Too simple to delay any longer. No one has ever said or heard (besides my students) the secret to generating wedge spin. Here it is. Don’t let anyone tell you they assumed everyone knew about high contact point, so they focused on “how to” move to get you there. If it was their assumption, they would have said it first.

Power comes from any combination of body parts. We eliminate one sense and our brain automatically mitigates the loss using another pathway. In this video, I straightened my legs. I had the very obvious need to employ more arms and hands to not only get the club down to the ball, but to generate speed (Power) as well.
The reason I thought to do this is because I didn’t like the inconsistency in delivering my club for the cut I was intending to hit. My lead leg remained flexed, which kept my torso tilted behind my ball, which skewed my path occasionally right. I initially began the straightening process by beginning the cut process with my arm swing exercise. As my swing normalizes with ball position, and in order to remediate the last bit of unnecessary leg action, I take more of my legs out of my swing by straightening them at address. I will, however, need to bend more at the waist in my next iteration.
Always work from the ground to the ball when making changes. Your brain will create your solution.

I’m laughing as I write, Repaint! And thin no Morikawa. I always remember the punchline of a joke an old pastor told at our church. “Repaint! And thin no more”. Therefore, I had a short leap to including Colli Mo here. Furthermore, I’m reminded of interesting mixed symbol phrases/tests emails where our brains replace weird symbols with shape specific letters to allow deciphering. Although we hear the wrong words, we understand the meaning.

For example, during my 36-hole Valspar Championship Pro-Am, I talked golf swing with the players. My role as PGA Ambassador is flexible. Therefore, I took an opportunity to bring truth to my groups, who were unanimously steep with thin contact. Though my message is undeniably brief and as broad as a stroke can be, I made my players understand THEY were in control of their improvement now that they had their remedy.

The COO, Heidi, allowed me to cure her struggle with a set-up tweak. Once again in thirty seconds, I imitated her feet and shoulders (Closed and Open) at address. Then, I asked her to reverse that arrangement (Feet Open, shoulders closed to them). Not only did she immediately improve but was celebrated for the rest of her round! She went from thin heel shanks to the heavens and from 5-120-yard drives to over 200. She hit her drive on #7 (Our 16th) 178 yards uphill and into the wind! I estimate her drive was equivalent to 215-220 yards normalized.

Collin Morikawa aka Colli Mo sets up Open, too.
My man, Andrew played his wicked pull-slice like my man Wole had at the Palmer. I went over the Physics of impact with Andrew for one minute, and he did the rest. Consequently, his shots immediately improved. He started hitting it hard and straight, like Wole. We were all thrilled. He was cheered. We were all smiling for the rest of the round.

The CEO was great. What a gentleman! Gifted with a BEAUTIFUL putting stroke, John started very well. However, while my attention was on Andrew and Heidi, I lost his window of receptivity. I mentioned it on the second nine, but too late to save his round. Which is a shame, because he hit his first ball about 300yds on #10. I imagine the pressure of hosting the week took its toll on his game.

My afternoon group needed less preaching. Three gentlemen were experienced players. However, P-Ditty (Skeptisaurus Ditty) was not an experienced player. And, when I started asking my question, Ditty didn’t want to hear it. After “15 years away from golf and recent GolfTec lessons” in his head, he didn’t have his ears on. Fortunately, I always bring a pair to share.

Obviously under pressure, P-Dit was an aim left, pull-cutter’s pull-cutter. I caught up to him on 14 (Our fifth) after an unfortunate series of events. I asked P-Skept if he knew the physics of impact with clubface and path. While looking skyward (Eye-roll), he said “no, my GolfTec instructor said blather, bunk, and BS and my X excuse and my Y excuse” is why my ears don’t work.

My first instinct was to allow his resistant struggle, but the desperation in his face kept me after him. After a condensed, impatient-man-explanation, my pitch concluded. Obviously, the next time I spoke, he’d be a listener or a talker.

He became a listener. After his next shot, P-Ditty asked for me to repeat my ‘hurried’ talk. Then, Ditty began processing our exchange. THE NEXT SWING, P-Dit hit his first solid straight shot. From there on, Ditty’s golf guru was not the one hiding behind a golf simulator and computer in a Dallas high-rise. P-D’s main man was walking it with him. Needless to say, Big Ditty took charge of his own improvement and lost his excuses. The only concern that made the entire loop was, “I just need soo much practice” … My Man.

My own experience with the Valspar folks was ideal. They are salt-of-the-Earth people and deserve worlds of success, so go out and buy some Made-in-America Sherwin-Williams and Valspar products. Incidentally, I have no dog in that hunt. Oh, and remember to Open your Stance like Colli Mo. Maybe then you will redeem yourself back on-course for golfing salvation after you Repaint! And thin no Morikawa.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Open Stance slow mo breaks down the club head delivery to impact and positioning throughout. Moreover, I use it to look for refinement opportunities.

In this video, I explain my reactions, reasoning, and return from the experimental to my knocking down normal swings. I run through the macro-ideas of set-up and movement as well as small swing triggers to consider. You might notice my shoulders are open at address with the driver, which makes a cut more difficult due to visual alignment of the club face. That will need attention.

After walking 36 holes and 15,000 plus yards, this was a respectable representation of that exhaustion in motion.

