K.J. Choi Gave Me My Latest Swing Tip

The weather in the thirties, snow on the ground, gloves on my hands, Sorrels on my feet, I'm still out there practicing every day, two hundred or so swings each time. I can feel the cumulative effect. I'm getting the feeling of a swing, rather than a hit. And, as a result, I can see a longer follow-through, rather than an after-thought.

I've also continued to study online videos, lately the one on YouTube of K.J. Choi, particularly the Swing Vision one when he's hitting a six-iron, but also the one where he appears with Jack Nicklaus at the Memorial for a clinic (Paul Casey appears at this clinic, too, and this video is just as important as the Choi video).

In the Memorial clinic, I was really taken by the loose, relaxed way K.J. swings. It seems so easy, and everything falls readily into place. The same with the Casey video. He's hitting a 5-iron there, and it's no sweat for him to hit it 195 yards. But let's focus on the K.J. Swing Vision with the 6-iron. I've seen this so many times, I can't tell you. And I've heard Bob Kostis, the narrator, tell us how K.J. keeps his head down "to ensure that he releases his hands and arms through the hit." I've listened to this over and over again, but I didn't really start to understand what Bob was saying until today, when I hit a couple of hundred practice balls, working on the role of the right hand.

Finally, I started to see how the right hand throws the club. I'm also reminded of the great Ernie Els video where Bob talks about Ernie pulling down with his left arm but throwing with his right hand. Today, for really the first time, I began to have this feeling. I wanted to feel a good hinge and lag at the top of the swing, and I wanted to feel that I was going (as Els says) "deep into the shot" before releasing. Then, at release, I wanted to feel the right hand—the index finger—throwing the club through. Once I felt relaxed enough, I started to do that and the results showed it.

Time after time, I was able to swing and send the ball right at the tallest part of the Norway Maple in my back yard, my target. As I was developing this subtlety, I was filming my swing, and, at one point, I filmed myself saying, as I walked away from the hitting mat toward the camera to stop recording, "This is getting scary." What I meant was that I was hitting ball after ball right at my target, and with plenty of distance.

In the video below, you'll see the results of this practice session. You'll also see a little test I did to check my tempo. Using the audio files from my book Tour Tempo, I measured my swing against a 21/7, 1 24/8, and a 27/9 tempo. You'll see how I'm slow on the first tempo, but almost right on with the last.

Last, I've included a side-by-side clip of my swing from yesterday and one from today. While they're both very similar, I think you'll see that today's swing is more assured. It's a little quicker, and watch the follow-through. I want to see the right hand going all the way through—up and around. Like K.J.