Little do they know that I was working on feel. Last laugh is on them. He shot over a 100 today and the last two games I've shot 86 and 85.

Ian "Twiggy" Jones

May 11, 2021

Hi Bill,

I found myself in the same situation by trying to accomplish too much too soon which created too many swing thoughts.

I've taken to the method of literally building as I go, piece by piece. Working on one thing until it becomes familiar.

Learning a new swing is like learning to play a new song bar by bar, or a new dance step by step. Eventually, the whole thing will come together.

chevelle9604

May 11, 2021

Replying to

@Ian "Twiggy" Jones I can relate to this post. I am new to the system and find myself trying to do too much too fast. That makes me go back to tons of swing thoughts. I need to just work it one step at a time.

Ian "Twiggy" Jones

May 11, 2021

Replying to

@chevelle9604 I think we all want to run before we can walk!

I set-up a plan for myself with a weekly goal, just working on one thing at a time. If what I was working on felt automatic or comfortable, I moved to the next thing. If it didn't, I kept at it until it did.

The swing we're building is like a rocket. We need to get everything working together and in the right sequence so we can blast off!

Tom Saguto

May 11, 2021

Hi Bill,

I'm glad to see you here in the Forum as I know you are going to be an active and valued member of the community! I have pinned your post to encourage others to chime in.

Since this swing method is initially a foreign concept to anyone who is transitioning from a "shift & lift" method of swinging, it's wise to integrate it in small doses as you suggest. First and foremost, we need to nail down the foundational elements in Chapter 1, because if we don't establish the proper base any hope of consistency is doomed from the start. After that, it's up to the individual to determine when they're ready to move from one incremental component to the next. There's no set time line. Each subsequent building block of the swing is dependent upon the ones that precede it - that's the way I have designed the course so that the learning process is structured and not random.

You can, by all means, park yourself where you are currently at with the weight forward and the connections glued for as long as needed. You can definitely play the course that way, too. Along these lines, the 90% Weight Forward/Arms Straight Drill is one that you'll see me recommend quite frequently, and it is perfectly aligned with the feels you are presently trying to ingrain. It's not an easy drill, but it is very effective, so if you'd like to work on it be sure to spend sufficient time to properly learn, execute, and master it. You'll know you're doing the drill properly when impact is consistently crispy, divots are occurring past the ball, and ball flight is a repeatable push-draw.

Please keep us posted on your progress!

Tom