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TomTuckerGolf.com |
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Golf Tips Newsletter - Issue 238 - April 4th, 2013
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Prepare to play your best golf by doing something now! To comment or respond to this newsletter, please click here ttucker@rochester.rr.com In This Issue - Tom's Featured Tip: Swingers & Hitters - Tom's Bonus Tip: Lesson Learned - Lesson Comments: What Students Have To Say - Sponsors: Batavia Country Club - Opening Saturday April 6th, 9am, Chestnut Hill Country Club Plum Creek Driving Range and PGA AboutGolf.com Golf Simulator GCC Golf Management Program, Provoto Putting Systems PLUM CREEK DRIVING RANGE IN BATAVIA, NY, IS OPEN ALL YEAR Outdoors - weather permitting; Indoors - simulator available for play or practice. Call 585-993-0930 or email Mark at plumcreek4@rochester.rr.com to reserve your simulator time! Great money saving monthly specials, check them out here: http://www.plumcreekdrivingrange.com Buy Gift Certificates for Lessons Sample Gift Certificate Golf lessons - Outdoor and Indoor - are available at Plum Creek, please call me at 716 474 3005, email me at ttucker@rochester.rr.com, or visit my website at http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/lessonrates.html for details. Indoor or Outdoor Driver Fitting Get the most bang for your buck when you buy a new driver by getting professionally fitted first. Click for details: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Subscribe - http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/signup.html If you like this newsletter, please do me a favor and forward it to your friends so that they may subscribe, thanks! The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter. Tom's Featured Tip: Swingers & Hitters For the sake of simplicity, all advice on swings and drills is provided from a right handed perspective; lefties .... well, you know what to do! I was just reading Homer Kelly's "The Golfing Machine" for the umpteenth time. It's a great read, but difficult to decipher because he constantly cross references passages and photos that are not close to each other in the book. If any publishing company ever took the time to edit the book so that it flowed a little smoother, they'd have an all time "Top Ten" golfing book. (not to say that it's not a "Top Ten" already) Kelly refers quite a bit to "swingers" and "hitters" in his book. In this issue I'll explain the differences, as well as his ideas for combining attributes from each method to produce a very powerful strike - if you dare! First of all, if you have "lag" in your swing, either a swinging or hitting method is very powerful. Obviously, lag is a very important swing component to master. "Swinging" is generally thought of as a swing that relies on a pulling type of motion to generate centrifugal force as its main source of power and speed. Swinging is pulling. "Hitting", on the other hand, is generally thought of as a swing that relies on its power from a more muscular act of thrusting the club through its pattern due to strong right arm and hand action. Hitting is pushing. I believe that just about anyone could be taught to play golf well with a "swinger" method, but that very few players could be taught a "hitters" method exclusively and be successfull. Having said that, with some consolidation from both methods it's possible to get the absolute maximum power out of your swing. A precisely timed and sequenced combination of pulling and pushing, so to speak. Ocassionally, I teach this combination to either very talented players, or to older players that can't generate a lot of centrifugal force with their swinging motion for various reasons. There is one caveat however, the combination is very dependent on correct sequencing and timing, which is why I normally concentrate on teaching a student one method only. The conundrum is that if you try to pull and push at the same time, the results will usually be disastrous. My general advice is to settle on one way of "swinging" or "hitting", and get very good at it through practicing correctly. For those of you that like to experiment, here's a way to combine both "swinging" and "hitting" for a very powerful result. Keep in mind that: "Swinging" utilizes a lot of centrifugal force, then sliding and turning power. "Hitting" utlilizes primarily right arm thrust, with minimal rotational powery A combination method would utilize all of the power accumulators from each method, Kelly calls it a "4 Barrel" stroke. Emphasis is placed on perfect sequencing and timing. Here's how to do it:
The Pros
Personally, the risk - reward for this type of swing makes me tend to not use it in any tight situations. I'm not recommending this to anyone for actual play, unless you've really worked it out on the range. But if you do get a chance to practice it, don't be afraid to try it out in one of your "scramble" tournaments when you already have one drive in the fairway! Love your practice, enjoy your golf, Tom Tom's Bonus Tip: Lesson Learned For the sake of simplicity, all advice on swings and drills is provided from a right handed perspective; lefties .... well, you know what to do! A have a student that stopped in the other day for a spring checkup of his swing. This particular student started taking lessons last year, and after a few lessons he was really striping the ball. I had a lot of talent to work with, and he has a good mind for golf. That's usually a good combination. I asked him what his handicap was and I was shocked to hear that he was a high single digit handicapper. I mentioned that I thought that we could get it down very low this year, but he was disinterested, and that's when I got a lesson on enjoyment of the game. By the way, he's not a handicap sandbagger, he's an honest guy. He told me that he had a handicap that seemed to be a bit high for his game because he thrived on playing high risk shots. Even though he often succeeded, he also often failed and carded a big number. Even so, that's how he really enjoyed playing the game. My thoughts were to get him to a really low handicap, but that was my ambition not his. Lesson learned; he was right in that he found the way that he really enjoyed playing the game, and in the end that should be everyone's priority. Love your practice, enjoy your golf, Tom Golf Lessons I conduct lessons at The Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility there's a link for Plum Creek info here: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/ Lessons are available for all ages and skill levels, please contact me - Tom Tucker - at (716) 474 3005 or email me at ttucker@rochester.rr.com for more information. Outdoor Lessons Details and Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/lessonrates.html Indoor Lessons Details and Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Driver Fitting Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Testimonials: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/testimonials.html Sponsors Plum Creek Driving Range and Simulator Play indoor golf on any of our 40 Simulator Courses. Call 585-993-0930 or email Mark at plumcreek4@rochester.rr.com to reserve time for play or practice! Provoto Putting Systems readers get a 30% discount on putting greens. Click on their catalog link, and select the green you want to purchase. After you decide on features, add it to your cart. You'll find the field for "Discount Coupon" near the bottom of the page. Enter PGApro in that field and your product cost will be discounted 30%. GCC Golf Management Program click for information on GCC's degreed program for anyone interested in a career in the golf industry or teaching golf. Batavia Country Club Opening Saturday April 6th, 9am Click here for details Chestnut Hill CC Check website for opening date for start of season. All the best, Tom Tucker Teaching Pro, Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher" USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional Cell: (716) 474-3005 Email: ttucker@rochester.rr.com http://www.TomTuckerGolf.com http://www.usgtf.com/top_100_wgtf.html "There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection!" ~ Ben Hogan |