Starters

After becoming disheartened with my understanding of the Hogan swing, and finding a really cool YouTube video from a group called Athletic Motion Golf, which showed me some true data on pro golfer swings vs amateur golfer swings, I found the presentation and the method to be something to behold, true professionals. I signed up for a free video series and before I knew it, I had purchased the Swing System Video Series.

Jumping In

There was a lot of great info on the first sections, explaining the fundamentals behind how we learn in general, and how we learn physical movements, and also the correct way to record your swings at home, and not only how but WHY. Some of these concepts appeared to be repackaged discoveries from the book Thinking Fast and Slow, but applied specifically to sports by another author, whom the Athletic Motion team attributed them. The great news here was that these were fundamental concepts on the human brain which I had studied during my brief stint as a semi-professional poker player, so right away, I found these insights to be credible.

Now, Lets Start Golfing!

Checkpoint one was very similar to the hogan setup, with exception placed on the foot positions and pressures and on some aspects of grip pressure. This made it relatively easy to understand. I cant urge you enough to pay attention in these sections, and to revisit them. I spent the first day spending every break during work, brushing my teeth, and any other time I was near a mirror checking setup, making sure I was bending correctly, and running the drills. I don’t think I will be done with this section anytime soon, I am constantly having to revisit the drills whenever something feels off, but I can tell with a lot of the series and what I know about my learning style, that I will have to bounce back and then push forward, rinse and repeat.

My previous instructor had told me about the second checkpoint during my lessons, with the position being in the same spot, after a few practice sessions I felt like I was starting to get comfortable with it again. I diligently spent day 2 practicing checkpoints 2 and 3 in the mirror. I found the key to this one to be in the weight shift, I could place my hands and club into position 2, but it always felt somehow… untidy, clumsy… when I watched the videos again, I noticed him talking about the weight shift and the pressure on the left foot and now I feel like when I implement that, the motions of the entire backswing, positions 2, 3 and 4 all flow much easier. When I forget or get off balance from stop/starting a lot in the practice slow motion, I can feel these spots feeling awkward and tight again.

Moving on Up

Checkpoint 3. This one felt like I grasped it almost immediately. Because my phone storage had filled up I didn’t get around to video recording the swing, but I checked it in a mirror and the angle looked pretty good. 

Fast forward to building my cheap version of the alignment laser trainer that they had mentioned in this checkpoint series, I was about a foot wide of the plane (too shallow in my case) at the pause of that position, and my path to get there was a little wild, filled with sways and never really along the plane measured using an alignment stick behind the ball. 

A little practice with the laser and I soon got more consistent with running within a few inches of the stick more than half the time. I found that using some of the weight shift “Dance Moves” described earlier in the series helped get that up to (and later through) checkpoint 3 while hitting the plane more often and more importantly, more smoothly. 

Get on Top!

Sections 4 and 5 were not nearly as natural to me as the first 3. I found these helpful to watch and attempt to comprehend separately, because it forced me to ask questions to myself and consider an answer. But I found that to really start grasping the concepts to my current level of understanding, which I will admit still feels like a work in progress, it required watching and rewatching back and forth between the two checkpoint series and even skipping ahead further into section 6.

Admittedly, I am not taking each lesson in at the SLOW SLOW pace that is probably required for deep understanding, but I live in the world of instant gratification, and unfortunately I find it difficult to completely ignore that urge to jump ahead. Finding out some information gleaned from checkpoint 6 and 7 actually helped me understand what I was really trying to accomplish in steps 4 and 5, or at least I think it did, and that gave me some confidence to run the drills from these sections again, knowing more about where I was going made it easier to see the reasoning of the movements now.

These areas are where everything changes, you go from methodical and paced to reactive and instinctual. You change directions, you get your weight to another side and you set the rest of the shot all within a fraction of a second. At slow motion, it’s really helpful to do the drills as they describe, but unfortunately coming down on the ball I could still see old patterns creeping in that were discouraging. It wasn’t until I peeked ahead to opening the hips and having my hands at the right thigh in the next checkpoints that the ideas of lifting and dropping the arms, picking up all my hand speed, etc. started to make sense. 

Overcoming Self Doubt

Until that point, I could see myself smacking the ground far behind the ball, or sweeping it across my body, just with the carpet indentations of my office. When I looked at it with the laser, I really felt like I was in trouble, but peeking ahead allowed me to see that it would all be fixed, and that I was on a solid track to if nothing else, a relatively on plane swing compared to where I started with the first 10 when I put the lasers on. 

There is still plenty of practice, and 3.5 more checkpoints to go, but I can feel some things that are very promising. First that this swing feels MUCH easier on the body. I know by the end of my Hogan experience, I was forcing some things, and my left wrist in particular was starting to get some signs that my technique was still not right. Also, the mention of the laser had enlightened me to a piece of tech that I had never heard of for irons and driver, only putting. Seeing the swing path in real-time, in slow motion, and 50% speed was really enlightening to the reality of my takeaway.

If you would like me to cover the DIY laser setup, or if you have any other topics, questions or anything else, please leave a comment below or reach out to me on Instagram.