Advance ball striking (golf)

7/30/2019 Advance ball striking (golf)

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Rule #1 . Let your left knee and left hipstart level left on their own littleplane.Because your left knee is deeply flexedand pointing at the ball, it has great mobility.

If someone were to place the palm of theirhand a half inch in front of your left knee onits turning plane, you would be able to "pop"that palm with the left knee going level left .A mind committed to its target underscoresthis action.

In turn, the coiled right knee and right hipwith weight dynamically against it needs onlyth e motion of the left knee and left hip tostart releasing the torqued energy coiled wi-thin it. It is a powerful, committed turn, thenspin level left .Level, left and flexed are the keys tounderstanding

The important feeling here is "level" and"left" and "flexed." Is it possible that yourleft hip has been going "up" instead of level?It goes up when the left leg straightens.When it goes up, you fall back on the rightfoot and kiss the turning point good-bye.

I cannot overemphasize the importance ofstaying flexed through the swing. Wheneither leg straightens, all hope for the shot islost. Staying flexed is a habit you must buildinto your swing. Once achieved even atthe cost of some sore thighs for awhile -you will have fa r greater power and mobility.Observe Bernard Langer with this thought inmind.

And is it possible that your left hip slidesdown the line instead of turning left? When itslides down the line, you sway. When you

sway, you can't turn and the swing becomesa hands an d arms effort.These correct actions, all in the lowerbody, allow you to get on the turning point

where things are stable and power can bedirected at your target, not the object be-tween your feet. Because of all the rules youhave followed up to now, getting on the turn-ing point is a natural process. Please let ithappen.

The world class move that allows youto find your power planeYour drop onto your power plane through

your world class move is a slow, smo-o-othloading motion. You are loading up deep intoyour swing. Notice the stressed shaf t . . . yetyou feel you are moving slowly and smoothly.A reluctant club head lags fa r behind.Y ouhave reached maximum load only in the lastf rame. When your right elbow gets in frontof your right hip, you have achieved maxi-m um load.

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IIIIRule #2. Your right elbow and righthand drop down onto your narrower,tighter power plane. When the left kneeand left hip start their level left journey, let-ting your dynamically loaded right kneerelease forward until it is pointing at the ball,you allow what I call the world class move tohappen.

This particular motion is the ultimatephysical secret Be n Hogan gave to me. Once

you have defined it in your ow n mind and feltit in your body, your understanding of thegolf swing will take on a whole new depth ofmeaning.Th e sole objective of the world class moveis to allow you to bring to maximum level theloading of your right hand, right wrist, rightarm and right shoulder as deep into the

swing as possible on your power plane. It isa function of two action elements:First, you have relaxed, supple wrists anda 1.5 grip pressure at the top of the backturn. As you reach the top of the back turnan d start the left knee an d left hip level left,

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yo u allow what feels like a slight reverse loopwith the hands, like this:

This move is magnified by a pulling backand down with the thumb and index finger ofthe right hand. Instead of "firing" from thetop, these two little body parts help magnifyyour leverage. As your lower body is starting

its target turn, your club head is still goingback. You are loading up a giant spring.Second, the hands and arms then comestraight down and the right elbow dives ontothe front of the right hip with the right palmfacing the sky, putting you on your powerplane.

Be n Hogan called this "laying off the club."The world class move happens best witharms set inward and supple wrists. Whenyo u can let slack develop in your wrists, thenconsume that slack on the target turn, you'll m m

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i i n < l r i s ! ; m < l i i best. Supple wrists are a func-o| l i v e elements:

( 1 ) 1 'roper grip pressure;i : ' ) A proper grip;( . ' { ) Proper sized grips;M ) M a x im u m patience which means yo u

must let yourself have the time tomake the world class move before yo upush the button and let it go to thetarget;

(5) Maximum courage to let the club dropat the top back and down behind you,allowing your right wrist to become aloaded, compound 3rd class lever.

Of the five qualities, patience is the mostimportant. In that area of your swing whereyo u may have been the fastest, you mustno w become very deliberate. From the topof the back turn, the drop down onto thepower plane is a slow, smo-o-oth loadingmove. Yo u take your time.

