Fundamentals revisited

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN BEFORE 'THINK BIG', BUT PUBLISHED LATER.
After a couple of weeks of focusing on the length of my backswing, my (flat) wrist position and body turn and playing some very ordinary golf, I am reminded of the old warning about not thinking about technical swing issues while actually trying to play a round of golf.

However, like many others, I really only practise while I play, so thinking is hard to avoid.

The problem with this thinking is the tendency to tighten up, to interfere with the free flow of the swing - in fact slowing it down and potentially destroying the swing plane, weight transfer and other 'effortless' aspects of a good golf swing.

I'm afraid that my focus on the flat wrist (aimed at producing a straight ball flight) together with a restricted backswing (for further control) are at the heart of this thinking and tightening up. I am therefore inclined to try a new strategy to achieve the same result, consistency, which has been my main goal in developing these fundamentals.

This new strategy involves perhaps the most basic of all fundamentals - grip.

I've recently learned that my hero - Peter Thomson - used a fairly strong right hand grip, producing a low draw as his standard shot (ideal for links golf, incidentally). I've also heard an internet teaching pro say that the grip should take account of the impact position, not what looks good at address.

What this means to me is that I need to return to a grip that will allow me to avoid thinking and manipulating the backswing - i.e. by focusing on the flat left wrist and restricting the backswing - and instead concentrate on delivering the clubhead at maximum speed into the back of the ball.

For me, this will mean trying an experiment I've tried before, with mixed success, that of slightly strengthening my right hand grip (not left hand, as is often suggested) so that the clubface will square up and close more readily at impact. I overdid this in my previous experiment, so finding a happy medium will be the key.

This said about the flat wrist and backswing, I stand by my other two fundamentals - 'don't sway' and 'don't try to hit too hard'. I think these two principles are really vital considerations for the average golfer. Adhering to both of these fundamentals will help us keep our balance and maintain a good swing plane, with fewer casting, dipping and other jerky moves that are the enemies of consistency.

I should, to conclude, mention Gary Player's number one fundamental, which I have mentioned before in relation to swaying. This is the imperative of playing all shots with the weight on the front foot. Whether this is achieved by a sound transfer of weight, without swaying, by stacking and tilting or some other method, is a matter of personal preference, but it is very important, and I might just consider replacing the flat wrist fundamental with this one.

In fact, I will ...

Here are my NEW fundamentals:

1. Don't try to hit the ball too hard,
2. Don't sway,
3. Play every shot with the weight on the front foot.

Let's see how it all goes.

Post mortem

In my previous blog I outlined my three fundamentals of the golf swing (straight lead wrist, steady head and an easy or less than full-out swing). Unfortunately, I forgot to include reference to the mental fundamentals of the game, which might actually be more important than the simple swing fundamentals  discussed.

The reason I say 'more important' is because in a serious, competitive game of golf, where scoring is the focus, rather than having fun, a golfer with the very best swing mechanics (and short game) can still come completely unstuck.

Now my swing is far from pretty, but it is compact and fairly reliable. I don't usually hit too many tops or duffs, though I hit plenty of less than perfect shots. For many average golfers playing a competitive round, particularly a stroke round, it is these few really bad swings, chips or other shots that mess up their scorecards.

That was my fate last weekend. Starting with five pars, I knew that the challenge would be to keep my emotions in check, and I did that for the rest of the first nine, no problem.

However, after a solid drive on ten, I hit a terrible topped, pulled approach shot with a 4-hybrid and followed up with a whole series of mis-hits, mis-judgements and other mis-adventures. A double and two triples later and my score was in ruins. I didn't lose my cool completely, but I didn't enjoy the round and felt terrible for quite a while after.

The lesson I learnt was a simple and familiar one: 'don't let one bad shot influence the following shot'; with the corollary of this being 'don't attempt miracle recovery shots'. Accepting that you have made a serious error and that it is going to be costly is a very difficult thing to do with equanimity. But if you can do it, you might keep the damage to one hole, and all will not be lost.

My massive mental failure was to let a double bogey turn into two triple bogies, whereas a double followed by even two bogies would have kept me in a better frame of mind for tackling the last half a dozen holes, with the chance to post a more respectable score.

There is no magic bullet when it comes to mental strength on the golf course. Playing each shot on its merits, playing in the moment, and all the other mental game cliches don't help when you are in the heat of the moment. All I can say, and thank you John Kennedy, is: 'Don't think; Do!'

The basis of consistency

The veracity of my fairly recent posts about fundamentals have now been tested in the real world with encouraging results.

I again broke eighty last week, this time in winter conditions, playing what could be described as consistent golf. Admittedly, I did hole a couple of good putts, but I also missed a few opportunities. However, I played a lot of sound, not necessarily spectacular, but solid golf shots, which I often refer to as 'real' golf shots.

By the way, I define real golf shots as ones that involve solid contact, good flight and spin; shots that basically go where intended. They don't involve the hit and hope that many golfers employ.

My latest bout of confidence comes from employing a few of my own fundamentals. It also involves ignoring most of the so called fundamentals touted by many a golf teacher and writer.

