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Throwing the club head

moosejaa

moosejaa

Mr. Inconsistent
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I had my first ever golf lesson this past weekend with Cindy Miller (Former LPGA player and was on the original Big Break). Right off the bat she wanted me to "throw the clubhead" at the ball, right hand dominant. She made a point of saying do not flip. This was tough for me at first and I learned you had to relax and it almost felt "handsy" but I was hitting good shots relatively consistently without the push/fade/slice I see a lot. With a good tempo and sound takeaway combined with trying to keep the shoulders closed as long as possible I was really seeing improvement. It's amazing how philosophies can be so different between teachers, and she comes with some high credentials. I've always looked for on-line tips so I googled "throwing the clubhead" and an interesting article came up from golf.com referencing Rory McIlroy's swing which seemed to be in line with this philosophy. Curious if anyone on THP had an opion on this method.

http://www.golf.com/instruction/learn-rory-mcilroys-swing-and-improve-your-golf-game
 
I've been taught this as well by my pro. Boy did it cause me to hit some nasty hooks for a while, but I think it has helped me now that I've got it synced up again. I think this thought is pretty key in getting to the high draw ball flight that Rory is such a great example of.
 
I've always heard to "swing or feel" the clubhead during the swing, but this is the first I've heard of throwing the clubhead.
 
When I hit the ball my absolute best/hardest I felt like I was doing what is described in the article. Instructor said something one night that just clicked and it was night/day. In the process of working on it myself over the following months I built some other bad habits though and it's been difficult to capture the magic again.

A couple of the drills my instructor had me doing involved tossing a ball.
 
I took lessons from her husband when I was like 10-12 and this sounds like something he use to teach as well. I can't say I have thought about it until you brought it up though.
 
This sounds like the feeling I have stumbled across recently. I have never had lessons but I was watching shawn clement on his "release to target" and I believe this is the same thing different name. I can really feel the snap and I don't have as many chunkies, my problem is trusting it on the course. It feels like a all or nothing swing. I just hit about 15 balls in the yard with the 52 with this single thought and great results, but with a tendancy to pull. Wedges and irons are instantly better with this single thought. My whole swing feels balanced and powerful when I trust it.
 
i have been told to throw my hands at the target, not sure if this has the same meaning .
 
That sounds an awful lot like the second half of this drill.

 
This is a really interesting topic, and something that I also recently came to logger heads with in a recent lesson. I have only been playing around 8 months, and so far had 4 lessons, addressing the building blocks such as grip, posture, backswing and set up. The last lesson was all about trying to stop my flip that I have been struggling with, causing all sorts of inconsistent shots. I'm trying to get my head and feel into keeping the hands ahead of the clubhead, but I haven't quite got it as yet. I think the timing of release may well come very soon... until then, I'm trying to make sure I'm not casting whatsoever... Golf... its a funny old game eh!
 
Hawk said:
When I hit the ball my absolute best/hardest I felt like I was doing what is described in the article. Instructor said something one night that just clicked and it was night/day. In the process of working on it myself over the following months I built some other bad habits though and it's been difficult to capture the magic again.

A couple of the drills my instructor had me doing involved tossing a ball.
Click to expand...

Just curious Hawk; what was it that your instructor said?
 
Grins said:
Just curious Hawk; what was it that your instructor said?
Click to expand...


This isn't all that easy to explain, but I'll give it a shot. It was a drill we used to do.

First off, we were using a soft sided medicine ball - like 4lbs or something. Could work with an impact bag though.

Left handed only takeaway - that's unique to my issues, but the reason was it helped me get a big turn without overrunning my arms or adding a bunch of added hinge. Grabbed the club with my right hand while sort of simultaneously dropping my arms, and basically cracked the whip into the ball. Instantly I was using my body more, was more connected, stayed behind the ball at impact, and had a lot of forward shaft lean.

I think for me it worked because 1) the items I talked about w/ the left arm takeaway 2) grabbing the club with my right hand sort of created the time I needed to transition correctly and
get my arms connected back to my body and 3) I was able to just focus on creating that speed without being so ball focused.

I hit the hell out of the ball for almost six months that way. I'd drill with that and then practice. So sad to say, but almost 15mph more ball speed with a 7 iron than I have today. Ruined it on my own though as I added in my own special way of overdoing it, started spinning out my hips a bunch, lunging towards the target among other things.
 
I will just caution that there must me other things in place in order for this drill to work. If they are not in place you will lose power and start to cast.
 
Hawk said:
This isn't all that easy to explain, but I'll give it a shot. It was a drill we used to do.

First off, we were using a soft sided medicine ball - like 4lbs or something. Could work with an impact bag though.

Left handed only takeaway - that's unique to my issues, but the reason was it helped me get a big turn without overrunning my arms or adding a bunch of added hinge. Grabbed the club with my right hand while sort of simultaneously dropping my arms, and basically cracked the whip into the ball. Instantly I was using my body more, was more connected, stayed behind the ball at impact, and had a lot of forward shaft lean.

I think for me it worked because 1) the items I talked about w/ the left arm takeaway 2) grabbing the club with my right hand sort of created the time I needed to transition correctly and
get my arms connected back to my body and 3) I was able to just focus on creating that speed without being so ball focused.

I hit the hell out of the ball for almost six months that way. I'd drill with that and then practice. So sad to say, but almost 15mph more ball speed with a 7 iron than I have today. Ruined it on my own though as I added in my own special way of overdoing it, started spinning out my hips a bunch, lunging towards the target among other things.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think this is a common malady for most golfers. In the words of Mythbusters: "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!"
 
I've been to the range twice since my first lesson and it has been kinda ugly to put it nicely. I'm struggling with this move and it seems to have exacerbated my over the top issue. I'm going to schedule a second lesson a little earlier than I had planned to try to try to figure this out and dial it in.
 
Hips are out in front, ckub face is open and you lost some spine angle
 
Tadashi70 said:
Hips are out in front, ckub face is open and you lost some spine angle
Click to expand...
Thanks Freddie, any suggestions? I think this is one if the first times I got a decent face on view pic to post.
 
Based on the photo, I'd like to see you strike the ball with back of your left hand, look at the photo, the logo on your grip is pointed dead right and the club face is open. Where you are at impact, you should be square and moving down the line or square moving to the right. You're down the line witj an open face. Back of the left hand should make contact with that ball.
 
IMO, you've got excellent athletic ability.
 
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