The Bookends: The Launching Pad and Finish Condition Can Fix The In-Between!! – Part 3

A lesson from Tom Patri:

Continued from prior blog entry – Part 1

When working with a student in front of a mirror, I’ll ask them to align themselves as if hitting a shot into the mirror. I’ll ask them to set up in their launching pad position. Once in their launching pad, I’ll ask them to simulate an impact condition (i.e., club shaft leaning left, flat left waist, slightly rotated hips, relatively square shoulders, right foot moving towards instep side, etc. From this condition, go directly to the finish condition, without any backswing. We do this drill in this manner to allow the student to deal with how to get from impact to the fully released finish condition. When they reach the finish, I’ll ask them to physically hold the condition while I tweak it (make any position changes). By doing this, they can both see (in the mirror) and feel the change. It is my experience and therefore my firm belief that if a student solidifies their launching pad conditions, as well as their finish conditions and they apply a work ethic that is repetitive along with attention to detail, they can effect long-term change to their dynamic swing. Please understand that I do work on my students’ dynamic motion with them, that is, I do work on backswings, downswings, and throughswings, but only after their bookends are fundamentally sound and repeatedly consistent. It is very difficult to make a bad in-between motion – from a sound launching pad – and swinging into a sound finish. Good luck with your bookends!

Continued from prior blog entry – Part 2

Common Finish Faults	Common Errors/Ball Flights That Show Up
Align too far to the right.	Club is swung early in rerouted up, then over, producing pulls and pull slices.
Too much weight on left foot.	Club begins in the backswing motion on a very active vertical plane causing even more weight to hang left, thereby leading to a reverse pivot, a poor contact, often fat.
Poor posture, too bent over,Hand tucked into chest.	Sometimes a by-product of poorly fit equipment (too flat to lie angle, too short a shaft length). This posture makes it most difficult to make a good shoulder turn and have proper weight distribtution. It leads to huge loss of velocity and poor contact.
Poor ball position (too far back)	Often causes balls to begin off line to their right, unless the player makes a huge compensation which is most difficult to coordinate; poor contact and poor direction are likely to result.
Improper grip pressure.	Usually leads to an improper take-away motion; often a lift or early inside movement of the club. Both of these lead to serious manipulation of the swing plane and makes it most difficult to produce an on-line, crisp result.