The RuthlessGolf.com Confident Swings Pack

By Mike Southern

When Mike Southern first developed the RuthlessGolf.com Quick Guides, his goal was to provide short, complete lessons on a single subject that anyone could afford. And his readers responded, usually buying more than one of the titles with each purchase.

Now, based on his readers' feedback, he has created "packs" that combine two complementary Quick Guides, based on some of the most frequently-purchased combos, at an even greater savings over the individual book prices.

The Confident Swings Pack begins with his ever-popular "Stop Coming Over-the-Top," his simple approach to building a predictable swing. Based on feedback he received from readers he has helped through RuthlessGolf.com, the method has proven its effectiveness over and over.

Paired with it is "Think Like a Golfer," his unique introduction to the mental game. The language of sports psychology is the language of religion, and in this book Mike strips away the theology to teach you how to build true self-belief and trust in your swing.

The Confident Swings Pack will help you develop both the mechanics and the mental approach you need to play confident golf.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Defiant Publishing LLC
• Release date: Apr 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370843206

Mike Southern

Mike Southern learned the basics of golf from Carl Rabito, the PGA Professional who coached LPGA major winner Jeong Jang to her 2005 Women's British Open win. He's played in a few local professional tournaments and written numerous instructional articles for Golfsmith.com. He currently writes the long-running "Ruthless Golf" blog, which is aimed at helping weekend players improve their game without overtaxing the rest of their lives.

Book preview

THE RUTHLESSGOLF.COM

CONFIDENT SWINGS PACK

containing the following Quick Guides:

Stop Coming Over-the-Top

Think Like a Golfer

by Mike Southern

Defiant Publishing LLC

Smashwords Edition

THE RUTHLESSGOLF.COM CONFIDENT SWINGS PACK

This collection ©2017 Mike Southern

Contains the following previously published books:

Stop Coming Over-the-Top: a RuthlessGolf.com Quick Guide

©2012 Mike Southern

Think Like a Golfer: a RuthlessGolf.com Quick Guide

©2014 Mike Southern

Cover design by Mike Southern

Book design by Mike Southern

All rights reserved.

Some of the material in these Quick Guides originally appeared in slightly different forms in the RuthlessGolf.com blog.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Published by Smashwords for

Defiant Publishing LLC

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Ruthless Golf links

Table of Contents

STOP COMING OVER-THE-TOP

Introduction

The Woodsman Who Wanted to Golf: An Instructional Folktale

Why Your Golf Swing Seems to Defy All Logic

The First Essential of a Good Golf Swing

A Quick Word about Gripping the Club

Understanding Planes and Loops

The Much-Maligned One-Piece Takeaway

The Feel Drills

Equal and Opposite Reactions

Seeing the Big Picture

The Right-Handed Sequence

The Left-Handed Sequence

Summary

THINK LIKE A GOLFER

Introduction

A Different Approach to Sports Psychology

The Basics of Self-Belief

There's Belief and Then There's BELIEF

A Bridge to Understanding

What Do You Really Know?

Your Weapons Against Self-Doubt

The Don'ts Don't Have It, the Dos Do

Are You Sure You Ought to Be Better?

The Apostle Paul’s Guide to Better Golf

When Enough is Enough

Practice Thoughts and On-Course Strategies

They Call Me Ebenezer

Opening the Pressure Valve

Entering the Zone

Serious Play

The Doorway to the Zone

Think Like a Golfer

Ruthless Golf Links

The Ruthless Golf blog

Follow me on Twitter

Ruthless Golf on Facebook

There are SIX RuthlessGolf.com Quick Guides in all:

1) More Golf Swing Speed: Increase your clubhead speed and make your swing more consistent

2) Accurate Iron Play: Improve your short game by learning the basics of direction and distance control with your irons

3) Stop Coming Over-the-Top: Not just for over-the-toppers! Learn the basics of a fundamentally solid modern swing

4) HIT IT HARD: Use a progressive series of swing drills to improve coordination when swinging hard

5) The Putt Whisperer: Build a new putting stroke based on feel from scratch

6) Think Like a Golfer: Learn what it really means to believe in yourself and perform under pressure—an easy primer on sports psychology

And if you enjoy these books, don’t forget to check out Ruthless Putting, the original book on turning your existing putting stroke into a scoring machine!

All available in paperback and various ebook formats.

Mike's Author Page on Smashwords

STOP COMING OVER-THE-TOP

Introduction

Whether you struggle with the swing flaw commonly called coming over-the-top or not, this Quick Guide will probably help your game.

