Pure Swinging Motion.

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  A pure swinging motion is most accurately represented by a simple pendulum. How many times have you heard it, ‘Imagine the pendulum of a grandfather clock, the tick tock of an old clock!’ It’s true, and pretty much bang on cue when you study the best putters the game has ever produced. Each one, from Crenshaw, Roberts, Striker to Woods, each has developed a pure swinging motion, an appreciation for what makes a stroke a stroke and a swing the thing.
  
  

  “A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position. When released, the restoring force combined with the pendulum’s mass causes it to oscillate about the equilibrium position, swinging back and forth. The time for one complete cycle, a left swing and a right swing, is called the period. A pendulum swings with a specific period which depends (mainly) on its length.”

  Wikipedia.

  
  

  The ‘period’, a measure of time in space that very few have ever truly learned to consistently pace! It’s this consistency of pace that has defined every tournament winner the game has ever created. Lets face it, the best player on any given day, week, year or career has been the one who has effectively paced the ‘period’ within their pendulum motion. 

  
  

  So how do you do it?

  How do you pace the period of the pendulum?

  
  

  For starters you need to stop worrying about the stroke, just give it up! A pendulum has no care for anything other than the pivot it’s attached to. So lets first agree on the point where the pivot plays from. 

  
  

  Is it the hands?

  Or is it somewhere in the sternum?

  
  

  Many moons ago the likes of Nicklaus, Player, Hogan and Hagen most definitely progressed their game with a pivot from the hands. A very wristy action was clearly employed on the slower greens of their day, and to great effect. But the days of long cut greens have since been forgotten and today we consistently see speeds of eleven, twelve, even thirteen on the stimp!!! 

  
  

  So where’s the pivot today?

  
  

  For me, it has to be somewhere around the sternum, either there or somewhere beyond it, a point on your spine, depends how deep you like to feel it. The point is, it’s a pivot so you have to feel it and feel isn’t anything real, real as in tangible, you can’t take hold of it, it’s unique to you so go find it, play around and see what you feel. 

  
  

  For me it’s in my sternum and from there all I have to do is maintain the relationship between the shoulders, arms, hands and club from a well balanced address to a free flowing pendulum feeling. The feeling I’m talking about is one of connection between these fundamental parts. It comes from the shoulders, a simple rocking of the shoulders allows me to forget about the hands and soften them to a point well beyond tension of any kind. From here I can feel every perceivable degree of weight distributed in the head and shaft of the golf club. For me this is the ultimate feeling of purity of motion, the absolute essence of what a pendulum motion is and forever will be. 

  
  

  But I can’t simply state what is and what should be your natural way to putt. All I can do is motivate, inspire and direct your attention to what makes a pure swinging pendulum possible. For me this is it, first and foremost find a point of pivot, then allow your pendulum to unfold. Remember, the pendulum has no care for mechanics, machine like movements, all your pendulum cares for is the pivot and the period which is determined by the length of the swing employed for the stroke before you.

  
  

  “When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position.”

  
  

  If you swing it two inches behind the ball, then you better allow it to swing two inches in front of the ball! 

  If you swing it four inches behind the ball, then you better allow it to swing four inches in front of the ball!

  What goes up, must come down, so feel the force and don’t force the feel. Simply learn to gauge the length of your backswing to the desired length of putt, then leave it to swing. 

  
  

  You follow??!!!

  
  

  JUST TRUST IT.

  
  

  But if all else fails, please, please, please just enjoy the game because the game enjoys having you as a key part of it.

  
  

  
  

  Enjoy the game./

• 2013-05-22

  
  

Back in FOCUS?

Back yet?

TUNNEL VISION

Stack and WHAT........?

They all fall down?...........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Stack your golfing dreams and money winning ways too highly on a method of any kind and I assure you, the times will change and the methods eventually falter.

"The problem with golf is. There are too many ways of playing it well"

John Jacobs.


















/.

Raymond Floyd....../

Creative Mechanism.

