Love these vids! There’s so much to be learned from them.
For beginners who have only watched down the line or caddy view footage of swings this is a real eye opener.
If you watch down the line stuff only, you can easily be fooled into thinking that you should try to recreate those lines you see. If you try that you WILL come over the top, or at least disconnect the arms from the body. The golf swing is not about straight lines and this shows it.
I always thought that when people talked about “owning one’s swing”, they meant something like this:
To know the what, the how and the why of your swing inside out, and being able to perform accordingly. When it comes to your swing, there can be no unanswered questions. Nothing can stand in the way of you and the most efficient motion possible given your physical and mental capabilities.
I found this interesting quote in an old article about George Knudson:
“What is it that allows a golfer to own his golf swing? When you consider there might have been only three or four in the history of the game, the answer isn’t as complicated as you might think.
It means repetition of the highest level.
It means a swing plane that is not rerouted and does not change regardless of the club.
It means impeccable posture and perfect balance.
But most importantly, in the cases of Hogan, Moe and George, it means a perfectly square clubface approaching impact that remains square through the shallow, long and low action after impact. One need just look at pictures of the three of them in action.”
~ Irv Lightstone, 2006 (source)
So Irv looked at what (he thought) were the similarities between the golfers who supposedly owned their swings.
So in the end it comes down to this:
Perfect execution of perfect technique with perfect consistency.
In my opinion, achieving this can only be helped by really knowing the what, the how and the why of your swing.
Or else just beat a lot of balls.
The below high speed (1000 fps) video is fascinating because it shows us what happens when a ball is struck off the toe with a blade.
The first part of the clip shows a ball being hit with passive hands with very light grip pressure.
The second half of the clip shows us a similar ‘toe hit’, this time with a very firm grip pressure. The nice thing about the shot hit with a firmer grip pressure is that it will still travel in roughly the same direction as a center strike, only slightly less far.
To me this footage suggests that a firm grip is the better option. A good firm grip can also keep twisting of the club face to a minimum when you’re in the rough.
DISCLAIMER: Proceed with caution…
A firm grip has to be compatible with your type of swing! And even if that’s the case you’ll still need to train your wrists to stay ‘loose’ while maintaining a good firm grip with the fingers.
I won’t go into the details of the different swing types; I just wanted to show you this video.
For more information please visit lagpressure’s website here.
<rant>
The trimming of the rough at the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club after the second round of the RBC Canadian Open has led to some interesting discussions about the state of the game.
On most of the courses on the tour the rough is cut to 3 inches or less. This works in favor of the players that like to bomb it because a missed fairway is not that big of a deal. From the lighter rough the players can hold shots on the green even with the new (slightly less square) grooves.
As most of the courses on tour are both long, wide and open the players almost always have a clear shot to the green, even from the rough.
Luke Donald about the rough at Shaughnessy: “I enjoy these classic courses, but I’m not a huge fan of long rough everywhere because it takes some of the skill away because you’re hitting the same shot from everywhere,” He said. “The rough adds pressure when you are on the tee because you know you have to hit it in the fairway to have a chance to get on the green.”
So the fact that you have to hack your way out of it seems to be the common argument against having rough. It takes some of the skill away of rescue shots he says.
I’d say you need more skills with the driver to keep it out of the rough. Don’t try to hit it a mile if you can’t keep it straight…
What he says about the rough adding pressure on the tee …
You poor thing… Wake up dude!! You’re playing on the ‘These guys are good’ PGA Tour. Suck it up,' stop whining and just play :)
How math in golf has changed:
NOW: Length & Short Game = Winning
PAST: (Accuracy && Length) & Short Game = Winning
These days it seems that only long hitters with great short game skills can dominate the field. It wasn’t that long ago when a relative short hitter like Corey Pavin could compete against big hitting players. He beat Greg Norman to win the 1995 US Open with smart and accurate play. There was more of a risk and reward element to golf back then, simply because of the fact that in those days missing a fairway often meant a one stroke penalty.
I much prefer this risk reward version of golf. The fact that there are more ways to get a good result makes the game more interesting to watch for me.
<sigh/></rant>
