New 18 hole record – Thoughts on "Supporting the Speed"

[Steve]

Happy to report achieving a new personal best 18 hole score of 76!

I’ve been playing for 30+ years and generally shoot 80-85. Currently in Chapter 4 of Tathata -day 35.

I’m enjoying the course but had not yet seen a breakthrough in scoring until this round. Something that clicked for me that I’d like to share with the community is the idea that Bryan mentions in the Stretching routine of “you can add speed, but you have to know how the body supports the speed”. This came into play for me in this round. I have always tended to like to swing big and use the legs a lot, so my error would tend to be accuracy rather than distance. A big swing has always felt natural. Focusing on being “absolutely centered” has helped, but not yet sufficiently by itself. I recently took a video to review how I was doing with the “front side crescent”. What I realized from that video was I was not achieving the front side crescent as well as my mind told me I was. What I found was that I was bending the knee forward just out of impact (with body still back) and crescenting only at the end of the follow through. When I watch Bryan, it looks like the crescent comes in right at or right after impact. This I believe, helps the body “support the speed”. What I decided is my move did not support the speed I was swinging. I plan to continue to work on the stretching and body movements to get my front side crescent stronger and closer to the time of impact. In the meantime however, what I decided to do was shorten my backswing to what felt like “just a whisper” past the pressure 4 position instead of parallel at top. (In reality, the swing was longer than it felt, as my playing partner confirmed the new backswing was about 10 degrees short of parallel) but nevertheless it now felt much easier to support the speed of that swing with the legs and body. As I get better at the body movements, I can gradually increase the backswing. In the meantime, what a scoring improvement! Solid strikes at key times…

Hope this discussion can help someone else.

Steve

[David]

Congrats Steve. Keep us posted!

[Tathata Staff]

Hi Steve, thank you for taking the time to share your comments and success story here with the Tathata community! Congratulations on your new personal best of 76 and all of the great feedback you are receiving from the energy you are putting into your training. We are excited about what’s happening in your golf swing, keep us updated as you progress even further as you continue to sense the moments ahead being better than they’ve ever been before.

[John]

Hi
Enjoying the course and found my thought process on the course this weekend greatly improved. I am 66 years old with a 14 handicap (12.2 index).Some 5-10 years ago I was a 9 but last few years shooting 86 – 90. This Friday and Saturday I shot 77 and 81 respectively, the later with a driver success of less than 50 % fairways hit. With regard to the driver I tend to have problems keeping left arm straight in backswing and lifting hands high and feeling like I haven’t finished the backswing. This seems to cause both hooks and slices. How can I know that the backswing is completed. I am on day 19 so maybe I am jumping with my questions but what should I be looking at to help drive more consistently. By the way my irons were very solid, and hitting further than before probably 185 or so wth 5 iron compared to 170 previously. Love the program and can’t wait for each day to begin.

[David]

John – Wow! Love the progress you’ve made. It sounds like you’re on the right track and the more you use the martial arts approach that Tathata employs, the more success you will have and the sooner you will never doubt your backswing again. Congrats!

[Tathata Staff]

Hi John! In case you missed it, here is our response to a similar post you made on a different thread, http://legacy.tathatagolf.com/forums/topic/full-backswing/#post-1077117.

Thank you for everything you are putting into your training, it’s always great to see it all coming together!