As I reach the conclusion of the first leg of my off season training, I am particularly grateful to Yoda for continuously pointing me in the right golfing direction.
You ain't kidding Yoda! Today was my best chipping day ever. Adding the combination of extensor action and much more meticulous tracing to my focus of using pp1 to ground the club after contact, and the continuingly improving piston action worked wonders. When Yoda talked about his chipping practice he talked about pole-ies. My chipping practice had as its reward barrel-ies in general. (When I hit 200 balls, I hoped to get 10 Barrel-ies as an example.) But today I was aiming for a flag about 63 yards away, and frequently ending up very close to the flag i.e. gimmie one putts. What made it tough was that the flag was at the top of the hill, and unless you were within 5 of the right distance, the ball would roll off either the front or back of the green.. Today my 3rd from last chip was a real live pole-ie. Made me smile.
I was hitting 100 balls today in about 29 degrees. I actually started getting bored because my chips were that consistent and that accurate and I felt that I had figured it out finally. So I started hitting a few acquired motion chips just to size up the journey that I had in front of me. I was astonished how improved my acquired motion chips became as a result of the progress I had made on my basic motion. The piston, extensor, tracing and focus on pressure points over clubfaces are all the same. I could be wrong but based on today's sample, it doesn't appear that I am going to need to spend anywhere near as much time on my acquired motion as I have invested in my basic motion.
I have finally figured out what problem I had that was causing me to hit the ball right. Unfortunately occassionally my piston package fires to the left instead of modestly to the right as it should. When it does that, two things happen. First, there is a tendency for my body to straighten up, and second as the result of the outside in action, I tend to leave the ball right. I don't think the problem is necessarily sloppy tracing. I need to really focus in the required feel on piston action that will eliminate the occasional outside in result. There was maybe 1 every 33 shots today, so not that big a deal any more. Sounds like if I concentrate on tracing a straight line and making sure my piston action continues on the straight delivery path, I should be able to beat this problem.
Reading your last post, I came to think about when I changed to hitting, I was very focused on the pp#1.
I was actually thinking of hitting the inside aft of the ball with a downward punch with the pp#1.
When that became motorized (can you say that in english?) my focus changed to pp#3: aiming, tracing (for direction) and the amount of pressure, lag (for distancecontrol).
Stay with it, fog will be lifted, lightbulbs go off, fireworks light up the sky as you celebrate your turnament victorys and your new low handicap
You ain't kidding Yoda! Today was my best chipping day ever. Adding the combination of extensor action and much more meticulous tracing to my focus of using pp1 to ground the club after contact, and the continuingly improving piston action worked wonders. When Yoda talked about his chipping practice he talked about pole-ies. My chipping practice had as its reward barrel-ies in general. (When I hit 200 balls, I hoped to get 10 Barrel-ies as an example.) But today I was aiming for a flag about 63 yards away, and frequently ending up very close to the flag i.e. gimmie one putts.
That's some long range basic motion....63 yards with 2 feet back to 2 feet forward
With those remaining 200 balls, I recommend using the right forearm to thrust the club with your chips....try 100 with an angled hinge action and 100 with horizontal hinging. Feel the magic of the right forearm....
"I was actually thinking of hitting the inside aft of the ball with a downward punch with the pp#1. When that became motorized (can you say that in english?) my focus changed to pp#3: aiming, tracing (for direction) and the amount of pressure, lag (for distancecontrol)."
I like your choice of the word "motorized". When I have ingrained the pp1 downward thrust, I will indeed explore the joys of PP3 as well. Thanks for your help.
That's some long range basic motion....63 yards with 2 feet back to 2 feet forward
In my defense, I am chipping on the frozen tundra, actually astroturf, so I do get alot of roll. (In summer, on a course, maybe I was hitting 50 yard shots.) My goal in doing all of the chips was primarily to perfect my overall swing. (The improvement in my ability to chip was only a valuable by product of my journey). When I hit the acqured motion shots using about the same force, they were landing 65 yards or so in the air, and then begining to roll down the hill. Couldn't see where they ended up.
I only carry the sand wedge to the range. During my journey, I have allowed myself a few full motion shots perhaps as a reward for a nice run of chips. Since I began working on this, I do think my overall distance has increased nicely. Because I needed them to get the results I desired, I finally have given myself the benefit of alot of valuable ingredients that make the golfing machine work so well.
With those remaining 200 balls, I recommend using the right forearm to thrust the club with your chips....try 100 with an angled hinge action and 100 with horizontal hinging. Feel the magic of the right forearm....
DG
One of the things I tried pretty hard earlier on was employing the full right forearm in my chips. Unfortunately, my thrust package was uncertain, I wasn't concentrating on tracing sufficiently, and I wasn't employing extensor action. So while the magic of the right forearm is certainly powerful, it simply wasn't able to overcome my other signficant deficiencies.
Now that these other ingredients are in place, that is an excelllent idea which I will definitely put to work.
That's some long range basic motion....63 yards with 2 feet back to 2 feet forward
Actually perhaps the more accurate answer is that the closest consistent target accessible from different hitting stations was the barrels at 50 yards, next there were some flags at 63 yards. I specifically didn't want to just hit balls out there, without aiming at a specific target. My basic shot was forged to get me to the 50 yard targets. As I started making better contact, the upgrade to 63 yards didn't even require any extra effort.
It took my a really long time to figure out how to hit a chip properly. My initial error came from over focusing on the "magic of the right forearm", and under focusing on piston action. Because I wasn't using enough piston action, my elbow remained back too far. That caused me to run out of right arm. When I finally began concentrating on getting my elbow under my stomach, at around 4,000 chips, my execution improved signficantly. But rather than really solving the problem, I really was using a band aid to mask the faulty technique. The next day, I realized that the piston action would also deliver my elbow into a forward position and finally I was really making progress.
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Incorporating "piston action" to get my elbow sufficiently forward definitely helped alot. I stopped working on "the magic of the right forearm" because the way I was incorrectly using it, it was part of the problem, not part of the solution. From 4,000 to 4800 chips, relative to my prior track record, my results were much improved. Thanks to members of this forum, I added extensor action, more meticulous tracing, pp1's efficiency for grounding the club past ball contact, along with my newly improved piston action. The use of the word thrusting by Delaware Golf made me realize how to take the final step. I tried incorporating the magic right forearm yesterday, but the "piston action", and "magic right forearm" were meshing yet. I finally realized today that a thrusting motion could efficiently combine piston action with the "magic right forearm". What a blast, to finally feel what a good chip should feel like.
Because it took so long for me to master basic motion, acquired motion chips got very little practic. Yet, when I tried acquired motion chips today, that swing also felt dramatically improved. With 15 balls left, I hit about 10 excellent full motion sand wedge shots. All of them were on line, with good distance. Even though I haven't practiced that swing in a long time, they felt much better than my prior swing going through the ball. It may have looked like I was practicing chipping, but instead, I have really been perfecting my swing through the ball. There is no question in my mind, but that the benefits of my recently concluded journey, will improve my scoring in the 2007 season. Now that I finally understand how to properly employ the "magic of the right forearm", 2007 is very likely to be my most productive golf year yet. If you are caught in the golfing doldrums, not making as much progress as you desire, give massive amounts of "basic motion" a try.
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