Proof is in the pudding

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Golf Chat, Lesson Talk

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The other night I headed out to my swing studio and put in some work. More or less the same stuff I’ve been doing, working on my release and the rotation of my left arm. As monotonous as it has been I’m starting to see some results that are really motivating. I’ll get to that here in a minute.

Friday night at Callaway i had a decent range session. I did something a little different this time out though. Instead of taking a club, applying an impact strip and swinging away I instead hit about 10 balls with the club then put on the impact strip and took only 10 swings with it on. The results were a lot more satisfying. I didn’t have the erratic swings like I did the last week. That made it a lot easier to asses the results from the strips.

I’m still having some shots go off the toe, but when I compare the strips from two weeks ago its (in my mind) a HUGE turnaround. 10 out of 10 off the toe is awful and that’s what I have been experiencing. Now, its maybe 2 or 3 out of 10. I can handle that, it’s progress!

This last week at the range I really focused my attention of getting my hands to go down from the top of the back swing. That’s something that Dustin has told me from the get go that I had to work on. I over exaggerated the motion and to my disbelief the ball was going right where it was supposed to! I tried the over exaggeration a few more times and then slowly started working in my normal swing to smooth it out.

I’ve tried the exaggerated move before and wasn’t very successful at it. This time however it worked. I’m sure it has a lot to do with me having better swing mechanics compared to when I started all of these changes with Dustin. I’m just glad I listened and didn’t give up on the ideology of it.

What put the icing on the cake for me was when I looked at the video I shot at home the other night and then compared it to some swing I took back in October.

Here’s what I saw:

Left: Swing from 02/12/12 - Right: Swing from 10/17/2011

It’s the second picture that got me all excited about my progress. The picture on the right in panel two is the visual definition of “Over The Top”. That has been my nemesis since the very first time I picked up a club.

The third panel I was excited about also. My follow through (which is still in need of a lot of work) has gotten a whole lot better in the last month or so.

The time put in is starting to pay off. My ball striking is getting better, my mechanics are getting better and my release is getting better. Now if I can just get out on the course and score better I’m going to be a lot happier with my game.

I’ll find out this upcoming Sunday if the latter of those is relevant. Randy, Dan, Bill and I have a tee time at Las Vegas National at 9:10am. Woo Hoo GOLF!!

Website changes are a comin!

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Website

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I’m only a few weeks away from making the change to an all new website for The Breakfast Ball.

I was able to obtain the domain “thebreakfastball.com” back in December after a long and useless ordeal of emails back and forth with some yahoo who thought that thebreakfastball.com was worth $20,000. As much as I wanted the .com version I wasn’t going to shell out more than $19.95 to secure the domain and I was content with the site being a wordpress.com, and it being free site, for the time being.

Then I saw an offer at the top of my dashboard for the WordPress site offering me the breakfastball.com so I jumped on it! I really like everything that I have been able to do with the blog on wordpress.com, but I’m now going to be using wordpress.org to run the site and so far I LOVE the new look. I have a lot more control and I now can add some features that I couldn’t before. It’s still a work in progess, but I think that everyone will eventually like all the changes. 

I hope to have it all up and running, bug free, by the 24th of this month. In the mean time if you are interested in what the site is going to look like and would like to offer some feedback here is a link to the site:

http://thebreakfastball.info

 

 

 

Hello February!

02 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in Lesson Talk, Uncategorized

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That means there are only 5-6 weeks left of the cold weather we get out here in the Vegas Valley and also Daylight Savings Time begins right around the same time frame! Longer days are always a plus when it comes to golf! You don’t have to worry about not finishing your round because of slow play and you can make that tee time a little bit later in the day, not 7am like you have to now and possibly get stuck waiting out a frost delay.

I haven’t had a lot to talk about lately because I’ve been focusing a lot of my attention on practicing at home in the garage. January was a REAL slow golf month for me. I did have two lessons with Dustin and got in a round but my practice range time was very limited so I’ve just been cranking out swing session in the garage nightly trying to implement the changes Dustin and I are working on.

The first lesson I had in January we worked on the release part of my swing. This past lesson we worked on getting my club square at impact and eliminating my over the top action which has been the main cause of me hitting the ball off the toe about 90% of the time.

The very first time I meet with Dustin he looked at my swing and showed me with the help of some really cool video equipment how I was coming over the top and how that over the top action was leading to me casting the club. I thought that I has made some progress when it came to my OTT move, but after this last lesson I found out there still is some work to do. I was given some more drills to work on at home and also some to work on when I’m at the range, and they work. The last mini range session I had, through the use of some impact tape, the ball was slowly starting its move to the center of my clubface. Nowhere near where it needs to be and it was only one small little session so it’s hard to validate it, but progress none the less!