Maybe not the most appealing of free swinging actions, but one of supreme golfing achievement no less. The man to your left is four time major winner and winner of 22 PGA Tour victories, Ray Floyd. He is without doubt a golfing great, one of distinct presence, poise, stature and grace. So his golf swing was maybe far from enviable in the eyes of many a modern swing technician, this maybe so, but what undoubtably stands him apart from many who have is quite beautifully captured in the following extract from his essential book, The Elements of Scoring: A Masters Guide to the Art of Scoring Your Best When You're Not Playing Your Best. He was a scoring magician, turning 5 into 4 and 4 into 3 he had the grit and drive to see the most disturbing of golfing nightmares turn visually into dreams of great wealth and golfing fortune. Enjoy his vision, marvel in his grace.


The Target Is Everything.

Good thoughts start and end with the ultimate object of every golf shot; the target. All other things golfers are encouraged to think can breed paralysis by analysis; target-orientated golf does the exact opposite. Rather than promote confusion, it induces focus. The more you can become target-aware when you're on the golf course, the better you will play.


When you're thinking only of the target, you're thinking only of the shot at hand and executing it as well as possible. Do that shot after shot, and you're truly playing golf. You'll be doing what the pros call "hitting it where you're looking." It' pure play, the highest state in the game.


If you want to be a scorer, you have to know how to mentally hone in on the target. That means always having one, whether in practice or on the golf course. By getting used to having a target, your mind will get better at taking in information and at narrowing down its focus. To be a scorer, make your target small: On a tee shot, rather than aiming at a tree in the distance, pick out a limb on that tree. Rather than aiming at the centre of the green, aim at a small discolouration on the putting surface. Don't just aim at the flag, but at the bottom of the flag. While putting, aim at the very back of the hole, or the exact blade of grass on the lip that the ball will roll over on its way in. Having small targets increases focus and helps shut out distraction.


All this target projection is done during the pre-shot routine. To illustrate how I focus on the target, I'll walk you through mine. When I'm within 20 yards of my ball, and often earlier than that, I begin to study what kind of shot I might want to play.  When I get to the ball, I get the yardage from my caddy, assess where the pin is, and take in all the factors that will give this shot its own particular character, the lay of the land, the wind, the lie, etc.


After I've chosen a club, I really get focused. I back up to a position about 4 yards behind the ball, directly in line with my intended target, with the club in my right hand. As I let my senses absorb all the elements of the shot, I allow the club to swing gently back and forth, letting myself literally feel the coming shot. As I'm doing this, I let my imagination see the ball flying through the air to the target, its line and trajectory forming a visible path across the sky. I don't force the image to confirm to what I want; if it doesn't come easily, thats a sign that I'm not ready to hit the shot, and I back away until the image does come easily. I've found that the clearer the picture, generally the better a shot I'll hit.


With a vivid image of my shot in my mind, and a corresponding feel in my hand, I stride to the ball, gripping the club with both hands and placing my right foot in its approximate address position. I'm still looking at the target, and I don't look down until I step forward with my left foot and assume my stance. Once I'm comfortable, I look at the target again, more intensely than ever. As I allow my senses to drink in the target, I rock gently from left foot to right foot in a rhythmic motion and simultaneously hold the clubhead slightly above the ball and waggle, letting my body really get the feel for the coming shot. I stop rocking when my body feels loose and ready to fire and my mind is locked into a by now very specific target. With that image in my minds eye, I then make a swing that sends the ball to the target.


If at any point during my pre-shot routine I'm thinking of anything other than the target, I'm not being totally efficient. But if I've done things right, my only thought is where I want the ball to go.


It's amazing how often the ball does just that when you trust your target-orientated mind to direct your body in an instinctual, athletic way. I'll give you an example from the 1992 Masters. I had just bogeyed the twelfth hole and failed to birdie the thirteenth to fall two strokes behind Fred Couples, who was playing behind me. Then from the middle of the fourteenth, with the pin in the back of the green over a huge knob, I mishit an 8-iron and left the ball in the one place you absolutely cannot leave it on that hole-short.


