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Claire's turn with the suit
A chapter in the book Saving Mr. Calvin
Saving Mr. Calvin - Chapter 37
by Jim Wile
The author has placed a warning on this post for language.| Background A story about the origin and the future of the game of golf |
See Author Notes for the list of characters and unfamiliar terms.
Recap of the past few chapters: At the barbecue lunch on Saturday, Abby and Kenny describe Abby’s idea for the suit. The group is intrigued and all decide to join them in the project.
Abby and E.J. begin figuring out the algorithms to drive the software, while Kenny and Eddie figure out the mechanics of the suit. Over two years’ time, their combined efforts result in a completed prototype that is ready for testing.
Abby is the first to test it. Kenny and E.J. play a little trick on Abby and the suit guides her into dancing the Hustle, the Twist, and a couple other steps. Once E.J. loads in the correct software, Abby takes her first swings in the suit. The first day of testing went remarkably well, and the suit works, though it does require a few tweaks.
Chapter 37
For the next three weeks, E.J., Eddie, and I all took turns in the suit. As Abby said, you do need to put your faith in it and try not to influence the swing in any way; otherwise, the results are less than desirable.
Claire began bugging us almost daily during the past week, asking if it was ready for her to try it yet. Finally, the time came to give her a turn at it. It was at breakfast on Saturday that Abby broached her on this.
“Claire, if you’re not doing anything this morning, do you think you’d like to give the suit a try?”
“Mom! Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course, I’d like to try it!”
“Claire! Language!” Abby said and frowned, while I attempted to look stern. But then Abby smiled and said, “Alright, but you’ll need to put it on under some sweat pants and a long-sleeved blouse. I don’t want to call attention to it just yet. We’ll change here and take you to the club, where you can try it out on the practice tee. We’ll go soon before it gets hot and the suit makes you sweat too much.”
“Allriiight!” She began dancing around, throwing quick jabs like a boxer, she was so excited.
“Can I come too?” asked her brother.
“Well, of course,” I said. “We can’t leave you home unsupervised. Why don’t you bring your clubs, and you can plan on practicing on the range too?”
In about an hour, it was time to get ready to go. Abby helped Claire change into the suit and get it adjusted correctly, cinching it in here and there because Claire was very slim. There were a few buckles for this purpose. When they got it just right and she had put her long clothes over top of it, it was time to go.
We drove to Kettle Creek Country Club then got some range balls at the pro shop. We headed over to the practice tee, where we started instructing Claire on what she had to do.
Abby began with, “The thing you have to keep foremost in your mind, Claire, is to let the suit do the work for you. You still have to use your own power to make the swing, but just let it guide you in how to do it. If you try to counteract what it’s urging you to do, it’s bound to lead to a less-than-perfect shot. Sometimes you might get lucky and still hit a good one, but more often than not, it won’t be very good. This is the hardest thing about using the suit—to trust it and let it just take over after you first start the club back, which triggers it.”
“But Mom, how will I know what it’s urging me to do?”
“Oh, you’ll know. It will feel like it’s pushing or pulling against your various body parts to try to correct you. It’s when you don’t feel anything at all while swinging that you know you’re doing it exactly right. Make sense?”
“I guess.”
“Okay, Kenny, what’s the practice plan?” Abby asked me.
“Claire, why don’t we just start with some half-wedge shots? We’ll set it to swing at only 50%, and you’ll use your pitching wedge. The balls should go 40 to 50 yards.”
“Can’t I try my driver first?”
“No, let’s start small and work up to that. You’ll hit a few before the day is done, though. Just be patient.”
“Awww. Okay, half-wedges it is.”
“Take a few practice swings first,” I said.
She pulled the pitching wedge from her bag and took her stance. She then started the club back a little too much to the inside on her backswing, and the suit immediately corrected this to a more upright takeaway. When it got to half-swing distance, Claire seemed to give it a little extra to send the club back even farther, but this threw the timing off, and the club missed the grass and failed to take any divot.
