How far can you keep your club head away from your “swing center” during your swing?

One of the most important factors in generating long distance in your game is the distance you keep the club head away from your “swing center” during your swing!

After 25 years of observing my students, it is clear to me that a significant number of golfers don’t understand this principle, and do not feel a loss of the necessary wide radius of the forward arm during the swing.

Here are the places during your swing that you should have the maximum radius: 1. At the end of your backswing, 2. At impact,
3. At the shaft parallel to the ground position post impact.

You do not want your golf swing to break down like a cheap chair at any point during your swing. It will result in a terrible loss of power !! In other words, if the movements of your swing are not sequentially correct, breakdowns occur that result in loss of power and accuracy. I have always believed that most high handicap players have a propensity to pay little attention to their “pivot” sequence which, by default, leads to a swing dominated by broken down arms at critical points functionally slowing the swing down.

Observing your swing on video can validate your suspicions of broken arms. Practicing correctly with the Amazing Angle golf swing trainer will habituate great positions and sequences in your swing.

You can create this efficient position by slow and deliberate practice!

Remember to continue to visit this blog for ideas on practicing efficiently with your precious practice time!

 

2 of the 7 most important movements in the golf swing

I had a very interesting lesson last night. I reaffirmed my belief in the following: 1. A student must be ready to learn, 2. If you are violating one or more of the 7 most important positions and movements of the swing you will not improve.

My student was a very promising player who I have been working with somewhat regularly. Since his playing season is now over, I took the opportunity to seriously reintroduce 2 of the parts of his golf swing that I believe are his biggest weak points.

We had been over these 2 points previously, but since changing behavior is difficult, and he was uncomfortable with the changes, progress at the time was not made to my satisfaction. So it was time to readdress the issues.

The position and movement to be addressed, 1. End of the backswing, 2. First move in the downswing.

Upon inspecting his total statistics for the year, I noticed that he was first on his team in fairways hit in regulation, but only in the middle of the pack in greens hit in regulation. This means to me that his ball striking is not quite right, which leads to missed greens on second shots on par 4s, and to double and triple bogeys. This is in fact what the statistics expressed.

Upon watching his swing, I noticed that most of his iron shots were considerably fat. This bad ball striking was having a terrible effect on distance and accuracy.

It was time to work on these 2 positions specifically. The student must first really understand what is happening and why. In this case his backswing was too long, sometimes the case in young flexible players. This out of position top of the backswing was then leading to an incorrect beginning of the downswing, commonly referred to as “throwing the club away”.

With some hard work defining and feeling a new top of the backswing position, and about 3 dozen practice balls, progress was being made. Here was the payoff, about 20 yards added in distance, and a consistent, high draw ball flight.

Because I have experienced these huge breakthroughs in the past with many students, I know that these results can be short lived if not nurtured. Practicing the new movements “slowly and deliberately” is the key. About 10,000 repetitions should do it. Correct consistent practice is the key.

This is what my 7 “smart golf lessons” are about. Each position and movement builds progressively until an effective golf swing results. You can do it!

Contact me at jkhpro@pga.com to get started on your new and improved golf swing for 2013.