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Home-run = Long Drive

August 24, 2010

     We can take a tip from baseball’s ultimate power hitters when searching for ways to hit the golf ball farther.   There are obvious similarities between the golf swing and a baseball swing.  Of course the swing plane of each swing is a little different, but the movements are fairly similar. 

One of the key differences is that in baseball there is no backswing.  In golf, we often get in a position at the top of the swing which makes it difficult to make an athletic baseball like movement through the ball.  Getting to a “torqued” top of the backswing position would look very similar to a hitter waiting for the pitch.  Weight is on the inside of the back foot and ready to push forward.

Harmon Killebrew Swing Sequence

Look at the sequence of Harmon Killebrew, who hit over 500 home runs in his career.  His hips rotate rotationally while his hands stay back.  The shoulders start to move before the hands.   Also notice that the hands are ahead of the bat prior to impact (in golf this would be called lag).   No flipping of the hands at all, and at impact the hips are rotated about 90 degrees from the start of the swing.  Weight is now transferred almost entirely to the front foot.

Of course these are the things you need to do to hit the golf ball a long way also.   If you practice baseball swings and gradually change the plane of the swing for golf, you’ll get the feeling of proper sequencing and home-run power for golf!

Lynn Anderson,

Totally Driven

www.totallydriven.com

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Power for Women Golf Clinics

June 21, 2010

I’ve never seen more improvement in a single clinic as the group had at Sawmill Golf Course last week where Lynn Anderson of  Totally Driven and Betsy Larey of Sawmill put on a Power for Women Golf Clinic.

The group consisted of 20 women of all ability levels.  The common link I observed at the start of the clinic (I went along to help Lynn and  Betsy out) was golf swings that lacked dynamics and power.  Nearly every player was swinging quite slowly on the backswing with swings that were quite long with very little use of the lower body.

Lynn and Betsy went right to the core of the problems.  They had the gals learn how to  get their hips initiating and turning on the downswing in ways they had never experienced before.  I could see light bulbs coming on all the way  down the line.  A number of  drills allowed everyone to find a way “to get the feel of this”.

Next there were drills to introduce speed to the golf swing.  Everyone was amazed at how the combination of speed and getting the hips moving created more speed at impact.  As I observed a few of the players were grumbling that they wanted to hit some balls to see how far they could hit it.   Betsy and  Lynn had a plan however, and they stuck to it.

Next was the Tour Tempo drill.  They put a CD in a Boom Box that introduced the Tour Tempo tones to all twenty players.   All players worked on getting their swings to hit the tones at the correct timing.  Many of them struggled in the beginning as their swings were way too long.   Little by little they started getting the timing down.   What was amazing is that the golf positions and swing planes improved for many of the players without any work on this at all.  

Finally we brought out golf balls (with the Tour Tempo Player still going).  I’ve never seen so many looks of amazement after 90 minutes of work.  About a third of  the group was hitting the ball 20-40 yards longer than they ever had before.  All but two of the others were making much better contact with improved distance with a much better looking golf swing.  The two players that struggled were having a hard time getting the timing down, but still hit intermittent shots  much longer than when they started.

It really had the three of us shaking out heads at how quickly the group progressed.   Individual golf lessons are effective, but improvement comes slow.  This was done with 20 people in 9o minutes.   We’ll be having more Power for Women Golf Clinics in the future (the one Tuesday 6/22 with Lynn and Sheryl Maize at Crystal Lake Golf Course is already filled).  If  they keep going like this the guys better look out!

Andy Thompson,

Totally Driven

www.totallydriven.com

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Counterfeit Golf Clubs

March 8, 2010

Recently at Totally Driven we had a customer come in for an iron fitting.  He had a full set of Mizuno  MP 52 iron heads that he wanted us to shaft up for him.  After going through the  full fitting and determining the correct shaft, length, flex, grip, swing-weight, etc. he brought in the clubheads.  They came in a box all neatly wrapped in plastic- brand new.  As we are unable to purchase club-heads only from Mizuno, we asked him where he was able to get the clubheads.  He said he had a friend that knew someone “on the inside” in Japan who was able to get these heads at a great price and that they were indeed real.

