The Cock and Fire Golf

Cock as in cock the gun. However the intent is really for golf.

The Cock and Fire Golf technique separates the back swing muscles to the forward swing muscles. It postulates the two-piece swing technique and that most golfers get the swing technique completely wrong.

Let us in a nutshell first give the description for each type of golf shot:

1. Putting - the shoulder brings back the putter and the hands hit the ball.
2. Chipping - on the fringe and almost like putting, use the putting technique above. Other chipping, back swing is done by the fingers, forward swing is done by the clasp hands.
3. Pitching - same as full shots.
4. Full Swing - the back swing is done by the shoulders, the forward swing is done by the hips (no hand action at all).

USE THE SHOULDERS INSTEAD FOR A REPEATING SWING UNDER PRESSURE

The common denominator for all good golf shot is the firm last three fingers grip.

Let us start with the putt. Keep the last three left fingers firmly holding the putter. Do the usual routine, the shoulders brings back the putter, the right hand hits the ball. Actually it is not the right hand but the "roped" arms that hits.

Let us go to the full swing. The last three fingers firmly hold and together with the firm wrist lift the club off the ground (ala Nicklaus) and joins the club to the "roped" arms (ala Hogan). The left three fingers are kept tight from start, the hit, and the finish. You can put a penny in between the club and the fingers and it will never fall off - if the action is executed correctly (ala Palmer).

And this resulted in the Abad golf swing used for all - putting to the full swing.

1. Hold the club firmly with the left last three fingers. Lift the club with the left wrist and keep it in balance before the ball.
2. Now feel the roped feeling of the arms. Feel how the left wrist connects it to the hovering club. Feel the dynamic connection between the two - a feeling like both are connected by a firm spring, ready to bend at the backswing and ready to hit bounce back to the ball.
3. With the left arm, bring the club head along the hitting path and up - to the bring the roped arms up. 9/15/2009: SORRY BUT NEED TO CHANGE THIS BECAUSE UNDER PRESSURE, IT DOES NOT REPEAT. USE THE SHOULDERS INSTEAD TO SWING THE ARMS AND CLUB - ALONG THE PLANE AS HOGAN SUGGESTED. (confirmed when BIPI championship match was won on 9/17/2009)
   
4. The roped arms will now pull the left side muscles.
5. The pulled left side muscles will now start the push to the left foot and the ensuing turn around of the body which also at the same time the roped arms are brought down automatically and the spring bounces back the club head to the ball - and around automatically.
6. Finish is automatic. 9/15/2009: THE LEFT LEG WILL PULL THE HIPS TO START THE DOWNSWING.
   

This is the move to be used for all shots if possible. On chips or putts, just roped arms will do the hitting.

Hogan's Modern Fundamentals of Golf Disected

Hogan said in his book, "I began to feel that I had the stuff to play creditable golf even when I was not at my best, my shot making started to take a new and more stable consistency. The basis for this progress, let me repeat, was my genuine conviction that all that is really required to play good golf is to execute properly a relatively small number of true fundamental movements."

Now we know that what I have been looking for is in Hogan's book, we can now assume that all the secrets of the golf swing written in the book are correct. I have now decided that my Search for the Perfect Golf Swing is over.

I will now continue to try to improve my golf game by reading his book, interpreting it and assimilating it with my own swing.

1. This method teaches that each action is the direct result of preceding actions in the chain-action sequence of the swing. The problem I noticed about this statement is how the parts are interconnected. I think this is where stiff body and arms (of Tiger) come into play and becomes the glue to hold the parts together. A good example is the roped arms of Hogan which is the glue that binds the grip and the club to the body. With the club held by the Hogan grip and stiffened up ala "alive" grip, Tiger just drops his arms towards the ball. The average golfer is entirely capable of building a repeating swing and breaking 80, if he learns to automatically intertwine a small number of correct movements and conversely, it follows, eliminates a lot of movement which tend to keep the swing from repeating.
2. The grip is very essential but not the way Hogan talks about it using where the V points. The grip is important and the V's created is not essential. What is essential is that the hands are positioned in a way that both hands are clasp to deliver an extreme backward cocking of both wrists. The right hand might even be used to be able to deliver an extreme cock. THIS IS THE SECRET THAT I HAVE MISSED ALL THOSE YEARS. BACKWARD WRISTS COCKING TO THE EXTREME IS NEEDED FOR MY GOLF SWING.
3. The elbows should be tucked in, not stuck out from the body. At address, the left elbow should point directly at the left hip bone and the right elbow should points directly at the right hip bone. Furthermore, there shoulb a sense of fixed jointness between the two forearms and the wrists, and it should be maintained throughout the swing. You will notice that the pocket of each elbow - the small depression on the inside of thejoint - will be facing towards the sky, not toward each other. When your arms are set right at address, it makes it immeasurably easier to get the proper function out of them. You will get the feeling that the arms and the club form one firm unit.
4. On the backswing the order of the movement goes like this: hands, arms, shoulders, hips. The hands start the clubhead back a split second before the arms start back. And the arms begin their movement a split second before the shoulders begin to turn. Just before the hands reach the hip level, the shoulders, as they turn automatically start pulling the hips around. As the hips begin to turn, the pull the left leg in to the right.
5. When you finish your backswing, your chin should be hitting against the top of your left shoulder. (This is my number ONE fault, not making a full turn. Therefore, for me this means EXTREME COCKING of the BOTH WRISTS BACKWARD. And extreme cocking means the wrists are cocked backwards - not at right angle - so that the resulting effect is a DELAYED HIT.) It is this increased tension that unwinds the upper part of the body. It unwinds the shoulders, the arms and the hands in that order, the correct order. It helps the swing so much it makes it almost automatic. Entrust your swing not to your hands but to your arms and body. THE RIGHT HAND AND WRIST CAN BE DOMINANT. It does not matter because the delayed hit self corrects my golf swing.
6. The hips initiate the downswing. As the shoulders turn the hips on the backswing, the muscle tension on the left body si increased. The greater the tension, the faster the hips can move back. They can't go too fast. Incidentally, the backward cock makes this move more automatic and natural.
7. To be continued.

