A Ben Doyle Lesson -- Part I / Tire Trouble
 

And now, fellow Members, a real treat: A real-time lesson from Ben Doyle, the First Authorized Instructor of The Golfing Machine.

There is so much to be written about Ben and the 'early days' and how he and Homer Kelley and The Golfing Machine became known to the Golf World. In future posts, Ben and I will present that story. Until then, click on www.bendoylegolf.com to learn more about him and the products he has to help you build a better golf game.

For now...

Sit back and enjoy Part I of a 'real time' lesson: Tire Trouble: Learning To Keep Your Left Wrist Flat. Listen to the sound as Ben demonstrates and compresses his Chip and Pitch Shots. Magnificent!

This segment will soon be followed by Part II: Ben Of Arabia: Into the Sand Trap (but with no Sand Shots!).

And finally, by Part III: Ball-Turf...Please

Click on www.lynnblakegolf.com/Video/Doylelesson.wmv and enjoy!

Don't forget to select your 'View Full Screen' and turn up that volume for the best Be There With Ben experience!

YES!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been waiting to see some instruction by Ben Doyle. Great work!

Mike

That is really cool to watch Yoda - very cool ! :D

The video has made my morning :)

It is really amazing how much better the pupils impact alignments got when hitting that tire as apposed to when hitting a real ball. He tried to run too much before he could walk I think.....which limited his ability to learn....

Ben does compress the ball well.... theres a distinctive sound :)

I have read on these forums that hitting a tire was not recommended because of the risk of damage to the wrists. Even the instructions for the impact bag warn not to strike the bag too hard, or fill it material that isn't fluffy and light.

Otherwise, this was a fantastic video. Unfortunately, this is the first time I have seen a real lesson caught on tape. I mostly enjoyed that this was a real hacker who Ben constantly corrected and received feedback from. Often on the Golf Channel, a teaching pro will use a Tour pro to demonstrate whatever principle he is teaching. Too polished and perfect. Watching a hacker going through a lengthy trial and error is much more enlightening, because after personally watching a video or reading a forum thread, I will often have the same type of questions this hacker did.

hmmm... sounds like my 56k is gonna get a LOOOONG workout :D :x hope it's up to it, let you how we went in a few weeks :roll:

"extend those arms from the socket"

Miller talks about this, should have known it came from Ben 8)

Is this a new edition of How To Build a G.O.L.F. Game?

Thanks for sharing this Lynn, and of course a big THANKS to Ben. If I had to pick one single clip to share re: how to compress a ball, this is a good choice. Not many ranges have divots (craters) like that!

DOWNplane FORCE to both arms straight

Wonderful stuff Gentlemen!

Learning From Ben
 

Thanks for the kind words everybody. You want to play better golf, and it's good to know we're helping along the way.

Ed, this is not a new edition of Ben's commercially-available video. Recently, I called him and asked if we could put something up that would allow our members to experience what it is like to work with him personally. He responded with a six-hour video of his real-time daily lesson tee activity from which we are extracting these clips.

And the fun is just beginning...

As you've seen in the conclusion of Part I, Ben and his student are off to the sand trap. Stay tuned for Part II, because Ben is on a mission: He is determined to help the student achieve a better Impact Hand Location and thus stop him from hitting behind the ball. He has a special drill born of long experience that he knows will do the trick.

He also makes the student pass a fun 'test' before he'll let him step out of the bunker. It's a test he demands from each student, and it's a great way to learn 'Impact Hands.' Everybody passes, of course -- Ben's never left anyone in the bunker -- but it takes some longer than others!

Short report on recent experiences
 

I spent a few hours with Ben a month ago.

The tyre drills/tests were good. He had one light tyre - as on the above clip - and one heavier tyre filled with some metal garbage to make it heavier. As well as a number of impact bags containing a few towels and such. At night he had me bring the impact bag to the hotel room. Each drill had a purpose.

