Forward to the Past

In my last post, I referred to my return to connection theory, linking the lead arm to the chest. This was something I discovered years ago, then abandoned in search of something new and even better - as you do - but that was delusion.

I recently watched a video which featured a teaching pro swinging in the 'connected' way and achieving great results. The connection he achieved was really obvious, straight lead arm across his chest, etc, probably more obvious than usual, perhaps because of the camera angle. But it was impressive and made me realise that provided a few other principles are observed this is the way the average player can achieve consistent - and I stress consistent - ball striking.

The other principles are these:

You must complete your backswing. This means making sure you rotate as far as feasible (for you own physiology) and start the downswing only when you have felt a slight pause at the top. This doesn't mean thinking pause (an artificial pause); it's just a feeling and a commitment to completion.

The backswing will be shorter than if you significantly bend your lead arm (a slight bend is fine), but although the backswing will be shorter, the straight lead arm will ensure that there is plenty of width in the backswing, which equates to plenty of length. It's difficult to accept this feeling of constriction at first, the swing feels so short, it just takes time to realise that any (marginal) loss of length in the backswing will be made up for by more consistent club to ball contact.

Apart from these barriers to success with connection, it is still necessary to get the basics of grip, stance, weight transfer, alignment, rhythm, etc. correct. But this is not the main challenge in golf, the main challenge is realising that golf is not about swinging your arms to hit the ball, it's mostly about using your arms as levers connected to a rotating cylinder, your body. This is not a return to swing machine golf, but it is not far away from that concept, combined with some connection theory.

Anyway, since complaining about my short game in my last post, I've made some improvements. These include committing to a chipping strategy, including making sure I am centred over the ball and not trying to lift the ball (a very common error). My putting has improved, again because I've gone back to a tip I got years ago about keeping the arms tucked in close for short putts - it restricts the swing, keeps the putter face square - also ideal for dangerous downhill putts.

By the way, my 'senior swing' (hyper closed stance) has had to be put on hold - too much draw - except for driver in some situations where a big draw is called for. My connected swing works well enough without complicating things, including worrying about disastrous hook shots. We have a lovely omnipresent river on my course.

So, I am going forward to past and enjoying it a lot.