Left Arm Alone Drill: Lag and Lead

The left arm alone drill has given me the feeling that I'm in the final stage of building a competent swing. Like all golfers, I'll be working on the swing itself forever, that much goes without saying. However, for the first time since I started trying to build a swing -- it's been three years now -- I feel as though I can see the finish line. Even with a flawed swing, I persuaded myself that I could shoot in the eighties this fall (I didn't actually do that, but I came very close the couple of times I played a course, and I felt so competent that I was certain that with some more on-course experience, shooting in the eighties was not a problem).

Now, with the learning that's coming from this drill, I can see that I should be able to break 80 next season. There's no reason not to. I'm a good putter, and I read greens well. My short game is very good, and I think I've learned how to get out of a bunker. With a solid, repeatable swing, that gives me reasonable distance and control, I'm expecting to shoot in the seventies next season, once I start playing regularly. That will be a significant change for me, since practice, not playing, has been my priority until now. And I have really enjoyed practicing. Submitting myself to a practice regimen that will lead to progress toward long-term goals makes sense to me. And looking back over the last three years, I see a gratifying record of progress and improvement. There have been horrendous patches, of course. Learning golf is a great test of one's character. And in learning a golf swing, one has to be able to learn from failure. In that respect, I suppose a golf swing is like a baseball swing, only baseball is much worse. Now, three years into this building project, the left arm alone drill is illuminating some key concepts.

First, the swing has to be on plane. This sounds so obvious. Yet how do you know whether your swing is on plane or not? One way is to videotape yourself constantly, as I have done. Another is to do this drill. It's absolutely unforgiving. If you're not on plane, you have no idea where the ball is going to go, or even if you're actually going to hit it! I've had numerous swings where I didn't even hit the ball! How could that happen? Easy! When the backswing is out of order -- off plane, for one thing -- you may not hit the ball, even though it's only a couple of feet away from your hand. Hitting around 500 plastic practice balls a day has given me a good feeling for what the swing should be, or could be. You always have to remember that whatever your most recent discovery about the swing is, it's not the last. You never get to that point. The golf swing is "the vanishing point" in art. You have no idea where the end point is or, even, if there ever is an end point. It is an eschatological question. I guess the pro golfers have figured it out, but for the rest of us, it will always remain mostly a mystery.

The title of this post comes from an understanding that the last two days of practicing in my back yard have taught me. Today, especially. The temperature was below thirty, and I was wearing my Sorrel boots. But in the course of hitting about 500 balls, I got a feeling for a swing that worked. It involved swing back pretty steeply, with my wrist bowed, then letting the club lag, then coming though leading with my left wrist and snapping my hand through at the instant of contact with the ball. To simplify it for myself as a practiced, I started saying to myself, "Lag and lead," by which I meant, let the club lag at the top of the backswing and then, on the downswing, lead with the left wrist.

As I approached the ball, I could feel my left wrist in front, and then I could feel the clubhead trapping the ball against the hitting mat and then the wrist releasing and turning the clubhead over. This is, I'm sure, what Hogan means, in his book,

, when he says that he felt as though he was capturing the ball and then slinging it down the fairway. I've written about this in earlier posts, but back then, I don't think I really understood how this works. Now I think I do.

When I get the various parts of the swing in place, I can pop the plastic ball out there, right where I want to. I have to get the backswing path just right (it feels unright, but really, I think, it's not going past my body), and then I have to let the club lag. On the way down, I have to lead with my left wrist, and, last, I release my left wrist, feeling the toe of the club come around and fling the ball toward my target. Being able to do this time after time was quite an amazing feeling. I actually knew that I could hit the ball straight in front of me. I could feel that solid "Click!" and the full follow-through and then see the ball high in the air floating right where I wanted it to go.

Not every time, however. This succession of movements is so subtle and so fragile that the slightest error results in a variety of results. Sometimes, it would be hooks or slices. In the worst cases, the clubface would never close, and I would just shank the ball off to the right somewhere. But the practice was generally encouraging. When I was in a groove, I could hit balls cleanly and accurately. Getting in that groove is my next goal.

P.S. I went out again the day after this post to practice in twenty-five degree weather (at least there wasn't much wind). Yesterday, I had started to feel a groove, and today I felt under control, too. The drill feels quite amazing. When I hit the right slot on the backswing, let the club lag, then swing through, feeling my left wrist lead before releasing the left hand, I can hit balls right out there, straight in front of me, at my imaginary target. It feels so good, this incipient feeling of having a dependable swing that produces th similar fine, accurate shot time after time.