Iron Play - Hit It Pure Everytime, Throw Your Club

Another One Bites The Dust

Another one bites the dust, Freddy Mercury and Queen sang that. "Women No Enough?" "I Stupid!" "Just Blindly Follow Lor". These could be titles of new movies. Hope it was just a publicity stunt but it seems futile. While people from previous generations felt too much shame until they even refused help for things they should not feel ashamed of till now where people just don't feel no shame. They take naked pictures of themselves and post them on their phones, computers, face book and wherever. The paparazzi are everywhere too, in fact, all people are part of the paparazzi now so be careful when you stop your vehicle at the red light and start digging your nostrils or sat, fell asleep and start drooling on a train, you could find yourself in Stomp or YouTube with accompanying music to go along watched by the whole wide world.

I couldn't understand the press conference by Jack Neo except perhaps for PR and damage control but why now and why was the wife involved when she is not even a celebrity but an innocent party and the most hurt person? To show that she has forgiven him? C'mon Jack. She was the most wonderful person while feeling hurt and yet forgiving, the conflicting emotions is really too much to bear. Scandals like these have been breaking out like the American financial crisis, one by one they came out like falling dominoes but has anyone learned anything? As always, the innocent are deeply hurt by an individual's indiscretion and self gratification. 


When watching movies and reading the papers, all the love espoused are not real such that they become a dirty four letter and overused word. How can someone hurt the one they love? If you love a person, shouldn't you protect them and make sure they are not harmed? Isn't love about selflessness, sacrifice and letting go. Or what you don't get you destroy? What was Wendy's intention? Would you now still do something that might end up like this? Like corruption, once you start you cannot stop even when you truly wanted to. You give control and your destiny away while living in tenterhook.

Tattoos

Everybody has started spotting tattoos too as it is fashionable and what I may have once thought cool was fortunately not engraved on me as it becomes so common place that those without are the real cool. Many may not know that tattoos in ancient days were used to mark cattle or horses just like when you walk in and out of a discotheque they give you a stamp on your hand. It was also heavily used in witchcraft. 


Some tattoo designs and patterns may have been created to denote something in witchcraft where we have no clues about, so be careful. It was also common for olden day gangsters to spot them tattoos. Why not impress your bosses and company to perhaps put a tattoo for example declaring "Intel inside" just above your butt crack. 


Golfers who hit balls when they are not supposed to endangering the lives of others in front or hitting stray shots that hit or nearly hit someone and then not apologising but instead give excuses and believe you me even say things like "you think you pro ah, you never hit stray shot before" ought to be sentenced to CWO (corrective work order) by standing in the open of a golf driving range for three days and to be extended until at least one golf ball hits him. This, I am certain will help him to changetheir outlook in life.

PIG

PIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) gave us a scare recently just after we thought we are done with pigs. Please see below links on previous pig-related topics.

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2009/12/men-are-pigs.html
http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2009/12/awards-for-good-husbands-what-do-you.html

Meanwhile, whether you are John Daly or Tiger Woods, there is a set of irons out there that is right for you. I talk about irons because iron play is a golfer's most basic and essential part of the game. The iron is definitely a staple of your bag just like rice is staple to your diet. Being able to control and shape shots and the ability to judge distance accurately will define your game or else everything shall be in vain. 


You can tee off with a wonder shot with your driver but if you are not able to find the green (the green green grass of home) you may find out that the "first cut is the deepest" (rough) as Rod Stewart sang. Most of us carry at least 8-9 pieces of irons and that in itself constitute 57-64% of what gets into your bag. Therefore, the most commonly use swing and its swing plane is one that is from the irons which also explains why when suddenly call upon to use no. 3 fairway wood, chances are that we won't hit that good shot.

Many social golfers have a tendency to think that they have to hit the ball hard or that they have to go in with a certain way like a scooping action to help lift the ball up rather than to think that you are just swinging through and the ball happens to be in the way and that every club you use has a built-in loft to give it the distance and trajectory required. 


In fact, using more force will cause us to use the wrong muscles to execute the swing resulting in inconsistent swings, altering the swing plane, impacting with a close or open club face and worse hitting them fat or thin. It is also not surprising that often times we are actually hitting as much as 3 inches behind the ball and as a result the shot would lose distance and direction. You wouldn't notice this at the range since you are hitting from a thick cushioned carpet. A better way is to practice at a range with real grass or to observe it when you are playing on the actual course. You can make a marked line where your ball is by placing two balls or tees and after striking you can check the divot if it is before or after the ball. 


