The Natural Golf Swing (9 page)

You don’t play golf, you see, to relax. You relax to play golf. I don’t think you’ll find a balanced, relaxed state on the course if you haven’t brought it with you. You may still want to play, but don’t be surprised if you can’t perform as well as you’d like. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Assess your mental and emotional state. It’s easy but disastrous to be in one place physically and in another mentally.

Assessment is part of being balanced. You can’t always be one hundred per cent involved, but at least by assessing the situation you won’t take the results too seriously. You’ll know where they’re coming from. You can only rectify a problem if you are aware of what it is.

You now know that the golf swing at its most basic is a means of connecting a proper starting position to a proper finishing position through weight transfer and rotation. Now we will develop a form governed by balance. For example, I want to find a way to avoid
forcing
myself to do anything in the swing. I don’t want to
make
my left arm stay straight. I don’t want to lock my head in a rigid position. I don’t want to grip the club tightly or stoop to the ball. These positions ruin balance. The golfer who is in balance is one who is doing things naturally. He’s not trying so hard. The observer sees freedom rather than tightness, smoothness rather than effort.

There
are
positions that we achieve during the swing, that
are
very much a part of the efficient swing motion. But I don’t want to
make
these happen; I want to
let
them happen. I want to find a form that will connect the starting position to the finishing position in such a way that all the good things occur naturally. I want to find a form in which I can just start the swing in motion and let it go on its own. I want to find a form that
will generate a path for the clubhead that will repeat every time, and in which I don’t have to interfere. And I want to do so in balance.

Two forms of balance are important in the conception of the natural swing motion itself: they are static and dynamic balance.

We are in static balance when we are centered and still and when we have assumed a coordinated, natural position. The golfer who is well-balanced in his starting position and at his finishing position is in static balance. If the golf swing is indeed a matter of connecting a starting position to a finishing position, then it is clear that we want to begin in balance and end in balance.

The golfer who develops an awareness of static balance will be able to find his centre. He will sense when his weight is evenly distributed between his feet during the starting position and will not begin the motion if he senses otherwise. He will know when he has assumed a proper posture and grip, and when he is properly aligned to his target. He will
feel
whether or not he is in balance because he will have learned to become sensitive to what it means.

The same holds true for his finishing position, where one hundred per cent of his weight will be concentrated on his forward foot. If it is not, well, he will be out of balance at the end of his swing. He will not have swung through to his target. You will learn to evaluate these positions, and thereby become sensitized to the degree of balance during your starting and finishing positions. Your self-awareness will increase and along with it your ability to remain in balance will grow.

Static balance, then, is achieved by: (a) proper posture; (b) proper weight distribution; (c) proper grip; and (d) correct alignment to target.

By dynamic balance I mean the quality of stability that is noticeable in first-class golfers while they are moving. They are centered while in motion. They glide through the sequence of movements that comprise the
swing motion. They appear effortless, but only because they are working so efficiently. One aspect of the motion flows smoothly into the next.

You achieve dynamic balance by first putting yourself in static balance. You then allow inertia and centrifugal force to take over while transferring weight and rotating. By doing nothing to interfere with the motion, you ensure that you will be balanced while moving.

Contrast the dynamically balanced golfer with the one who scatters his energy all over the place with seemingly random movements. The former is connected from start to finish; the latter allows his arms to fly off into space while his legs remain stuck to the ground as if they’re secured there with a ball and chain. There’s no unity. The general impression is one of chaos. No wonder the unbalanced golfer whips his hands so abruptly into the ball; he doesn’t know where he is in space; he is, of course, all over the place, and reacts by trying to get his club on the ball any way he can. It’s all very inefficient, and unpleasant to watch. He’s working too hard.

Think of yourself as a golfer who knows what it means to be in balance. You wouldn’t tilt while walking down a level path, would you? Dynamic balance simply refers to that state you’re in while moving with purpose and organization. It doesn’t make sense to do otherwise.

Dynamic balance, then, is achieved by (a) incorporating all the elements in static balance (for if we are not balanced while we are not moving, we cannot be balanced while in motion); plus, (b) allowing for inertia to prevail; (c) passive hands; and (d) proper weight transfer.