He had me do the sandtrap workout that Yoda is probably announcing. No ball. No grass. Just a club and sand.

I liked them so much I've found myself several times rejecting ball practice & going straight to the sand trap to repeat the drills. So look out. I beleive it is difficult to do some them by yourself. You should consider bringing a mirror or a camcorder to evaluate what you do..

I also liked the drills since they eliminate any concern about impact and ball flight even thought the sand will tell a lot about you how you did. I believe Hogan said: "The secret is in the dirt".

My estimate is that we spent 1.5 hours in the sandtrap without balls before he'd let me hit even a single ball. I guess that would be frustrating to some students, but luckily I was prepared. ;-)

After some 6-7 hours of various instruction and drills I whacked a driver swing in the sand that felt "special". He was pleased. Rushed over to the video deck. That was the only time he let me out of the bunker without the bunker exit test, so I guess he'd seen something he liked. ;-)

He single-stepped the video. Drawing lines with a whyteboard marker on the screen. And said:
- Good. I can see 24 components now. Now lets see how we can improve them..

One interesting thing about Ben is he never lets you get away doing anything with the ball or club that might promote a bad habit.

Always the address procedure
Always the waggle
Always the forward press
Always shoot, hooooold and rest - rest.
Always a flat left wrist
Always a bent right wrist
Never jerky motions

He even corrected me when i knocked a ball 3 feet to get to where I should hit it from to get a good camera angle. That little knock was a "jerky" little flip-knock.

I can still hear the man. - "Noo. Never do it. Never. Always a bent right wrist. Always a flat left wrist. No leakage. Isn't that right?"


Or look at this photo. Guess he would never grab a club without him setting his flying wedges.



When I left he gave me a set of casettes. All sessions on tape and complete. Very good. Reviewing them I see things I did not notice when I was there. Sometimes I was too focused on applying & did not manage to listen up. Instead, I can do that now by looking at the tapes.

Another example is that he stood behind me to the side & told me to hit a punch shot. As I executed it he executed it himself. Standing behind my back and to the side. He never mentioned he did while there, but it is very interesting to be able to compare his motion through the ball to mine once I am back home. Sort of what split screen video analysis does, but different and more "live". He did a lot of things that in retrospect sort of ensured he'd provide "bonus information" that could make the experience richer as I got home.

The time spent with him was indeed well spent and to that day I had never met an instructor as intense as Ben. Some of his drills and instruction practice is pretty unique and I think some of them should be more common practice. The other instructors on the range at Quail Lodge were only doing the camera, video and ball hitting work. Never saw them or their students with and impact bag, in the sand or hitting chip shots.

My estimate would be that all-in-all over the ten hours of lessons I took he probably used 15-20 different practice gadgets and had many more in spare. Of those I'd say close to half of them where home-made things such as different tyres, 2x4's, seat canes, plane boards, beer crates, towels, floor mops etc etc. The commercial ones he used were Tac-Tics, Medicus, several different weighted clubs, clubs with crooked shafts, impact bags, his own mat and a few more.

Regarding some of the commercial ones he said they were good but not marketed correctly.

I've made the trip to Quail Lodge a half-dozen times or so now. Watching that guy struggle brought back painful memories of me struggling not to flip the impact bag over! :lol: Ben never did pull the tire out with me (I'm not sure that he even had a tire when I was there), but one of the drills he had me doing was to try to hit the impact bag without flipping it over, since, adding with the hands and arms is what flips the bag over. If you notice, when the person in the video appears to hit the tire well (the club doesn't "double-dribble", as Ben puts it), the tire still goes flipping down the range. When Ben hits it, it doesn't flip or hop around at all. One of the drills he had me doing in the sand was to try to hit the lip of the bunker and just trap the clubhead there under the lip. If you add with the arms and hands, the clubhead will bounce back out from under the lip.

