An Epiphany

I was lying in bed this morning contemplating the big problem in my life, which is why my 9 iron is so consistent and my driver so awful? 

I ran across a web site talking about a rotary swing and he laid it out the full rotary swing pretty well.
This type of swing makes a lot of sense to me.  And, per usual, I find I need to understand something before I'm going to accept it and do it well.  With Dan's videos and explanations, it cleared up a number of areas where I was not comfortable with my understanding of it all.

With all of that in mind, my theory was that as the clubs got longer, I would "help" them go further by use of arms and hands, etc.  There was the view that a torso rotation would not provide enough speed to properly propel the ball. 

The proper swing would not "help" anything, and not try to use a longer back swing, but just turn through the shot and that the club speed generated would be sufficient.  Looking at some of the pros, this speed seems more than adequate. 

So this comes to me in bed and I think that this is testable and I can do it. 


Armed with this experiment, off to the course I go today.  I do my usual warming up pitching and realize that I am truly using the torso to propel the pitches and there is a nice feeling of power and mechanical advantage to this.  The more I did this, the less the hands are involved, the body seems to square the club nicely, it's all good!


I take it to the first tee.  The tees are up and I hit a nice 5 iron to position b+ and line A+,  I strike a hybrid to the back pin and easily get there.  Hmm, I think, this might be the answer...

I didn't score wonderfully, but I was moving the ball well.  All the drives were pretty much on the club face, no hooks, no pushes, and I moved it right to left a couple of times when I wanted to.  My irons were going well, with not a lot of effort to get my usual distance.  I shot 37 on the back without strain or any hero shots required.  As the round went along, I trusted this more and more, which led to embracing it more.  The power of feedback! 

So I am a pretty happy camper.  I think as I trust this more, the ball will be straighter and it feels like there is more speed to be generated if I work at it.  I don't even feel that I need to go pound balls to drive this home.  I was getting close to this lately, but it seems to have clicked.

Here is the link to Dan Whittiker's site: http://www.danwhittakergolf.com/