Practicing bunker shots can improve your rhythm and tempo

Bunker play.  What comes to mind for you?  Does it fill you with fear?  Do you think, “how many shots will it take to get out”?

This is one of the areas that amateur golfers practice the least.  And it’s one area where the average golfer can really save a ton of strokes.  So practicing bunker shots can save you shots and has a number of extra benefits.

1. Bunker shots become much easier.
2. Lose the fear of being in a green-side bunker.
3. Help with rhythm and tempo.
4. Smooth out your swing.

The first two benefits are pretty obvious.  Practice from the bunker and not only will it get easier, but yes, you will lose the fear of being in a bunker.

The last two benefits are not obvious.  How could practicing bunker shots help with rhythm and tempo, and smooth out your swing?

The other day I decided to practice for one full hour hitting shots from the greenside bunker in the short game practice area at my local course.  It was an area I had neglected recently as I, for some reason, almost never end up in a greenside bunker.  I don’t know why that is, but it’s true.  Regardless, I wanted to become more comfortable with bunker shots.

As I practiced I realized something.  I have a fairly quick transition in my swing, when it gets too quick, I start losing accuracy and my ball striking degrades.  In the bunker,  too quick of transition led to bunker shots that were too fat or too thin where I caught too much ball.  I also felt on my good bunker shots, that the transition was just right, and I felt the forgiveness of the bunker really help smooth things out.

What most amateur golfers don’t realize is that a bunker shot has the most margin for error of basically any shot in golf.  You can hit the sand from 1 to 6 inches behind the ball and still have a reasonable result.  I noticed that when my transition was smooth, I hit beautiful shots out of the bunker that went high, landed soft, and spun to a quick stop.  Over the course of that hour, my bunker shots got better and better where I could land 6 to 8 out of 10 within a couple of feet of my intended target.  But the most powerful effect was the smoothness that I felt in the shots.  My swings out of the bunker felt so right.  The timing was good, the rhythm was great, and they just flowed.

After 1 hour of hitting bunker shots, I proceeded to practice chips, pitches and lob shots.  The tempo from the bunker stayed with me, and I hit some really great short game shots.

I think the main reason that bunker shots encourage such great rhythm is that you’re not actually trying to hit the ball.  You have an area of sand behind the ball that you want your sand wedge to enter, and like I said, you’re not actually trying to hit the ball.  So you are practicing 3/4 to half swings that are real shots but where you’re not hitting the golf ball, you’re hitting the sand, and this changes the focus.

I have found this to be a really great part of the game to practice because in the process of becoming a better bunker player, you’ll improve your rhythm and timing, which will help your overall game.

They were using their feel and imagination not thinking about their backswing or swing plane. They were artists with the club being their paint brush. They played golf and not golf swing. They understood the tools they were using like a carpenter understands his. They developed routines that would allow them to repeat how they prepared to play the shot at hand. They prepared for the golf course as if it were a chess match. As Hogan once said a golfer playing golf without feel would be like a deaf man trying to play the piano by ear.  They knew the equipment was built for ease of use and respected its value.

Most from that era also learned to play during the wooden shaft era and if they swung too hard they would break the clubs so they stayed with that feeling when steel shafts came along and allowed players to slash at the ball without penalty of a broken club. They also understood as many of the best players do today that the golf ball just gets in the way of going forward toward the target instead of hitting at it like most players do. The best understood that you can control the club effectively only from your fingers and that everything supports what they do.

In short they were doing little thinking and mostly creating.

How often have you played golf with a state of mind like this?  How often have you thought of yourself as an artist, with the golf club and ball as your paint brush, and the golf course as your canvas.

Eben also shared a story with me about the time he had a chance to play 9 holes with the Champions Golf club founder Jimmy Demaret.  Mr. Demaret hadn’t competed in about 10 years and hadn’t swung a club in months,  yet played nine holes with Eben and shot 31, making it look effortless and easy.  Afer the fifth time of Eben asking him how he could make it look so easy after not swinging a club for so long, Mr. Demaret looked at him and said “I just look where I want to go, then feel the shot and go there.”

On Wednesday, May 19th, I played in the golf marathon for the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation at Crystal Springs resort in New Jersey.