I knew I had "done the no," and the Masters was slipping away. When I got to my ball, I was faced with what legitimately could be called an impossible shot. The bank was only about 20 feet in front of me, and it rose 4 feet at a very steep angle, with the hole on a downslope only abut 10 feet on the other side. If I had chosen to run the ball, it would have taken infinite touch to get it just to the top of the bank and let it trickle down to the hole.


In fact, even if I did it perfectly, it would still probably run by. And the risk was that I wouldn't get the ball to the top of the hill and I'd end up watching it roll past me back into the fairway.


There was no way to stop the ball by flying the bank. My only option if I wanted to give myself a realistic chance to save par was to punch the ball into the bank, hoping the upslope would kill it enough that it would take one bounce over the ledge and begin to bite.


Well, believe me, there was no way to consciously calculate this shot in terms of exactly where to land it or how hard to hit it. I just stared at it for a long time, letting my senses take in all the variables, literally letting my body feel the shot. I was totally trusting of whatever my body told me.


When I felt I had absorbed it, I took a 60-degree lob wedge and closed it down as far as possible. I wanted the most backspin on the lowest shot I could hit. It was the merging of two extremes. In my pre-shot,  I looked at the bank, looked at the hole, and let the information filter to my hands. I didn't think of the potential disaster of landing too high up the bank, or even flying it completely, or chunking it short-all real possibilities. I thought only about what my minds eye was seeing.


I hit the shot solid, and watched as the ball slammed into the bank, took one big hop nearly straight up in the air, just cleared the top of the ledge, took two quick bounces, and dived into the hole.


I never made a more difficult shot from around the green, and certainly never in a bigger situation. It was probably the most amazing shot I've ever hit in my life. I didn't win the Masters, because Fred played great coming in, but that shot ranks as the greatest short-game shot of my career. It was eerie. It was the product of pure imagination, creativity, and all the resources that we have at our command but routinely underutilize. More than anything, it came from my intense focus on the target. That shot convinced me forever that there is no more powerful force in golf than the mind.
  

The Elements of Scoring, a masters guide to the art of scoring your best when you're not playing your best. 

by Raymond Floyd.

Enjoy the game./

In Thy Hands.

Hands are the chief organs for physically manipulating the environment, used for both fine and gross motor skills. The finger tips contain some of the most densest areas of nerve endings on the body, are the richest source of tactile feedback, and have the greatest positioning capability of the body; thus sense of touch is intimately associated with the hands. Like other paired organs (eyes, feet, legs), each hand is dominantly controlled by the opposing brain hemisphere, so that handedness, or the preferred hand choice for single-handed activities such as writing with a pen, reflects individual brian functioning.
                                          
Wikipedia.




So the hands have the lead role in pretty much all physical activity known to man, lets all agree to that. With this in mind, why do so few people when taking hold of the golf club actually appear to fully appreciate their vital role in the successful execution of the golf swing?


Because they hold such dull and uninteresting appeal.


They fail to provide any real fancy topic of thought or marketing makeup.


In short, the hands when initially applied correctly are the most uncomfortable element of all golfing fundamentals. With this horrid sense of initial touch in mind, lets all agree their role in the effective execution of the golf swing is without doubt the most influential. Think back to when you first laid hands on a golf club and recall the immediate sense of control you strived. This simple human instinct was born out of fear, fear of failure, embarrassment and negative feedback and forced you into a grip of the golf club that would intuitively prevail with some perceived notion of a finely controlled swinging motion. No doubt ones positioning of the hands on the clubs handle resembled something close to that of a child hanging like a monkey from a climbing frame whilst realising their shorts are about to fall to their ankles! You're gripping for your dearest life and could not give two hoots how well formed your pair of white knuckle hands are, let alone how well positioned and pressed with pressure they are.


All you care for is your dignity.


Your shorts are gonna fall down anyway so best let go of the bar and huddle into the smallest ball!


Why grip it so tight?


Why take such little time, spend such ineffective attention and be so quick to overlook the great power and potential source of feedback the hands have to offer?


The answer is really quite simple, you care more for the control of the flow than the flow of the control.
You, like any other intuitive human spend the greatest part of your thought process thinking about what might go against you rather than laying bare your utmost trust in what could potentially go for you.


