REActiONS

LASER YOUR WAY.

Isn't it surely much easier to REACT CREATIVELY to something VISUAL than to something DIGITAL? Yes we are reacting to a more precise distance but how much of the hole is one missing through that single vision. One may argue it narrows the focus to a single target but how much detail has one abandoned in the process. How much potential for creative imagination and effective visualisation is the next generation of Tour Stars miss-processing?

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GROUNDed/ ROOT Down.

Tiger Woods on Tuesday at the Open Championship 2009.
17th Tee whilst playing with a pair of Marks in preparation for his 2nd missed cut in a major championship.

He looked as sound and effectively polished as ever, in typical Tiger fashion his practice round was a far cry from the swash buckling style so typically found during real live Championship mode. As the image so clearly presents, you see a man so ultimately grounded, so solid as he makes the fluid transition from backswing to downswing its hard to believe he could ever miss use such ability to the extent of a short week on such a beautiful coast line.

See how perfectly ROOTED he is, there is not a more grounded player on the planet when snapped at this point in the swing.

Enjoy him as I enjoyed snapping him.





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HeArtNDS.

Everytime you visit the Doctor he follows the same simple procedure. Wheather you're dizzy or dazy, hot or cold, tired or wired he goes straight to the heart. He knows everything you do or feel is in some way related to the health and state of your HEART. No matter what the effects of ones illness maybe, a good Doctor knows the cause of such effects is typically the result of something much closer to the heart and more easily diagnosed through an understanding of ones heart.

The same is true in golf, any great teacher will tell you the cause of a swing flaw is always much closer to the heart than the visual effect. The cause of the commonly seen effects of a poor swing such as head movment, loss of balance, closed clubface, club shaft crossing the line at the top etc are always caused by a static issue before the swing has even begun. At the heart of every golf swing is one single element that has the greatest influence over everything that goes on around it.

Find the HEART to locate the CAUSE/REPAIR the CAUSE and you heal the EFFECTS.

GO TO YOUR HANDS AND YOU HAVE FOUND THE HEARTBEAT TO YOUR SWING.

The HEART of your golf swing is totally governed by your HANDS. The quality of the formation between the left and right hand UNITE to produce the HEART of your golf swing. From the quality of the formation between the two hands you set the tone for your bodies resulting reflex actions and instinctive movements commonly seen as effects within the resulting golf swing. I like to see them as compensations of either a positive or negative nature. The more blended ones formation of the hands on the golf club maybe, the more positive ones in swing reflex actions will become. Its when one adopts a less than efficent hold that the resulting in swing movements become compensations for such an unhealthy hold on the golf club.

AN UNHEALTHY HEART CAUSES UNHEALTHY EFFECTS.

The result of a poor heart means years of inconsistent bad health.

So please take the time to develope a healthy hold on the golf club, it really is the HEARtBEAT to your swing.





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Average JOE the nO gO prO....

Your average Pro never looks close enough at the key foundations to your game. Look closer than before and you won't ever make mistakes like b4. Ask your Pro today, 'What are we ultimately trying to do, please ask him to tell you what it is he is trying to give you when you take lessons and listen intently at what he has to say. I promise you, if he fails to mention the word control and golf ball within 2 words of one another then he's failed in his quest as a teacher.

The ULTIMATE goal of any teacher should be to provide the pupil with the skill and understanding to consistently control their GOLF BALL around the COURSE with as little trouble as possible.

The art of the game is BALL CONTROL.
The scientist are only ever interested in SWING CONTROL.
AVOID the SCIENTISTS.

Golf is what the BALL does.

The flight of the ball reveals all.

Stick with it and I promise you, your golfing future will flourish.







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hANDS.

Left and Right combine to create one.

The initial stage of forming your hold is all about combining the two hands to create an equal strength among the pair. We are simply blending the hands together to form a unit that can then be easily adjusted to correct or neutralise the resulting flight of the golf ball.

