Copy cat theory

Further to my post about style, I should report an interesting occurrence from yesterday's round.

I was thinking about loosening my grip, swinging through the ball, staying in balance, etc. prior to hitting off, while taking my usual few practice swings on the first tee. All of this is good, but when I stood up to the ball, I suddenly had the thought that I needed to try to emulate the impact position of the good players I had been writing about the day before.

To try to clarify this, I suddenly decided that I needed to hit the ball with my hips significantly turned (not starting to turn) towards the target. This meant having the thought that I was pre-setting my hips very open to the target line well before the club came into the impact zone. I wasn't actually pre-setting my hips, but I was thinking that way. Meanwhile, needless to say, I had to ensure that my shoulders stayed relative square to the target line and that I swung down that line to prevent my swing from going 'over the top'.

The strange thing is this pre-setting thought (as I'll have to call it for now) felt relatively easy to do, compared to the limited success I'd had in trying to initiate my downswing with a thought like 'turn the hips' that I'd been trying courtesy of the Paul Wilson, Swing Machine, methods. In effect, it is the same fundamental action, but the thought process is different. And there seems to be more time, less urgency, and therefore more consistent success in achieving this desired impact position.

As I said at the start of this post, what I tried to do was picture and feel the impact position that you see in the style of good golfers. It is of course very different to the set up position: the hips are open between 45 and nearly 90 degrees to the target line, the head is slightly further back behind the ball position and the backward lean of the spine has increased by perhaps 10 to 20 degrees, together with a slight lowering of the body.

The above numbers relate to normal driver swings; they will reduce progressively as the clubs get shorter. Interestingly, the usual chipping method is to pre-set the body slightly open to the target, primarily because the swing is so short that there is no time to achieve that open body position at impact.

What is most interesting to me about this way of thinking (picturing and emulating a good impact position) is that, as mentioned above, it achieves the same results as the Paul Wilson methods for generating the downswing, but with somewhat less trial and error or physical and mental effort.

I've actually read somewhere that practising a good impact position in slow motion and by using a mirror is a very effective way of creating a good golf swing. I probably hadn't given it much weight, focusing as I have on the myriad of other mechanical elements of the golf swing. But now that I have actually tried copying this impact position in my mind and experienced a really positive result when I then hit balls, I'm not sure why I hadn't been more alert to its potential.

No golf now for a week. I'm going to enjoy reflecting on this new theory.

Implementation: a question of style

Watching Rory McIlroy's golf swing during the Open recently is almost enough to put anyone off their game. I mean the game that he and his colleagues play is so far removed from the pathetic efforts of many a club and social golfer.

Having said that, and following on from my previous post, there might just be a way forward, and I cite two observations to make the point.

Firstly, I recall playing occasionally with a septuagenarian golfer during my first couple of years of playing regular golf, some 15 years ago. What struck me about his golf swing was the fluency and ease of his swing. He had a great deal of style, though naturally without the explosive power of the young tour players. Consequently, he did not hit the ball all that far, but he did hit it far enough and also very straight. He was a very consistent ball striker and had an excellent short game to boot.

I think we can learn something from this, and I'm going to have to disagree with Percy Boomer (the great golf teacher from the first half of the twentieth century) in arguing as follows.

Style does matter. This is contrary to what Percy Boomer said that learning golf's fundamentals. And, looking at the swings of many golf professionals, it would be easy to agree with Percy; there are many types or styles of swing out there. Of course, it is also true that some of the top professionals (Scott, McIlroy and Rose) have very stylish and very efficient and powerful swings.

My argument is that style is closely linked to some of what I consider to be the often neglected true fundamentals of good golf: excellent balance combined with an effortless and unhurried rhythm, creating good sequencing or timing. Therefore, I am saying that in attempting to achieve excellent balance and rhythm, one is simultaneously likely to be developing a pleasing and stylish swing.

I was once complimented on having an easy swing, which I did not take seriously at the time, but I am now becoming convinced that I have wasted far too much time on swing mechanics and far too little time on re-creating the easy and smooth swing I presumably once had.

Recently, as mentioned in my previous blog, I spoke about grip pressure and about achieving a balanced swing. To that, I think I should add the goal of swinging well within oneself, much like my seventy plus year-old colleague did all those years ago.

I recently read that one of the failings of many average golfers when hitting driver was striving for their maximum distance - and consequently tightening their grip, wrists, arms and shoulders - and so actually failing to achieve either distance or, more importantly, accuracy. The cure suggested was to pick an area of fairway well within reach and aim for that, much like the common practice of picking a landing spot for chips and pitches.

Now I'm not sure any of my golfing colleagues will have a bar of this idea, but I think it has merit, and I will try in my next game to implement it, together with my recent resolutions about grip loosening and swinging through to a balanced finish.