'The finger tips contain some of the most densest areas of nerve endings on the body, are the richest source of tactile feedback, and have the greatest positioning capability of the body; thus sense of touch is intimately associated with the hands'.


Sense of touch, not sense of security!


The great painters, sculptors, musicians and artists from history would never be as close as ok let alone known and hailed as greats had they applied the grip of their fingers across the depth of their palms to the creative process. Each and everyone of them relied on an acutely trained sense of touch at the tips when gracing the boundless landscape of creativity before them. While Picasso claimed the secret to his creativity was born and eternally maintained through his affection of a childlike mind state, he would of never inspired the slightest bit of interest had he not taken a sensitive adult touch of the brush.


So lets take a look into the hands of a true great, a player of exceptional grace, a self taught and potential golfing genius, the late great Sam Snead. Now here is a man who came from nothing, the son of a poor Virginian backwoods farmer, 'Slammin Sammy' Snead was admired for having the so called "perfect swing." Now this writer has little to no affection for such a comment, as Im sure Sam would of agreed, the notion of such possibility is both hilarious and humanly impossible! But lets not be so haste in our dismissive response to such a bold quote, lets be more than certain that this dude had quite possibly the purest swinging motion of all the games greats, of all the worlds lifelong sporting heros who ever swung a stick, crushed a bat and swung an athletic arm. He quite simply oozed all fine elements of individual flair, flamboyant pace, grace and force feeling flow to create the most complete free wheeling golf swing the world has ever seen. 


It was purity in motion and with it he was able to consistently create a golf swing that would power his golf ball up to distances of 350 yards! For a period of four decades from 1935 to around 1975 with equipment seen today as ancient and way off the title of technology, this hillbilly was able to drive the ball long and accurate with nothing more than a deep appreciation for what made it all so fun and free flowing. Thats right, he took a hold of the golf club with a sense of touch, a sensual nurturing of the golf clubs handle so as to fully absorb the clubs weight and so ultimately feel its full potential force when propelled from one side of the golf ball to the other. 'Slammin Sammy' undoubtably took pride in his relationship with that golf club, he took care of it like he did his winnings and undoubtably his good lady. But unlike the tight sleeper hold he adopted with his cash prizes, the hand of his good lady wife he more than extended into his golf clubs. Much has been written and quoted from this great players wisdom when holding the golf club, most notably his most enduring belief that one should hold the golf club as if holding a small bird, being so very careful not to harm though not allow to fly away. How beautiful and eloquent an impression this is, and how perfectly this description fits the point of this piece. 


Holding nature, nurturing force, and feeling freedom before allowing it to fly.

















Enjoy the game...../

Awareness.

Foundations.

Ball Flight.

Alignment.

Hands.

Body Balance.

Ball Position.

Reaction.

UP Swing.

Transition.

HEAVYWEIGHT V's lightweight.

What's the benefit, where's the difference?


Well, many a moon ago the talented golfers among us developed golf swings capable of securing the most priceless of golfing silverware. They were forced to succeed with the heaviest of equipment and softest of little white balls, their goal was simple. Each had one defining motivation, one of rich motivational force and heavy weighted feeling. In order to achieve their goals they had to find away to swing, turn and shift their weight into a golf swing of consistent repetition, one free of forceful force and totally absorbent to forceful feeling. In short, they were free to create a feeling of free flowing force due in most to the now seen as heavy feeling weight so widely accepted as the norm amongst club makers the golfing world over. The thing that made these guys swing was the thing that hinders those that now seek it as a pleasure. Currently based in Asia, I am forced to deal with a growing wealth of players each led to believe the more lighter the weight of their equipment the more likely they are to create a swing of consistent repetition.


Let me be the first to shout and scream letters 'NO!!!!!'


Ever tried swinging a piece of string with no weight?


Its pretty pointless!


Well of course it will swing but how effectively consistent that swinging movement is on a repeatable scale, back and forth from side to side is somewhat hindered without the gravity defining force of a heavy weighted object. Go ahead, try it. Go swing some string, see how inconsistent its swinging motion is and how varied its lowest point of swing is. Then attach a weight of some kind, anything will do. What I can assure you is a more consistently free swinging motion that consistently finds its way back and through the same point of low swing, time and time again. This swing depends much less on the motivational force of the swinger and much more on the force of the weight it is holding onto.