Fortunately, I can never keep my mouth shut when nonsense is proliferating. So, I bottled it up three quarters of the round. This particular gentleman struggled for fifteen holes with a dramatic, pull-slice. His driver flew only about twenty feet off the ground when he hit it solidly. Knowing that each person hears a slightly different voice, I thought my voice might help. Therefore, on our walk to seventh green (Our 16th hole) I let it all flow.

After literally one minute of information transfer to my new student, he cured himself. And, although his new evolving swing is not yet fluid, over the last two holes, he smashed four straight shots - high and hard, to finish on a high note. I was happy for him. He gave me the idea for Open Stance Accelerator. He went from zero to 100 faster than Ian's Ferrari.

John Wright - Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Be determined with our Open Stance! It does us no good to try any good idea a couple times only to struggle, ... and then throw it away without investing our time and effort to make it work for us. Determination and discipline are the qualities of great golfers.

El Campeón driver comparison plus is a study in two different driver shafts in drivers of same length. Torque is at issue, as is loft and weighting.

Arm swings can get too flat. Spine angle has no real connection to arm swing. Set at the top does, though. Flat arm swings rarely lead to any other than an over-the-line position. That position is my adaptation to a ball position too far back in my stance. So, before I can recondition my backswing, I have to address my ball position first. We cannot do one without the other, because they offset to achieve perfect contact. Notice I did not say ‘Impact’. We don’t worry about perfect impact while we are working on our offsets.

This is a private discussion of what I am working on, the peripheral and coincidental remedies all based on an Open Stance set-up. If you’ve been watching, you’ll see how much improvement is possible in one month at 1,500 - 2,000 balls per week. Refinement comes at 500-1,000 a day. That will be after May. I hope you like and subscribe. There are more episodes and discussions to come.
JW

This video is part of my own process to steepen shallow impact. In my case, the shaft/leading arm set is to blame. This is before my BFCM training. See if you notice the differences.

When you get too shallow, do what I do - try the ball forward chop move. My invention is a movement pattern I used successfully in 2001 to undo a severely over-the-top backswing set and a big draw/hook pattern. I had difficulty playing a tree-lined golf course. After a spate of thin and heeled shots yesterday, I had to make a frustration change. After hitting one ball with my FBCM, I started kicking myself for forgetting the simplicity of the change.

First, keep your stance open. The visual you need at the end of the process doesn't change during the process. You can easily enough direct your ball to land near your target. I played nine holes yesterday on Las Colinas, and struck the ball beautifully, after only a day into the change.

Second, Move your ball position to or ahead of your lead foot along your target line. The bottom of our chop swing is well-forward of "standard". You may strike your ball thin until your position is forward enough. Conversely, if your ball position is forward enough, you will get an indication of how much more to adapt your change to your ball position.

Third, Keep your shoulders square to the target. FBCM move is about steepening your arm-swing and shaft set. Open shoulders necessitate a shallower arm-swing - negating our FBCM efficacy. Once your impact is optimized your desired shot curvature, or lack thereof, is a more standard combination of ball position and club set at the top.

In the prior episode, I was working on a Hale Irwin reroute. Today, that’s on the shelf. I didn’t like the right elbow situation, so... first things first. I am trying to keep my right elbow close and in front of me into impact. I change my wrists to set the club for solid strikes with the trailing elbow in position. Video will lead my changes.
Also, I was reminded my balance was shaky, so I began aggressively moving to my lead heel through impact. It’s multi-tasking, but I’ve done it before. My leading foot doesn’t hurt anymore.

I was actually shocked to see how little my stance is open with the longer clubs, and how open my shoulders are with the shorter ones. Will. Remedy. Today.

KEEPING THE HEEL OF THE CLUB ABOVE THE GROUND is the key to Bermuda Grass technique. See the full article at www.openstanceacademy.com

The heel of the club MUST STAY ABOVE THE GROUND. Techniques revolve around this one principle.

See the full article at www.openstanceacademy.com

Bunker play is upsetting to some golfers. I’ve seen it turn some very intelligent people into blithering you-know-whats. They may as well start convulsing and foaming at the mouth before they start walking from the cart to their beached ball. This video is a different slant on bunker play. Enjoy the full article at www.openstanceacademy.com

This fine gentleman was flat with his arm swing, layed-off at the top, inverted at address and impact, and he wondered why he fatted and topped so many shots. Especially crippling was his 3 wood. See the full article at www.openstanceacademy.com.

This example is when the flatter armswing remains the same, but the spine angle is less Converted/more inverted/neutral. My divots are MUCH BETTER in direction and depth. The sound is getting better, and my trajectory and distance is regulating. As a result, my arms remain on my body through impact, which makes keeping my head down easier. See the complete article at www.openstanceacademy.com

The flop shot is a useful weapon against elevated, tight hole locations and has variations on a theme to consider before choosing to flop, drop, and roll. See the complete article at www.openstanceacademy.com

I was hitting range balls the other day, at my club, and thought to post about my practice process after essentially 2.5 years of not playing. This Nine Iron hit a ball two inches above my feet. I'm working on regaining my balance and hand strength. I have about three weeks more for balance and two months for hand strength at 300 balls a day. I'll be up to 500 balls per day next week. 800 in a month. So... maybe 40 days for hand strength. THEN, I can begin to work on refining.