Let’s go deep.
This conversation was a fantastic talk going deep into the concepts of the drills and execution of the drills and having excellent results !
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Jesse,
Thank you again for having me as a guest. It’s a big honor for me. To all of you on the ABS forum, I’m just a fellow student… I hope/trust that the feedback from this podcast will be positive and helpful to the Podcast and to all of ABS.
Now, back to drilling… !
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In the podcast, I give credit to ABS for creating for me a path forward to do things in golf that I’d never been able to do in 50 years of playing the game. In particular, the improved ball striking resulted in me doing something I (as a mid-handicapper) had never done before… which is shoot minus 1 under par for an 18 hole round. See scorecard attached.
Yes, this is a short executive course… but it has tiny tiny elevated greens, lots of slope, and if your iron play and short game is not sharp, expect a lot of short-sided bogeys… Erickson’s quadrant concept of never missing a green in the ‘red zone’ really is in play at this little course… this was a day that never would have happened without ABS. 5 birdies and 4 bogeys. 12 GIR. 28 putts.
Of course… I don’t play this way all the time. But the great thing is, on my worst days, my misses are today far far better than they ever were. My worst misses are still in the “green zone”. To me, that indicates progress in this great game. Thank you to ABS.
.
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Golf clubs used for that round: 1969 Ben Hogan Bounce Sole +1 blades, leather grips, 3 degrees flat.
Average club for me at 145-150 yards with those clubs: 4 iron (26 degrees). I was 65 yrs old 3 months.
So, I’m not hitting a lot of wedges. Lots of mid-irons and long irons. Another reason ABS is great. You’d never have so much fun with modern clubs! 
And I am still (slowly) picking up some speed as I continue to progress in the Modules. So it’s never too late.
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Great to hear!
Thanks for posting, and it’s always inspiring to read the success stories many of us are having as we improve our technique.
Also, thanks for taking the time to do the Pod with Jesse. Very well articulated as an ABS practitioner. In many ways it’s most inspiring to know the work put in is transferring into reality, rather than just armchair or theoretical speculation.
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It was my pleasure John. Your story is incredibly inspiring and it’s my hope that folks will resonate with your story.
It
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Jesse, thank you.
ABS has helped so much! Like I said on the podcast, if not for your Flaghunters podcast, Jesse, I might never have found ABS.
I can’t wait to hear your next episode with John Erickson and ABS student US Senior Amateur champion Louis Brown!
Here’s a playlist of my swing, during the past year Dec 2023, July 2024, Nov 2024.
So much more to do with ABS!
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I should add that my swing is far from the ideal ABS swing, yet. I have much further to go. But that’s the point, as we discussed on the podcast - the Journey via ABS is well worth traveling, for all of us.
ABS drilling is yielding further incremental (albeit slow) progress. There’s no magic bullet; the ABS drilling is clearly improving my motion, my post-impact pivot thrust is better and faster for sure; but that said, there’s still so much that needs to be improved that I can see.
I have been diligently drilling all the Modules: Modules 3 and 4 to improve my post impact pivot thrust thru the ball, to “hold the X”, “exit low left and around”; Module 1 to improve my forearm strength and rotation into the ball; Module 2 cohesive body tension to firmly ground my body for the Module 3/4 “orbit pull”; Module 5 to transition; Module 6 to slot the club.
It’s worth noting that while my swing videos show my motion is nowhere near what it ideally could/should be; for example, I’m clearly not holding the right elbow bent enough and exiting low, left, and around the way I’d like; I’m raising up thru impact as my old 40 years of early extension pattern exists and I still has a long way to go to learn to truly rotate fully level thru the ball.
But what’s important is the above key foundational ABS fundamentals are incrementally improving slowly. And this can and will be true for you, too! The golf swing is truly invisible; my external positions above do not and cannot truly portray the internal improvements in my body from now almost 2 years of ABS drilling. It’s getting to the point where I can feel much different and deeper body sensations, and as a result, while it’s not visible, I feel myself really learning and re-learning a new, different way to strike the ball. I trust that I simply need to keep ABS drilling (there’s no time to waste, as I’ll be 66 in Jan 2025!). It’s hard work. It’s difficult (Module 3 is such a workout!) It’s not a magic bullet. But ABS IS making a positive difference.
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Learning to do self diagnosis is really important in golf. Once you get the entry and exit from impact protocols down… then Module 9 becomes all you really need to gauge your body each day… from round to round and from hole to hole. The Mod 9 shot shaping protocols are where we want to end up so we can really properly control our ball flight shaping. This is when golf really gets extra fun!
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Great chat guys, that was a fun listen 
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Great playing! Never too old to learn new tricks, more sub par rounds to come.
Enjoyed your podcast with Jesse, you have a great ‘radio’ voice. Your thoughts and message came across very well.
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Since being on Jesse’s podcast in 4Q24, continued progress. Here’s January 2026 swing progress. Progress in:
-
Advanced Ball Striking Module 3 = post impact pivot thrust much better
-
Advanced Ball Striking Module 2, Hogan Module Weight transfer and Hogan transition better
This after doing 100-150/day “magic trick” pitch shots average 5 days a week.
Now going back and deeper re-learning ABS module 1
To relearn better and deeper how to strike ball from hip high with shaft flex, lag, and body!
Mid-iron face-on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYbouEBtNp8
Frying pan driver face on (sorry, my Cobra buddy wanted video of me hitting Cobra gear):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmOGiVG3wU8
Frying pan driver down the line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HqwM1baDuI
2-iron down the line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeIDNNKFvT4
2-iron face-on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOqWn_kRCY
Streamsong “The Chain” short course hole 11 tee shot, all carry 175 tee shot with 4 wood to punchbowl green:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex_NQVKaKiI&pp=0gcJCZEKAYcqIYzv
(see more about my trip to Streamsong here:
https://pbase.com/atsf_arizona/streamsong_golf_resort__the_chains_short_course )
For me as a current 12 handicapper , it’s been a worthwhile journey.
