Shawn how important is that pause at the top of the backswing. Seems to me it’s important to let everything catch up. Am I right?

Hope the wedding was fun Coach! This video is so good! I’ve been doing a lot of backswing work. I realized I was lifting my arms IN the takeaway, not allowing the trail arm folding to get the club up

When I lift, pause, let it fall it basically goes out to in. No access to the right side of the IP

When I just rotate the body to start the backswing first, getting the ribs out of the way with conviction in the takeaway, I have access to the right side of the IP

Great mile markers!

Wow Shawn, this is literally the Holy Grail in so many ways, and is a wonderful meeting point of two great disciplines. Just as wearing a polo t-shirt has nothing to do with hitting a good golf shot and what it takes to get there, so too, being a monk has nothing to do with the “feedback loops” one has to perform to achieve true mental well being. Either social constructs may have contextually helped you to do the process, but neither are “fundamental”.

I hope you’ve been able to go down the rabbit hole with the box breathing, I believe your prior work in golf will really prime you for great success there. Box breathing before meditation works really well, as it really primes the body to switch from residual fight/flight modes to the parasympathetic. If I may, coming from long years of study in the Philosophy/Meditation area, one tip…make sure to give at least 5 to 10 mins at the end of your box breathing to soak up the inner state you’ve created with it and really just do nothing but enjoy it. Shine the light of your awareness on it and just observe it. Its fundamentally training the brain to see what it is capable of experiencing within itself and over time you’ll be like Seve Ballestero’s attitude of 4 putting, but with the vicissitudes of everyday life.

Your mind will remember that “home base”/”zone” and really resist ever leaving it and creating unnecessary “bee hives” around everything, which seems to be our default mode that everyone gets by adulthood. You will still make efforts to better any situation, like Seve’s putting efforts to get the ball in the hole, but your mind won’t “suffer” situations any more, as was its past habit, and consequently you will not only be more blissful, but actually more beneficial with actually handling them, which is quite an accomplishment!

Anyhow, thanks so much for your work in golf, it has really helped me enjoy that side of life and literally your way of teaching makes it 100% compatible with some of the highest philosophical teachings (e.g. Stoicism/Yoga/Buddhism/Christian Contemplation) of how to “actually” live the “good” life that I have ever found in my academic and practical studies. If, Socrates ever played golf, and you were alive, he would have most definitely inquired with you first on how to properly do it! Thanks again and all the best!

Great drill Shawn. I strike and release it better when I do the drill, then when I actually play and start from a static position in the setup. I can’t seem to get the same momentum as in the drill. Thoughts on how to incorporate it?

Maybe it’s the camera angle but when Sav takes her backswing it seems to go back along the inside. Is that what’s actually happening?

This is me when I’m going poorly! Messing around today w lead arm only swings chipping. Then I’d lightly add the trail hand and I could feel the weight of the club so much better

Took it over to full swings. Same thing. I felt to me what felt like a later set and way more lag coming into the ball. The ball jumped so effortlessly.

What is the follow up video to this you allude to in the beginning? Is a good way to apply this to feel a lighter trail hand grip pressure though the swing?

Iir almost felt like those “Scottish lag” videos you’ve done in the past and you demonstrated to me at the clinic in CT a couple years ago.

this has been extremely helpful. Mo’s trigger finger blows my mind. I can’t stretch mine that far with a vice! lol

On the video of release I’ve been trying to feel release at ball should I feel after ball?

Hey Shawn I was struggling with pulls most of the season and after seeing a video of my swing i realized i was letting go of the club at the top of my swing and regripping on the way down causing a really closed face and pull. So now I have been trying to keep the grip super tight and firm through the entire swing and it seems im hitting much straighter iron shots but with the hybrids, woods and drivers this new grip feeling is cause me to hit some weaker fades. Any tips for fixing that.

During the iron session you close the club face but with the long iron, wood and driver you don’t appear to this. Reason??

Finally not hozelling or thinning my chips. Whew. Enjoying the ease and great contact… I did pretty darn good before with really poor contact, how this was….. I will never know.

Questions:
I’m trying to figure out why all my chips (60, 56, 52) are checking up hard. I’m having trouble predicting run out or in this case, lack thereof. Thoughts?

My other questions is, when I take a practice swing, especially for the remainder of this season (fall-winter-spring) my clubface is crazy caked in earth.

As we worked on the practice swing, see the blur & turf contact, then shuffle in, I’m wondering what your advice would be here….. as I have to stop and clean the face.

Thanks so much!

Hi Shawn,
Thanks for all your videos and comments.
I have a question about your foot alignment on your video. It seems that you are not aligned to the target but slightly to the left of the intermediate point (ie the direction in which the ball start) right? Idem for draw, are your feet aligned more to the right?
Thank your for your help.

Finally really understanding this intermediate point and precise intersection info. Our little discussion of the cornhole game made it all click…. today, lol.

Great analogy with the revolving door Shawn. One of my key areas of focus this winter is strengthening my grip (It had crept into neutral and I was having to flip at it a little with the longer clubs to square it up) and staying with the shot. I’ve found that vertical targets have made this automatic for me as I have to maintain the tilt / aka stay anchored

I have a question: When you discuss closing the club face 45 degrees and then taking your grip, if the toe of the club is pointing at 12 o clock in a neutral grip, would you point it at 9 o clock then take the grip? Or more like 10:30? (Hope that makes sense!)

Shawn,
Deep in my offseason training working through that video. Iron compression has been amazing staying w my IP and feeling that snap release

One thing I’ve noticed with driver is I don’t always fully unload the angle in my wrist if I stay with that same iron flavor. I’ve been messing around with feeling like I start the throw immediately from the top. Like I’m trying to unload the wrist angle from the top of the swing

The feel for me is similar to Jack Nicklaus when he said you can’t release the club too soon. My miss w driver is pulling the butt of the club too far forward and then I have to really work hard to time it up

Is this something you’ve experienced? Should the intent to release the club for all throws come from the top? When I’m skipping a stone my intent the entire time is to throw, I’m not thinking step then throw, it’s the task that drives the motion. Even a slight delay with the driver seems to cause a negative AoA and face that’s open to path, no matter how much I strengthen the grip

Some example numbers from the feeling of my iron swing vs the feeling of throwing immediately from the top

CHS: 113 vs 118
Attack angle: -2 to +2
Spin: 3500 to 2700
Path: about the same, around 3 for a draw
Face angle: 4.5 with the iron swing, 1.5 for the “early” throw