SwingFreak!

Shot a decent 79 the other day even though my drives were insanely short. After debugging at the driving range, I realized that my right forearm wasn’t behaving properly. At impact, I believe the feeling should be that the right forearm is inline with the club shaft. For this to happen the right elbow needs to feel like it’s leading the swing. Releasing early and having the right elbow behind at impact means a weak over-the-top path.

The other thing I wasn’t doing all that well was creating space between my chin and hands. I need to focus on a long spine, shoulders back and down, shoulder-blades actively pulling back and in towards the spine, core muscles activated so lower back isn’t overly curved (my buttocks not sticking out too much but also not hunched either). In this position my neck is relaxed and I can turn my body freely, powerfully, and quickly.

Yesterday I used a “Groupon” for an on-course lesson with a local pro. It was a good experience, despite the course being a little frosty and slippery. Hey liked my action, grip, posture, etc, but wondered why I was swinging at 70%. He mentioned that Tom Watson believed the harder you hit the ball (faster you swing it), the straighter it goes. Basically you impart more backspin which keeps the ball under control (more up, less left or right). My sense is that there’s less chance of timing errors as the movement becomes more athletic and “one-piece”, rather than a highly finess oriented and finely orchestrated movement. So, obviously I’ve been taking my “slow-motion” swinging a little too far The good news is that it wasn’t hard for me to bump up to 85% on the spot, and the results were obvious. His message was to “go for it”, don’t be so “tentative”. He commented that I’ve got the athleticism technique and the core-strength for it, so there’s really no excuse. He also made me realize that swinging at even 90-100% I was finishing in almost better balance than I was at 70%. Finally, the other good news is that my smooth 70% swing turns out to be the perfect knock down shot. He recommended having “three or four speeds in the bag”. Considering that plus a few short game tricks, and learning that a big secret of good golf is to properly analyze the lie and surroundings to come to a shot decision, I guess I’ll have to say thank you Groupon!

Slow motion swinging is brilliant! It really allows a person to experiment and feel the results. Swinging at full pace is like slapping your hand against a brick wall. You become numb to a lot of sensation. Last night I was experimenting with my slow motion swing and thought I’d try again alternating between keeping a square to square club face (reduced left forearm rotation, no left wrist cupping), and an open to closed club face (fully cocked and cupped left wrist, fully rotated forearm). I was very surprised how effective the latter method was proving to be. I was hitting it 20% farther with less effort. Shots were high and slightly fading — but with lots of power. I need to get the slow motion camera out but I suspect my swing probably looked a lot more Ben Hogan – ish cupping and rotating my wrist like that. Very extreme angles. I think the slow motion – ultra smooth follow through was the key difference between last night and the multitude of times I’ve experimented with this in the past. Being stiff and tight prevents the wrist from doing what it’s supposed to.

I think a lot of problems I’ve had in the past (which are the same problems I’ve witnessed with many others) have to do with some sort of last second compensation in an attempt to square the club face at impact. Our brain attempts to compensate for our fundamental swing problems stemming from bad setup, posture, backswing, plane, etc. Of course it’s usually too late and we end up with inconsistent shot making (hooks, slices, etc..) I think a great way to take this “last second compensation” out of the picture is to practice in slow motion. Once warmed up, try to make a slow motion full swing. Slow backswing and through — say 2 seconds for each. With my driver I was hitting about 180 carry using this method. If you are hitting farther try to slow down even more — try to hit 150 with your driver. Try other clubs. Resist the temptation to accelerate at the last second. Focus on even grip pressure with no flipping through impact. See my “guitar string” post earlier. What you may see is that you keep blocking the ball, or hooking it, but now it’s consistent and you can feel what’s happening. Now start working on fundamentals — what are you missing? Experiment until you can hit all your clubs with the path you desire. Try hitting high and low shots in slow motion. Take a look at a video of Ernie Els and imagine you are him — very fluid.

Stick with this and I think you’ll gain new understanding of where your swing is breaking down.

Ever had the experience after taking time off that you feel like you forgot everything and it’s a big disaster starting at the first tee? Maybe you pull the first shot OB, block your approach, hit the chip through the green… whatever. The natural response is frustration.

What I realized is that with a slightly different point of view, coming back fresh can be an opportunity, not a struggle.

My theory is that while concentrated practicing over a long period often results in enhanced performance, it’s not necessarily a direct result of a genuine acquisition of the skills being practiced. I propose that more often than not, one sooner adapts and learns to manage the deficiencies of their swing than actually adopting something new and potentially game-changing. To me this ability to adapt and manage is equivalent to shaking off the “rust”. If you say “I’m rusty” but after several holes return to previous performance levels, then you’ve begun to adapt thanks to prolonged exposure to the activity of golfing. The problem is that once the rust is gone and we’re adapting at full capacity, I believe learning something new becomes very difficult because the brain is completely tuned to the result, not the procedure.

After several days off, we revert to raw technique and fundamentals. This is our opportunity to witness an honest reflection of where we are at technically, if we are willing to be open to it. Most of us are too busy expressing frustration and anger to ourselves and fellow players (“how can this be happening to me!” or “this is a big joke”) that we miss the opportunity to peer directly into the soul of our golf swings. If we pay attention to what happens during these raw experiences, we suddenly have access to potentially game changing insights.

I think one of the most difficult things in the swing is knowing how the hands should feel through impact, as well as if and what action they should take.

