Working Through the Details

I continue to think and practice on the full swing, usually with the driver.

Glenn was trying to get me to "just spin" my shoulders.  Of course, I still need the lower body to have moved to a forward position before I can do that.

So some of the time is spent becoming conscious of what I need to do -- and do at the range, but not on the course.

I still feel the difference is to be in too much of a hurry on the course.  The movement of the lower body has to have enough time to get there.  The upper body has to wait its turn.

I was looking at a video of Justin Rose and his recent tournament wins.  There are videos where all the shots are kept and all the rest of the broadcast are removed.  A full 18 holes takes about 10 minutes.  It's interesting when watching these is that you can see patterns in how the guy swings and not just the details of a fully analyzed single swing.

What Rose does is to start down from the top of the back swing at a very slow speed then accelerates hard through the rest of the swing.  The position where the acceleration seems to be obvious is where the hands are about waist high.  Now, it might be that he's accelerated a bit earlier than that, but that's what it looks like.

There was an old adage in the golf lesson books about starting down at the same speed as you take the club back.  Easy to say, and easy to do, but when we all want to hit the ball further, it's hard to commit too.  Perhaps golf is yet another exercise in discipline?

I was doing this today at the range.  It was easy to do and I cannot complain about the shot quality.

It helps me take the arms on a circular path rather than trying to get directly to the ball.  Thus allowing me to spin the shoulders.


Will I have the courage and memory to do this on the course?  Well, I've got to do something!

I'll be playing Friday.  Tomorrow is supposed to rain, so I'll probably just go to the range if I can.