JMiller

For $250 this would be a much better tool if it could pick up SS and Ball Speed, that would be able to give you a smash factor calculation. This would be able to give you a little better information then just ball speed and distance. If you pair this tool with the Swing Speed Radar then you have a real cheapo LM, http://www.swingspee...speedradar.html You would get ball speed from the ES12 and Swing Speed from the SSR take (Ball Speed / Swing Speed) = Smash Factor... total out the door would be about $350, that is super cheap.

Thanks Richard, that is a great complement I try to base what I am writing especially when it comes to swing advise on what someone currently has to offer so to speak. If I were in the golf industry which I am not, I just have too much time on my hands i would not be a "method" type of teacher. As for "methods" like "hinge and hold" or S&T, I try to steer people away from them as it has bad distance and control issues in longer clubs. If they want to do that then I'll roll with it but I will make a comment here and there saying it might not be correct for them. Out of all the "methods" that I have looked at and tried messing around a little rotaryswing.com and there RST model (one I did a big review on) seemed to be hte most logical in terms of bio-mechanics. Am I trying to just implement one or two things in the swing as I am pretty happy with the rest of my swing. Small tweaks are always better and easier to make then tearing down the entire swing and rebuilding it from the ground up. This is why I can't believe Tiger Woods has now done that twice in his professional career. No one else in History as successful as him or famous in golf has done that, they all just tried to keep their swings and make minor adjustments here and there.

Majority of the time I am playing by myself, I try to get the most out of my game work work on improving my swing something along those lines where focus matters. If I am not working on something playing with friends a lot of times it's for money so that kind of kills the drink and screw off mode. Obviously. I'm not going to be drinking in a tournament. I tend to like to "practice like i would play", even if the round doesn't mean much I try to do well. In this case I'm cool with getting beer after the round. Only time I drink is during the 4 person scrambles where one team rides together as a group. Meaning the team of 4 can cheat left and right and no one can say any different. I don't mind 2 person best ball type of tournaments as another team is paired with them and keeps them honest. So if it is a charity event or they sell "mulligans, kicks, throws, tosses, etc" then you might as well crack a beer as a serious golfer and go into knowing you won't win without cheating and deep pockets.

I want to say that I agree that the shaft will feel better as it would be a better fit for a person that it is recommended for, a better fit feels better and would give more confidence yes. I do not agree at all with the ego/image statement as scientifically it changes the frequency line slightly on how the over all shaft plays, more specifically the tip section. At the end of the day what fits the best feels the best and preforms the best for a player. However, there is not really a reason you would want to hard or soft step a parallel shaft. They can be tip trimmed to an exact frequency match if you know what you are doing. With the proper equipment you can get the frequency line for a player perfect with parallel tips. That's why builders / fitters love them it opens a new door int terms of "perfect fitting". Soft and hard stepping is done primary with taper tips as there is not much wiggle room with them, 1/4" tip is about all you can do with them. So the KBS line clams that roughly soft or hard step changes the over all playing stiffness to about 1/3 (one step) and 2/3 (two steps) between their flexes (so 5 cpm between flexes would be 1.67 cpm per step) A 273 @ 43" (7.3) 2x soft step would turn out to be be about (6.9), good for someone that fits into a S+ but wants a heaver weighted shaft for example. The other way 7.3 2x hard stepped turns into about a 7.6 flex, pretty rough with out about 100mph 6 iron. It has a purpose to help fine tune a custom fit for tapper tips basically, not just image/ego reasons.