Which brings me to another observation about the value of emulating the style of better golfers. It relates to bunker play.

This might sound a bit strange, but tour and good golfers, play bunker shots quite differently from the average golfer. They know that, for most normal bunker shots, it is important to take a full and complete swing (while using the bounce of the sand-wedge). Most average golfers think that extricating themselves from a bunker is an exercise in force and fury, usually with a chopping action and a great deal of wishful thinking.

On the contrary, good players know that a full, flowing swing, taking a sliver of sand (less or more depending on the distance and/or spin required) is the only consistent way of playing bunker shots. This is the same kind of effortless and rhythmic swing that works with all full golf shots. All that's required is a slight lowering of the swing arc by taking a wider stance and bending the knees a little more than usual.

The point is that until one learns this style of bunker play, it is extremely difficult to be an effective bunker shot player. It is a technique, to be sure, but it requires the adoption of a certain kind of free and flowing style of shot that is absent in most golfers' games.

Whether one accepts the style argument or not, I know that my years of frustration in bunkers was overcome when I realised that I had to be bold and take a full and free swing in bunkers. In a sense, I had to look like a good golfer to be one.

Now, I'm hoping that I can translate this realisation about bunker play to the other full shots in golf. That is, I hope I can work towards implementing a better golf swing by developing a better looking swing.

Anyway, to summarise my intentions, I'll be trying to grip the club more loosely (thereby freeing up my wrists and arms as Paul Wilson suggests), while swinging smoothly and easily as I can through (and not at) the ball to a full and hopefully more stylish finish. I'm going to have to trust that the mechanics of swing plane, weight transfer, release, etc, etc, will take care of themselves.

This is a somewhat different approach to be sure; it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Implementation

My tinkering recently was somewhat sabotaged by a series of bad luck incidents, such as when balls were lost when they should have been easily findable and other bad breaks that on a normal day would not have occurred. However, we must move on and maybe tinker a little more.

One thing I did find useful in my last round, and it is in line with the Swing Machine theory, was to make sure my grip pressure was extremely loose, thereby freeing up my wrists and also my full swing in general. Paul Wilson talks about a 2 out of 10 grip pressure (and we need to be careful not to use the terms weak and strong, which of course relates to the rotational position of the hands on the grip).

While the grip pressure undoubtedly tightens automatically at impact as required, the easing of the grip and freeing of the wrists at set up is important in reducing tension in the arms and promoting the free hinging and unhinging of the wrists during the swing that helps promote club head acceleration.

This wasn't something I planned; I just recalled the PW comment from a video I'd seen recently. One of the things I did tinker with was ball position, namely moving the ball back for all iron and hybrid shots. This seemed to work fine at least in terms of making solid contact; I recall hitting only maybe one fat shot in my last round - crooked shots yes, but in no particular pattern - so I'll keep this idea in play.

Another idea I tried out was trying to keep the club a little more vertical on the backswing. This I did, but on reflection I feel it made no difference except that it re-introduced an over-awareness of my backswing (much like the flat wrist concept did) to the detriment of the rest of my game.

My thinking now is that I should not concentrate on the backswing other than to feel the tightening or coiling that PW talks about. This can probably be achieved while keeping my right elbow fairly close to my side, that is, pointing down, with a view to staying 'connected'. This will hopefully contribute to a repeatable and more consistent backswing. We shall see.

Tinkering aside, my main focus in recent weeks has been on body turn; initiating the downswing by turning fairly aggressively into impact. I'm confident that this is the right approach; the only difficulty being how to achieve the right amount of aggression or speed of turn. Sometimes, there is an impulse to turn too fast, so that the arms and club are left behind, which leads to straight push shots. Sometimes, this turning is combined with lifting, which causes topped shots. What's needed is an 'assertive', but balanced and manageable turn.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, one of the final obstacles to adopting the Swing Machine approach is the need to develop a level of trust that loose wrists and passive arms will both generate sufficient force in the golf swing and that the turn required will allow one to hit the ball straight. I now trust the theory; I just need to trust myself.

Another obstacle I have had to overcome is my previous preoccupation with weight transfer (undoubtedly an important element of the golf swing). It was only once I convinced myself that turning without conscious intent to shift weight (in the way PW recommends) does achieve the essential weight shift to the front side, that I could forget about trying to shift my weight.

There is one other element of a good golf swing that I've been working on (again a PW concept) and that is to try to finish my swing in a balanced way (without going into PW's detailed description here).

While the follow through does not affect ball contact, it does indicate whether the swing has been effective, in control, powerful, etc. For full shots, this means rotating fully to face the target (or slightly left of the target) with the weight 90% plus on the front foot. It's a position you see with almost all good golfers.

