A Little Coaching Goes A Long Way

Harvey Pennick said it best when he said, "If I give you golf advice that equates to, 'Take an aspirin.', for G*d's sake, don't take the whole bottle." My current swing coach had a hard time getting that through a rather thick- sculled person such as myself, but once he was successful, he didn't stop. The race to lower my handicap before the season comes to its final close is on. Josh had a hard time at first because every part of my swing was a massive over-compensation in a rather misguided attempt to regain the distance I had lost since the heart attack and the subsequent spinal collapse due to a rather nasty reaction to Crestor. I wanted that distance back in the worst way, and I was truly over exaggerating every distance trick in the book in order to try and get there as quickly as possible. That is all behind me now, and I have actually regained a large chunk of that lost distance, and without the aforementioned caricature of a Long Driver's Swing . Better still---I haven't been this accurate since the bygone days when clubs sported  weaker lofts and shorter overall lengths. I promised not to post anything till I was sure it worked, worked well, and worked consistently. Here's part one. --a shorter swing.

SHORTEN THAT SWING!

      Now a lot of us have heard this advice. Funnier still, there's tons of gurus out there hawking a shorter swing as if it's a totally new concept. They go by many different names such as, "The Perfect Swing." "The Perfect Connection.", etc..It's not new, it's just not been in style since the days of Grip it and Rip It came into vogue.The  first thing Josh did was shorten my rather massive shoulder turn. It's nice to be that flexible, especially  after what I've been through. The trouble was, there is no need to go past parallel, and that is especially true when you've lost swing speed. A longer back swing can actually cost you several MPH on your down swing. It has a lot to do with the simple dynamics of having more ground to cover and more area in which to come off plane. Due to the fact that I had developed a swing that is much more upright than my former swing, this past parallel move was actually costing me 5 MPH worth of speed and 20 Yards worth of distance. The good news was that I had regained my flexibility. The bad news is that I was overusing it, not monitoring that use carefully, and sabotaging my own golf game. The prescription.

     We shortened my back swing by 35%. That would translate to 20-25% for most of you, as my swing was beginning to make John Daly's back swing look like short of parallel. That shortened back swing actually proved to me that gaining swing-speed is often counter intuitive. The hard part for most of us is realizing that a 90* shoulder turn is nowhere near as large as it sounds. Remember, full circle is 360*. A 90* shoulder turn is only a 1/4 turn. If you are actually getting a successful engagement of the initial weight shift back on your right side, that 1/4 turn is in and of itself, more than enough. If you can keep your eye on the ball while rotating your shoulders, and keeping the shaft lined up with your forearms then you have accomplished more than most golfers will accomplish in a lifetime of swings. The problem is, so few of us realize that it really is that easy. Instinct tells us to whip that club back as far as possible. But, in actuality, if we turn the club back and keep the lower body steady, the 90* turn builds up plenty of tension, and the shorter downswing allows us to accelerate all the way through the ball with much greater ease.


Does It Really Work?

As someone who sported a much longer back swing, and swore by it up until now, I must say that it works beyond most people's wildest dreams.  I know most people think about gaining distance with a new driver swing,and equate that longer back swing with longer distance. If you have a shorter distance to cover, however, you have less room in which to decelerate, and more of us decelerate with most of our clubs, than accelerate through the impact point.  Since MPH = Distance, the ability to accelerate all the way past impact has helped me personally regain 20 of the 35 yards I lost, and I am just beginning the program. By the end of next season, I will be longer than ever. The shorter back swing also grants me consistency which I haven't seen in years. I'm hitting 66% of fairways now, vs 55%. Let's see now, longer...straighter.....hmmmm. Sounds like it works to me. But don't just take my word for it.

Boo Weekley, one of my distance idols on tour, had the following to say in a Golf Digest article last year," I have a much shorter back swing than people think. I make sure to keep my chin up so that I can have a wide swing arc, but the moment my left shoulder touches my chin, I'm swinging. To me, it's as simple as turn and fire." That certainly gives this swing style a resounding endorsement in the distance department, but is Boo really that accurate?--I'd venture to say that he's more accurate than either you or I, but just in case that doesn't give this swing enough credence in your book as to accuracy and consistency--consider the following.

Steve Stricker, Mr. Comeback kid himself, is a practitioner of this swing. His swing is also rated by several of the top 100 USGA Teaching Pros as--"The Swing That The Average Joe Needs To Copy." That's because it is simple to repeat, and it is consistent under fire. Oh yeah, it wins on tour too. If you need to see a good sequence of this swing go out and buy a September "Golf" Magazine. I don't usually tout any of the magazines, as they are often chock full of conflicting information, ideas, and conclusions, but Stricker's Swing isn't some 1/2 baked THEORY from yet another teacher that never made the tour. It's something you need to see and to try.It works for him, and it even works for a 15 Capper such as myself. I played to a plus 12 yesterday, so if that type of instantaneous improvement appeals to you, you need to give it a whirl.

The theory is also working for my other clubs as well, but we'll dissect them individually as the season goes on and my handicap continues to drop. I am very excited to be writing again, and even more excited to be offering advice that I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE WORKS. I recently tested these theories in a local tournament, and guys that used to smoke me are inviting me to join their Flites for scrambles in order to add "CONSISTENCY" to their Flite's performance. That is the type of belief that I and others have in this shortened swing, and its real potential is just beginning to show itself. Easy distance, take dead aim accuracy, and built in consistency. This is, at least for myself and a few of the tour players, the swing of the future.