Correct Golf Posture by Pat It isn’t just beginners that struggle with adopting the correct body position in golf. The idea of being comfortable and doing things easily seems to be a hard one for many golfers to grasp. We hear so much about physique being so different with different people that players are apt to assume that theirs is one of the remarkable physiques without flexibility, and we hear them apologize for their lack of freedom by blaming it upon nature. This is silly. Everyone is built pretty much alike as far as the frame goes, and there is about so much play to each hinge joint and each ball and socket joint in the body. The point where people differ most, as regards golf, is in their mental make up. One man grasps a principle easily that another man has to “saw wood” to master. They say with a mysterious confidence: “it is mental,” much ‘as they would say : “it is a secret, let it go no further.” They nurse a pet idea with such persistency that they become infatuated with it. I have seen players stand for minutes, motionless in an effort to address the ball as though the address solved the making of the stroke. I have often wondered what can be in such players’ minds. To stand in front of the ball with every muscle set and not a trace of movement, even of an eyelid, is inviting almost sure disaster. It is not the way you keep your eye on the ball when you are “set” in the address which enables you to hit it accurately, but the way you keep it on the ball when you are in action that counts. Doing things comfortably is the keynote of the whole swing. It is what gives the results, be-cause the strength is being properly applied. The instant you have to brace your muscles you should be warned that you are drifting away from the correct method of playing. If you will let comfort be the check upon any scheme of play you adopt, you will not go far wrong. As I previously stated, only youngsters will ever be able to learn imitatively. If you get better results by your own method, that is the one to follow. Don’t try to look like somebody else. Fix in your mind what you are really trying to accomplish, and let your common sense be your guide in solving the problem. Do not ask if you are rolling your wrists correctly, but ask what the object is, and get the player to show you what he has in mind in swinging in such and such a fashion. If you can learn his reason or purpose, you can apply the knowledge. If you merely try to imitate his swing, you are not getting any permanent benefit from his teaching. You can only learn golf little by little, and the steps come one at a time. It is so with everyone. The three steps in the order of their importance, which you must constantly bear in mind when working out the various details, are: (1) keep the head still (2) keep your club head traveling in a straight line while in contact with the ball (3) do not “set” the muscles. Correct Golf Posture – 2 by Pat If you find you are going off your game these are the things you must run over in your mind and in the order of their importance. Do not change your stance and swing. Apply these three items in this order and you will get “back” again. It is the confusion between pushing and lifting, of which the player is perfectly conscious through his sense of touch or feeling, which makes the “timing” of the maximum effort so difficult to accomplish. Very few players have thought out these two distinct efforts, and it is the struggle of the two sets of muscles for mastery which is responsible for so much lost power, those which are used in lifting being opposed to those which are used in pushing. If you were to grasp with both hands a pole about an inch in diameter, firmly fastened to the ground and to the ceiling, and attempt to push it downward you would find that it would use one set of muscles and to lift or push it upward would use an entirely different set. When you pushed downward it would take most of the weight from your legs. When you tried to lift or push up-ward it would leave all your weight upon your legs, and in addition the amount of extra weight corresponding to the amount of energy you were exerting. A golf swing is one of the most complicated things to study, because the motion is made in a circle, but the maximum power is exerted in either one way or the other, lifting or pushing down, according to the peculiar physique of the player and the style he has adopted. The dub tries to use beth at once. The average player compromises and tries first a little of’ the down-ward push and then a little of the lift, and to do this he has to shift his head and body to allow for whichever set of muscles he is compelled to use. This moving or shifting results in disturbing the view of the ball, preventing him from seeing it clearly, and naturally makes it extremely difficult to hit it accurately. Players must make up their minds that either one system or the other must be sacrificed. If you are to use a lift, you can accomplish nothing by attempting to lift before your club head reaches the ball. If you are going to push, you must hold back your maximum effort until the club head reaches the ball, or you will have nothing in reserve to keep the club head against the ball long enough to accumulate power and the follow through is of no use. Mere