How sweet it is

I'm surprised how well my new 'KISS' swing thought strategy is working.

'Keep your height' is such a simple thought that I figured it would not be enough to get me hitting the ball solidly. But except for one distracted iron shot in my last round, it has been a great help. My irons are crisper, my fairway woods are more solid and consistent and my drives, well, that's always a fraught area.

In fact, I am driving the ball fairly well, just not with the near 100% consistency that I had for a time a while ago. I am, however, now addressing the ball on the tee correctly. That is, I'm standing an inch or so further away from the ball so that the ball, when it is teed up, is actually aligned to the centre of the club face, not the heel.

Apart from this, I have finally got myself gripping the club a little less firmly and I believe regained some feel as a result - and probably some club head speed.

Furthermore, I've adopted a simple Vardon overlap when putting, with a traditional thumbs straight down the shaft (weak) grip. I'm also trying to channel the Jason Day smoothness in my putting stroke - and it is working quite well. I'm a reasonably good green reader and a fairly creative putter and chipper, so I have hopes of improvement in my scoring.

It's nice to be making some progress at last - you could even say 'how sweet it is'.

Maintain the rage

The rage is there, but in fact I'm talking here about a swing thought that I've come up with that is both technically relevant and psychologically helpful.

One of the main problems with my golf game is, as one could easily guess, having too many swing thoughts, too much going on in my mind about mechanics as I try to actually play the game. For this reason I've come up with a single swing thought that I can use as I set up that should, and does, keep most of those other swing thoughts at bay.

The thought (which can be verbalised if I choose) is 'keep your height'. It's obviously related to two of the major killers of golf swings - dipping and lifting. Dipping is more common to better golfers and something that they can get away with nearly all the time because of good timing, etc. Lifting is far more prevalent in the swings of poorer golfers, particularly those trying to compensate for an over the top swing. I have, needless to say, suffered from both maladies at some time or another.

Previously, I have worried more about swaying, but since re-reading Jimmy Ballard's book, I'm now far less concerned with lateral movement, at least provided the sway back to the front foot is timed reasonably well. But dipping and lifting are definitely more damaging to the average golfer. The bottom of the swing arc is sacrosanct. Any major dip or lift will have more effect on this than a few inches of sway and solid contact and distance control will go out the window.

But the technical reasons for not dipping or swaying are no more important than the psychological reasons for using a swing thought like 'keep your height'. This single swing thought helps clear the mind of other concerns about backswing, transition, downswing, etc. etc. and seems to have the side benefit of encouraging one to swing within oneself, not try to overpower the ball, swing with rhythm.

I will definitely maintain my golfing rage, but I plan to keep my 'keep your height' swing thought for some time to come.

As a postscript, my putting woes continue, but I am moving towards a grip that I can feel comfortable with and that also minimises club face rotation and keeps my elbows in, something that helps me keep the putting swing compact and the club face square. In brief, as a right hander, I rotate my left hand (anti-clockwise) into a super 'weak' position and my right hand (clockwise) into a very 'strong' position, so that they are not palms facing, as tradition instruction suggests. This position limits the amount of club face rotation. Try it, it works. I also overlap my right pinky (Vardon grip) to slightly reduce my right hand pressure and control - not something I do on full shots anymore, given that Ballard has given me 'permission' to use as much right side 'hit' as I want - a few other provisos being in place.

Here we go 'round

Happy with the Jimmy Ballard golf swing and the way I'm hitting the ball. Nothing is perfect of course, but I'm now feeling that everything is simpler, less technical. For example, I now know that it's OK for me to hit hard with my right side and hand, provided I set up, coil and transfer my weight properly.

I'm basically hitting the ball straight with a tendency to hit a draw with fairway woods and hybrids, and slight fades with my driver. Irons are a bit more uncertain as I still haven't quite got my timing right. I think that takes more time with this more right-sided technique. I'm pulling a few short iron shots also, so I know that I need to work on my follow through.

The biggest change for me in a very short space of time is reversion to my old ten finger grip, not only for full shots, but for putting. I'm actually putting conventionally with right hand low (right-hander), but tucking my elbows in tight for the short putts to limit putter movement. This tight feeling adds stability to the club face and restricts the backswing, so is only for inside six feet or so.

The reason for this putting change is that I've realised I am a pretty good feel putter for the longer ranges and a reasonable green reader - so there's no reason to adopt a special grip. For short putts, I can miss them with any grip, so why bother doing anything other than keep myself as stable as possible.

The elbows-in tip came to me many years ago from the late Richard Norman, a social golfer like me at the time. I don't know why I neglected this method for so long because it works - at least it works for me as well as anything will.

Anyhow, I'm going along reasonably well at the moment with these new ideas, but let's see what comes up 'round the corner.

Fixation with connection

I have to confess I've become obsessed with connection in the golf swing and, as a consequence, I've returned to the maestro of connection, Jimmy Ballard.

I own and have carefully read Jimmy's 'How to Perfect Your Golf Swing', and looked at his video lessons with Rocco Mediate. In some ways, his methods seem dated, perhaps because he has been consistent with his ideas and teaching methods for many decades. But I can't help feeling he has basically got it right. He thinks so too. When it was suggested to him that he should write another book he said: 'Why would I do that; I got it right the first time'.

