The Slot

For the first time ever today I could feel the slot in the top of the backswing and had no difficulty putting it there.

How come my coach many years ago never told me about this? Every shot felt good, it was comfortable and easy.
Thanks to all your posts I've learnt more about this game in the last three months than twenty years of golf.
Thanks guys and girls

Simple ... 99.99% of coaches don't know anything about the golf swing [I didn't say that! ] and even less about teaching it!

Golf instruction is a speciality, much like any other speciality takes in-depth knowledge and experience. Not just anybody can deliver good and meaningful instruction.

You'll be suprised at how many people I teach day-in and day-out who have been for lessons for ages and their pro didn't pick up the basic stuff or couldn't get them to execute a movement because they couldn't explain it properly so the pupil could understand.

Graham, I totally agree.

I've always wanted a coach to tell me about the feel of a good golf swing in addition to all the other swing plane stuff, but they never seem to be able to convey this information.
I always ask questions like:
What should I feel at the beginning of my downswing
What should I feel in my arms throughout the swing
What should I feel in my legs and back etc etc etc
And they never seem to be able to tell me any of this; is it just me, am I wrong for wanting to know these aspects of a golf swing?

__________________
Life's a game, golf is serious!

That's whythe choice of teaching pro is so important! If you wanted to learn to drive an Indy Car or F-1 car, you wouldn't go to just any dude ... you're going to do some research first.

You need to find a coach you're comfortable with, has good analysis systems, teaches in a way that suits your understanding of the golf swing and someone whose is knowledgable about the golf swing and the movements that make up the golf swing.

Find someone who also has a library of sorts of pictures, videos, visual aids, etc. to help with concepts ... it's very important to be able to see and feel so you can execute. No point in him waving his hands around and just explaining do this, then that and that ... now do it c'oz your 45 minutes are almost up. That's ain't gonna work.

You'll be shocked at how little a lot of club / driving range pros actually know! (excluding me, of course!)

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

You are correct Graham,

However I have another angle to look at, do you think that most pros are pretty natural golfers who learn the game through experiance and actually work very little on fundimentals until the arrive at pro school.

What I mean is most pro don't know what they feel at a certain time in the golf swing because they don't think about anything other that the target. I have come across this blank expression when I have asked "what do you think about when you take the club back" for example.

My friend plays off 2 has no idea what I am talking about, when trying to improve my game, he says things like "just hit the ball at the target"

Do you know what I mean.


Ian.

To add to what you said Ian, you are right - most pros don't think of anything but hit the ball to the target (or something equally short and simple.) That's why they are good. They don't have 45 swing thoughts going thruogh their head. Just 1 or maybe 2 triggers that keep them from overthinking their shots. It keeps the brain from getting in the way....

Exactly my point Gord, you can't teach natural ability only swing mechanics that why I spend a large proportion of my time working on the psychological side of the game.


Shumacher drives a F1 car faster than anyone but I bet he doesn't know why, he just does whats natural to him. (no-one say the car is faster this is a golf website)


Ian.

Exactly. I spent many months trying to figure out exactly where I needed to be at any given point in my swing. I could never figure out why things weren't going as well as they should. It has taken me just as long to remember not to think while on the course so all the good positioning I taught myself could be applied by leting my muscles take over. This keeps my brain on the most important trck - hit the ball to the target.

Perhaps your friend who plays off 2 doesn't want to share the secrets with anyone. That's also a possibility to think about.

Well, not all pros are naturally gifted. But all pros are good golfers, certainly sub 5-handicap at worst. I know it is a problem because many pros and teaching pros have never struggled for example with 'coming over the top'. So how do they know what you're doing and can they relate to how soul destroying it is to work and work on something and it isn't coming right? How do they actually know how difficult it is to develop a 'proper' grip when what is natural to you a 'killer grip'?

How do they tell you how it should 'feel' when you for example 'drop the club into the slot' when they have always done it.

It is a problem. That's why it takes A LOT of experience ... and experimenting.

Golf came very naturally to me and I didn't really see what the problem was. Only was only later on when I started teaching that I fully understood the golf swing and the problems a lot of golfers have ...

I purposely worked for 3 weeks to develop an 'over the top move' to feel why it was happening, what it felt like and how best to visualise the swing movement. I've also worked on a number of other problems, purposefully developing them. Scary, but how else do I know what's really going on...

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

Graham, just curious, how did the over-the-top move feel? What do you feel most golfers are trying to do when they go over-the-top? I was told that my arms were too active and that my arms needed to be more passive while allowing the rotation of my back and left side to draw the club around through impact. Is this what you feel?

It felt like my shoulders were trying to get the club to the ball instead of my hands getting the shaft to pass through the ball ... One of the first things I felt was that my chest was squaring up to the ball way to early. I felt like I had to get something back to the ball to hit it and hit it now!

You felt your arms were too active, I felt my shoulders were too active. But yeah ... both wrong aren't they?

The transition should be keeping your chest still, your hips start to turn back to the ball, the hands drop inside and then your chest unwinds pulling your arms through which in turn pull your right side ...

I think most golfers who have an 'over the top' move feel that they have to focus on getting back to the ball as quickly as possible rather than hips, chest, hands, right side ...

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

I'm starting to learn to keep the brain quiet...

I always marvelled at the frustration swing I would take after missing the ball 2 or 3 (or more) times, always trying to think my way through my swing, then just getting angry and taking a good rip at the ball (and having a marvelous shot as a result).

Graham - imo you have developed the perfect teaching technique. You have experienced the problem, and have worked a solution. You can fully sympathize with the hack that is asking you for help.

If you ever come to Ontario, let me know!

What is "the slot?" I don't think I've ever hear this term.


Travis

I suffered from the 'beginner golfer ailements' for 12 years. No one ever showed me and I just assumed that like most sports, you are either good. bad or ulgy. As I started to understand the physics of it all, there was no reason I couldn't be better than I was. After all my research, and analysing my swing, I noticed several severe flaws. Some of you may recognize these - incorrect weight transfer, too shallow of a backswing causing an over the top, outside in path and too strong of a grip. Even with all these problems, I was still able to get the ball out 290 - 300 yrds with a good solid drive. I even put up a 78 in competition on one of Canada's top 25 courses. Usually I was in the 90's though. I took a break from playing (I was playing 150 - 200 rounds a year, with virtual no improvement and I went down to about 20 rounds a year) and worked on 2 or 3 minor parts a year. After putting the finishing touches on my swing this winter, I am very interested in getting out and finding out exactly where my game is. Knowing how and why I made the mistakes I used to has helped immensly in helping others identify and solve their problems.

__________________
Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall