Please check my swing plane

[Simon Woo]

Re: Please check my swing plane

Thanks Paul you always know right where I am and you always seem to give just the right advice at the right time! Yep, I've definitely hit a barrier at this point - but don't get it wrong, I think it's a good thing At least now I know precisely which are the few things that I really need to work on, and which are the ones that I can put behind me as part of my correct swing

Jim McLean seems to have put it very well. He teaches beginners to use the hands and arms, just to get the basic fundamentals of the swing going first. For better players, he will teach using the bigger muscles. I'm think I'm at this point where I'm ready to move on to the next level, but boy is that a huge step or what!

[pnearn]

Re: Please check my swing plane

Tks for that Simon. I see a lot of parallels to where you are now and where I was two years ago. It truly is a journey!

In my experience the best thing you could do now is go work on the one thing. That for you I think is learning to take the hands out of the swing and become a swinger not a hitter. Im sure you know the logic already but its centrifrugal force caused by upper body rotation that equals increased clubhead speed. Think of a small piece of string with a marble on the end. If you rock it back and forth with your fingers it will accelerate through the bottom part of its arc. This is analagous to swinging the clubshaft with your hands. Now think about doubling the length of that piece of string. The ball should travel twice as fast through the bottom part of its arc. This is analagous to you shoulders swinging very loose arms and hands and clubshaft

If you think of keeping your arms and hands really loose with a light grip you will start to feel the weight of the clubhead as you swing. This is swing the clubhead by Ernest Jones. Feeling the clubhead is important. In order to do that your grip and arm tension must be very light. And the huge benefit of light grip pressure and no arm or torso muscle tension allows us to turn freely and the club to freely "flail" as Percy Boomer describes. Sam Snead and other greats swung with "baby bird" grip pressure. Jack Nicklaus described his "ragdoll" arm tension. They just 'threw' the clubhead through the ball.

This is where the term freewheeling arms etc comes from and this is how you maximise your clubhead speed - via the centrifrugal force initiated by your body

So how do you go work on this. Well I just practiced turning my chest back and through the ball with this very light grip and powerless arms. Its important here that you realise what your goal is - dont worry if the ball doesnt fly straight as you can sort that out later, your goal is to teach your body and mind not to grip tight and let the upper body swing the club. If you start hitting pushes like this and worry you will start using your hands again to manipulate the club and be back to square one. ONLY when you can 'swing' through the ball do you then go back and work on timing/feeling of getting this upper body turn sequenced with your lower body. Also try hard not to also make too many other changes when you are doing this as its impossible for your brain to work on all these things at once

I found once I had learned to swing and take my hands out, all the other bits fell into place pretty quickly

[Simon Woo]

Re: Please check my swing plane

Hee hee Paul no one knows me like you do :P

But look at the bright side, if I don't swallow books like that, I will never be able to throw so many golf quotes and theories like you so expertly did below! For a lousy swinger like me you'd be surprised at how much theoretical golf **** I can spout to others, and sometimes they do sound very convincing too! :P

Yes I think I'm ready to work on being a swinger than a hitter. In fact, I think that's gonna help in what I really hate about my swing videos - how 'dead' and unathletic my body looks. I know I'll have to get ready for a long downhill before I can cross this huge obstacle - quite a scary thought actually...

[pnearn]

Re: Please check my swing plane

You'll get there mate, and believe me it will be really rewarding when you do. You may even find you pick it up quite quickly if you take a lot of pressure of yourself

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