I know that's a pretty bold statement. But the vast majority of swing faults in any weekend player's swing can be traced back to an incorrect takeaway. That's also the number one cause of an over-the-top swing. An incorrect takeaway starts a chain reaction of errors. If you don't start your swing correctly, you'll be forced to make corrections during your swing. And the more corrections you have to make, the more complicated and less consistent your swing gets.

Isn't it much easier to just start your swing properly? Just as starting badly causes a series of bad movements, starting correctly makes it easier to make the correct movements throughout your swing.

An incorrect takeaway also steals both yardage and accuracy from your shots. Contrary to popular belief, the backswing is an integral part of your downswing and the change of direction from backswing to downswing is governed by physical laws. Your downswing, unless you make those aforementioned 'in-swing corrections,' is a natural continuation of your backswing. Since the path of your downswing is largely determined by your backswing, and your backswing is more easily fixed, doesn't it make sense to start your swing from a solid foundation?

In this Quick Guide you'll not only learn how to make a proper takeaway, you'll learn about the little things that can cause your swing to get off-track during your backswing—and how to avoid them. You'll learn what problems an improper takeaway can cause later in your swing, and how a proper takeaway can prevent them. You'll learn how to get from your takeaway to the top of your backswing, and how doing so correctly can affect both your distance and accuracy. You'll learn how a proper takeaway can simplify your swing so you don't need so much practice—or so many swing thoughts—to get good results with it.

And I won't just take you to the top and leave you there. I'll show you how to get there so you can't help but start your downswing with your lower body! You'll also learn the simple secrets of how to get all that wrist cock from the top of your swing down to the impact zone.

You won't find photographs in this book because I don't want you to copy the positions of my swing. Rather, I want you to understand (1) what changes during your swing and (2) when it changes during your swing. This knowledge is much more useful than trying to copy someone whose body may move differently from yours. Therefore I've included diagrams—some are nothing more than stick figures—that are simple enough for you to see the important things you should look for in your swing.

While I've included both left- and right-handed diagrams where necessary, I've written only one text. Rather than right and left, I'll refer to lead and trailing. Your lead side is closest to the target, your trailing side is farthest away. (Which means that I could refer to you as a trailing-handed player. But I won't.)

One last thing… I realize that many of you struggle to make a good turn. Some of what you read here will sound like it requires tremendous flexibility. (It doesn't, but it may sound like it.) Don't worry about it. You don't have to get everything perfect to get rid of an over-the-top swing. I'll make suggestions for positions that might give some of you trouble. (Trust me, at my age I have some stiff parts as well.)

So let's get on with it and stop that over-the-top move that's been bothering you for so long. But first, let me tell you a little story…

The Woodsman Who Wanted to Golf: An Instructional Folktale

Once upon a time in a far-off land there lived a woodsman. This woodsman made his living by chopping firewood…

(Look, I know many of you—ok, probably most of you—have never swung an axe before. But most over-the-toppers are just chopping wood, except that the golfer's version adds rotation to the mix. So it's much easier to teach you how to chop wood—a straightforward swing motion—first and then apply that knowledge to your bad golf swing. Plus, if you ever need to actually chop wood, you'll know how. What a deal! Now where was I? Oh yes…)

This woodsman made his living by chopping firewood and he was very good at it. In fact, he was quite happy doing so.

At least he was until the day his local cable service added Golf Channel to his cable package. As he watched the players knock those little white balls around and collect millions of dollars for doing so, a plan hatched inside his admittedly small brain.

Why, that doesn't look much different than chopping firewood! he said to himself. Those clubs can't be as heavy as my axe is. I bet I could learn how to knock that little ball farther than any of those rich yahoos!

And so it was that he got up the next morning and traveled to his local trading post. There, for reasons that defy all logic, this backwoods retailer had a nice shiny 5-iron on the shelf. The manufacturer claimed that this little beauty could slice, dice, and generally rip the cover off any golf ball within reach.

Perfect the woodsman said to himself. A workman is only as good as his tools. With this technologically advanced piece of equipment, I'll be on the Tour lickety-split.

So he bought the seemingly magical 5-iron and a box of golf balls. Then he spent the rest of the day watching Shell's Wonderful World of Golf replays until he decided he had mastered the golf swing.

He quickly recognized that a golf club, like an axe, was a third-class lever. This means that the fulcrum (pivot point) is at one end, the load to be moved (the axe head or club head) is at the other end, and the force that moves the load around the fulcrum is applied between them. (That force would be his trailing hand.) If you're not a science geek, just check the next diagram. It shows a lever, along with an axe and a club in position at the top of their 'swings.' Then the description should make perfect sense.

levers

This is also a good spot to stop and explain the mechanics of chopping wood, as shown in the following diagrams. I've included both right- and left-handed diagrams, in case any of you should want to pursue a career as a woodsman. Note that I've made his head