Golf is not one fit all you have to know your swing sequence to match it with advice. The number one thing that hurts a lot of golfers is that they don't know what advice to take and what advice to leave on the table based on their swing. One-plane swingers, it is all rotation to get back to impact no lateral hip slide. Hybrid swingers, it is a slight lateral hip slide and then rotation to get into impact properly. Two-planners, it is pretty much all lateral hip slide to get back into impact. If you are a two-plane swinger at the top and use all rotation on the down swing it will turn very ugly, you can not mix and match a backswing sequence wit ha different down swing sequence and be successful. All swing types have some sort of lag built into them for the proper downswing sequence. What you think you are doing is more then likely not what you are really doing, video and instructors can help you through which type of swing and sequence you fall into. David Toms = Two-plane Tiger Woods = Hybrid Jonathan Byrd = One-plane

I found a newsletter from Trackman dating back to Jan 2010 might be slightly outdated by now --> http://www.trackman.dk/download/newsletter/newsletter6.pdf Driver is the only club I think that should have a positive angle of attack with the exception of specialty shots. By "specialty" I mean driver off the deck and very low bullets like you would see in The Open Championship in high winds. Everything else is some degree of a negative angle of attack, if you hitting driver off the deck it should be just a longer fairway metal swing type of angle of attack. With that said "hinge and hold" or "stack and tilt" pre-set the weight forward on the front leg and doesn't get much weight back onto the rear leg in the backswing the weight stays mostly forward. This will result into of a lower trajectory because of a steeper angle of attack. I use the method on 1/2 and 3/4 shots a lot of times in wedges and short irons into greens and into the wind shots that I want to make sure go very low in terms of trajectory.

Yup, Stack and Tilt actually is a good way to hit short irons, on mid and longer clubs the trajectory might come out too low and lose a lot of power / distance. Try having 60 to 70% on your front leg and hitting a driver, probably won't get real high and not carry very far. The early wrist set thing on wedges is a great thing, might cause some problems on say a driver. You still want to coil on the back leg and keep the wrist set from the top to about thigh high in the downswing then "unwind" the wrists into the back of the ball, impact bag is a most imho, make sure you hit the top of the bag with the shaft first then the head hits the bag. This will keep you from flipping the club as well.

well I think it is good for the average person that doesn't know much about equipment. By this i mean how to measure true sweet spot, true lost at the sweet spot variances in heads. I think it was good information for the average guy so to speak. I was impressed that they were able to convey the concepts in a manner that was more simplistic. Good to hear that you like the downswing stuff, tons and tons of videos on the downswing stuff.

yea, I didn't believe that ball drill was a quick fix, it might be for some people but for others it might come more slowly. It sounds like I got you hooked at this point they have some really good concepts in the downswing sequence and some fun drills to use to fell the proper movements. 1 club in irons is normally what 10 - 12 yards for most people that is a big distance gain really. at 165 you go from 7iron say down to a 8iron, what is gonna be easier to hit closer? Probably the 8 iron, at least that is my stance on it. Driver, you should watch the bonus videos "bomb you driver series" it has some great information in there.

Well, you defiantly don't need to be a huge guy that looks like a body builder to hit it 300, take Rory Mcllory for example 5'10", 160lbs current driving distance is 300.8 yards. I'm a 5'11" guy that is 180 lbs, I don't have a 6 pack, I don't look like tiger woods in my chest. I have good forearm muscles from playing ice hockey growing up. I like to watch tiger woods swing the golf club from 1994 to 2000, he had a hybrid swing at the top. Rory is another good example of a hybrid type swing.

I read this and started laughing, I feel into the Phase 5 videos a lot specifically the hip spinner stuff and how the release and lower body works in the down swing. Before I started in on RST I was a right side pusher / hip spinner bad getting trapped a lot. proper sequence and proper release give just same amount of distance I had swinging out of my shoes but more effortlessly, it is cool feeling to just feel lazy and bust one 300 off the tee.

