Tuesday, September 12, 2006

No Mechanics

After evaluating it all, are you happy with what you think about or feel during your swing?  I’m not asking if you are happy with the ballflight, that’s a different show.  Do you think the pros on tour swing with these same feelings and thoughts?  Figure out what you feel and why you are doing it.  Why are you swinging with tension? Is it a by product of fear?  Work out all of the tension and crank up the awareness level.  Because the big problem is not the swing flaw it self.  The big problem is not being able to feel the swing flaw.

If your problem is slicing
If you slice (a ball that curves to the right for a right-handed golfer) it’s because the clubface is open (pointed right for a right handed golfer) to the swing path.  Period, that’s really it.  Try to sense the clubface closing before and after impact.  Try to close your eyes and sense where the clubface is with a very slow practice swing that stops at impact.  Go very slow so you do not have to come to a tension filled halt.  Then, look at the face...is it closed?  Closed is good.  Don’t see it square, see it closed.  Try this easy exercise for 10 minutes a day.  When you get to the course try it before you hit any balls .  When you add balls make sure you sense the clubface closing, the ball flight will tell you if the clubface is square (straight), open (slice), or closed (hook).

Many players interrupt me at this point and ask me how.  And quite honestly, I really don’t know how.  I can ask you to close the face and sense the face closed, but I can’t tell you how to do it.  And even if I gave you swing thoughts, this still wouldn’t telling you how.  It’s like teaching someone how to walk.  The first “swing thought” is to lift the left leg.  Well how do I lift the leg?  If you can tell me how to lift my leg, you are telling me how the brain tells the leg to move.  And even if you did know how the brain tells the leg to move, it probably wouldn’t help me lift my leg if I didn’t know how.  In summary, you have to be responsible for the “how to” part.  You need to learn how to learn on your own.  If you can eventually learn it, but can’t explain it, you’re just like everyone else including myself.  I can give you the visuals of what something should look and feel like but I can’t tell you how to see or sense something.

Hooking
The cause of a hook is the clubface being closed to the swing path at impact.  To correct a hook, make sure the clubface is open at impact.  Use the drill we just went over for slicing.  Another idea I have for correcting hooking is to 1) hit a ball 2)hold your finish 3) return your club to address without changing your grip 4) observe the clubface position at impact.  Is it closed?  If so, you grip changed during your swing.  Now for the awareness part.  When, during the act of swinging, do you feel the club move in your grip?  You could be regripping at address, letting go at the top, slipping through impact, or it could be sliding around on the follow through.

Outside-in
Outside-in, over-the-top, cutting across it, hammering down, slicing across, and chopping wood.  Any of those phrases would be considered outside-in.  Outside-in is when a right handed golfer swings to the left of the target.  To correct this issue, swing to the right.  Wow! Are you surprised that’s all you need to do?  For some it’s not that simple.  So an idea Fred Shoemaker taught me was to throw clubs.  Gather about a dozen old clubs and head to a field or park.  Find an open area, where no people or fragile objects are around.  The reason is that at first it can be very dangerous.  When my colleague Ernie Barbour and I first started having our students throw clubs, we just about tore the teaching bays apart.  We had students tossing clubs with so much tension they wouldn’t let go of the club until it was too late.  That’s right!  Several throws never made it out of the building!  Ouch, lots of broken glass and close calls.  Thankfully, there was no bodily harm.  So please find an open area.  Make the first dozen throws only about 15 feet to get a feel for it.  Then, take it back and let it go.  My advice is to look at the target (not down) as you throw clubs.  This will make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your practice.  After a couple hundred throws, shift to a fuller swing.  If the clubs are not going at your target, you are swinging outside-in.

Topping
If you are topping, it’s not because you looked up.  I have miles of videotape of people topping with their head down.  If you don’t believe it, set up a video camera and watch yourself top a few balls.  The real reason why you top is because your club is too far from the ground at the point of impact.  PERIOD.  Sorry to sound too common sensei cal.  Now that you know the cause, what do you sense causes you to be too high at impact.  I’m not talking about the bad feel at impact but rather when do you sense coming out of your posture or shorten your arms during the action of the swing?  If you can’t determine it, try video to assist with your understanding.  In fact, that’s our next topic.

Video
If you’ve ever seen your swing on video you have proof of what your swing looks like.  Does the picture on video, resemble what you sense is happening?  Players that can sense what they feel on video are a very rare breed.  If so you are probably a single digit handicapper or better.  You could be signing your name at the top of your swing or look like you are trying to kill a snake in a phone booth, but you will have no ownership of your swing until you can sense (during the swing) what is taking place on the video.  The whole feel thing is a mystery.  The whole feel thing is a mystery only because you are not thinking about feeling your swing you are thinking about the ball.  This is covered in more detail in the forth show in this series on ball bound thinking.

In Summary
Let’s say you can feel your swing.  You can describe what you feel just as you see it on video.  This is great news.  In fact this huge!!!  Yippee, you have just accomplished the hardest part.  My belief is that if you can feel or sense what is happening, you will be able to make the swing change.  Let yourself feel what is happening even if you know it’s wrong and can feel that it’s wrong.  Be detailed about where in the swing you feel it.  Try to describe it.  It’s this awareness that is the key.  Awareness is the one thing that consistently separates great players from average players.  To become more aware you need to step outside the box and become more open minded to what you sense during the swing instead of always evaluating impact and ballflight.  Initially, this will be embarrassing because your result could be anything.  But, won’t it be more fun to learn something new than to be stuck with the same thoughts that generate the same results?