Left Arm Alone Drill -- Transfer to the Full Swing

After all these days of practicing the left arm alone drill, I found that whatever I have learned from that doesn't automatically transfer to the full swing. It took some thinking and some practice and some videotaping. And beyond that, going back to the full swing also reminded me of how much I still have to learn, even though I consider myself very near my goal of learning a good golf swing.

First of all, during the left arm alone drill, I started out hitting a mixture of good and bad shots. As I started to get warmed up, the shots started to become more predictable, more of what I wanted. But, as I always do, I tinkered with the swing and found that when I felt as though I were leading with my left wrist, the shot would invariably pop off the club with a nice, solid feel, and it would go exactly where I was aiming. Once I realized this, I started concentrating on adding that to the swing, and immediately, I was hitting balls—all of them, one after another—right at my target. It was so consistent and dependable and good that it made me laugh to myself.

Really, it was just "lag and lead," as I've said before in these posts. But when you're learning, there are things you remember and things you forget. Then you have to re-learn the things that you forgot. Fortunately, that's easier than learning them the first time. The second time around, you recognize the problem earlier, and you know what the solution is. This time, I just remembered what I heard Camilo Villegas say in some YouTube video.

Gathering up my Callaway balls in the snow suddenly made me realize that this snow, in this very cold, consistently dry weather, looks and feels just like kosher salt. It's as if Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind and of winter, had dumped a box all over my yard. I can walk back and forth across it and it doesn't change. It doesn't melt, it doesn't change color, it doesn't pack down. It's definitely mythical.

Then came another "Aha!" moment. As I was examining the way I approach the ball— after turning my shoulders and then dropping my arms, trying not to rush, and finally releasing through impact and into the follow-through—I suddenly remembered a video of Ernie Els talking about the swing while he's practicing on a turf hitting range. That changed the course of the practice session. I wanted to see if I could do that, and finished the session trying to swing the way Els recommends. As I started to get used to it, I could see the superior results. I was hitting the ball higher and farther, though I have some work to do on accuracy (I was pulling the ball left a bit too much and with too much hook), but by the end of practice, as the afternoon was approaching 4:30PM and the sun was setting, I was feeling pretty good. I was hitting the ball solid and it was going right at my target, that big Norway Maple in the backyard.

When I came inside to capture the video, I had a Don Trahan video in my email inbox, with the topic of "Kinetics," and in it he says,

When we look at the motion of efficient golfers on 3 D motion capture systems or videotape, it appears that they are “holding” the club shaft in a cocked position deep into the downswing. Many amateurs, in an attempt to create more power, try to emulate this action. What you have to understand is that efficient golfers do not manufacture or try to hold this cocked position. The arms accelerating around the axis of the trunk on the downswing create this club lag or cocked position. When the arms decelerate before impact, speed is transferred to the club. The club accelerates and the angle between the arms and club shaft increases rapidly into impact.

I thought, "That is so good!" And I made a mental to note that this deceleration of the arms at impact and through the ball will be one of my focal points tomorrow. Another will be turning through around my spine a bit longer, instead of popping up to see where my beautiful shot went. At the same time, I want to extend the follow-through. It looks as if it quits a little too soon. However, on the plus side, everything looks pretty good compared to the way I was swinging at the range just a few weeks ago.