hey podcasts played a little golf today
and play pretty well so I had some good things going on and had some swing
thoughts that were running through my head that seemed to really pay off so I
thought I'd share those with you today and you know before I do I just want to
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can do to help awesome thanks guys this is the golf essentials podcast with
Casey Bourque put a little client golf today down at
Shingle Creek here in Orlando good track it was a little bit wet we had gotten
some rain so things were a little bit soggy but they had redone their greens I
think it was last year or two years ago and there were you know those sort of
elevated undulating greens with sort of shaved areas all around and you know
sort of the low areas with the Nicholas drains and so you know required other
than the real softness of the greens they held really well other than the
softness you really had to hit quality shots into the greens to you know get it
close to the hole and and be in the right level and if you were a little bit
off you you know you have some tough chips and ups and downs from around the
sides of those greens so it could see you know the guys I was playing with you
could see it it's tough around those greens like that you know a lot of
people prefer having a little bit of shaggy rough around the green that's you
know keeps the ball closer and it's a little easier to sort of splash it out
like a little bunker shot and and get things up and down but ironically yeah
those shaved areas are not most people's favorites but you know we had a good day
I just wanted to share some swing thought that I had I guess it's a
technical thought but not really and it's something that you know I hadn't
thought about in a while but I thought I would share with you because it it was
sort of my swing thought today and most of you guys who have listened to my
stuff you know that I focus on really basic stuff and most of the time I focus
on setup you know where I'm aiming my posture my grip and then how much
tension I have in my arms and my hands I try to try to keep it super simple right
I said segment my thoughts pre swing and in swing pre swing is those basics in
swing I'll literally just think about you know losing the
tension and trying to maintain that throughout the swing and when I'm
playing my best that's how simple it is it's literally just that because I I
think it's really important to minimize compensation and I think that tension
those of you who are working on tempo you know one of the guys we played with
today he was talking about how he's working on his tempo so I had a
conversation and asked him how tightly he felt he was holding the club and he
basically said a 7 out of 10 and then and the downswing it's a 20 out of 10
you know and said well there you go you know when you when you squeeze the club
you're you're gonna get really quick things get much faster if if you focus
on soft arms soft grip pressure and you try to maintain that throughout the
swing if you're gonna be successful at maintaining that throughout the swing
it's impossible to swing abruptly into jerk the club because as you're jerking
the club you have to go you have to squeeze on to it in order to hold on to
that club right so I find that's a really really good swing thought and the
cool part about it is it works well when you're nervous too because those soft
arms soft hands that moves the burden into your core as opposed to when you're
squeezing the club it it you know gives the control of the club to your hands
and you really don't want that they don't they don't work as well when you
get nervous but the the thing I was gonna mention the swing thought that
really worked well today I was really hitting a lot of quality tee shots and
iron shots right where I was looking I mean on the range I hit a flagstick with
my 4 iron and I stuffed a few wedges in there closed today and actually played
pretty play pretty well so you know the the swing thought or the I guess the
technical thought that I was thinking of is you know when when your potting so
really or sure chips think of the motion is and you
know if you're just swinging from sort of you know if the balls at six o'clock
and you're going seven o'clock to five o'clock so just little tiny swings like
that it's a one lever motion so that imagine the shaft of the club going all
the way up your left arm and the left arm is basically straight right down the
shaft of the club and as you're making those small swings it's a one lever
motion so you're you're keeping that straight line more or less intact but as
you're the swing lengthens you allow wherever it feels comfortable for you
you don't need to force this but you allow your wrists to hinge okay so that
turns the lever system into a two lever system so it's down your left arm and
then at the top of your swing it's more or less think of it as a 90 degree angle
with the shaft right your your wrists have hinged and that's a two lever
system and that is from a leverage standpoint the most leverage okay so
that's that's maximum leverage in a golf swing when you have that two lever
system and you have that angle between your left arm and the shaft the problem
that we run into especially if we are losing flexibility or if we lose tempo
if we get abrupt in our transition so from the top of our swing as we start
down if we get abrupt or we just don't take the club back as far as we used to
a lot of people will tend to break down just a little bit in that left elbow and
so now you've got your upper arm your lower arm and the shaft that turns
things into a three lever system and ironically a three lever system brings
much much less leverage meaning power than a two lever
system okay so if you allow that sort of left arm to bend a little bit you're
losing you're losing power over all you'd rather be shorter in a two lever
system as long as your wrists and everything your nice and oily nice and
nice and relaxed you'd rather be shorter in that system
than to take the club back longer but allowing that left arm to bend and you
know the the other thing that really is detrimental when we allow that to happen
for one reason or another some people just do it because they haven't they
haven't figured out the right technique others aren't as flexible they need to
carry the club back and and they want to make a longer backswing and others their
tempo gets really abrupt and that causes that left arm to sort of collapse and
when that happens we lose leverage but what we also lose is that established
radius I know I'm getting a little technical this is about as technical as
I get guys but we're losing that established radius of our swing so
imagine the circle that the club is swinging on right the club is swinging
around a circle that goes around your body if we allow that left arm to
collapse at all at any stage of the swing the circle just got smaller so now
the likelihood the physics involved of getting that club to come back to the
ball become exponentially more difficult right so we're not only losing power but
making crisp solid impact with that ball in a three lever system is much much
much more difficult because you have to allow that club allow the
left arm to straighten out as you approach impact and allow the release of
the club right so the the the wrists are unhinging so you've got both of those
levers on the hinging and by the way in the follow-through everything sort of
riehen jiz as your right arm is extending and everything riehen jiz so
all that is happening and is there's a huge huge timing and emphasis there so
it's it becomes really hard to make really good solid contact and even when
you do make good solid contact you're not leveraged enough to really
deliver a lot of power and so that's that's what I was sort of thinking and
that's what I was sort of feeling in my range session before I eat it up today
and I think I was just getting a little bit abrupt in the top of my backswing so
as things were sort of reaching the top of the backswing even if it was just a
little bit if if I was either getting quick and I was losing the radius of
that swing I was losing that good solid – lever system that I know delivers the
club right back to the ball repeatedly so I was doing that and I was I was
focusing on you know good body turn good smooth transition and then maintaining
that sort of firm left arm so that I was maintaining that radius and the leverage
through the ball and my divots were shallow the club was coming back to the
ball repeatedly I hit a lot a lot of shots today right on the middle of the
clubface hit him dead straight right right in the direction where I was
looking and my numbers were right on I think I was even I was even carrying the
ball especially with my driver picked up a few yards and because of that leverage
factor and so it was a really good ball striking day and I thought it might make
some sense to share with you guys what was going through my head and where I
was coming from as far as you know feeling like number one I'm
trying I'm always trying to remove tension right so there's a balance there
we're not squeezing the club we're still relaxed but there's a structure in place
meaning that to lever system that we want to maintain as we're swinging for
the purpose of reliability or repeatability I should say and that to
lever system brings a lot more power so maybe that will help you maybe it's
something to give a try next time you get out and hit some shots start with
some small swings just make some a little nine o'clock swings with with a
nice wide try to try to keep you know your hands keep keep your hands away
from your body as you're swinging around and you'll feel like okay my my core has
to rotate but as I'm doing that I can't do it too abruptly because everything
collapses towards your body as you get to to abrupt if you jerk the club down
from the top you know so start small and then work up bigger feel that good
rhythm feel that leverage feel the club shallowing out as it comes into impact
so your divots aren't going to be real deep and you know ripping up huge sod
farms and hopefully you're delivering the club powerfully and hitting the ball
in the middle of the club face a little more often hope that helps you guys talk
to you soon