Completing the swing in good balance is not tinkering, nor is good coiling and turning, nor is maintaining an appropriate grip pressure. These are important golf swing keys that I hope to implement over the coming weeks. Of course, theory is one thing, implementation is another.

Tinkering

The good news for me is I played a little better last week - mainly because of better chipping and pitching. However, I did three-putt three or four times and hit a few wayward drives. But any time you play better than your handicap it can't be too bad.

I'm not going to tinker with my revisited Swing Machine body rotation swing. I'm happy with the concept of using more rotation to initiate and power the swing, keeping the arms as powerless as possible and the wrists as free as possible. It works well, even if I'm still not fully trusting it and therefore hitting a few pull-hooks.

What I am going to tinker with, if that's the right word, is my swing plane, ball position and putter.

Firstly, I've always had a quite flat swing path, taking the club back inside and behind me, trying like most people to create a swing path from inside to out. Now knowing that this is patently wrong-headed and that a flat backswing plane is actually more likely to promote a casting, over-the-top slice swing, I also know that I need to neutralise this back-inside backswing.

The mistake I could make in trying to correct this would be to start picking up the club, much like a Jim Furyk or Inbee Park. This can work, but there is probably a happy medium, where the arms do go higher, but stay connected to the body (most golfers know what connected means). I'm going to tinker with this backswing plane issue, but try not give it too much emphasis - you don't hit the ball on the backswing.

The other thing I intend to tinker with is ball position. Some of the things I've been reading lately suggest that moving the ball back and inch or so for the mid to short irons is well worth considering.

At the moment, I'm reasonably consistent with my wedges, but mid-short irons (4 to 9) are at times very ordinary. I think it's probably worth trying to play the ball back an inch or so for these clubs to see if I can make more solid and consistent contact. I'm aware of the potential dangers of this - mainly because of the effect on the swing plane/path, but it might just work, so I'll experiment.

The final thing I'm going to tinker with is my putter. I recently went back to my old Ping blade putter to try to increase my awareness of the club face for short putts. Unfortunately, for much of the time I'm not making solid contact with this club when lag putting - hence the three-putts. I don't intend to change my putting stroke fundamentals, but I am going to go back to my Odyssey centre shaft putter, which has a smaller head and face, to try to improve my contact consistency. The bottom line is it's impossible to lag putts well if sometimes you hit the ball in the middle of the club face and sometimes you slightly top or slice the ball.

That's probably enough tinkering for now. Let's see what happens.

Back to front

My recent experiments with 'The Swing Machine' methods of Paul Wilson and some subsequent research have convinced me that there is one element of the golf swing that has always been neglected by average golfers - the finish of the swing.

PW is big on the finish position of the body rotation swing he advocates - club shaft parallel to the eyes, behind the head, straight front leg, with the knees touching. I didn't give this much emphasis in my research - after all, once the ball is struck, who cares what happens to the arms, club, etc.

But as PW and a number of other teaching pros will confirm, the finish position of a golf swing tells us a lot about how effective the swing that preceded it actually was. An off balance, incomplete or ungainly finish usually means that the swing was rushed or off plane or too steep or in some other way less than effective.

A balanced finish to the swing - 90% plus weight on the front foot, arms high, club behind the neck or back, etc. tends to indicate that the swing was good. And while it is not a perfect measure of the success of the shot, I have almost always found that the more often I finish a shot in this way the better the shot has been.

There are a few challenges to overcome when trying to achieve a balanced finish in the golf swing. One of the major ones is the inability to transfer the vast majority of weight to the front foot at and through impact, that is, a tendency to either fall back or stay flat-footed. Another challenge is simply being willing to 'let the swing go', to swing freely, and to trust the swing to hit the ball, rather than hit at the ball or try to steer it.

Many golfers also make life difficult for themselves (and I include myself of course) by gripping the club too tightly, which tightens the arm muscles and restricts the wrists, limiting the freedom of movement (the whipping action of the wrists) that is so important in generating club head speed. Martin Hall, quoting Tom Watson, advocates as loose a grip as possible throughout the swing - a grip that is just tight enough to prevent the club slipping through ones fingers.

Another barrier to the free and full follow through to a balanced finish is the predeliction of many golfers to try to hold the club face square at impact, thereby limiting the ability of their wrists to roll over or release as they actually need to do in order to square the club face at impact. The image and feel recommended here is of touching the inside of the wrists a little after impact.

If you observe most professional golfers, the classic finish of the swing position is quite similar - hands and arms wrapped around their neck or behind their head or down their back - but with their weight almost entirely on their front foot and leg - and facing the target.

There are some good golfers who can get away with short, ugly, ungainly swings, but they are rare individuals. Most golfers should give much more attention to the finish position of their golf swing. It sounds back to front, but it is extremely important.