Ben has certainly made TGM, and teaching, his life. During one of my visits to Carmel Valley, my wife (fiancee at that time) came out to the range with me to say hi to Ben, then she was about to go into town and go shopping. Ben made the comment that he had never seen that town in the day time. He said, "I've been 'right here' for 30 years." Then it dawned on me .. he meant "RIGHT HERE" on the driving range!

It was making me feel awkward even watching that student try and try but struggle with the flat left/bent right/forward aiming point. He looked kind of flustered but he knew it was the real deal...seemed to keep a good attitude.

It just reminded me how hard it actually is for someone to train that into their swing when the leakage has always been there.

Looks easy...and it's not so hard when you get it...but it can be tough when that right wrist is not used to staying bent.

I guess that really is all you need though eh.

Inside The Ropes
 

Great posts, Metallion and Jimmy. Thank you for these personal observations!

Excellent video! Ben never runs out of steam teaching! The following are my comments, with a few trivial questions...questions that may or may not deserve your time/effort answering...

Ben asks, “what’s the equivalent of the flat left wrist? The bent right wrist...”
Trivia: who’s the famous player who plays with a flat right wrist (and more importantly a ---- left wrist)?

When Ben says he is chipping, is he really chipping? Remember, a chip is a stroke with zero Accumulator #2.

Ben places a lot of emphasis on the big muscles moving the club, not the hands. So much so that it smells like the dreaded Pivot Controlled Hands (Position golf vs. Alignment, Physics vs. Geometry – see 5-0) golf, stroke he is teaching. A possible defence to this is that Ben is teaching Zone #1 (Pivot) first. When his student has mastered the Pivot, emphases will be more on Zone #3 (Hands). See 9-0. And oh, before you guys tell me, let me pre-empt your reponse: "Pivot Powered Hands Controlled Pivot"...

Notice how Ben teaches the student to set up to the ball. Ball location is referenced with the left heel, not the Low Point location of the left shoulder! And it looks like the “one inch behind left heel” procedure is recommended for all clubs. However, also notice he suggests that stance width changes with different clubs. How does this relate to Ball/Low Point school of thought? See 2-J and 2-N.

“Push the grass back with the club” says Ben when teaching how to take the club away. This resembles a ‘whirly’ type takeaway procedure, which is more compatible with which type of Stroke?

Ben talks about his “one third swivel” at the Follow Through in his chips and pitches. What type of Hinge Action (10-10) is he implying/teaching?

I'll let someone with more knowledge answer your other questions since I, in no way, profess to know a great deal about TGM. However, I did ask Ben about this. If you notice, in the video, he also stresses that the hands are always aiming. My interpretation of the video, and also of what he told me when I asked, is that the pivot is providing the motion, but the hands are controlling the pivot because they are constantly aiming. The hands are saying, "Okay, pivot. Take me there".

"Adding", as Ben puts it, was the one thing that I have struggled with the most when trying to learn the stroke that Ben teaches. It looks so easy when he does it. I'm almost happy to see someone else (in the video) struggle with it. At least I know it isn't just me! :?

Vijay Singh, + bonus answer is Phil M too. He doesn't play with as flat of a right wrist as Vijay, but its close. Oh and the "----" is "flat" :)

I'm going no, it does seem he is getting some accumulator storage.

Not sure what you're asking here, where's the question?

Stance width with a constant ball position changes your aiming point and thus changes low point.

Bonus answer: Or you could teach it with a single aiming point and varying ball positions, both are valid options. I prefer ben's way.

Swinging

Ben is trying to teach the student the "drag away" takeaway technique. Brian says in his "Confessions of a Former Flipper" that ben says (and you can catch part of it in the video above) "brush it away at the hairs, and chop it off at the roots." Something to that effect.

