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See if we can keep this focus tight and pure? Let’s ‘Keep This (IT) Stupid Simple’? YES?

For arguments sake, let us consider that we have a #9 Iron in hand. We will base our consideration on our most favoured #PW, the center of our scoring bag. (48 degrees of Loft). This club offers us a ‘Factory Loft of 44 Degrees’. The #8 Iron is 40 degrees. The key to ‘Pandora’s Box is to learn to make the same swing with each of these three clubs. It is very prudent to keep in mind that all our ‘Club Full Swings’ for most golf clubs are basically the same.

The first action we can and should take to reduce our ‘#9 Iron’s Net Delivered Loft’ is to change clubs … pull another club from your bag! (see ‘Ball Flight Shape, Trajectory and Parabola’) #9 Iron in hand, want ‘Less Delivered Loft’, pull your #8 Iron. Want ‘More Delivered Loft’, pull your #PW. Exactly the same ‘Delivered Energy’ results in more or less ‘Height’ and more of less ‘Distance’.

Just a thought that might stimulate either perspective movement
or a direction change in your golf activities and overall well-being.

"Food Does Not Taste
As Good As ‘Fitness Feels."

Here endeth the lesson?

Why are my ‘Perfect Practice Swings’, on the driving range or in preparation of making the real strikes, so hard to reproduce? Seemingly impossible to make happen out on course?

The answer is really quite simple! We lack sufficient understanding of our true mechanics. (Mastering Golf Basics - MGB) We are enveloped in ‘FEAR’ and thus, soon thereafter in ‘TENSION’.

When we are too tense, (see ‘Grip Pressure’) our muscles cannot perform properly. For example, our Hands, Wrists and Forearms cannot ‘Release Through the Impact & Separation Zone’.

How can we determine that this is a very real problem? We totally understand what the ‘Pre-Shot Routine’ is and why. Our professional version is magical, if we apply it! (see ‘The 5 Set-Ups’ and ‘The 5 Essential Elements’. They make up absolute ‘Consistency’.)

Most of us know the difference and feeling of throwing ‘Overhand and Underhand’. The ‘Overhand Pitch’ is very similar to casting a lure out into a river. You rather throw the ‘Bait or Lure Mass’ up, out and across to the target spot. (see ‘The 12 Inch Landing Circle’) Works well in steelhead fishing, especially in brushy tight quarters.

Let’s think about tennis for a moment. Fewer people learn how to fish ‘Underhanded Forehand and Backhand’. This little ‘Tossing Action is immensely useful standing on the confining or restrictive riverbank. Little underhanded flip handed deliveries are really a sign of a seasoned steelhead or salmon fisherman. Really important in working your bait around obstructions.

Relate this ‘Hand Path’ to your golf strikes. If you have seen Jim Furyk’s unique golf swing, it is an ‘Outside & Up’ … Back & Up Swing Path. (see ‘Inside Out Path’) It starts ‘Above or Over Plane and then ‘Loops’ at the top to a ‘Below or Under Plane’. This is an ‘Underhanded Delivery’. It might feel slightly ‘Laid Off or Shallowing Out’ from Top Of Back Swing. (TOB) …

If we take the ‘Bends’ out of our ‘Lever Assemblies’, especially at our ‘Impact Fix’, we establish and master the ‘Distance From Of Swing or Spinal Core’.

When we embrace ‘Centrifugal or Centripetal Force’, we naturally get to a ‘Lever Extension Condition’ through the ‘Impact & Separation Zone’. The Target Lever is ‘Set-Up’ and relatively retains its straightness from ‘Sweeping Take-Away’ through ‘Delivery & Release’. The Brace Lever’s job is to ‘Bend & Straighten’. That is the secret to our accomplishing ‘Clubhead Speed’ as well as ‘Path and Plane’.

If one ‘Sets-Up’ with the ball at the ‘Extension Point’, (arms longish, with the ball slightly out on the end of the score lines, out on the toe of the clubhead) then we already know where we need to return to through the ‘Impact & Separation Zone’.

That will not make you a smiley faced golfer!

It seems to help universally if one views or strives to make a ‘Divot In Front Of The Ball Location’.

Another way of considering this ‘Hanging Back’ is paying attention to your ‘Weight Distribution’. The ‘Hang Back’ chronically keep weight on your ‘Brace or Back Foot’. This affects the ‘Slope of your Shoulders’. Your Brace Shoulder will be too low too long. If this is the case, feel that your Shoulder Axis gets and remains ‘Level Earlier and Longer’.

Never feel like you are swinging ‘Uphill At’ or ‘Lifting The Golf Ball. The Golf strike is a ‘Down & Through Activity’. Strive to ‘Pinch The Ball Off The Grass’ and not to lift it up into that nice satisfying trajectory. The ‘Clubhead Loft’ produces the ‘Up’ by swinging down. (see ‘Angle Of Attack’ - AoA)

You well know that we Set-Up athletically with adequate or balanced ‘Dual Knee Flex’.

If we lose or release our ‘Target Knee Flex’ prematurely (before getting ‘Through Impact & Separation Zone’ (into Swing Sequence #8a and 9 … Chase & Follow) what happened tour ‘Pivot Post’ or ‘Spinal Core’?

It straightens and our ‘Heads Move Back’ aft or away from the target. That actually causes an endless ‘Ball Location Battle’ … always moving around. Now try to make solid contact?

We all can use a little more ‘Putting Pleasure’, but do we actually earn it?

When is the last time you went out and actually read a green and then tested your read with a ‘Stimp Meter’ or just a good old bowling roll?

You have to train your eyes to properly see and evaluate greens. You will be well served to practise this learned skill. Know that most regular and even proficient “Flat Stickers’ actually ‘Under-Read’ greens. Then they tend to start the ball off too low and south of the cup!

Additionally, ‘Distance is more of a challenge in ‘Putting’ than is ‘Direction’.

MENTAL GEMS

A Bad Swing = Bad Golf
A Good Swing = Good Golf

One must learn to ‘Set-Up’ properly suited to his or her capability. Work towards improved ‘Fitness’. Pay attention to ‘Nutrition and Hydration’. Work towards ‘Mental Purity’!

Avoid ‘Golf Swing Modeling’. If an instructor suggests that you try to make a swing like a third party, find a new one … the instructor and not the model!

The current rave of ‘Shallowing Out’, which might invite getting ‘Laid Off’ is happily not ‘The First Move’!

The ‘Pull Down’ (a forced move) is not ideal as it demands ‘Tension’ when that is seldom an asset. This forcing the ‘Lever Assemblies Down’ is really unnecessary. When you get in a big hurry, a great golf swing demands more ‘Manipulation and Force’. ‘Swing Plane’ is natural!

We should work on our ‘First Move’s’ being a ‘Gravitational or Vertical Drop’ followed by a ‘Leg Drive Down The Line’. (DTL) So, what we are really looking to accomplish is a ‘Drop Thrust’. There is quite a lot of ‘Lateral Move’ in a properly generated ‘Full Swing’. (see ‘Stage Three Procedures’ with Wrist Cock & Pivot)