Having a tension-free, relaxed golf swing is, in my opinion, the key to producing a powerful, consistent golf swing. Here’s why.

This has been one of the biggest breakthroughs of the year so far for me. Again, it’s easy to just dismiss this concept and go, “yeah, yeah, tension-free, loose-as-a-goose, blah, blah, blah, . . . heard it all before.”

How this really started to make sense was thinking about swinging the club versus hitting at the ball. I knew I was constricted somehow and was not maximizing my potential. There was no speed “through the ball” and an abbreviated follow through that left all my power behind and nothing through the ball.

I also started watching a lot of LPGA golf and really studying how the women really know how to swing the club. It’s the free, uninhibited swinging (with a powerful release at the bottom) that helps them hit a golf ball such incredible distances with such seeming ease.

It’s not by accident. But us men (and I’m mostly talking about me) really fight this thing called “hit-itis.” In trying to really hit it hard to keep up with your long hitting playing partners. And the more you try to power it or put some additional “ummff” into your swing it ends up even worse and robs you of considerable distance.

That’s the damnest thing about golf. It’s all counter-intuitive. The seemingly easier you swing, the farther the ball goes.

Here are just a few ideas to help YOU re-enforce a relaxed, powerful, tension-free golf swing:

1. Think Thoughts of Relaxation – Tension in the mind really causes tension in the body (and vice versa) so really try to think thoughts of relaxation. Try thoughts on like, “Less is more, ” “I’m swinging freer and easier than ever before,” “I have more and more freedom in my swing,” “It really feels effortless (and powerful) to swing the club freely.”

Don’t think “hit hard,” think “swing smooth.” Feel your body relaxed. Shake out any tension. Think Freddy Couples or Ernie Els or any LPGA player as you are going through this process.

2. Hit 100 Yard Drivers – I keep going back and back to this drill because it really allows you to feel the right positions without going at it 100%. Counter-intuitively, most of us need to to get back to what a swing “feels” like without trying to hit at the ball.

In this drill, feel like the club is light as a feather but get still feel the weight of the club head. Keep your arms (and grip) as loose as possible. There just going along for the ride. Swing about 30%. Does not matter where the ball goes. Try to hit it 100 yards. You’re just trying to feel the swing with the ball getting in the way.

Once you start to feel the swing (this may take a few balls or a few buckets) turn up the percentage to say, 50 or even more to 75 but don’t (I repeat, don’t) be in a hurry to swing harder until you start to really feel a “swing” not a hit.

Just for now try to forget about distance. Thinking about it is just gonna mess you up when trying to integrate a new paradigm into your golf game. Distance will come as a result of a free golf swing. So just for now, chill about distance. It will come.

3. Visualization – When not practicing, try to take some time to “see” yourself on one of your favorite tee-boxes and imagine a free, relaxed yet powerful swing. Feel like it’s just effortless. Can you see that?

It might be hard at first but as you practice you’ll start to re-enforce the kinesthetic feeling you felt on the range the couple times you really swung with a feeling of effortlessness and the ball just exploded off the clubface.

As you move through your day visualize an effortless golf swing. “See” a full, relaxed finish. That’s a cue that a lot of good stuff has happened before.

4. Construct a Solid Core and Base – I’m convinced than ever that having a solid core and base is essential to playing optimum golf. Makes sense, right? But what are you doing to build it.

I recommend getting a book like Core Performance Golf and really practicing their “core” routines. It’s one that a ton of pros use and it’s proven and time tested. It will help your game in ways you cannot imagine.

Greg Norman said that most people have it completely opposite in the golf swing. He said they think of having a strong firm upper body and and relaxed legs when he said you really should think about a firm solid, base and a loose, relaxed upper body.

One bonus exercise that is not in the core performance program is Kettle Bell Swings. Get yourself a Kettlebell (fairly heavy. At least 40 lbs or so) and then watch the video below to see how to perform it properly.

In my opinion and what I have heard from some tour players is that THIS IS the magic exercise. I should probably even charge for this. It’s that amazing. It strengthens your core and pelvic region like no other exercise! After just a week or so you’ll just be amazed. I promise. Just give it a try and see for yourself.

5. Watch Women’s Golf – Some people don’t even know they are “hitters” as they know no other way. It’s the only way they have ever swung a club. If that’s the case (or even if it’s not) I would really encourage you to watch some of the LPGA player golf swings.

I mean how do these women hit it so long when it looks like a wedge swing? Well, they know how to swing a club. They know it’s uninhibited speed that matters, not muscle or force.

For example, watch the Lorena Ochoa golf swing below. In her prime (when she was playing) she was 5′ 6″ tall and 120 pounds. So how did her average drive distance be consistently 270 yards +? Simple, she knew how to swing the club with a free-flowing, uninhibited motion. It’s just a cool thing to watch!

Watch Lorena Ochoa’s golf swing in the video below and really study it. Watch it over and over. Just listen for the “swoosh” in her practice swing. She is really generating some tension-free speed in that swing.

6. Try Trager Massage – Not many people know about this but it’s one of the best soft tissue massages that is extremely beneficial to golfers.

