On course

During my most recent round, I used the straight lead (left for me) arm on all full shots and for chip shots for that matter. It worked extremely well. I hit the ball more consistently and with no appreciable loss of power or distance.

Having said that, it is not a panacea; it is still necessary to align correctly, swing smoothly (I marginally slowed my backswing) and avoid rushing into the downswing, swaying and so forth. The bad shots I hit were when I hurried swings or flipped my hands; the good shots were when I retained the straight (not stiff) lead arm throughout the backswing and contact zone.

I believe the straight left arm does a number of things, some that are incidental to the concept, but valuable nonetheless.

One is that the straight lead arm tends to encourage the connection that I've written about previously. Keeping the arm straight tends to keep it closer to one's chest; whereas a bent arm is more likely to stray quite a way from the chest, with the consequent loss of connection and inconsistent use of the upper body. I won't go into connection again here.

Keeping a straight lead arm, even just thinking about keeping the lead arm straight, also helps a golfer to retain the lag that is so important in generating club head speed. Trying to retain lag in other ways is, as I mentioned in a recent post, dangerous for the average player. The straight lead arm encourages a late release and the retention of lag, mainly by minimising the desire to flip the hands, having tried (usually unsuccessfully) to hold them back in the downswing.

Finally, I've also been thinking about how the straight lead arm might actually help encourage a golfer transfer their weight to the front foot, an essential in all good golf swings. I think by focusing on the lead arm creates a feeling that the backswing is shortening and perhaps reducing the power available (the first feeling is real, the second idea is a fallacy) the golfer is more likely to use their body, particularly their lower body, to generate power. This is exactly what is required - more lower body action in sequence with the upper body. I've yet to develop this part of the theory.

That's enough on straight lead arm, my other concern lately has been putting and, in a way, I've adopted the same kind of approach to putting, particularly short putting.

Firstly, what I've done is go back to a conventional grip, well, reasonably conventional. I've adopted a Vardon grip for putting. A Vardon grip, used by many golfers to weaken the input of their stronger bottom (right for righties) hand in the golf swing, places the little finger on top of the index finger of the other hand (or in the groove next to it). I'm not convinced that weakening the input of the stronger hand is necessary for most golfers, but allowing for the fact that many golfers pull-slice, there could be something in it, although the causes of pull-slices are perhaps more related to alignment and swing plane than grip.

My adoption of the Vardon grip for putting is for the same reason as above - to weaken the strong hand - and reduce the frequency of the pulled putt. It also feels quite natural; far more natural to me than the lead hand low idea. Anyway, this grip felt quite good, and it encouraged me to use the rocking of my shoulders more on longer putts, not a bad thing.

On shorter putts, I've also adopted the Vardon grip, but I'm also gripping down on the club 2 to 3 inches until my arms are much straighter than before - hence my reference to the straight lead arm above. This lower gripping gives me not only the benefits of straighter arms, but also a feeling of more club head control. Again, it is no panacea, but I think it is helping.

Finally, on putting, I've resolved to accept (like the great Walter Hagen) that I will hit some bad, in this case, putts each round. I am allowing myself 2 missed short putts and 2 bad long putts (whatever bad means on the day). I think this makes sense because although golf is far from a game of perfect, I feel I am on course for a slight improvement over the coming weeks.