Swing easy!

[ubizmo]

This is another of the Mysteries of Golf. Why is it so hard to swing easy?

I went to the range tonight, a new place I hadn't tried before. Although they only had mats, they had special ones in bays marked "irons only." It was a nice spopngy kind of stuff, so I didn't mind it. I brought only three clubs: a 4h (24*), a 5h (27*), and a 6i. I really just wanted to work with the hybrids, since I hadn't been having much success w2i them lately. The 6i was just for change of pace.

Since I don't usually do well with mats, my expectations were low. I did some RH drills with the 6i, no problem. Then I took the 5h and took a big swing, but without much energy to it...a "lazy" swing.

Wow.

It flew about 200, nice and straight. I took a drink of water and set up another ball. Same result. Another. Another. I sat down, had another drink of water, got up, took the 4h and did the same swing. Bang, I don't know how far it went, but it was far. Did it again. Again. Again.

Then the spell ended. I was getting excited. And once I got excited I couldn't swing easy anymore. I could take it back slow, but the downswing got "strong" and I lost distance, started to hook. I took a break, did some more RH drills, and got a few more good hits, but not consistently anymore. And of course there's nothing like a few bad hits to tell your motor cortex you need to hit it...harder!

This should be in the Mental Game category, I guess. Swing easy...isn't easy.

[LowPost42]

Re: Swing easy!

If you thought it was hard there, try it on the course when you have to watch everyone else 'rip' at the ball.

I played this weekend and when I could manage it, took these 'easy' swings that were just about perfect. When I couldn't, I'd have these jerky rips at the ball - mostly good results, but certainly not the greatness that the smooth swing, great contact balls were.

[Martin Levac]

Re: Swing easy!

Swing easy. Swing in control. Same thing.

All out means little control, if any. All the force we put in to propel the club, we must control it. When we're not strong enough to control that force, we lose control of the club. So, swing easy to swing in control. Or, swing in control to swing easy. The alternative is to swing out of control.

As we swing in control, we strike the ball better than when we swing out of control. As we strike the ball better, we transfer more momentum from the club to the ball. Since more momentum is transfered, the ball flies faster and thus farther.

[oldwease]

Re: Swing easy!

Swing easy. Swing in control. Same thing.

All out means little control, if any. All the force we put in to propel the club, we must control it. When we're not strong enough to control that force, we lose control of the club. So, swing easy to swing in control. Or, swing in control to swing easy. The alternative is to swing out of control.

As we swing in control, we strike the ball better than when we swing out of control. As we strike the ball better, we transfer more momentum from the club to the ball. Since more momentum is transfered, the ball flies faster and thus farther.

That's correct. The question is, though, what are the crucial ingredients for swinging in control? In theory, so long as everything remains in sequence, you should be able to apply as much power as you are capable of. The notion of swinging hard usually changes the swing sequence however, which causes the problems. Ernie Els looks effortless because of his swing co-ordination (all pros have that, of course). He's ripping it though!

[Neil18]

Re: Swing easy!

Indeed Oldwease!

Swinging in control is by no means limited to one pace of swing. Shot variations are also by pace as well as flightpath. The difficulty most people have is that they don't know how to hit it hard, but in control. In my opinion that comes from applying the speed at the wrong time in the swing. If the top speed of the swing does not coincide with/just after impact then the body will do all sorts of funny things to try and get more speed, to no avail.

Any attempt to apply speed before impact will not produce a harder shot. Quite the opposite. The timing of the acceleration is key. The impact happens so fast that, when I'm hitting a hard shot, it feels as though the acceleration comes AFTER impact, not before.

Swinging easy, IMO, can be slightly misleading. Swinging easy and producing 115mph of club speed is a paradox. I think it's a case of the misleading eye. It's an easy backswing, and easy downswing, then an explosion through the ball. Most people don't see the fastest bit of the swing cos they're either watching the ball the player has just hit (if you're there live) or the TV camera is following the ball for you. The only time we get to see a full swing is on slo-mo which doesn't give a proper appreciation of speed and acceleration at all.

For me the key is patience. Learn when to accelerate the club. You only get one chance to accelerate it during a swing, so it better be at the right time!

[BrianW]

Re: Swing easy!

Tempo! that's the starting point to to creating the best out of what you've got. Someone who tears away with the club at takeaway will not be able to control the rest of the shot, the same as someone who hits hard from the top in an attempt to take the skin off the ball, it will end up with inconsistency and power leaks.

We all have a natural rhythm that is present in the way we walk, talk and so on. If we try to create an artificial rhythm in our swing it will break down. Find out what your personal tempo is and work with that. Count it out "one and a two and a" work out what feels the right speed for yourself.

