A lot can happen

I've come many miles along the road to understanding the golf swing. Much of the time I've been leading myself, or being led, up the garden path. There is no one method, no secret, no magic key to the good golf swing. There is, however, one 'truth' that I am confident about: we all have to find our own swing.

In the past few weeks since my last blog entry I've made a few decisions and adopted a few techniques that I am going to work on for a few more weeks. I think they might (emphasise the might) provide the answers to the questions I had been posing about my swing, eg. why am I still fading the ball too much on too many occasions?

The first decision I've taken is to work on keeping my right elbow as close as possible to my right pocket or hip on the downswing. This mirrors the position that you see in virtually all professional golf swings. It means that the club has been swung down on an inside plane. It doesn't however guarantee a straight (or draw) ball flight.

So, I decided I needed to address the clubface issue, since it is the prime determinant of the spin that you put on the ball, and hence the main factor in a fade (or draw) ball flight. I decided, with lots of positive and some negative commentary, to go to a 'strong' grip. That is, I rotated my hands (mainly my left hand) clockwise (behind the club) so that my hands are more inclined - almost compelled - to close the clubface at (and before) contact. There are pitfalls in this, so it takes time to get used to the extra body rotation needed to balance the closed face with the swing plane.

Finally, I decided that all my focus on a good rhythm, unhurried backswing and transition, etc. etc. was not really giving me the feeling of effortlessness that I've been looking for. Fortunately, someone, somewhere, mentioned soft arms and light grip. And I mean super soft and light (2 on a scale of 1 to 10) much softer than average for an average player. The results were tremendous. The combination of compact swing plane, closed clubface and soft arms produced, for the first time, the kind of ball flight - a soft draw - that I've been looking for. I also gained quite a bit of distance and excellent ball contact.

It's not over yet. There are bound to be ups and downs, eg. my putting has gone to the dogs, but I'll persist with these three ideas. Let's see where we are in a few weeks. A lot can happen.