After our club-builder Jon Weedman put together the clubs including SST PURING the shafts we called the customer to set up an appointment to have us loft and lie the clubs.  We always loft/lie after the clubs are built and test multiple clubs on a lie board to make sure the set is done perfectly.  The process was going along fine other than the irons were more irregular than normal as far as loft/lie.   After bending the first two irons with no problem, I had something very unusual happen.  The third iron snapped apart in the loft/lie machine.  Now, I am very experienced at loft/lie of irons.  Not to say I have never broken one before but it is extremely rare.  But these were supposed to be forged Mizunos that should bend easily and smoothly.  Of course, I felt terrible and offered to replace this for the customer with a new one.  Of course, now I had to  finish the rest of the clubs, so I carefully started the next one.  To my surprise, even though I was very careful, the next club snapped also. 

Now our builder Jon and I remembered where the clubs had come from and were more than suspicious (as well as feeling awful).  As Jon looked at the clubs closer it was very apparent the workmanship was poor on the heads.  The bore on the  heads was irregular, leaving a very thin side and a thick side.  Of course the clubs had both broken along the thinner wall. 

Check out the thin wall on the right side of each club

Jon remembered that a friend of this customer had also brought in a set of Mizunos to loft and lie.  Jon remembered they did not bend like a normal forged club either.   We pulled out the loft/lie sheets we keep and found that the factory loft/lies were very irregular on that set also.  Next, we pulled out the loft/lie sheets for a set of Mizuno Irons we had recently ordered directly from Mizuno and altered for a University of  Minnesota player.  The loft/lie angles matched very closely with the Mizuno specs for the clubs although we had to alter them for the  player.

Loft Lie comparisons below:

Purchased from Mizuno      Customer A                 Customer B

 3 iron -21/60                          21/60.5                         21/61

4 iron  - 24/60                         24/62.5                        24/59.5

5 iron – 27/61                           29/62.5                        28/60.5

6 iron – 31/61.5                         31/63                          30.5/61.5

7 iron – 35/62                            36/63.5                          35/61

8 iron – 39/63                             42/61.5                          40/61

9 iron – 43/63                             44/62.5                          43.5/63.5

PW -       47/63.5                         48/65                              48/65

For those of you who aren’t familiar with loft and lie specs, the column on the left (purchased directly from Mizuno by Totally Driven) were quite close to factory specs – not perfect, but close.

The irons from customer A (two broken clubs) and customer B (his friend) were both very irregular with lies angles not graduating upwards  consistently and lofts up to 3 degrees out of kilter.   Needless to  say it was very apparent to us (and the customer) that both of these sets were not Mizuno irons after all.  They were almost definitely counterfeits.  On closer inspection, even the paint fill color was not quite the same as a true Mizuno iron. 

Hosel lengths different-no serial #

After looking closer we also saw that the hosel lengths were not the same and that the real Mizuno iron has a serial number on the rear of the hosel and the other does not.

Now, I’m not writing this to embarrass these customers.  In fact, we feel bad for them.  These are not the only counterfeits we have seen or suspected.  It is  becoming more common.  Player A not only decided to replace the two broken irons, but to have  us order a whole set from Mizuno.  He could not live with knowing that 6 other irons were not really Mizuno’s ( and probably not even forged irons based on how they broke).  The overall expense was considerable, but he said it was a good lesson learned.

So, for those of you who like to buy clubs  from EBay or other online sources, beware.   If the price is too good to be true, the clubs are probably not “real”.  Even if the price is  about what you would expect, I would just caution- buyer beware!

Andy Thompson

www.totallydriven.com

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Low and Slow Reduces Distance

February 28, 2010

Ever wonder why some players can swing with very little effort and hit the ball a mile?  Ernie Els and Fred Couples are a few pros that come to mind.  Many recreational players look like they are swinging with a lot of effort and have a hard time hitting it out of their shadow.  What gives?

Ernie Els - Slow Tempo- I think not!