motion, when not backed up by weight, will not transfer much energy to the ball. In other words, it would be just as easy to drive a ball a great distance with the club head attached to a string if it were not for the fact that there is not much more than one chance in a million of connecting at the exact point of the natural balance of the club. The great difficulty in hitting the ball with the club at the exact balancing point makes necessary a firm grip to overcome the in-equalities in the blow. This inequality is distributed partly in the player’s frame, partly in the club shaft, and partly in the ball. Correct Golf Posture – 3 by Pat The more accurately the club strikes at its exact point of balance the smaller are these losses, and it is here that the attention of beginners should be focused -not on a scheme of developing greater power. The losses will multiply in a much greater ratio than the power can be increased. Taking the fact that the weight is the only thing which can be used in an effort exerted downward, on the principle that a man can get upon a platform and lift much more weight than he can pull down on a rope, where the limit he can pull is his own weight, the point is to apply this weight practically. The player cannot be accurate under any conditions where the pull downward toward the ball is exerted violently or with a heave. The way to hit is to exert the pull steadily and accumulate power in the club head, which is coming down partly of its own weight and partly with the “leaning upon the club,” which the player exerts and which I have proved should be but little. You can lean or shift the weight only very slowly, and the idea in the player’s mind when striking downward should be to have the club head whirled around by the arms and hands before you attempt to lean on the ball, as it were. If you are to shift your weight so as to lean on the club, you must wait until the club reaches the ball or you will not have enough distance to clear the ground and avoid hitting back of the ball. It is as though you were to lean the weight of the shoulders against the ball at the instant the club head reaches it. Players start to lean upon the ball too soon and shorten the distance between the shoulders and the ball too much, and to take up the slack, so to speak, are forced to draw in their arms. When the ball is badly cupped it is common sense that you cannot lift it out, as it will be impossible to get down to the ball in order to have the lift count. To get down to a cupped ball you must lean on the club. A rule in golf which I have thought out care-fully is to bring the feet nearer and nearer together as you find that you are either hitting too soon, looking up too soon, or hitting too hard. For instance, if you will take your driver in your hands and instead of taking your stance place both heels together you will find that it will absolutely control your effort to hit too hard. You cannot hit too hard and stay on your feet and you will unconsciously ease up. Many things have drawn my attention to this fact and it has been so impressed upon my mind that I have decided to offer it as a rule. I have noticed that those players who spread their feet far apart on a shot are invariably “over” when they hit the ball true. I have noticed that those players who play the finest ” sunning up ” approaches and keep the 4 finest line stand with the feet close together. I have noticed that those players who sclaff and top the most invariably stand with what is called a “wide open stance.” I find in my own case that this rule invariably has put me back on my drive at once when I get a little off. Correct Golf Posture – 4 by Pat I have also found that it is absolutely efficacious in a high wind. The harder the wind blows the more you should bring the feet together. This may not seem reasonable, but I have tried it out thoroughly and know it will accomplish the desired result. It would seem as though the wind would blow you off your balance when you do not brace yourself against it, but that very bracing of the muscles makes accuracy still more difficult. The average player thinks that he should hit harder when driving into a wind, but it is not the way to get off a good ball. Be more careful to hit perfectly true and you will be astonished to see the distance you get. I have tried the idea out with beginners and they invariably respond with an improvement. On short shots it has been absolutely reliable. It makes for an easy, graceful swing; it helps wonderfully in keeping the head still and it over-comes the tendency to stiffen up so common with beginners. It will teach you to use the body and shoulders more and correct most of the faults in “timing” the stroke. It overcomes the natural tendency to throw the balance off, or from one foot to the other, which will always disturb the position of the head and change the relative positions of the entire scheme upon which you take your gage. Taken in connection with the first and most important rule of golf-that is, to keep the head absolutely still throughout the swing, it is probably one item which will accomplish more good than paying attention to fifty other things. A suggestion in connection with these two rules is to allow the “follow through” to pull you around. This will stop