Let's examine the checkpoints on thepower plane:1) You are on the turning point. Noticethe weight on the left foot;2) Your wrists ar e fully cocked;

3) Your club head is still lagging fa rbehind;

4) Your right elbow ha s dived onto thefront of the right hip, leading thestrike;

5) Your right knee is pointed at the ballwith the right heel of f the ground. Thistells you that the energy activated inthe flexed right leg on the back turn isno w being released through the middlean d upper body to the turningshoulders;

6) Your plane is now flatter, slightly below90-degrees to your back bone;7) Your arc is tighter because of the pull-

ing in of the right elbow onto the frontof the right hip;8) The palm of your right hand is facing

the sky.Remember, let Snead's words echo in

your mind: "Good positions do not producegood swings. A good swing produces goodpositions."

Once on the power plane, why are youloaded to the maximum? It's so importantthat you understand and not take my wordfor it. Let's reason and understand together:Reason #1. Your major power source is inyour right side.Reason #2. Within that right side, yourright hand, right wrist, right arm and rightshoulder are where most of your power re-sides, along with your artistic and creativeabilities. These team members are waiting toexpress themselves.


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Reason #3. On the power plane you haveactivated your right side with maximumleverage in all the right places:

a) the compound, 3rd class lever in yourright hand is ready to express itselfby remaining what it is: intact andleading the club through the hittingarea;b) the lever in the loaded and foldedright arm and elbow is ready;

c) the lever in your turned right shoul-der is ready;

d) the levered left arm at the shoulderand the cocked, levered left wrist isstable and ready.

Reason #4. To direct all this activated pow-er to your target, you are on the turningpoint where you have a stable center fromwhich to turn or spin.Reason #5. Your open, desiring mind hasrealized that all power is released to yourtarget. The ball is not even part of the equa-tion. It's a small, spherical object preciselyplaced in the way of a massive transfer ofenergy an d leverage from your loaded upright side all the way out, to the target outthere, in front of you.

Once on the power plane and turningpoint, there is very little that can go wrong.Yo u can't hit from the top since there is notop to hit from. You can't make a reversepivot since your right leg is flexed and youare on the turning point. Youcan't hang backon the right side since your weight is onyour left leg and left foot on the turning pointand your right knee is pointed at the ball.

From this position, success is a half-second away and insured. You can shoot very

low numbers when you get on your turningpoint and power plane.How I found my power plane throughthe world class moveWhen I began to work with Ben Hogan, Ipracticed from dawn to dusk. Then, Iworked at night at a lighted driving range.Yo u must know that I had many years ofworking on the wrong things and a lot of in-grained habits that needed to be changed.

After our first times together, I headed toLo s Angeles for the L.A. Open feelinglocked, loaded and ready. I missed the cut.Disappointed and frustrated, I headed backto Texas. Ben and I met in his office and Iwent over the chart with him from my firstround. I was hitting three types of shots:left, left to left and right. He studied thechart and we headed fo r Shady Oaks.On the practice range, Ben told me thatall shots that are hit left are a result of start-ing the target turn from above the plane. Allshots that are blocked right are a product ofbeing on plane bu t sliding down the line in-stead of turning.

Then he showed me by feel. He asked meto make a back turn, then hold it at the top.From behind, he put his hand on the clubhead and pulled it straight down behind myback about six inches. When he did that, Ifelt my right elbow drop down and slightly inonto the front of my hip. I felt my right palmpoint at the sky. And I felt very open.

"John," he said, "that is called laying theclub off. When that move is accompanied byyour knees and hips starting the target turn,you'll never lose it left. Lay it off and go get'em!"

Prior to that lesson, I had worked threemonths solid on letting my right side go tothe target. I had failed to get that right hand,arm and shoulder in position fo r maximumpower and stability that can only be achievedon the power plane through the world classmove.

In my case and perhaps in yours theright forearm and the palm of my right handis the place to feel the power plane. Whenthat palm faces the sky and the right fore-arm is parallel to the ground with the rightelbow inside the right hip, I know I'm laid of fand loaded very deep into the swing, andonly then ready for the target turn. And bythe way, I would suggest you and a friend gothrough the same procedure that Ben ledme through, pulling the club head down fromthe top. Yo u can really feel it!Defining your own world class moveby feel

Have you ever watched Bjorn Borg orIvan Lendl hit a looping top spin forehand?The arc of the right hand and arm makes aback turn... then a little reverse loop... theright elbow dives onto the right hip... andthe ball is struck from a flatter plane and atighter arc. That was the world class move.

