I hate to say this ...

I hate to say this, because no-one can really be expected to believe it - but there really is a 'secret' to acquiring a better (more consistent) golf swing.

Ironically, the answer was staring me in the face, I've had all the evidence, but I've chosen to ignore it, or at least remain highly sceptical - until I gave it a decent trial.

It's something almost every serious golfer will have heard of and at least 95 percent of golfers, including me, will have ignored.

It's also something that can be observed in 95 percent of good golfers (pros especially). It's a mechanical thing, not a mental skill, because skills such as superior concentration and handling pressure are at another level.

This 'secret' is very simple: A STRAIGHT LEAD ARM (left arm for me). 

When I say straight I mean observably straight or extended at the top of the backswing (wherever that might be for a player) and as straight as possible on the downswing and through impact.

Note of course that straight doesn't mean rigid or tight, but firmly straight and not bent to any perceptible degree. So many poor golfers noticeably bend their lead arm, quite often in the quest for a longer backswing.

Bending the lead arm in the backswing is fine if you have great timing, but so few medium to high handicappers have good timing; their timing is often compromised because of the hit hard impulse.

Maintaining a straight lead arm will, of course, for many older or less flexible golfers mean a shorter backswing. That's OK because the straighter lead arm will provide a decent swing arc and promote more consistent strikes. We just need to be realistic about our physical limitations.

There is another, somewhat unexpected for me, benefit of a straight lead arm: it seems to somehow unify and simplify one's swing. Focusing on the arm seems to eliminate the need to think about weight shift, or staying down or one of the host of other swing thoughts that can ruin a golf swing.

Combining this lead arm focus with more sensible driver strategies (gripping down when control is paramount), sensible club choice (let the club do the work) and more common sense short game strategies (a work in progress) has given me a tremendous boost of confidence in my game. It's not perfect, but ...

Anyway, I hate to say this, but give this straight lead arm 'secret' a try. I don't think you will regret it.

Hope springs eternal

It's been a long time since my last post probably because I needed some time to think on and process some ideas. I've summarised these below.

Driver: I'm gripping down to around 43 inches. Minimal loss of distance; huge gain in control has resulted. It's something that a lot of people should consider. The slight change in swing plane also promotes a slight draw, something that many would enjoy. I used to do this. Don't know why I didn't continue with it.

Fairway wood: I've gone to a 5-wood with, again, a slight loss of distance, but a considerable gain in terms of consistent contact and lift or height of shots. This was brought on by the realisation that I don't have the clubhead speed to hit 3-woods well. Many golf teachers support the switch to 5-wood for, in particular, senior golfers like me. And the distance statistics for average golfers support the move.

Pitching and chipping: unfortunately, a bout of shanking has forced me to be very conscious of my backswing when pitching and chipping. I have to be very careful to take the club back wide and keep it wide, with no ducking or moving into the ball. A slight improvement in confidence has helped, but I feel somewhat 'wooden' or less than fluid at present. I hope this resolves itself.

Irons: my major problem area in recent months, mainly because I don't seem to be able to control the impulse to hit at the ball rather than let the club and a smooth swing take care of the strike and the distance. It seems to be so hard to trust the club. I don't know why after all these years. Something to work on I suppose.

Putting: the most radical of my changes has been my putting grip. I am using a modified right (lower) hand grip that rests in the palm with no thumb or fingers being used for propulsion, similar to some of the claw grips, but different. It's hard to describe. However, this use of the lower palm has given me a better feel for longer putts and less twitch with shorter putts. I'm giving it a lengthy trial.

In general, I've regained a bit of form in recent weeks. I'm happy with the few new things I'm trying. And, after all, hope springs eternal.

Good news, bad news

The good news is simply that all of the swing theory ideas I've written about and promoted are essentially correct. There are a large number of skills or techniques that are characteristic of the swings of good golfers, just like there are plenty that belong to the hacker.

In identifying these specific qualities, these descriptions of elements of the golf swing, I have generally ignored or at least minimised one important fact - the golf swing exists as a totality - it's more than the sum of it's parts.

This crucial fact means that the elements I speak about (eg. in the most recent straight lead arm blog) cannot assume any importance on their own because they are only part of the total picture. In this way, one fault in one area (such as a bent lead arm) can often be compensated for by a 'fault' in another area (perhaps a pronounced dip in the swing arc). I'm thinking Lee Westwood here.

Golf teachers sometimes talk about their pupils have compensating faults in their swing. Sometimes teachers try to fix both faults; sometimes they leave them alone - depending on whether the compensation in place has a cost, eg. power loss.

The trouble is, many self-taught golfers find one fault at a time in their swing and set out to fix it without realising that they have not identified the compensating fault. The result is often bad. No matter what they then try, things get worse and more complicated.

I suspect that for most of my golf journey I have been falling into this trap: find a fault - fix it; find the next fault - fix it; and so on. Most of the fault fixing makes sense in isolation, but the whole of the swing is constantly being manipulated and ultimately compromised.

Recently, I had a friend say 'why are you trying to change your swing; there's nothing wrong with it'. This got me thinking. But maybe thinking a bit more clearly. 

Anyway, I have thunk. I have stopped looking for individual faults in my swing (there are a few) and tried to 'own my swing'. I know this is a cliche. Unfortunately, it is also very true. Your swing is your swing. You can learn to hit certain shots - draws, fades, stingers, spinners, whatever, but these are mostly achieved through the set up, alignment, grip, ball position and other methods that are NOT related to your natural swing.

So, the good news is I'm learning to live with my swing - in its totality - and generally happy with the results. The bad news is that although I'm wiser, I'm also quite a bit older. C'est la vie.

