golfrewind.com

I posted this in another forum.. but felt pretty strongly about getting it out to everyone I can.
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Doing my usual rounds, something sparked a fire with me that I felt needed to be shared as hopefully some of you can gain insight with it.

Too much instruction is centered around THE BODY. There are three parts of this equation that are almost always left out. They follow in no particular order.

#1. Equipment - You simply cannot understand how vital having the right equipment is. And I'm not just talking about the club.. shoes, pants, shirts, weather wear, gloves, and even the bag used all have something to do with your ability to play. Sometimes it's a psychological impact.. but it does all make a difference.

But I cannot stress enough, what proper CLUBFITTING does to your game. You need equipment that rewards you for the swing you make. If you hit it straight, it better not be because you quit on the shot and slapped at it with your right hand... you'll end up going about it that way until someone hands you a different club or you make up your mind to be happy with the consiquences of making a good swing but just let that darn cut happen anyway. GET REWARDED, NOT PUNISHED for your good swings.

#2. The Mind - So much is talked about it, but not enough instruction is built around it. Everywhere I look (and admittedly I do it too) the mind is not even discussed. Your mental state is supposed to be different everywhere you go, but yet the design is to have the same swing everywhere you go. What kind of foolishness is this? When at school, think about apples when drawing apples.. when you are at home, think about pears when drawing apples.

Do you realize that you are doing that very silly thing to yourself when you "Work on the driving range" and "Play on the course". Learn to "Play on the driving range" or "Work on the course".. or even both at both.. but one at one place and the other at the other will do you so much harm and eventually instill fear of practice or fear of playing.

#3. The club - This time in a different way than there was in reference to equipment. I have many times disected golf into 4 elements. You, the club, the ball, and the environment (where the target exists). Each element has a job, or function.

The job of the environment, is to interact with the ball and get in it's way. The holes job is to get in the way of the ball... the tree's job is to get in the way of the ball.. etc. The job of the ball is to get in the way of the club. It's inert until the club does something, therefore it doesn't have the job of seeking out anything. Otherwise we would all just stand around trying to use our powers of ESP to will the ball to the hole. The clubs job is to strike the ball in a particular manner based upon our use of it. It's a tool.. a simple machine.

And finally our job. We swing the club, PROPERLY.

We DON'T hit the ball. The club does. Yet nearly all of our focus and energy is directed at that thought.. hit the ball. This is the main reason for my new quote on the bottom of each of my signatures.

Now what do I mean by properly. Well, obviously we could just SWING the club and be no where near the ball. We must do it in a manner with the ball being struck on our way to the finish of our swing. This requires some alignment of our swing to do so. But once our alignments are set, the brain should be done with those thoughts. It should be about the club and SWINGING it. This is where 95% of amateurs fail and where almost all of "Practice" is lost. Recognize WHAT THE CLUB IS DOING.. and react to that. Respond to that.. ADJUST TO THAT!! Do NOT adjust to the ball!

I see it everyday. You react to the ball, and have no clue what the club is doing. You go along assuming that the ball sliced because you rotated too fast, swung too hard.. etc etc etc.. Not a narry one of most of you can even come remotely close to describing what the club did... but I don't blame you. I have spent a great deal of time reading through instruction books, internet articles, and watching various videos and TV... very little of it is directed toward the club. It's directed toward the body. No wonder yer all thinking your body is the answer and cure to everything.

A few words that hopefully you will all learn to live by:

Learn to link the mind to the club.. and soon the body will follow.

The Finish is the goal, not a result.

Never assume anything until you DO it. And I don't mean "Try to do it".

And finally..
Awareness of your faults is the key to mastery over them. Otherwise, you're just guessing.

Ringer, have you heard of THIS . A lot more mind/club focus and less technical stuff.

Darn. I thought having fun, enjoying time with friends and in nature, and getting away from the world for awhile was the goal.

I don't think anyone underestimates the mind here, Ringer. I do think that the mind game is quite complex and not suited for discussion on a forum, though the topic has been broached many times here.

wouldn't it be EASIER to discuss the mental game than the physical? We can discuss swing mechanics all we like but useful coaching is difficult unless you can actually see someone's swing?