The weight is the force that pulls the string to its greatest length, its going with gravity and falling into its grasp as it desperately tries to pull the holding string away from its anchor. This simple, logical and forceful element exists within all effective swinging motions. Its the key ingredient to all who have a feel for it, its the remedy that treats the reason, the dom that connects the free, its the art of a great golf swing.


In short, the weight on the end of this piece of string is the force that creates all elements of consistent, free flowing movement within this single piece of string. The key to unleashing it is a simple matter of letting it go, yes, letting it go. Allow the force of the weight that you hold to simply take over and you have entered the world of free swinging motion, you have allowed the golf swing to find you and simply do its thing.


Thats right.


SWING.


Feel the force of a heavy weighted swing, not a light weighted piece of string!










Enjoy the game./

Old on NEW!

The greats of the past on machines that are now.

Back in the day,: Who would you want to be?
Jack, Sam, Ben or Bobby?

To of owned a swing you most definetly would. Heavy clubs, thick rough, slow greens and testing lifestyles. You quickly learned to develop the required body action to successfully swing, turn and shift into and through every swing.

Controlling the golf ball you did through logic and one single desire: TO WIN.

Lets take a look at the current life and times of the games so called greatest, a man born in an era of the most advanced technology and unsurpassed human knowledge. So they say!

Mr Eldrick Tiger Woods is currently exposing the great danger so many of the worlds leading players have unfortunately fallen into. He is currently seeing the worst run of form in his so far exquisite career. Having recently withdrawn from the PGA of Americas so called 5th major championship he has been forced to accept the pitfalls of perseverance when challenging the passage of the greater powers above. The golfing gods who selected him as a man worthy of the right to influence such a broad spectrum of the worlds population through the game of golf. He has now fallen victim to his own persistent need to progress and develop way beyond his natural god given talent.

Is it time we accept that Mr Woods is in fact no more human than either you or I?

Is it time we all stopped following the so called master of all things ball and stick?

Is it not about time we all stand still for just one second and accept the act of improvement should never go beyond that of what's natural to our current bodies self makeup?

If we look at what this guy is doing and what is currently unfolding, can we not accept the fact that this fine athlete has in fact gone to far in an effort to create something way beyond that of a human force.

Has he not attempted to progress that little step to far?

In an effort to progress the game and himself way beyond his own being, has Tiger Woods punished himself and body to a point of no return?

Years now spent in the gym, conditioning, developing a body of un-humain proportion has finally said no more and decided to bite this American superstar where nobody else can or ever will feel it.

Maybe this point of reference is what will ultimately define his greatness as one soulful entity.

Or maybe this is the elastic that brings him back to earth with an almighty bang!

A crash!

And a whollop!

Who really cares, but the suited stiff's in the USPGA Office of high commission?

I don't, so why would you.




Enjoy your golf and the game rolls on.




./

IMPACT....................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where is it?
Where's it at?
Is it the end?
Or halfway at?


At what point in the swing do we make contact with the golf ball?
This is the simple question I ask each and everyone of my pupils on a daily basis.
Tell me this, is it at the end or is it in the middle of the golf swing?


Sound simple?
Well answer me that.


For this golfing guy sees many a golfing newcomer attempting to end their golfing action at a point as close to the point of impact as humanly possible. The result is of course one full of golfing nightmares and golf swinging disasters.


The point to raise and ultimately highlight is the need to appreciate the golf swing is a swing, a swing has no end but a single point of free flowing execution, it simply is a force defying motivation of gravity pulling expression. It cares not for a small white ball, just one single motivation, its free, free to swing and that it shall freely do and happily take strike of anything that may get in its way.


That thing in its way is of course a small white ball, (or yellow if you like the big cheques of a company named Srixon!!!!!).








.?

Swing measure.

What does the word swing mean to you?

Have you grasped the true sense of its grace?

How about its freedom of pace?

