Many golfers swing smoothly in their practice swings, yet in the real swing, with the ball in the equation, they invariably “flex” the upper body in the downswing trying to “strike” it. You’d swear they were swinging at a bowling ball! Tightening the arms and wrists in the downswing may easily cause a reduction in club-speed and a reduction in the amount of body mass that is moving at impact (any of your pounds that are not turning at the instant you strike the ball, are not having an effect on it. Tightening the arms and wrists in the downswing also causes change in the swing-path and off-center shots.
When you watch Freddie Couples swing, he just drops his arms from the top of the backswing and allows his core rotation to sling them. My tip is to always, visualize the ball as being “weightless,” like a piece of popcorn. You should take some popcorn to the practice tee and alternate between hitting golf balls and pieces of the popcorn. The birds will eat what you don’t pick up and popcorn doesn’t harm the mowers like tees or pennies. You should begin to visualize the ball as having no more weight than the popcorn. The reason you won’t flex at the popcorn is because your brain knows that even if you hit it dead flush it will only go three feet anyway. Trying to move the golf ball a great distance is what makes people instinctively flex at it. When you stop “flexing,” - your club-speed and swing-path integrity will improve dramatically, - and you’ll begin to hit the ball “flush” in the middle of the clubface.
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Another way to kill the kill concept is to bust up concrete. I use busted concrete to create terrace walls in my hilly yard so I can grow vegetables. As I try to bust the concrete with the sledge hammer I invariably tighten up and can feel all the negative feedback through my wrists, arms, elbows, and shoulders. I have to really try to relax and when I do the hammer becomes much more effective with none of the energy feeding back into my joints. Another useful exercise is to learn how to hammer spikes into wood. Most people try to push the hammer into the nail-"tap, tap, tap" to little effect. Every time I see this I hear my Dad exclaiming "Swing the hammer, let the hammer do the work; I don't want to hear that tap tap tap sh_t (he was a carpenter). A hammer properly swung makes a thud sound not a tap. It is the same concept as swinging a golf club. People worry that there is no way they can strike the nail with power unless they consciously muscle the hammer into the nail. They end up with bent nails every time, especially when they try to nail hard wood like oak. The way to do it is to almost throw the hammer at the nail and at impact there should be no energy fed back into the hand, wrist and arm.
ReplyDeleteI like that. I always thought the same thing about using an ax or a breaker bar in doing yard work. Danny probably doesn't have a concept of yard work yet, but we'll forgive him for now. Thanks for the post.
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