Mid round revelations

Sometimes those of us who don't actually practice for hours (or even minutes) on the driving range or nets use our rounds of golf to find out things about the golf swing. This means we often have very poor rounds of golf or unbalanced rounds anyway.

However, it's all part of the fun. And recently I've had lots of fun working on two aspects of the full swing that are probably not uppermost in the thoughts of many average golfers. One of these is an old 'fundamental', which probably isn't a fundamental, and the other is a new thought, for me anyway.

I've returned to the 'weight on the front foot (at impact)' principle that I've dabbled with in the past. I realise that it is just so important to good ball striking that I really do have to be conscious of it when I play. For some golfers, it might be natural, and it should be natural in the same way that throwing a ball effectively relies on this principle. It's where the power and, to some extent accuracy, come from.

In the golf swing, it is possible to get away with hitting the ball off the back foot or with very little weight transfer to the front foot. But it is very difficult to achieve the almost obligatory downward and in to out path with an iron or hybrid unless this transfer of weight to the front foot takes place. I would argue, of course, that this weight transfer is also critical in generating power with the woods, though not so important in other ways since the swing path will be less downward.

I also think that making sure or trying to make sure you have 90% plus weight on the front foot at impact is a great help in terms of consistency. It's no good having your weight on the front foot sometimes, in the centre sometimes and towards the back foot sometimes; this is a recipe for inconsistency.

There's more to the front foot theory than this, but I want to move onto my other mid round revelation of late - 'staying down through impact'.

This idea, some people will say, is counterproductive because it harks back to the old chestnut 'keep your head still' or the one that mates come out with 'you looked up'. But I actually think that staying down is something different.

To me and to those who know, and I mean most golf pros, staying down means a feeling of compressing the ball and keeping the club face square for as long as is possible through the hitting zone. Whether the club face actually stays square for longer is not the issue, what's important is that it feels like you are fully committing to the shot.

The result is or should be that the stroke, particularly the backswing and follow through, are less hurried, more concentrated and, yes, more committed. Whether or not there are any physically measurable differences in the action or strike is not what matters; it is the commitment.

As we know, since weight is being transferred throughout the golf swing, the head will move back and forward, and up and down. Everything moves in fact, either around and around, side-to-side and/or up and down, in the golf swing. hopefully in an unhurried, controlled way. The only thing that we hope moves quickly is the club head. The feeling of staying down is an excellent way of regaining a sense of control in the golf swing.

It's still early days in my research on staying down, though I've hit some great shots already using this key thought. So I plan to combine the staying down concept with the front foot theory in my next round - from the start of the round this time - and we will see what happens.

A PS on putting. I've gone back to basics, forgotten about trying grips and methods, and tried simply to balance the length of my back and though swing with the putter, as per Ben Crenshaw. The results have been much  better - no deceleration, no flipping, less frustration. But, of course, no guarantees: you can't make 'em all.

Putt for dough

In recent rounds, my major frustration has been my putting. This of course flowed through to the rest of my game, and ultimately wrecked my scores.

However, in my most recent round, I abandoned all of the theories about grip and stance etc, that I'd been experimenting with to try to solve my putting woes - and putted much better.

The lesson is clear: trying to solve a problem with too much theory, and not trusting that I have above average ability in this department, which I think most of my playing partners would acknowledge.

However, I must admit that there was one thought I did adopt during this round, and it's part of the mental game.

I simply thought about making sure the putter went back and through the same distance. That is, I tried to make sure my backswing matched my through-swing, at least as far as possible, with all putts, both long and short.

I believe that by adopting this thought process, much of the tension that causes bad, nervous, twitchy strokes is removed, much as concentrating on rhythm can often help remove the tension that ruins the full swing.

Anyway, the aforementioned concentration on rhythm in the long game is to be my focus in my next round. I much admire the swing of pro golfer Raphael Jacquelin, who has the ultimate in smooth swings, even smoother than John Senden's, who is no slouch either.

A final point about the long game. I've recently been working on extending the width of my take-away on the backswing.

I'm not sure if this is a so-called one piece take-away or not, or whether it's giving me the alleged extra power that a wide backswing is supposed to give, but what it is doing is giving me something simple to think about at this point of the swing, rather than all the other backswing theories I've tinkered with for many years.

My hope is that I can move completely away from complex mechanics and develop my swing, without all of the compensations and jerkiness that have plagued me previously. I know my swing is now better. It is less forced and more on plane. I just need to trust it more and keep it simple.

The formula 'drive for show and putt for dough' are not really applicable to me, but 'keep it simple stupid' certainly is.