Continuing with the lesson I had with my 12 year old left handed student KH, we'll now look at his setup and the necessary adjustments he needed. A short review of his ball striking problem is that K was hitting a lot of thin iron shots. The good news is they were relatively straight. Despite my impact motto of, 'Thin to Win, they were happening much too often and causing him to miss too many greens, so we had to cure the thin shots. He was driving the ball well and hitting fairways, which more dramatically highlighted the thin iron shots and the need to correct the problem.
K has the ¾ length backswing and a really good, dynamically balanced T ' Finish down pat for all the clubs. What he doesn't have down pat is a consistently TE setup which then makes having a TE swing difficult to impossible. K's setup nemesis is he tends to creep in too close to the ball and his feet get too much under his hips, and his weight is, thus, back on his heels. This also causes his arms and hands to hang down too close to his body.
This lesson had a new twist. K, in getting 'Pre-Loaded Heavy Left' PLHL (he is a lefty) he got into a good position with the proper spine tilted back and weight on his back foot, but his head was out of position. As he loaded and his spine and shoulders titled a little toward his left, he was tilting or cocking his head also to the left. In other words, his left ear was getting closer to his left shoulder.
His head was no longer at right angles to his shoulders and his neck muscles were now out of dynamic balance. This also caused a third problem in that this tilt caused him to be 'NBB,' Nose Behind the Ball rather than 'NAB,' Nose At the Ball. I felt this was the primary cause of the thin shots. His focus point is behind the ball. This causes his upper body to move forward to the ball and ultimately he moved ahead of the ball, causing the thin impacts. Then every now and then he stayed put or hung back and hit it a little chunky.
The first setup adjustment was getting his feet farther away and his weight distribution off his heels. That made it more forward and centered over his arches. Moving the feet back and away from the ball also caused more bending of his upper torso at the hips. This added spine angle tilt caused his arms to hang straight down from his shoulders and gave him the perfect distance from the ball.
We next worked on a setup adjustment move to re-set his head perpendicular to his shoulders after he correctly walked into the setup. After K was set up, I had him raise his upper torso back straight up and set his head in line with his spine and perpendicular to his shoulders. I demonstrated the right angle position to him with his dad watching, by touching his left ear and diagramming a right angle, moving my finger out parallel to his shoulder and then dropped it straight down to his shoulder. I then repeated it with his right side and stressed that with the head straight up from his spine he had a right angle on both sides of his head.
From there he had to return back to his 'PLHL' setup. The key was now he had to concentrate on keeping his head position, relative to his shoulders, exactly the same. He had to maintain his head to shoulder right angle relationship. I had him walk in and out and re-set 10 or more times to get the routine and feeling down pat. Every time he did it his Dad and I were standing face on to him so his Dad could learn the head look he needed see that K must have. I do this with Dad because he is my assistant when out with his son when I am not there.
The last check point I worked on with K was for him to make sure his nose was pointed at the ball. I reminded him of the ball position vision 'Focus Test' and had him do it a few times. Pure focus on the ball means that the ball must be in the center of your focal field of vision. That point is directly out from your nose, thus creating the concept of 'NAB,' the nose pointing AT the ball. This is important because when we swing we tend to return the club to where our center of focus is. If the ball is not there, then the body moves forward and that is when thin shots are hit. It also leads to hanging back in the transition and chunks can be hit.
The 'Focus Test' is simple and takes a second or two. You can do it right now by standing up and looking at something on the floor straight on. Once setup correctly and you are looking at the object, close your eyes. Then immediately open them up and see where you are looking. If you are NAB, nose AT the ball, it will be in the center of your vision field. Now, turn or tilt your head like K was, with his nose behind the ball. Open and close your eyes and you will see your object is now not in the center of your focus, but out toward the periphery of your vision field. K being a lefty, his ball was outward right of his focus. For right handers the ball would be outward left.
Now, with K into a TE setup with his nose back in the Nab position and ball in center focus, it was time to now get his swing into Technical Excellence. Almost all of K's swing problems were at the top of his backswing and transition. Despite all of that he was getting to a really good balanced T ' Finish. He was getting deep behind his toe line, and he had the club laid off at the top of his backswing. He also had a slight re-route now and then in the transition that was happening too often.
I will discuss these problems and the corrections in tomorrow's article. I will also include the swing test and drills we worked on. These involved K doing 2 swing position tests and practicing 3 swing drills. I know since ya'll love taking tests and doing drills, waiting till tomorrow will be tough. But, it will be worth the wait.
The Surge!