Tonight I’m headed out to Callaway to see if the work I’ve been putting in at ”The Breakfast Ball Practice Studio” (that’s my new name for my garage) is paying off. The only issue I have to deal with in the near future is the practice studio is very well equipped to deal with a full driver swing so I haven’t dedicated any time to the long stick at home. I was shown on video how my left arm is not rotating through the swing and my clubface is still open as it’s approaching the ball. Dustin gave me a few drills to work on to help train my left arm to do what it need to do to be square at impact, but like I said earlier I haven’t been able to use those drills at home. I’ve been working on them with the shorter clubs so hopefully tonight I can see some results.

Needless to say I’m excited about the range tonight. The next round I’m playing is going to be on the 19th of this month with Randy and Bill. That gives me a little over two weeks to work on these swing changes. I’ll have another lesson on the 18th so at least I can work with Dustin prior to that round and see if I’m making some progress.

2012 “State Of My Game” address

23 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Golf Chat

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In honor of the State of the Union address taking place this week I thought I’d have a little fun and bring you the ”State of My Game” address:

“Greeting my fellow golfers, hackers and purveyors of par. Tonight is a very special night for it is my first State of My Game address that I have given for all you Breakfast Ball readers and it has come at a time when my game is under the utmost scrutiny, and it’s all coming from me of course.

Two years have passed since I decided to take up golf again and let me tell you it has been a blast! I’ve played some fantastic courses from the woods of North Eastern Alabama to the mountains of Idaho. I’ve met some wonderful people along the way and once again I found a passion for a game that I love.

It hasn’t all been roses and caviar though. I’ve had some struggles. Shanks, skulls, fat shots, slices, hooks I’ve had them all. Triple digit scores, heck I’ve even had some triple digit penalty rounds, but that hasn’t swayed me. I keep going back and I’ll keep going back as long as I’m physically able to do so!

Looking back to when I started playing this game again I can see how far I’ve come. What was once a rugged, tattered & torn old Ping hoofer bag that was barely keeping its form to an old set of graphite Lynx Black Cats. A King Cobra driver that was about 10 years past its prime along with some Tommy Armour III steel shafted 3W & 7W, and let’s not forget the Prima putter that was a breeding ground for lead tape. Has now turned into a neatly organized Ogio bag that’s keeping my Callaway Driver, 3W and Hybrid all snug and safe. Put that together with a new set of TaylorMade Burner 2.0′s and a TaylorMade Corza Putter and you can see that as far as equipment goes I’m at least playing in the correct decade!

Two years is a long time and if I was playing 2-3 times a month I would expect my progress would be greater than where it sits today, but somethings are just not possible so I’m taking the time that I do get to maximize my learning and grow with each round played. That being said my improvements I think are pretty good. I started out with a 33.0 HDCP, nothing to cheer about there I know, but I’m managed to get that down to a more respectable 20.9 Not respectable to everyone but for me I’m OK with it. I’m hitting more fairways than ever, making more putts than ever and I’m really starting to understand the mental side of the game, something I’ve been oblivious to for years!

I’ve watched more golf, read more books & magazines, hit the practice range and just practiced more in the past two years than I had in the previous 25 years combined. I now understand the punch shot, the high draw and the “stinger”. I understand the difference between and Titleist NXT and a PROVI. I now understand what the heck bounce is and why it’s so important. Two years ago if you would have asked me what a “Club Fitting” is I would probably have thought you were planning a wardrobe ensemble for a night out at “Club Utopia”

MOI, Lag, Release, Swing Path, Swing Plane, Ball Flight, Shaft Flex, Spine Angle, Club Lie, Wedge Gaps, Launch Angle, Mallet Putter vs. Blade Putter and the difference between a practice range session on a Tuesday night compared to a warm up range session before a round on Sunday. These are all things that I was clueless about two years ago that are now a solid fixture in my golf database. It is simple amazing how fast you can absorb new information and put it to use in this game.

I’ve set some goals along the way and I’ve hit quite a few of them. Tops on my list as of today is a round in the 80′s, and I feel like it’s close. The changes I’ve made recently to my swing (thanks to Dustin at the Nicklaus Academy) are changes I feel are going to propel me to the next level of my game. It’s only been a few sessions with Dustin but the results I’m seeing in my swing are incredible, I just hope to be able to put it all together one day so everyone will be able to fully understand the benefits of taking lessons from a PGA pro.

