More on Swinging and Hitting

Back at the 202 range, I'm consistently hitting the ball well. The missing ingredient is distance. Or clubhead speed. Basically, I'm still in the hitting mode. Once I get to the ball, I'm done. I've worked on setup and take-away, and transition, and downswing, and turning the hips, and moving weight to the left side, and coming to the ball from the inside. All those things are now giving me good results. Everything except distance. And I couldn't understand that until recently. One of my teaching pros, Max Galloway, at Mohansic Golf Course, showed me the hitting zone a while ago, but I didn't understand what he was talking about. Now I'm getting back to the concept he demonstrated for me, and I'm starting to understand. It's going to take some time to work this into my swing, but it's definitely the missing ingredient.

Tonight, hitting another hundred balls, and working on rotating, I started to feel that the hips go only so far. Once they bring the arms to the hitting zone, then the upper body and shoulders have to take over and carry the swing all the way through to the finish. In my experience, this part of the swing is neglected in YouTube Videos. Max is the only pro who actually showed me how this part of the swing works. Then I found this YouTube video, which says it all. There isn't anything I disagree with or feel is left out. The model is the swing of the PGA touring pro Steve Allen with commentary by Lawrie Montague from http://www.GolfConfidence.Org.

Here again, though, Lawrie neglect what happens in the hitting zone. That's where there is tremendous acceleration, generated from the core upper body and shoulders. That is what the pros do. That's why they have these beautiful finishes. They accelerate so much that they can't help coming through all the way. Their hips are facing the target, their shoulders are almost parallel to the target line, and the club is way past their left shoulder. For years, I've wondered how they do that. Now I know.

I'm actually pretty surprised that people who teach the swing miss this element. It's there in very basic instruction for beginners. We all know how the swing gets to the transition, and then accelerates all the way around to a full finish. What the instructors don't tell us, though, is how that happens. Just think of doing "Around the World" with a yo-yo. That's how it works. Weather permitting, I'll go to 202 again tomorrow night and come back with more to say on this topic.