I'm here at the Peak Performance Golf School in Port St. Lucie, Florida. This morning, before we started the school, one of our students from a previous school, who lives in South Florida, arranged to have a two hour lesson with me.
Larry showed up and what I saw was a really good set up and a pretty good golf swing. He really did a pretty good job of maintaining and improving what we worked on at the golf school. He had the wide knees. He maintained them in the backswing and had a good take away, in the mitt and up the tree. As far as set up and backswing goes, he was pretty much spot on. But after that we ran into some problems.
He started by telling me he was having problem in terms of hitting a lot of chunks and then he hit some thins and then some blocks or pulls. But in between, he hit some pretty good golf shots. He was starting to hit some good ones but there were too many of these chunks and thins thrown in there. What we saw was a setup and top of backswing that was good, but from the forward upswing (FUS) to the finish he was having problems.
What was really happening was his arms were, what I like to call them, too noodley, too soft, just kind of collapsing on the way down. He had a tendency to just drop the club on the ground and then try to save it to have a good upswing to his finish. There was no consistency. One time he might make a really good swing, keep good form and good muscle tone and swing right up to a good T-Finish and hit a pretty good shot. The next one, half way down, his arms could just get soft and get right to the ball or through the ball and didn't have any really good acceleration up to the finish.
I determined it was because, basically, he wasn't maintaining and setting a good muscle tone in his hands and up his forearms and maintaining it through the whole swing, from the takeaway right through to the finish. So we worked on squeezing up on his grip so he had an upward pressure squeeze in his grip and that he would firm up his forearms up to just below his elbows. The key was, from the takeaway all the way to the finish, he did not let that muscle tone change in his swing.
We started getting him to a really good t finish, square to his target and impact started getting really consistent, shallow, tear the grass out of the ground and good ball striking, good height, and actually got a bit of his draw back. He said that was one of the problems he was having, he lost his slight draw.
So it was just giving him a firmer grip and forearms and maintaining it and making sure that as he swung his forward upswing to approaching the ball and through, and that he was firm and accelerating, not ever just going noodley or limp where things would fall out of position. So he started hitting some pretty good balls and getting his draw back.
At the golf school Larry attended, we suggested his clubs weren't quite right and to go see a fitter. So he went to a club fitter and the gentleman built him three golf clubs with 3 different heads. He built him a perimeter weighted, investment cast club with a little bit of offset. He built him a modified, cavity backed forged head, sort of a blade looking club. Then he built him a pure blade.
So Larry was trying to figure out what he wanted to use. Now, as you all know, I'm big on blades. I would put a beginner in blades. I Think blades work better. You swing the shaft and the head rotates around the shaft. I think if you have a blade all the weight of the club is right behind where the impact is. It's like hitting the ball with a fist, not with an open hand, like a perimeter weighted club, which is suppose to give you better balance and a wider sweet spot — which doesn't happen.
Larry hit all three clubs. He hit the perimeter weighted cavity back, which is a harder metal. Then he hit the modified cavity back, a forged club, which is a softer metal, and pure forged, muscle backed blade, where all the thickness and weight is right behind impact — the sweet spot.
When we finally got done with that, I said OK, what did you feel with that last one, with the blade. At first he said it was great. I said, OK, can you give me another adjective. He came back and said, 'Perfect.'I said that's still better, but what did the swing feel like and, most importantly, what did the impact feel like, what feedback did that ball on the club give you. He said, “The ball melted on the face.” I said, “Wow, I mean what does that tell you?”
Larry said, “The first club was very hard and kind of like a sharp hit. It didn't feel anywhere near that soft. The second one was OK. But nothing like this one. I could feel the ball right on the face.” I said, “Do you think that if you could feel more on the face that you are getting much more feedback from the golf club about how you hit that ball?” He said, “Absolutely.” So I said, “So what does that tell you?” It tells me I want forged blade. If I can feel what the ball's doing, I definitely got the concept, mentally and physically, of how well I'm hitting the golf ball.”
I thought I'd just pass that on. He felt the ball “melt on the face.” Phenomenal expression. And what have I written about? “Feel the swing, swing the feel.” Part of swinging the feel is feeling at impact: Knowing where you struck the ball on the face and how that impact affected your ball flight. The better you can see it, the better you feel it, the more senses you use, the more powerful the feedback, the quicker the learning experience because you know what's going on.
So, I think that the concept here is what? Play softer blades and softer heads and feel it. Go find a softer golf ball so you can feel the contact better. You get better feedback from that, especially with your putter. Better feedback is going to turn you into a better player. You feel and you know what's happening and you learn. And that's how you play better golf.
The Surge! (in Port St. Lucie)