Angled Hinging

---------------

How'd i do? ;)

I think Ben teaches Drag Loading. When I take a lesson from an A1 who studied with Ben he has all the Ben Doyle manerisms. He will visit with Ben and Ben will visit and stay with him.
Joe Daniels is visiting that A1 right now I think...............
Its very addicting, doing those drills on the course while waiting for your next shot.........................
Shoot ...hold.....rest...............

i also visited bdu a few times, ben works very hard at teaching g.o.l.f. and every lesson ive seen him give he spends time trying to eliminate clubhead throwaway. even while working with elkington he didnt let him get away with anything he would call him on the leakage every time he added instead of multiplied. I too spent some time in the bunker with ben taking out that wall of china. and that impact with no throwaway reminds me so much of trevino, mchatton ,o"grady. cant wait to see the next few segments brings back alot of fond memories and some points i forgot even though ben really tries to drill them into your coconut.

tell us
 

What are some of the drills you do while waiting on the course?

Great video, loved Bens enthusiasm, cant wait for the next one.

What exactly is this "adding" that Ben talks about?

I found an old tyre out in our paddock, pretty much imovable, and made a few moves at it (Hit). Like the guy in the video, despite keeping the flat left and bent right, I was 'double dribbling'.

"adding" means he is trying to "add" to impact with his hands

Tire Practice Without Fear
 

The tire drill -- learning to "sting" it with Left Wrist Throw-out Action (Swinging) or Right Elbow Drive-out Action (Hitting) while keeping your Left Wrist Flat -- can be a great training aid. However, if abused, it can cause injury. You can achieve its benefits and avoid injury if you:

1. Use a small tire;

2. Make sure it can move;

3. Practice using short strokes with...

4. Light Lag pressure.

5. Limit your repetitions.

Another interesting aspect of hitting a tyre that Ben does not talk about (and did not talk about when I was there) is that it seems anyone hitting even a lighter blow on a tyre will automatically straighten his left leg. It is visible on the video as well. Every time the guy is hitting the tyre he is straightening his left leg. He is straightening much less (or not at all) when he hits balls.

Maybe someone can explain or go deeper into this. I have not made that many observations, but so far they have been consistently as just described.

Kinetic linking?
 

Thank you Yoda. It was great to see the master at work. It is something I will always treasure. It certainly changed my conception of what "sustaining the lag" is all about.

My understanding was more like the student's. He/I equated "sustaining the lag" with "adding" some mechanical advantage in the form of a lateral push or rotational lever coming solely from the hands and/or arms.

I see Ben simply gathering, and transfering energy dynamically to the ball. Maybe I am wrong but, I see "kinetic linking" at play here. Would not this explain why the club stops moving when the tire is struck? All the energy is expelled into the heavy tire.

SOS

From the tapes I have rented from Ben last year- Ben is adamant about the club always going forward. As Ben says to his students- the hands never rebound or back track. The hands always drive forward. Ben just hates seeing the clubhead pulled back after a chip or pitch.

Btw- I don’t know the date of the video Lynn is posting but I never saw the tire but only the Yellow Impact Bag in any of his lessons. He loves water bottles, towels and milk creates. He has a cart full of training aids but it is the simple bottles and towels that teach impact and lag the best.

thanks for getting this up Yoda. It has made me realise that I'm still doing something very basic, very wrong. I can't get the club to stick to the tyre :(

Many years ago tires were rubber balloons not the steel belt rubber we use today- get a bag, buy one or make one from a duffel bag. Save your wrists- LOL

Ben teaches a swing stroke and everything on the tapes is pure Swing applications. It took a while to learn to slap the clubhead deep into the impact bag like Ben does. But the danger of all impact bags is STOPPAGE. In some drills, Ben has you hitting the edges of the ball past impact position to avoid this.

To stick the clubhead hard and deep- you will need to PIVOT into impact and not stop or rebound back the hands. Always drive forward with lag pressure.

See Yoda’s IMPACT BAG clip. Its slammin’

Sting And Hold The Blow
 

I'm not familiar with the term 'kinetic linking,' SOS, but I think I understand what you mean.

