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"Swing Thoughts"The goal of a golfer is to have a swing that is consistent and will repeat itself under pressure. The best way to achieve that is to have a thought process that repeats itself and is consistent. If you think the same thoughts before and during the golf swing, you will hit the ball more consistently. Let's take a look at some swing thoughts that you can consider that might help make you a more consistent golfer. Not after you step up. Before. You have to be approaching the ball with the target already selected, so that when you get there, you don't waste time thinking of extraneous thoughts. This helps to simplify things, as well as helping to reduce moments of indecision. When you set up to the ball, your legs, hips and shoulders should be parallel to the target line. Your body's posture should be flexed and balanced. (See a golfing magazine, book or video to see more detailed examples of good set-ups.) Somewhere around this time, most golfers take either a waggle, or a practice swing. It is in these practice swings that the correct swing thoughts should be utilized every time as practice for the real swing. You can think of many things in between shots, but once you're set-up, you think about keeping your thought process clean through the swing. This thought should be something that will produce a smooth takeaway, for if you start off too fast, you'll ruin the swing from the outset. Some possible takeaway thoughts: "Smooth, one-piece takeaway," "Baaaaack anddddd...," "Slow, and easy." Most people have their own thoughts to trigger their swings, but it's important that they stay the same. For all of these thoughts, remember... The backswing is only there to get you into position to hit the ball on the downswing. This is perhaps the hardest thing to do in golf. The backswing takes about one, full second. The takeaway thought uses up about 1/4 to 1/2 of that second. You have from 1/2 to 3/4 of a second where you can't let any new, negative thoughts enter your mind. Here is where anxiety, over-analysis and self-doubt often enter the mind and foul up the swing. "Is my left arm straight?" "Is this enough club to get it over that lake?" "Man, I could really use a big drive this hole," etc. All of these thoughts during this part of the swing foul up the timing at the most critical time and tend to mess up lots of shots. Don't let extraneous thoughts into your mind on the backswing. Concentrate on that ball until you reach the completion of your backswing, where you will... Think of it. The backswing sequence is hands, arms, shoulders, trunk, hips, thighs, knees, feet. The downswing sequence should be the opposite, with the feet, knees, thighs and hips beginning the chain reaction swing until the arms and hands deliver the blow at impact. Some thoughts to help trigger the downswing might include one of these: "Plant your left heel back onto the ground," "Slide your left knee laterally toward the target," and "Push your weight off the right foot onto the left foot." All of these body movements serve to transfer the weight, that had been moving to the right, back to the left (similar to the stride a baseball hitter takes when hitting). Remember, the purpose of both the backswing and the downswing is to make you strike through the ball squarely. If you don't hit it square, none of the other tips matter. The key thing to remember from this week's tips is to try to build up a consistent thinking pattern, which, hopefully, can lead to a consistent ball striking pattern. If you're a good golfer already, you've probably got something that works effectively for you. But, if you're not, try developing a backswing thought and a downswing trigger that can remain consistent for a whole round. It should help get you on the road to more consistent golf. |