It was one of the best golf experiences I have had in my life.  The resort is beautiful and the Crystal Springs golf course is a very challenging layout.  Although it’s not as long as some other courses, you must keep the ball in play and on the fairway.  And even if you manage to hit the fairway you need to be in the correct side of the fairway.  There are very few flat lies on the fairways and even less of them in the rough.  The rough is full of punishing grass moguls that make it difficult hit good shots to the large, but fast undulating greens.  This course has some of the largest greens I have played on, but you must be in the right part of the green to have a good putt at birdie or even par.

Besides the beauty and difficulty of the golf course, the whole day was so much fun.  Once I checked in with Rob Pritts of Back9Promotions, the man behind the golf marathon, we got some breakfast and an opportunity to meet some of the other golfers and participants including about 10 players from the New York Jets.  I ended up playing with 3 of the Jets, 2 of them for over 50 holes of golf.

I ended up playing a total of 63 holes of golf.  It was the most I have ever played in one day, and although it was tiring, the whole experience was amazing.  The two Jets I played with were wide receiver Danny Woodhead and safety Jim Leonard.  Both of these guys have excellent golf games.  One of the contests during the day was to see who could play the most number of holes with a Bridgestone ball that was handed out at the beginning of the day.  Danny Woodhead ended up playing his Bridgestone for 33 holes and ended up winning the prize (a very nice Bridgestone Staff Bag).  I unfortunately lost mine on the 2nd hole.

One of the my favorite holes on the Crystal Springs course was the 2nd hold on the Classic 9.  It was also the hole on which I started my day.  It is a 185 yard hole 75 feet below the tee, across a quarry pool to a bow tie (or dog bone) shaped green.  The first time I played the hole, I over clubbed and hit a 5 iron off the roof of the house that bounced back onto the green from where I made my par.

I was also proud to be wearing a golf shirt donated by L.O.F.T. golf of Hartford, CT.  And I was able to deliver a putter donated by the Roll-Master Golf called “The Ringer“, which makes a sweet sound, like fine crystal, when you hit a putt on the sweet spot, for the $10,000 putting contest.

Although the day was about golf, it was also very rewarding to raise money for a great cause.  The Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation creates wow experiences for families with a parent diagnosed with late stage cancer.  It is very sad to think that the kids in those families are going to lose a mom or a dad.  In the end we raised about 35,000 for the foundation.

http://www.hernco.com/golfclub/ac51522.htm

To buy game sense or to get more information about it go to www.gamesensegolf.com.

After hitting a few wayward drives (two that went OB on me) I decided to also leave the driver in the bag the rest of the round.  I just wasn’t feeling comfortable with it and it just wasn’t working well with the swing changes.  Besides Richter Park is not so long that I would miss the driver.  So I spent most of the round teeing off my 18 degree Cobra Baffler pro hybrid and decided that I would play the par 5s as 3 shot holes.

I was hitting the hybrid probably 20 yards behind where I would normally hit my driver and so much straighter.  On one hole I went hybrid – lob wedge and ended up about 8 feet from the pin slightly above the hole.  The only hole where driver would really have made a difference for me was 18.  I thinned the hybrid and ended up with 205 to the back of the green, to a green perched roughly 15 yards above me.  I would have proffered a shorter second shot but that’s golf.

I was pretty amazed at how well the swing changes worked.  My irons were crisp and very straight.  I ended up with an 81 that could have been even better had I left the driver in the car from the beginning.  I had 2 drives that went OB on me, and without those penalties the score could have been much lower.  However, my irons were crisp, as were my wedges.  I had really solid distance control all day and I’m excited for what these swing changes will bring.

During the round I also decided to implement the strategy from this article about asking the right questions.  The other thing that has improved my scoring is Game Sense.  Even when I don’t hit pure shots, I’m leaving myself good opportunities to save my score.  Deciding on the correct strategy based on what I brought to the course that day has now become second nature and it really makes the game so much more fun.  I recognize what the course architects are trying to do to trick golfers and I can very easily select the right strategy.  Sun Tzu said, and I’m paraphrasingm that every battle is won or lost before it has even begun.  Although golf is not a battle it is a competition between you and the golf course.  Use the right strategies and make the best decisions and you give yourself good opportunities to play well.