Along with justifying the lessons by playing better and also showing my instructor that I’m not wasting his time, I also have another goal that I’d like to achieve and that is to beat Bill straight up. I thought long and hard about this a few weeks ago after I played at Revere. Bill has the title of #1 Breakfast Baller right now and want that title to be mine. No offense to Randy (you may recall at the end of this last year I set a goal of beating Randy straight up) because I still want to beat him too, and Pat but I set my goal to low and instead of setting the bar low I’m going to set it to the highest level I know and that’s beating Bill straight up 18 holes no HDCP. It may seem unrealistic but it’s not impossible I just have to rededicate myself and take better advantage of the time I do have to work on my game. It’s a challenge I love making because it’s going to force me to practice better, and I have my work cut out for me. Bill is good!

I’d like to think that I’ve inspired my fellow Breakfast Ballers to play better too. Pat, Randy, Bill, Dan and myself all love the game tremendously and it was because of them that I wanted to play better. Getting your ass kicked round after round can wear on you really quick. So I took it upon myself to improve, and I have, but so has Pat, Randy and Bill and now Dan is taking lessons and Bill is too. I’ve created a monster!!

My growth in the game is something I’m proud of, I think about some of the rounds I’ve played and what I’d do different now. How poor I played a hole that there is no way in hell I’d duplicate today. Trying to take something good from every round and expand on it I consider myself to be a completely different player than two years ago.

I used to get frustrated to the point of throwing clubs and dropping “F” bombs all over the course while shooting a 113. Those days are long gone, don’t get me wrong, you’ll still hear the occasional “F” bomb coming from my way but the only time you’ll see me throw a club is to work on my release! I used to get excited about breaking 100 looking over my scorecard and feeling like I accomplished something, and at that point I had. Those days are gone. I may still log a triple digit score now and then but never will I ever consider that an accomplishment anymore. I used to be pleased with hitting the occasional fairway and from the tee box and if it happened 4 out of 14 times that was a moment to remember. No more, I expect to hit every fairway when I stand at address and anything other than the short stuff is a failure.

Now what excites me is square contact with straight ball flight, not that it didn’t excite me before the difference is when it happens now it’s because I did everything right, before it was just luck. Now I’m excited to stand behind a 40′ chip shot knowing that I can make the shoot without hesitation. Now I’m excited about playing from the back tee’s because I’m no longer intimidated by 6,900 yards it’s just a tougher challenge.

So I’ll keep at, I’ll continue the lessons, continue the practice and continue to play the game that I love so much. With two years of growth behind me and nothing but empty scorecards to fill in out in front of me I’ll keep at it. Doing everything that I can do to make myself a better player of this wonderful game we all call golf!

Lastly I don’t think I would be nearly as involved in the game if it wasn’t for the social media crowed. Yeah that all of you Twitter and Facebook followers! A huge shout out to all of you. I never knew the power of Twitter and Facebook until I starting this blog. I know not every followers reads these and I’m fine with that but the fact that a weekend hacker has spurned the interest of some 300+ strangers is absolutely amazing to me. This site would not be what it is without Twitter and I thank every single one of you whether you read the posts or not!

To my fellow bloggers, all of you out there inspire me to make my site better, have valid content and bring information to our audiences that they not only find informative but maybe inspire them too. It’s all of your hard work and time put in that makes me want to sit here and type out my experiences on these virtual pages and bring my little piece of the game to the world. I thank you for all the support with out a doubt you all ROCK!

Thank you everyone and good night to you all.”

 

 

 

Change is good, right?

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Lesson Talk, Round Review

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I knew that when I decided to take lessons that there was going to be some changes made to my swing, I mean that’s blatantly obvious, if there wasn’t anything wrong with my swing there would be no need for lessons and hence no need for change. I’m a fan of change, and I’ve always adapted to it pretty well. I like it when things get mixed up and it’s not the same everyday. Not always though, I found out last year that there are some situations where I don’t do so well with change. I considered that a life lesson, but that’s another story for another blog.

That being said I was actually looking forward to the changes that are going to be taking place in my golf swing. That was until I ended shooting a 108 this last weekend at Revere.

