Blog

Have you ever known allegedly dedicated and passionate golfers who,
rather than work on their ‘Basics & Fundamentals’,
seem to have ‘Nothing To Do and All Day To Do It’?
19th Hole Stool Warmers or Large Bucket Bangers
who cannot find the fairway with their driver
or ‘The 15 Foot Circle’ with their ‘Approach Irons’?

You are not one of these ‘Wannabe Pretend Participants’?
Sitting On Your Hands is often popular but not a productive posture!
‘Pushing String Up-Hill is NOT good exercise!

There has to be a more fertile approach to mastering this ‘Great Game’
while enjoying the ‘Process’ enroute to a predetermined, positive ‘Outcome’?

We are speaking about ‘Pureness Of Impact’. Hitting a golf ball on the screws makes a huge difference to your performance. (see ‘Compression & Line Of Compression’)(see ‘Straight Or Curving’ … ‘Spin Rate’)

The ‘Traditional Forged Blades’ had a ‘Pure Spot’ slightly towards the Heel or Hozel. (Center Of Mass [COM] or Coefficient Of Restitution [COR]) If we hit the ball on the toe, (1/2” to 3/4”) we could lose a ‘Leaky 20 Yards’. A heel strike was not nearly as penal as they were ‘Hozel or Heel Weighted’! Heel strikes tended to become a bit ‘Hooky’ with less loss of distance. The bush or OB on the ‘High-Energy Side of Target Line’ can be pretty nasty there as well.

The advent of ‘Forged Perimeter Weighted Cavity Backs’ (FPWCB) brought a totally different ‘Kettle Of Fish’ into reality … “Friendlier”!

The ‘14.2 Stainless Irons’ (SSPWCB) were designed to strike the ‘Measured Lateral Center’ of the face … designed to hit the enlarged middle of the Clubface’.

Simplicity rules!

Every procedure in the ‘Game Of Golf’ involves each one of our ‘5 Set-Ups’ … 1) Posture, 2) Grip, 3) Stance, 4) Ball Location and 5) Alignment. Your ‘555 Team’ is assuming that your mechanics is pretty well established in your life and that your ‘Putting & Chipping’ preparation is perfectly repeatable.

This ‘Bullet-Proof Skill Drill’ is a ‘Dance Floor Drill’. It should be done on your ‘Practice Green’ where it is ‘Dead Flat’. It takes out or eliminates the ‘Slope & Break’ variables.

If you can set-up to ‘Impact Fix’, with all the ‘Components’ inviting proper configuration through ‘The Impact & Separation Zone’ (Delivery & Release), you shall produce less ‘Get Lucky’ motions and actions, which inevitably invite erratic ‘Ball Flight Behaviour’.

Utilizing a properly established and disciplined ‘Impact Fix’, getting all the parts or pieces in place to accomplish a straight, properly shaped strike and Ball Flight, this ‘Process’ will make you more ‘Confident, Comfortable and Consistent’. Your scores will have smaller numbers and bigger smiles!

Do we want to be ‘More or Less’ active in our ‘Primary Articulating Joints’? (PAJ) There are 13 … Ankles, Knees, Hips, Neck, Shoulder Sockets, Elbows and Wrists.

Some of the ‘PAJs’ need to be ‘Less Active’ than the popular beliefs … some ‘More Active’.

Is a ‘Flippy-Handed’ swing an asset or a liability?

It is often said that ‘Hand Speed’ largely produces ‘Clubhead Speed, Smash Factor and Ball Speed’ which produces ‘Distance’. Certainly true but at what cost? Is there a cost?

This student and teacher of the game believes there is a cost … Accuracy and Control.

We hear that the ideal Grip should be ‘In The Fingers’. There are 14 Carpel and Meta Carpel Joints in the hand, plus the wrist bones. It is a compound-complex human structure.

We know that ‘Quiet Hand, Wrist, Elbow Triangles’ make for more predictable ‘Spin Rates’ and reduced ‘Ball Flight Curvature’.

There really is a difference between a III Wood and your Driver! Think about your ‘5 Set-Ups’ … Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment. This simplicity will cover the bases if you simply use your check list and Pre Shot Routine (PSR)! You shall be able and need to ‘Set Up For Success’! To tackle this subject, all you really have to do is read your ‘555 Driver Protocols’ and compare them with your ‘Long-Shafted Full Swing Protocols’ … meaning ‘Off The Deck and not Teed Up’.

A Dr. Fischer bone of contention is the statement you hear all too often … “You Do Not Hit Down On The Ball”! Think about your ‘Not Teed Up Long-Shafted Full Swing Protocols’. You sure as heck do not swing ‘Up Hill’ at this ‘Little White Ball’. Are you nuts?

At the ‘Top Of Your Back & Up Swing’ (TOB), your Clubhead is UP! I know that sounds foolish, but the answer will not! If you are up at TOB, you must reflexively get ‘Back Down’ to the ‘Ball Location’ which is hopefully properly placed in the Front Swing. Right?

