old tyre / smash bag routine

a post I made a week or so ago referred to a problem I was having with my grip and a slice.

I had a lesson on wednesday night at the local driving range and he noted that my right foot was not moving as it should on the downswing, eg knees not coming together and hence coming over the top with the follow through. Well the pro got out a skilz smash bag and had me hitting that, trying to envisage I was skimming a stone etc, well you have heard it all before but I found it really useful and he said that you can practice it at home with an old car tyre and an old 6 iron he gave me. Well, unless you live in a scrapyard you won't have an old tyre in the garden so I went to the local scrappies and he gave me a tyre. I live in a town centre appartment with only a roof garden and balcony so I took my new training tool to a patch of open ground about a mile away at the edge of dartmoor where you can smack a few balls. I had been practicing this for about 3-4 minutes when this old bloke stopped the car, got out and accused me of being a vandal for smashing a tyre with a golf club, asked me where I found it etc. He was having none of it!

That was an old training routine recommended by the late great Henry Cotton. He also advocated that golfers shouldn't swim because it developed the wrong muscles - that might have been because he couldn't swim though!

tarka wrote:a post I made a week or so ago referred to a problem I was having with my grip and a slice.

I had a lesson on wednesday night at the local driving range and he noted that my right foot was not moving as it should on the downswing, eg knees not coming together and hence coming over the top with the follow through. Well the pro got out a skilz smash bag and had me hitting that, trying to envisage I was skimming a stone etc, well you have heard it all before but I found it really useful and he said that you can practice it at home with an old car tyre and an old 6 iron he gave me. Well, unless you live in a scrapyard you won't have an old tyre in the garden so I went to the local scrappies and he gave me a tyre. I live in a town centre appartment with only a roof garden and balcony so I took my new training tool to a patch of open ground about a mile away at the edge of dartmoor where you can smack a few balls. I had been practicing this for about 3-4 minutes when this old bloke stopped the car, got out and accused me of being a vandal for smashing a tyre with a golf club, asked me where I found it etc. He was having none of it!

What planet was he on, or perhaps more to the point did he think you were on? Did he think the tyre was already there, and you jumped out of your car with the 6 iron, or perhaps he imagined they were both there, minding their own business, when you happened along and decided to take one to the other? Excuse the twitter etiquette but #oldpeoplearenuts #dailymailreader

This reminds me of another nosey and interfering individual I encountered last year while doing some field work. I had to catch 100 white tailed bumblebees every 100km in the UK for some genetic work that a post-doc was doing at my old uni. Everywhere I went people would see me running about with a net and the odd person would stop and have a chat about what I was doing and they were genuinely interested.

I stopped in Pitlochry towards the end of the field work, I was on a really quiet, one lane country road, butterfly net in hand swatting away at some hedgerows when an old boy in a massive merc drives past staring at me the whole way past. he stops about 100 yards away and then reverses all the way back past me with the window down and barks 'whit ye dain?' The way he said it got right up my nose, it was in such a challenging tone rather than a curious one. I had to fight the urge to tell him to Foxtrot Oscar and mind his own business. So I just stared for a few second and snippily told him 'catching bees' to which he replied 'whit fur?' once again in quite a challenging tone. So I again snippily said 'research' but this time turned my back and walked away. The boy then drives off again but drives back down this road a minute later after turning somewhere, staring the whole way past again! It was his lack of manners that really bugged me, he spoke to me like I was his illtreated step child. I saw him again driving on the high street a few hours later and gave him a big exaggerated wave and called him a name or two as he went by.

Some people are bonkers, I could see the point of being challenged if you were taking a golf club to a whole car... or if I was running about with a net in somebodys garden, but not when you are on public land minding your own business, especially if they bothered to engage their brain they would work out rather quickly what you are doing.

A few moons ago I was taking some measurements for a new course we were about to build.
Just two of us and a wheel in some open fields.

This guy comes marching straight for us and demands to know what we were doing [same as redrage].

My HGK, who was not a guy to mess, with comes back with the comment that we are measuring out for the new housing estate.

The guy about heels and 20 mins later arrives with another group including the parish councillor who demand to know what is happening.

Many many years ago I was on an army training exercise in the Lake District,
and myself and a couple of others were unloading a lorry in a field when we got approached by a couple of the locals, wanting to know what we were doing.

We were only there for about a week but we managed to convince them that we were the first of several thousand squaddies arriving shortly to set up a new barracks just on the edge of town.

It made the local papers and radio, amidst rumours of bribery and corruption in high places.

Some people will believe anything you tell them.

ronin47

ronin47 wrote:Many many years ago I was on an army training exercise in the Lake District,
and myself and a couple of others were unloading a lorry in a field when we got approached by a couple of the locals, wanting to know what we were doing.

We were only there for about a week but we managed to convince them that we were the first of several thousand squaddies arriving shortly to set up a new barracks just on the edge of town.

It made the local papers and radio, amidst rumours of bribery and corruption in high places.

Some people will believe anything you tell them.

ronin47

Fantastic