This is the first drill called the "Ball in Between the Arms." This drill goes as followed: Get a ball that is the size of an "ole fashion dodgeball" or a schoolyard kickball. Place the ball in between your biceps as you align yourself to the ball. Keep the ball steady as you go backwards and then through the ball. Don't drop the ball and don't let it move. This will help force my body to move in a certain way to hit the ball in a better fashion.
Over the past week I have mainly focused on the grip. The grip of the club is the most important thing of one's golf swing. It is one fundamental that most amateurs can't conquer. The grip has the most impact on the position of the face and the face of the club has the greatest impact on the flight of the golf ball. The positioning of the fingers can be the difference between a dipping ball that gets you nowhere or positioned nicely in the middle of the fairway. It is proven that approximately 90% of the golf ball's flight is based off of the grip on the club.
A few mistakes that beginners make when trying to fix grip is looking at it from the playing position. They attempt to hold it in the correct fashion while their club is on the ground in position to strike the ball. It is very difficult to see a few key points while in that position.
Instead, you should pick the club up and hold it directly in front of your face. This makes it much easier to correct errors and you can see straight on what the problem is.
There are a few key things to look for once you have the club up out of playing position. The first one is you want to develop this cup in the left wrist. You do that by gripping the club with the heel pad of the left hand more on top. Once you get the cup you then have to get the crease. The crease is in between the thumb and the pointer finger. You must push the two fingers together so the skin in between doesn't just hang there, rather it is pushed together. The knuckle of the thumb and the knuckle of the index finger should be pushing together. Once the left hand is placed on the club properly it is now time to do the right hand.
One main key is to get the heel pad and the thumb pad to create a pocket for the left thumb to fit into the right hand. Again you want to create a crease in the right hand with the pointer finger and the thumb. The creases should be set up parallel to each other pointing up to the left shoulder.
One of the biggest debates in golf besides Tiger or Jack, is how many fingers in the grip? Should it be ten fingers, lined up next to each other. Or, the overlap, where the pointer finger and pinky are stacked on top of each other. Or, should it be the inner lock grip? The inner lock grip is used by both Woods and Nicklaus. The inner lock is where the pointer finger and pinky lock together in the grip creating one giant hand.
Aside from focusing on grip and and doing the ball drill, it is all repetition. I have taken many putts over the course of the week and a few rounds at the range. I am prepping myself for next Saturday with PART TWO golfTEC!!!
I have not been following your blog from the very beginning of this project, but it seems like you have learned a lot. From reading this one post, I am thoroughly impressed with your attention to detail. Being an athlete, I know how simple actions often require many complicated steps, and it is apparent that you are applying this facet of athleticism into the way that you are perfecting your golf swing. The drill involving a ball placed between your arms was clever, and it seems like all of the extra drills that you are doing which appear not to be connected to hitting a golf ball seem to be contributing to your improved swing. I look forward to seeing your end result (an improved swing). And, while on the subject of seeing your final swing, I have a suggestion to make. Although it is a little late in the process to document yourself hitting a golf ball before you began any lessons, there is still time to record yourself now, and then put it next to a video of yourself after you have completed your lessons. This way, it will be easy to see how your swing has improved.
ReplyDeleteAaron, it seems like you are putting in a great amount of effort into being successful with your project. It's great that you are taking the time to improve yourself when you can, rather than waiting to get on a golf course to pratice. Exercises like the one you takled about in this post seem like a great idea to practice and imporve your playing. It will be interesting to see if your swing imporoves, and I would also like to see if your score on a golf course improves. It seems like you are taking all of the right measures to being as successful as possible with your project. Keep up the greeat work.
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