Refinements

The golf I've played in the last week showed some improvement.  I play a lot with Sonny, who teaches golf for a living and can play pretty well.  He and I trade philosophical and technical thoughts in re golf and the swing.

The current thoughts are about stability and mobility.  Trying to hit the ball straight and trying to hit it far may require separate techniques.  Stability inhibits changes, but when the sequence of the swing require changes in direction and coiling and wrist hinging and such, it may block what you need to hit the ball properly.  Sonny pushes for mobility.


One of the things I'm unsure of is my back position in the swing.  I'm watching some videos from a teacher in the UK, Russel Heritage.  He lays out the swing nicely.  Interestingly he almost talks too fast for me.  He does speak well, with few verbal stutters, so is nice to listen to. 

Russel wants a back bend from the hips and not a rounding of the back.  The reason for this is for the back and pelvis to be in a positon to easily rotate.  If the back is not straight, then you are going to have to move the pelvis up and down to compensate for this.  I also hope that being able to more easily rotate will inhibit my tendency to slide towards the ball.  I do get back pain after a round.  It rarely hurts when playing.  When I can stay in a good position it feels that it's being strained less.  That can't be a bad thing for the long term.

Well, a trip to the range ought to answer the posture question.

One of the other things I've been doing that have helped is the image of the swing as being an unwinding.  This keeps me from trying to slam arms down and hit the ball.  I now am more able to stay behind and let the arms come around, then the club swings out and into the ball.  Distance has been good and direction, very good.  I'm even able to do it with the driver on occasion!