Feel

[buddha33]

As some of you know, I've been working with an instructor to improve my game. One of the first questions I had for him was how do I gain 'feel' throughout my swing. Right now, no matter how fundamentally sound or non-sound, my swing is nothing more than a hack at the ball. I feel good hits and I feel bad hits, but I don't think I have 'feel'. Since I still don't have it, I'm wondering when it is finally going to click.

Was there a specific time when you realized you obtained feel in your swing?

 

[bdcrowe]

Yes, actually, for me anyways. I was fortunate enough to have a talented friend tell me to slow down my upper body. Once I tried it, I hit the ball great. Now I recognize the "feel" of a good swing for me, and try to think about that. I guess it all boils down to really paying attention to your body during practice, and feeling what a good shot feels like.

 

[Bravo]

budd:

It happened for me when I stopped swinging so hard and got a sense of rythim/tempo.

Interestingly, my current teacher contributed greatly to this only a year ago.

I may have described this in another post and if so - I aplogize for the redundancy.

He had me take a few swings and then he stands behind me about three feet away and grabs the club right before I get to the top. Grabs it by the head and starts shaking the club.

I look over at him and ask he wants me to let go of the club handle.

He says no but, "I want you to let go - but not literally but figuratively".

I am puzzled.


He tells me "You have a frigging death grip on this thing and you'll never get good feel until you learn to let go..." "You're being robbed of power due to your *tension*.

What I learned from this:

1) Grip lightly. Obvious point

2) Grip out in the fingers and really feel the club in the outermost digit of your fingers (in addition to the remainder of your fingers). At the top now, I can feel the club out in the outer digits of the fingers. Its kinda cool really. Especially with a driver - when in about half a second - you are going to rip the to ball out there about 270. I mean you are getting ready to pound it but rather than being all tensed up you feel fluuuuuiiiidddd.

3) Learn to let your wrists hinge freely at the top. (I found that this is key to creating extra power). This can only happen if you are doing 1 & 2 above.

4) Start the downswing with a foreward movement of the knees toward the target. The arms follow along and the fluid wrists allow you to snap through at impact.

I am hitting farther and straighter and do have pretty good feel at this point....

 

[buddha33]

Great post, Bravo. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Rockford35]

I agree with many of Bravo's points.

I'm currently helping a friend who plays little golf and is left-handed. So, it's pretty much the hardest thing i could set out on. He has problems with feel, but i always tell him it has to do with tempo.

If you set out being smooth, you're halfway there. You'll know when you've reached the mark. The ball will fly true and you will feel the comfort. That's what feel is. It's optimism, being positive and having a good sense of self esteem.

He's having troubles hitting hooks. Alot easier to cure than a slice. I tell him to relax and concentrate on his ball striking. I make him hit balls about 1/3 of full power till he feels the ball hitting the face where it should. This is his control.

Then, once he's learned control, i ease him into the full swing. This takes the better of 40 balls. It's gradual, and if he screws up a shot, i make him hit 3 pure in a row before moving on. He's starting to become more comfortable and more consistent with his striking.

I told him when we started that we wouldn't work on the long irons until he establishes himself as a "playa" with the shorter irons. That only makes sense. So far, we're at 7 iron and making progress. He's lost 17-19 strokes on his game, most of which come from the short game.

Feel is something that comes with practice. I like to take a wedge and "flip" shots till i get the feel. That's opening the face and sliding it under like a flop shot. Yesterday i landed one in the cup on the fly from about 70 feet. That felt good.

And don't get frustrated. Being mad will ruin your game. Just stay upbeat, it will come. And if it doesn't, take a time out and have a hot dog. Then hit some more shots.

R35

 

[buddha33]

And don't get frustrated. Being mad will ruin your game. Just stay upbeat, it will come. And if it doesn't, take a time out and have a hot dog. Then hit some more shots.
R35

I bet a trip to Red Lobster would do the trick too.

Thanks for the input, Rock.

Most of the feedback you guys (and gals...don't want to leave Bravo out) have given me is that 'feel' relates to hitting a good shot.

I was envisioning it would feel like I am guiding the ball as opposed to hacking at it. In other words, the club would work as an extension of my arms and I'd be able to feel or guide the ball to its intended target. This is opposed to the point, swing, and hit the ball to where I've aimed it.

Am I off on this assessment?

