Managing Throwaway
 

Guys and Gals,

After watching the Big Boys practice basic and acquired motion at the PGA, we discussed how they manage "throwaway" in the short game to hit those fancy lobs and spinners...

Coming off of the chip yips, fixed with Mr. Kelley's imperatives and fundamentals, I feel my chipping has improved 1000%. One of the reasons it has improved so much, is that frozen flat left wrist and frozen bent right wrist. Now to hit it higher I cheat and go to a 62° wedge. I think I would be scared to death to even attempt managing throwaway with a "pause" type stroke right now...

What do you TGM'ers do?

Thanks,
Kevin

"What do TGM'er do?" Hmm? We play golf like everyone else. Well, except for the Secret Handshake and Hand Signals, oh and the special knowledge within the inner circle that's sworn to secrecy, punishable by banishment if anyone tells (Sorry Kevin, ya need 1450 posts to be considered).

What are "Yips"?

It's pretty hard to have the Yips or throwaway with Hip Action and a little right triceps thrust to move the power Package through the Impact Zone.

Did you just give me one of the hand signals? :laughing9

Just kidding, thanks for the reinforcement Daryl, your help is always appreciated. I agree with your last sentence 100%. :salut:

Kevin

One thing.

Open stance line and Square Plane line. When you take your stance in an open to the Target Line and turn to the right to Square the shoulders, two things are often overlooked. Ball Position and Hip Turn.

1. Check Ball Position and make sure that your head is still centered between your feet.
   
2. Hip Turn includes Knee Bend. When your Hips are turned to the right, you knees must bend and turn also. Especially the Left Knee must bend and Turn. This little point will allow you to acquire and use a Little Hip Action on even the very shortest of strokes. If you simply twist your body to the right to square your shoulders you won't have the connection for hip action. Remember....in TGM...the Knees respond to the needs of Hip Turn.

So, with your Head centered and your hands at Impact Location, the Ball will be to the Right of your head in order for the ball to be behind Low-Point. Set-up is important to allow the components to function properly through the range of the stroke.

Another AWESOME post. Thanks Daryl! :salut:

Kevin

Mr Kelley, I think, would want you to find your own best method Kev. The more axe handle method that sees you going to both arms straight accomplishes much the same thing as the Pause Stroke. Maybe a little less intentional wobble , a little more sweet spot feeling as there isnt quite as much lay back but not that different. Especially if you open up the face really wide.

But if in your journey from swinger to hitter to what ever, you want to go back to a more rope handle method (you dont necessarily need to leave active thrusting, hitting to achieve rope handle to my mind) then by all means, explore the lagging, sweeping intentional throwaway flop shots. It might just be a way towards mastering Lag, the secret to good golf.

Im thinking that often a TGM'r will learn the impact alignments in a more wooden manner but then graduate to a more free flowing stroke, hitting or swinging. The free flow being a natural Lag producer that reproduces the impact alignments he or she learned previously. But of course Homer would say there is no one way or one journey. To each his own. Arnie was King after all.

Either way you have to load the lag, on either the back or top of the shaft and then sustain it, direct it through the shot. This is what its all about and if accomplished.......... yipped throwaway is impossible as it is the opposite of Lag.

Thanks very much for that OB. There is NO best! I'll stick with what makes me feel all warm and fuzzy for awhile. Maybe later when I get some of that confidence back I will experiment. Nice to know I have you guys here to help sort things out!

:salut:

Kevin

Armed with what you and I now know courtesy of Yoda, though we may occasionally stumble......we will never Yip our chips in the manner we once did.

If the good Lord's willing.

Ive been thinking about 10-3-J Pause a bit.

Diane in the photo is employing Horizontal Hinging and as such her left wrist stays flat as the left hand and arm "pause" at the ball and the clubhead scoots past the hands early. So Id say this technically isnt throwaway as the left wrist is flat.

The pros often Vertical Hinge it however. Im thinking that here the left hand or arm "pauses" but the clubhead scoots past a bending left wrist. Intentional throwaway, with a maxing out of layback being the recipe for high, soft landing flops. You'll often see them choke way down on the shaft to shorten the radius and lessen the send. They'll bend the plane line way to the left of course with the clubface opened wide and pointing at the hole.

