First read about this from Golf magazine, found it inspiring. Second time watched it on Golf Channels where Nick Bradley himself promoted his book and idea. Found that he introduced the very critical concepts in modern golf swing, could be extremely beneficial.

Worth the attention spent, I think.

Weight Transfer

I learned the mechanics, I learned the swing path, stance, wrist hinging, shoulders turn, knee bending, spine angle, hips initiation. I learned the rhythm, swing weighting, course managing, lie reading.... Among all these, somehow I have forgotten to learn and figure out the proper weight transfer.

Ohh, weight transfer doesn't come in naturally in golf swings, at least not for me. Without the sequential progress in transferring weight, all the things mentioned above could be as good as rubbish.

Weight transfer is about first shifting body mass from center to right in backswing and than from right to left in downswing and follow through. Practically, this mass is within the body and it relies on me to move this static mass by stressing on different muscle group both right and left sides. However, as interesting as it sounds, I need to perform this "silent" motion through a stable hip. While I feel the body mass is being moved from one side to the other, I should not have acted as I have moved from one side to the other if viewed externally. This is definitely not easy, especially executing this on a driver where swing speed determines distance. My thighs have to be strong enough to support the repetitive movement of this silent motion but my hips have to be stable.

I have to create a motion which does not move, this is as easy as it gets.

To top off the easiness on weight transferring, all this motion needs to be completed in a particular timing of swing or it will be out of rhythm, which will result a bad outcome that is worst enough for me to break the shaft.

All this time, I have taken this silent motion for granted. Yet, I can assure you that 8 out of 10 weekend golfers carry the same mistake as I do but they think that they know this by heart. I say weight transfer did not receive the attention that it should be receiving, for one it is hard to describe, for second it is not an interesting topic. Next time if you see me standing with my feet apart at shoulder width, doing this weird action of hips shifting, don’t laugh, I am doing my weight transfer practice.

Shanking

There are quite a few shots shaping that a golfer can produce. For a high handicapper, among these, many are unintended results.

One of these unintended shots is topping the ball. Topping the ball usually produces a flight that is low but straight, it could loose distance but the damage is usually not severe.

Another type of undesired ball shaping is slicing or hooking. Slice being the most frustrating. Slicing shot is caused by hands extended too forward in front and pulled in to the side. Usually this is done when distance is needed thus more force is introduced, yet it is producing unintended result that goes sideway, causing extreme frustration.

The most severe and unforgiving “shots shaping” is shanking. It lost distance and gained unneeded distance instead, totally missed target and opportunity wasted. Most importantly, it invited tons of embarrassment to the golfer. Shanking is also addictive, it arrived when you are least prepared and it will stick around till you give up golfing. If the root cause of shanking is not determined, it could appear occasionary and embarrassed the hell out of the golfer.

Imagine that when the shanker is standing at the tee box, focusing to launch the ball, pointed the shoulder to the target, aligned the hips, aimed the club face, repeated the routine, waggled the butt, playing partners waiting and there he swung, the ball flew sideway and almost hit the playing partner who is standing in front by 2 feet! When that happened, distance lost, stroke lost, ball lost and accompanied by lot of uneasiness. Confidence is shaken, anxiousness is raised.

Eliminate shanking should be the first priority; It is the most useless “shot shaping” a golfer could have.

Accept in Confidence

The more I know and practice, the harder for me to gain confidence. This is easily reflected in my swing of driver vs irons on the course. On the days I drove well, my irons were less satisfying and vice versa.

A friend told me: "Accept the distance that your driver is far." This is a unique statement and it caught my attention.

What is the real reason behind this so called phenomenon? My explaination is simple, I lack of confidence in accepting the expected truth. On those days that I drove well, I intended to hit my irons better, but the truth was that there was only so much I can produce with the current skill level. I tried to push the limit on the course and that was what caused me to pay for unnecessary mistake(s). From a polarized view point, I could not accept the fact that my driver was already far enough for my skill level, thus I should accept it and play with the recorgnized truth.

When I screwed up my drivers, I tried to be safer in irons and thus my irons were played better. Why did I drive badly at the first place? It was because I tried to produce distance further than my actual norms, again I was lack of confidence of accepting the distance I could actually launch.

This statement strikes me like a thunder. Accepting the fact of how good you are is sometimes as hard as accepting the fact of how bad you are.

“Golf Instruction”

In Wikipedia.com, it cited:

“Anyone can play the game of golf. Golf requires practice and some basic instruction on technique, equipment, rules and etiquette.”
“Golf students have different learning styles. There are Show-Me Golfers and I-Am-What-I-Am Golfers. Show-me golfers are eager to try new ideas, new equipment, new teachers, and new locations. They are the golfers most willing to contemplate a complete rebuilding of the golf swing. I-Am-What-I-Am golfers tend to more conservative in their approach to new ideas and techniques, tend to favor their old clubs and tested instruction techniques, and prefer tinkering with their swing rather than rebuilding from scratch.”
“The most important things a golfer learns are correct posture, grip, alignment and the golf swing itself.” … “Great ball-striking golfers all have great club position at impact and tremendous swing velocity, generated by correct application of the fundamentals.”

