Jimmy Ballard

[Ayersjj]

DJ an others that are using the Ballard method. What one thing or things best helps to learn the Ballard swing? Is it the swing shirt, medicine ball, both, or something else? Thanks.

 

For me the Swing Shirt is the best.....helps me get my posture up and keep my right arm higher than my left. It's also awesome for short shots and putting.

 

 

Thanks GGpro. Are you an instructor? Do you teach the Ballard method?

 

Split Hands drill seems to bring me back to earth

[Boise59]

DJ an others that are using the Ballard method. What one thing or things best helps to learn the Ballard swing? Is it the swing shirt, medicine ball, both, or something else? Thanks.

 

For me the Swing Shirt is the best.....helps me get my posture up and keep my right arm higher than my left. It's also awesome for short shots and putting.

 

 

Thanks GGpro. Are you an instructor? Do you teach the Ballard method?

 

I am, teach at a club in SF...have been teaching using Jimmy's fundamentals since I worked with him in 1987

[Scottz]

DJ an others that are using the Ballard method. What one thing or things best helps to learn the Ballard swing? Is it the swing shirt, medicine ball, both, or something else? Thanks.

 

For me the Swing Shirt is the best.....helps me get my posture up and keep my right arm higher than my left. It's also awesome for short shots and putting.

 

How do you go about using your swing shirt??? I usually hit 5 balls with it, then take my arms out for five regular swings. Just curious as to how others implement it into their practice.

[Ayersjj]

DJ an others that are using the Ballard method. What one thing or things best helps to learn the Ballard swing? Is it the swing shirt, medicine ball, both, or something else? Thanks.

 

For me the Swing Shirt is the best.....helps me get my posture up and keep my right arm higher than my left. It's also awesome for short shots and putting.

 

Does the swing shirt help u keep width? In the TV infomercial JB talks a lot about folding down the left arm, so Im guessing its not a width trainer like VHarness or smart ball.

Thx

[97speedster]

Removed

[97speedster]

Removed

[Ayersjj]

 

Does the swing shirt help u keep width? In the TV infomercial JB talks a lot about folding down the left arm, so Im guessing its not a width trainer like VHarness or smart ball.

Thx

 

It might be worth trying one.

 

Might have to find me a Flammer lmao

[97speedster]

Removed

[97speedster]

Removed

[LowAndLeft32]

 

I try to keep things simple and besides my set up, the 3 things most important are to shift my weight correctly, keep the club in front of me and release the club and body. These 3 aids cover the 3 most important things for me.

 

 

 

Thanks DJ. I assume the you use the wall to stand against??? Maybe the wall helps with body positions and/or weight shift?

[BMC]

Has anybody seen or read Curtis Strange's instruction book or video?  I've seen clips from the video where he talks about his swing during his JB period.  Curtis shows it and explains it very succinctly.  Good stuff if you can find it.

[97speedster]

Removed

[adamnapes]

Can not figure out how to quote a post with this update, but speedster, can i get a front/face on view of that swing sometime soon?

[gsea33]

Been raining all day so I've been doing speedster's wall drill. Really gives u the feel for the correct take away and hinge. Even more than the practice glove. Cheaper too. No wall at the range so still need the glove.

[97speedster]

Removed

[adamnapes]

Speedster, awesome, thank you for the video. The visual answered a few general setup questions for me.

What are your feelings on the left arm bend, especially in full shots, in the backswing Ballard shows and Rocco demonstrates a lot of? Would this be more of a individual thing? Or is it more of as long as one keeps their elbows down pointed to the ground and arms “soft”, generally, you are in a good position?

 

[adamnapes]

Read the entire thread. Tons of awesome information and for me, a blast from the past really. I grew up learning on the hogan 5 fundamentals and JBs book, but was somewhat self taught under some supervision and lessons.

 

Unfortunately, for a multitude of reasons, I let go of a ton of the fundamentals I picked up as a pretty decent junior/HS player and have been basically lost in my swing and swing thoughts for the better part of a decade. That time period correlates directly to me joining this site, looking for a more “modern” or en vogue swing (whatever that is) and probably seeking advise that was either completely wrong or completely contradicted a lot of what I learned and grew up on.

 

My handicap and frustration with the game has been at an all-time high and my enjoyment has steadily decreased. Over the winter I sat down and had a heart to heart with myself and decided I needed to figure out what was missing or why I couldn’t find what I’ve lost or, ultimately, just quit...... I’m not quitting.

 

Last week, just by coincidence, I found this thread and it was like a light bulb went off. I watched some videos, read the thread, read speedsters notes and said to myself I remember some this, what do I have to lose?

 

I broke out the swing shirt and it was comical at first, mostly because I was still trying to use my horrible, flat to underplane, extremely in to out, close down the face hard, timing based swing with it on. I re-read the notes, one million times over speed thank you for those, and it was like another light bulb, and swings were starting to free up and ball striking was pure, with some much less “effort”, if that’s even a thing.

 

My golf game was nightmarish last year, it couldn’t get much worse. Luckily I love the range and I’m hoping things fall into place. I have a feeling, with some hard work, it’s going to be a great season. Planning on getting some video up on here, maybe for some critiques and looking forward to some input. This is going to be fun.

