I hate to say it again

 I refer myself to my blog of 1 June 2020, where I detail the benefits of the 'connected' golf swing. I'm not going to repeat those comments, except to say: will I never learn?

The reality is the connected swing works for me. It gives me greater consistency of strike, the ball flight I prefer (generally a slight draw) and greater confidence in shot-making in general. I might be losing some arm and thus clubhead speed because my swing is more constricted and shorter, but I gain some speed by more effectively using the larger muscles in the connected body turn. In any case, I'm not a distance seeker - scoring well in golf has more to do with the short game, in my opinion anyway.

Enough of those details, the point is that my ongoing, largely fruitless experiments with swing methods, theories, online teachers, etc. have largely been a waste of time. I have the set up I need (as athletic as I can make it at my age) and the awareness of alignment, target, strategy and so forth that give me the opportunity to play decent (though far from perfect) golf.

Anyway, a final thought on connection. It works with putting. This is something I hadn't appreciated until recently.

Many years ago, a golfing friend game me a putting tip when I was having trouble with short putts. The tip was basically to keep your set-up very tight, elbows in - connected - and stay very stable. Body rotation is needed with this method, but it is very constricting. This would seem to be costly in terms of touch or feel, but the benefits of stability, consistency and confidence far outweigh any loss of touch - including for long putts. It's something I will work on. 

Connection. I certainly hope I don't have to say it again.