As you can imagine being diagnosed with a late stage cancer is a tragic event.  Even more so, when a parent has young children.  There are countless memories that they will never get to share.  Graduations, weddings, first jobs, first apartment and untold more.

The Jack and Jill Foundation steps in to help children with a parent that has been diagnosed with late stage cancer to have an opportunity to get a vacation from the cancer, and to help them create some lasting memories.  I am very proud to be a supporter of the Jack and Jill Foundation and I hope that you will join me.  Click here to see a video of what this foundation is doing.

On May 19, I am participating in the FORE! Jack and Jill Golf Marathon.  This is a one day event of golf and fun to help raise funds to so that the foundation can meets its goals of helping as many children as possible who are going through these incredibly difficult circumstances and who are going to experience a tragic loss.

If you would like to help, please follow this link to the pledge page to make donation.  Just a dollar per hole can make a tremendous difference.  Thank you for your support.

At home I had been practicing with the driving range portion of my golf simulator.  I noticed that I had difficulty squaring the face, but once I concentrated on having an inside path and getting the face slightly closed at impact I hit beautiful draws.

I wanted to see how that would translate on the driving range I go to, to hit actual golf balls.  So I started out doing that, and quickly got bored of it.  I followed an intuition I had and instead practiced in a different way.

I started with the pitching wedge and picked out a target about 75 yards away.  And the thought I had in preparing for the swing was this “What is the smoothest slowest full swing I can do to hit it to that target 75 yards away.”  So I felt the smooth swing in my body, and then did the same thing with a golf ball.  That smooth swing created a gorgeous pitching wedge shot.  It arced high, and went right at the my aim point but effortlessly carried to 130 yards.

I felt no effort in the swing.  In fact, it almost felt as if there was anti-effort.  That was interesting so I wondered if I could do that consistently.  I hit about 10 more shots, to the exact spot give or take a couple of feet.  The ball just exploded off the face and the sound was completely different from the way it sounded at the beginning of the session.

Earlier in the session I had been trying the ideas from the simulator session and I was hitting my 7 iron about 165.  I wondered if it would work the 7 iron.  I grabbed my 7 iron and picked out a spot 125 yards from me on the line I wanted to hit the shot to.  Again I thought, what is the easiest smoothest and slowest swing that will take it to 125.  Once I felt that I had it, I stepped up to the ball.  The swing felt slow and smooth, and the ball sailed to 175 yards, bouncing off the back of the green at the range.  Again it felt effortless.  I was trying to do less and ended with a better result.

Have you ever experienced this?  Give it a shot, I think you’ll like it.

After his win at the Copperhead Golf course at Innisbrook, Jim Furyk spoke to Michael Breed on Monday night’s “The Golf Fix.” Jim Furyk mentioned that his father has been his only coach throughout his career and that Fuyk considers himself the least mechanical player on tour.

Here are some of the things he said when asked about being a feel player.

“I let my dad worry about the golf swing, for me its a feel issue.  I worry about setup and putting myself in a good position.”

“I may be the least mechanical player on tour”

“The golf swing happens in maybe a second and a half.  I’m not a connect the dots player…  It’s about you’ve got a very small amount of time to make a golf swing…  Your mind can do some pretty magical things…  Relate the club face to a feel…  It’s repeatable because it’s natural.  I never broke down the swing and tried to do things that felt uncomfortable or unnatural.”

What Furyk talked about is absolute gold.  It matches a lot of what I talked about in the 30 Day Challenge.  He let’s his dad worry about the swing.  I think it’s the same thing other feel players say.  They don’t want to know the details because it doesn’t help them make a repeatable swing.  Furyk went on to say that he can’t think about all the pieces and retain his feel.  The conscious mind can only handle so much, when you cram it with a million swing thoughts you are going to get inconsistent results and you are going to lose feel.  It’s amazing watching Furyk because he does appear to be mechanical.  He has very exacting pre-shot routines. But then you hear him talking it’s all about feel.