When you try it out the key is to pause the left side as allowing the left arm to separate off the chest will give you a more driving shot with less layback. I like to hit a bunch of balls alternating between pause and blast off, pause and blast off. Flop and drive. When you pause it, the rope like left wrist becomes the center of the clubs rotation and there is a real swing like feeling to it as you are now swinging the clubhead instead of the hands.

How Homer a 15 handicap, identified all of this cause and effect is beyond comprehension. Homer identified the geometry of the pure strike, maximum compression and in so doing also identified the effects of intentionally altering that geometry. The tools of the trade for the shot maker.

After all the work I did on getting to both arms straight with a flat left wrist, I never would have gotten around to trying this type of shot again. Id have left it as flippy wristed kid stuff if werent for................Mr Lynn Blake.

Great post OB, and it makes PERFECT sense. It just sounds like a recipe for disaster for me right now!

BamBam must have been monitoring this post, and added the perfect example of the "pause" component. I think this displays it perfectly using a model we can all understand. :golfing_banana:

:dance:

Kevin

Hah. Know what you mean Kevin, I had a heck of a time getting it right. I said in another post that the woods of Marietta are filled with my first attempts. The thing that really helped me was a bit of float loading and a throw. I work on it when there is nobody around........for their safety.

OB, we are very similar. A little "feel" of float loading is huge to maintaining my proper impact alignments in both basic and acquired motion as well. Not exactly text book, but hey, whatever works...

My new favorite Smilie, I'm calling him "pause." :golfing_banana:

Thanks OB!

Kevin

"You cant be in the process of throwing it away if you are in the process of (float) loading it." Sayeth Luke and Yoda.

Another thought regarding these delicate shots around the green...

I try to keep it simple. Keep the face relatively square, bend my right arm, straighten my right arm. A soft punch basic stroke. Angled hinging all the time. Back when I played more competitively I felt much more comfortable opening up the face and hitting big flops, but not so much anymore.

I think it was Homer himself who wasn't a big fan of vertical hinging, since it always requires deliberate manual manipulation. Stick with me for a moment. Remember, Kevin, how we discussed at the PGA that there are theoretically an infinite number of hinge actions? That is, everything between pure horizontal and pure vertical?

With a driver -- where the inclined plane is the flattest -- an angled hinge is closer to a horizontal hinge. And vice versa with a short pitch shot -- you're swinging on a steeper inclined plane, therefore your angled hinge is closer to a vertical hinge. So, they're both angled hinges, but they are not identical.

Which brings me to this: with short shots, the cost/benefit analysis might not shake out in your favor when using vertical hinging. More risk, minimal reward? And certainly a need for well-practiced manual manipulation. An angled hinge with a sand or lob wedge is getting pretty close to a vertical hinge -- due to the rather steep clubshaft angle at address -- and it can be readily achieved without a deliberate "reverse roll" feel.

Great post Matt!!! :notworthy

Kevin

Yes true true, play to your strengths, but its interesting to me that the people who play for their lively hood these days have adopted a method for these short shots (short sided with super fast greens) that is still explained in Homers catalogue of variations.

Given the shot at hand and the requirements it presents to play with the best you must be able to comply with the requirements or risk falling behind over the long hall. You dont see too many guys with "equalizer" wedges any more, for instance. Palmer wasnt so good with a lob shot but he didnt need to be either. For a time anyways.

Nice to see you posting again Matt. I know you're hitting and it may seem awkward but it really isnt that hard to do, 'specially for a player like yourself. Give up control to gain control etc. Another weapon in the arsenal. But as always, to each their own.

I like your note about the more vertical shaft planes approaching vertical hinging. Interestingly V.J. Trolio describes a method of hitting super lobs where you do just the opposite. You set the shaft way below the hands plane, open the face up as wide as it will get......basically its laying with its back on the ground......and scalp the ball off the ground. The super flat plane takes all the Down out of the three dimensions , leaving you with Forward and a max'd our amount of Out. The benefit to this being that the club skins the grass at a super shallow Angle of Attack making ball position and the strike of the ball way, way easier to manage. Geometry it is so cool eh?