“Yow!” said Claire. “That felt so strange not having total control over the club. That felt weird when it didn’t like my takeaway and wanted me to change the direction of the club. Then I thought it didn’t take it back nearly far enough for a half-shot, and I felt resistance at the top. The swing felt like it was all over the place.”
“See what I mean?” said Abby. “You’ve got to put your trust in it that it’s doing the right things. You noticed how it wanted you to reroute your backswing. With a square stance, which you started with, the club should go back straighter than you usually take it, which is too much to the inside. This time, try initiating the backswing by taking it back straighter, and the suit won’t fight you. Also, let it stop your backswing where it will, and don’t try to put any more oomph into the shot. Let it be the guide.”
She tried again with a few more practice swings, and it seemed to get easier for her with each one. “Can I try a ball now?”
“Okay, but don’t let the presence of the ball change anything. Just keep swinging like you’ve been doing on these last few.”
Claire raked a ball over then and took another swing, but ended up hitting a low skull without a divot. “What happened that time?” she asked.
I asked her, “Did you feel like you were fighting it again, like on your first practice swing? It looked like it to me.”
“Yes, but that didn’t happen on the last couple of practice swings.”
“Yeah, there’s something about when the ball is there that does that to people. Practice swings always look better and more natural than swings at an actual ball. It’s the human tendency to want to give it extra oomph that can kill a swing. Why don’t you try hitting one with your eyes closed and see how that works?”
“Seriously?”
“Try it. What do you have to lose? If it works, it will prove my point.”
She set up for another ball then, and right before taking the club back, she closed her eyes and just let the suit take over. Smack! She took a shallow divot, and the ball flew away on a high arc, landing about 50 yards straight down the range.
“I did it!” she exclaimed. “With my eyes closed too.”
“Great job, Claire,” said Abby. Try it with your eyes open now, but just let the suit do everything. No extra motions by you.”
She tried it again with another perfect shot and then again with the same result.
“Alright, Claire!” I said, giving her a high five. “Why don’t we set it to a full 100% shot? Try not to change anything. Just swing, but let the club do all the guiding. It will let you go farther back this time, but it will urge you to stop at the right place.”
“I think.. I get.. the point.. Dad.”
“Okay, let’s see if you do.”
I entered 100% on the keypad, and she hit another shot. It was a beauty, landing just short of the 100-yard flag on the range and straight as an arrow.
“Wow! I’ve never hit that good a wedge shot, and it hardly felt like I put anything into it. I usually take the club back a lot farther than this for a full wedge, and I swing a lot harder and faster than this makes me. It just felt so different to me. How could it go so much farther and straighter with such a slow, short swing?”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” said Abby. “When the timing is correct and your greatest acceleration and clubhead speed come in the right place—at the bottom in the hitting zone—that’s what creates the best shots. With your usual swing, you tend to uncock your wrists too early in the downswing, and you lose a lot of your power that way. The suit swings like Dad swings, which is beautifully timed for maximum power, yet it is slow and smooth throughout except for right through the impact zone when he really bashes it.”
“I still can’t get over how it went so far. The backswing felt so short!”
“It really wasn’t, though, Claire,” I said. “It was certainly shorter than your usual backswing, but it wasn’t what I’d call short. Do you see the difference between ‘feel’ and ‘real’ now?”
“Yeah, I guess so. It also wouldn’t let me bend my left wrist back to be able to take the club back farther, but kept it straight or even bent the other way a bit.”
“The fact that you always ‘cup’ your wrist—that’s what that bending is called—instead of keeping it flat or even ‘bowing’ it a little is one of the major reasons why you slice the ball. You can’t get your clubface square again when you cup it. This way just keeps it square throughout the swing.”
“I think I get it, Dad. Can I try the driver now?”
“Not yet. Let’s try the 7-iron next, then the 5-iron, and then perhaps the driver. Okay?”