This sounds a bit harsh, but my view is firming that most golf teaching is an exercise in frustration for most golfers. Not all golfers, of course, because there are some good teaching pros out there who help some golfers keep it simple and sort out their games.

My belief is that there are really only about three 'real fundamentals' in the golf swing. I will outline these again below. I should say that there are some 'techniques' relating to set up, posture, grip, alignment, course management, etc. that will help refine ones game, but these will do little or nothing to help if certain 'real fundamentals' are ignored.

1. The first fundamental relates to the backswing: the lead arm, wrist and back of the hand must be in a straight line at the top of the backswing - let's summarise it as a FLAT LEFT WRIST (speaking here for right-handers).

To explain, the left wrist and hand control the club face, and if the left wrist bends back during the backswing, as it does for most average golfers, the face of the club opens significantly. This means that if the clubface is to return to square at impact it must be closed on the downswing through an action of the golfer. This required good timing, as well as awareness of the clubface position, something that is usually beyond the skill level of the average player.

Keeping the left wrist flat (which is easier with a good neutral grip) on the backswing will keep the clubface square to the swing plane and make it much easier for the average golfer to make square contact with the ball - rather than the inconsistent occasional square contact.

It should be noted that keeping the left wrist flat will restrict the backswing somewhat for other than the younger, more flexible, player. But this is not a bad thing; over-swinging is another culprit when it comes to inconsistency.

2. The second fundamental is often mistakenly expressed in teaching beginners, in particular, as 'keep your eye on the ball' or 'keep your head down'. What should be said is 'keep your head in the same relative position throughout the swing'. Let's summarise this as 'DON'T SWAY'.

A small amount of head movement is inevitable in any athletic movement. In golf, it is the same, the head does move, swivel, dip, and move a little, particularly after the ball is struck. However, the head is a crucial pivot point in the golf swing (though perhaps not in a technical, biomechanical sense). The head should move as little as possible so that the swing plane is not disrupted.

If we move our head back and forth or dip significantly during the swing, the swing plane, which defines the arc of the club-head, will be altered. This means that the club may bottom out before or after the ideal contact point in the swing, or the club might strike the ball on an excessively inside-out or outside-in path.

To be sure, there are golfers who dip and sway, Woods and McIlroy come to mind. However, these guys hit thousands of golf balls. They know how to return to an ideal impact position, and they have excellent timing and athleticism. This is not the case with most (probably all) average golfers, who cannot rely on this level of expertise when striking a golf ball.

For any real consistency, for most golfers, swaying is a big no no.

I should add a postscript to this fundamental, which is that, notwithstanding the need to avoid swaying, it is still important to strike the ball with the weight on the front foot - for all golf shots. There are various ways of achieving this, so it is debatable whether it is a fundamental or not. Interestingly, I think the Stack and Tilt concept was an attempt to emphasise the importance of this important element of ball striking, and it did have the side-benefit of minimising head movement (by pre-setting impact positions and minimising swaying), but these important benefits were often lost in the golf media hysteria around an approach that challenged much conventional golf theory.

3. My final fundamental is the simplest of them all. It was the first thing I was told when I first picked up a golf club, and it is something that I've been aware of ever since - but usually succeeded in ignoring. This fundamental is: 'DON'T TRY TO HIT THE BALL TOO HARD'.

How obvious this is to most of us, yet how often do we ignore this instruction when faced with, for example, a nice wide open driving hole or a challenging carry over some green-side bunkers?

Suffice to say, trying to hit the ball too hard, that is, swinging beyond our athletic capability, will generally result in a breakdown of our technique, however good that might actually be. Even the pros have this issue, though to a lesser degree than the average golfer.

Swinging beyond our capability has many consequences, many of which relate to body position or club position at impact (the critical part of the swing), and all of which will result in less than perfect club-face connection with the ball.

Swinging smoothly and comfortably (not necessarily slowly) will, on the contrary, maximise our chances of making good in-balance swings, and thus enhance our chances of making good, consistent contact with the ball.

Research has shown that centre club-face contact is not only important in generating the desirable ball speed, but critical in imparting ball spin that achieves a straight ball flight (fewer hooks or slices) - regardless of the actual swing path.

When driving the ball, for example, I now tend to think of looking for a realistic landing area, rather than just going all out for distance. This is one of the few useful 'tips' I've come across lately. This method helps me keep my ambitions and my driver swing in check.

With approach shots, I now tend to take an extra club and think 'three-quarter swings', which is probably what my swing resembles anyway.

Again, I should add a caveat here. Any swing with an 'extra club' must still be positive, with no deceleration, because accelerating the club-head is very important in the golf swing, if not one of the fundamentals of the game. Some golf writers have covered this issue in detail, and I have spoken about it in the past. It is not, however, something that most people need to think about. Acceleration will happen, it's generally automatic, it is swinging too hard that is most likely to result in destructive deceleration for reasons too technical to go into now.

In conclusion, I would suggest that achieving consistency is like the holy grail of golf. The average player, sometimes even the better player, struggles mightily with it. The three fundamentals listed above are no panacea, but adhering to them will, with a bit of patience, make it possible for the average golfer to get off the merry-go-round of false fundamentals, and move on to a path to more consistent golf.