Have you ever watched Dale Murphylaunch tape measure home runs? From theback turn, his hands make a little reverseloop, the elbow dives onto the front of thehip, he moves into a flatter plane...then hisleft knee, left hip go level left and the rightknee, right hip and right shoulder go out tothe pitch.

The golf swing is a baseball swing bentover from the hips.

m m

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' I ' I i c w o r l d class move is all around you ini n ; 1 1 i v s p o r t s . In golf, it is difficult for the un-! i . n i i c d mind to see. It is best seen with s top. i c t i o n p h o t o g r a p h y w h i ch you are looking ato n t h e s e pages.

W i t h these photos a n d with ne w under-si .mding you may see i t in others. WatchH u b e r t Green. Lanny Wadkins. Fuzzy/oel ler. L ee Trevino. Miller Barber. With adiscerning eye, w atch Calvin Peete, MarkO'Meant.

' I ' I i c y all let it happen.Watch a wor ld-c lass quarterback. Hed r o p s back; sets up ; makes a back turn inw h i c h the right arm folds. Then, he spotsl i i s receiver. The right hand and arm make areverse loop, th e r ight e lbow d ives down, th el e f t shoulder turns level left and the ball is

released at the target.A s yo u w o r k o n finding y o u r o w n p o w e rplane, keep these points in mind:1. Yo ur desire to reach your target mustexist in y o u r m i n d .2. Yo ur grip must be perfect.3. Yo u must b e on the turning point.4. Yo ur left knee and left hi p must lead th eloaded r ight s ide down to the p o w e rplane then all the w ay to the finish.5. Yo ur right shoulder starts level at ad-dress; moves up during th e back turn;drops level wi th you onto the powerplane; then travels up hill on the targetturn finishing level o r slightly above th eleft shoulder. Through this entire proce-dure it never stops moving.

6. Setting th e arms together keeps botharms married as a unit through the en-tire back turn, power plane and targetturn.

7. Yo ur left knee, hip and shoulder go levelleft, never up, and y o u r r ight knee, h ipan d shoulder go out to the target, neverd o w n .8. You have the feeling of "golfing" yo urball straight ou t letting th e loft o f y o u rclub do all of the "up" w o r k .

9. You w a n t to be b o l d !Letting a target turn happen

Since you are loading up so deep into yourswing and o n the turning po int retainingy o u r p o w e r an d leverage only n o w a r e y o uready for the ta rget turn.From th e power plane, the target turn is ab o l d , aggressive turn an d spin level left. Y o uhave two and only tw o jobs remaining:

Rule #1 . The left knee, left hip, leftshoulder, left arm, butt of the grip anda cocked left wrist going with themturn and spin level left and out of theway. The leaders are clearing out ofthe way, on a stable turning point.A s far as I 'm concerned, the left side can'tgo level left fast enough. Hogan used the

analogy of a b ig rubber band at tached to h isleft hip, then to a wall directly behind him.O n his back turn , he stretched that bandtight, then let it snap level left on the targetturn.A t my school , I like to put on a little

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IIIIi l l m o i l I n i l i o n i i u i always startles m y stu- I - n i I , i n . 1 . . i i o n l y w h e n I have a y o u n g ,ilhl. I n M i d i - I l l .

^ . 1 1 I I I I M : h i m i n a d v a n c e , I g o into m y s e t" i > . i n - 1 iv I h i m h i p t o h i p with m e , like this:

I make a back turn, drop down onto mypower plane, then I WHAM! level l e f t . Thestudent picks himself up o ff th e f l o o r any-where f ro m 10 to 20 feet behind me.Rule #2. As the left side turns levelleft, the right knee, right hip, rightshoulder, right arm and right hand goout, to the target. It produces thedream come true.


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From the power plane to this positionright before impact, yo u have moved only afew feet. Let's take a look at the check-points:

1) You are totally on the turning point,committed to your target;

2) Now, look at the wrists. What do yousee? Right before impact, they are stillcocked almost to the maximum

an d they're pulling a trailing club head.In the photo looking down the targetline, notice the wrinkles in the rightwrist.There is a cup in the back of the rightwrist and the right palm is workingdown to crash the waiter's tray.