FWIW I'd love to have Ringer's swing!!

Looks good... not British tho.

is the job of the club to get in the way of the player and a decent score?

Why are you singling him out? Now you are just starting to get to be a bit on the mean side don't you think?

I can't underestimate trying new things hitting a ball. Open the club face. Close the club face. Hit the ball in the front of your stance/ behind in your stance. Swing full. Swing half swings/quarter swings. All of the above combined together. Play around and see what all of that does for you and what it doesn't do for you.
Try a different wedge. Different bounces in wedges and see what that does. Try different things. Doing the same old, same old won't teach you much.

S'alright - I'm not British either.

I agree with you. However, even more than equipment, I put the emphasis on the mind. That is the key to uniting the proper equipment with the proper body.

Ringer -- there's one thing I'm not too clear on in your 'article.'

If you're not supposed to solve things with thoughts like 'the reason I sliced was because I rotated my hands too much', how can you solve them with thoughts relative to the club? Rotation has to do with the club and your body; how your body interacts with the club. Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with discovering your errors by way of errant bodily movements.

Good question robert...

I'm not saying to remove all thoughts... but making them pertain to the club is important. Bodily movements can produce results.. there's no doubt about it. But it has been my observation, that those movements are much more fleeting because of the compensatory nature of the subconcious mind. In order to create a particular position, you may not actually move that body part but instead move a few others to create it without true knowlege of it happening as such. This leads you to believe you're doing it right, when in fact everything else is doing something wrong.

I will often instruct a student to observe a particular body part. Then I will tell them to alter that motion... but I will always ask them, "Now what did that do to the club?" The objective should never be about the body, but of the clubs total motion. It is, afterall, what strikes the ball. You can make the perfect body motion, but without a club you're nothing to this game.

For an even simpler answer to your question... because the body has too many parts to monitor. The club has far fewer.

Beyond that, what the body does.. doesn't even matter anyway. It's what happens at impact that matters. How the body facilitates the motion of the club can be more of an excersise in symantics... however occasionally useful for identification of the clubs motion as I described above. (How does this move alter the motion of the club)

Just remember this, and perhaps no more point must be made. The subconcious mind is ALWAYS in control of you. But it tends to react to the FEEL of the club.

There is, however, a slight contradiction in what you said. Sure, it's all about what the clubs do at impact, but it's not your club that facilitates this motion, it's your body. And sure, you can manipulate your body in any number of extreme ways to get your 'club' in the position that allows it to make square contact. However, you use your BODY to make the most efficient (and therefore powerful) use of the club, to get the most out of the swing, and therefore the ball.

Robert, I really enjoy your contribution to this discussion. It's great to have a healthy conversation about an ideology. It makes everyone around us the wiser. Please, if you feel at any time that I'm a bit too agressive with my posts let me know. I tend to be a bit forceful.

Yes, the body moves the club. But your mind does not need to be focused on the body to make the club move. In fact, the more the mind is trying to manipulate the subconciousness into performing a particular movement of the body, the less efficiency the body tends to have at moving the club. It is very much a philosophical thing. I cannot say for absolute certainty that FORCING the body into doing particular movements will not help your game. It's quite possible. But the numerous components combined with the variety of conditions each one can be in is quite a challenge to master... and in many cases it's a bit like trying to get the bubble out of the linoleum. You may get the trouble out of one spot, but it can pop up somewhere else. Sometimes in a place you can't even see it.

The club does not have this inherent flaw. It moves based upon the trilemitry of forces acting upon it. Because of it's center of gravity and design, it should be moved in the manner of a SWING to be of the greatest usefulness. Much like a child dictates to the saddle of the swingset by creating momentum and balance, so does the club. When you pay attention to the way this club is balanced and how it's momentum flows, you can enhance that flow and balance by supporting and adding to it. But without MONITORING how the club moves, you will not know how to support it's motion. You can only guess.