He goes on to say that “your mind can do some pretty magical things.”  That is a great quote.  By letting your mind focus on the feel, it can really do wonderful things and execute great shots.  The problem most people is that they never really learn to tap into it.  Getting away from technical positions, video, and all those swing thoughts, can really free up your creativity and allow your mind to feel the golf swing, rather than trying to “connect the dots” as Furyk puts it.

The last point I want to make is that he never did things that felt uncomfortable or unnatural.  When I look at the swings of most golfers they really do look uncomfortable.  They try to twist their bodies into certain positions because that what they think they should be doing.  The reality is that those uncomfortable feelings are there to tell you that you are not doing things right.

I’ve had instances where an instructor told me to get into a certain position.  The idea itself wasn’t wrong, but forcing myself into the position was.  I needed to find a way to get into that position in a way that felt was natural.  Once I did that, it made perfect sense and I was able to feel it and use it effectively.  But the important point is that I found a way to get into it naturally.

One plane vs Two plane, Natural Golf, Lever Golf, Rotary Swings, Swing the Handle, Swing the Club Head, The Dog Wags the Tail, The Golfing Machine, Stack & Tilt, The 5 Lessons, Swing Like a Pro, and ON and ON. Are they right or are they wrong? Can we argue that many observations and opinions have not helped many golfers become better? It is obvious that ideology, methodology and opinions contribute to success. The better question is…have golfers improved consistently with all the technology, fitness, mental training improvements available? The answer is NO!

Why? The communication and information of “how to teach” typically has ideas and methods, the “what” to teach is most often opinion based and pseudo science. The physics and laws of motion are what they are. If you can skip a rock off water, you have experienced the laws of motion subconsciously. Playing golf is a right brain creative process. My meaning here is that understanding what you see and feel leads to a sound swing. A sound swing does not lead to understanding. The brain controls the body, the body controls the club and the club controls the ball.

What have 3 dimensional swing technologies brought to golf? – CLARITY AND EDUCATION. Outside of equipment, fitness, mental aptitude and creative short game skills, we now have measurable, quantitative, scientific documentation of how the golf club and body move in space effortlessly, efficiently, and according to the laws of motion. Are there differences in the machine? We know from personal ball flight, conditions, body traits and mental strategies, styles may vary accordingly. However, why you hit it solid, straight or far according to physics will remain the same.

Whether you shank, top, hit off the toe, hit fat, slice, pull, push, hook, hit it too high or low, we now can tell you why. 3 dimensional video will enhance understanding, visual and sensation awareness or feel. The clubface, club path, angle of approach, centeredness of contact, and speed are the only influences of the ball’s flight. 3 dimensional video arms every student and teacher with the cause of the effect – PERIOD! The swing is an action where certain things are caused to happen and certain things are allowed to happen. Faults arise in trying to cause what should be allowed.

3 dimensional video observations of the best players in the world show superior kinematical sequence or how the club and body move in space efficiently without effort or thought. There is order but without conscious orientation to positions of the club or body. Sequence creates positions not vice versa. The best teachers in the game study learning styles, physical traits, club fitting, short game skills and the differences in the machine. But now we all can see and feel in real time, how the body and club move in harmony for consistent solid, straight and long golf shots without ideology, methodology or opinion. Golf is not a subject; it is a motor skill and we all, as human beings can improve our understanding, visual and sensation awareness according to physics and the laws of motion. I highly recommend you to experience 3 dimensional technology.

Buck Mayers is the Director of Instruction for Buck Mayers Golf Academy located at Grey Rock Golf Club in Austin, TX and the National Director of Instruction for Motion Golf. He can be reached at 512.695-2270 or buck.mayers@gmail.com

One of the important points in the post is how Rickie Fowler has stuck with one coach throughout his career.  He hasn’t bounced from style to style and philosophy to philosophy.   I think too many golfers bounce around trying different ideas.  True, it can lead them to something that eventually works, but it also may confuse them and actually hinder their learning.  When somebody goes through so many ideas, tips, etc, it becomes hard to find your unique style and refine that.

I think there are too many people claiming they have THE answer to the golf swing.  There needs to be a match between the instructor and the student, and the swing should be based on the things that makes that student unique.

One of the most frustrating things in golf for me is to hit a great drive and follow it up with a lousy iron approach. It really bugs me to have placed the ball in perfect position and not get home.  I don’t know if it’s happened to you but I always feel like I wasted a good opportunity when that happens.