I found this short article about Golf Instruction fairly interesting, especially the middle paragraph where it illustrates two types of students, Show-Me Golfer and I-am-what-I-am Golfer.

I believe Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh are good representatives of these two types. Tiger abandoned his already successful swing and rebuilt from fundamental up, Vijay is known to be the hardest working golfer on Tour who repeats his practice the most. Tiger is continuing his journey to be the legend, yet Vijay is continuing his faith sliding down the world ranking.

Show-Me and I-am-what-I-am golfing types definitely deserve one to pay attention to.

Two Mentalities

Mentality one: Fundamentalist. I brainstorm my game plan, try to execute it as accurate as possible, once I missed, I try to get back to the original plan and foundation.
Mentality two: Liberalist. I brainstorm my game plan, try to follow the plan, once I missed, I play as it goes depending on conditions and situations I am facing.

Scenario 1: Par 4, 350 yards, dog-leg left, bunkers at 230 yards, hazards before green.
I planned a two-on attempt, first drive to the turning at dog-leg besides the bunker, a short iron approach shot to green, aim for 1 putt for birdies and 2nd putt as backup.
It is always easy when things are all within imagination. Reality:
I launched a good drive but did not land where I targeted and it dropped at the edge of the fairway bunker. Not a bad shot but left me a difficult condition to play my approach shot. I did not have a good stance and missed my second shot, pull hooked it and it landed into the left rough before the water hazard, a tree trunk is partially blocking my path to green. At this point, I could chip out and try to get back on track as pointed out in mentality one or I could try a punch shot approaching the green as pointed in mentality two. Mentality one will get me bogey at best but mentality two will get me par at best. What should I do?

Scenario 2: Par 5, 510 yards, straight but sloped fairway, bunkers at 240 yards and around the green, trees along the fairway.
I planned a three on attempt, driver 250 yards, 3 wood 220 yards and a pitch approach shot.
Again, it is always ideal in the world of imagination, Reality:
I slightly pulled my driver, ball landed short on the first cut rough to the left, leaving me about 295 yards to green. Not a big problem but I did not get the perfect lie as I planned; no obstacles are blocking me but wide open and long distance fairway to green. At this point, applying mentality one, I could use my 3 wood and get back on track as planned. Applying mentality two, I could use a utility club and aim for short iron instead of wedge for 3rd shot. Mentality one will get me three on at best, so is mentality two. What should I do?

Two mentalities, two scenarios and the results between rewards and risks could be as wide as Grand Canyon.

Percentage

This is a game of percentage. How successful one can execute the shots depends on the statistical probability of one's past performance.

If I slice the driver 80% of the time, statistically speaking I only have 20% chance of keeping the ball in play. If my slice caused me an extra or two strokes every time and if I need to use the driver 14 times in a round, I will expect to give away 80% * 14 * 2 = 22.4 strokes easily during a round. These strokes are merely from OB or poor lie or difficult shots that caused by the slice, not to mention failed attempts to rescue the ball back in play. If I missed an attempt rescued shots, a 2 shots will become a 3 or 4 before I could think of approach shot or short game to finishing up the hole.

Though, avoiding the driver is not an intelligent move either. On average if a good drive will land me 220 yards, using a high success rate iron only serve me 150 yards, percentage wise I am loosing 70 yards on every hole. Again, if there are 14 holes that require distance and I am loosing 70 yards 14 times in a round, it is 980 yards in total. Suppose I have 80% success rate in launching this 150 yards, 20% of error * 150= 120 yards which requires me extra 9 strokes to accomplish the distance left. 9 strokes are added to my handicap, not mentioning errors that I might have encountered within these attempts.

The only resolution to resolve this issue is to reduce my low percentage shots at the first place. If I have 18 strokes given away every round caused by driver, I better increase the success rate to at least 80% before I could significantly reduce my score. I don’t know how others recommend on practice, but I will keep doing the same routine and drill repetitively until I could increase the probability of launching a high percentage shot.

When wood meets wood

It is not Tiger Woods, it is about my driver and fairway wood.

I went to driving range for my practice session. It was a good night, started from my SW all the way to 4I, everything worked fine, this was rare and I was happy this night was the night. Since I had such a good experience so far, I wanted it to be completed with driver. Blood was flowing, adrenaline was rushing, mind was beating... After a few loose swing with the driver, I was ready to complete the satisfying practice for the night.

The address was good, the backswing was good and I was excited to launch the first driving shot. On the way down, I heard this loud clinking sound and my swing was blocked. The driver head hit the fairway wood which was rested quietly in my stand bag nearby. What happened when titanium meets stainless steel? They created a crystal clinking sound. Where did this energy released to? It chipped off the nice paint job at the bottom of the driver. This was really annoying to a person who took care of his custom built driver seriously. It took me almost 30 mins and 30 balls later before I could calm my frustration.

What did this incident told me? Three things:
1. When excitement took over the swing rhythmn, I would introduce unnecessary force on the down swing that caused hands to race over torso turning, extending my hands prematurely.
2. My downswing path was acceptable as it was the paint on the bottom heel side of the driver that was chipped, thus my driver was pointing upward at waist height.
3. Never rush, surface beauty does not last.