Jaacob Bowden's Swing Man Golf Blog

Changes to Full Swing

by Jaacob Bowden

Last year when I was playing a practice round for the Long Beach Open, I got a chance to play my first full round of golf with someone (Alex Aragon) that had previously been on the PGA Tour for a full season (2006).  It was a totally different experience than walking outside the ropes at a Tour event, watching the players on the range at an event, or seeing them on TV. 

I got to compare my game directly with this Tour level player for the entire round.  He shot 68-69-73-66 and finished 9th.  I shot 69-76 and missed the cut by 2 shots.  His driving distance was pretty similar and close to mine (he average 302.6 on Tour full-time in 2006), as was our putting and chipping...however, the most glaring difference was the level of consistency.  His window of misses was slightly tighter than mine.  When he aimed at a target, he hit it closer than me on average.  It got me thinking about what I could do to get that fraction of a bit more consistency to get out to the Tour.

Having only hit 2 buckets of balls in November and December, I really got a chance to sit back and think about my golf swing like at no other time.  It the longest lay-off I've had since I started my golf journey.

Some of this consistency I figure is pure practice.  With the exception of the first year I started in 2003, I haven't been physically in a position to financially afford to play more than once a week and hit a bucket or two of balls 4-5 days per week.  Fortunately, this year that is finally changing as I will get unlimited practice balls and rounds of golf at my local golf course.  I'm planning on playing 9 holes each day of the work week in addition to hitting 100-500 balls each of those days.  So that's going to definitely help.

Beyond that, I also thought a lot about each part of my full swing and how it works.  I have some things that I can do to hit more accurately, however, I always shyed away from doing them with any regularity because I wanted my swing to "look" a certain way.  Plus, the ball wouldn't quite go as far and my ego was having a little trouble dealing with that one.

That's when it hit me to bring the swing speed training in to the equation...and with it a change in philosophy of sorts.  I enjoyed being a "swinger", but anymore now I want to be a "player".  So I set out to use this swing that produces the most accurate, consistent, and predictable shots (no matter what it looks like or how far it goes), and then use swing speed training to teach my body to swing faster using this more accurate way. 

The results have been good thus far.  I put away the mirrors and videos cameras and hit 350-525 balls each day last week and focused on finding this consistency.  Once I felt like I found it, I played 9 holes both yesterday and today and hit 12/14 (85.7%) fairways between the two days.  One of the ones I missed was just because I drove through the fairway.  My overall distances are a little less than before (maybe some of this is from taking 2 months off), but I'll add some speed training back in to the mix here soon to address that part.  This should lead to no overall loss in distance, but a great increase in accuracy and consistency. 

Hopefully, between these two things - more practice and a more effective swing method - it will be what I need to get out to the Tour.   How remarkable would that be!!!!

Once I got everything grooved and test it all out a little more, I'll take some video of my swing, and post it with updated pictures and text in the Full Swing Section of the website so everyone can see what I'm doing differently.  It's not anything radically different, but there are definitely some refinements worth talking about later.

Golf Today Magazine

Check out our article in Golf Today magazine!!!

Did you tweak your 1irons?

Question:

How much did you have to "tweak" your 1iron clubs - adjustments?  I saw that you are not using the driver or 3W.

Jaacob's Answer:

When I got my 1iron irons, the only thing I did was put on different grips. At some point, I might experiment with different shafts...but for now it's fine. I had to make some minor swing adjustments at first to fit myself to the lie angles that David sets his irons, and at first I still made the same path misses (pulls with 8-P, pretty straight 6-8, and push 3-5 irons). However, after a month I started really getting used to them and my iron play has only gotten better since. When you compare loft to loft, weight to weight, etc...I end up hitting the 1irons just as far as any of my other irons. My consistency is much greater though because with the exception of loft, the clubs are pretty much all the same club. I know David advocates chipping and pitching with one club, but personally I prefer using all my clubs. In that sense, my short game is better too because the only thing that changes for the chipping with different clubs is the height and roll of the shot. I don't have to do any special manipulation of the clubs to get different shots...it's all the same, pretty cool. Overall, I've been playing with them for about 10 months now.

If you order your clubs, make sure to mention coupon code 10507...he'll throw in some free head covers.

Rolling Hand Action and Curling Under Motion

Question: 

What is the rolling hand action and curling under motion?