yes the weight shift in phase 1 -4 is completely not talke about at all, but you have two main groups of players that might be working with these videos. High handicappers that have poor upper and lower body movement, worse upper most the time. Then you have the lower handicap that they labeled 'hip spinners' just means that they use the lower body too much and get the hands trapped behind the body and hips getting stuck. In phase 5 they spend a ton of time on the weight shift and focus on hip spinners, like i said in my review I feel that Phase 5 is really two main sections into one. The transition and pull down to thigh yea (wrists still cocked and locked shaft parallel to target not inside). Then the thigh high position down to impact or simply put the release. They have one thing that I foun interesting in phase 5 and it has to do with hte pull down with the left hand to thigh high and a little twist with the wrist to get the shaft parallel to the target line and face pretty square at that point. I have been trying it and when i do it properly I snap hook the crap out of the ball, just I am used to strong wrists / forearms closing down the face hard from an open position Another one that is being a little tricky for me is toning down the right hand in the release, it really need to be more passive in the swing, i get my best strikes when i feel the left hand is what drives impact. The right hand over takes the left when I start going for more power, I'm sure it will eventually switch over after i train the left hand and right hand to work properly. Until it is consistent you can expect me to be all over the map in scores lol. shot 37 on the front 9 of my club then took one day off then shot a 50 on the same nine, then yesterday dropped a 91 (46, 45), today i shot 42 on the front 9. Golf is a game as soon as you think you got it figured out... practice even more, it will laugh in your face that they gave your the gift of a good round and false hope.

I agree with you, it might not be THE way, but i think it's a pretty good way IF AND ONLY IF you commit to the drills and slowly work your way up from '1st gear' to '5th gear' over time, he suggests for the people that don't have time or can't commit to look at RS1.0 I love the takeaway idea, it is just easier and less the think about when learning, only thing that can happen is that in better players (myself included) it turns into a stack and tilt move where the weight doesn't shift and load on the back leg enough. Matt the down swing sequence fits Burnt Edges Consulting Hybrid backswing position at the top if that gives you an idea what to expect (Bruce and I have chatted a little about Full Swing).

GolfSpy Matt you get a chance to take a look at more video, I know you are an instructor be fun to read the insight that you have on the videos.

I want to say that their are really three main golf swings that have been successful over the years. 'one plane', 'hybrid', 'two-plane'. DO NOT mix and match advice for one swing model into a different model. For example do not have a two-plane down swing with a one plane backswing that will likely give terrible results. Like I have said previously RS1 or RS 1.0 is a 'one plane' swing model, it has specific sequences for that swing. RST or RS Tour is a 'hybrid' swing model, it has different specific swing sequences from the RS1. If you are a two-plane swinger that doesn't want to completely overhaul their swing neither model is a good fit for you. If you are wanting to over haul one thing in your golf swing it is 100 reps to start to get the feel and 3000-5000 reps to have it in muscle memory without thinking about it, that is a lot of CORRECT reps to get something fixed in your golf swing, you just have to put in the time and practice in doing correct movements, commit to making the change, there is not a quick fix in golf to a great golf swing, PGA Tour pros didn't get their by being lazy in practice time. First thing that is just gonna take a lot of reps and practice to remove from my swing is getting to fast from the top with my upper body, when I try to hit one hard my shoulders start working to hard from the top of the backswing causing a cast move. Shoulders just have to stay passive in the first move into the down swing, when I do that I generate a ton more lag and better release freedom getting my hand back out in front of my body. The next issue is pulling an Annika with my head releasing before impact, she is probably the only person that I know that can move their head and get good contact at the same time. Normally i top balls or hit them a little thin when I 'cheat' and look up a little early. I placed a ball out in front of the target ball I was hitting making sure to keep the 2nd ball in my peripheral vision well past impact allow my arms and shoulders to swing around my head then pull me up and out of the shot. Both things that are swing flaws in my swing currently are just gonna take time to remove, some days I get them perfectly and have my A game that day other days it is really bad and have my D game for that day. This won't fix in a single week or even a couple weeks it's going to take doing drills and practice of correct reps. 3000 - 5000 of each point to really get both of them a firm hold in my swing. This stuff is most noticable in a fairway metal off the deck and longer irons, short irons and driver allow a little room for error and get away with things, so when I practice you see my hit a ton of my 4 metals off the deck on the practice tee / range to get a feel and even a 3 iron and hybrid / rescue club it is easier to feel the sequence with longer clubs, wedges normally you don't have weight shift back and through most time weight is left mostly on the front leg like a stack and tilt type swing. RoverRick, I was reading your response and noticed you said two things that the RST swing model is big on efficiency and preventing injury over the long term. The RST talks a ton about preventing injury and what types of injury can be caused by improper posture and positions in the swing. Back pain, lead hip injury, lead leg knee injury are the most common they talk about, but they also talk a little about how to prevent 'golfers elbow'. I mentioned a likely cause and drill to fix thin shots with this swing model above in my experiences so far, not sure if that is the reason or if the left shoulder is working up and out through impact, the left shoulder should feel low and level at impact in the RST swing.