[97speedster]

Removed

[97speedster]

Removed

[BigEx44]

> @97speedster said:

> I hope when you guys look at my swing or read my notes you remember one thing; I'm always trying to get better and what I do is by no means perfect. I practice a lot and try a lot of different things, but the few things that I always stick to, even though I might have a different way of getting them done, are that I always TRY to keep the club in front of my body, I always shift my weight and get behind the ball, and I always try to release the club and my body as fast and as much as I can.

>

> The few things that I never try to do is keep my head still and my left arm straight! There are many different ways that you can skin a cat, but there are a few things that you MUST do right and a few things that you can't afford to do wrong. I've played a lot of golf with a lot of really good players and have seen some great rounds shot with all different kinds of swings, but each great round has involved putts going in the hole; if you can't putt, you can't play! I'm lucky that putting is the best part of my game so I can make up for a lot of errors with the flat stick, but please don't look at my swing and think that Ballard or myself ever thinks it's perfect, because that couldn't be farther from the truth. My goal is just to share some of knowledge over the years so you might be able to apply SOME of it to your own game and help yourself get a little better too.... the best thing you can do is know your swing better than anyone else and become your own best teacher so you can also fix a bad day on the fly if need be.

 

1) I don't think about keeping my head still on the BS.....but I do try and stay behind the ball on the DS. And it seems that the only way I can do that is by feeling like my head is still on that DS (I try to see the club hit the ball and then follow it on the thru swing).

 

2) Have you ever thought about teaching Ballard's swing?

[adamnapes]

> @97speedster said:

> I hope when you guys look at my swing or read my notes you remember one thing; I'm always trying to get better and what I do is by no means perfect. I practice a lot and try a lot of different things, but the few things that I always stick to, even though I might have a different way of getting them done, are that I always TRY to keep the club in front of my body, I always shift my weight and get behind the ball, and I always try to release the club and my body as fast and as much as I can.

>

> The few things that I never try to do is keep my head still and my left arm straight! There are many different ways that you can skin a cat, but there are a few things that you MUST do right and a few things that you can't afford to do wrong. I've played a lot of golf with a lot of really good players and have seen some great rounds shot with all different kinds of swings, but each great round has involved putts going in the hole; if you can't putt, you can't play! I'm lucky that putting is the best part of my game so I can make up for a lot of errors with the flat stick, but please don't look at my swing and think that Ballard or myself ever thinks it's perfect, because that couldn't be farther from the truth. My goal is just to share some of knowledge over the years so you might be able to apply SOME of it to your own game and help yourself get a little better too.... the best thing you can do is know your swing better than anyone else and become your own best teacher so you can also fix a bad day on the fly if need be.

 

Fantastic advise right here! I appreciate the checklist you put together for yourself and decided to share with us, along with the short stories and tidbits of information from your playing career. All great stuff!

 

On my front, I was actually able to get outside today and hit some full lob wedges outside for the first time in a long time. Grinded out hard on four areas; setup, weight into the right heel, right elbow fold, and finishing through the ball to the target on my left toes. Skulled one out of about 35-40, the rest were pure and finished within respectable distance to my pin. Most importantly, to me anyway, it actually felt easy to get through the ball with as much speed as I wanted, nothing was forced at all.

[97speedster]

Removed

[adamnapes]

Does anybody have any good checkpoints or feels for when the right elbow should start to fold?

[97speedster]

Removed

[adamnapes]

F> @97speedster said:

> > @adamnapes said:

> > Does anybody have any good checkpoints or feels for when the right elbow should start to fold?

>

> The right arm should be slightly bent and relaxed at address, at waist high on the backswing is when the right arm starts to fold with the right elbow pointed down and then continues to fold until the lower and upper right arm form a 90 degree angle from the elbow, this IDEALLY is the top of a completed backswing!

>

> If the right arm continues folding past this 90 degree angle then you become disconnected and cannot release the club properly and spring the shaft. You most likely will get very flippy and out of sequence once you fold the right elbow more than 90 degrees and your backswing will look collapsed in the arms and disconnected. You are better off stopping the right arm when it is 75 degrees bent than bending it to 105 degrees, you just might not have as much power as you would if you completed the backswing to a 90 degree position.

>

> This 90 degree position is SO important that Butch Harmon sells only one training aid at his academy in Las Vegas that he doesn't endorse or have his name on and it is called the Right Angle 2 which trains you to have the correct width by getting you into a 90 degree angle at the top of the backswing: https://www.golftrainingaids.com/products/right-angle-2

>

 

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

[Ayersjj]

 

JB folding elbows down.

Thoughts?

 

[gsea33]

just for nostalgia

 

 

[torbill]

> @Ayersjj said:

>

>

> JB folding elbows down.

> Thoughts?

>

 

This takes us back to the Abrams video comments, that led to discussion of things like width/radius.

 

I always thought that connection was about keeping the lead elbow connected to the body, independent of how much or little the elbows bend. Ballard’s lead elbow is connected to his body in this photo, but his elbows are severely bent. I guess that the bottom line is, is JB connected or disconnected, here...?

 

 

[torbill]

Let me add that his lead elbow isn’t literally connected, but it is pointing down and the handkerchief would not fall out.

[97speedster]

Removed