Went to the range tonight to try to reinforce some of the progress I had last week. Remember it takes 3 times on the range for improvements to show up in my game on the course. I’ve had one really good session, tonight was to get the second one….and boy did I get it. I can never tell the distances on my range because they move the hitting area but I don’t think they move the distance signs and we were up toward the front. But I had so much power and big ball strike tonight.
I had a session several weeks ago where I had consistent ball strike and a lot more power and distance than ever before. It happened once and never again. Before that session, I had been watching big hitters in Major League Baseball and noticing how their legs and hips powered the swing. That night, I was able to get the leg drive, hip turn and body lag of a baseball player. Tonight, I found it again. I hope it sticks around longer this time.
My thoughts on address were pelvic tilt and firm left side. I was thinking about my left heel being a pivot point that all my power rotated around and the ball of my right foot being in position to push off…similar to a position I’d be in to receive serve in beach volleyball when I was on the left.
I really focused on using my backswing to get the club in the proper position. I didn’t try for any dynamics between the move away and the downswing. I thought of how an MLB player holds his bat in a consistent position. The backswing was to get the “bat” into position. I practiced a lot just getting it into position with my left shoulder over my right foot, feel the strain on the outside of my left leg (left knee NOT collapsed in) and my right hip rotated and my right adductor engaged. I’d never felt the adductor engagement before but found that when it was engaged I hit the ball a lot further and with so much more power.
The other thing I really worked on was getting my left arm fully extended and the tricep engaged. Keeping the triangle between my left and right arm firm but turning the way a baseball player would. I had in my mind the thought of “baseball swing at the ground.”
Keith has told me and I was told at the PGA Golf Academy I attended that my swing tends to be too far outside. My swing hardly ever follows this plane that Ben Hogan advocates in his book Five Lessons. My swing tends to break the plane of glass..which I understand is not good.
Tonight I spent some time with a drill Chris taught me at the PGA Academy. Put an alignment stick in the ground and put a pool noodle on it so the noodle is about 18 inches off the ground. Put the ball under the target end of the noodle. This forces you to come in flat and also helps reinforce a flatter, inside out swing.
I then focused on starting with my hips and letting my engaged left arm and firm arm triangle follow the hips, keeping the right shoulder down as I come through, maintaining my lag, pushing out toward the right and come around on the right plane–baseball swing at the ground. And then finish around my body instead of up.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at which muscles are engaged at different points in the golf swing. I’m a bit of a physiology geek having studied anatomy and physiology in college and being married to an Intensive Care Unit Nurse and the mother of trauma Nurse Practitioner. I found this article especially interesting.
Lets see if I can keep this up. I’m writing this here more for me than for you…but if it helps someone else, I’m happy to share.
Love.Hate.Golf 