A
FLAWLESS
starting form gives us the best opportunity of making a proper swing motion. We set up in balance because we want to swing in balance. A balanced starting form gives us that chance. When we connect it to a balanced finishing form we ensure the desired result.

A balanced starting form accomplishes many good things. It sets the tone for the motion, for one, while promoting feelings of simplicity and freedom.

The starting form is totally within our control. We’ve gone a long way toward ensuring a positive result if we get it right.

Before we get into the components of the starting form, I’d like you to look at the illustration of the starting form that begins this chapter. The impression is of a golfer who is relaxed yet alert, at ease yet full of vitality. There’s a feeling of being ready, in a “go” position. I have an impression of strength when I see golfers who are set up like this. They resemble boxers, or tae-kwon-do experts. They’re prepared, ready to move. It seems that you couldn’t budge them, they’re so stable, but that
at the same time they’re like cats, ready to spring loose. You can sense the energy coursing through their bodies.

By contrast, a golfer who is slumped over appears weak and sluggish. You could easily push him over. His body language speaks of withdrawal; he’s given up before he starts. There’s no feeling of intent, no sense of power. He’s as sluggish as the other fellow is alive.

Keep the accompanying illustration in mind as you study the starting form. We’re setting you up to make an aggressive move, an athletic move, one full of purpose and direction.

Let’s look at the starting position in detail. We’ll break it up into its components: target awareness, grip, stance in relation to target, alignment in relation to target, ball location relative to the body, and posture.

Imagine that you are about to play a standard shot with a five-iron. You’re not trying to curve it any particular way; your goal is a straight shot. Before you do anything else, before you think about grip or the other elements in the starting position, get a picture in your mind of the target. Imagine yourself swinging through the ball toward the target and beyond it, as I did while swinging to the flagpole at St. Charles. Feel yourself moving back and forth. Let the image of the motion that you will make as you swing through the ball on the way to the target fill your mind’s eye. Let it sink in, as if it were a picture you were projecting onto a blank white wall.

The idea here is to plant the image of the target in your mind. It’s the object to which you will react. Golf in this way
is
a reaction game. It’s not a hand-eye game in which we react to a ball, as I’ve emphasized, but a location game in which we react to a target. The more vividly we can imagine the target, the more intensely will we react to it. You can build up your powers of target awareness at home by closing your eyes and taking yourself through your course, shot by shot.

Having a clear image of the target in your mind gets you going. It gives you purpose, direction, and intent. How are you going to get somewhere if you don’t know where you’re going? How are you going to establish a route or a path to get Somewhere if you haven’t decided upon your destination? The more clearly you can fix your destination in your mind, the more easily will you reach your objective. Target awareness takes your mind’s eye off the ball and puts it where it belongs: out there in space. That’s real direction. That’s a goal. It helps fix in your mind’s eye the distance, direction, trajectory, and curvature you’re after with each shot.

Start with hands compact; notice position of thumbs.

Hands opposed.

Focused as you are on your target, you are also aware of balance. You want to adopt a grip that enables you to get your hands on the club in a balanced position. It stands to reason that the balanced grip is the one that most approximates the way in which your hands fall naturally. This means that you won’t have to contort your hands in any way. Think of Roberto De Vicenzo, Peter Thomson, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Gene Littler, and Curtis Strange. These golfers get their hands on the club properly. Their hands look as if they belong on the golf club.

The natural grip is no different than a grip we would use for many tasks. It’s also the one that sets us up so that we are oriented toward our target, if, that is, we have kept our focus on the target. The back of the left hand, or the left wrist, faces the target. This makes sense, since we want to contact the ball with our clubface square to the target; that is, at an angle of ninety degrees to the target. We form the grip so that the palms are opposed, as in prayer. Why do it differently? To grip the club with the left wrist pointing to the sky, for example, would
force us to compensate somewhere during the motion. But we are designing a starting position that will allow us to make a simple, natural motion; without compensatory moves and extraneous gestures. We’re designing a no-frills motion, so we start with a no-frills grip. Form follows function. Less is more.