Instruction

Golfers are clever

Published

11 years ago

Mar 5, 2013

After some of the crazy compensations I have seen in golf swings, I am completely convinced that many golfers are in fact very clever, despite what they may think. Let me explain.

Take the example of the golfer who hangs back on his trail foot and scoops at the golf ball in an attempt to get it airborne. I am sure he has often heard in lessons that he should finish in balance and with the weight transferred fully onto the lead leg, but yet they don’t do it.

Why?

In cases like this, we need to dig a little deeper to understand what is going on. If the golfer has no understanding of how the golf ball goes up in the air most effectively, this back foot, scoopy, impact position seems to make a lot of sense. It may not be the most consistent, effective or powerful position, but you cannot deny that it makes sense. The golfer has created a logical way to try to get the golf ball up into the air and this pattern will generally stick until a better way is found. Unless the golfer understands why he is trying to hit his irons with his weight forward and the grip end leading the club into impact, it is unlikely this change will occur very often.

What about the example of the golfer with the severely open club face who desperately attempts to swing to the left in an ill-advised attempt to get the golf ball somewhere back towards the target? Although misguided, his swing has been shaped from maybe one off piece (the open club face), which has led to this swing movement to try getting the golf ball to move in a more satisfactory way.

Linking back to my idea of clever golfers, I taught a class of beginner ladies just this past week and for some it was their first time hitting bunker shots. They had some previous ideas of what to do from reading magazine articles and watching golf on the TV, but they were mainly new to this area of the game.

Between us, we agreed on two facts:

We wanted to strike the sand instead of picking the ball cleanly to give best results and some margin for error
We wanted the club to slide through, not dig into the sand.

That was it. We then got straight into hitting some shots.

After each few shots I asked for feedback from the golfers and would often hear, “It was a good splash of sand but not enough power to get the ball out.” They then made the same set up they had decided was best for a slide rather than a dig, but this time they used a bit more speed. Some were then sliding the club through the sand nicely, with enough speed but still not getting the ball out. They decided that they needed to contact nearer to the ball so there wasn’t so much sand to slow them down. Others were originally taking too much sand and digging down into the ground, but, because they understood what they were trying to achieve, they could adjust their shot to work toward the desired outcome. Before very long at all, that perfect noise was being heard and golf balls were splashing out onto the green.

Does that all sound too simplistic?

Well, let me explain. I do not think that golfers are able to reach all of their golfing goals on their own. The right coach will help you understand what you are trying to do, make the learning process fun and speed your progress toward your goals. Coaches will help to design the learning environment that allows golfers to discover why and develop awareness for themselves.

However, make sure, whatever stage of your golf you are at, that you understand what you are trying to do. Extra information in terms of a change in swing plane, a different sequencing of body segments or trying to shift your weight to your lead foot more in the downswing are all well and good and often required, but an understanding of why you are making that change is what will really help you make the change, progress and achieve your goals.

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

1 day ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

Published

4 weeks ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.

As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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