what's really important?

My wife says I over analyze most things. I'm about to believe she is correct in regard to my gold swing. There are all kinds of swings (one-plane, two plane, Furyk, etc). They all can work great in the right hands. So my thought is that a hacker like me sould limit those things he concentrates on to just the most important aspects. My first thouht is;

1. Balance
2. Relatively straight left arem (arc size)
3. Lag
4. Square the club face
5. Accelerate through the ball

Ok, that's a long enough list. I've had instructors, read articles and watched training videos that say " when the left wrist is about to pass the right knee...". At this point I need a more macro view. Just a few critical points to worry about. When I break 80 I'll take a more micro analysis.

Is my list way off? How should the list be edited?

Thanks

BMac

Well BMac, IMO your list is just about 5 items too long...

You should try to develop a pre shot routine where, standing a couple of paces behind your ball you settle on club selection, target line, path, shot type, all of those things, considering all the things that need to be considered (like wind, hazards etc etc).

Then, once you've got your mind around the shot you need to play, walk in beside your ball, place your club, take your stance, take your grip, turn your brain off and just "pull the trigger"...

If you do carry one swing thought with you, it should be "swing easy"...

Well, all that said, it's what I do and it seems to be working for me just at the moment...

Cheers

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

have to agree with you scragger, the brain cannot perform from a list of tasks in the time it takes to complete a downswing.so going through a pre shot routine every time will eliminate most thoughts so hopefully you only have one left as you start your downswing. tempo is a nice thought,or swing easy.whenever i mess up a shot , i know i can eliminate every thing in the pre shot routine so all i am left with is swing speed, if i swing to fast it all goes pear shaped ! i know it will and yet i still swing to dam fast , i practice swing tempo in the garden , trying to teach my brain the correct speed and hopefully it will respond .

Thanks, I can understand what your saying and tend to agree. Especially the part of swinging to hard. I know better, just can't seem t quite.

Practice, practice, practice..

It's your list but I'll give it a go.

1. Balance. It helps but that's not the main thing.
2. Left arm. It helps but ultimately it's not required.
3. Lag. Not important enough to make the list.
4. Square the clubface. More important than any other point in your list.
5. Accelerate through the ball. Good but not important enough to make the list.

In fact, if your list consisted only of number 4. Square the clubface. It would be complete. For now.

This is my list below:

1. Maintain a solid and stable base on my feet and legs throughout.
2. Maintain focus on the ball with my eyes throughout.
3. Focus on making proper contact with the ball above all else.

Good thing you wrote that you want to focus on the most important things. What do you consider to be the most important thing above all else? It's easier for me to answer that question when I put it in the proper perspective. Like so: What is it that I must do right to produce a good shot, otherwise I'm doing it wrong and produce a bad shot? The answer is simple, it's proper contact. Everything else is fluff.

In other words if the only thing I do right is make proper contact, I can get away with doing everything else wrong and still play good golf.

As far as technique is concerved, think of the things you can do that will hinder or help your efforts in making proper contact. Think of the obvious first such as striking the ground before the ball, for example. That's why we advise to strike the ball on a downward stroke to strike the ball first, the ground second. Then you can go on with the more subtle aspects such as the swing plane alignment. Then the grip, stance, posture, etc. And so forth until you go through the whole list of all those things you can do either right or wrong according to popular wisdom.

In your second post, you wrote "Practice practice practice". That's very good. In fact if all you did was focus on squaring the clubface and you practiced a lot, you'd improve in no time. Look at my list again, notice that I can use it as is during practice, during play and at any other time and it still is just as pertinent every time. Such as right now, for instance.

Forgot to mention that I can use my list with every club in my bag, including the putter.

Hi Martin,

I tend to agree that keeping it simple is the best. Your 5 points are all valid. I personally don't worry to much about lag. I do agree that the rest are things I do concentrate on. You can go wrong with the fundamentals of a solid stand, a good posture, a good grip linking arm & club together and weight transfer between the legs & torso from upswing to followthrough.

Martin,

Of course you are absolutely correct. There are times when you just need to hear someone say it to make it believable.

Square the club face and practice are the essential elements to develop a decent swing.

I played yesterday and tried to abide by your list rather than mine. After all if you toss out "lag", which I did from my swing thoughts, our lists are basically the same.

Concentrating on the ball visually and squaring the club mentally does seem to help me. Lost some distance but narrowed the total spray width. That's an acceptable trade for me.

Still need to convince the wife about the practice, practice, practice part of it. Any advice here?

Thanks

BMac

I have recently spent my lunch breaks at the driving range instead of eating lunch. It has vastly improved my ball striking, doesn't interfere with the wife and kids time, and lowers my daily calorie intake (great for a fat guy like me).

I'm participating in another discussion about practice in the newsgroup rec.sport.golf. Fierce discussion, I might add. Perhaps a little less polite as well.

I advise to distinguish between practice and warm up, the two are not the same and serve different purposes. Practice is intended to improve one's skill while warming up is intended to reassure one of one's own skill in preparation for the coming match. At least, that's what I concluded in that other discussion.

If you intend to practice at the range extensively, like a few hours, dedicate a whole day to it even if it doesn't take you the whole day. You'd be left with little energy to play a game anyway and I think you'd have not much fun then. I know I didn't. Rest serves an important purpose with practice because it allows me to study between practice sessions. If you don't want to practice that way, then I advise to warm up before you play. I advise to not overdo it though for the same reason I advise to not practice and play the same day. But with the putter, it's a different story. You can practice on the green all day long and it doesn't require much energy at all.

If you do warm up before a game, since you are preparing for the game, select potential situations you'd encounter during your upcoming game so that you'll be prepared for them. In his book, Tiger wrote that he ends his warm up with the club he expects to use on the first tee.

Since I began playing golf, I think I've become pragmatic or perhaps I was always like that but golf happened to show it more.