It's the GRIP, stupid!

THE SECRET IS THE GRIP! WHAT A STUPID THING TO NEGLECT. It is a grip that will promote the backward cock of both wrists. The grip is an extreme interpretation of where the V's point of Hogan's instruction. The V's intersects and the left V points to the extreme left - or in golf parlance a very strong grip. The right V points to the extreme right - an extreme weak grip.

It is not the V's position that is important - it is the capability to get the two wrist to bend backwards for an extreme cocking lead by the right hand. THE SWING IS STARTED BY THE LEFT SHOULDER PUSHING TOWARDS THE BALL AND AT THE SAME TIME THE LEFT WRIST WILL CONSCIOUSLY START LIFTING THE CLUB UPWARDS. This left wrist lift is essential (especially the longer the shaft is - like the driver) and integral part of this secret.

The left shoulder pushes out in a lifting motion to an extreme coiled finish while the left hand cocks the club to an extreme cocked wrist with the feeling that the club is already pointing past parallel and pointing towards the front rather than the along the plane. In reality, it is along the plane and pointed to the target when viewed by somebody else. There must be a feeling of symmetry and harmonious balance in this move. THIS MOVE AND THE EXTREME COCKED LEFT WRIST ARE NOT ONLY ESSENTIAL BUT INTEGRAL TO THIS SECTION. THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT POINTS IN THIS POSTING. With it, it makes the long clubs (like the driver) feel like short irons. However, this move I found out is not easy to do. The most expedient way to do this for me is to just push the left shoulder the club head while the left wrist cocks it all the way to the "slot" until the right palikpik muscles ache. This move however needs the conventional grip of Hogan. Since it uses the conventional grip and the result is the same - extreme cocking - then this must be the better way!

This extreme cocking makes it possible for the right hand to dominate but the setting (V's) of the left hand prevents the right hand to over-power the left. THIS EXTREME COCKING CAN ONLY BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH THE LEFT SHOULDER PUSH AND LEFT WRIST LIFT. When properly executed, the long clubs like the driver, will feel - at point of impact - as if a short iron was hit. It delays the hit to the point the ball is hit when the hips have already cleared - like a sideways hit already.

PUTTING SECRET

THE BOTTOM HALF FROM THE WAIST DOWN IS IMMOBILIZED. FEEL AS THOUGH YOU ARE A MANANANGGAL AND JUST USED THE BOTTOM LIKE A SOLID BASED OF A STATUE. STICK THE BUTT OUT, TURN OFF THE RIGIDNESS OF THE WAIST MUSCLES AND PUTT WITH THE UPPER BODY.

REMEMBER TO USE THE CROSSED GRIP AND KEEP THE ARMS FEELING THE SIDE OF THE BODY.

ALSO REMEMBER THAT THE EXTREME CLOCKWISE LEFT HAND GRIP IS THE ONE THAT MAKES THE BALL GO STRAIGHT (A LITTLE HOOK) WHEN PUTTING.

Golf's Missing Link Found

If we can say that my quest for the "Perfect Golf Swing" is like the search for the proverbial Ponce de Leon's quest for "Fountain of Youth" or the search for evolution's "Missing Link." I, however, can honestly say it has been found. Unfortunately, all the time I spent on the search was actually, sort of, useless in a sense since it actually brought me to where I started.

