It's Getting Better All the Time!

Every day now, when I practice, I feel the same optimism that the Beatles sang in their 1967 song on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I feel as though the golf swing is now revealing its secrets more cooperatively than before. There's less negativity (today I hit only one shank at the range) and more gratifying success.

In my putting and chipping, I'm starting to feel how using the upper body works to pull the left arm through, and I'm now starting to apply that principle to the full swing. So today, in my backyard practice and, then later, at the range, I worked on feeling the lower body turn and pull the left arm through to a point where I could release and use that leverage that Max talks about.

See what I've learned in the last one or two days.

And here's the same video with some lines superimposed to check various positions. In general, I like what I see, although my hands at the top are still too close to my head, and I have to drop them as I start down. I do notice that my head stays in its vertical spot pretty well. I don't know how that happened. One of the things about my swing is that I can do a good swing only now and then. The good swing is replaced, often, by variations where certain predictable things happen. For example, I pull the follow-through way to the left, or I lose my balance, or my release isn't quick enough, resulting in a push to the right. Or, certainly, I revert to old habits, typically pulling with my arms. I'm aware of that, and when that happens, on the next swing, I try to feel my left arm pushed against my ribs as I turn my body left. That's a key move and one that I want to feel more often. Also, the right elbow is flying out still. Today I worked with a head cover in my right armpit, which helped. I'll need to work that into my practice regimen.