 

[Rockford35]

I think you're on the right page.

A simple example for me is a 3 wood from 260 and a wedge shot from 90 yards.

With the 3 wood, i'm not "feeling" that shot, i'm more using the fairway wood to "aim" my ball towards the green. Sure, you can aim for a part of the green, but it's more knowing how hard and what type of shot (fade vs draw) to hit in that instance.

The wedge is more a feel shot. You need to judge distance, accuracy and spin with your swing. You aren't necessarily picking a part of the green to shoot at as much as you are shooting to a particular spot on the green.

That's how i feel anyways. I can't land a 3 wood inside a foot on purpose, which is more the "aim" type shot, where aswith the wedge i'm picking a spot on the green that i want the ball to go.

Ultimately, you're using the club as a tool to get it there, but both have different schools of thought. This is what i consider "feel" type shots versus "placement" type shots.

Know what I mean?

R35

 

[Bravo]

I bet a trip to Red Lobster would do the trick too.

Thanks for the input, Rock.

Most of the feedback you guys (and gals...don't want to leave Bravo out) have given me is that 'feel' relates to hitting a good shot.

I was envisioning it would feel like I am guiding the ball as opposed to hacking at it. In other words, the club would work as an extension of my arms and I'd be able to feel or guide the ball to its intended target. This is opposed to the point, swing, and hit the ball to where I've aimed it.

Am I off on this assessment?

I am not sure mentally where you are on this. I guess much of it is nomenclature.

On all my shots I have a concept of "hitting" the ball. Want crisp contact with all clubs.

In our group, when we talk about a player 'guiding' the ball it often means that they are trying to steer it to the point that they forego good clean contact.

And I agree with Rock that with a short club - I am aiming at a very specific target.

With a 3 wood from way out - a 15 yard wide "target area" is in mind...

 

[bdcrowe]

I am not sure mentally where you are on this. I guess much of it is nomenclature.

On all my shots I have a concept of "hitting" the ball. Want crisp contact with all clubs.

In our group, when we talk about a player 'guiding' the ball it often means that they are trying to steer it to the point that they forego good clean contact.

And I agree with Rock that with a short club - I am aiming at a very specific target.

With a 3 wood from way out - a 15 yard wide "target area" is in mind...

I pretty much agree with you Brav. I was kinda thrown by the stearing comment. For me, tho the concept of hitting the ball gets me in trouble every time. The opposite thought bails me out. I try to think of tempo and rhythm and just swinging the club, mostly thinking to swing to the target. I kinda just have to let the ball get in the way.
This is actually what is getting me out of the slump I've spoken of recently. This weekend, started out ugly 1st 2 holes, stepped back and thought about tempo and feel and target, and I shot an excellent round on a new course. Funny how different strokes for different golfers huh?

 

[buddha33]

Hmmm. It seems to me that you're describing 'accuracy' more than feel. For example, you can be more accurate from 80 yards out than you can from 250.

Feel seems to be a different concept. For example, what is meant when a set of irons have more feel? Does that mean they're more accurate? Or does that mean there's more feedback on contact? Or something completely different?

 

[DaveE]

Hmmm. It seems to me that you're describing 'accuracy' more than feel. For example, you can be more accurate from 80 yards out than you can from 250.

Feel seems to be a different concept. For example, what is meant when a set of irons have more feel? Does that mean they're more accurate? Or does that mean there's more feedback on contact? Or something completely different?

All along I'm thinking the wise on knows all...disapointing. The other guys posting here are all better golfers than me but I think I can relate to where you are. A year ago I was still shooting to a low to mid 20s index. Over the last year I've lowered it to my current 15. Along the way I have developed what I consider to be feel. It does involve slowing things down a bit and feeling everything working together. For me, it's using more of a one piece takeaway and having only one swing thought. Most of my bad shots are a result of rushing the swing and as you say hacking at the ball. Drives me nuts when I do it.

As to irons having more or less feel I now kinda get that too. As you may have seen in a recent post I just traded my irons. I was playing Big Berthas and switched to Mizuno. Even though the new ones are still considered to be forgiving, they're forged. I also went with steel shafts this time and for the first time I can feel the difference in good and not so good shots big time. I guess would call that feedback. It might be worth some demo time just to experiment. Again, not the best one to be giving advice but I would urge patience and practice.