The golf swing is whatever you say it is, its yours, and only you know what that is, its either a series of complex movements, a 1, 2, 3, and a 4 or maybe even more, each strategically connected in a swish and a whack. Or its a free flowing motion of instinctive grace, effortless power and rhythmic pace. You either strive to control it or you love to feel it! Either way, its yours and taking own of it is what will ultimately define you as the golfer you were born to be. Now its not for me to say swing it this way or swing it that, all I care for is keeping it at that, a SWING. Many a great golfer, a player, a teacher, a brain and a hack have had their say when it comes to what works and where their swing is at, but what most concerns me is what the swing is truly about. 

For me its nothing more than a free flowing motion of ball controlling motivation. 

Thats right, the only purpose or function of the golf swing is to provide the correct contact of club face and ball, the game of golf is 'Ball control' and you can't control the ball unless you have the club face behaving itself when it hits it. This commonly forgotten and readily unspoken facet of the game is the most important of all golf's teachings. Its what we are trying to do when we swing the golf club, nothing more, nothing less, we are simply attempting to control the golf ball and the player that does this better than the next will ultimately achieve the most. 

The great Bobby Jones once said he never became a truly great player until he learned how to correct himself during the heat of tournament play. Now this was during the truly instinctive years, pre traveling teachers, or video play back and television broadcasting, all he had was himself. There was no second sight or extra pair of golf swing eyes, which makes it clear in my eyes that Mr Jones had complete understanding of what was happening at the point of IMPACT, he could read the flight of his golf ball and relate it to precisely what was happening in order to create such a flight. With this kind of wisdom he was able to successfully adjust his address position to influence IMPACT. This is the mind of a great player and with this kind of LOGICAL understanding of the most important position in the swing, you too can begin to enjoy the feeling of success Mr Jones once graced us with.    

So what is the correct impact?

There are four distinct facets to impact.

1. The CLUB FACE - In order to hit the golf ball precisely online towards the target it must be SQUARE to the target. The leading edge (bottom edge of the club face) must be at 90 degrees to a straight line (ball to target line) running directly to the centre of your target.

2. The SWING PATH - Not only has the club face got to be SQUARE, but the club has to be traveling on the correct line towards the target. So the club face has to be precisely online to the ball to target line as it swings down and along the line of the target. As we stand to the side of the golf ball, the natural path of the golf club should follow by swinging away from the golf ball to the inside of the ball (the bodies side) then return to the ball before swinging back to the inside again (the bodies side) whilst producing a SQUARE club face position as it passes through the golf ball.

3. The ANGLE OF APPROACH - As the golf ball is on the ground and to the side of us, you have to swing the golf club up, then down and then up again. This will create an angle of club head approach to the golf ball which has to be appropriate for correct contact to move the golf ball forward. 

4. The CLUB HEAD SPEED - As hard as probably 90% of all golfers try to create more club head speed, they really shouldn't as very few people really struggle to create it naturally. What lacks in speed is the correct application of the first three facets. What you see when you lack distance or relative club head speed is an incorrectly applied CLUB FACE, SWING PATH and ANGLE OF APPROACH through the golf ball at IMPACT. For instance, if like a great many golfers you consistently see your golf ball turning to the right in its flight then you are without doubt striking the golf ball with an OPEN club face (aiming to the right of target). Your natural reaction to this is a SWING PATH that will deliver the club head from OUTSIDE the ball to target line (from the other side of the golf ball) and not from the correct INSIDE the target line path in an effort to counteract the balls persistent flight to the right. The resulting OUT TO IN PATH makes it impossible to strike the golf ball towards the target and will naturally create a much STEEPER ANGLE OF APPROACH which greatly decreases your potential for maximum CLUB HEAD SPEED through IMPACT. The converse of this is the player that consistently strikes the golf ball to the left with the club face closed (aiming to the left of the target), will develop a swing that delivers the club head on a PATH from IN TO OUT (to far from behind the player to a point on the other side of the ball away from the player). The resulting ANGLE OF APPROACH is way to shallow as it really doesn't hit down on the golf ball at all and typically results in shots along the ground and consistently to the right of your target. It will always miss the bottom of the golf swings arc.

