59. To truly understand what is meant by passive hands, you need to have an understanding of what active hands are. In other words you need to have educated hands

An American by the name of Joseph C. Dey is quoted as saying, “One of the reasons we can't always translate the words of our instructors into effective swings is we really don't understand what our instructor is saying"

As I have mentioned in another Lesson, golf coaching language is a language all of its own and there is no doubt that a lot of the essence of the golf swing is lost in the words we try to describe it with. A pro can often come out with a statement that makes total sense to himself but leaves the pupil scratching their heads.

I remember reading once that some of the top players felt they hit the ball through their stomachs. It sounded so bizarre that I thought it must be a misprint, but no, as the years went by the statement slowly began to make sense through my own experiences and improved ball striking.

Another often used bit of "golf speak" is the term "passive hands." To most players, they would immediately think from this that the hands do nothing more than simply hang on to the club but to truly understand what is meant by passive in this case, you need to have an understanding of what active hands are. In other words you need to have educated hands.

Lowering your "centre of gravity" and "body dynamics" are two more terms that fall way short of describing the message totally and "holding the power on thru the ball" is a disaster if taken at its face value. They can only be really known through your own findings. As a famous philosopher once said and I have quoted him before in these lessons, "No mans knowledge can go beyond his experience."

Remember that the words are only clues, or rather signposts, that send you off in a direction to find the message for yourself.