 

[Rockford35]

Hmmm. It seems to me that you're describing 'accuracy' more than feel. For example, you can be more accurate from 80 yards out than you can from 250.

Feel seems to be a different concept. For example, what is meant when a set of irons have more feel? Does that mean they're more accurate? Or does that mean there's more feedback on contact? Or something completely different?

I relate "feel" to accuracy, but they aren't the same.

If you hit a ball in the dark and can tell from the feedback off the face where it went, that's feel. But accuracy is the control that you have with your irons.

Most offset clubs are designed to make the ball go straight for someone that has a tendancy to leave the clubface a wee bit open at impact. Hence the closed face. This correction makes the ball go straight(er). But they don't neccessarily make the club "feel" any better off the face.

A good example of this is my old set of Big Bertha Irons. They were new in 03, and i loved the feel of them. It felt like i was hitting an orange. But I couldn't tell off crisp hits whether i was going to be long or short. I would grab a 7 iron from 150 and hit what i thought was a crisp shot and end up 25 yards short. Then, i would line up another 150ish shot in the same round and hit it to the back of the green when i thought i would be all over the flag. The clubs had great feel, but no accuracy.

I traded up to the X-16 pros after about a season with the BB's. The X-16 Pros have a smaller sweet spot, but you can feel a "crisp" shot off the face versus a mi****. The Pros aren't offset either, so they allow me to work the ball alot more.

Club construction, shaft type and individual swing all play a part in feel and accuracy. The problem is is that both come along with each other, even if they are independent. That sounds confusing, i know, but you can't have accurracy without feel, and no feel makes you struggle with accuracy. If you have dead feeling irons, good luck on hitting them close.

That's called luck. And that's a whole other bag of worms.

Anyone ever tried Original Listerine? Man, if i had to drink a cup of that for a million bucks, i don't know if i could do it. But I digress....

R35

 

[bdcrowe]

Hmmm. It seems to me that you're describing 'accuracy' more than feel. For example, you can be more accurate from 80 yards out than you can from 250.

Feel seems to be a different concept. For example, what is meant when a set of irons have more feel? Does that mean they're more accurate? Or does that mean there's more feedback on contact? Or something completely different?

I think you are combining the definitions of feel. Are you talking about a set of clubs' feel or the feel of the swing? They are seperate. A club's feel, or lack of it, usually is describing feedback, or its feel throughout the swing, ie swingweight, weight, etc... Feel, as it relates to the swing is largely tied with tempo, rhythm, relaxation, and generally "feeling" the swing you need for a particular shot. I read a great book about the mental game that dealt with this.

It pretty much compared you brain, and body I guess, to a computer. It stores the history of your golf swing and its results. If you practice your shots and pay attention to what your body did to get that result, you are effectively programming you computer to repeat those reults. So, instead of thinking while practicing and playing, "straight left arm, full shoulder turn, chin out, release hands now...", you should feel what your body does to produce good results. The reason I personally tie this all to tempo is that for me, tempo seems to be what I feel to program those good results. If I start getting into the specifics of feeling a straight back, or feeling the weight on the inside of my R foot, I'm lost. If I feel relaxed arms that are kind of just along for the ride, then I get mostly great results. That's probably because my big mistake is overpowering the swing with my arms. That's just me. If a person can feel what a good swing feels like, it's easier to call up that feel than 500 seperate body mechanics that make up that feel. That's my take on it anyway. As a computer programmer, that metaphor clicked. Look at it however helps you, tho.

 

[Bravo]

I pretty much agree with you Brav. I was kinda thrown by the stearing comment. For me, tho the concept of hitting the ball gets me in trouble every time. The opposite thought bails me out. I try to think of tempo and rhythm and just swinging the club, mostly thinking to swing to the target. I kinda just have to let the ball get in the way.
This is actually what is getting me out of the slump I've spoken of recently. This weekend, started out ugly 1st 2 holes, stepped back and thought about tempo and feel and target, and I shot an excellent round on a new course. Funny how different strokes for different golfers huh?

The nomenclature you are using here is on the beam as golf analysts break down players into two categories:

1) Swingers - an example is Freddie Couples, Steve Elkington, Lee Trevino.

2) Hitters - an example is El Tigre, Ben Hogan.

So you are a Swinger and I am a Hitter.

They both work.

 

[Rockford35]

I think both of you guys are swingers.

R35