About Hitting a Golf Ball

Transcription

1 About Hitting a Golf Ball There are three key principles you need to understand about hitting a golf ball, before you can have success learning how to hit a golf ball: 1) Deliberate Hit ( A to B) - You are not for instance, trying to make some lower body motion first or delay the hit or other such nonsense. You are just hitting that ball. 2) D i rection of The Hit - You are pushing the clubhead through the ball and to the right of the target line. 3) Follow T h ro u g h - It is interesting to note that seemingly correcting what you do just a f t e r you have struck the ball is the key to striking the ball well. The actual action of hitting that ball (the following Step) will be made e a s y for you, through a full understanding of these three principles. 1

2 1) A Deliberate Hit You Hit That Ball N e v e r, Never, Never forget that y o u are hitting that b a l l. It is a very deliberate (A to B) action like hitting a nail on the head. You are not getting into positions or making some motion near the ball in the hope that all will go well. Technique In Natural Golf, there is no technique to hit the ball for you, like turn your left hip and let this action pull the clubhead through the ball. In Natural Golf, there is no technique to do the job for you. You are just going to have to hit that ball yourself. The more you do it the better you will get. Try and develop some technique to do the job for you and... This point separates the pros & future pros from the hackers. Work on what you like when making practice swings, but any and every time you hit that ball, you are hitting that ball, not turning your hip,. keeping your foot down, etc... you are there and doing nothing else but just plain and simple, hitting that ball! This is the essence of the Natural Golf Program. A to B Hitting That Ball as outlined, is a very deliberate action that when viewed with stop action would reveal a beautiful golf swing with loads of things to analyse on the way down. Don't 2

3 Hit Tour Way Out Of Any Difficulty After honestly completing the Natural Golf program, if your game gets a bit rusty, you just hit your way out of any difficulty. Keep your attention out there and continue crushing the ball out on the course or the range and all will come well of its own accord. It's great. Just hit your way out of any swing problems. On the way down, if you spend time worrying about angles, elbow position, weight transfer, etc. you will spend your golfing career going from A to C to D to... and maybe end up forgetting you were even trying to get to B to begin with. A) The top of the swing B) The ball (impact) Take the clubhead back and just hit that ball. Throw the clubhead directly into the back of it. A to B. Violent Action A close look at impact would reveal a violent action of the clubhead being driven into the ball. Accept that this is what is going on and enjoy compressing that ball. Play Golf You are playing golf when your entire attention is solely on hitting that ball. Putting something extra into a long drive, finessing an approach shot into a tight pin placement, and so on... You are n o t playing golf if you have a n y attention on swing mechanics. Not Just Hitting That Ball About the only thing that makes golf tougher to learn than just trying it on your own, can be getting a golf lesson. Students end up keeping their elbow in, transferring their weight, turning their left hip, doing this, trying not to do that,... But they are no longer just hitting that ball and when the ball doesn't go well they act surprised. Think about what you like during a practice swing, but starting right now, never again think about swing mechanics when you hit that ball. Just hit that ball at a specific targ e t. You must confront that what you are doing is hitting that ball. At the start and throughout your entire career as a g o l f e r, you must make the decision that whenever you hit a ball, what you will be doing is hitting that ball. It is the responsibility of the Natural Golf Program to get you - Playing Golf - Not Thinking About Golf. 3

4 The game of golf and the fun of golf really begins when, what you naturally do to hit that ball long and straight actually works. T h e re is no time to make an indirect motion before you hit that ball. Working with any indirect motion or position on the way down is always destructive. 2) Direction of the Hit It is interesting to note that the clubhead begins inside the target line and if you do not have an orientation to push (throw) it out through the ball and to the right of the targ e t line, you will end up in a very difficult and un-natural situation indeed. Because the clubhead is attached to you via the clubshaft, when the clubhead has been pushed out across the target line, it will then pull you up to a full f i n i s h. 4 Think 30 Degrees You have learned how important it is to keep your left shoulder out through impact. It is interesting to note that your shoulders will point about 30 degrees to the

5 The clubhead is pushed directly down, out and through that ball. left of the direction of your hit through impact. If that direction of the hit is down the target line, your shoulders will get peeled open and cause the ball to slice off to the right (the modern day beginner). If that direction of the hit is about 30 degrees to the right of the target line, your shoulders will effortlessly remain square to the target line through impact and the ball will go dead straight. This whole concept shouldn't be that surprising. Just set up in front of a golf ball and with your right hand in the top of the backswing position, throw another golf ball at that one in front of you. Note the direction of the throw/hit. At the top of the throw, a line drawn between the ball on the ground and the ball in your right hand will show it to be at least 30 degrees inside the target line. And the ball after you have thrown it, will bounce out about at least 30 degrees out to the right of the target line. In golf, you are simply throwing the clubhead at (and through) the ball - A to B. (A) Would be the actual path of the clubhead. (B) Would represent what you are trying to do and how it would feel. Your body remains pushed back, feeling no forward or rotary movement until this extension has been passed t h r o u g h. You will think that the ball would go to the right of the t a rget, but will soon find that it goes straight and long! Note: When you try this, throw the ball as hard as you can and really extend your hand deep into the throw - chasing the ball. 5