My personal sensation is one of 'sting and hold the blow.' I take each repetition to the Both Arms Straight position and attempt to minimize any rebound of the Clubhead off the tire (by resolutely holding my Impact Wrist Alignments). Finally, even with light Lag Pressure (slower Pace), the 'sting' is still present.

From Drive to Putt, this sensation is an invaluable aid to correct Timing, i.e., achieving Maximum Compression for the given Thrust just prior to Full Extension.

Couple things i noticed:

1) that looked like an EZ-Go tire or a golf cart tire. So it probably isn't that "hard"

2) if you want to do the tire drill at home and REALLY make it tuff on yourself....use a SHOE

----

I was showing my g/f the other day about the tire thing and she didn't get it. So i used a shoe. It was very hard to not get the shoe to flip (due to how narrow the sole is) and you had to use really light lag pressure, BUT i still got it to slide on our hardwood floors :)

When Ben aligns the clubhead with the crate and has the student check the shadow does the shadow of the clubshaft align with the shadow of the side of the crate? If not, where is the clubshaft shadow?

Did anyone catch the Treetops par 3 shootout last night on ESPN?
Mickelson has tremendous lag. More than Couples and way more than McCord or North. His hands look like they are way past the ball at impact. The back nine should be on tonight. Fun to watch.

TAPES
 

Where does one get these tapes?

Yes. Same thing as if you'd stick a rod vertically into the ground and setup with the target line perpendicular to the rod's shadow. At lowpoint the rod and shaft shadows should align. Thus this test will give you a good idea about aiming point.

I don't know how many times in his life Ben has said:

- This looks so far forward, but its not!

Re: TAPES
 

Yes. If you pull your club back anytime Ben will let you know. Always shoot-hold-rest. Any jerky motion is a no-no.

I was with Ben less than a month ago. As I said he had several impact bags and also made me hit two different tyres. The smaller one seemed like an old EZGO tire.

Ben rents tapes from previous lessons. I do not think you can get them anywhere else than from Ben or someone who has been there. See his homepage.

Thanks For the clarification and the extra info metallion.
This sounds like the precision we are looking for in 2-0.

Re: TAPES
 

His phone number is on his website. He'll probably be in a lesson when he answers...at least he was for me!

:D

Re: TAPES
 

Ben tapes all his lessons. He teaches everyone the same way. They are raw- I had one with the text still on the screen and had to watch around it and it is in real time, but.... loaded with good info. It is best to call and talk with him. 50 bucks for 3 months. Martin Hall rents them all the time.

I bet Ben is getting a lot of calls these days from Yoda-phites.

ben also has a similar drill that i saw him use on steve elkington he takes a two by four about 8 inches long and then puts another two by four that is longer in line with the first but with a gap between the two of maybe 3 inches your supposed to hit the first board using a chipping technique and have it hit the second board without flipping it over and without adding so at the end of the drill the boards are both touching and your clubhead is touching the first board. elkington had a tough time doing this. ben always says "dont add multiply"

After watching Ben's video many times and seeing the correct moves, this video really gave me a reference of what I was most likely doing compared to what I was striving for. This video was very educational...thank you.

Watching this video made me realize how active my hands are and how quiet my lower body is, though it didn't "appear" so to my eye on my swing video. At the range I made an adjustment and the difference in the feeling with the chipping procedure felt "controlled" and distance control was very easy. On the full swing, I just had to trust it and only hit a few shots the way I had intended and I knew it immediately. What I noticed when I felt I performed the move properly was impact, ball flight, distance control, accuracy, were all present. Sitting here now I can still remember what it felt like and what the ball flight looked like.

The Sound Of...Compression
 

And probably one more, Fogger...

What it sounded like.

The Feel and the Sound combine as one delicious Crunch!

I guess what he means by "don't add" is not to break down or swing from the wrists? No machine components swings forward independently?