 Question 456 Do you and GGa teach the same swing?
I am a high handicapper, living in Norway, recently retired and for the time being a bit confused. Shortly after I picked up golf, a few years ago, I happened to read an article about Moe Norman in a Norwegian golfer's magazine. I got in contact with a Norwegian NG certified instructor and converted to NG. No big step for me, except the price I had to pay for my NG clubs. I have been reasonably happy so far as my handicap has dropped from literary nothing to 26 during a couple of years. However, my play is far from as consistent as I might have expected (according to NG promises).
Until recently I was thinking NG was the true and only successor of Moe Norman. Then I got an e-mail from the Graves brothers, GGA. Studying the web site of GGA, I have understood that Moe Norman has got more than one successor, and for the first time I became aware that you did not have to buy NG clubs to play single axis golf.
Today, via a Norwegian club maker, I was made aware of Scigolf. And here comes my question:
Do you and GGA teach the same single axis swing?
Let me put it this way, Todd Graves has come to me for lessons, not the other way around and there were several things that he needed to work on and change to be more like a Moe. These would include the release, the right hand grip, backswing, and first move down. If he is still teaching and doing what he did the last time I saw him then the fundamentals are different. Todd is a very gifted golfer and uses talent in his swing. If you have talent you can do what he does, if you don’t you will get frustrated.
Would it make any difference if I buy their DVDs or yours?
There is a massive difference between how I teach and anyone else and it is this; I use kinematic feedback. What this entails is the complete and proper exercises, which guarantee success. You may ask why? And the answer is incredibly simple.
1. Imprinting is about motion memory and is not to be confused with drills. Imprinting has the precise forward motion that takes place at a given point in time and a given area of space. This means that what is happening in the golf swing during a segment of the downswing can be captured to the point of becoming a dominant motion.
2. Training is about taking the motion memory to a point whereby the repetitive skill is done with an instrument in your hand that does not impede the motion itself. With the proper training the motion now becomes effortless even with a golf club in hand.
3. Practicing entails having the instrument precisely measured and exacted to a given point in space. This means that the golf club will strike the ball squarely on the center of the face at the equator of the golf ball provided that the subject returns to the defined impact position. Practicing creates a pattern, your biomechanical individuality that will produce shots that are consistent, repeatable, and well within a shot pattern they can be managed on any golf course on the planet.
4. Practice to play this exercise is included to make the transition from being able to get consistent golf shots to being able to line yourself to a target and feel comfortable that your shot pattern will not only be in play but very near your target, distance and direction -wise.
The technical advantages that I teach, has training through impact backwards full motion imprinting exercises dubbed, Viseo Motor Behavioral Rehearsal (VMBR). The golf Kata, golf Chi, as well as impact backwards are based on Belman's Optimum Principle.
Belman's Optimum Principle states that there is an optimum policy for the property that whatever the initial state and initial decision are, the remaining decisions must constitute an optimal policy with regard to the state resulting from the first transition.
For this swing path, this suggests that you can decompose the motion of the downswing into several components, starting from the moment of impact and working in reverse up to the top of the swing. For each of the components, you try to work out the best forward motion segments (that will still fit together) and then assemble them into a complete downswing. That downswing composed of sets of motion components (remaining decisions) that are each optimal, will constitute the best swing (optimal policy). I believe this is extremely important that you understand this concept because it differentiates me from everyone else.
Using my system and doing this training you'll be imprinting the correct motion, training it so it becomes motion memory, and practicing for results so that when you go to the golf course you are free to be creative, spontaneous, brilliant, magical, heroic, and surprisingly good-natured.
Others teach by error correction (tell you what you’re doing wrong) and then having you go out and try to get the feel for a different move. An incredibly poor way to learn, the fun factor doesn’t exist; you’re caught in a vicious cycle of negativity.
You're right that the swing NG teaches is the swing Moe Norman performed when he was old and overweight. However natural golf, taught a different right handed grip from what Moe used, and a different left handed grip. What natural golf had was really the Kuykendall grip.
I am old, but still not overweight, and I intend to spend a lot of time trying to be a better and more consistent golf player in the years to come. Would it be too optimistic to go for young Moe's swing, or do you think that's too late for me?
Best regards and Merry Christmas!
Terje Larsen
I believe, and I know that this is the only golf swing that anyone can master, and it is the easiest in every sense of the word relating to mechanical difficulty. However, mastery is a journey, not a destination and will require time on task, as well as repetition of the correct motion. Remember that repetition is the mother of all skill. My golf swing is not reserved for the naturally gifted or the freaks of nature, but for everyone, weak or strong, young or old, male or female, anyone can do this swing. My impact backwards motion building exercises guide you past the obstacles that can keep you from these rewards. Become a zealot of practice and connoisseur of the purity of technique, and the rewards are limitless.
Merry Christmas to all
The S.A.G.E.
© Scigolf.com Company 2006
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