FEEL versus REAL

The most destructive element to learning...

I am too old...
I am not flexible enough...
I don't have enough time...
I am not athletic enough...

These are all excuses than we, as teachers, have heard from our students for their inability to perform a swing or make a swing change.  I say HOGWASH!  These are EXCUSES and not reasons.

Now those may be limiting factors that prevent someone from becoming a PGA Tour Player or reach a goal that is out of their reach.  But as a teacher I am confident that no one is too old, too inflexible, doesn't have enough time or is un-athletic to get better and/or enjoy the game more.

As an instructor my concern, and I feel, the most limiting factor is the players ability to understand that what they FEEL is happening in their swing is not necessarily what is REALLY happening.  Please let me explain.

Allow me to tell a story.  I was giving a lesson to a woman a number of years ago.  Her swing was too long.  This length of swing was allowing the club to get "stuck" too far behind her.  She was coming out of her posture and sliding off the ball.  In a word she was a wreck.  Roughly 30 minutes into the lesson she looked at me and said "John, my swing is short!  I can feel it."  With nothing else to do I proceeded to go back into the golf shop, I picked up the video equipment, took it back out to the range, set up the equipment, calibrated the system, recorded her taking one swing and replayed it for her...  Her next commend was as telling as it was simple.  She said, "John I never KNEW I was going back that FAR!  My swing feels so short but it actually isn't!!"

If you have seen your swing on video I am sure you have had a similar moment.  "Is that how I look?!?!"

The ability to go outside one's own feeling is a critical yet difficult skill that must be mastered to improve your swing.  In the golf swing your "feeling" of what you are doing can be destructive to the learning process.  As a teacher I attempt to have students focus on positive feelings that create different and effect the swing in a desirable fashion.  The player can then take this feeling on to the golf course and use it as a positive re-enforcement and player better.

Here are a couple of examples of what I have come across that is destructive and, where applicable, a positive alternative.

Negative Feelings                                Positive Alternatives
"Shift your weight"                             "Rotate"
"Help the ball into the air"                  "Use loft and leverage"
"Close the club face"                              "Square the Club face & release UP"
(generally through forearm rotation)            
"Turn your shoulders behind the ball" "Rotate shoulders on top of the ball"
"Don't lift your head"                          "Maintain your spine angle"

If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me at: john.grothe@gmail.com.

Your friend in golf...
John Grothe, PGA