49. A good golf swing is a dynamic, flowing, synchronised movement working in conjunction with a faculty we all possess in abundance, "Hand & Eye co-ordination. It is the culmination of years of practise and while it is available to virtually everyone, it is only truly mastered by a small percentage of players

I am not saying for a moment that every player can have a swing like Ernie Els but everyone could develop certain beneficial characteristics of it to a lesser degree.  There can be no doubt that starting as a youngster has distinct advantages as a child’s mindset is wonderful for learning the all important basic principles without the burden of adult inhibitions. Most of the worlds Professional tours started between the age of 8 and 12.

So if a dynamically synchronised powerful swing is there for grabs, why do we not see more of them? Well here is one reason I can offer that affects many players. Have you ever tried that memory challenge when someone recites to you a list of say 20 everyday objects and you have to try and recite the list back? Most people can remember the first 4 or 5 objects and the last 1 or 2. 

The first golf lessons an adult has are the ones usually the best remembered. The mind at the beginning is totally devoid of any golf clutter so the first snippets of instruction taken on board are the ones that form the platform for your golf game. This is where the problem starts. Nearly all the early instruction is of a STATIC nature.

The set up is a static position and keen student spends endless time on checking this position and making minor adjustments. The swing is often taught in stages with the first stage ending at somewhere about hip height. This position becomes a reference point from now on as the pupil builds up the movement. The top of the backswing, again, becomes a reference point as we check we are still on track. For most adults, learning to swing becomes an exercise in remembering and continually adding to a list of instruction. The two most popular tips that everyone, including non golfers so it seems, are familiar with are "Keep your head still" and "Keep your left arm straight", both of them heavily ladened with STATIC overtones. This over emphasis of the early instruction that we remember in detail sadly conditions us for a swing that is not only difficult to get started but is interrupted in mid flow when we do get it going. It is a swing far removed from the one described at the start of this column.

It is interesting to point out that it is possible for anyone to memorize shopping lists of up to several thousand articles. It is done by linking all the objects into a pictorial story using your IMAGINATION. Remember the story and you remember the list of objects in sequence. By some strange coincidence, IMAGINATION is the thing that youngsters use in abundance. Not for them the boring tedious analytical approach, they put it all together by picturing their favourite player as they play act and simply let their Hand and Eye co-ordination do the rest.     

"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" - Albert Einstein