One year on - still learning

In February 2022, I wrote a blog post called 'Live and Learn'. Unfortunately, as usual, I do not take my own advice. It's taken me a year to realise that my musings on 'Connection Theory' are actually right on the money.

I've been playing poorly lately, experimenting with all kinds of moves, positions and concepts. None of these has borne fruit - unless you count bitter lemons. For me, it was necessary to revisit my old favourite - connection.

Connection in this case refers to keeping the upper left (front) arm and chest quite tight during the backswing and the downswing through contact. It does not include the trail arm. The objective is to retain this connection consistently during these phases of the swing.

I go into some detail in the earlier blog, including a discussion of the benefits of this connection - using the body and arms together for power, encouragement for keeping an extended lead arm and creation of a consistent swing radius. There are challenges also, including the need to overcome the feeling of restriction and the potential for shortening the swing, depending on one's flexibility.

Anyway, in my recent rounds I have gone back to this connection theory and I have to say it is feeling good. I had a decent round last week, sank nothing, shanked a couple of chips, but overall had a great ball striking round.

I am finally convinced that I need to connect my lead arm in this way - even if it shortens my swing and makes me look like a robot. If I can sort out my ball striking, I can hopefully start to work on my short game - which has suffered recently. One way or another, I'm still learning.

Is three a crowd?

In my previous post I spoke about rhythm and I'm certain that without a fairly consistent rhythm, will be harder to play consistent golf. Many great golfer have not only had good rhythm (or tempo if you prefer) and many have had the same rhythm or tempo for all the clubs in their bag.

But this post is about two other 'fundamentals' that I am increasingly convinced are very important in the full (especially full) golf swing. They relate to: trail hip movement and the lead arm.

Recently, I have been very conscious of turning my right (trail) hip back as far as possible on the backswing. It's something I'd never previously thought about. Now it is starting to feel fairly natural and less forced and I'm happy about that because of two main benefits I've noticed, as follows.

Firstly, turning the trail hip around 45 to 60 degrees (a significant amount) adds depth and length to the backswing. It is against some teachings to do this of course - the dreaded X Factor - which was all the rage in golf teaching some years ago (still might be for all I know). I'm speaking of course as an older player with less than average flexibility, so take that into account. But that's only one benefit of hip turn.

Secondly, turning the trail hip in this way helps me to stay centred in the backswing. And, as I also mentioned in my previous post, a centred golf swing is very important for consistent ball contact. Turning or rotating rather than swaying has to be good for swing arc control, particularly for finding the low point of the swing (ahead of the ball for irons and fairway clubs).

Unfortunately, it's not enough. There is one more 'fundamental' that for me anyway has been lost while I've been trying to 'simplify' my swing and play better 'senior' golf. It is the need to keep my lead (left) arm straight (not rigid) in the backswing. A straight or extended lead arm seems to be very important for my timing.

From my recent experience, when I have been bending and unbending my lead arm in the interests of a slightly longer, less compact swing, I've lost my timing. My brain seems to be affected by so many shot making challenges (awareness of lie, conditions, penalty areas, distance issues, etc.) that when I'm more fluid with my arm action, I seem to often be a split second out with my timing - enough to wreck some shots. Keeping my lead arm straight is a simple thought that seems to help my timing. My action is more compact for sure, but my increased hip turn and depth of swing compensate for this - and my timing improves.

This is a brief and probably inadequate description of what is going on with these new 'fundamentals', so I'll report further as the experiment continues. I'm hoping that three fundamentals is not a crowd.