6 Direction of The Hit Exercise Chip balls with the clubface closed down. Work until you can chip them straight. Then square the clubface up and chip some straight. Now do the same with a full swing, hit with clubface closed down and then with clubface straight. Use about a 9 iron for this exercise. A With the clubface closed, a regular hit will result with the ball going left. B Pulling on the clubshaft to square up the clubface is not the point of this exercise. C Square the clubface up at impact by simply hitting much further to the right of the target line. S t e e r i n g Steering is what results from a total loss of confidence in the direction of the hit and spells instant disaster. Steering is any effort to hit down the target line or manipulate the clubface to try and square it up to or keep it on the target line. Just hit down out across the t a rget line and allow the clubface to naturally close as you push to full extension. 6

7 Steering Exercise Throw a ball at a target and as your arm is approaching your ear begin to make minute attempts to redirect your aim of the ball. Notice how this throws your body out ahead of your throw and creates some real imbalance. Now just throw a ball at the targ e t. You must throw the clubhead through the golf ball. Any back-off and you will never get there. You have to be willing to miss the target with the golf ball so as to be able to learn how to get more accurate hitting at the target. Steering will stop improvement and prevent you from learning to play golf or throw a ball for that matter. If you take some time and get the fundamentals as outlined in the program, you will never need to steer - manipulate the c l u b f a c e. Steering is lost confidence in your "direction of hit" and a resulting misguided effort to try and hit down the target line. 7

8 3) Follow Through It is interesting that the key to learning how to hit the ball well is contained in a full understanding of what happens just after the ball has been struck. There is a condition just after you have struck the ball that is called Follow Through: You have pushed the clubhead deep out past your left shoulder* * This is a feeling and relative position. What will characterise Follow Through is: 1) Both arms are straight. 2) Both wrists are fully uncocked. 3) Clubshaft is in a straight line with the left arm. 4) Both wrists are flat. 5) Shoulder line about parallel to target line. 6) The clubface will have been pushed slightly closed (as a result of both wrists being fully uncocked). Follow Through / A Condition It is more productive to think of Follow Through as a condition rather than a position. When you are hitting that ball it is not something you worry about. Rather. it is something that you must become aware of and hitting through. This is the key to consistency, power and accuracy. Throughswing Positions There are no positions between the top of the swing and Follow Through. To look at, study or try and manipulate any such position is totally Destructive of Hitting That Ball. There are two pulling conditions that can stop you from hitting through to Follow Through Position: 1) Your hands have pulled ahead of the clubhead, blocking any Follow Through. 2) Your hands have pulled back, stopping the clubhead from being pushed out deep. Follow Through has a very exact definition. Every shot is hit out through Follow Through. You don't try and hold this position but it is a position you will pass through just after you have struck the ball. It represents a condition of having pushed everything totally into the shot. Anything less than this is an indication of some pulling or bailing out of the shot. 8

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10 Follow Through Exercise Take some shorter shots and then, as you gain proficiency, gradually longer shots. Keep at it until your whole full swing is a smooth unencumbered motion. Work to see that each swing contains a full and complete Follow Through. This condition of Follow Through is even more important than the whole idea of pushing. Pushing only exists to get you through Follow Through. Continuing to work on a swing without first getting in Follow Through, would be analogous to a dog chasing and trying to catch his tail. It is a disheartening and futile endeavour. Do we make our point? Once you fully appreciate and understand hitting out through Follow Through, any mystery to the game will have ended. The natural way you would hit the ball will now work. 10

11 Staying in The Swing or Bailing Out Don't Avoid Impact Initially, be willing to accept that what you are doing is a totally premeditated and a totally violent action and you will have no problem. You will struggle around avoiding and swinging at that ball forever, unless you get in there and confront that what you are doing is deliberately and violently crushing that ball at impact. A dainty (backing off) swing and an apparent thunderous (overpowering) swing are just two sides of an unwillingness to just deliberately throw that clubhead into that ball. When you finally fully confront hitting through the ball, the mass (resistance) of the ball becomes nothing compared to the force generated by any natural golfer's hit of the ball. Hit Against YourHeels Your weight is heavy in your feet at address (a bit more toward your heels than the balls of your feet). This is maintained through the backswing and when you are coming down to hit that ball. Your feet connect you to the ground and it is this anchor that enables you to generate your power. When you are hitting that ball, it is helpful to have the feeling you are hitting against your heels a bit more. This helps keep your body back and gives you more power as you come down. To really stay in the swing: Extend deep down, out & through into Follow Through (see exact definition on previous page) away from the right hip and right knee which get pushed back. To the degree you fall short of this, you are bailing out of the swing. The anatomy of any Bailing Out of the shot is Pulling and a lack of resolve to push deep into Follow Through and Complete The Swing. It is a piece of magic when you see for yourself how: The Club Will Push Straight The Mis-Hit Shot There are two really horrible things that can happen. First, you can peel the ball to the right. Second, you can yank the ball to the left. Be aggressive. Execute the swing aggressively as stated and if you mis-hit it, you will miss it straight. When you maintain a strong intention to complete the swing as outlined no matter what, there is a self correcting mechanism built into the swing! It is virtually impossible not to hit the ball straight if you hit through Follow Trough 11

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