Pros hit such crisp shots impacted with back spin because they actually strike down at the ball and create a divot with their follow through in "front of the ball". This generates backspin and creates stopping action on the green. They achieved this by straighteningg their left elbow and wrist (for right-handers), cocking their wrist at the end of the back swing and when coming down - they "throw their club". By throwing I mean that they release it by uncoiling from their hinged position from their pivot like a trigger using their hip as a fulcrum from which they rotate (shoulders are parallel to the hip) then releasing their cocked wrist not at the top but mid-way on the downswing and fully throwing the club through the swing for full power.

To see how to throw your clubs, see the pictures below.

Ha ha, just pulling your legs.
Tiger did the unthinkable in Australia when he threw his Nike driver after a poor shot which then bounced off the ground into the crowd. The last time Bobby Jones did that long time ago he got a warning from the USGA President that if he did that again he will never play in the PGA. That is why when you talk to older golfers they always name Arnold Palmer or Jack Niklaus as their favourite golfers. For the record, Tiger didn't apologize when a spectator picked it up and gave it back to him.


The Swing - Power Efficiency

One of the world's greatest mystery is the golf swing. Not UFOs, Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch (well, we have Nike Sasquatch driver) or the Bermuda Triangle. Even the best golfers with relentless training and experience lose their swing and rhythm sometimes. The focus of the swing is always going to be with the pivot/fulcrum, spine angle - from set up stance to the follow through and even something as simple and basic as the grip to find a consistent yet powerful angle for a repeatable swing. Do remember that each of us is built differently that even your grip is different. So we need to find an angle to get into the zone.

Spine Angle

They say that the spine angle is a very important aspect because when you can maintained it you get a respectable swing as your entire stance of the knee bend and the angle of your arms hanging gets into the zone for this is the balance point to facilitate the most effective motion for you to uncoil from a hinged position. Part of the set up involves aligning and tilting the spine angle. It is an angle of your spine in relation to the ground. 

When standing up ramrod straight, your spine is actually perpendicular to the ground but the moment you hold a golf club in your hands, your right hand is holding the club at a lower point than your left hand, your right shoulder should automatically tilt slightly to the right and away from the target. Next time at the golf course, observe the other golfers, you will see some standing ramrod straight while others may lean forward a little or too much or may have both shoulders on an equal plane. 

You ought to really try letting the hands and shoulders hang naturally with the right side lower than the left with your spine angle tilted so as to facilitate getting your swing behind and under when striking the ball. Achieving this will put you on the way to be a better ball striker. Add on a good stance for greater power.

Stance - Leg Width

You may not think much of it and you may even hear all kinds of differing views on the subject. But something as simple or basic as this can affect the result of your swing. There are some views where they say that the more you open the space between legs the more balance you will get. This is true only if your stance has been too narrow as it affects your balance. As a general rule of the thumb, your feet apart should not be less than or more than the width of your shoulder. It should just mirror that. 

The Hinge

The golf swing in a way works exactly like how a door opens and closes. All these could happen because of the hinges. In this case, the golf club is like the door and you - your hip, shoulders and arms are the hinges. It is only the left arm that fully determines the width of your swing as it has to slam back down onto the ball as you would see a door slamming shut. When at the top of the back swing, you should feel your hip tuck into position, your shoulders and left arm fully extended and the wrist cocked. 

This is the hinge or "trigger" position where your next action is to unhinge and fire the trigger and where your hip/shoulders rotate in a pivot pulling along your arms and follow that by pictures in slow motion of the sequence of your elbow then the wrist, then grip, shaft and finally club head swinging through the ball. This is your power angle.

Straight Left Arm or Locked Left Arm?

You hear people saying it all the time. So should we keep our left arms straight or locked. Basically, when you have tension in your body be it shoulders or arms, you will not hit well. Your arms are dangling and hanging down at address, locking it will create tension but you must keep your left arms straight. You must think that you are using a cane to whip or even swinging a rope. This way, the lesser the effort, the better the result.

Chicken Wing

We are not talking KFC here. The Chicken Wing effect is really the scourge of golfers. What is chicken wing and what cause it in the golf swing? It happens when your armpits open on the back swing or the forward swing. It is simply that you are having too much tension in your shoulders and arms. When there is tension, your muscles contract and it shortens your swing such that your golf club is actually lifted off the ground and your body naturally compensates by finding a new path to the ball. 

Thinking of hitting forcefully also contributes to this problem. It occurs mostly during your body turns and when your body stops rotating towards the end of the downswing and as the club passes your hands causing a bent elbow. When at a range, put two wood covers or pieces or cloth under each armpit and play your usual shots without allowing them to drop off. Keep your armpits to yourself and not show it to the world and imagine that they have been stuck together with super glue and do not allow a fly to go past them. This will let you say bye bye to chicken wings.

