I've had some good ball striking this week -- breakthroughs, really. (Along with a couple of "what the heck was that" fat shots when I didn't start with that little hip slide and just pretty much stuck the club in the ground 2 inches behind the ball...)
First, if you don't have them -- get the DVD's!
Second, as said elsewhere, there is so much more "out" and "down" than we believe. I find that I can backslide to a sweepers style strike and then, the inevitable "flip"...bad stuff.
Third, I was standing a little too far from the ball -- an inch or so closer eliminated the toe hits and brought on that much sought after Nirvana -- compression. Like a half club to full club longer. It also eliminated the thin hits and no divots I was seeing.
Finally, the underhand pitch/tracing feeling has helped me be able to hit both irons and driver -- something I've struggled with all summer. If one was working, the other wasn't. Now, I can hit both (and usually a ton).
Thank you Yoda and everyone here on the forums.
I'm looking forward to drills when I can't play this winter so I can really see myself finally rebuilding my swing. It's been interesting playing while trying to adopt what I'm learning -- some nights I show such progress then other nights (or on the next hole), some old flaw or other has crept back in...