Do you need to generate fast body rotation to hit the ball far? No! you don't, you are better with a controlled rotation that stays nice and centered. Take a piece of string around a foot long and attach a small weight to it, grip the string between your thumb and index finger and swing it in a circle. The weight will start off slow then gather speed as it is rotated, note how when you make small compact and steady rotations with your hand the weight will rotate fast, when you make large swaying rotations it will slow down. This will be the same with your body in the golf swing, a compact centered rotation will be the hub, your arms and the club the string and the weight the clubhead.

Rotate your hub at an even tempo that suits your self, start from your legs and hips like the gradual unwinding of a spring, let your shoulders and arms follow on in progression, then as Neil suggests pull on the power with your arms and wrists as you come into impact.

Swing easy with your core!

[bill reed]

Re: Swing easy!

hi
you have touched on the most important thing in the golf swing i think, swing easy. if you swing easy then your in control and you have the right mind set and as brian said the right tempo, you give yourself the chance to snap the wrists at impact and get that extra speed and distance. its all about control and that only comes when you swing easy. when you think that in a 4 1/2 hour round of golf you only swing the club at the ball for a total of 3 minuets then you would think it would be easy but it's all the time you have to think of other things ( out of bounds the bunkers, the wind and rain and what the wife's making for dinner) that stops you having the right mind set and the ability to swing easy.
bill

[LowPost42]

Re: Swing easy!

Indeed Oldwease!

Swinging in control is by no means limited to one pace of swing. Shot variations are also by pace as well as flightpath. The difficulty most people have is that they don't know how to hit it hard, but in control. In my opinion that comes from applying the speed at the wrong time in the swing. If the top speed of the swing does not coincide with/just after impact then the body will do all sorts of funny things to try and get more speed, to no avail.

Any attempt to apply speed before impact will not produce a harder shot. Quite the opposite. The timing of the acceleration is key. The impact happens so fast that, when I'm hitting a hard shot, it feels as though the acceleration comes AFTER impact, not before.

Swinging easy, IMO, can be slightly misleading. Swinging easy and producing 115mph of club speed is a paradox. I think it's a case of the misleading eye. It's an easy backswing, and easy downswing, then an explosion through the ball. Most people don't see the fastest bit of the swing cos they're either watching the ball the player has just hit (if you're there live) or the TV camera is following the ball for you. The only time we get to see a full swing is on slo-mo which doesn't give a proper appreciation of speed and acceleration at all.

For me the key is patience. Learn when to accelerate the club. You only get one chance to accelerate it during a swing, so it better be at the right time!

Tiger Woods: There can only be one fast part in the downswing. You want to make it happen at the ball.

[kbp]

Re: Swing easy!

All good points, of course, but there is also the matter of being in the proper position at the top of the swing and making the proper move through the ball. Many people have never felt speed without effort because they are out of position and/or making a bad move from the top. With a false shoulder turn, for instance, there will never be effortless speed. Club badly laid off, big hip slide, badly lifting out of spine angle, over the top move, etc.......no effortless speed possible.

People who are having trouble feeling effortless speed should try Greg Willis’ "Impact Drill", especially the range part of the drill, and especially when combined with the "Right Hand Drill". IMO, the concepts from this drill are critical for making the "Right Hand Drill" work.

[ubizmo]

Re: Swing easy!

I actually went back to the range again this morning (I know, I'm a sick puppy) to work on this and some stance things. My thinking about this is: The problem is mental, so the solution is probably mental. The mental problem causes all kinds of physical results, which I interpret as "swing flaws," so I'm always putting out fires, trying to fix this or that. Yet I know I'm perfectly capable of making a nice easy swing, making good contact, and sending the ball where I'm aiming it. I know it because I've done it any number of times. When I swing like that I don't have to worry about my hip turn, for example, because my hips have plenty (comparatively) of time to turn. When I swing too hard, my arms leave my body way behind. As Brian said, tempo is key.

So here's what I tried this morning. Before I even picked up a club, I tried to think of a nice easy swing situation, in as much detail as possible. I chose a simple 8i kind of shot to visualize. I generally hit an 8i pretty well, probably because when I have an 8i in my hands I'm probably not in a situation where I need to crush the ball. If I need more distance I'd just grab a 7i. So I thought about that 8i shot, but I had my driver. That worked pretty well. I didn't get huge distance, but I got a nice clean straight shot, about 230 yds. I did that a few times. I found myself wanting to get---more---distance, and then I'd lose that "easy 8i" feeling, and I'd hit a longer ball that would slice badly.

