Did you know that your muscles and joints don’t really understand spoken language?
Can you hear yourself incessantly telling your body what to do during your golf swing?
Well done for that, now ask yourself the following:
Do you give commands to your leg muscles and joints when you are walking or running?
Do you vocally instruct your arms, hands and fingers when you are typing or writing a letter?
With this in mind, do you think you can tell your body with words, how to swing?
Try this… Consciously make your hand open and close.
Easy, right?
Now grip your upper forearm with the other hand and repeat this opening and closing.
Can you find words which would explain what the muscles in your forearm are doing and can you direct these reflexive muscles to move differently?
Therefore, it can be argued that the body must be conditioned to move subconsciously or reflexively during the swing.
Our muscles and joints must be trusted to find the most powerful and economical swing dynamics for themselves.
In reality, by doing so you can learn to master your own golf swing.
And I would love to help you get started.
Quite soon, you are going to be swinging much smoother. Perhaps the very smoothest you have ever swung.
You must, however, totally agree with and trust the theory that I have explained above.
Awrabest
S.MacD.
P.S. More on this later.
I have been doing a lot of online research, where I have been coming across similar philosophies. I understand clearly the concept that the mind is the pilot that controls all actions of the body. The logical concept remains sound.
However, if this is indeed the case, there must still be a separating factor that distinguishes the pros from the amateurs.
interesting perspective.. i have never thought of it like that. that makes sense. i think alot of a person’s golf swing has to do with (obviously) how long they have played, but also what other sports they have played. I know that my golf swing is alot smoother since i have played sports all my life, than a non-athlete.
I agree 100%, and I would take that statement one step further and say, there is a big difference between what something looks like and what something feels like. In the past few decades, in my opinion, instructors have become too reliant upon video, and their students have become obsessed with pictures, and also, as you’ve accurately pointed out, words as opposed to feelings.
Old school instructors taught people to feel a swing, not find static positions. I tell friends all the time that what you see in a great swing has little or nothing to do with what that player is feeling. For example, when I am swinging my best I feel like my hands never go above belt high. I know that they do, but they don’t feel like they do. If someone were trying to imitate my positions, they’d try to put their hands above their belt, instead moveing them back level and straight and letting the momentum of the swing carry them up. Furthermore, when you add in the tremendous differences in strength and flexibility between the averag player taking a lesson and the tour pros they’re compared to, you have a very inaccurate discription of the swing, in my opinion. The only camera angle that matters is from directly above the players head. That is what you’re going to see, or close to it, and shows a much more accurate picture of what’s really going on.
The most important factor to a smooth swing, in my opinion, is one’s perception of they’re actually trying to do—i.e, whether they’re hitting a ball with a stick or simply swinging through a spot and the ball just gets in the way. I would suggest as per your contention, that when people are hitting, they’re very verbal and when people are swinging they’re feel oriented.