Yea the tone is great why I liked it so much sounded like more trying to bring facts and understanding then anything. I thought the trend thing was interesting as well also.

I agree with you 100%, I hate to read the crap in magazines and hear some of the crap that gets released as the new best swing method. The real issue is the average person doesn't know enough about their own swing to know what is going to work and what can really hurt them. So I look into something like rotary swing very carefully my tone would be a lot different if i didn't like what i saw if i thought what they said was pure BS trying to make a buck. The thing that really was a great surprise was when they went into the details about even set-up and posture, how poor posture changes swing plane. They also did the same thing with ball positions, most of us see this as trivial stuff but it really isn't both have a big impact on contact, ball flight and sequence of the swing in terms of swing plane and consistency. I am also not a 'swing method' type of person I think that a golf swing is individual. However, I feel that their are more efficient, consistent and just lower maintenance over other movements in the golf swing. I approach a 'swing method' with a grain of salt, sometimes the moves are very unnatural and will have poor consciences on the swing. I want to point out something for example 'stack and tilt' since it is 'the new tour swing' which is pure bulls***. When looking at a new swing method ask yourself this 'what effect can this have on ALL of my clubs?' If it doesn't work for all clubs from Driver to wedges it probably isn't that great of a method. For the Stack and tilt swing method, I have the following questions 'If you don't load on the rear leg (right leg for RH golfers) then how do you generate lag and power in the downswing?' 'One longer clubs if you needed to hit a high ball how would that be accomplished??' Stack and Tilt works really well in wedges and short irons you want to flight them lower and don't need a lot of power coil from them control is the objective. It fails in longer clubs espesually the driver, you will hit very weak low drives keeping all your weight on the front foot try it sometime. I really wasn't able to poke any holes in what rotary swing said, not to mention the fact that they go into a lot of detail on how and why their swing method and moves are the way they designed them. Matt if you find anything you see that doesn't sound right or could be bulls*** please let us know I couldn't find much but I don't do instruction for a living.

I am not trying to confuse anyone lol. Picking out what is going to work in your swing from the stuff that won't is the hardest part about golf instruction and learning. Rotary Swing covers this in their Phase I videos and why it is counter productive to just try anything you read or hear, I won't get too much into it here that i will leave for them to talk about. I am on Phase 5 and well past Phase 2, 3, 4 which all build up to phase 5. You are supposed to watch the videos in the order they are presented, Phase 1 to 5 and top to bottom in each phase. So a lot of the videos will build on previously learned and engrained materials. You have to master move I before going on to move 2, move 2 before move 3a as i called it, 3a before 3b, then move 4. They don't like to use 'one-plane' or 'two-plane' because how that gets defined changes a lot between whom you ask to define it. If you wanted to classify 'one-plane' where the lead arm is with-in 12* on the same plane as the shoulders then you might consider both swings as 'one plane' for some people. I see it more as the movements and sequence. a one planer tends to turn more around their body in the backswing and more around in the through swing. A two-planner tends to come high off the takeaway then do a lot of lifting early in the backswing. In short I see RS1 and a 'one-plane' type swing and RST more as a hybrid between a one plane and two plane. In RST you have a takeaway that resembles a one plane swing but then you lift like a 2 plane swing to complete the backswing the position at the top will look about like a one plan to a hybrid not too much a two plane where the lead arm comes high on the neck, a one plane comes through at the height of the trialling back shoulder about so it's somewhere between the two. The down swing is more like a two plane downswing then a one in RST that is for sure. I found a YouTube video on the differences, it is best that they describe it then I try to.