The Perfect Lesson

Most golf instructors believe they have given the perfect lesson. Unfortunately, the result is not always perfect. As Red Auerbach reminds us, it's not what you teach, it's what they learn. We teachers of this wonderful game need to pay more attention to what the pupil understands of the lesson and how he can feel and practice the motions that work for him.

The essence of the perfect swing starts with the elimination of unnecessary movements.

In the early stages of learning the golf swing, do not use a golf ball. This "dry swinging" allows you to focus on the correct swing motion, creating a "feel pattern." The ball is an intimidating factor that takes away the ability to achieve that pattern. Consequently, I teach my pupils to dry swing at least four or five times for every ball they hit. The conscious thought in the dry swing is to feel the mechanics and learn to hit the ball instinctively.

The setup, which consists of grip, stance, posture and alignment, is fundamental in creating the swing that's right for you. Anyone can have a perfect setup. It doesn't matter what your body type is; the fundamentals of the setup remain the same--but more on that later.

The controlled power swing is achieved by a few major body moves; i.e., use of the big muscles, centrifugal power and balance. To master these key body moves, you must first understand them. Let's begin with the essentials.

Grip

It is very important to have a grip that will reduce the movement of the hands as much as possible. The hands transmit the speed and power through your body to the club head, and the less they move, the better they transmit. You must never "roll" your hands.

I teach the two conventional grips--interlock and overlap--because they allow the hands to work as one unit, while the ten-finger grip does not. Normally, a person with smaller hands prefers the interlock grip, and a person with bigger hands, the overlap grip. Also, if you have small hands, the handle of your club should be thinner, and if you have big hands, slightly thicker. In taking up your grip, the club should run diagonally across your upturned left hand, from the pad near the base of the palm to the bottom of the index finger. Hold the grip mainly in the palm of the left hand, making sure the last three (continued on page 150) The Perfect Lesson (continued from page 117) fingers firmly clamp the handle of the club and squeeze it against the heel pad.

Always place the little finger of the left hand an inch and a half from the butt end of the club, for better balance and control. The index finger and thumb create a slight trigger effect, and this V should point between the right eye and the right shoulder. Looking down, you should see the top two knuckles on the back of your left hand. An eight-degree angle is created by the back of your left wrist. You should always set both wrists on that angle and never change the wrist angles during the swing.

Grip the club firmly with the last three fingers of your left hand without creating any tension in your arm and shoulder. The left thumb is just right of center, and the right thumb is just left of center. These are The One Positions (left thumb at one o'clock, right thumb at eleven). The right hand holds the club with the handle lying diagonally along the base of the fingers. Grip it firmly with the last three fingers of the right hand and squeeze the life line of the right hand on top of the left thumb. The two hands are joined with equal pressure.

Many players lose the right hand at the top of the backswing. This is invariably caused by letting the right life line leave the left thumb. To properly learn to keep the two hands joined, place a coin on top of your left thumb and squeeze the life line of your right hand against your left thumb. Then practice hitting balls with the coin in position. If the coin falls out at the top of the backswing, the hands are not joined properly.

Stance

Balance is the essence of a good swing. For all shots, the ball position should always be in line with the inside of your left foot, unless you are playing wind or trouble shots. To achieve this position, stand with your feet together and place the ball opposite the middle of your feet, then move your right foot to the right to fit the club you are using. Always point your feet out 20 to 30 degrees in what I call The Duck Stance. This will promote an easier hip rotation, both back and through the swing. The stance should be no wider than the shoulders. The stance narrows slightly with the shorter clubs and more weight moves to the left foot. For example, with the driver, I recommend 60 percent of the weight on the right foot and 40 percent on the left. This allows you to hit the ball more on the upswing and get the ball into the air a lot easier. With the midirons and shorter irons, 60 percent of the weight is on the left foot and 40 percent on the right. Place your weight lightly over the balls of the feet but not too far forward. (Leaning over your toes is a deadly sin of weekend golfers.) To keep from leaning too far forward in the setup, always make sure you can wiggle your toes.

The left arm and club shaft should be in a straight line from the shoulder to the ball. To achieve this, make sure your head is behind the ball and slide your hips laterally to the left approximately two inches. That move will automatically drop your right shoulder below your left and allow the right elbow to soften and turn slightly outward. The distance between the elbows at address should be approximately the width of a clenched fist (the elbows should feel equidistant throughout the swing). The knees should be slightly flexed and directly over your shoes. Don't cock the right knee toward the left knee, because it causes an unnecessary motion, one of the many that we are trying to eliminate.

