Good advice for helping your rhythm

We have timed a shot well only when we feel we have remained a long time in contact with the ball, "gathering it up and slinging it off the face of the club.

If we are to do this, the club head must have sufficient power to take up the shock of impact and still keep accelerating. If at the moment of impact we stop the forward pull of the left side (which is what we will do if we aim at the ball), this power is not available and the club head cannot, as it should, continue accelerating in contact with the ball until the ball rebounds from it.

We have timed a shot well only when we feel we have remained a long time in contact with the ball. If we stop the forward pull of the left side at the moment of impact with the ball, we do not set up the resistance necessary to take up the shock of impact and at the same time to keep the club head accelerating until the ball rebounds from it. In fact if we let up on the forward pull when we strike the ball, we "stop the club head at the ball/' an absolutely cardinal fault in swinging. That is why I always tell my pupils (and repeat it time after time in this book) never try to hit the ball; cultivate a sweep through the ball, and let the ball be nothing more than an incident in the swing.

Until you have built up your correct psychophysical reflexes to control your swing you will have to use your will power not to try to hit the ball. Your club head has to sweep down and through, gathering speed progressively. But the climax of this acceleration, as I tell you, must be not at the ball but away past it. If we make the ball our center of attraction, our acceleration will culminate at that point, and since our
effort will be exhausted, we shall not be able to "stay with the ball."

Now I have found that people who feel like this do so because they over swing. Over swinging is the natural result of trying to hit the ball; the three-quarter swing is the natural result of trying to sweep through and past the ball. The three-quarter swing puts the natural climax of acceleration of the club head where it should be, about a yard past the ball, but if you go back too far, you will not be able to maintain acceleration to this point.

From which arises a curious and valuable illustration of teaching methods. As you know, I do not like simply to say to a pupil, "You came down outside," or "You are over swinging." These faults are mainly not mechanical at all; they arise from a false conception, and if I correct the false conception, the fault cures itself. In this case I found that the people who were over swinging were doing so because they were concentrating on the ball.

When I had explained that the climax of acceleration must be a yard or so past the ball, their back swings began to shorten automatically because they felt the need for a reserve of effort to enable them to go on past the ball.

In short the good golfer measures the length of his back swing by the feel of his follow through. He is not consciously aware how far back he goes but he is aware of the acceleration climax point away past the ball. This point and not the ball is the true center of the swing, and obviously the farther past the ball it is placed, the shorter must the back swing be.

Sign up to your free golf ecourse