Left Arm Alone Drill -- Working It into the Swing

Every day now, I can feel progress. In the state of my swing, I feel as though I can hit the ball far and relatively accurately. I'm feeling the lag from the top of the swing on down to impact, and, most gratifying, I'm feeling the full release. All of these aspects are benefits of the left arm alone drill. I'd still be trying to hit the ball, instead of swinging through the ball, without this drill. I'll have to find the link where I found this and include it in a post.

Yesterday, as I was tinkering with my developing swing, I really whacked what's left of my hitting mat, and during my breaks, where I went inside to warm my hands and look at video, I also went online to find another mat. After looking at the usual places, The Golf Warehouse, Amazon, and so on, I settled on the Callaway FT Launch Zone Hitting Mat from The Golf Warehouse for $29.95. The spec that persuaded me was that it was "Highly resistant to wear from heavy use." After what I did to two mats, I needed one that could take a real pounding. Of course, my swing is much better now, but still....

Hitting off the few remaining patches of turf on my patchy mat, I also felt a difference in my practice balls. As I've been saying, I really like the Callaway Hx Soft Flight Practice Balls.

But I also have five "Almost Golf" balls, that I like to use at the end of bucket as a "reality test." They made of some kind of hard rubber, where the Callaways are soft, and I can feel the clubhead hitting these balls and feel the clubhead squared up, where I don't have that feeling using the Callaways. So I've come to like hitting the "Almost Golf" balls better because they're giving me the kind of feeling and feedback I'd get from hitting a real golf ball. I'm still going to hit a lot of Callaways—I just ordered a couple of dozen more from The Golf Warehouse—but I also went over to my local mall to Olympia Sports, which had a package of 36 (list price $30.00) on sale for $20. With them, I'm all set to hit balls that will get me ready to go back to the range. As soon as the temperature around here gets above 30 degrees!