3) The left elbow is starting to point at theleft hip, squaring the club as it who-o-oshes through impact.

4) The left side is clearing level left. Atthis point, the right side is now totallycommitted to the target.

5) The right leg and right hip have trans-ferred their dynamic load through anactivated middle body to the rightshoulder.

6) The right elbow is leading the rightforearm, wrist and hand, allowing theclub to be pulled through impact.7) Notice the tremendous weight of theclub head some 30+ pounds at thispoint is pulling the club head downan d the hands up, even though I am

trying to retain my wrist cock.And now the moment of truth

Here is where I want to make a largepoint. The #1 mental rule of golf is the tar-get. The #1 physical rule is this:

The hands and arms, propelled by turn-ing shoulders, pull a trailing club headthrough the impact zone. This can bedone only when the knob on the insideof the right elbow leads the right fore-arm, hands and wrists through im-pact. .. and your mind's eye is focusedon the target.

When your right elbow knob leads thestrike, you are in control of the shot. Whenthe right arm pushes the club, the club headpasses the hands and you release control ofthe shot. That's when you spend a lot oftime in the left and right woods looking forgolf balls.

Y ou push it through when the right elbowflies. Y ou pull it through when you set the

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arms inward and above the chest muscles,with each elbow pointing at its respectiveI lip. When you're playing well, you feel couldhold that balloon full of air between your el-bows through the entire swing.

How to feel set up and impact in onesimple exerciseI have designed an exercise that allows my

students to feel set up and impact, at thesame time. Take a middle iron and address adoor jamb or some other sturdy object.Once set up, apply as much pressure as youcan against the door jamb. Try to snap theshaft .

After you've completed the exercise, askyourself these questions:1. Was your weight on the left foot?2. Was the ball of your right foot digginginto the carpet?3. Were your knees flexed, pointingahead of the ball?4. Were your hips turning level left, with

the legs supporting that aggressiveturn?5. Was your back straight, stomachfirmed up?6. Were your shoulders ope n, turninglevel left?7. Were your arms extended with the el-bows pointing at their respective hips?8. Was there a cup in the back of the

right wrist with the right palm workingdown?9. Did you feel stronger with the handsworking down?

10. Did you feel strong?11. Were all body parts contributing?Wh en you can answer "Yes!" to each of

these questions, you are at that moment- world class. I would urge you to practicethis exercise until you can answer "Yes!"with total confidence to all eleven questions.

Ho w the club face squaresIt is the level left turning of the shoulderswith the left elbow pointing at the left hiptha t squares the club face at impact. Also,

the same level, turning shoulders allow theright palm to work down. When the rightshoulder goes down and the left shoulder

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goes up, it requires you to be an inconsistenthands and arms player. In the past, you mayhave attempted to square the club face withsome kind of independent manipulation ofthe hands. Let's change that right now. Onlythe left elbow pointing at the left hip squaresthe club face consistently, powered by thebig muscles of the left arm.

Let me tell you about Miller Barber. Atthe 1986 Tournament of Champions, Millerwas blocking it right before the tournamentbegan. As you know, Miller's right elbowflies on the back turn, then dives in front ofhis right hip when he makes his spectacularworld class move. Miller has made millionswith that move. Anyway, the problem he washaving was the left elbow. It started to flywhen his right dove onto the hip. What hap-pened? Well, when his left elbow flew up,the left shoulder went up in the air with it,and he was unable to turn. Hence, he sliddown the line, blocking it right.

I told him to keep the left shoulder downturning level left and let the left arm fold. Hecaught on immediately. The block disap-peared.

Four days later, Miller won the SeniorsTournament of Champions.

The un-cocked release: fact vs. feel

The right arm has fired. Yet, look at themuscles in the right forearm. They areworking to maintain the cup in the back ofthe right wrist. Because of that effort, theknuckle of the right index finger is the finalpart of the hand to reach impact. While theleft hand is very stable, it is 70 percent righthand, 30 percent left hand.

