Rolf On Golf

This is crucial:

Rolf — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:46:28 +0000

DON”T change from the outside (mechanics)
DO develop from the inside (feel)

Mechanics vs. feel

Rolf — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:08:29 +0000

When we try to perform golf mechanics, we try to add something to our swing that is not a natural part of it now. When we work on feel, we start with the swing we have and simply improve it. Doesn’t it make more sense to develop our natural swing than to keep trying things external to it?
There are 29 mechanical things to try in the latest issue of a golf magazine on my desk. Next month there will be another 30 or so. How can our swing ever stabilize if we keep trying new mechanics? On the other hand if we start with the swing we have and sense how to get more power and better direction, we stay with one thing and develop it through experimentation. We need to focus on the swing we have, not on the mechanics we don’t have.

Think about this!

Rolf — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:02:25 +0000

When we try to perform golf mechanics, we try to add something to our swing that is not now a natural part of it. On the other hand when we work on “feel”, we start with the swing we have and simply improve it. Doesn’t it make more sense to develop our natural swing than to keep trying things external to it?
There are 29 mechanical things to try in the latest issue of a golf magazine. Next month there will be another 30 or so. How can our swing ever stabilize if we keep trying new mechanics? But if we start with the swing we have and sense how to get more power and better direction, we stay with one thing and develop it When we try to perform golf mechanics, we try to add something to our swing that is not a natural part of it now. When we work on feel, we start with the swing we have and simply improve it. Doesn’t it make more sense to develop our natural swing than to keep trying things external to it?
There are 29 mechanical things to try in the latest issue of a golf magazine on my desk. Next month there will be another 30 or so. How can our swing ever stabilize if we keep trying new mechanics? On the other hand if we start with the swing we have and sense how to get more power and better direction, we stay with one thing and develop it through experimentation, not through continual change. We only need to focus on the swing we have, not on the mechanics we don’t have.

experimenting wiht it, not by external change. We need to focus on the swing we have, not on the mechanics we don’t have.

Tiger mostly ignores the mechanics

Rolf — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:37:17 +0000

In Fortune Magazine (July 6,2009) Tiger Woods explains that his father told him to figure out how to hit a golf ball. “He’d shrug and say ‘figure to how to do it.’ He didn’t position my arm, adjust my feet, or change my thinking. He knew I couldn’t digest all of golf’s intricacies. Now, when I’m making adjusments during a round, I know some of the television commentators theorize that I’m changing this move or that, but really what I’m doing is listening to Pop.”
That means stressing feel over mechanics.

Tiger and Shawn Foley

Rolf — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:26:02 +0000

Shawn Foley will fix Tiger’s swing. ‘In fact he already has. At the Barkleys Tiger hit almost every fairway and green in regulation. Only his short game suffered. But his swing was virtually perfect. Shawn emphasizes feel instead of mechanics, and Tiger’s swing had become too mechanical of late.
We have been arguing that balance and timing, not mechancis, are the keys to a good golf swing. And, balance and timing must be felt. They cannot be explained through mechanics

more on golf mechanics

Rolf — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:22:47 +0000

I offer that the golf mechanics we are so accustomed to provide a very difficult way to learn. The alternative? Swing naturally. Swing the way you would throw a sack of potatoes (no one needs to tell you how to do that, do they?) Swing your golf club the same way. Swing fully, that is swing hard and do it without thinking. Swing without “trying” to do something mechanical. You just need to know how to line up the right way before you start your swing (that admittedly uses a little bit of mechanics.)
Imagine trying to learn to walk using mechanics as a guide: “Lift you right foot 4 inches and move it forward 17 inches. Then lower your heel. As you shift your weight forward to the right foot simultaneously lift your left heel. Then raise you left foot 4 inches. Swing your left foot forward 17 inches and …” The way we learned to walk was to see our parents walk, get up and then fall, get up again and try to keep our balance, fall again, explore our balance again, and we’d finally get it. Then we worked on the timing of walking. We did not try mechanics. Yet it’s the way we try to learn golf.
Mechanics are confusing mechanics, but not uncommon! Most golf magazines thrive on such mechanics. The one on my desk has 94 mechanical golf tips and 4 that are “feeling” related. Or consider golf blogs meant to help. Rich3.golfblog.comprovides an example that tries to make sense of the most critical part of the swing: “The key point that a golfer needs to understand is that the right wrist can straighten post-impact as long as the left hand is moving fast to the left (with the flat left wrist/hand remaining vertical to the ground) while the right wrist is straightening.” That doesn’t seem to help!
In golf-swing-magic.com it is offered that “Golf swing mechanics involve a connected series of sensations or feels and when you get all these feels right and rightly connected you will swing perfectly.”
This is closer to reality in that it emphasizes sensations and feeling. Those are really the needed concepts, but they should not be applied to mechanics. Apply feeling and sensing to your balance and timing. Why? Because that is the way to improve your balance and timing. Pros use many different mechanics (Furyck vs Els) but they ALL use perfect timing and balance. They cannot mechanically describe balance or timing. They need to be explored through awareness, not explained. You don’t really KNOW the mechanics of being balanced or well timed. You just need to swing and be aware of what your swing timing and balance are like. The improvement in your game will be profound if you forget the mechanics and just explore your balance and timing.
The blog www.waggleroom.com suggests : “Traditional golf lessons, while saturated with good intentions, often cause more confusion in the student than providing good shots. In many ways, this is the best marketing plan available for some dishonest teaching professionals: fill the student’s head with a long swing checklist and then constantly tweak the list whenever something else goes wrong. What better way to keep a steady stream of business than repeat visitors?”

Sensing, feeling, exploring, and being aware of your natural swing will improve your golf much faster than the use of mechanics. For a specific treatment see “A Different Way to (much) Better Golf” by RH Clark, which emphasizes the no-mechanical approach.