Not only is Jimmy right about a lot of things in the golf swing, but his method is simple. He wants us to eliminate unnecessary angles and manipulations in the golf swing. His 'keep the left elbow down' (for right-handers) and 'keep the triangle' concepts don't get much more straightforward. And, even more importantly, his left shoulder 'connection' (for right-handers) idea, is just plain commonsense - not always evident elsewhere in golf instruction.

Jimmy also says it is fine to fire the right side, sway (up to six inches), bend the left elbow and NOT turn. He is very critical of certain famous golf teachers, suggesting that they have ruined more golf careers than they have advanced. As a result of his outspoken-ness in the past, he has been criticised and ostracised at the highest levels. But I keep coming back to his main ideas and it is very hard to find fault with them.

As I continue to work on connection, I will also be rereading his thoughts on coil, transition and downswing, and looking to incorporate more elements of his method. And while everyone is different: taller, shorter, fatter, thinner, younger or older, and must swing slightly differently, Jimmy's simple fundamentals should help all of these golfers.

By the way, connection is a left shoulder thing (we are talking right-handers); don't put another towel under the right shoulder. Jimmy says that trying to keep the right elbow in and close to the side is a sure cause of the dreaded 'over-the-top' slice swing for the average golfer. The left shoulder lats, etc. are connected and the left elbow stays down, while the right elbow stays in its triangular relationship with the left.

One of the other things I like is the freedom Mr Ballard gives to the right side to drive or fire in the swing, secure in the knowledge that the left arm and elbow positioning will keep the club on plane. The right side for right-handers is, after all, a major source of power - why would we want to restrict it? The idea of pulling down with the left arm (for righties) is definitely not recommended, although the important role of the left arm is not ignored.

I will see how this all comes together in my next couple of rounds. There are a couple of other things I will be working on, namely: gripping down an inch or so on my driver and making sure I get onto my front foot at impact. Hopefully, I can find a bit more consistency - something else on which I'm fixated.

Let there be light

In my last blog I spoke about returning to a couple of ideas that I either forgot about or rejected without giving them enough time. Now that I have returned to these concepts, I'll report on progress.

The first of these ideas was about connection.

Now connection can mean different things to different golfers and I for one probably haven't fully understood the term. Placing head covers under the armpits is probably the most common perception of what creating connection is about. But it's not the full story.

Certainly it's important to coordinate the arms and the body (torso), and restricting the backswing in this way is OK for a drill, but what we really don't want to do is concentrate too much on the backswing or this kind of connection when we are actually playing. I have found this out to my peril, and my scores have climbed.

More important I now believe is maintaining connection with the ground - an awareness of where your weight is - particularly at impact. It is so important to stay down on (or with) the shot through contact. If you can do this, it generally means that your weight has automatically transferred to the front foot. Coming out of shots is really a common fault, sometimes wrongly termed 'lifting your head', when it's actually the whole body lifting (with a loss of spine angle), and often with the weight staying on the back foot.

Many golfers habitually come out of every shot they ever play. I've done it for months on end without realising. It was only when a pretty good golfer pointed this out to me recently that I realised I was getting back into the habit of lifting and losing this connection with the ground (coming out of nearly every shot) and therefore hitting a lot of thin and weak shots.

The main point is, however, that whatever ones swing style, swing path and speed, shot shape, trajectory, etc. each shot requires this commitment to connection - both with the upper body but particularly the lower body. Issues of sequencing, weight transfer, etc. will largely take care of themselves if this commitment is there. It is often possible to fix a multitude of faults by correcting a key problem in a golfer's swing - in this case a failure to commit to connection.

The second of the ideas I wrote about was left hand low putting (for right handers).

I have now adopted this putting style, having gradually become more used to the sensation of square shoulders and having to peep over my left shoulder to see the line and the hole. I also had to get used to the significant loss of control with the right hand, which is of course one of the problems for short-putt yippers like me.

Using this (Jordan Speith) method, I've now holed more medium and long putts and missed far fewer short putts in the past few weeks than I can scarcely believe. The initial awkwardness has been replaced with much greater confidence that I can hit the ball on the chosen line. Assuming I pick the correct line and have reasonable feel for the pace, this makes my putting much more reliable. I had 31 putts in my last round, which is not by most standards exceptional, but for me it is very satisfactory.

Left hand low is probably not for everyone, but for budding tippers it is a revelation. Anyway, it's worth a try. The bonus is that if it helps one putt better, it flows through into the rest of one's game.

I've got a few other things going on with my game at the moment, but my modified view of connection and my new putting method have put me in a better, more confident, frame of mind - so there is light at the end of the tunnel - just so long as it's not another train.

Another addendum:

Adam Scott's form continues, so it's timely to add a couple of his tips on driving.

His concept of 'connection' in relation to the lower body is 'groundedness', ie. feeling solidly connected to the ground. Look up Adam Scott tips for more.

He also emphasises a slow takeaway and transition, and notes that the target is the finish of the whole swing; the target is not the ball. He does like to picture good slow swings, and likes Inbee Park's swing for that reason.

Very importantly, Scott also states that focusing on technical backswing issues during a round is not the done thing; these issues should be kept for the range.

All good advice, much of it in keeping with the blog entry above.