Archive for November, 2009

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John Graham Students Year in Review

November 24th, 2009
As winter quickly approaches here in Western New York, it seems appropriate to review the year as I have done in the past.  The strange thing about this year is that more news continues to come in.  More and more students have improved and work in warmer climates and continue to play tournament golf.  logo

Here’s a brief summary of summer event results:

8 Club Champions-Men’s, Women’s, Junior and Senior

Paychex Male College Athlete of the Year NCAA Division III Golf.

2 Players pass PAT and start PGA Apprentice Program.

MCC Hall of Fame Inductee

MCC National Champs and Individual National Champion

RDGA Junior Champion

5 Players in top 20 at New York State Amateur, Ryan Memorial Section Championship and at the Brook Lea Invitational.

College players ranked 2nd in the US for Division II and 4th in the US for Division III.

I gave my first PGA section level discussion on the topic of the D-Plane.

I want to thank Mark Sweeney, from Aimpoint Golf, for coming here and providing the green reading clinic.  I’ve added a place for questions about the system on my forum for anyone needing a little review. The other reason Mark came here was to certify me as an Authorized Aimpoint Instructor. I will be holding additional clinics as interest grows and I expect to be traveling around and showing it to other clubs and college golf teams.

As always, I will continue to try and improve my knowledge base and seek out information I believe will help my students achieve their goals. This fall I had conferences in Chicago and Washington DC along with many great teachers throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Slowly but surely my name is getting out there as I participate more and more in these situations.

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This Fall Just Keeps Getting Worse

November 23rd, 2009

As you may recall, I was having problems with both elbows. a few weeks ago, I had arthroscopic surgery on my right elbow to resolve some minor UCL problems. next Tues, I was schedled to have cubital tunnel surgery on the left elbow to resolve probems with the ulnar nerve.

Well, on the way over to Manchester, NH, same clown pulls out right in from of me, and then locks on the brakes. I had no chance and plowed right into him. Air bags deploy, and my head was thrown into the driver’s side window, my right elbow pounded the stick shift, and now my right arm is in a sling. My new Evo is totalled, but Thank God my club clubs were not in the car. My son had to come get me, and my wonderful doctor stopped in he office today, took a quick X-ray, faxed it to my orthopedic guy’s house, and gave me a generous supply of Demerol. We may have a slight fracture of some bone, the the UCL did not show anythig on the X-ray.

John, I guess there is a bright side. This could be July, instead of November. I hope alll is going far better in Graham’s World than around here.

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Posted in Student News

AimPoint Golf Green Reading

November 17th, 2009

 

 

AimPointCertified-White

I first saw Mark Sweeney in a putting video and was very intrigued. He mentioned a few things that were common sense but I had never really thought about it that way. I had never been taught how to read the green. Is anyone ever taught how to read the green?

At my last Teaching Summit, I remember Dave Phillips mentioning that he couldn’t think of anyone that specializes in green reading. I know that answer now. It is Mark Sweeney and his Aimpoint technology.

When he was hear last month he certified me as Western New York’s only Aimpoint Certified Instuctor. You’ll notice that logo on my home page and I’m very proud to be able to answer the question of who can teach me how to read the green.

It has helped my putting tremendously. The key for those of you that are using it is to keep using it. Trust the card. It is accurate if you’ve computed your location correctly along with the stimp and the slope. How to read the crowns and the saddles was the biggest eye opener for me. Modern greens have many pin locations around these two formations.

Basically, for those of you looking for those one or two putts a round you need to make to be competitive or to enjoy the game a little more, this information will help. Once you learn how to determine where you are relative to the zero lines(putts you aim directly at the center of the cup) and how to determine where they should be, you will have a much greater probability of knowing the break. It’s not estimating the break, it is knowing the break. I know that sounds hard to believe. I was skeptical at first but you can’t argue with it’s accuracy and predictability.

I honestly believe it will be one of the most important instructional pieces of information in the years to come.