You would be surprised to hear that Els and Couples actually have a much faster tempo than almost any of us.  If you’ve read the book “Tour Tempo”, you know what I’m talking about.   While their swings look silky smooth, PGA pros have a much quicker tempo than it looks. 

The effortless swing of top players comes from a few things.  First of all, these players usually don’t re-route the club in either direction, they stay in balance and they have perfect sequencing of the golf swing, utilizing their lower body to initiate the downswing.  All of these things add up to effortless looking swings that produce tons of distance.

Most of us have very slow backswings and then rush our downswings.  The reasons for this are many, not the least of which is advice to take the club back low and slow.  A long, slow backswing often creates an out of balance swing that results in re-routing and improper sequencing of the golf swing.  If you don’t sequence properly your swing will look fast, but your speed at the ball will be slow.

A properly sequenced golf swing is built from the ground up, with the hips pulling the shoulders and hands along for the ride.  This looks slower than it is because the speed in the hands is building gradually and doesn’t reach its highest rate until near impact.

Want to hit it further?  Improve your tempo!  We can help!!

www.totallydriven.com

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Forged vs. Cast Irons

February 28, 2010

Golfers often get confused as to the difference between forged and cast irons. The common misconception is that cast irons are large cavity back clubs made to benefit mid and high handicap golfers and that forged irons are strictly unforgiving blades that are made strictly for low handicappers and professionals.

You can actually find cast blades, forged cavity backs and even some very forgiving forged irons. The difference is really in the manufacturing process. Forging involves literally pounding or compressing a soft piece of carbon steel in its solid form, from which the head is made into the designed shape, after which a number of other machining steps are necessary to complete the process. Casting involves turning the metal into its molten, liquid state, after which it is poured into a mold to form the head design. From there the cast irons also go through some additional steps to finish them.

It ends out that forged clubs are more easily adjustable for loft and lie (which is helpful if your swing is undergoing changes), but also are softer and wear a bit faster. Cast clubs are more difficult to adjust, but may wear a bit longer particularly in the grooves.

If you have a cast iron and forged iron with exactly the same shape and specs in the two heads, and the heads are both shafted to the same exact specs (including shaft alignment), hitting the same ball, the shots will fly identical distances and many players would never know the difference. Some however can distinguish, and like the “softer feel” of a forged club. It really becomes more of what looks and feels best for the individual and then practicality. Most golfers know deep down when their game is not up to playing a blade or tiny cavity back iron (whether forged or cast).

Ultimately, getting the irons properly fit with the correct grip size, length, lie- angle, swing-weight as well as shaft weight, flex and bend point needs to be done regardless of the head chosen. Then depending on your ability, angle of attack, ball flight, thin or fat tendencies a club-head that meets your needs should be selected that meets your eye as well.

This is where Totally Driven’s  professional club-fitting expertise will greatly enhance your decision making and help answer any additional questions you may have.

Andy Thompson

www.totallydriven.com

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Jamie Sadlowski, the Distance King

February 5, 2010

In Totally Driven’s never ending search for learning about creating more distance/power for our players we recently had the opportunity to see Long Drive Champion Jamie Sadlowski and former champ Art Sellinger perform an exhibition in Orlando.

We were able to pick Jamie’s brain a bit and found some very interesting information.   First of all for those who don’t know, Jamie is only about 6′ tall and 170 pounds wringing wet.   No one would think he is the longest driver on the face of the earth by looking at him.   Also, Jamie is about as non-technical as you can get.  He doesn’t like to see his swing on video and doesn’t want to talk about positions of the golf swing.  

Jamie Sadlowski, not big but powerful

Being from Canada, Sadlowski was a hockey player before he was a golfer.  Interestingly he played hockey left handed and swings a golf club right handed.   It’s been my experience that generally the longest drivers of the golf ball who played hockey played both sports from the same side.   Jamie actually started playing golf cross-handed with his left hand low on the golf club.   He said he could hit it well over 300 yards this way.   Art Sellinger explained that Jamie has very flexible wrists that would allow him to be able to not only play cross-handed, but get to a John Daly like backswing position with his club well past parallel at the top of his swing now.  His workouts are focused on flexibility and developing speed more than strength.

