The Search for My Perfect Swing — Contents

Table of Contents

Welcome to my horseshoe blog.

Today is May 31, 2012. Sorry for the delay in completing Part 35, but, have been dealing with a shipping issue with the US Postal Service. We ship our horseshoes in a Priority Mail Flat Rate Shipping Envelope with the horseshoes either wrapped in heavy duty plastic or a bubble envelope inside the envelope. Recently, a customer was charged an additional $6.70 because I had added additional packing tape on the edges of the envelope, apparently a no-no. Our customers are only charged the actual cost of shipping and to recoup a small PayPal fee, $6.50 total, nothing for handling. We will discontinue adding additional tape to protect the contents, hoping that all arrive safely.

Back to Part 35. If you are a new, beginning pitcher or a struggling older pitcher, you’ll want to check out Part 35 currently underway. I have long felt that our normal tendencies play an important role in reliable results. Try as we may to master the art of pitching a horseshoe, when in the heat of battle, we always revert back to our normal and natural tendencies. That is generally true to the late arrivals to horseshoe pitching. Most, if not all, of our world champions began pitching at an early age. They have honed their craft over many years of practice and have programmed their bodies to perform each action consistently. When I pitch in a tournament, my misses are always left and sometimes short. Why? I practice for hours daily, trying to direct the shoe to the stake and think I have it, only to find out, I miss left anyway or perhaps I’m short.

Part 35 will describe how I solved the mystery, and what I am doing to correct the problem.

This blog, The Search For My Perfect Swing, is directed to the new horseshoe pitcher, like me, who is interested in joining the large population of pitchers wanting to improve their technique. I guess I can state that I’m no longer new horseshoe pitcher. Here it is 2012 and I began this blog in 2008. Even though it is primarily directed at the Elder pitcher, those 70 and older, in addition to women, and youth who primarily flip the horseshoe, there should be some tidbits of information that might help any pitcher improve their ringer average. Golfers have a huge inventory of teaching aids available to help with their game. The horseshoe pitcher has very little. This blog covers my search to improve my game. Along the way I have tried to create aids that will help my technique. As I search and refine, I’ll be modifying this blog, so, I’ve decided to also include a Change Log that may cause a change in some particular area. I will place a link in the changed area, linked back to the Change Log for clarification.

Part 1
 Introduction
 The Beginning

Part 2
 The Pit
 The Approach
 The Pit Material

Part 3
 Horseshoes
 Horseshoe Web Pages
 My Horseshoes
 Additional Stuff

Part 4
 Constants
  Constant 1 — The Pendulum Swing
  Constant 2 — Center of Gravity
  Constant 3 — Line of Flight
  Constant 4 — Continuation of the Line of Flight
  Constant 5 — Addressing the Stake
  Constant 6 — The Stride
  Constant 7 — Arm Rotation
  Constant 8 — Release Point
  Constant 9 — High Point of Flight

Part 5
 Mechanical Teaching Aids
  Line of Flight
  The All Important Plumb
  The On-Plane Aid
  Correcting Your Stride
  The Electronic Glove
  Pendulum Man
  Release and Height Frame

Part 6
 My First Doubles Tournament
 It’s My Turn

Part 7
 My Grip(s)
 The Flip Grip
 The Turn Grip
 Warming Up for the Turn

Part 8
 I Found My Grip!

Part 9
 The Flight of My 1-1/2 Flip Horseshoe

Part 10
 The Maryland State Tournament of Champions

Part 11
 The Flight of My 1-1/2 Flip Horseshoe (Continued)
 Table of Plot Results for 30 Foot Approach
 The Plotted Rotation of My 1-1/2 Flip
 Your Personal Plot

Part 12
 Saturday’s Tournament and the Metronome
 Horseshoe Flight Evaluation Form
 Using a Metronome

Part 13
 It’s Debug Time
 Grip Changed
 Stance Changed
 Tightened Line of Flight
 Pre-Release Rehearsal
 It Looks Like My Search May Be Over
 Future Plans

Part 14
 A Few Random Comments
 A Slight Stance Change
 Making the Most of My Practice
 Staying in Shape

Part 15
 My Final Sanctioned Tournament for 2008
 A Newly Found Secret

Part 16
 Catching Up
 An Unexpected Award
 Testing New Shoes
 New Pit Material — Blue Clay
 A New Website to Swap/Sell/Trade Shoes
 Pro Horseshoe League
 Is This my Perfect Swing?

Part 17
 80% and A New Horseshoe is Born
 A Horseshoe is Born
 How I Reached 80%
 The Horseshoe
 The Setup
 The Address
 The Backswing

Part 18 — The NHPA approves the Viking
 The Parabola
 The Wings
 Gripping the Viking
 Turning the Viking

Part 19
 The 2009 Season — A Critique
 Three New Horseshoe Designs Ready for Production
 A Laser Based Pitching Aid

Part 20
 My Current Pitching Method
 The Setup
 Starting Position
 Left Foot at Release
 Distance from Foul Line
 Settling In
 The Swing Cadence
 Troubleshooting
 Swing Change (Old/New Method)

Part 21
 Singles Tournaments
 My First Tournament
 Subsequent Tournaments
 Tournament Preliminaries
 Score Keeping
 Maintaining Your Pits
 The Match Begins
 Your Day Is Done
 Doubles Tournaments

Part 22
 The Hilfling GrabIt
 The First Horseshoe in Production
 Altering the Flight of a Horseshoe
 A Mechanical Horseshoe Pitcher

Part 23
 The Hilfling GrabIt Lite — A Reality
 First Sale
 Why The GrabIt Lite?
 Hilfling Website Up and Running
 Hilfling Horseshoes on Ebay

Part 24
 The Hilfling GrabIt Medium
 A New Design
 My Search Is Over
 Practice Tip

Part 25
 My First Pro Tour Tournament
 A New Horseshoe Design

Part 26
 Some Exciting News for 2011
 The 3D Software Search
 Moment of Inspiration (MOI)
 A New Design is Born
 The Tribute Series

Part 27
 The Center of Gravity
 Determining the Center of Gravity
 Designing a Perfectly Balanced Horseshoe
 Perfect Balance — A New Area of Interest
 Why is Perfect Balance Important

Part 28
 The Tribute Series
 Six New Designs
 The Patriot
 The Air Force Aviator
 The Army Ranger
 The Marine Warrior
 The Navy BullFrog
 The Coast Guard Coastie

Part 29
 Highpoint Downrange Location Verified
 A Little History
 The Release Point

Part 30
 Drop Angle
 13 Inch Scoring Area
 The Minimum Drop Angle
 The Maximum Drop Angle

Part 31
 My 30 Foot Method

Part 32
 A Rewarding 2011
 Three New Designs NHPA Approved
 The Aviator
 The Trident
 The Eagle
 Four New Designs
 The Warrior
 The Torque
 The Patriot
 The Gyro

Part 33
 A New Season Has Arrived
 A Stance Change
 The Hilfling Aviator
 The Hilfling Patriot

Part 34
 Emergency Preparation
 Testing is Done — Decision Time. The Trident is Chosen 

Change Record
 Stance
 On-Plane Aid

2 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI