John Hamarik's Tips of The Trades - Advice from a PGA Pro.

Making Great Progress With Your Swing

Do you remember when you were at school how some people learned and made progress and others didn't? The folks who get on and make progress generally realize that progress depends on involvement - YOU must take an ACTIVE part. This is so true of making progress with your golf. You simply can't be passive - you have to take an active role and get involved in any golf learning situation. When I first meet my new golf students I tell them that they have, initially, three major responsibilities and here they are :

1. COMPREHENSION
You must stop the teacher as soon as he/she says something that you don't understand. You must keep saying that you don't understand until the teachers finds a way of saying what he/she wants to express in a manner that you FULLY understand.

2. QUESTION
There is no such thing as a "bad" or a "dumb" question. In 25 years of golf teaching I have yet to be asked such a question. Don't be shy ... ASK!!! Here are some good examples, "Why do I have to do that?", "Why do my hands have to be there?", "Why must my feet be positioned like that?", "Why do you want me to open the clubface?", Should my weight be evenly distributed here?" and so on and so on.

3. FEEL
THE MOST IMPORTANT RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL.
Nobody can do this for you. Nobody can get inside your body and tell you what a correct swing for you should feel like. You, and only you, can monitor the swing feelings. You must try to stop being focused on hitting great shots all the time and concentrate on what you are feeling in the swing. Bear in mind your brain can only cope with one thing at a time so, in any practice swings, try to close your eyes and FEEL what you do with different parts of your body. Where do the hands go (important as that's the only part of you that's in contact with the club!)? How does your body turn? Can you feel any weight transfer in your swing? How does the club feel in your hands? If you cannot master a correct set of feelings slowly and rhythmically you cannot expect to make progress with your golf. Why? Well, a typical golf swing lasts between 1.5 and 2 seconds. In such a short space of time you have nothing to go on other than feelings. The more you practice the correct feelings (WITHOUT trying to beat balls) the more automatic the correct swing will become and you'll just go out on the golf course and let it happen.

If you are not sure about the correct positions of the club in your swing and what this feels like, then just pop along to your local PGA pro and ask him to spend 30 minutes with you to show you the correct swing positions. At each position, close your eyes and FEEL. It will, most probably be the best 30 minutes you ever spend.

THE SETUP
Standing at setup. Eyes closed letting the brain check the feelings coming from different parts of my body.

Where is the weight?

Where are the hands?

What is the grip pressure?

Are the shoulders relaxed? Knees flexed?

Has the chin collapsed on to the chest?

Are the arms 'loose'?

THE ACTIONS
I then go through the swing positions and stop at critical points. Here I have imagined going through impact and, still with the eyes closed, I'm getting my brain to check the status of the weight transfer and club position.

Has my weight moved through the ball and is my body turning?

Has my rear ankle come off the floor allowing me to turn?

Have I got the club parallel to the ground and parallel to the ball-to-target line?

Has my upper body stayed down and is my upper torso still behind the ball?

Let me stress again that it is only by coming to appreciate what you are doing with your body that you can hope to achieve control of your golf swing and start to get the ball doing what you want to do.
Learn to take responsibility for the ACTION and let the CONSEQUENCE look after itself. You control the swing correctly and the shots will follow!