Yeah I said it, a 108. Talk about making your instructor proud! Frustrated and disappointed I now had the daunting task of finding the positive in a round of golf that was nowhere near positive. It’s not easy to look back at a round where you’ve shot triple digits and find the good in it, God knows I’ve had plenty practice at it, but after this round it wasn’t difficult at all. My ball striking was probably better than it’s ever been, the accuracy of my shots, now that’s a different story. Putting was outstanding, I only logged 28 putts and had just one three putt. Chipping was fantastic, that helped lead to the 28 putts for sure! It was the penalties that destroyed the round. I had eleven of them, arguably one of my worst outing when it comes to penalties. So what went wrong? In one simple word I can sum it all up, change.

I had a week to work on this new release of mine before I  played Sunday and let me tell you it feels very, VERY strange. Working on the release in the garage at home, on a practice mat, not hitting any balls is one thing. Getting out to the range and actually hitting balls with it was something entirely different.

My warmup went really well to tell the truth, the first couple of balls that I hit, I kinda “WOW”‘d myself with how well I had struck the ball. That was with my PW and as I gradually moved down the line of clubs the shots were not as crisp or solid as they were when I started. The driver was a shocker though. I had taken the club out in my backyard and swung a bunch of times to feel the difference between my old swing and this new one with a release and I could feel the difference in the clubhead speed almost immediately so I was very excited to pull it out in the range and give it a go. So much in fact I had to fight with myself to go through my normal warm up and not jump right to it out the gate.

I could tell the difference right away. The ball was jumping off the club and I was getting greater distances out of the shots, that’s something I’m not use to seeing. The ball flight had a zing to it that I’ve been craving for so long, I was too excited. The majority of my swings resulted in a pretty good outcome, there was some slight draw to a few, and I did manage to slice a couple, other than that my miss was a hook shot and that was appealing. As long as it’s not going right I’m doing better than I have been! That was some change I could live with! The balls that I sliced I could tell right away that I hadn’t released my hands, and on the shots that faded some it was similar feeling, some release but just not as obvious as no release at all.

With that little range session behind me I was ready to hit course. We still had some time before we tee’s off so I went to the putting green and dialed in my putting stroke. It felt solid from the first ball I hit to the last one. I could just tell that I was going to have a good putting day! It would have been nice if I would have had that feeling about all my other clubs!

The front nine went ok, I hit some good drives on 1 & 2 they both were left of my target but in play and down the hole. The third hole I hooked my tee shot really bad and couldn’t find the ball in the rocks so I had to take a penalty there. Then on 4 I slipped on a frozen tee box and still managed to keep the ball in play, it was right of the fairway but it wasn’t a slice or a fade. I hit that ball as straight as an arrow it was just right of the target, stupid frozen tee box! I hit a poor tee shot in the next hole, a par 3 over a lake. I hit a club I probably shouldn’t have, I went with a 4i instead of a 5i thinking 80% versus a full swing. No release with my hands and the ball sailed on a really bad slice, again couldn’t find it in the rocks and had to take a penalty. Great shot on 6, I mean a great shot. Dead center of the fairway and 256 yards. That one felt fantastic! Then on 7 I resorted back to my old ways and hit a really bad slice that once again was lost in the rocks. Another penalty. My tee shot on the 8th was a decent shot, it was just left of the green and landed in the desert with a terrible lie and I had to play it as un-hittable yet another penalty stroke. The highlight of the front was my chip in for birdie on the 9th hole, a really tough, severely uphill par 5. That was a another great shot!

The back just got uglier as the day went on. The only good thing that happened on the back was making par on the last hole. A 551 yard Par 5 that is a beast of a hole. Long carry over water and then straight down hill over a canyon to a tightly guarded green. Making that par salvaged what was a disgusting back nine. I recorded seven penalties in the back, seven!

After the last lesson I had with Dustin and the work I put in the week prior to this round my confidence was at an all time high. There’s nothing like a 108 punch to the gut to bring you back down to reality. I spoke with Dustin about the round and he told me that it’s going to take a while before I feel confident in the changes I’m making and then once I get that confidence to take it to the course. That was reassuring, I was paranoid that he was going to say “Well, we gave it the old college try, your on your own.” but that wasn’t the case.

It’s going to take some time and I understand that. I truly do feel my game changing and I can only see the lessons helping that progress. I have another lesson on the 28th and I plan on busting my ass off in the garage over the next two weeks to show Dustin that I’m serious about this and that I’m not wasting his time.

Lastly, I started back on my diet that I did that lost me all the weight a few years ago. I’ve neglected my body for the past 8 months and it’s starting to show. The videos I have of me lately are embarrassing, and it’s not because of the golf swing! Along with the diet comes the exercise and I cannot wait to start running again. It was two years ago I ran my first half marathon, which was one of the greatest achievements in my life and I miss it.