We must focus on our very important ‘Problem Solving Concepts’. One of these is called ‘The Balsa Airplane Concept’. We ‘Wind Up The Big Rubber Band’ by moving the ‘Tip Of The Propeller’. The ‘Tip of the Propeller’ is the outside of the ‘Big Orbital Circle’. The load action works towards ‘The Hub of the Propeller’. (see ‘The Rotational Core’ … ‘The Crankshaft’)

Your ‘555 Team’ has an acronym we call ‘The Power Train Delivery Sequence’. (see ‘ALSDR’) It stands for ‘Accumulate, Load, Store, Deliver & Release’. Let’s expand this a little?

The Lower Body Machine (LBM … Feet, Knees, Hips, Abdomen or Trunk, Shoulders & Head) accomplishes ‘ALS’ in ‘The Back & Up Swing’ (Back Swing). We ‘Wind Up The Golf Body Machine’ (‘Spinal Crankshaft or Core’) ‘From The Top Down’ and ‘From The Outside-In’ … From the Finger Tips, along the ‘Lever Assemblies’ … From the Tip Of The Propeller.

The Putting and Chipping Strokes are fundamentally the same! If you are a great ‘Chipper’ see if you can replicate that ‘Pre Shot Routine’ for your ‘Putting’, or vice versa. ‘A Chip Is A Putt With A Hop’ created by factory ‘Loft’. I generally prefer my #8 Iron for this procedure. Not much ‘Hop’ is usually required. If you need more ‘Trajectory’, pull more! Do you use your ‘8 Step Putting & Chipping Pre Shot Rouine’?

Remember, both these procedures are based on our ‘Set-Up Criteria’ … Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment. Posture is the bedrock of any and all golf swings, Putter to Driver. If you have ANY questions or doubts, “AskUs!” Your ‘555 Team’ will be happy to discuss anything ‘Golf’ with you … any time. It is the reason for our professional being!

We are not meant to be totally, plumb/vertical or completely ‘Horizontal to the Ground’ in order to make efficient ‘Putting Procedures’. It is reasonable to strive to find comfort in a Spine Angle that is about 45 degrees to the ground. In this manner our ‘Golf Club Shaft’ can be about 90 degrees to the ‘Spinal Crankshaft’ and make solid or pure ‘Center Face Contact’. If you cannot get the ball to repeatedly come off the ‘Sweet Spot’, you are in deep ‘Dance Floor Do Do’!

I really do think one’s golf game and the whole performance is a bit of a ‘Chicken Soup’ with veggies. There is a lot of variety in our ‘Ball & Stick Activities’. Decades of entertainment seasoned with a touch of punishment and perhaps an appetizer known as frustration! I was going to call it a desert of ‘Mental Anguish’ but that might be politically incorrect as seen by desert lovers?

How about our dealing with chicken parts as an entre or what the Brits often refer to as ‘The Main Course’? We have whole rotisserie chickens, breast meat, boned and skinless legs & thighs, giblets as well as ‘Chicken Wings’ … lemon pepper or spicy Bar BQ.

Oh, that reminds me of ‘Golf’s Chronic and Venerable Chicken Wing Battle’.

‘Golf’s Chicken Wing Syndrome’ is, from a ‘Component Perspective’, quite simply about ‘Lack Of or Lost Lever Extensor Action’ … a nicely long and straight-ish Target or Swing Lever Assembly’. Your ‘Depth, Flatness and Width’ are important mechanical ingredients. (see ‘The Big Wheel’) Stretch before going to work on any golf property. Get blood flowing in your Hands, Wrists, Arms and Shoulders.

A good place to start is in respecting and applying your ‘5 Set-Ups’. When you are in ‘Address Ready’ or, even better, ‘Impact Fix’ (Swing Sequence #1), make sure that your Lever Assemblies are extended or lengthened … pushed down & out or away from your Sternal Core! (see ‘Pivot Core’) In this manner you shall establish your ‘Bottom Of Swing Arc’ (BOSA) and have some hope of getting back there in the Front Swing. (see ‘The Impact & Separation Zone - SS #8 and #8a - ‘DOFT’ Down Out Forward & Thru)

Firstly, one must understand that a ‘Shank’ means that you strike the ball ‘On The Hozel’ and not on the ‘Sweet Spot’ or relatively ‘Center Of Face’. This is a physical or mechanical reality. It is both annoying, quite unnecessary and easily understood. Be intellectual about this error!

If you are an ‘Arms Over Legs’ (deficient ‘Clubhead Lag Pressure’ … hands leading the Lower Body Machine (LBM) rather than trailing, you may find yourself ‘Reaching For The Ball’ with an ‘Above Plane and Path Error’. This can expose or present the ‘Hozel and not the ‘Center Of Mass’ to the Ballistic Point of the Ball. (BIC) Oops!