68. Experience the body playing a more complimentary role in your action rather than a dominant role

In a separate piece, I related the wonderful and simple statement by the well respected John Jacob’s, which summed up his idea of a good swing which was “Two turns and a swish”. This lesson, I want to tell you what gives us the swish, where it occurs and how you can develop it. But first of all, why do you need it? Quite simply, you need it because the swish is club head speed and it is club head speed that gives us distance. The swish, for it to be effective, will be at its most audible peak through the locality of the ball. Maximum club head speed can only be achieved by the correct use of the hand and arm rotational action. To develop swish in your swing, I suggest you try the following drill the next time you are on the range. Try hitting a few shots with your feet together using no more than a 6 or 7 iron; be sure to swing a bit softer and a bit shorter. (If you have a back, hip or knee problem, put your feet about 6 inches apart and be careful.) If you find yourself falling over swinging from this narrow base, it could well be that you are over applying the body action.

Be sure to persevere though because self preservation will come to your aid as you instinctively reduce the over working body action. The reduced body action will now take on more of a complimentary role rather than dominant role. When this happens you may well experience a magical thing because the hands and arms will now come into play which the dominant body did not allow before. When you swing the hands and arms, you also swing the club head and swinging the club head creates the swish.*

More often than not, you will find you hit the ball just as far and in some cases further, as well as gaining more consistency with half the effort you previously applied. The aim now is to take this emphasized hand and arm swing and apply it to a conventional stance. Do not allow the body and its big muscles fool you into thinking they are required for long shots, they are not. Try to experience the body in a more complimentary role in your action rather than a dominant role. If you can achieve this you will have a follow through position that would grace the front cover of any national golf magazine and a more effective golf game as well.

(* Book half an hour with a Pga Pro for him or her to show you how the hand action works,)