In my golf swing, I don't feel my wristsun-cock. I've spent years and years workingas hard as I can not to let them un-cock. Atimpact or a shade after, they do. But I amcertainly not aware of it. I talked with SamSnead about this. He told me that he playedhis best golf when his wrists felt "dead."Dead, by the way, is defined as lacking pow-er to move or respond. The cocked wristsare along for the ride.

In my own case and with Snead andHogan and all the great players by thetime I'm aware of what's going on after im-pact, my wrists have re-cocked on the targetside of the ball. And my left arm is folding,creating a mirror image of the right arm onthe back turn. Folding and extending armsfrom relaxed, turning shoulders is a centraltheme of all good golf swings.

Here's an important point to understand.All of your efforts are inward with foldingarms and outward with extending arms. Onthe back turn, your right arm folds inwardcreating the big lever and your left arm ex-tends outward creating an arc and extension.Just past impact, the roles reverse. The leftarm folds inward creating a big lever on thetarget side and the right arm extends outcreating an arc or extension to the finish.Once you train them , you'll wish you hadgorilla arms.

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' l ' l i - f < - ; m i race: o n your mark... g ets H . . . only (hen go!T he ^ o l l swing is a race. Competing in

1 1 i r . r , i r ; i l event are a bunch o f body parts.\nn s h o u l d think o f your back turn as "onI l ie m a r k . " N o t your set up or your preview I y o u r t u r n i n g press. These ar e warm-up.1 . i i v i l i e s . iTom the top of the back turn, y o un i . i k c y o u r world class move an d drop ontot h e p o w e r plane. That's the "get set."

( ) n c e you're fully loaded and on the powerp l ;me with the right knee pointed at the ball,i t ' s "Oo!" The target turn is a bold, aggres-sive even furious turn or spin level left witht h e r ight elbow knob leading the strike.

J us t before impact, every great golf swingis a dead heat. Only the trailing club headlags fa r behind. When it finally catches up, itrecruits the last member of the team whichis only with the team for an instant, a flash.Then, the ball is released to the target withall your activated energy.Half way to finish

Let's look at the checkpoints:1) Your right knee, right hip, right arm and

right shoulder have extended out to thetarget. There is a total commitment ofthe right side to the target.

2) At the same time, the left side hasturned level left, out of the way. Noticeparticularly the left hand an d butt of thegrip. It has gone inward with the leftshoulder. Nothing goes down the linewith the exception o f your trailing clubhead and then only for an instant.

Yo u the power source are stable an dturning. The golf swing is a turning motion.Never a back and fo r th , down the line mo-tion. And as you know, there is only oneplace to turn or spin: on the turning point.When your weight is anywhere else, look forthe ball in the left or right woods.Gary Player finds the turning pointOne year, I was paired with Gary Player atthe Greater Greensboro Open, the week be-fore the Masters. Gary was hanging back onhis right side an d hitting a lot of low hooks.

I told him what Hogan had said about theturning point. He went to the practice rangean d worked on starting the left knee and lefthip level left. He d id i t with such aggressive-ness that after the shot he was so commit-ted to the target on his left foot that the nextnatural move was a step forward to thetarget.

The next week, Player won the Masters.Going down the stretch, Gary amazed a na-tional TV audience with his f a m o u s "walkthrough shots." He had f o un d his turningpoint and, along with it, another Major.Listen for the "roar" on the target side

A few minutes ago, I said that directedpower is released to your target, never theball. Listen closely to this: generate thatwho-o-o-o-osh that roaring shaft on thetarget side of the ball after th e ball ha s leftth e club face.

Earlier, I talked about patience. From thetop of the back turn, the world class move isa slow, loading move, retaining cocked wristsvery close to impact. When you load up thisdeep into your swing, the natural feeling is a

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roaring shaft on the target side of the ball.Y ou retain that leverage and load so late,there is no where else for you to feel it.At impact, when most golfers quit, towel

o f f , an d start worrying abou t th e next shot,you're just getting warmed up for the shotthat ha s already left your club face. Whenthis mental image is your guide, you canrelease you r leverage an d power to a target,not at a golf ball.The finish

Wh y th e facial grimaces with th e driver? Ihave just unloaded th e biggest drive I canhit. Every ounce of energy has been pouredinto the shot. An d I am still aggressive, evenat the finish. My aggressive, mental commit-ment to my target is still intense as I watchth e ball fly to my target. While at MemphisState, Gary Middlecoff told me I'd never be agood, long driver of the golf ball until I al-lowed my hands to fly by my left ear at thefinish. This is a natural reaction to loadingdeep into your swing.Examine th e checkpoints:

Grip Th e hands have completed a circle an dmirror their position at the top of the backturn. Your grip is now relaxed and back to a1.5 where it started in the first place.Arms Th e left has folded inward. Th e rightarm has extended outward an d feels level.Shoulders The right shoulder is over theleft toe and may be slightly higher than theleft.Back Your back is still very straight and nowerect. Look carefully at Hal Sutton's finishthe next time you watch him play.