I can only imagine how many more greens I would have hit if I could have just improved on that shot and how much more it would have changed my scores and my handicap.

So how can I hit more greens in regulation?

There are a number of things you can do to hit more greens in regulation. I’ll talk about the things I’m doing now, as well as cover other effective techniques.

During the 30 Day Challenge I’ve been working on improving my feel. This has paid a lot dividends including improving my consistency with the driver. It has also really helped to improve my iron game. I feel very confident now that not only will the irons go in the intended direction, but that I can bring them in from the right or the left. I think this alone will have a tremendous effect on my approach shots to the green.  My ball striking has become so much more solid by simply feeling what my hands need to feel during the swing.  It’s not the same as using my hands, it’s more like feeling their role throughout the swing.  It’s very interesting to work on it really simplifies the game.

On the technical side of things there are things you can do as well. The first is to shorten your back swing. Irons should be hit with a 3/4 swing with a descending blow. Hit the ball before you hit the ground and you should see your ball striking improve. One way to ingrain this faster and save yourself some time on the range is to use a hinged iron to improve your mechanics and hit more greens in regulation. The hinged club will break when you’re swing is off and as you correct those problems, you should be able to hit it more solid.

I think a lot of it has to do with confidence as well. I think if you’re not used hitting a great drive, and I wasn’t used to it as driving was the weakest part of my game last year, is that when you do hit it well, you get a bit excited, or very excited. This in turn creates pressure to execute. If your not comfortable with the pressure, you won’t hit a good shot.

This 30 day challenge has changed my confidence greatly. I feel differently approaching the ball. I am better able to plan a shot and actually execute it without thinking about the mechanics of the shot. That is probably the most helpful result of the challenge so far. It simplifies the game, takes mechanics out, and makes it simply more fun to be a shot maker. Sign up for the 30 Day Challenge here if you’re interested in taking complicated mechanics out of your game and gaining confidence over the ball.

Click image to make larger.

Those of you who have been reading this blog, know that I practice, especially in winter, on the Dancin’ Dogg Optishot simulator (review of it is here).

Now of course, there is absolutely nothing like being on a golf course, on warm spring or summer day, warming up on the putting green, hitting few chips and sand shots, and then hitting the range for a little warm up before a round.  Then teeing off on number one for a 4.5 hour round (ah the muni life).  However, since I live in a cold area of the country, and the temperatures are currently around freezing, the simulator has become my golf course.

Combined with swing anlysis work done with video, and stats from the simulator on my swing, I have been able to make substantial positive changes in my swing.  I’ve gone to the driving range (the real one) to keep tabs on the swing and see ball flight, and the driving range has confirmed the improvements I’ve made on the simulator.  On it my scoring has greatly improved.  But as my full swing has gotten better, it has put even more pressure on my short game if I want to have really good scoring rounds.  It is hard to hit every green and so your short game has to make up for that.

I find the trickiest shots, are those between 30 and 50 yards to get close to the pin. add some rough and it’s a bit trickier.  Bunker shots from beyond 10 yards are also difficult to get close.  Sounds a lot like real golf doesn’t it?  I’ve also found that if I get those shots within 7 feet of the pin, I will usually save par or birdie the par 5.  However anything outside of 7 feet, usually results in a two-putt.  Even one a simulator it’s more fun to practice your long game than your short game, but I’ve made a dedicated effort to work on the short game and my scores on it show that it is a wise move.

If you can keep the ball in play, you need a good short game to score well.  It’s true in the simulator and it’s true in real life.

Conversely a golf swing can be more left side/arm dominated.  This is typically called pulling and results in more consistent ball striking, and improved golf ball launch conditions.

Both ways can be effective provided the player plays to their tendencies or has practiced enough to know what the swing is going to do. However, I think left side/arm dominated can be more consistent based on the work I have done with my swing, and from what I see from the average golfer.

I’ll refer to left side dominated swings as pulling, and right side dominated swings as pushing.

A swing with the left side of the body pulling can be more consistent for a number of reasons.

