Golf Journey

My Golfing Journal

Explore

Golf

Feeling the Swing

I have recently found these new resources:

⁠

Rob Cheney⁠

⁠

Harry Shaw⁠

⁠

Titleist Performance Institute⁠

⁠

RS Trail Side Dominant⁠

⁠

I am a feel golfer. I am also an engineer. I love the science behind feel. These new resources has caused me to test and evaluate my golf swing feels. The result is new take on training the golf swing. I believe that for most of us we don’t have a lot of time and therefore “feels” is the way to go. I like HackMotion, Harry Shaw and TPI because they are mostly grip and swing agnostic.

I use HackMotion videos because they are free. Not because I believe all of their concepts. I do like their drills and perspective. This is one of the challenges of golf and YouTube. Trying to golf the way everyone perceives the golf swing will only end in chaos.

Before this swing feel, I had a different feel for, chipping, pitching and iron play. Previous to this, in most golf instruction is geared towards thousands of reps, weeks and months before being able to implement properly. I like the notion of being able to immediately take these concepts to the course and play. The notion of keeping the club face square early in the downswing, through impact and after impact with no wrist hinge, is a concept that can be immediately implemented in chipping. Then taken to the golf course. The same is true for pitching which will include some wrist hinge and then wedge play with more wrist hinge. Again, each concept mastered at some level can be incrementally taken to the golf course. Love it!

I also think these feels are not as foreign as other concepts, more quickly mastered and more easily remembered. This is good news for those of us who can’t play every day.

⁠
`Setup`⁠
Feel

The Grip comes next.

Posture needs to incorporate a neutral lower back. Inverted can cause a reverse pivot and pain. Body Feels comes later.

The Grip

A weak, neutral or strong grip is up to you. To help decide, learn a bit about

Club Face Feel Drill⁠

I prefer a neutral grip

Grip⁠

⁠

It helps me hinge, square the club face and follow through better.

It is not intuitive to me because I have seen so many amateur strong grip swings go badly but I find the strong grip key to my success. It actually helps me hold the club face square through impact.

Body Feels

⁠

Mechanics Fixes⁠

⁠

I love the TPI notion of two power chords. One with a connector just below rib cage. One just above the belt. Connect the chords and keep them connected throughout the swing.

When I use this technique, I don’t have to focus so much on losing my tush line towards the ball because engaging the core seems to push and keep my glutes back.

Feel the Swing

Practice Chip, Pitch and Full Swing

The goal here is to keep the club face as square to the target for as long as possible through the ball strike. To fully familiarize your body with that feeling. We start with chipping because it encourages mostly static body movement, only the shoulders move. Pitching includes a bit of a weight shift with some wrist hinge. Hopefully, your body will start to feel how it should move as you get into the full swing. If you run into body movement feels, see the “Additional Feels” section below.

Remember the to engage the core. It will help lock-in the ball impact position, preventing heavy or thin shots.

Focus on keeping the club face as square to the target for as long as possible through the ball strike. With this ability it makes low, medium and high flighted balls possible because you can hit the ball in various points of your stance because the club face is square throughout a good portion of the stance.

Chip with no wrist hinge. All upper body turn. Feel square club face before, through and after impact.

Wrist Impact Position Drill⁠

Pitch with a bit of wrist hinge.

Trail Side Arm - Give Blood⁠

⁠

Full Swing includes more wrist hinge.

⁠

Release Drill⁠

⁠

Takeaway⁠

⁠

Exit Move⁠

On the backswing, it is critical that the club face stay outside or ball side of the hands up to club parallel. No shallow takeaway here. At this point the club face should also stay closed such that its angle matches your spine angle.

Ball position if you choose a stronger grip, start with:

Chip - trailing foot big toe (Very narrow stance).

Pitch - a bit more forward.

Longer irons - increasingly toward the middle of stance. (I am still experimenting with this)

Driver - below lead shoulder.

Additional Feels

⁠

Kinetic Sequence - Rock-n-roll⁠

⁠

Kinematic Sequence - Power transfer⁠

⁠

Early Extension & Tush Line⁠

⁠

Lead Side Feels⁠

⁠

Driver⁠

⁠

Lead Foot⁠

⁠

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.