In a nutshell, Trager is a type of massage that feels like you are being gentle shaken or rocked. It is startling how well this works. It really frees up any restriction you have in your body and creates new mental patterns of what fit feels like to have complete freedom of motion.

It’s hard to actual describe it in words. Just find a practitioner by going to the below site and experience it for yourself.

Trager Massage

7. Keep At It – It’s taken you years and years of “hitting” at the ball and to change that around will take time. No two ways about it. This has been a really tough thing for me. Especially in the latter part of the round when I get a little tired. It’s so easy to revert back to our “crush it” mentality.

But fight it. Realize that new patterns take time. Just ask Tiger. Anytime he has gone through a swing change it has take almost a full season (or more) to start to feel like it’s integrated and natural.

And don’t just practice go out and play. You need to feel the rhythm of a round. not just pounding ball after ball on the range. Sometimes it’s nice to go out in the later evening and just play 9 holes. You are not rushed and can really put into play the new patterns your body is learning.

I’m convinced a tension-free, relaxed golf swing is the key to playing your best golf. All the above has helped me and hope the twill help you, too.

I’m really thinking of creating a book out of this to really flesh out more of the points and add even more ideas, practices and drills that have been shared with me. If you’re interested in hearing more, please comment below.

Photo above: LPGA Tour Professional, Si Ri Pak

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Here’s something to seriously think about this season if you really want to get better. Forget all the swing theories you have floating around your head when you’re playing a round that you’re scoring. They aren’t going to help at that moment. On second thought, they’re really going to hurt. To play well, you have to ‘feel it’.

Of course, you already know that. Nobody had to tell you. What we’re all searching for is how to ‘feel it’. If you could walk up to the first tee and ‘feel it’ you’d be dangerous. Here’s how to ‘feel it’.

First, convince yourself that a technical analysis of the golf swing is not going to help you once you pull the club from the bag. If you’re thinking about mechanics at that point, my advice is to hit yourself in the forehead with your driver handle, rest 10 seconds and start your shot routine again.

The second part of that advice is this; if you happen to hit a monster drive down the middle of the fairway, put it immediately out of your mind. Convince yourself that it was somebody else if you have to. Don’t give it another thought. Just keep feeling the unmanipulated transition between backswing and downswing.

Maybe you’re starting to see what I mean, or, perhaps you’d like to strangle me about now. What is this guy talking about? Just Feel It! Say that one more time and you’ll be wondering how you got a ‘golf pride’ tattoo on your forehead.

But you know I can’t resist giving you the secret, so her it is: The transition between the backswing and the downswing is where the real action is. If you can’t feel the entire transition, you have only a random chance of hitting a good shot. Yes, I said ‘random’.

The transition point is IT my friend. It is the most delicate shifting of gears, the moment when backwards changes to forwards, the point at which the slightest outside force (you trying to do something) can (and will) ruin the entire swing. This is the point that Steven Yellin is trying to train you to manage so your motor center can act without interference from your prefrontal cortex – the part of your brain telling you that a shank would be a very embarrassing shot on the 50 yard wedge shoot you’re contemplating.

I’m not sure how you can tune in to the transition point in your swing, but I can relate my own experience: We forget what’s important – the transition from backswing to downswing – because our mind goes out to the target instead of being focused ‘behind the ball’. The time honored advice of ‘visualizing your desired ball flight’ as you stand behind your ball is fine, just don’t do it as you start your backswing. At that point it’s all about feeling the entire transition part of your swing because, if you can feel it, you can learn to let it happen, to stop trying to ‘make it happen’ (which is what you’re doing when you’re focused on anything ‘in front of the ball’. When you’re relaxed, meaning your wrists hinge and release without effort, you’ve removed the bad idea in your head that the best way to effectively hit a shot is to manipulate the club head. Bad, very bad.

They proved 20 to 30 years ago that not even Arnold Schwarzenegger or Johnny Miller could manipulate the club head on an 8 iron that’s quickly approaching 80 to 100 mile an hour. Gravity can, but you can’t! Let the wrists and hands relax at the top of the backswing instead of tighten and you just might surprise yourself. Watch, or rather ‘feel’, the beautiful, fluid transition from backswing to downswing and you might actually get some freedom (which equates to club head speed) in your swing. You’ll feel ‘loose’. ‘Loose’ is good on the golf course when it comes to making club head/golf ball contact. ‘Loose’ is consistent, powerful and long.

If you’re mind is busy trying to feel the transition from backwards to forwards in the golf swing, it won’t be telling you about all the things that could go wrong. It won’t move your concentration from the ‘transition’ point to somewhere down the course where you might go out of bounds or land in a lateral hazard.

If you can manage this for a couple of shots something beautiful happens, you stop thinking about mechanics and you just start swinging. A swing that you feel but don’t try to control. The ‘great realization’ hits you at this moment – the golf swing is all about winding up and then just ‘relaxing’ or ‘letting go’. A happy ‘letting the club do it’s thing’. A thing without tension. A thing that brings joy!