Posture

To achieve the correct posture, stand upright, hold the club directly in front of you, with your feet apart. Flex your knees gently, bend from the waist and push your butt out. Place the club behind the ball, always feathering the grass. Never bend your knees too much. Always stay soft and relaxed in the setup. To prevent your knees from coming too close together, keep them over your shoes. To confirm that your hands are the correct distance from the body, take your right hand off the club and place your clenched fist, with your thumb protruding, on your left thigh. The thumb should touch the top of the handle.

The proper way to keep the elbows under control is to feel the right elbow being pushed gently toward the left in the stance and throughout the back-swing and downswing. (I do not recommend the gimmick of placing a strap around the elbows to achieve this feeling.) The opposite applies to the follow-through, left elbow toward right elbow.

Alignment

Use The Straight Method in the setup (assuming that you are trying to hit the ball straight). Start your alignment by standing directly behind the ball, facing the target. Now find a spot between the ball and the target and visualize a straight line running through the ball to the target. This will minimize your margin of error. Now take your stance. First make sure that the grip is correct and that the leading edge (bottom line) of the club is plumb to the ground, at a 12-o'clock position, or a 90-degree angle, to the target. To check this angle, hold the club in front of you at eye level.

Aim at the target spot. To check your line, rotate your head to the left with the feeling of laying your right ear on a pillow, rather than lifting your head up and turning your shoulders to the left. This will allow you to look underneath and down the line. To help align your knees and shoulders, hold your club in the fingers of both hands across the knees, pointing the handle toward the target. Now bring your club up against your shoulders to check their alignment.

Start of the backswing

With a perfect setup, your task of achieving the key swing elements is a lot easier. One of the main problems in starting the swing is tension. To help eliminate tension and to make your position less rigid, waggle the club head and/or your feet. The waggle and the start of the backswing should be almost a continuous movement.

Take the club back in one movement, a pulling force, initiating the motion with the entire right side--not just with your hands or arms. Using the big muscles (hips and shoulders) eliminates the problem of swinging too fast. The big muscles are the slow-moving parts of the body, and the hands and arms are the fast-moving ones. As you wind up on the backswing, you are applying centrifugal power by rotating your hips and shoulders around the axis of your right side. This will automatically transfer your weight to the right heel. Make sure that your right knee has stayed in the same fixed position. At the top of your backswing, you are too busy to feel anything, but when you dry swing, you should try to feel that you are sitting into the right knee and right heel.

Now we come to a key point about the backswing: The power source is in the turning motion of your body, not in the motion of your arms. By dividing the swing into two parts, right side and left side, we create rotation both on the backswing and in the follow-through. Because of the good posture you have developed, along with rotating around the right knee, you will feel coiled tension. By controlling your backswing with your right side, you will find it a lot easier to coil efficiently to the maximum of your physical abilities. Obviously, flexibility plays an important part in the windup motion.

I recommend setting the wrists gently on the backswing, because centrifugal force has a tendency to overset your arms and wrists. To control your arm action, you should feel that your arms are not swinging past shoulder level. You should fold your right elbow down at waist level on the backswing, maintaining an equal distance between both elbows. The right elbow should be well away from the body but down. At the top of the backswing, your right elbow should be positioned as though you were carrying a tray on the palm of your right hand. Swinging back with your right elbow close to your body will cause a flat and narrow backswing.

When you practice swinging, you'll see that the arm action is a lot shorter than you imagined. Centrifugal force makes you feel as though you have to swing a lot farther back than necessary. Too many people are told to finish their backswing with an arm-and-wrist action rather than with the body action. To control excessive wrist action, imagine that at the top of the backswing, your right thumb is pointing to the sky. Remember, when you overset your wrists, the eight-degree wrist angle is increased, causing the left wrist to cup inward and the club face to open. The proper hinging of the left wrist is vital for control and power. Centrifugal force on the downswing creates the proper wrist set automatically and leads to what we are looking for--a late wrist action, or late hit.

Control of the back of the left wrist is, without question, one of the key problems in most golf swings. Throughout the golf swing, both the left-wrist angle and the right-wrist angle should never change. In a perfect swing, the club face never opens or closes but remains straight. The rotation of the right shoulder and the right hip creates one of the key elements in power and timing, allowing both shoulders maximum windup. Visualize creating a pulling force stronger than a pushing force.