Straight to the point

I can't believe how often I ignore the important things about the golf swing. Last time I carried on about rhythm and the importance of a smooth and unhurried backswing, but missed one of the most important factors in creating a consistent golf swing, the swing arc.

There is no future for the golfer who cannot create and maintain a consistent swing arc. Topped shots, fat shots and poor contact in general are closely related to having an inconsistent swing arc - where we are referring to the outer path of the clubhead.

There are of course other ways in which a swing can be compromised - for example, the rhythm being off in some way, typically through hurrying or trying to hit too hard. But one of the main reasons for poor contact is because the swing arc changes from shot to shot. The margin for error is, after all, very small.

I have realised that it is really important for me to create and maintain a straight lead (left) arm throughout my golf swing. It is not something that I've focused on in recent years - probably because I've been tinkering with all sorts of ideas about elbow or wrist position or some other (mainly) backswing thought.

My obsession with connection, upper arm to chest, was another area of focus that, although important in some ways, does not directly address the crucial swing arc factor for consistent ball striking. I've also been distracted by numerous other ideas about weight shift, heel lifting, ball position, etc. etc.

While straight lead arm is a longstanding golf concept, it has been dismissed by some as a myth. Numerous examples of top players who bend their lead arm are cited as the reason it is unnecessary to keep the arm straight. But these same players, with rare exceptions, manage to straighten that lead arm at impact - where it really does matter for nearly all golfers.

The reality is the average player does not have the ability to consistently (and consistently is the key word) achieve at impact a straight lead arm, and a fully extended swing arc. It's hard to do. Not that keeping the lead arm straight is easy; but it is better to try than to ignore the importance of it.

It should be noted that a straight lead arm does not mean rigid. Straight should probably be thought of as extended and definitely not locked. There is a difference; errors of over-rigidity can creep in if we are not careful. There are also other traps for the unwary, for example, failure to extend (lift the chest) on the backswing, without which it is difficult to stay fairly centred and correctly rotated.

Enough detail for now. I just know that I strike the ball much better when I focus on keeping my lead arm straight. I am more consistent in making ball contact and I believe I also benefit from maintaining as wide a swing arc as I can - so that my distances are, if anything, enhanced.

I hope I got straight to the point because straight is the point of this post. Well, it makes sense to me.

No Brainer - again

Previously, I spoke about split grip putting and said I could not decide on whether it is a good idea or not. My conclusion now is that splitting the hands in a less extreme way (an inch or so) is sufficient to ensure that the dominant hand has control and the less dominant (top) hand acts as support only.

I think now that trying to reduce the dominance of the right hand (for right handers) does not make much sense. We use our dominant right hand (right handers) for all sorts of actions, throwing, writing, cutting, brushing our teeth, etc, etc, - why would we not use it to control our putting stroke.

Anyway, putting grips and techniques are horses for courses, and there are special cases such as golfers who have mental issues - the yips - not to be too cruel. I think it's probably most important that we have rhythm in the stroke and can feel for the pace of the putt, combined with solid contact, to putt well.

Speaking of rhythm, this applies to the full stoke, especially the longer clubs. An absolute killer is the hurried stroke, where anxiety over the strike affects our balance and timing. I'm not in favour of a pause at the top of the backswing, but a slow or unhurried backswing can be a great idea for some golfers.

But my backswing has been a real problem in recent times. Therefore, I'm so happy now to have finally realised that with a decent set up, all I need to do is take the club back as far as I can while staying in balance and forget about my arm or elbow position or the direction the clubhead takes. 

This recent realisation (I'm a slow learner) has freed me up to concentrate on the strike and the follow through. I can't stress too much how important this discovery has been for me. Given that my backswing is shortish, I'm not a long hitter, but I'm not really short either. And I don't miss many fairways.

If anything, my biggest problem at the moment is chipping and pitching. Many of the lies on our course are very tight and it takes confidence (that I don't have) to play these shots well. It's something to work on. After all, the short game is the scoring game; now that's the real no brainer.

Split decision

I'm still considering the unorthodox split grip putting style I wrote about last time. There's no doubt it has its merits - one's dominant right hand being in control, with a very low grip on the putter, also for control - but I now suspect that it's possible this is overkill.

There are many strange and wonderful grips adopted by golfers with the putter. Some of them are designed to take the dominant hand out of the stroke, often because of the yips or a less radical version of that affliction. But I'm not sure that the grip has anything to do with the yips and the like - surely it's psychological, not physical.

The experiment will continue for now, alternating with a more conventional (less-split) grip, if I can call it that. We shall see. At the moment it's a split decision.

Postscript: next time, I'm going to talk about the full swing and some recent revelations around simplicity and rhythm.

Going low

When I refer to going low, I'm not talking about going low on the scorecard, that's not happening. What I'm referring to is my new, experimental, right hand low putting method - otherwise known as a split grip putting method.

I recently re-read a book from the early 1970s by a Paul Trevillion about his split-grip putting method. He claimed, and I don't think it was ever disproved, that he was the best putter in the world. He challenged all sorts of people to contests and many people must have believed his claim, because very few, if any, took up his challenges.

In brief, his method was not just a split-grip (hands apart on the putter) but with his right hand (he was right-handed) placed a long way down the putter, even as much as a foot from the putter blade for shorter putts; less so for longer putts.

Trevillion claimed that the introduction of the other hand in more conventional grips caused confusion, and cited examples of where the the hands don't work well together (eg. handwriting or drawing a straight line). I'm not sure about the (neuro) science, but the added stability you can feel in the putter head from a lower grip does seem to add support to the claim.

I have tried this method (the less extreme version) and my first impression is that it has merit. Anyway, I'm giving it a trial. I can't putt any worse than I have been. Who knows, I might just end up going low.