your “hitting so blamed hard.” I have noticed that those players who use the “wide-open stance” invariably are hard hitters and very wild in direction. Just consider that if you spread your feet apart and brace yourself very firmly your natural instinct is to swing hard. The reason is probably the fact that the muscles have been trained by years of experience to respond with a great effort when such a position is assumed, and the desire to “kill the ball” which is so strong in everyone, and against which I have been warning players, is perfectly natural with a “wide-open stance.” If you had to balance yourself on one foot your effort would be very mild, no matter what your desire was. The instinct to keep your feet would be too strong to be resisted. In the practice swings of the majority of players you will notice that they do not spread their feet apart; they merely try out the arms, and that is why they get such a smooth, easy swing. The moment they attempt to hit the ball the very firmness of the stance predisposes them toward a more violent effort, and that is where they “fall down” on the shot. The more difficult the shot the greater freedom you require for the play of the muscles to bring it off, and this same rule will apply to it. A little experimenting with this idea in mind will do much to help players who find they are “off their game.” Correct Golf Posture – 5 by Pat I do not want to be understood as advocating a stance for a drive with the heels together, but I do say that when you find yourself hitting too soon, looking up too soon, or hitting too hard, you should bring the feet closer and closer together until you have overcome the tendency. This rule applies also to the playing of short shots and should be followed without the slightest hesitancy. The shorter the shot the nearer the feet should be brought together. A fact which requires careful consideration is that if’ you stand a little nearer to the ball than you are accustomed to, you are naturally more over it, or at least it brings the head more over it, which amounts to the same thing. Naturally you cannot make a very great effort without digging into the ground behind the ball, because the centrifugal force generated in the downward swing will carry the club beyond or below the ball. This may appear to be wrong, but it is not. The reason it is not is that it makes you hold back your maximum effort until your arms have room to go out to the limit of your reach which enables you to apply the greatest power at the right time; that is, after you have connected with the ball. In other words, you first connect with the ball when your arms and shoulders have not been ex-tended to their limit. You have some leeway still to follow up the blow by letting the arms and shoulders go out after the ball and keeping the club head against it. If you try to keep your club head against the ball steadily, when the arms and shoulders have reached out to their limit, you must yield somewhere in order to do so, because when the arms and shoulders have reached their limit the club must start upon its upward journey, and as the ball moves out in a straight line while the club is moving upward on a curved line the only way that the club head can stay against the ball is for you to yield somewhere. The moment you yield with the body your head moves and your muscles must stop work or you will fall over forward. This is exactly what the average player does. He has no leeway to follow up the blow of the first impact of the club, and that is all the power that is exerted upon the ball. In other words, the ball is slapped away instead of having a steady, accumulating pressure against it. You are compelled to look up because you cannot continue your effort. Your eye, as well as your sense of touch, tells you that you are going beyond your ball, and you involuntarily let up on the power because you know you will not connect with the ball if you keep up the effort, and as I have shown in a previous chapter, you will always let up when your principal purpose is accomplished. You cannot help doing it. Correct Golf Posture – 6 by Pat If you have held something in reserve in order to maintain the pressure against the ball for some distance after you first connect with it you will keep adding to its speed, and if it were possible for you to swing fast enough to increase the speed of the club as rapidly as the ball is moving after you connect with it so that your club head would still be against it for a couple of feet farther out, it would give you a tremendous distance. Now the harder you hit the ball when you first meet it with the club head the quicker it will bounce away and the shorter the time you can keep the club head against it. This not only reduces the distance obtained but it also emphasizes any slight error in hitting it. In suggesting that players stand over their ball more in addressing it, the fact that this brings the center of gravity nearer to the place where it belongs should be at once apparent. The consequent increase in ability to maintain the balance should convince the player that it is a decided ad-vantage. Instead of having to brace the muscles all over the body to maintain the equilibrium constant you can stand comfortably and reach your ball easily. According to the