Stomach Your stomach is facing th e target.Hips The hips are facing slightly left of thetarget.Legs All the weight is on a slightly flexedleft knee and the outs ide of the left heel, ex-actly where I placed it as I turned my weightback on the left with the turning press. Yourright foot is straight up and down, resting onthe toes.

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"I think the finish is everything..."When I was at Memphis State, there wasa pro at Ridgeway Country Club named DickWinzler. He was a special human being.One day we were talking and I had this

deep-down feeling there was something Ineeded to learn from Dick. So I said, "Howmu c h would you charge for a lesson?" Hisresponse was "John, I don't know if I canteach you anything, bu t I'll try and it will costyou nothing."

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I I I IW e headed for the practice range. Hew a t c h e d and watched an d watched as I hitk i l l s w i thou t a word. I looked up at himsevera l times and he said the same thing," K e e p hitting." Finally, all the balls were

v.oiie. Dick suggested we go get a Coke onH i e patio. When the drinks arrived, Dick1 1 i i ned to me and said, "Based on my obser-v a t i o n , something is so vividly clear to me.W h e n you hit a good shot, yo u always had as mooth , well-balanced finish. When you hit apoor shot, yo u lost your balance an d never( | i n t e finished.

"I think the finish is everything. My ad-vice to you is only this: in your mind, workfor a smooth, well-balanced finish. When yo uachieve that, you'll find the player insideyou." When yo u think about it, the only ob-jective of a shot is reaching a well-balancedfinishwhere you can observe your shot fly-ing at the target with total peace.

I would suggest you work on your finish.Practice just the finish. That's where yourinner body wants to go. Let it go there. Theirony, of course, is that you can't make a fin-ish. That's a fake one. You define a finish inyour mind, then let yourself arrive there.

Old terms and new understandingsOver the years, a lot of golf terms have be -come deeply embedded in the language andliterature of the game. Some of these termsneed to be eliminated from your golfvocabulary.

The first to be eliminated is the idea of a"one piece take away." I have put stop actionvideo on thousands of golf swings and I can'tbegin to tell you the damage done with a onepiece take away. First, it dictates a late andtotally unsatisfactory wrist cock. In somecases, there is no wrist cock at all.

That's only half the story. These golfers,the camera reveals, tend to release thehands on the target turn at the exact sameplace they cocked them on the back turn.They release the hands and the club at theball from the top, then look up to see theresults of this collision.

You now have a new understanding.The second term to be eliminated is

"weight shift." Again, let me tell you whatthe camera reveals. The golfer starts out ataddress with his weight evenly divided, thenshifts his weight onto his right foot. At thetop of the back turn, his right leg is holdinghim up because all his static weight is on it!On the target turn, he totally fails to get onthe turning point. Hung back on the rightside, his hands and arms come spilling overhis back turn plane, crashing the outside ofthe ball. Fore!

You have a new understanding.The third term to be eliminated is "firm

grip." The camera is telling us that golfersare turning "firm" into "vise-like." Theirhands and arms are so locked up with tense,


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tight grips there is no way they can let theright arm fold and the right wrist cock. Inturn, all the tension in the hand s and armsthen works its way up to the shoulders,impeding any chance of a good shoulderturn. These golfers make desperate heavesat the ball in an attempt to generate power.Y o u have a new understanding.Th e fourth term to be eliminated is "pas-sive right side." I don't think there is a needfo r explanation here. I know of no othersport where we are told to take ou r beststuff and make it passive. Do you?The fifth term to be eliminated is "uprightswing." Again, the camera reveals the horrorstories. It begins with a one piece take wayfollowed by a minimal shoulder turn then anabrupt lifting of the arms followed by crash-

ing them down with the right shoulder goingdown and the left shoulder up in the air. Atimpact, the golfer turns to face the target,then throws his hands and arms over his leftshoulder in a fake finish.Y o u now have a new understanding. A flat-ter plane around and w ith the back bone ismuch more stable and consistent andpowerful.With respect to upright swings, Jack Nick-laus' record proves what a great athlete he

is. I know fe w golfers wh o have the athleticability to swing like Jack.Since the first Scotsman put club to ball,people have talked about a golf swing. I'mgoing to ask you to mentally alter thatnotion.