My first golf instruction was taken from Ben Hogan's book, "The Modern Fundamentals of Golf." In the previous postings, I alluded to what I found. Here, I can tell you that what I found that really completed my golf swing is the fact that I had to learn to finish my back swing, make my shoulder hit my chin at the top of the swing. I remembered Ben Hogan mentioning this in his book so I re-read it again. Then I realized that if I had paid attention to what he said, I could have known about it a long, long time ago and could be a "pro" by now.

Here is what he said about it:

• When you finish your backswing, you chin should be hitting against the top of your left shoulder.
• The arms is like roped and pointing upwards.
• Well, in my own way, trying to make the chin hit the shoulders forced me to do an extreme cocking.
• Extreme cocking led me to experiment with a former taboo - cocking by breaking the wrists backwards.
• To get the wrists to cock backwards naturally, I experimented with the grip.
• The change in grip, led me to cock backwards with both my wrists (yes the right hand).
• Now that type of bacward movement really made be able to hit everything! Now I automatically get a delayed hit - without thinking on what hand to use.
• I can even do the chipping without thinking.
• Sand shots are now easy - done with the hands alone but the backward cock is utilized (also chipping).

Technical explanation of what is happening:

• When the V's of the fingers get crossed, it prevents the movement of the wrists to go left (important for right handers) and the right.  It only allows the picking of of the club - an upward movement.
• On full shots, when the extreme, yes EXTREME,  cocking is accomplished, the body feels that it must initiate the swing because it knows that the hands are locked up on top.  The only way, naturally, is for the body to pull the arms down.
• On not full shots where the arms and hands are the one utlized - like pitches, sand shots, chips, putts - the wrists are locked in one motion - up/down - nothing can be done even if one uses the right hand, but execute the shot correctly.

Hogan's secret a secret even to him

Finally, we can say that I have found the mother of all mother - Ben Hogan's secret. You can find his secret in my previous post.

In Hogan's book, he wrote,"WHEN YOU FINISH YOUR BACKSWING, YOUR CHIN SHOULD BE HITTING AGAINST THE TOP OF YOUR LEFT SHOULDER." What he didn't realize is the left shoulder is the key to chips and putts. Had he known, he would have been a better putter like Tiger Woods. Therefore, we can extend the argument that Tiger is really better than Ben.

The problem with this secret, although I have named it Ben Hogan's secret, is Ben Hogan was not really aware of it. If he knew it he would have been a great putter, not merely one with a great golf swing. We all know that he was not so, ergo, he himself did not know why his published golf fundamentals works for him and only a few others.

This secret will catapult the golf skills of anybody. It is a game changer. Now, armed with it's knowledge, golfers can aim to make putts (of course), chips, pitches, and even full swings - not merely trying to put it near the hole.

Shoulder-centric and Extreme Cock Technique

We have been looking for the "Perfect Golf Swing" for a long time now and it is time now to admit if we already have found it or not. After all these years, I am inclined to say that this is a personal decision for each golfer since the skill level that can be reached is really "personal" in a sense that not everybody can employ a particular set of beliefs on the "Perfect" Golf Swing.

In a recent golf magazine article I read about Nick Price, he said his game went south (he lost his game) when he tried to make changes to lengthen his drives. He has now realized that lengthening his drives is not for him because he is much better again (and won in the Champion's tour) now that he has returned to his old golf swing.

Following Nick Price's revelation, I am going to stop my quest for the perfect golf swing. I will now stick with what I started as my goal - to use only the big muscles and simplify. This is what I will do starting now - and, hopefully stick to it over my lifetime:

1. Use Tiger Wood's (my interpretation) tight upper body swing as the engine of upswing, my downswing and follow through. The upper body does everything. This is the coiled-roped feeling of Hogan. The feeling is like the forearm muscles are bulgingly tight and all, the forearms, the left wrist and the solid grip are frozen together.
2. Overlap grip is employed with an almost extreme weak right hand grip placement.
3. The swing is shoulder-centric and extreme left hand cock is employed. The left shoulder feels the weight of the clubhead and pushes it out, like a satellite being launched into orbit, until fully coiled to an extreme finish. There must be a feeling of symmetry and harmonious balance in this move. THIS MOVE IS ESSENTIAL BECAUSE WITHOUT IT THE THUMB MAY GET HURT IF LIFTING MOTION IS USED. SO WHEN THE THUMB HURTS, YOU ARE MAKING A WRONG MOVE. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IN THIS POSTING. With it, it makes the long clubs (like the driver) feel like short irons. WARNING - IT MAY MAKE YOU DRAW THE BALL BUT WITH THE PROPER TIMING IT SHOULD WORK OK.
   
4. The finish of the backswing is characterize by the left shoulder hitting the chin, ala Hogan. If there is no shoulder n chin, you do not have a finish! REMEMBER, THE SHOULDER MUST PUSH THE CHIN - NO IFS AND BUTS!
5. The left shoulder starts the turn towards the resulting downward blast.