standard dictionary, “equilibrium signifies the state of a body which, submitted to action of any number of forces, is still in the same condition as if those forces did not act.” So far as propelling the ball is concerned, the only muscles which add anything to the force of gravity which pulls upon the club head on its downward sweep, increasing the speed at which it is traveling, are those muscles which would twist the body around. The muscles which are used in lifting are useless. They are the most powerful, as they get the most exercise, and the most powerful of all are in the legs. The effort to use them causes you to change the relative distance between the pivotal center of the stroke and the ball. As they are the strongest muscles in the body, and any effort to use them is neutralizing whatever effort you are making to increase the downward and forward sweep of the club, it should be evident that you must avoid any such effort. If you do use them they will only keep your head swaying around and destroying any chance you may have to hold it still and see your ball clearly. If you wish to keep your head still, and that is really the only thing to master in golf, regardless of all the things I have written, you will find that when you absolutely stop every tendency to use the lifting muscles, you can use all the strength you have in the other muscles without disturbing the position of the head. If you brace yourself by standing with the feet far apart you cannot help using the lifting muscles. It is bound to happen, because the action is involuntary. If you are not so braced you cannot use them, be-cause your body is not in the right position to do so. If you cannot use them by reason of standing with the feet fairly close together, you cannot move your head much, even if you want to. Correct Golf Posture – 7 by Pat The only thing which you can possibly accomplish by using the lifting muscles and bracing yourself with the feet well apart is to lift the club up quickly, and every rule I have ever heard given is to go back slowly. If you are not braced, your muscles cannot raise the club quickly. This is accomplishing much. If you are in a comfortable position, such as you are accustomed to stand in naturally, you will easily see that you cannot reach for the ball very much without spreading the feet apart. As reaching for the ball gives you no leeway, this is another point where standing easily and comfortably is curing a fault. To look at a good player with the intention of noticing the difference in his method and that of a poor player, this easy, comfortable position is at once apparent in the better player’s stance. He does everything easily. He has learned to cut out the things which spoil a poor player’s efforts. He has learned to relax his lifting muscles and can take slight liberties in the matter of stance. For the average player a stance with the feet closer together is bound to be a great help. What the beginner and the average player need is not power, as I have said so many times, but accuracy. That gives the distance and there is then time enough to refine and perfect the accuracy to gain more power. It is the harmony of perfect action in the good player’s swing which gives the results. All the energy in excess of that which passes into the ball is wasted. Players swing so hard as a rule that they cannot get the feel of a correctly hit ball and consequently their muscles are not educated to the “feel” of correct balance, etc. Neither are their eyes trained, which would, to an extent, govern the involuntary action of the muscles. Certainly a man who is not swinging correctly may be supposed to be moving his head also, so that he cannot see the ball clearly when the club head meets it. Players can tell the moment they are going to play a good game because they have the “feel” of the shot, which is only another way of saying that the muscles and sense of touch have been awakened to the correct gage and balance, and the player knows he can hit the ball. A couple of times a year is about as often as the average player gets right on his game and plays his best, because about that often he has worked and slaved and finally got the “feel” of it. The secret of it is to study this matter of lifting and pushing down. I have demonstrated that each effort requires an absolutely different set of muscles, and have called attention to examples of what I call exercise by the resistance method. You get exercise but not speed. Get the right idea clearly in mind and you will be astonished at the distance you begin to get and the peculiar “feel” of the shot. You will get a smoothness which you never had before and you will connect very easily with your ball. Naturally you get the increased distance and the longer ball you require. Bear in mind that the slightest tendency to lift in any way is cutting down your power, because for ,every bit of “lift” you add, just so much “leaning upon the ball” is neutralized; or just so much weight is taken away from the blow. A little practice along these lines will soon train your muscles correctly and you will get the “feel” of the shot and after that the confidence will come quickly.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 23:28:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015