The left hand has the greatest influence over the club face as it is placed above the right hand and so furthest from the club head. Combined with the fact it has the most coverage on the handle results in it having the greatest influence over the speed of the club face and its effective interaction with the golf ball through impact.

Before we apply your left hand please take the time to perfectly align the leading or bottom edge of the golf club to the ball target line, perfectly at 90 degrees is the minimum standard here.

Correctly applied, the left hand will generally feel more in the fingers, by no means should it be held across the palm or to a point so high in the palm that speed and rotation is restricted. Just take a second and imagine holding a hammer across the palm of your hand, now try to appreciate just how restricted the freedom of your wrist would become. The resulting effect would see the bigger muscles, most notably from the shoulders become more active in a natural response to creating the required force to strike the nail home.

With the handle now feeling more relaxed in the fingers and free to swing you may finalise the position of the left hand by positioning the thumb along the right hand side of the handles centre line. Assure the thumb is running as near to perfectly parallel while pointing straight down the right side of the handle. The thumb and fingers should be soft and relaxed without absolutely any tension spreading through the hand or wrist. Any tension felt in the forearm is a clear indication you are gripping that £5 note like it was worth no less than 50.

Now for the scary part, the correct placing of the right hand is always the frightening part for the vast majority of right handed golfers. A typically poor hold on the golf club sees the naturally right handed golfer gripping the handle with as much comfort in the fingers as they can grab onto. This is a natural reaction to that age old human instinct of control, we all feel the need to control the movements through the swing which essentially results in a snatch, pull and lift away from the ball in the takeaway. I'm afraid that can only mean one thing, an out of sequence, random swing that will only ever be good for absolutely know control what soever.

Over control = no control.

A correctly positioned right hand will allow you a sense of giving up control to gain control.

The right hand is not to be seen as a control hand but rather more a support hand. It's role is to simply respond to the correct motion of the left as it swings the golf club away from the ball all the way to the top of the back swing where it is then needed to help support the golf club before and during its transition into the downswing.

Now for this matter the right hand must not possess tension or a desire to control or dominate the left hand both in the back swing and downswing. Any sign of over tension in the right hand will ultimately result in the weaker slower muscles of the left hand becoming over dominated. A more active shoulder action will then further destroy any chance you may have of delivering the club head on the desired inside to square swing path into and through impact.

With the left hand still soft and relaxed the right hand should be placed on top of the left thumb so as to fit snugly into the life line of the right palm. This should always be your first goal when placing the right hand on the golf club, to totally cover the left thumb then allowing the fingers of the right hand to simply fold underneath the handle of the golf club with the last finger of the right hand resting soft and most comfortably over the index finger of the left hand on the underside of the handle. The fingers must not grab the underside of the handle or attempt to clench a grip of any significant tension, a soft right hand is essential to the blending process.

Common practice among poor grippers of the golf club is to grab the handle, firstly with the fingers to secure a nice tight feeling of control before then stretching the thumb and palm of the right hand over the top of the left thumb to complete a grip that basically has no place in a game that requires such a graceful movement as a golf swing.

With the hands now placed soft and relaxed on the golf club Id like you to attempt to lift the club head slightly off the ground by no more than 2 inches then proceed to make a soft and gradual movement back and through on a path just above the golf ball. Its a simple movement practiced by most accomplished golfers to gain a better feel for the weight of the golf club and release of any tension still in the hands. You will find this much more difficult practice the more tension you apply, but more importantly it will give you the feedback required to feel the most active pressure points in your grip.

The finished article will provide you with a feeling of security in the last three fingers of the left hand with total softness in the right. The position of the left hand is integral to the control of the club face position throughout the golf swing as much as the placement of the right hand is crucial to the speed of the club face throughout the golf swing.

The two hands combined form the single vital unit demanded of a consistent shot maker, a player demanding total control of his club face in an effort to control his ball.







Create to control don't control to create./