slice, hook, UGH, starting over again!

i thought i was getting it down and improving, now i see i was improving on putting and short game which was lowering my scores. but off the tee and second shots on par 5s were killing me. then i read a golf mag and noted some pro saying to turn your hips to start your down swing, let the arms fall and turn the shoulders. for me, i was shifting my weight to my front foot and turning the shoulders. i was getting fairly good at it for my game and hitting most greens on the second shot. so now i try this hip turning thing and whoa! its a bit touchy and seems more powerful. when i initiate the down swing by turning my hips it seems to sling my arms and shoulders around behind them. if i go to fast then there is a lag time which creates some wild shots, but if i time it just right all seems in sync. I guess this is what they mean by rythum and timing? it has also changed the way i strike the ball and is more noticable on the short shots, wedge/sand wedge, nine iron. its a bit scary as i dont have the correct feel for the various shots now as i did and feel as if i am going to over shoot everthing and many times end up screwing up by deascelerating. i hope with time and practice this will improve.

i also, made a consciencious effort to lighten my grip. i thought i had, but what I learned was that at set up all was well and during the back swing all was well with a light grip on the club. but now i see that during the transition from back swing to down swing i have started to chock the )&(%** out of the club. i couldnt feel it at the time and started noticing after the banna ball or duck hook that my fingers of my left hand hurt. i think i am writing this as a mental note to myself and possible to help someone else. I really had thought i had conquered the grip but now i see i really hadnt.

this is a very hard habit to break, especially if i take the club back too quick its like an automatic reaction to want to grip it harder in anticapation of the club coming out of the hands and flying off some where. must be the reason they made the club handle in a wedge shape. so it will automatically get tighter with the original light grip with out me having to feel like i have to hold on to it. it also seems logical why grips need to be replaced as they probably wear down and leave one with a very slight sensation of it slipping in the hands which would encourage one (myself) to grip tighter during the swing, transition or down swing.

so now i have to deal with all this and the frustration of re learning how to do this again. last night on a 370 par four with a 20 knot wind behind my back i launched a drive down past the 125 yard marker to about 20 yards to the green. i was beside myself and leaping with anticpation only to thin hit the stupid ball over the green, UGH, cause i was afriad of over hitting it!!!

before that, i tested out, my driver and three wood. both taylor made R 5/s but the three wood is a S and the driver is a R shaft. teeing off the same tee wiht both, (it was a slow night) wind at my back and trying to strike wiht the same tempo and speed the three wood out drove the driver? what the heck does that mean?
the ball from the three wood took off left and low like a bullet and headed off the course on to the next course but hit a tree and carreaned back on to the intended course. the driver ball took off in the shape of a high fade and ended up about 20 yards past the 250 yard marker. both balls were titlists and the three wood ball was about 15 to 20 yards past the driver ball.

would this mean i should hit the three wood more often and put up the driver?

buy the way, where i play is in league city texas, south of houston and it is on the longest lighted golf courses in the USA, 6777 yards and ya can play till 12pm, woohoo

thanks for reading my ramblings

pat

It sounds as though you are on the right track... Keep us informed... That midnite course sounds great.

Hi Pat,

I like Hogans image at address of a strong elastic strip attached to your left hip and fastened to a wall behind you. Then a thinner strip fastened to your belt buckle and left wrist.

As you turn your hips in the backswing the elastic strip attached to your left hip becomes taught, the thinner band from buckle to left wrist also gets taught as you raise the arms to the top. As you start your downswing the first strip pulls your hips back, as the hips unwind they pull the second band that tugs your arms and hands down to waist level ready to release the club into to the ball with your right hand.

__________________
Best Regards
Brian

________________________________
Funny o'l game!

ok, its been too rainy and cold since my last discovery and have been stuck in the house and working. so i have not been back to in grain what i learned.. . finially the sun came out and i raced to the course. the driving range was flooded out and closed so i signed up for ninie holes. feelling all confidenct and excited i walked up to the first tee. but my memory was not fresh. just remembered the loose touch stuff and new grip. picked out the three wood, and woosh, missed it and the ball shot off directly to the right and in to the water. pulled out another ball and the same thang. dang, i thougt. this is not cool, what is wrong. pulled out a third ball, lucky no one else was waiting or playing, and hit a fairly bad slice. ok, i will work with that. go to the ball in the next fair way and decide to lay up as its over two hundred yards to the pin and yet over a river and ditch. skulle it! dang, ball ran up to the ditch and stoped before going in. so i pulled out the sand wedge and sliced it short of the the green. dang. whats wrong, everyting was going so well last time.

next hole, toped the t shot, and down to the 125 marker so i pull out a nine iron, hit three draws in a row into the underbrush. more like pull draws,

so i keep going over and over in my mind what is wrong and trying to get a connection to the swing. it wasnt till the fourth hole i figure my grip was too strong and my take away was too fast. how did i know this? well changed the grip to weaker, then took a slower take away and at a point i felt good i started turning my hips and whala! it all happened, a straingt ball, over the pond, 150 yards and on the green. it was like auto matic.

no effort at all with the arms, they are just passive and along for the ride, really strange, start turnng the hips and the elastic pull takes care of everyting else and the next thin ya know your standing thier with a finish pose! it makes me wonder how one would make a faster speed swing when all seems so automatic. then it struck me, core training for the stomach, maybe that is the connection with the hips and upper torso! but thats another day?

spent the rest of the round doing much better and straighter and happier and less frustrated. felt great to select a club and target and hit the green or the fairway with such an effortless swing.

surprisingly the ball goes about as far as with an effort type of swing i use to do. the grin, grit and sqeeze type that kind of felt good when ya connected and it went straingt, but those were not all too many.