Staying on Plane throughout the Backswing
* Initiating the Downswing
* Hitting through in One Cohesive Movement
III. Impact
Once you understand impact you’re on your way to becoming a better golfer. After all, the ball’s spinning every time you strike it
I. Setup
The single most important maneuver in golf is your setup. It consists of the golfer aligning himself properly to the target, then positioning his/her body in such a way the he/she can move freely during the swing while in balance. Setting up properly will help accomplish the goal of creating power with the big muscles and then transferring it to the clubhead. The setup is where your adjustments are made. The best players have an unvarying setup routine that they execute before addressing the ball, and then run through a series of “setup feels” as they address the ball.
“It is essential to standardize the approach to every shot, beginning even before taking the address position.” Bobby Jones.
“The difference between the good and the ordinary golfer is that the good one feels his shots through his address.” Percy Boomer.
“The only way in which we can repeat correct shots time after time (and this is the greatest of golfing assets) is to be able to repeat the correct feel of how they are produced.” Percy Boomer.
“I feel that hitting specific shots—playing the ball to a certain place in a certain way—is 50 percent mental picture, 40 percent setup, and 10 percent swing. That is why setting up takes me so long, why I have to be so deliberate.” Jack Nicklaus.
“I never hit a shot, even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie. First I ‘see’ the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I see the ball going there; its path, its trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there’s a sort of fade out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality. Only at the end of this short, private, Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.” Jack Nicklaus.
Watching the Ball
“If you can’t see it, you can’t hit it. You have to keep your eye on the ball through the whole swing. If you do that everything pretty much falls into place naturally.” Jimmy Dameret
“My old man was a greart believer that only the inside half of the ball belonged to you, that you didn’t have any part of the outside half of it, so you always worked the club from the inside—not inside out, but to the inside part of the ball. So you sort of side-swiped it. That creates the inside plane.” Jackie Burke, Jr.
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. . .you can’t hit what you can’t see.” Muhammed Ali
Grip
There are three types of grips employed by golfers today:
Vardon Overlap—popularized by the great British champion, Harry Vardon, this device has the little finger of his right hand in the gap created by the forefinger & middle finger of his left hand, as a result of which the grip came to be know as the Vardon Overlap. One of the most widely used among great players and the one most commoningly taught on the nation’s lesson tees. We will use this grip as a basis of instruction.
Interlocking—popularized by the greatest player in the game, Jack Nicklaus, this device has the little finger of his right hand intertwined with the forefinger of his left hand. Tiger Woods, Tom Kite, Michelle Wie, Rory McElroy, Jordan Speith, to name but a few, also use the interlocking grip.
10 Finger or Baseball Grip—Some teachers like to advocate that junior players use the 10-finger grip, with the goal of switching to overlap or interlock later. This is feasible, as kids usually adapt swing and set up changes fairly easily as compared to adults. People with weaker hands and forearms may also benefit from the 10-finger grip. Golfers who use larger arthritic grips may experience that the overlap or interlock is difficult to incorporate with such grips, finding the 10-finger grip offers a greater use of ease. Explained in greater detail on page 197
Whatever grip you choose know that:
A good grip helps shapes your swing correctly and influences the overall tone of the swing—its rhythm and smoothness.
“In a good grip both hands act as one unit. The grip is the heartbeat of the action of the golf swing.” Ben Hogan
Left Hand
“With the back of your left hand facing the target (and the club in the general position it would be at address) place the club in the left hand so that (1) the shaft is pressed up under the muscular pad at the inside heel of the palm and (2) the shaft also lies directly across the top joint of the forefinger.
Crook the forefinger around the shaft and you will discover that you can lift the club and maintain a fairly firm grip on it by supporting it just with the muscles of that finger and the muscles of the pad of the palm.
Now just close the left hand—close the finger before you close the thumb—and the club will be just where it should be.” Ben Hogan
“In teaching golf you come to know how much counter clockwise motion with their left hand and arm each individual produces in the downswing. That tells you where the left hand belongs on the club—quite a statement, huh? Everybody can do it, but they’ve got to find out why and how much, which is why there is not set left hand grip. I will say that openly to anyone, everyone can turn their left hand cournterclockwise just so much and they to know their limit and adjust to it. You grip the club in such a way to make it work.” Henry Picard
Right Hand
“The right hand grip is almost entirely a finger grip. Encircle the club shaft with your right hand and slide it snugly up next to your left hand, letting your thumb ride comfortably across the top of the handle and making sure the V-shaped crease formed by the thumb and forefinger of this hand also points to your right shoulder. Your right little finger over-laps (or interlocks with) the forefinger of the left hand on the underside of the club handle. In a kind of “pinch,” and as a result there will be a slight gap or separatioin between the forefingers and the other fingers. The security and control in the right hand grip comes from the “pinch” and from the marriage of the right little finger of the left forefinger through the overlap or interlock.” Sam Snead
“The muscles of the right forefinger and thumb connect with the very powerful set of muscles that run along the outside of the right arm and elbow to the right shoulder. If you work the tips of the thumb and forefinger together and apply any considerable amount of pressure, you automatically activate those muscles of the right arm and shoulder—and those are not the muscles you want to use in the golf swing.” Ben Hogan