Th e golf swing is a back turn where emp-ty, relaxed muscles are activated with ener-gy; a turn onto a turning point; a drop downonto a power plane; followed by a target turnwhere all of the activated energy is trans-ferred to a target with a ball getting in theway of that transfer.One more jobAt the finish of your golf swing, you ob-serve your shot in the air. The final fun-damental completes the cycle:Fundamental #7:You review your effortsas you observe yourshot flying to yourtarget.

Reviewing your effort is the washingmachine of your swing. It's purpose is toself-correct, then clear and clean themachine for the next effort.Rule #1 . Give each shot a grade. As youobserve your shot, give it a grade betweenone and five. With these numbers in mind, atround's end you can come up with a tee togreen score.Rule #2. Review your effort with aswing motion. Step away from your shot.Then, make little swing motions to feel whatyou wanted to feel as opposed to an im-proper feel you may have experienced.

With a bad swing, some team memberswere dragging and some were pushing. Withthe review, you say to your team members,"Okay, let's correct that feeling right now."

W h e n you do that, you eliminate the stressand conflict of that last swing, cleaning themachine and readying it for the next shot.In addition, you review your best efforts.This is equally important. You make yourbest efforts vivid in your mind. W hen youmake a habit of reviewing success, more

good swings appear and confidence builds.Most golfers I see over correct. They hi tit left. Then they make their "don't-it-left"swing and hit it right. They work their wayaround a course hitting it left and right. Th emind and the m achine are never washed andcleaned. Confusion prevails.Gary Player is the best reviewer I'veever seen. He can self-correct major swingproblems from one shot to the next. A greatdeal of his confidence comes from knowing

this.An d that is the golf swing. From start tofinish to review.You now enter a twilight zone

As you make alterations and grow in un-derstanding with your new golf "swing," youenter a twilight zone. In that zone, there willbe a strong pull to go back. To go back towhere you were. To where things may havebeen "more comfortable." When you want tobe "comfortable" in golf or any other sport,an easy chair on Sunday afternoon in front ofa TV watching others play your game is thebest place to find it.

How do you get through this zone?Y o u get through it by developing mentalcomfort at a new and higher level through

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u i i < l < ' i ' , i . i n < l i n g . You go one rule at a time.O n e c l e m e n t at a time. O ne checkpoint at al i m e . O ne shot at a time. O ne solid, healthyl u l ) i l a t a t i m e , built with internal resolvei i i i d even passion.

( ) n t h e other side of the zone is a betterBoi ler inside you, just waiting to be dis-covered.Th e joyous celebration to come

N o matter how exact we make this physi-cal science, golf is art. Th e game is playedwith awareness. With emotion. With hunch.Creativity. Courage. These are all artistic

qualities. They originate in the right side ofthe brain.

Each time yo u play, yo u discover ne w feel-ings. What your right hip does today, it mightnot do tomorrow. What you thoughtsacrosanct today may become heresey nextweek.

Yet each day you grow in understanding.You discover new and exciting self-expression. If it were an y other way, th egame would lose its mystique and soon ourinterest.

The rules of the grip and the set up andthe back turn and all the other moves giveyo u only a f ramework . Within this structure,yo u find your ow n personal architecture an ddesign. I can't do that fo r you. N o teachercan.

Over time, you get better. You say toyourself, 'This is the way I am today.Tomorrow, I will understand in a deeper,richer way. I will move inches or feet oryards closer to the edge of my ability."

An d when you finally reach that edge, yo uwill in a joyous celebration discover th eedge has moved back. This happens as youdevelop courage to play th e game with al lyour heart.

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Advance ball striking (golf)

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