Not all of us are young or as talented as some (younger) ABS superstars … I am at peace with fact that my rate of improvement isn’t headed towards as low a handicap as some others….
The foundation that Lynn Blake ( Yoda of The Golf Machine ) gave me - building on top of that, ABS ( www.advancedballstriking.com ) - the ABS Modules and Hogan Modules have worked better for me than any thing else I have studied in golf. I’d consider myself part of the ABS 100% success rate.
Proof points:
I am just now after 3 years getting to the point where I can acceptably hit and play golf the heavy, flat ABS-spec 1969 Hogan Bounce Sole blade irons ( 6 degrees flat, stiff tipped shafts, D6 swing weight). This is an achievement for me, it has taken a (long) while to learn enough ABS skill to do this. 3 years may be on the longer end of the ABS student elapsed time required continuum, but it’s my journey and while slow, it has been well worth it. I hit shots today I never could have dreamed of 3 years ago (and I am still improving slowly at age 67 yrs old) Remarkably to me, I can hit the 1, 2, 3 irons reasonably well and I can trust them …. That’s something I could NEVER do before and is a great satisfaction for me. I can now hit the Neil Gascoigne-built Titleist 975D super stiff shafted driver well. I can hit my (growing) collection of persimmon drivers well and vintage classic blade irons well. Thank you, ABS.
These are January 2026 swing videos. Clearly much more to keep working on. I credit the ABS drills, methodology and 3 yrs of applied practice…. without them, I would not have the improved swing and ball striking today. Apologies to my ABS forum-mates about using the frying pan modern driver…. My golf buddy is a Cobra fitter and he’d asked me to send him some videos of me hitting Cobra gear.
I spend majority of my time practicing and playing with vintage ABS spec irons and vintage hogan woods which continues to freak out my golfing buddies …. When I’m asked or challenged to “what can you do with modern gear” I can show them I can hit the modern stuff also (much better than I ever did before). Importantly, I notice that I always need to get back to the heavy, still older era ABS-spec golf equipment to keep improving…. If I play with the modern gear too much, I can feel the deterioration in my body-rotation hitter ABS/Hogan Modules skill sets.
So we will see what 2026 has in store. I am slowly getting more of the ABS/Hogan principles into my swing. I am just not able to learn and improve skill any faster than I am, despite constant practice and I am ok with that, it’s my journey and I am enjoying it. In combination with working on my short game, putting, sand play, and course strategy (The Scoring Method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3crhrkbp3g ), even though I just turned 67 I am enjoying practicing and improving more than ever. I even think my ABS/Hoaan Module work can stand up to some speed training now, finally. I have low expectations knowing I may never get to the low single digit handicap at my age (can’t swing fast enough to hit the ball far enough), but I do feel constantly that I am “on the verge of a significant drop in my handicap“ … We’ll see and whether that happens or not.
Bottom line: I enjoy practicing ABS/Hogan Modules immensely, even more than playing golf!!!
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How to insert YouTube thumbnails for ABS Forum
Tips on getting successful YouTube thumbnail inserted into your reply on our Forum:
(i.e. why in my post above, why are there YouTube URLs only, and the thumbnails didn’t appear?)
Here’s my theory on how to get your YouTube thumbnail to properly appear in a ABS Forum posting, when posting a YouTube URL. Also explains why that thumbnail might not appear i.e. URL only gets posted.
My theory, I think this is what I discovered and I think this is the way our Forum software works:
If you type or cut/paste a YouTube URL into this Forum’s “Reply” box and then press Enter immediately after pasting the URL…. the “Enter” kicks off a background process whereby the Forum software goes out and tries to communicate with YouTube to retrieve a YouTube thumbnail.
If enough time is allowed to pass for this Forum and YouTube communication to complete (i.e. also assumes that YouTube replies properly), then the YouTube thumbnail is automatically inserted into the “Reply” box by the Forum software.
However, if an “ENTER” key is NOT pressed immediately after the YouTube URL is entered, or NOT enough time is allowed to pass (i.e. you do a huge mass cut/paste of a previously composed post like my post above thus Enter is NOT pressed after each URL), OR if YouTube is busy and doesn’t reply……… if any of these conditions apply, then the Forum software just pastes the URL.
To prove this theory, below I separately and individually pasted each of these two YouTube URLs from my original post above, and pressed ENTER after pasting each URL, and….. voila! ….. these YouTube Thumbnails showed up:
John Sing two-iron down the line, January 19, 2026:
John Sing two-iron face on, January 19, 2026:
So this is the resolution that I think I found. about how YouTube thumbnails work in our ABS Forum. Your results may vary…. let us know if this works for you the same way.
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P.S. Prior to ABS and Hogan Modules, I NEVER was able to hit two-irons like this. The Hogan Modules added important points that worked for me that I didn’t pick up from the ABS modules (i.e. the Hogan Modules emphasis on “Tripping the shaft transition” and “simultaneously executing the weight shift while keeping hips/shoulders as closed as possible, saving as much rotation for the strike as possible”). These additional techniques has helped me strike reliable, straight, pure two-irons in a way I never could before. THANK YOU, ABS and John Erickson.
Thx to William Hanisch for reviving this Forum so that we all can communicate and share re: ABS and the Hogan Modules. This is really such a great collaborative community.
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