Best Swing Tip Ever

Well for some golfers, it is a natural thing, for others not so much. The golf swing is full of un-natural movements, so a conscious decision has to be made to learn a position. I have an excellent pivot move and I can't square the clubface (at least right now) with just my pivot alone. I used to think mechanics were overrated but that has changed. I now find myself watching what the pros do at certain positions of the swing and try to copy that. The forearm/wrist release was one of those items I have copied, because it sure did not come naturally for me.

The bottom line is I can now compress a 5 iron and hit it 200 yards straight 7/10 times. Something I had no prayer of doing without a proper impact position and release.

Be good,


JB

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Cleveland HiBore Tour
Mizuno MP-32 irons
Titleist Vokey SW/LW
Cameron Studio Stainless Newport 2

The golf swing, what we have to go through to square a club head to a ball with as much force as possible and hit it to an intended target is not completely natural. But there are natural movements within the swing. Things like the wrist hinge and the follow through are two that come to mind. The set up, first move back and first move forward take a little thought though.

I thought we Humans generally learn best through imitation...

A child will learn to walk watching whatever similar body (usually its parents) and imitates them, usually with much goo-ing and gaaa-ing associated...

I clearly remember the very first golf shot I ever hit, my father used to play once a week on a sunday morning with a work colleague of his. Occasionally, mum would go with them. One weekend, mum didn't want to go and suggested to dad that I go along in her place. At that time I was playing competitive tennis at a reasonable standard as well as having been a member of every (and I do mean "every") school representative sporting team and I figured this golf caper looked easy and sure I'd tag along.

All dad said to me was "here, hit this ball that way and don't lose sight of it if you don't hit it straight, coz these things are a b-i-t*c*h to find when you hit em in the long grass, ok??"

That was my first lesson in our game...

Call it what you will, but, taking mum's 3 iron, I teed the ball up, settled over the ball so as I was comfortable and I just hit the ball......

The result... 200m plus rifle straight down the centre of the fairway....

Clearly my body knew what it was doing...

Now, if only some 25 years later I could repeat that swing routinely...

Cheers

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Look at the Target, Look at the Ball, Swing... Dr Bob Rotella...

1.start the downswing from the down up, not the up down... start with the little lateral bump of the hips and then turn.. Turn your hips as hard and fast as possible on the downswing while letting everything else lag behind..no concious upper body movement

2. Grip the club in the FINGERS ONLY.. never the palms..fingers give much better control and a cleaner hit.. it may feel weird though at first since alot of beginers grip the club more into their palms..

3. The right thumb and first finger should barely have any pressure at all.. Never wack down at the ball with the right hand.. keep pressure only in the right middle and 3rd finger(the one before the pinkie).. Right Thumb and firstfinger only rest on the shaft, again barely any pressure.(Jack nicolaus praticed alot of his golf with his right firstfinger and thumb off the club shaft, this forces you to use the hips and body to get the club back to the ball rather than the hands and the arms)

And finally.. Flat left wrist and angled (cupped) right wrist.. when coming on the downswing you should see only 1 knuckle on your left hand, if you see more your wrists have broken and casted..There are many aids that help teach you this position(Swing Glove and Normans Secret)


And most important advice of all.. PRACTICE.. Hit balls at least 3-4 times a week if your really serious..Muscle memory is only achieved through repitition..

Have they evolved or have they learned?
If a person didnt walk until they were 10 years old or so would they be able to do it immediately or would they still have to learn?
I submit that they would need to learn as we all did. We figured it out.
Animals learn to walk at birth, they dont come out walking in fact they fall over a lot in the first few hours but they *learn* to walk.

The reason they havent made robots that can cycle etc is because its so bloody difficult. There is so much going on that our body sub-consciously controls because we let it. Its when we try to control these difficult operations that it all goes wrong (e.g. walking when drunk, we get in our own way)
Walking up a stairs or cycling is infinitely more complicated than a golf swing in my opinion.
There are drills for weight shift that involve standing on one foot and swinging, we can do these without any problems but then we have problems trying to hit a normal shot?
Its madness, its our conscious brains getting in the way of our unconscious minds.

Same as learning to drive a car, in the begining we are thinking so hard about gears and clutch, a year later its all automatic until a stressfsul situation when we try to make sure we dont stall; what happens? We stall.

Once you have a relatively decent swing bad shots are usually caused by stalling. How many times do you hit a 3 wood from the Tee "for safety", try to steer it and then watch it carve off into the trees?
You stalled you swing by getting in the way.


Just my two cents, but an interesting thread hijack none the less

My counter argument to this is as follows:
Take any reasonably athletic person.
Stick them in a drving range bay with 500 balls.
After the first couple of hundred balls they will have taught their body to hit a ball properly.
Thats the "danger" of the driving range. If you just blast ball after ball your body will figure out how to hit it eventually but you might not be grooving the swing you "want".


Whether this is a good or a bad thing in a topic for another thread!

Hi Gree

There have been a few of these threads already. You are correct though in that we are straying into another topic.

You know, I see these guys at the range thrashing at hundreds of balls and they don't get much better, their instincts tell them to swing as hard and fast as possible, to flip their wrists to get the ball into the air, they hit massive slices, hooks, skied shots, its horrible to watch. They only seem to get better when they have a lesson or two, or read some books etc. It does not seem to come natural. I will conclude by saying I respect you have a different point of view than mine.

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Best Regards
Brian

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Funny o'l game!

Have you been watching me at the range again??
No worries, enjoyed the discussion.

for added power
eat 12 bean soup the night before a round and hold all your gas in. when you swing, as you start down release the built up pressure and you will blast the ball farther

bean soup blast works well for me. I don't even bother with a club. Just aim the bum to the ball and blast it with 12 bean gas.

it's hard to get playing partners with this method though.