On the “Mechanics” Approach

Rolf — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:08:18 +0000

In the August 2010 issue of golf magazine, there is a section called “Hit It Great All the Time”. I want to criticize the approach exemplified in this article. It happens to be David Leadbetter’s article, but it could have been any number of others that use the “mechanics approach” to learning golf.
Five “keys” used in this article are the following (paraphrased, for a right handed golfer): 1. Bring the club, hands, and arms back in concert with the turning of the trunk. 2. Turn your body back as you move onto your right leg. 3. Unwind from the ground up: feet, knees, hips , shoulders, arms then hands. 4. Hit into a firm left side. 5. Keep your body moving through the ball.
Trying to do those five things is supposed to help your game.
I say it hinders your game. The article gets cause and effect backwards.
It is true that great hitters do these five things. The implication then is that if you do these the result will be in a good swing. That is a systemic error in logic. For these 5 keys do not CAUSE a good swing, rather they RESULT from a good swing. They are not inputs, but outputs.
Let me explain. We all know how to throw a sack of potatoes. We help the sack swing back a bit, and then step forward and heave it ahead. It’s a natural motion. No one has to explain how to do it. But if we were observed by someone, they would see that we (1) let the sack swing backward with our body as we (2) shift our weight to the right leg. Then we (3) let the sack swing forward as we (4) shift our weight onto our left side, and finally (5) we fully heave through withal our effort. These actions are essentially identical to the ones from the article paraphrased above that were recommended to help you perform a club swing. But in our case they clearly are results of a natural motion to throw a sack of potatoes. We are not trying to perform five steps, rather we are throwing a weight and the way we throw it results in the five steps happening. The steps did not cause a good throw, the good throw resulted in the five steps. Yes, the mechanics do accompany the throw. We observe them and might improperly conclude that the thrower was using the mechanics. He was not. They resulted from his natural throw.
In fact, trying to perform mechanical steps will prevent natural movement. It would be like trying to learn to walk using the mechanics of walking: Lift you right foot 4 inches, move it forward 18 inches, lower the right heel to the ground. Now shift your weight onto the right foot as you raise your left heel. Lift your left foot 4 inches, etc. We would walk badly if tried all those mechanics. It would take a long time to learn to walk well. Yet that’s the way we learn golf. Mechanically. And we get a mechanical swing that replaces what would have been a naturals swing.
Golf mechanics are derived from watching a pro hit. We identify the mechanics of his swing, then we incorrectly conclude the mechanics we see are what he tries to perform. So We try to perform them too. But they are not what he was focusing on. They are merely the results of his natural swing. We can learn golf better by swinging the club naturally, and then work on perfecting the timing and balance of that swing. Timing and balance are the real inputs to a sound swing. As informal proof, clearly the pros do not all swing with the same mechanics (Furyk vs. Els). But they do all swing with good timing and balance. Timing and balance are what you should work on practicing

RH Clark, Delray Beach, FL.
Professor of Systems Thinking, Retired

Trying vs. Exploring: Esssential Distinction?

Rolf — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:44:27 +0000

I propose we discuss a basic concept. Should we distinguish EFFORT from AWARENESS in improving our golf?

By my definition EffORT involves trying to improve the way we swing, while AWARENESS is simply observing the swing as it is.

The difference is subtle. Effort involves thinking to perfect the mechanics of the swing. We try to make the actual swing meet some target swing that has all the right mechanics. Awareness, on the other hand, is not thinking but observing. For example we can become aware of the timing of our swing, of our balance, of the power we apply, of the swing speed, and of the direction of movement of the clubhead through the ball.

For now the basic question for your comment is this:
“Does the distinction between effort and awareness as discussed above make sense to you, the golfer, as useful.”

Of course the answer at least partly will depend on whether the swing changes when we are just aware of it. That question can perhaps be explored in another posting.

Rolf on Golf

Tiger’s “one plane swing”

Rolf — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:15:14 +0000

The Golf Blog muses that “Haney’s 1 plane swing method is controversial and that it has not helped Tiger. That conclusion supports the thought that mechanics (like “use a one plane swing”) tend to hold us back from having a natural swing. Is there any feedback on this theory, that is on the thought that mechanics prevent a golfer from swinging naturally. Does his natural swing try to adjust to incorporate the mechanics being tried.
Certainly there are a few basics that a (right handed) beginner might incorporate. They include bringing the club back with a fairly straight left arm, turning the hips, bringing the right elbow in close to the right side as the club swings forward, and keeping the head behind the ball as the swing progresses. Every beginner needs to incorporate these.
But more mechanics, it seems to me, prevent the player from developing his natural swing.
The natural swing requires a full swing. and a full swing is better handled by the player’s natual coordination. We learn to run by copying what we see as one year olds. Then we develop our running through natural coordination and feeling. Later as athletes we can adjust the way we run by trying out a few adjustments.
Similarly shouldn’t we first pay attention to a FEW mechanics, and then let ourt natural coordination take over. Once we have developed a natural swing we can try a few more mechanics to see if the swing improves. But we should never let mechanics dominate the swing.
By dominating our learning with mechanics, aren’t we inhibiting our progress?

A Different Way to (Much) Better Golf

Rolf — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:28:45 +0000

Improve your score 4 to 10 strokes by trying something different … instead of trying to perform all those mechanics, learn to explore your balance, timing, and power directly. Exploring your swing effectively is what this book is all about.
Learn about your “hitting system”. Then swing it fully along your target line while being aware of your timing and balance. Downplay the mechanics. Learn how to use all your body weight to get much more distance.
Explore your mental game when practicing and when playing. These two should differ in very crucial ways.
Learn how to play even while “choking”, and discover ways that avoid choking in the first place.