Left Arm Alone Drill -- Deep into the Shot

This title comes from that Ernie Els video on YouTube that I've mentioned several times in these posts, and I've been able to reach this point in the evolution of a good swing by assiduously practicing the left arm alone drill, which I learned from an online instructional video, in which, according to the pro giving the instruction, a great exemplar was Johnny Miller. "Back in the day," the pro said.

The pro said these words a couple of times, and each time, I pictured Miller, in his TV commentator's chair at PGA events wincing at being relegated to golf's ancient history. In my case, as the eager pupil, my mind skipped back three decades or so to the period when Miller was playing, and I was watching him on TV. The pro could hardly have picked a better exemplar for me. The pro also mentioned that when Miller practiced this drill, he was hitting his seven-iron about 170 yards, a distance that seems incredible to me. I tried it the range once or twice and couldn't hit the ball more than probably sixty or seventy yards, tops. In my backyard, with practice balls, distance didn't matter, anyway. I just wanted to uncover more secrets behind an efficient swing.

After about a month of constantly working this drill into my daily practice, I'm no more closer to hitting a real ball 170 yards, but that doesn't deter me or discourage me at all. My left arm alone swing has become much, much better. I can consistently hit the ball straight, with nice trajectory, and with some nice control of the release to get a little drawing action on the ball. I hasten to add that this is in my backyard, with plastic or Callaway soft rubber practice balls. I have no idea whether I would feel as competent, yet, with real balls, Next time I'm at the range, however, would be a good time to test the left arm alone swing.

In my backyard, though, it feels great. And in the video below, I wanted to see what kind of difference the drill was making in my full swing. To check the plane of the swing, I like to video from behind, as you'll see at the beginning of the video. Everything looks pretty good here. As Don Trahan likes to teach the takeaway and backswing, you want to feel as though you're taking the club back into the mitt of a baseball catcher behind you, and then you want to continue bringing the club "up the tree." So the takeaway and backswing look OK to me. From this camera placement, you can't really see "deep into the shot." For that, you need the camera shooting from in front of you.

During this practice session off the mat, I was using a nine-iron and the Callaway soft rubber balls, hitting from a flagstone walk in the front of my property, which gave me about sixty-eight yards straight ahead of me to hit into (I paced it off). The reason I'm using a nine-iron, instead of my heretofore usual seven, is that I'm starting to hit the ball farther. From this spot on my walkway, I'd be hitting some seven-irons out into the main road. You can see from the swing my concern for distance. My arm speed is too fast, and there's not much follow-through. It's a familiar sight to me. As a neophyte, I've always been too concerned with hitting the ball. Until recently, my swing was basically over at impact. I've advanced beyond that, I think, but I really haven't yet discovered the end of the swing. That happens tomorrow.

Today, however, I must say that I feel as though I'm killing the ball. I can feel the clubhead at impact and making a really good, solid, "Whack!" And then the ball goes sailing off, generally hooking, way up into that maple tree. If that tree weren't in the way, my nine irons would be flying around fifty to sixty yards. Translated, that means that, if these balls go about a third of the way a real ball does (which, I think, I read about these Callaway balls when I first got them), then I'd be hitting a nine-iron about 150-180 yards. The thought of that kind of distance elated me. That would me, I told myself, that my eight-iron could go around 180-190, seven 190, six 200, five 210, and so on. These are great distances for an amateur, and distance is one of the ways I calculated the efficiency of my swing. For a long time, I've thought that if I can't hit a seven-iron at least 170, then something is wrong with the swing. Now, I seemed to have solved my problem with distance.

The swing still is too rushed, as you can see. After viewing the video, the goal of my next practice session is simply to calm down. Swing in a more relaxed way, and follow through all the way. With this in mind I looked up D. J. Trahan on YouTube and saw a good example of how easy the pros seem to swing. Els is my other prime model of a fluid, yet powerful, swing. After watching my video today, I knew what I needed to work on tomorrow. And the hook.