Some big changes coming down the road for me and hopefully with those changes come some better rounds of golf. Only 15 months until Pebble Beach! As Michael Breed would say “LET’S DO THIS!!”

“Release the KRAKEN!”

10 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Lesson Talk

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It had been 18 days since I had picked up a club when I went to my lesson this past Saturday. Not exactly the ideal situation for improving your game but I did have some good reasons. The first one being that the Winter Classic wiped me out, I was golf exhausted. I didn’t think that was possible, but come the Tuesday after we played I looked at my clubs and said “maybe tomorrow” and that exchange took place over the next 18 days.

Christmas and the New Years were the other reasons for the lay off and then throw in an abnormally busy work week along with my Daughter starting Basketball and it was easy to see why my clubs weren’t getting the attention.

Luckily that little down time came to end Saturday and I got back into the swing of things with this last lesson.

When I got to the Nicklaus Academy Dustin asked what I would like to work on and with no hesitation I told him I really would like it if he could figure out why I have such a difficult time hitting my 4 & 5 irons and my 3W and 3Hybrid.

After I got done warming up (which by the way went surprisingly well considering the 18 day lay off) Dustin had me swing a few with my 5 iron. I had explained to him that it was embarrassing that I can hit my 7iron just as far as I can hit my 5iron, and I didn’t disappoint when it came time to show him. It was three or four really bad swings with that club and the work began. He could see that I was hitting it off the toe and after putting on some impact tape to verify (hit two shots with the 5 iron that were WAY out on the toe) I took a few swings on Trackman and then a couple that were recorded so Dustin could see what was going on frame by frame.

He told me I had two choices; work on swing plane or work on release to get more distance. As much as I want to grove my swing into a beautiful work of art the testosterone inside me screamed out “DISTANCE, DISTANCE!!” so that’s what we worked on.

I was shown where my clubs position is on my follow through and how it was clear as day that I’m not releasing the club properly. When I was shown the video and the comparison to where my club was and where it should be it was a big eye opener. It brought me back to the first time I ever met with Dustin, when he not only showed me why I was going over the top he also explained it to me and pointed out what I was doing that was allowing it to happen. I’ve read hundreds of articles and watched countless numbers of YouTube videos trying to fix my over-the-top swing and I don’t think I would have ever found out the correct reason for why it was happening in “my” golf swing had I not got in contact with Dustin. Needless to say I was all ears when he started talking about how we were going to fix my release and get me some more distance!

There were actually two things that we worked on; the first was some drills to work on my release and the other was some drills to stop me from swaying on the down-swing. When the information was put in front of me and I was shown the video it was easy as hell to see that a swing without the proper release and a swaying motion on the down-swing will result in 150 yard 5iron shots!

The release drills I feel I picked up rather quickly and as I progressed through them I could really feel how the club was coming through the hitting zone a lot quicker but without more effort, by the end of the release drills I was hitting my PW130+, not to shabby!

The sway drill on the other hand beat me down. It was a lot like the first time I tried to hit the ball one-handed. Very humbling to say the least. It’s bad enough that this game is hard as hell, but then throw in a drill that makes you feel like you’ve never played the game before and it will take your confidence down a notch. The good thing about the difficulty of a drill is the ability to improve. Dustin has told me before if it was easy you wouldn’t need to work at it, just like the one-handed drills, and if you were to compare my one-handed swings now to the first time I ever did it you would see and improvement. So for the past few nights I’ve been back to work in the garage not only working on my one-handed drills but now I’ve added the release drills and the anti-sway drills and I like the way my swing is feeling.

By the end of the lesson I was hitting my 5iron like it is supposed to be hit. With some snap and a noticeable “gap” between it and the distance I hit my 7iron. I’m really hoping that working on the release is going to get me some more distance off the tee. I haven’t swung my driver yet with this new approach, that’s going to happen at the range this week, but I’m very excited to give it a go.

Two lessons down and I’m very impressed so far.  Before I even started taking the lessons I had an idea what it was going to be like, boy was I wrong. I know it’s only been a few lessons, but the information I’ve taken in has really changed the way I’m looking at my overall game, and I like it!

It’s time to get 2012 going!

07 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Golf Chat, Lesson Talk

≈ 1 Comment

I have another lesson with Dustin today. I’m so glad because I haven’t even picked up a club and made a swing so far this year! Hopefully I can show some progress from our least session. I was busting my ass in the garage working on the one handed swings, at least I was before the New Year and our little Winter Classic event.

I’ll do a recap of the lesson tonght.

Here’s to a GREAT 2012!!

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