Valuable Videos

Last post ended with my embarking on a period of self-imposed practice drudgery. Because I went through such drudgery doesn’t mean that I have to drag you through it, too. Let’s just say that gradually I learned that I couldn’t develop whip in my swing by trying to do it with my hands. It cannot be done. What generates whip was still a mystery to me, but at least I knew enough to start looking for other ways to do it.

I mentioned last time that I had been looking at a number of “Swing Vision” videos on YouTube. They were just part of my never-ending quest for any suggestions or examples that I could apply to my definition—and by now it was starting to take shape as a definition—of a good golf swing. My friend and often-partner, Clint, and I were often on YouTube and trading URLs. One of the first valuable sources I found were all the Shawn Clement(Clemshaw) videos. He’s really a great teacher, and I highly recommend him to you. Another is Bobby Eldridge (PurePoint Golf). And you’ll find many others. It’s a great resource. You can watch all the teaching videos you have time for and bookmark the ones that make sense to you.

Once you get going, you’re also going to want to check out all the “Swing Vision” videos so that you can see, in super slow motion, what the pros do. Most of these are hard to learn anything from, for various reasons. Sometimes, the camera is just too far away. Sometimes, the lighting is too dark. And sometimes the picture quality is not sharp enough. Still, you’ll find videos that will help you, ones featuring pros like Ernie Els, K.J. Choi, Hunter Mahan, Charles Howell, Trevor Immelman, Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott, Anthony Kim, Luke Donald, David Toms, Sean O’Hair, and others. One of the problems with these videos is that you can’t always get both views that are helpful (straight on and from the rear).

It’s not perfect, but it is a great resource. Think of it this way. If you’re tempted to go out and take lessons from a pro who has the equipment to videotape you and show you your swing against some pro’s, using expensive software that he has loaded on his computer, you can save yourself a lot of money by doing all that yourself. Videotape yourself, make slow motion clips, and put those on your computer screen right next to a minimized browser screen with a “Swing Vision” video playing. Everything you’ll want to know will be right in front of your eyes.



And speaking of eyes, make sure you take time out for a little golf humor on YouTube. Go see Professional Golf Secret - Simple Tip to Improve Your Game. Proverbially speaking, your eyes will pop. And you’ll be LOL.

In the next post, I'll mention a few other resources that I have found helpful.