We saw Jamie hitting a 30″ long driver 320 yards.   This is 4-5 inches shorter than the average putter.  His club-head speed with the driver is 150 mph and ball speed is 215 mph.  Art said Jamie has been hitting the ball 400 yards since he was 16 years old.   He also hits the ball pretty darn straight.  We never saw a huge slice or hook.

What did we learn about how to increase distance in the golf swing?  First of all, raw strength or size is not a prerequisite for hitting the golf ball far but focus on developing speed is important.  Secondly, a natural swing may create more power than a pleasing on plane, positionally taught golf swing.  Also, cross-training may be beneficial.

We’re striving to learn as much as possible so that we can help everyone we work with to hit it long and straight!

Andy Thompson, Totally Driven

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Motor Learning for Golf

December 11, 2009

Improving your golf swing is best done by improving your motor skills.  Motor learning is movement and pattern retraining.    There are alot of ways of doing this.   One of them is not beating balls at the range or golf dome, which unfortunately is what most players do.

Here are a few examples from the PGA Championship at Hazeltine:

Coach showing the feel of a position

 Here, the swing coach is trying to ingrain the feel of a particular move. 

Positional reinforcement

Here, the coach is showing the position required.   The player kept repeating this until it felt natural.

Using training aids

Here is an example of using training aids to improve motor learning.   This player had more gadgets than anyone we saw.  This time he is using a ball between his arms to help him get the feel.  He hit balls with the ball in place, then without.

Motor learning can be done many different ways.   You can swing with a baseball type swing.   You can use resistance tubing, throw sidearm, use training aids to show how to route your swing or many more.

The key is knowing what to work on and then know how to motor learn the new movement or retrain the pattern.  There is no better time to work on motor learning than the off-season.  In Minnesota our offseason is much longer than in other parts of the country.   This can actually be an advantage as most players can’t effectively make swing changes during the golf season because they don’t motor learn correctly.   This is usually caused by a results oriented mentality which often kicks in before the motor learning is complete.

Personally, my best season on the Mini-Tour was when I came back to Minnesota and did motor learning training without the pressure of trying to make the cut.   When I returned, I was a better golfer because I worked on the right things and retrained the positions/patterns so that they felt natural and easy to repeat.

The most important thing is to diagnose the problem.  At Totally Driven we have multiple ways of getting there, but one of the best is by using our K-Vest 3d device.   This shows much more than video and is far superior to using the naked eye.   Once we determine the main problem to work on we use motor learning drills to help the player “feel” the change and ingrain it.   We do this before we move on to the next issue.

We are really moving away from individual golf lessons because they often don’t work.  Someone looking for a quick fix typically won’t take the time to correctly motor learn the new pattern.   We like to ingrain changes by seeing the player multiple times per week.   One time is typically on their own using swing aids, video or K-Vest to motor learn.   The next we check and then move on to the next thing.

Check out our programs at:  http://www.totallydriven.com/index.php

Lynn Anderson, Director of Instruction

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Playing Enough Break?

November 27, 2009

There have been countless articles written regarding golfers not playing enough break on their putts.   Tour Pros mention this when playing with amatuers.  Aimpoint Technologies has illustrated exactly why this is so.  Aimpoint is the technology that you see on TV showing the exact break of the putt before the golfer putts.   I’ve heard the golf announcers getting excited when someones putt is following this line.   That shows how accurate is has been.

Here is the illustration.

Most people aim at the apex of the putt after reading the green.  I often see this during scrambles when my partners will pick out the apex of the putt.  Yes, this would be what the ball should roll over, but your aiming point needs to be further out as the illustration shows. 

Even reknowned putting instructors such as Stan Utley get this point wrong, so it would not be unusual to hear aim at the apex.  The reason this is wrong is that the putt is already breaking well before the apex as the illustration shows.   So, how do you determine where you need to aim your putter?   Totally Driven will be able to help you with that very soon.

