Showing posts with label golf swing compensations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label golf swing compensations. Show all posts

Swing Compensations – What Are They And Why Should They Be Eliminated? by Danny Lee

With every golf swing, regardless of player ability, there is some level of compensation. The objective is to reduce and minimize these band aids or the swing will become harder and harder to replicate the older you get or if some small change takes place in your body. To preface, what a compensation is trying to accomplish on a subconscious basis, is to bring your body back on path of the golf ball if you are not initially set up in that position.

Every player is trying to achieve the same sensation of clearing all the way through their shot and delivering power to the ball in the direction they intend. For the majority individuals, they have their tendencies and instincts entirely backwards from what they should do be doing. For instance, people address the ball with their weight between the balls of their feet and heels as in a variety of other balances throughout the swing. In order to clear through the shot what you will find in almost every good golfer, their weight ends up back on their front heel at impact. The farther forwards you get in the swing and in your feet the more difficult it is to get your body back into a position it can clear.

People compensate for being out of position at the top of the back swing in a large combination of ways. To find out what kind of compensations you have in your body and how detrimental they are to your swing, put yourself into a heel to heel drill as seen on this weeks video. It will test your ability to move over the back of your legs and feel your freedom of rotation. It is one of the most difficult drills that we have to show you if your posture and timing will give you the feeling you are looking for.

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Swing Compensations: What Are They And Why Should They Be Eliminated - by David Lee



Why do you suppose that most players develop to a certain level, then seem to hit a brick wall in their ability to improve? This problematic issue occurs not only with amateurs, but with professional players as well.

In the forty-eight years that I’ve been teaching golf (for twenty of those years I was just trying to teach it), it has been a rarity to see a beginning player who did not start the down-swing with a “kill” concept. With few exceptions, players instinctively draw the club back and “hunt” the ball with the arms and club like they were trying to drive a nail with a hammer over three feet long. When the golf swing is approached with such a misguided concept for creating power in the swing, this is what occurs. As the shoulders and arms “flex” in the down-swing, part of the energy serves to move the ball, but simultaneously, part of it goes back into the body and causes the path to move. The path (or plane) moves to the outside or “over the top,” which will pull or hook the ball, and causes the player to make corrective or “compensating” steps to try and hit the ball on line to the target. A right-handed player (opposite for lefties) can compensate a changing plane and attempt to eliminate the pull by aligning the body to the right, by weakening the grip, by moving the ball back in the stance, or by making postural or equipment changes. All of these compensations can be made independently, or utilized simultaneously. The more energy, however, that is turned back into the body during the execution of the swing, the harder it is to repeat the swing and get consistency in your results. Most golfers make their compensations intentionally, but oftentimes they are made at a subconscious level and the player is totally unaware that he/she is compensating.

As we go from the practice tee to the golf course, especially in tournament situations, body tension increases. As the body tightens (for whatever reason), the center of leverage rises. As this occurs, any energy that is being internalized through improper power application, causes an increase in path-shift over what we experience when we are relaxed. This is exactly why it is so important to eliminate compensations and identify proper power technique, which can be accomplished by training with the Gravity golf drills. Study them – they are the “road map” to a technically perfect swing.     
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