Puring Your Shots

How often do you see or experience this? You wanted to hit a soaring shot onto the green but then it hardly gets airborne or you wanted to punch or hit a low shot to avoid a branch in front and the ball sky-rocketed instead. Sounds familiar? Solid iron shots provide distance control and the real way it happens is if you could imagine seeing it in slow mo in your mind - you are hitting down at the ball and the ball is being compressed between the club face and the ground which produces backspin and together with the built-in loft of the club makes the ball rise up quickly.

You are a good iron player and good striker of the ball if you hit the ball first then the ground. As I have previously mentioned, try putting a tee next to your ball - along the same line but a little distance away. After hitting your shot, observe if the divot is in front or behind. If in front you are hitting it correctly. If behind, you hit it "fat" and will lose distance and accuracy. If you are hitting low shots, your club head is getting ahead of your hands as you try to scoop the ball into the air. 

To get an impact feel of hitting it pure, try hitting a series of shots by stopping at the club when it is just below the waist. This in a way is liken to a punching action and it will help to eliminate any scooping action and even if you do not have a perfect follow through finish, your result will be much better than scooping. Fat shots are not hit by fat people. It refers to shots hitting the ground first behind the ball. Chunks of turf would be sent flying but the ball just trickles to nowhere. Try a bit of forward lean and tucking towards the target.

Creating Lag

Earlier I have explained about the sequence of motion from the hip/shoulder, arms and club then into the ball. This is also to enable us to generate lag. Creating lag is about pulling your golf clubs with your body and not pushing them with your hands. I have sometimes told friends about likening it to holding and then throwing a bucket of water when washing your car or when you are at the car wash then watch how a car washer does it. 

One common mistakes of golfers is to grip the club too tightly allowing tension to creep in. Your grip should be firm and not tight with tension. When it is too tightly gripped, there is no room for manoeuvre and you can't release it freely. Make sure that the main grip is from your left hand where the last three fingers are the ones really gripping the club. From your right hand, try out by loosening the grip of your index finger and the thumb, a little like the shape of a pointing a gun, just allowing your thumb to touch the grip (overlapping your left thumb) and the index finger just bending a little touching the grip. 

This will free you from some tension and with the right index finger and thumb not gripping the club, you can now feel that the club is a bit heavier and it shall create a situation where you can allow the club to drop down naturally from the top of your back swing preventing a forced action. You will also feel the lag of the golf swing. This lag will result in a more powerful swing especially if you could time the release of the cocked wrist not from the top but when the club is parallel to the ground on the downswing. Sam Snead said that many would die from starvation if golfers hold their fork and spoon the way they grip a golf club. Even a good putt requires club head lag from the putter.

Getting Into The Zone

Getting into the zone is the same but yet different. Some can be explained while others cannot no matter if you were playing sports, playing a round of cards, working or just doing casual stuffs. On some days, you feel you could do no wrong. Even when you hit trees the ball bounces back onto the fairway. When you reach a bunker it goes over and out. You top the ball and it still go straight on. You chip in from 30m and it rolls straight into the hole. You are on a roll. When this happens, you are in the zone baby! 

The opposite effect is when you hit a perfect shot towards the middle of the fairway and the ball landed on a small stick used for securing a rope to prevent buggies from advancing further and ricochets to the water making you feel that the devil is pulling your legs. These are things beyond us or had no comprehension whatsoever. We can learn to "get into the zone", our own zone by making some small observation on how we go about doing things starting with the small ones such as finding a way to always being able to quickly check our grip, stance, club selection and distance judgement, etc.

We can also observe the better players. If you watch the low handicappers, they could play on any courses or weather, wind or ground conditions and they could still generate a good game like a switch on button. They simply pick up all information and adjust faster including when they are walking to the green they could see the the undulation or when walking on it they feel with their feet while high handicappers may not be aware what to watch out for and even when they know are not able to adjust quickly. There are many things that could play a part. For some, perhaps it can be as simple as having a good night's sleep.

I shall leave you with this illustration on shots that goes from neutral to fade (right) to draw (left). The TaylorMade R9 460 driver, the R9 fairway wood and the Rescue TP have this FCT feature.

If you have the knowledge and skill set, you can actually do it with a slight adjustment of your stance, grip and swing. This is especially useful on much contoured courses by designers with evil intent with doglegs going right or left and becomes crucial when your direction is blocked by trees or other objects. More on that later. 


Playing these kind of your shot is considered "shot-shaping" and need not just skills but courage and confidence. When you pull it off, you walk tall and gets admiration but when not it will look ugly and you will feel stupid. Eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. It's your call. Good luck and note that the safest place to be is the golf course. It's the only place with grass that has not caught fire as they carefully water it through your green fees.


Golf as in life, play as it lies.