We have been teaching green reading for two years now, having been taught by the Geoff Mangum the putting guru from puttingzone.com.  Aim Point will help us take this a step farther.  Putting Teachers such as David Orr, Bobby Dean and David Edel have told us that just like on TV once you go through Aim Point training and put it into practice you literally will not mis-read a putt again from within 20′ of the hole.  We are looking forward to being trained by Mark Sweeney the developer of Aimpoint so that we can bring this back to the upper midwest to teach all of you.

More to come…

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Elusive Power

November 17, 2009

Ever wonder why some players can swing with very little effort and hit the ball a mile?  Ernie Els and Fred Couples are a few pros that come to mind.  As Totally Driven is continuing to run players through our Distance/Power Evaluations, the data is giving us some answers as to why the average golfer lacks power.

Of the key elements we are evaluating, two of them are starting to stand out.  First, most of the players we have tested (who are looking for more distance) have a limited X Factor at the top of the swing.  The average was 36 degrees.  Highly skilled golfers have an X Factor at the top of the swing of 60 degrees.  We measure the X Factor on our K-Vest and what we are looking for is the difference between the degrees the shoulders have turned vs how many degrees the hips have turned at the top of the swing.    

Even more important, the X Factor for most of our golfers declined immediately after starting the downswing.   This means the shoulders are rotating forward faster than the hips in the beginning of the downswing.  Tour pros average a 13 degrees increase in their X Factor soon after starting the downswing.   This means their hips are rotating significantly faster than the shoulders, thus causing a stretch in the torso.

Secondly, 30 of our 34 golfers had incorrect sequencing of the golf swing.   In proper sequencing from the top of the swing, the hips should move first, followed by the shoulders, then followed by the hands.   Sequencing can only really be measured by a 3D device such as the K-Vest.   Only four golfers in our test group sequenced properly (two of these players were not lacking distance).

Look at this picture of Sergio Garcia from the 2009 PGA Championship.  Besides being a pretty cool picture, notice how much his hips have turned compared to his shoulders.   You can see the tremendous lag he has.   The angle between his arms and shaft is still greater than 90 degrees this late in the swing.  Look at the bend of the shaft.  There is no way you can do this without sequencing correctly or without increasing your X Factor.  Now Sergio creates more lag than anyone on tour.   He also has tremendous power for a pretty small guy.

We’re not trying to get people to swing like Sergio.   We are trying to get more out of what capabilities each player does possess.   We’ll keep you posted on our progress!

Andy Thompson and Lynn Anderson

 

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Power Leaks in the Golf Swing

November 4, 2009

Almost every golfer wants to hit the ball further, gain distance or improve power.   You can read golf magazines and find a new tip of the month in every issue.   In our opinion, using these tips is like trying to shoot a fly with a shot-gun.   Until your  unique power leakages are identified, determining what to do is a entirely a guess.

As we are developing our unique power improvement packages, we are learning just where these leakages typically are.

Determining where your power leaks are takes some advanced technology.  We can’t fully see the power leaks using two video cameras from the rear and side.   We can find power leaks using our 3D K-Vest device by looking at your kinetic chain to determine the sequencing of your swing.  We also utilize our Shaft Max device which measures how the shaft is loaded during the golf swing to add some insight.  Coupling these with video, power testing (legs, shoulders, core), launch monitor data and Titleist Performance testing we offer probably the most extensive look at determining where your  golf distance is being lost of anyone around.

Next, we need to determine how to correct your power leak(s).   If we unearth physical issues we offer referrals to medical experts or put you on an excerise program through Titleist Performance Institute.  If we see sequence issues in your swing we work with you by drilling and utilizing the K-Vest to help you feel and learn proper sequencing of the swing.   If your driver or other clubs aren’t optimal we offer expert club-fitting services.

Many times it is a combination of power leaks that cause you to lose distance or not reach your golf potential.   At Totally Driven, our Power Programs offer not only the analysis, but the technology and expertise to help you maximize your distance.

Stay tuned for more…

Andy Thompson and Lynn Anderson

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