Working on the Release 1

The video below shows my practice at the range two days later. As you can see, I'm the only person there. I wonder why. The temperature is about thirty-three degrees, and it's shopping time for the holiday season. Where is everybody? You can also hear the ticking of the gas-heat igniters up above me. The heat here is not very efficient. At times, I actually stretched my hands out above me toward the heaters, hanging from the ceiling, to get warm. I also put the grip of the club I wanted to use up there, hoping it would get a little warmer.

You're not going to see anything dramatically different from the previous video. However, I thought it would be instructive to show you that the swing takes some time to develop, even at this point, where I feel I'm very close to a very good golf swing. You can see that I'm still swinging much too fast from the top of the swing, instead of sequencing and building up momentum. The question we must all ask ourselves, at this point, is "Why isn't my practice swing the same swing I use when I actually hit the ball? Great question!

This whole practice session is my attempt at an answer. In my first bucket of balls (100), I didn't get it, but somewhere in the middle on the second bucket, I started to feel as though I was getting closer to my practice swing. This would be my ideal swing where I delayed and delayed until my hands were in front of the ball (that's what I would like to think). But, as you can see, I'm still speeding up way too early, and the short follow-through shows that I still am not close to developing maximum clubhead speed at impact. There's a very helpful video on YouTube of Ernie Els talking about his swing and demonstrating how he likes "to stay in the shot longer," which I now understand means holding the release until the hands are, or feel as thought they are, out in front of the ball and even out in front of the left side.

But what I noticed continually during this session is that I really wasn't waiting until my hands were in the hitting zone. I was thinking about hitting the ball a long time before that.

Still, I know I'm getting there. I know that I'm starting the downswing way too early. On the other hand, I'm more aware than ever that I need to rotate my shoulders around my spine and let the release take care of itself.

When all is said and done after this session, I'm hitting three- and four- hybrids around 180 or beyond, which is what I want to be doing. I hit a few drivers, too, and that swing also feels more powerful. When everything worked well, it looked as though I was carrying a drive somewhere around 230 or 240. So I can tell from the greater distances that I'm getting with all the clubs that the swing is, indeed, building in the right way. And the keys to my practice, at this stage, are doing the left arm alone drill and videotaping every practice session, either in the backyard or at the range.

I also keep in mind that practice should be fun and that improvement is constant and gradual. To keep the fun in my practice at the range, I always hit a variety of clubs and try hitting for accuracy and distance. Sometimes I play a virtual hole, hitting a driver and then an iron or two, finishing with a wedge to the imaginary green. Playing the game this way, I always shoot close to par. There's nothing like shooting par to keep your interest in the game sharp!