Jaacob's Answer:

Conventional teaching has us open the club up as we take it back so that when the club is parallel to the ground the toe of the club is pointing to the sky.  This open club position continues on in to the top of the back swing.  On the way down the blade must be closed again in order for it to be square at impact.  The blade continues on in to the through-swing with the toe again pointed to the sky when the shaft is parallel to the ground.  The hand motion that accomplishes this is a rolling action of the hands. 

The curling under motion is the motion of the left hand (for a right-handed swinger) on the back swing that keeps the blade square back to the ball at the point where the club is parallel to the ground (see the below photo).  I find that there is less timing (which means less practice needed to stay grooved) involved with a motion like this and once you are used to it, it is much easier to hit the ball straight without any curvature.

 

Not breaking 80

Comment:

I have been told that I am a sub 80 player but have never got into the seventy's
because of poor putting i suppose.

Jaacob's Comment:

That may be, but it could also be numerous other things.  Think back about your rounds and see where you are losing your strokes.  Ask yourself things like...did you use a driver that got you in to trouble when a fairway wood would've been a better choice?  Did you mis-club yourself on a shot?  How many 3-putts did you have?  Are you chipping within 6-10 feet instead of less than 5 feet?  Did you go at a dangerous pin?  Did you miss in a spot that was hard to recover from?  How was your mental state on each shot?  These are just examples that may not apply to you, but the point is to look back at your round afterwards and figure out where you are losing the most shots so that you can address your problem areas.

I remember back when I was shooting in the 80s, I was losing 3-4 drives out of bounds or in to hazards.  That's a lot of shots.  I had to both learn to be more consistent with my driving, change my equipment to a more accurate driver, and be smarter about when I did and didn't use driver on particular holes.

Also, some other things that helped me in particular, were improving my short game (chipping closer and saving more pars), thinking less about my swing, and being smarter about when to take certain risks.  I remember the safest round I've ever played lead to a 69 (-3) in the Long Beach Open last year.  On the 6th hole I had a wedge in to the green from the fairway.  I played 10-15 feet left of the pin for safety and I ended up missing to the right...exactly on the pin.  I had a tap-in birdie, however, had a not been smart and aimed towards the middle of the green, my miss would've short-sided me in to some really gnarly rough.  It likely would've been a bogey.

Just starting...should I wait on swing speed training?

Question:

I'm 52, just picked up the game in Jan 08. Presently shot a 90 on a par 67 and loving the game. My question is, "should I get my fundamentals down before looking into your training?"

Jaacob's Answer:

Shooting a 90 already is fantastic considering you started only 2 months ago!

I'd wait a little bit on the swing speed training, but I think the website could still benefit you even at this stage because of the additional sections like the "Shortcuts to Lower Scores".  My only reservation against it is overloading you with too much information.

Whether or not you decide to do it, I'd advise you to have fun, don't over analyze your swing too much (many golfers get caught up in this), and spend 2/3 of any practice time you do working on short pitches, chipping, and putting (as long as you can get the ball near the green in regulation, having a good short game can still get you shooting close to par - most amateurs only work on the full swing...which is why they don't shoot as low of scores).

I started out in the 90s.  I got down to the 80s making better contact and with slightly better chipping.  I got down in to the 70s with keeping the ball in play off the tee more (less penalty strokes), placing the ball in safer spots (playing smarter), and working a lot on my chipping and pitching.  I got down in the 60s from working on my mental and emotional states, aiming at less pins and going more for the center of the green, and improving even more on chipping and pitching.

The days I had my two lowest scores of 64 and 65, I was driving the ball long and in to safe spots, was putting my longer approaches on the green or where I had an easy chip, was getting my 30-100 yard pitches in very close, and then making almost all the putts inside 10 feet.  Short game makes a big difference.

Radar slower without balls?

Question:

I've started to work on your program and just picked up a swing speed radar with tempo. When you are training with it, do you hit balls? I noticed I couldn't get the reading to go higher than 80mph when just swinging a club into a rubber mat tee. After reading some forums many folks said they had to hit a ball to get a good reading. Do you have any tricks to be able to use it in the backyard without hitting balls?

Jaacob's Answer:

I usually use the swing speed radar for most all of my training (I don't use it when I'm just practicing my regular golf).  For some reason, I too have found the readings to be a little lower when I don't use a ball.  I forget off-hand how much lower, but that was definitely my experience.  So it doesn't surprise me to hear you say that.

If you are using it in the backyard without hitting balls, you might consider ignoring the actual number (since it could be off) and use it purely as a baseline.  So regardless of whether or not 80 mph is correct, shoot to get it up to 90 mph or whatever other speed goal you have.  In that way, the speed reading might not be accurate, but your gain would be.