1. Flipping is less likely.  The left arm/hand alone is not strong enough to overcome the huge forces created in the golf swing in order to flip the club.  If you try to flip the club with the left hand only, it is very awkward and unnatural.
2. A swing with the left side pulling will more easily clear the hips allowing the club head to more consistently come into the ball square.
3. Pulling low and left creates an impact condition with the shaft leaning forward and allows a golfer to compress the ball more easily because the long lever of the left arm and golf club remains stable.
4. This type of swing leads to a more consistent and fuller release, thus adding distance while maintain accuracy.

If you have a pushing type of swing, where the right side of the body dominates, the 4 points above will be more difficult to achieve consistently because the right hand has to make those things happen and the body is fighting with itself.

If you are unfamiliar with the pulling sensation, do the left wrist supination drill for a while and try to feel which side is more dominant.  Once you can identify which side of your body is dominant, try to do the drill consciously forcing the left side to be dominant.  It’s not easy to do, but I think it is well worth doing.

Enjoy and of course let me know if you have any questions about this.

But many players do not fully understand how to achieve this supination.  Here is how you can begin to get this feeling in your swing.

One of the most important things I have discovered about this supination is that it is NOT achieved by the wrists or the small muscles in the hands.  The wrists are too weak to force this position and too weak to overcome the huge forces that the swing is generating.  The way to achieve this supination is to use the large muscles of the body properly in the golf swing.

That sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it?  Here is an image of the left wrist supinating, but you can’t force it to happen.  You allow it to happen by doing the right things in the swing.

Drills for supination

1. Left hand only half swings (do not hit the ground or a golf ball with this drill)

Start with you normal stance, but only your left hand on the club.  Take the club back only until the shaft is parallel to the ground with the toe pointing straight up.  On the way back you should feel your left forearm rotating.  If you are wearing a watch, the watch should almost face the sky or ceiling when the toe of the club is pointing up.  Your shoulders should rotate too and their rotation should stop when the shaft reaches parallel.

Initiate the downswing by rotating your hips to the left.  You should feel a small delay in the arms.  Take the club through until it is also parallel with the ground.  The toe should be up and have rotated somewhat to the left.  While you are doing these short swings, take a look at the position of your left hand, it should match the drawing.  If it is not matching, don’t force it match by using your wrists.  That doesn’t work.  You need to feel large muscles actually driving the rotation of the club face.

It will take some practice but this drill will help you to feel the club releasing and rotating through impact.  As you do this drill, you will improve your left hand arm action and it will help you hit the ball longer and straighter.

I had an opportunity to get on TrackMan today.  If you have not had the opportunity to try it I highly recommend it.  Sterling Farms, in Stamford CT will let you get on the TrackMan launch monitor for $110/hr.

What a great experience!  Trackman is much more advanced than I had thought based on what I’ve seen on the Golf Channel.  It is so much more than just getting your launch numbers.

I was really surprised at the amount of information that it generates, especially when you see the teaching modules for it.  Along with tracking the golf ball, it also tracks the clubhead through the impact zone.    The 3D club view is awesome and it was truly eye opening to see what the club was doing through impact in a way that video analysis just can’t do.

The teaching modules in TrackMan can show you things that you really can’t get in a regular teaching session because everything the instructor describes can be shown on the screen and in 3 dimensions.  In a short session I was able to make some huge improvements in my swing and ball compression.

The left arm begins to separate from the chest and then the club gets on a steep and out to in path causing the golf ball to slice.  What is a golfer to do?

Many training aids encourage a stronger connection between the arms and the upper core.  What does that mean exactly?

Build a stronger connection between arms and chest

A stronger connection simply means that the arms don’t move separately from the chest.  The chest and arms work together as one unit.  Sure, the clubs momentum may cause it to move after the shoulders have stopped turning, but if you can minimize that movement, you can begin the downswing with the arms and chest working together, rather then letting the arms race down to the ball.

A perfect example of the feeling you want to get is Steve Stricker.  When you watch his swing, it looks a bit tight.  It’s not super fluid, he doesn’t hinge the wrists very much.  The most important thing he does is to bring everything down together.  This allows him very solid contact, which sends the ball a long way.  He is not the longest hitter on tour but he is long enough to be the number 3 golfer in the world and you can’t argue with his results.