I’ve tried doing nothing, forcing square, flipping over, gentle rotation, and extreme twisting.

Here is a sensation metaphor I came up with recently that really seems to work. It all hinges on what I’ve been discussing about keeping the left wrist square, more or less flat, right into the backswing, or at least definitely not rotating open.

“Tune your string and swing”

By string, I’m thinking of a musical instrument. Like a guitar for example. You tune a guitar string by tightening or loosening it so that when plucked, the desired pitch is heard. A little tight you get a high pitch (fade), a little loose you get a low pitch (draw). If the string is way too loose and you pluck it too hard, you get horrible distorted vibrations (duck hook), and far too tight you break the string (banana slice ob). The quality of the guitar (technique, grip) assures the pitch will be constant and a loud and clear rich sound will be heard. So, how does one tune a string (swing)? You initiate a pluck with your arm bringing the pick near the guitar strings (downswing is initiated with the hips and you find yourself at the Ben Hogan “hip height cartoon giant just before impact zone” crossroads) then the fingers are ready to deliver the pick across the string (the clubhead plucks the ball off the fairway). The hands need a constant grip pressure through the impact zone, though it feels like the pressure slightly increases as the club whips through. There is no flipping, rotating, keeping square or anything — the grip pressure simply accelerates the club head through the ball. By letting go of the pressure, the club likely overtakes the hands and flips too soon creating a hook. If the pressure is too strong too soon, the club head takes a different path and slides through in an open position, slicing through the ball.

The perfectly applied grip pressure creates the whipping action.

Here’s a metaphor to explain my current thinking on why attaining a repeating powerful and accurate swing is so difficult:

Picture 5 jig-saw puzzles, each depicting a golfer at impact. One of the golfers has a swing like Ben Hogan, another like a golfer near the bottom of the PGA money list, another a club championship winning amateur, another who sucks but can hit the ball a long way, and another who is a complete hacker. Picture they are identical quintuplets, who like to wear the exact same golf attire, and somehow they all arrived at the exact same position at impact. Now, mix up all 5 puzzles together into one big box. Your job is to pick out the pieces and assemble them into your swing.

I think there are many quite different ways to hit a golf ball reasonably well, yet mixing components from different methods does not work.

Anyway, I’ve chosen to follow Ben Hogan’s book, and so here are the components (or fundamentals) that seem to be compatible:

- Weight on heels
- Right leg stationary on backswing.
- Keep club face square on takeaway and into the backswing (like the waggle described in the book).
- Aggressive hip turn into left buttocks.
- Right elbow out in front on down swing.
- Shoulders down and back throughout backswing.
- Grip flexes down so that there is very little or no angle between club shaft and forearms (if left hand was holding a pistol, it would be pointing straight down at the ground and address).
- After hip turn when the right elbow is approximately hip-heigh, out in front like the comic-book style giant depicted in Hogan’s book, it’s about letting the swing complete — no thought or attempt at steering the clubhead or clubface. Tension kills speed (and likely results in a block or hook). Watch the face-on video of hogan describing how to swing. Easily findable on youtube. The club face definitely flips over (from open to closed) through impact. Do not try to steer it square to square.

I sometimes to forget to “point the gun at the ground”, i.e. I need to actively point the club shaft down and away from me at address. Find a video of Hogan doing his waggle to see what I mean. If I don’t do that and instead create a bit of angle (like some pros seem to prescribe), I tend to pull across the target line.

I shot a tidy 79 at a foreign course over the weekend (128 slope I think it was). Also a few scores in the low 80s. Here are a few common errors that have been popping up preventing me from going lower:

- In windy conditions I start to think about hitting it lower and start trying to manipulate the clubface with my hands or controlling the release with my arms — bad. I need to remember to avoid any tension in my arms and instead control trajectory with my core / back muscles.

- My right elbow gets lazy and stops leading the downswing in tight to my body (when the hips initiate the pump action I’ve been working on).

- My left shoulder comes up at the top of the backswing instead of staying down and back.

- I occasionally forget to match the steepness of the backswing to the length of club I’m using.

- I occasionally get lazy with setup: must remember to be decisive about keeping the stance more open and narrower as the clubs get shorter, closed and wider as they get longer.

All for now. Gaining confidence rapidly.

This is going well.

I do feel like I’ve “been here before” but this is different, as I understand what the wrist/hands should do / not do through impact, and I have a much more stable base with less sway than I did 5 years ago.

Anyway, I continue to work on the left hip turn by aggressively shooting backward, almost into a semi squat, while the right leg remains relatively fixed. At the same time the hands and arms do not fire, but instead the right elbow leads the pump action as the hip turn brings the leading right elbow and grip down, just like Hogan describes.

What I found is that for the driver especially, the ball position needed to move further left than I was used to, and my stance needed to be more closed, because the grip comes down and somewhat infront of me on the hip turn. By closing the stance at address and keeping the ball position forward, the club squares up properly in the remaining extremely fast unwinding / suppenation of the wrists through impact.

THe other thing that’s different than 5 years ago is that I realize the short game is quite a different beast. I can’t simply apply one swing to all swings. For example, for 50 yards and under where I want to bump and run, there is none of this aggressive hip action and suppenation. I instead take a very upright stance with feet quite close together, and make sure my grip is pointing the shaft like a hose spraying water at the ball (get rid of the angle from forearm to shaft), and then I swing along the club plane, often keeping the face square or open depending on the spin required.