[innercityteacher]

Hi Daryl, Jerry, Kevin, OB, and Bucket and readers across the world and to all our brave soldiers everywhere!

As we all know, terrorists don't always wear tablecloths. We all fight monsters everyday. We fight by protecting the innocent and by building better lives based on freedom and the enjoyment of simple pleasures, like G.O.L.F.

(I have permission to introduce my new elementary school to the First Tee program and believe that golf does teach great lessons.)


You all have to know that for years, I have been regarded as the best 20 hcp. at my club. I have an artificial hip and metal rod and walk with a pronounced limp. Happily, there are lots of gimpy old fatmen at my club and everyone is very tolerant and (mostly) honest about their hcps.

Being pretty straight and hitting my drives 200 yards was not enough for me, however.

Over several months, John, my GSEB, has been showing me that I had wrongly trained my hands and arms to assume various positions trying to imitate "conventional golf wisdom." None of those positions made any sense or had any real logical relationships to each other. So, I had no power and no precision in my game.

I have had lots of help from people in this website, esp. with RFT and the use of hips in the pivot. In each of my lessons, though, John had to break me of part of my 10 years of bad habits and bad videos and silly instructors. He had to isolate a bad habit and help me begin to correctly put power and precision in my game.

Yoda's "Alignment Golf" is particularly excellent at connecting TGM dots on what to do positively. But, only a TGM instructor working with a serious student can really teach G.O.L.F. and expose and undo bad habits.

Today, John showed me how I was still pushing my left hand to an off-plane position and missing the plane in the downswing. without the plane, there was no power. John had me work without the club.

I interlaced my fingers and pulled my left arm up-plane. Because I was not clearing my hip, John showed me to blend a back shoulder turn with the left arm pull. However, I was doing the RFT incorrectly. John had me do the Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop with my right arm. (It was hard for a Phillies fan.) I had to feel the correct elbow bend!

Then John showed me how the elbow bend goes to the top of the back shoulder. To me, this felt like chopping with my right hand at 45 degree angle. I was still bending my left wrist and using my hands to manufacture my sense of the plane which was not the plane.

Eventually, the elbow exercise took hold and John reminded me of tracing the baseline of the plane keeping the right elbow more in front and using the blade to stay straight back from the ball longer in the take-away.

And there it was! The RFT in all it's simplicity and precision.

I clicked 5 straight PW's straight and about 110 yards. "Better, but why not use your hips?"

Back elbow to endless belt, pp #2 and # 3 to endless belt, pressure points to front foot, turn the belly button and turn the sternum all worked!

The pw's clicked and went 130 yards. "It is not down, but down-range!" Linear Force! Click, click, click

The driver bounced once before climbing up the 250 yard net down range often. I had it teed low and the noise scared me.

More to come!

Patrick

Do good golfers feel the tilted 40 degree angle going back and at impact. I'm sure they feel the slide.