So how do you keep the arms and chest together.  Take some practice swings and swing slowly.  Keep the thought in mind that the arms and chest are working as one unit and focus on keeping them together.  At first it will probably seem stiff.  You’ll feel as if your movement has become a bit limited which it has, and that’s a good thing.

Feel them working as one unit

As you begin to feel this sensation and really integrate it, you’ll start to hit the ball more solidly.  You’ll see a straighter ball flight, and your accuracy and distance will increase.  It’s a strange thing to feel at first because your body will be telling you that you can’t hit the ball as far swinging like this.  But you need to trust that keeping the upper body together will improve your swing and your ball striking.  It is even more important that you keep your focus on this as the club gets longer.

The longer the club is, the more the club head will want to keep moving after the shoulders have stopped turning.  You need to be aware of this so that you catch it early.  Stop the club head moving as soon as your shoulders have stopped rotating.  Then on the downswing move everything together making sure that your arms don’t outrace your chest.

Benefits to keeping the upper body together

It will be tricky at first, but the benefits are tremendous.  You’ll be able to retain the angle in your wrists on the downswing, you’ll be less likely to flip the club, and in general you’ll hit more solid and straighter.  Give this a try and let me know how it works for you.

I practiced with a variation of it today(the 6 finger swing) and I found it extremely helpful. You hold the club with the thumb, index, and middle finger of each hand in a golf grip.  That gives you just enough leverage that it’s easier to do a full swing, but it gives the club enough freedom to move around.

What I found doing this was that when I did the 6-finger swing, the club would set in the right place at the top of the swing on plane and in the right place.  Because you can’t manipulate it as much with your hands, the club follows a natural path.  It gets on plane quickly and stays that way.

On the downswing, again because you only have 6 fingers on the grip, you can’t manipulate the path.  The club takes the natural path down which, for me kept it beautifully on plane.

After doing a few 6-finger swings, I then took my regular grip trying to feel the swing like the the 6-finger swing felt.  It felt very natural and I was able to fully accelerate the club head.  When I looked at the results on video, I was suprised at how well, the 6-finger swing, transitioned to my regular swing.

This could be a great drill to do whenever you are on the course and the swing seems to go off a bit.  A few 6-finger swings could put you back on track.

Keeping the arms and core in sync

One of the most important factors in executing a successful golf swing is ensuring that the arms and the core remain synchronized. What does that mean?

It means that the top of the backswing happens when the shoulders stop turning and the arms stop moving at the fraction later. Watch Steve Stricker, the number threee golfer in the world and you’ll see his arms stop moving when his shoulder turn stops.

This action, allows everything to come down and through together. This improves consistency, and influences accuracy and how solid you can strike the ball. Moving everything together really allows a golfer to have a consistent motion.

What happens when the arms and the core get out sync?

When the arms keep moving at the top of the swing after the shoulders have stopped turning then they are out of sync with the body. In order to get them back into sync, they need to start down first, and then at the right moment, the core needs to start turning. This is a formula for disaster because a good golfer initiates the swing by turning the hips, not by moving the arms.

This is also extremely difficult to time properly. Starting the swing this way makes the player highly dependent on timing. When you’re timing is on you can hit the ball well, but when your timing is off you won’t hit it well. You’ll wonder where your swing went.

Why do golfers get out of sync?

So why do golfers let the arms run off? They do this because they are trying to get more distance and swing speed. The think that if they increase the length of their swing, they can get the club head moving faster. This is only partly true.

Although they can potentially get some speed gain, the gain is offset by the loss of accuracy, and the lowered likelihood of hitting the sweet spot. So in fact, you are getting a net loss of distance and accuracy. It doesn’t sound like a good trade to me.

If you can stay in sync you can actually generate more club head speed and hit the sweet spot more often because you’re whole body is working in harmony in the swing. You can, in essence, hit the ball with your entire body. You’ll hit it more solidly, and you’ll be more consistent.

Think of a clock

Think of the inside of a mechanical clock. Certain gears move really fast, others move very slowly. But none of the parts move faster than they need to. The clock would break if some parts were forced to move faster. The same really is true for the golf swing. Keep everything together and moving only as fast as it needs to and you’ll be a much more consistent player.