The start of the downswing

You have wound up the right side with perfect coil tension. You are sitting into the right knee and right heel, and now you are in the transitional stage of change in direction, The Pendulum Feel. As you are completing your shoulder turn with the right side and sitting into the right knee and heel, you should initiate the left-side pulling force, with the left knee moving down the toe line, allowing the left foot to roll over, your weight moving to the left heel. As your hips clear, you should feel as though you are sitting down. Your right heel is held to the ground and your legs are spread. Think of keeping your back to the hole as long as possible before you start your change in direction. The movement has to be smooth. The hands and arms are changing direction softly. Most golfers' swings break down at this point. The natural tendency is to try to get the club head back to the ball too quickly. Here's a thought that may puzzle you, but it could turn your golf game around faster than any other: Try to keep the club head away from the ball as long as possible. Because of the nature of the setup, with the hips slightly forward, the hips will open and clear naturally. The pulling force of your left knee and left side will allow the shoulders to work in their correct plane. Keep this in mind: The backswing plane is wide and the downswing plane is more narrow. The centrifugal force of the hips' clearing should encourage a slight reversed action of the wrists, setting you up in the late-hit position. As your body unwinds, your right knee naturally drives inward toward the left knee. At impact, allow your head to rotate slightly toward the target. Again, I call this "laying your right ear on a pillow." This also forces your right shoulder under your chin. Remember, the proper swing is underarm, not roundhouse.

The follow-through

The start of the downswing is always initiated with the lower part of your body, with the arms following. You must feel your left arm close to your chest on the downswing. Thinking of the right elbow coming into your body on the downswing has caused the demise of many a good player. The result is normally a block-out to the right or an overcompensation of hands, creating a pull to the left.

Maximum acceleration of the club head through the ball is a result of the coordination of motion in the correct sequence. One of the key problems in the follow-through is the straightening of the left arm, which causes the club head to slow down. The golf swing is a game of opposites. The right elbow folds down on the backswing, the left elbow folds down on the follow-through. It is the left-arm rotation and folding down toward the right elbow that keep the acceleration working through the ball. Practice with a short club with half a backswing and half a follow-through, using the big muscles, folding your right elbow down gently on the backswing and your left elbow down on the follow-through. This will give you the sensation of acceleration.

Your wrist angles control an important leverage in power and release, and the release through the ball is a continuous movement. As the arms catch up to your hips at impact, you should release your left elbow as hard as possible. If you do not change your wrist angles, you will never hook the ball. To have a sound swing, you need to develop the ability to release as hard as possible without hitting the ball to the left.

After each swing, you should learn to show off by posing in the follow-through. If you are posing correctly, your balance is good, and you have made the perfect swing for you.

Practice routine

Obviously, perfect practice develops the perfect swing. Be patient. Remember, you must think of only one element at a time, and you should practice that part of the swing without a ball. To check if the move is correct, look in the mirror or ask a friend to watch you.

The first key to perfect practice is repetition 12 to 24 times of a particular movement. The second is to make half of those repetitions in slow motion. To do so, count to eight before you've completed the move of any part of your swing.

Never practice with one particular club. Use all of your clubs when you are learning your swing.

When you are on the practice tee, develop the same preshot routine that you would use on the golf course. Be meticulous with your target and alignment. Use different targets every half-dozen shots.

Summation

To master the key moves for a perfect swing, remember:

• The Perfect Setup. Check your grip, stance, posture and alignment.

• Ground Control. Check your balance. Weight should transfer to the right heel on the backswing and to the outside of the left heel and foot in the follow-through.

• The Take-away. Be relaxed. Stay in motion for a smooth, continuous takeaway. Pulling force: Use the big muscles--right hip and right shoulder. Do not take the club back with hands and arms.

• Rotation Power. Pivot around a flexed right knee. Bounce into the right knee at the top of the backswing.

• The Straight Method. Wrist control: The angles of the back of the left and right wrists never change throughout the swing.

• Elbow Control. Elbows remain equidistant. The right elbow should be kept down but away from the body during the backswing. The left elbow should be down but away from the body on the follow-through.

• Big-Muscle Turn. Right shoulder, right hip; less arm action and wrist set on the backswing.

• The Pendulum Feel. Keep your back to the hole as long as possible, with the hands and arms changing direction softly. The arms are always followers, not leaders, in the swing.

• Start of the Downswing. Keep the club head away from the ball as long as possible on the downswing.

• The Follow-through and Balance. To maintain maximum acceleration, keep the left knee flexed in the follow-through.

• "Lay Your Right Ear on a Pillow." This will allow the swing to work underarm rather than roundhouse.

• "Pose for the Camera." Obviously, if you are posing correctly, your balance is good. Practice swinging the club with your feet six to 12 inches apart, posing each time in the follow-through.

• Your Practice Routine. Dry swing at least four or five times for every ball you hit. Learn to hit the ball instinctively. Take the time to practice slowly.

Good golfing!

"To keep from leaning too far forward in the setup, always make sure you can wiggle your toes."