Rotate your FORARMS for added snap

Been readin' ol' Harvey Penick's "Little Red Book" again. For any of you who haven't read it, do yourself a favor:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068...Fencoding=UTF8

In a section entitled "Maxims," which he credits to Jack Burke, Sr., there is the following:

"The wrists play very little part in golf. The crossing of the forarms puts the punch in the golf shot."

It got me thinking about that Tiger Woods commercial for American Express that ends with him swinging in the rain; I was always fascinated by the crossing of his arms just after impact. Well, when I read this, I put 2 and 2 together (and got 5 of course, me being the bright guy that I am) and realized that I DON'T do this. I just slap at it like a sissy with my wrists.

So I worked a bit in front of the mirror yesterday thinking of rotating the FORARMS through impact and not the hands or wrists, and got my self looking just like ol' Tig in the commercial. It's a totally different feeling once you have it.

Here's the commercial, you'll see what I mean:

http://www.mylifemycard.com/commerci...ot9/index.html

I can't WAIT to get to the range and hit some balls with this new motion!!!

__________________
Mike Ryan
Rhinebeck, NY

TaylorMade R5 N, 8.5*
TaylorMade V-Steel, Aldila NV 65 Stiff, 13*
TaylorMade Rescue Mid, 25*
Mizuno MP-32, 4-PW
Cleveland Tour Action 588 Wedge, 52*, 56* & 60*
Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2
Nike Tour Accuracy TW

"You can talk to a fade, but a hook won't listen."
- Lee Trevino

rolling the forearms over each other might be a bad mental image. All you have to do is rotate the left forearm and they will roll over each other.

Just a general comment related to drills and swing thoughts. As G Willis mentioned on a previous post, there should be a distinction between drills which isolate one part of the swing and the complete swing. As an extension of that idea, I don't think you want to focus on specific drill thoughts or specific position thoughts into the full swing. As in this post, working on rotation of the forearms may be a good drill , but I do not think it is a good swing thought. Drills are specific and good for ingraining muscle memory and strengthing muscles and swing training in general. I think swing thoughts should be minimal and broad. For example, relaxing the arms, completing the follow through, or just focusing on the target as Rotelli states and having no swing thoughts.

To each his own, but I think most people, myself included, do not do this, and I would further venture to guess most people have no clue they are supposed to do this.

Notice here - Charles Howell III and Ernie:

http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...201howell.html

http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...1ernieels.html

Not only do they rotate their forarms demonstratively through impact, but look how far their heads go backwards coming into the ball!

Same with Phil (here's his swing as a righty, too - kinda cool):

http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...mickelson.html

Same with Vij:

http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...ijaysingh.html

__________________
Mike Ryan
Rhinebeck, NY

TaylorMade R5 N, 8.5*
TaylorMade V-Steel, Aldila NV 65 Stiff, 13*
TaylorMade Rescue Mid, 25*
Mizuno MP-32, 4-PW
Cleveland Tour Action 588 Wedge, 52*, 56* & 60*
Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2
Nike Tour Accuracy TW

"You can talk to a fade, but a hook won't listen."
- Lee Trevino

I know many of my posts may sound like a broken record but most people do not have a back swing which would allow a down swwing which would allow them to do what Ernie, Tiger, Vj and others do. spine agle, loading, grip, posture, etc all come before this forearm rotation can occur. The swing is a building blocks of sorts, first the foundation= grip set up, then the walls= back swing, then the impact=roof. it is the roof that makes a home a shelter and the impact that make a swing a swing, but it is the foundation and walls which allow a roof to finish the shelter. Golfers cannot build a roof first, but that is what most try to do.

I have to agree, for some strange reason, people jump onto a swing thought and take it literaly. You know I can tell someone to stop a car quickly, you mash on the brakes, after your forehead bounces off the windshield a few times, you'll start to realize, not to take this literaly, and develop the necessary feel to do it properly and quickly, with just the right force. The golf swing is the same, there are no violent moves, every thing requires a smooth cordinated action that is very forceful, takes time to learn, these drills just gives you the basic move, YOU have to develop it into a correct action that smoothly cordinates with the rest of the swing. You have to expect to bang your forehead a few times, until you do.

Well said GoNavy! This is exactly what happened for me during my lesson yesterday. I was told to rotate the forearms, and based on that instruction, straight away took a practice swing. Immediately my coach stopped me and said no no it's not a violent twist of the wrist (which is what I guess I did) but actually a smooth and gradual rotation of the forearms as you come come, and more importantly, said the exact same thing - it should and will come as a natural move rather than a forced conscious one.

I was slicing my woods the whole of yesterday until this pointer, and once I tried to incorporate this rotation, I was hitting the shots straight. So I'm thinking, isn't this rotation of the forearms a fundamental part of the golf swing, rather than an advanced technique per se?

Look who I found! Could have at least used a different name.