2010

2010
Butler Cabin, Augusta National (c) Burgh Golfer

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

the Why in golf instruction

I found this article on the Golf dash Blog ver intersting.  In the article, John states that golf scores have barely improved over the past thirty years even with all of the new technology.  I have a theory as to why this is the case.

I have always found it interesting that golf instruction and tips typically come in the form of “how to do something” rather than “why”? Obviously, a player needs to understand how to perform the fundamentals of the golf swing; proper grip, stance, posture, etc. However, a player also needs to understand why they are making the change or improvement.  If they do not understand the "why" then they will not understand the ramifications of a movement.

I believe this is why so many players that take lessons never really improve. The instructor never fully explains why the change is necessary and the role the change plays in the overall swing and swing sequence. So, they make a change for a brief period of time then slide back into old, bad habits.

I recently discovered a mistake I was making in my right hand grip. Although I knew that I needed to have the club in my two middle fingers it was too much in my palm. The result was I was not able to break my right wrist enough going back to create the angle necessary for a proper wrist load. This led to inconsistent hits and a lack of power. Although I have been told how many times, I never translated the how to the why. In other words, why is it so important to properly set the right wrist in the backswing? As a right handed player it is the difference between a proper wrist load and not. It affected my entire golf swing on every shot from the driver to the shortest wedge shot. With the change, I have much more consistency and a lot more power with less effort.

If we learn why then we can groove proper muscle memory and all achieve lasting improvements. Just knowing how is not always good enough.

1 comment:

  1. Great tip on keeping the right hand palm off the grip. www.realgoodlotsorhomes.com

    ReplyDelete