Sunday, August 11, 2013

Let Your Finish Be Your Teacher

One of the mantras that my students hear from me on a regular basis is, "When the teacher is not there, let your finish be your teacher."

There are a number of reasons that this has become something that gets included in my lessons on a regular basis.  The first is that I see so many people hammering balls on the range with little or no connection to what their body is doing to produce the result they are creating.  Instead, they emotionally react to the result of the shot and miss out on a wonderful learning opportunity. 

When you train yourself to emotionally react to the result of your shots, you train yourself to get tight and anxious under pressure.  The body tenses up and tries to guide the result and all kinds of horrid things are bound to happen.

However, if you have the discipline to hold your finish and notice the sensations in your body after a swing, you begin to train yourself to be in your body and to notice the relaxed, rotational effort required to hit a solid golf shot.

I used to talk about "Pre-Shot Routine", now talk about a "Complete Shot Routine".  I want my students to have all the great qualities of a good pre-shot routine (grip, alignment, posture, ball position, the waggle to stay relaxed, etc.) but I also want that routine to continue on after the ball has been struck.

I encourage my students to notice three main things about their finish that will tell them if they made a solid move at the golf ball.

1.  Weight on the front heel - Most amateurs end up with their weight on their back foot when they hit the golf ball.  They are trying to scoop the ball up and help it up in the air.  Golf is a strange game and usually the opposite is true of what our natural instincts are.  Instead of scooping the ball up, we have to compress the ball and trap it between the club and the earth (hitting down to make it go up).  If we finish with our weight in balance on our front heel, we have made this kind of rotational effort into the ball.

2.  Body turned to face the target - A good swing is about relaxed, rhythmic, rotation.  We know we did these things if our body ends up rotated to face the target at the end of our swing.  The knees should be close together with hips and shoulders at least rotated to face the target. 

*Sometimes you will see young and flexible players at the top of the game rotated past the target.

3.  Relaxed arms and shoulders - The shoulders in a good golf swing stay fairly relaxed and down in the sockets.  At the end of the swing, the arms fold back around the body.  In a poor swing, that is about helping the ball up in the air, you will see the arms and shoulders up in a lifting, helping motion.

Next time you go out to the range, I encourage you to practice a "Complete Shot Routine" that includes checking in with these three things following every swing you make.  You will be training yourself to stay relaxed, rhythmic and rotational in your golf swing on the range and when the pressure mounts on the course.