So lets recap, the function of the golf swing is to provide the correct IMPACT of CLUB and BALL.

CLUB FACE SQUARE.

SWING PATH STRAIGHT.

CORRECT ANGLE OF APPROACH.

Will result in MAXIMUM CLUB HEAD SPEED.

While there is no sure fire way of guaranteeing you achieve these key facets every time you swing the golf club, there is a way of providing the best possible chance of it. That is to ADDRESS the golf ball correctly in the first place, which is why the SET-UP is so important because it directly relates to the IMPACT.

Hopefully you can begin to see how neglect in one small area such as CLUB FACE alignment can cause a catalogue of further most damaging errors. Get the most important facet of the word swing correct first and you have successfully scratched the surface of what's demanded of a fully functioning and highly effective golf swing. 

Now the purpose of this piece is not to dive to deeply into the great ocean of fundamental requirements such as GRIP, STANCE, POSTURE and BALL POSITION. I want to focus this piece on the finer fluid motion of the golf swing. If you have shown past interest in this blog you will be fully aware of the key fundamental parts that make up the address and so able to reside backwards to further highlight its vital and demanding requirements. 

In order to successfully grove and attain what I like to term a pure golf swing, then you must first fully appreciate the above key facets of impact and the vital importance of sound fundamentals in the address to best prepare yourself to successfully execute them. 

GIVE UP CONTROL AND TRULY GAIN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

FEEL THE FORCE, DON'T FORCE THE FEEL!!!!!!!!

With these key facets safely taken care of all one has to do is commit to the ART of a free flowing swing, one free of cluttered thoughts and completely submissive to the heavy weighted force of the golf club. We have all, at some point of our golfing lives fallen victim to the human instinct of CONTROL, its perfectly natural to feel the need for precise body movements when attempting to swing a long stick with a rather tiny weighted head in an effort to hit an even tinier little white ball towards a small hole. It sounds impossible, yes I agree and vaguely remember my first swipes as a youngster when determined to master the challenging nature of the game for the first time. All I wanted to do was make sure I didn't miss the ball, my instincts were all tuned to the delivery of the club head into the golf ball whilst trying to look like a kid making a swing vaguely looking like a golfer. 

It was hard, and really challenged my thinking.  

As Im certain it has and continually does your own.

So for the next few minutes please stop and think about the nature of your golfing thoughts when poised and ready to attack your last golf shot. 

Were they of a NEGATIVE or POSITIVE nature?

Negative being: 'I can't miss this ball, I must hit it or I will look pretty stupid, I have to hit this one somewhere safe, I can't lose another ball'.

Positive being: 'Im going to commit to my target and execute the shot I see in my mind, it will be a smoothly accelerating series of movements that will blend together to form one fluid motion, I will take own of this shot with a graceful golf swing'.

If any of you can relate to the negative frame of mind then I guarantee that at some point you have been concentrating the bulk of your energy into the striking of the golf ball. In simple terms, you are more concerned with the hit than the actual result and flight of the golf ball. A moving image of your swing will highlight a short sharp, very tense looking action. This commonly seen and physically draining action appears to abruptly end its motion well before the arms and club have made it past the head and well before the body has managed to turn somewhere to a point aiming to the left of your target as the swing comes to an abrupt end. I would say you feel quite physically drained after about 30 minutes to an hour of hitting balls on the range and have days when you feel like throwing your clubs at a brick wall. You are not creating a free flowing swing, you are attempting to control the golf club through its every move in the golf swing as a result of fear from miss-hitting the ball and striking poor golf shots. 

Well, its time you gave up caring about the ball and developing a golf swing that actually deserved the right to be called a swing. Remember the act of swinging is not an act of hitting, its a swing and a swing is a free flowing motion that demands total freedom of all its parts. Ok, I hear you saying the words CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL, this word is what defines us as golfers right? The games all about BALL CONTROL right?Yes it is, but what defines the swing as a swing is FREEDOM, total FREEDOM of the word CONTROL.

How does this figure?