Here is a link to my forum entries giving some more information about AimPoint.

I will be offering a monthly clinic starting in 2010 to forward this information and I will continue my own education in this area. There are so many things to learn about golf. The more I expand the more complete a teacher I become.

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D Plane Speech

November 16th, 2009

Earlier this year, I gave a talk at my PGA Section Meeting on the topic of the D Plane.  I thought it a good time to review that talk.

I had prepared for the talk for quite awhile and felt very comfortable with the topic.  If you need a little review and what the D Plane is, follow this link.

I created a folder for each person that included a copy of the pages and diagrams I was planning to use.  I felt it was important that everyone be able to take the information home and digest it.

I was a little disappointed by the number of attendees but I’m not sure that many people knew what I was talking about.  The few days prior to the talk, I called another PGA member that I respected as a good teacher and had been around a while.  I was calling to ask him if he thought the topic was really necessary because I thought most people would have known about it already.  To my surprise, he had never heard of the D Plane and didn’t know what I was talking about.

At that moment, I knew I was at least a little bit ahead of the curve and that made me feel pretty good.  The really sad part is that this idea has been around a very long time but, for some reason, is still not being taught by the US PGA.  Almost all of the members that stayed for the education had never heard of the D Plane and I was really surprised when the pro I had called chose not to attend.  In fact, I was a little surprised that more people didn’t attend.

After the talk was over and I answered all the questions, a couple pro’s came up to me and asked me if I would come to their club and give the talk  to their membership.  I thought I was nervous the first time.  Speaking to a large group of people that weren’t as golf swing savy took a bunch more planning and different verbage to best explain this topic.  All in all, the talks went very well and I hope to give some more in the future.

Stick with me and I’ll provide you with the latest and greatest.

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Posted in D Plane

How to Hit an Iron Shot Straight-D Plane Style

November 13th, 2009
This blog will talk about the necessary physics required for the ball to actually fly straight. It will talk extensively about the D plane and how it explains the requirements necessary to do it.

With irons or any shot with the ball on the ground:

According to D Plane information, in order for the ball to fly straight, the normal to the clubface(the 3d location of the where the clubface is pointing) and the club path must point at the target at the hit. It is also a requirement that the ball is hit absolutely solid(right in line with the CoG). This location is basically a point and any mistake left or right will alter the shape of the club during the hit.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I am having some research done on this topic but hopefully it confirms my thoughts and trackman’s claims.

Back to the topic. Because the ball is hit with a downward angle of attack on a crisply struck iron shot, the club is still traveling downward and outward after hitting the ball until it reaches low point. Because the club travels to the right after the hit the path of the club(relative to the ball) is inside out. The impact path is right of the low point swing path.

This Picture will help you picture this is it doesn’t make sense.

D Plane Iron Impact for Straight Shot
D Plane Iron Impact for Straight Shot

It is for this reason that you must either aim or swing a little left for the ball to actually fly straight. Even though the club is swinging left, relative to the ball the club path can now point exactly at the target.

Keeping the club constant, the more down angle you have in your strike the more to the right the clubs actual path becomes. Thus, you will have to aim more left. The amount of left you aim depends on your angle of attack and what club you are using.

There’s a relationship between the shape of the swing plane and the amount the club is moving out after the strike. As the swing plane get’s more vertical the amount of out becomes less all while the amount of down is increasing. Ferris wheel would have all down and no out.

As the swing plane get’s flatter, the amount of out is increasing while the amount of down is less. A merry-go-round would have all out and no down.

Depending on a persons impact angles, it will depend on whether or not they aim/swing more left with shorter clubs or longer clubs. If someone hit all clubs with the same angle of attack, they would have to aim/swing more left with a 3 iron vs a wedge.

If the player’s angle of attack get less by more than 1 degree from wedge to 3 iron than that player would aim/swing more left with the wedge.

Most player’s will fit into this second category where they aim/swing more left with shorter irons than longer ones.

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Posted in D Plane

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