The thing I wanted to do was simply bring the club back farther, but still have that 8i feeling. That's not easy, because my "easy 8i" swing doesn't go that far back. But I worked on that for a while, and felt like I made some progress. I got enough feedback to reinforce the idea that swinging easy like that gets me a nice straight ball flight.

I then went to the iron mats and worked with my 7i. Now it was *much* easier. Trying to put an easy swing on my driver made if feel perfectly natural to do so with the 7i, so I got more good feedback, hitting a series of nice crisp shots right at the marker.

The 5h took a special effort to keep the "easy 8i" mindset, because that's another "adrenaline" club for me. But it worked okay. In the end, I got far more clean hits on the ball this morning than I did last night. Obviously the next step is to take it to the course, but it's a start anyway.

[Timothy Slaught]

Re: Swing easy!

Hello:

One great tip that I read about all of the time is working on a good finish position. This would include the weight shifted to the left foot, light weight balanced on the right toe, shoulders rotated fully with the belly pointed at the target. When you get this right, you have usually swung the club in a well coordinated effort and most importantly in balance. Try a session at the range where this is your only swing thought. It takes commitment but have no other concern accept to make each swing with this proper finish position. If you don't really know what the full, free balanced finish feels like, just take a practice swing with no ball and you will probably get the idea.

The pros say they focus on their finish position constantly. It is Anika Sorenstams key swing thought. Also, the top players say they never swing past 85 percent of maximum speed yet they swing the club well over 100 mph with an effortless appearance.

Unfortunately many amatuers in an attempt to slow things down just slow down a bad swing which will not do. As stated in this thread, you need to have the proper mechanics ingrained and muster the top clubhead speed at impact (although many feel this as just after impact because the brain catches up a little later than the clubhead at 100+MPH). Studies show that the collision of the head to the ball slows the club down just after impact. Still, the speed needs to gather at the ball and most high handicaps release it when the club head is a few feet away from the ball resulting in the worst case scenario.....deceleration at impact.

[BrianW]

Re: Swing easy!

I think the original post was asking for opinions on how to control the swing and not let it race out of control. Of course it's important to be in balance, to get to a good position at the top, not to slide too far, just as it is to make a good grip, have good posture, balance, alignment etc etc. He explained that when he kept his swing at a good tempo it worked well and that he needed to find ways to stop speeding up.

Any more ideas around that can help him with that problem?

[ubizmo]

Re: Swing easy!

Well, I had some success with my "easy 8i" swing thought at the range this morning. I just got a call to play nine holes in about an hour, so we'll see if I can export that success to the course.

[oldwease]

Re: Swing easy!

To my mind, the essential element is to maintain the plane angles for control and power (since power can only come from delivering the club properly to the ball).

So, when I swing, I concentrate on setting the club in the backswing. To me, that means if I stop at any point, I should feel as if I can simply unwind the backswing and return to the ball without any manipulation of the hands etc. This happens naturally is the swing is sufficiently on-plane. I disagree, then, with some who say that the backswing itself doesnt matter too much so long as the position at the top is OK; I accept some people might be able to do this without a problem - don't think it would work for me though.

For the downswing, I try to hold the L shape (90 degree angle of club shaft to the left arm) at least until waist height. Basically, then, the clubshaft remains pointing backwards for a large part of the downswing. For example, when the left arm is parallel to the ground, the clubshaft will be pointing somewhere over my right shoulder with, say, a 7i. The clubshaft must then be tracing out the pane set by the hands.

It's only by swinging in this way that I feel 'connected' in the sense that I'm in a proper position to get back to the ball smoothly. When all of this breaks down, that connection is lost as is a feeling of control.

Because of all of this, I avoid certain drills which seem to me a bit artificial. For example, I don't check particularly if I'm moving the club straight back for the first 6 inches or so. Maybe I do, but that's not a particular aim. As I say, my only aim is to create and maintain that correct plane throughout the swing.

[snowman]

Re: Swing easy!

Saw an article about this somewhere. It said that when you are swinging at a nice manageable tempo it can speed up in increments that are lower than what is called a just noticeable difference (JND). From swing to swing you are swinging just a little faster and because each time it is lower than a JND you don't notice how hard/fast you are swinging until you start spraying the ball everywhere.

What the article suggested was when you got fast, to slow down your whole routine. Therefore, when standing behind the ball, walk to it like you are walking through molasses and then continue your usual pre-shot routine. The author suggests that if after you have shot you then proceed to your ball at a speed that is faster than your swing speed tempo, then you are likely to speed up the swing. He stated that you need to be aware of the quickness of your walking, talking etc and try and get it to a level where you are in time with your swing tempo.

Quite an interesting theory IMO.