Control is all in the address, its the fundamentals laid down so precisely in the address position that determine the level of control you ultimately display in the golfing swing. Aim the club face open, turn it closed, or miss-place the hands, align the shoulders left or the feet to the right, these kind of mistakes are what determine the level of control you will ultimately execute when it comes to the swing. You can't cheat the position you create in the address, its the closest you have to controlling your impact so get it right and the swing becomes a simple reaction of complex movements, intertwined to produce a fluid motion of all the bodies most efficient golfing movements. In short it becomes a reaction to a target, and through correct practice and execution of the fundamentals in the address you are free to simply swing the club towards the target without any need for compensatory in swing actions or thoughtful movements. 

You are free to complete a PURE SWINGING ACTION.

So what's the secret?

If only it were that simple, well it is, only thing is it demands a level of dedication and commitment reserved for those driven to be the best. Well it's within us all and finding the level found in you is what this piece of writing is all about. You can either continue as you are, constantly searching for a short cut around your lack of discipline when performing the simple task of addressing the ball or you can respect and adhere to the fundamentals laid above and allow your human instincts to fly free in search of a free flowing, compensation free golf swing.

GIVE UP CONTROL TO PURELY GAIN IT.

Give it up, give what up???!!!!!!!

Give up the need to control the club through each and every possible and endless position the body creates when swinging the golf club up in the back swing, down in the through swing and around to the finish. 

GIVE IT UP!!!!!!

You have it controlled before you swing, so now lets learn to swing it.

Assuming you have correctly applied the fundamentals accordingly, you will be standing with a neutral grip, your body lines of feet, knees, hips and shoulders aligned parallel to the left of the ball to target line with your knees slightly flexed to allow a balanced posture that leans you forward towards the ball from the hips. You will be essentially balanced with your arms hanging softly, directly below your shoulders. Your left arm will be straight though relaxed which shall position the left shoulder higher than the right. Your spine angle should now be leaning to the right which will allow your weight to favor your right foot. From this address position, when executed correctly, you are efficiently poised to swing the golf club up in the back swing with the arms  as the body turns to the right in support and then down in the through swing as the body turns around and through to the target providing sufficient space for the club to swing nice and wide along the target line.

This is the natural grace exemplified in all pure swings of the past and present golfing greats, they all share the same common theme. One of pure swinging motion, free of in swing, mechanical mind frames and totally absorbed in conscious target motivated execution. 

I shall leave you now with one simple thought.

When you throw or kick a ball, what is you only thought?

Allow me to tell you, quite simply, all you are thinking about is hitting your target, be it a goal, a person, a bin or a basket, all you are thinking is ball in a hole. Now if you want to get technical, the only thing you can think is what is the body reacting to? Thats right, its moving instinctively towards the target, your arm or your foot and your hand or your leg, they're reacting and moving in graceful time and with beautiful pace towards the object of your imagination. In short you are reacting towards a target.

GIVE UP THE CONTROL AND YOU WILL ULTIMATELY GAIN IT.

WHAT YOU SET IN THE ADDRESS IS WHAT YOU WILL ULTIMATELY GET.

SET IT UP POORLY AND YES! YOU WILL FOREVER BE SEARCHING FOR A SWING FULL OF COMPENSATIONS TO RECTIFY THE SHORT COMINGS OF YOUR ADDRESS.

FEEL THE FORCE OF THE GOLF CLUB AS IT SWINGS AND THE CLUB WILL ORGANISE AND DICTATE THE POSITIONS YOU HAVE SETUP IN THE ADDRESS.

SET THEM UP POORLY AND THE ACT OF A FREE SWINGING ACTION WILL FOREVER BE ONE OF RANDOMNESS.

If this all sounds to simple, then please go see a scientist and see what science has to say.

I KNOW WHAT IT WILL SAY AND BELIEVE ME, WHILE IT MAKES SCIENTIFIC SENSE, THE GOLF SWING WILL GIVE YOU NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT SO WHY BOTHER MAKING IT.

Enjoy your golf and see what the future holds.

OR just,

Enjoy your golf./ 

Mr Bobby Jones, one of the purest swings the game has and no doubt will ever see.

Thanks Bobby.