“I guessss,” she said with a note of disappointment.
Ah, the impatience of youth.
She continued hitting balls with each club, and by the time she had finished with the driver, she was ecstatic. Her drives went about 200 yards with a touch of draw to them instead of her usual 150 or 160 with a big slice. This was very encouraging to all of us.
Abby said, “Claire, it’s starting to get hot out now, and you look like you're sweating quite a lot. Why don’t we go into the locker room and you can take a shower and change into your shorts and t-shirt that I packed for you?”
“Okay, Mom. This was great. I think I’m getting the hang of it.”
“The real test will be next time when you hit for a while with the suit on, then try removing it and hitting again without it to see if you’ve made some actual progress. Maybe tomorrow we can try that, okay?”
“Great!”
Before she left for the locker room, I said, “Claire, if you ever go to change into your regular clothes, either bring the suit with you if you go back out again, or lock it up in the locker using the lock. Okay? We don’t want to tempt anyone into stealing it. It’s worth a lot of money.”
“I will, Dad. Don’t worry.”
“It’s important.”
“Okaaaay, Dad!”
pitching wedge: a very lofted club which hits the ball high but not far
fade: a shot that curves gently from left to right for a right-handed golfer
slice: a shot that curves a lot from left to right for a right-handed golfer
draw: a shot that curves gently from right to left for a right-handed golfer
skull: a poorly hit, low shot in which the bottom of the clubface strikes the middle of the ball
divot: a thin slice of turf lifted out of the ground when an iron strikes the ground
CHARACTERS - 2032 California
Kevin Parsons: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old mechanical engineer living in Santa Barbara, CA.
Paul Putnam: A good friend of Kevin who is an electrical engineer.
Ernie Dombrowski: Another good friend of Kevin who is a computer genius.
Art Calvin: An old, retired golf course architect whom the boys meet one day while golfing.
CHARACTERS - 2002 USA
Kenny Payne: A 37-year-old co-owner of a golf equipment company and former mechanical engineer. He is the narrator of this part of the story.
E.J. Budrowski: Abby and Kenny's 54-year-old friend who is a computer science professor and former golf caddie.
Susan Budrowski: E.J.'s wife. She is a paralegal.
Abby Payne: A 36-year-old insurance company actuarial department manager. She is an expert mathematician and engineer.
Claire Payne: Kenny and Abby's 10-year-old daughter.
Greg Payne: Kenny and Abby's 8-year-old son.
Eddie Phillips: Kenny's partner who originally founded the golf equipment company.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. fade: a shot that curves gently from left to right for a right-handed golfer
slice: a shot that curves a lot from left to right for a right-handed golfer
draw: a shot that curves gently from right to left for a right-handed golfer
skull: a poorly hit, low shot in which the bottom of the clubface strikes the middle of the ball
divot: a thin slice of turf lifted out of the ground when an iron strikes the ground
CHARACTERS - 2032 California
Kevin Parsons: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old mechanical engineer living in Santa Barbara, CA.
Paul Putnam: A good friend of Kevin who is an electrical engineer.
Ernie Dombrowski: Another good friend of Kevin who is a computer genius.
Art Calvin: An old, retired golf course architect whom the boys meet one day while golfing.
CHARACTERS - 2002 USA
Kenny Payne: A 37-year-old co-owner of a golf equipment company and former mechanical engineer. He is the narrator of this part of the story.
E.J. Budrowski: Abby and Kenny's 54-year-old friend who is a computer science professor and former golf caddie.
Susan Budrowski: E.J.'s wife. She is a paralegal.
Abby Payne: A 36-year-old insurance company actuarial department manager. She is an expert mathematician and engineer.
Claire Payne: Kenny and Abby's 10-year-old daughter.
Greg Payne: Kenny and Abby's 8-year-old son.
Eddie Phillips: Kenny's partner who originally founded the golf equipment company.
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