Still teachin Austinology...

Matt,

How to kill the ball is Dan's handywork. That one is NOT the MA method. Secrets of the games longest hitter is where I start all my students. It's at PeaceRivergolf.com. This was the last video Mike and Mike did. Mike told me about How to kill the ball when it was being written. He never endorsed it. I remember talking to him about it and he went ballistic about it. I never brought it up again after that.

I know there are 2 ladies in Texas that came out to see Mike every year that are PGA instructors but their names ilude me now. I'm sure Thomas still teaches in Oregon. Mike Dunaway is in Rogers, Ark. I'm in New Orleans.

GB

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The guy in the white hat!

Great - the one from Peace River - Secrets of the Games Longest Hitter - that is the DVD I have. The book How to Kill the Ball and 21st Century Golf Swing I have as well, but as you said, are by Shauger.

I'll have to dig up the DVD when I get home - I remember it being pretty well done.

Thanks GB.

GB,

Thanks for taking time to explain, it is appreciated. There is plenty for me to ponder on.

I am glad that you are feeling better.

Please explain the part I have bolded. I am a right handed golfer so to move the right hip up as a turn (turn back?) is confusing. I would think I am creating a reverse pivot. And how do I hit "against" my right hip. In the forward swing should one hit against the front hip (left hip for a right hander). You may be left handed but this doesn't make sense to me.

yea, sorry, thanks for pointing that out. what I ment to say was letting the left hip turn and rock up. it is prety natural and common sense as I said though. could you brace all that weight on your left leg if your left hip was down? your hip should come up naturally if you try to brace your body with your left leg. but since people try to think their way through the golf swing, I guess it is a valid thought to turn it around/back and up. but that should happen naturally if you dont' over think it.

and I have a feeling this is going to be unnessisarily long winded and stretched out so i will apologize for that too and the fact that a lot of this migth make sense to you because it is so hard to explain.

I think MA is right on with his teaching, if you were to try to learn step by step. But I think step by step is too hard and a natural swing is much much easier. I like to think if you can throw a ball non-girl style (that uncoordinated mess), than you should no trouble at all swinging the club naturally. I don't know about you, but if you have ever tried to teach a girl to throw normally that couldn't already, it is quite difficult and I think thoose are the people that should be learning golf step by step.

I like to compare golf to one of thoose pictures that have 2 different pictures in them. There are thoose that see one picture and thoose that see the other picture. It can take quite a while to teach someone what the other picture looks like and hope they see it with out they looking at it themselves. but intill they see it the way the pros see it, golf is going to be a more difficult sport than it needs to be.

could you walk across a balance beem while leaning over and throwing your arms varuios ways, I am sure you could eventually learn how to, but simple walking from point A to point B is much easier. I think that is what Golow was saying that people are wrong, he was simply saying that yea, you could swing the golf club that way, but it is going to take you much longer to learn if you ever learn to hit it properly than if you just simply swung naturally.

My suggestiong would be to (as clichẽ as this sounds) you have to think outside the box and quit letting others tell you were power/speed comes from. Try to anylyze the swing and what really makes power from all different angle and experiment. People think the golf swing is an arc and try to hit it as such and I think that is one of the biggest problems. I sure do not feel and arc in my swing at all. now according to the video the club does follow an arc path, but that is from other body parts moving and turning. So, I thought outside the box and what really made power and now I can kill the ball and on video my swing looks great, but I sure don't feel my swing look ANYTHING like it feels.

now that I can "see the other picture" I am really not that impressed with the pros hitting. I am inpressed with the way the play and the consitency and many other things, but hitting the ball like they do really isn't that impressive to me now. due to my 1-2 years playing and ton of inexperiece I still have to get my fundementals down. People are amazed that the distances I get and how acurate I can shape the ball and bend it one hole, and the next whole completly duff it or pull or slice. Kind of a how can a guy hit the ball so good hit the ball so bad. I have learned how to hit it correctly now, its just a matter of loosing old habbits and remembering the fundementals from me hitting a -1 -1 E -1 then a +3 or a +4 +1 +2 then back to a -1. kind of like walking on a balance beem, just because I know how to doesn't mean I can without falling, you just put your left foot over your right and it is from practice that lets you do it without falling. I am there with my golf sswing, since I "saw the other picture" just a few weeks ago I still need the practice, but as far as noing how, its really quite simple, its too bad that people can't see the picture.

I completely believe that golow and ben hogan ect. was correct and that the golf swing is completely in the right hand. the rest of the stuff happens if you let it. but don't listen to me, I can try to point and describe that picture but you have to see it on your own.




most amateurs see the young lady and the pros see the old lady, I would be willing to bet there are many pros that only see the young lady, they just started at a young age and practiced for years and finally learned how to hit the ball. I can see the "swinging the club method" and the whacking the ball with the right hand method too. but intill you can see the hitting the ball with the right hand method and forget what others tell you I think you will struggle and have a harded time learning than you should.

So GG28, the Mike Austin thing has helped you to see the light? I too am trying to develop a more natural swing with the idea of throwing the club with the right hand as part of the process. My problem is I just can't consistently get posted up on that left leg to complete the forward turn and get maximum leverage in my swing. I'm making a little progress though.

One thing I find happening when using the right arm or hand more is that it works really well at first then suddenly I lose my swing plane and have to go back to just thinking about keeping the club on plane. I can at least make decent contact just keeping the club on plane but there is still something missing. That certain pop in my swing is not there.

I am thinking about looking at Mike Austin's DVD or perhaps the 3skills thing to see if I can find another breakthrough.

no, MA never helped me, it is just something I looked into in the past so I know what he teaches. I learned from really studying the swing and practicing what I think created power and didn't listen to the lag and the xfactor and the body or the legs ect and all thoose methods out there. I didn't even really listen to the right arm method, I just know I have a strong right arm and figured why not try to use it.



here is somehting for you to try. at the top of your swing try to throw your right arm out, you should not be able to AT THAT MOMENT. but then right near impact your arm gets released.

stand on your right leg and without bracing anything try to curl 30-40lbs (nothing huge but not too light either). it should be difficult but manageable. then stand on your left leg and try to curl same weight in your right arm still keeping your right leg an inch or so above the ground like a shoulder wide stance.

it should be much harder to do, why? does your right arm get weaker all of a sudden? it has to do with your weight shifting. I am kind of an advocate for reverse weight shift (not really but i learned to hit real hard that way untill i learned how weight shift works)

you want to try your hardest to throw that right hand out but through weight shift and other factors you are not able to untill you get to the impact zone you will find all that energy ready to explode.

try goin to the top of you backswing with your hands way past your right foot and see how easy it is to uncock. then turnback and keep your hands very close to your head (inseide your right foot) and you will notice it almost impossible to throw your right arm out at the top but you still try and when your weight shifts and you turn in the DS your right arm will "gain" power and come flying out.

again the swing is very hard to explain, but try to think natural an outside the box.

where do you think club head speed comes from the shaft moving in an arc, moving vertically to the ground, horizontally?

try to actually throw the club head back instead of front in the DS see what happens and feel different power.

if you want MA or 3skills its up to you they might work, i dont' know my advice is try things out. see where you feel the most power from then once you have that power then you can modify you techniques to fundementals and try to reign in that power and get your easy accuracy and power.

New student to the Mike Austin swing and i definitely agree that the George H stuff is not very good. I have the Secrets of the Worlds Longest Hitter video and will stick with that as it seems simple and seems to work.