In my game, I
have adopted the
most simple swing and stick as many shots is basically the same action
should be played. Now, I have introduced the idea of teaching that
you will better understand why I attach such importance to this point.
Now these four points together make up the top of the swing, and I was
talking about the waggle—which is the bottom of an imaginary swing! But
do not think I was digressing. I was not, the two are linked together.
And why? Because unless you feel the whole of the swing in your waggle,
your waggle is failing in its purpose.
This controlling feel is built up through the constant repetition of
the correct movements. We do not know just where in the system it
resides, but whether it is muscular memory, or the wearing of certain
grooves or channels in the mind, or—as is probable—a combination of the
two, it is obvious that the more often the same succession of movements
can be repeated the clearer the memory will be.
Also, and this is most important, it is highly desirable that the
memory should not be confused by the frequent or even occasional
introduction of other and different movements—as happens when the swing
is fundamentally changed for certain shots.
It is mainly for this reason that I teach and preach and practice that
every shot from the full drive to the putt should be played with the
same movement. Of course in the drive the movement is both more
extensive and bolder than for the shorter shots, but fundamentally it
is the same.
The result must be a feeling of "in-to-out" stroking across the face of
the ball—played not at the ball, but through it. The "in-to-out" refers
to the relation of the feel of the path of the club head to the desired
line of flight of the ball.
The only shots in golf which I have been unable to play or to teach as
sections of the fundamental "in-to-out" swing are certain shots which
call for cut pulled under and across the ball.
But for ninety-nine out of every hundred shots a golfer must play, the
swing is the movement necessary. So to clear the ground I will list
what I consider to be the essentials of the swing:
1. It is essential to turn the body round to the right and then back
and round to the left, without moving either way. In other words this
turning movement must be from a fixed pivot.
2. It is essential to keep the arms at full stretch throughout the
swing—through the back swing, the down swing, and the follow through.
3. It is essential to allow the wrists to break fully back at the top
of the swing.
4. It is essential to delay the actual hitting of the ball until as
late in the swing as possible.
5. It is essential not to tighten any muscle concerned in the reactive
part of the swing (movement above the waist).
6. It is essential to feel and control the swing as a whole and not to
concentrate upon any part of it.
In a sense this last point is the most vital. The swing must be
considered and felt as a single unity, not as a succession of positions
or even a succession of movements. The swing is one and indivisible.
Now I consider that our golf is liable to go wrong if we lose sight of
any of these essentials. There are of course innumerable incidentals
that could be added that are important enough to have a considerable
influence on one's game, but I will go so far as to say that if you
have these six essentials well embedded in your system and if you have
developed some conscious control of your swing by getting the feel of
the right movements—your game will rarely or never desert you.
Of course the comfortable, reliable, right feel is not a thing that
comes all at once. For instance, it takes years—though not if your
teacher teaches by feel—to feel nicely set and comfortable before the ball; weight between the
feet, perfectly free and active and yet firmly planted.
Then the waggle. About the waggle a whole book could be written. Every
movement we make when we waggle is a miniature of the swing we intend
to make. The club head moves in response to the body and the body
opposes the club head. It is a flow and counter flow of forces with no
static period, no check.
There is no check anywhere in a good swing. There is no such thing as
the "dead top" of a swing—there are four points each one of which might
be so considered if it were not for the other three!
They are:
(1) When
the pivot (feet to shoulders) has reached its top, the arms are still
going up.
(2) When the arms have reached their top, the body is on its
day down.
(3) When the arms begin to come down, the wrists have still
to break back, and
(4) When the wrists break
The lessons of the feel of the control concept as brief as possible, we
must give up thinking about our shots. In place of thinking, there must
be conscious control, through the establishment of (repeated by the
correct action) feel comfortable and reliable, the feeling will tell
you by infallibly attract your muscle memory to get, what is the right
action - and that will be accompanied by you and control your shooting
regardless of your mental state may be. Do not think this means outside
the control mental state. |