If I ever play a round with you and you’re ‘feeling it’, please let me know so I won’t be tempted to make any stupid bets!

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Here’s the scenario; You’re taking the club back too far on the outside or too far on the inside (or doing some other ghastly thing you wish you weren’t) and realize that if you don’t make a change your game isn’t going to get any better.

So you make the commitment—Time for a swing change! You head off to the range fully committed, buy an extra large bucket of balls and dive in head first. After pounding away for an hour, you realize you’re not making the progress you hoped for. You can make the change on some shots, but the old pattern emerges again and again dampening your enthusiasm and sparking frustration.

So how can you accelerate the process and make the changes stick?

Making a swing change is a like a potter molding a piece of clay. First the clay has to be moistened. After that it’s malleable and can be easily shaped. Changing a golf swing is very similar. You’re asking your body to do something new and unfamiliar. To be successful you have to make your mind flexible like the potter does with his clay. If you don’t, then mind will resist change.

The mind (conscious and unconscious) controls the body and if you want to change a motion you have to change where motion originates—you have to make the mind very ‘fluid’. You can’t be like a bull in a china shop, announce your intentions and force the issue. The body will just not respond—or it will not respond the way you want it to. To be successful requires an understanding of how the parts of our mind interact. Recent discoveries in neuroscience have now made this possible. Quiet Mind Golf  teaches how to use this knowledge to create the ‘fluid’ mind necessary for successful learning of new motor skills.

With a fluid mind, mechanical flaws will start to correct on their own. Why? Because when the mind is fluid, you are allowing the body to find a simpler way to execute a golf swing. You allow the body to do what it knows how to do (you’ve hit plenty of good shots in your career) and not be restricted by conscious thought.

So how do you make the mind fluid? QuietMindGolf.com will give you further insights on this, but here is a simple way to begin the process.

Understanding that the mind has to become quiet in order for the body to gain flexibility is the first step. When you’re over the ball, quiet the mind. That is not difficult to do if you make it a priority and use some simple QuietMindGolf drills to aid the process. Then without thinking of any swing changes, hit some balls. After hitting 10 or 15 balls, very gently introduce the swing change you want to make on the next 10 or 15. The key phrase is ‘very gently’. Feel like you’re sneaking up on the change rather than forcing the issue. If the mind loses that quiet feeling, then stop thinking about the swing change and re-establish a quiet mind before returning softly to the swing change.

If you follow this process, the body will respond more effectively to the intentions the mind is giving it and the swing change you hoped for will become reality!

Check out my VIDEO on YouTube

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1. Neuroscience and the Golf Swing
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We’ve all been there.

You have a solid round going and then out of nowhere, you block a drive OB right, and you’re thinking, ‘there goes the round’. In your mind you are going over all the possibilities of what could have happened—too quick at the top, too quick at the bottom and a host of other possible culprits. So you start planning for the next drive and promise that you won’t make the same mistake twice. You promise to yourself that a smart player does not make the same mistake twice in one round.

Let’s try to make you an even smarter player and understand the situation from a more fundamental perspective of which you may not be aware.

It is no secret that the mind controls the body. You don’t have to be a sports psychologist to understand this fact. But most golfers are not aware of how the mind controls the body. And therein lies the problem.

It is like looking at a beautiful tree and not understanding the dynamics of how the root nourishes the whole tree. If you just understand the tree on the level of the branches, fruits or flowers, then you do not have a comprehensive understanding of the tree. And if you understand a swing just on the level of the different parts of the swing, then you are also missing a crucial, if not the most crucial dimension of a golf swing.

When a good swing starts to break down in a round, something first breaks down in the mind. If you have an understanding of this, then it will much easier and less painful to correct a swing during the course of a round. So let’s look at how the mind produces a solid golf swing.

In order to produce any motion in the body, whether it is swinging a golf club or walking across the street, a signal, an intention about the motion has to be generated in the mind. Now, there are two parts of the brain that are responsible for motion. One is the pre-frontal cortex (also called the CEO of the brain, because it oversees all processes) and the other is the motor system.

When you are hitting the ball very solid, the signal about the swing is not intercepted by the pre-frontal cortex and goes directly to the motor system. But when you blocked that drive, the signal got intercepted by the pre-frontal cortex and was delayed in moving to the motor system. The body, in the middle of the swing, was looking for direction from the mind (this happens in milliseconds, but it happens), and that direction was not forthcoming and as a result, the bulkier muscles played a more dominate roll than you would like in the swing and you couldn’t release at impact. Hence, the block.

Now, your first impulse after you hit that poor drive is to try to correct it on the level of the swing. That’s a good first impulse. But a more powerful impulse would be to try to correct it on the level of where the swing originated. Remember, you have hit thousands of good drives. The memory of those drives is not stored in the body, but in the mind. There is no such thing as muscle memory, because the muscles do not have the ability to remember anything. The memory is actually stored in the motor system, in the cerebellum and basil ganglia, and if a signal gets interrupted during a swing, then these two crucial parts of the brain cannot do their job correctly.

This is the understanding of a breakdown of a golf swing from the most fundamental level. It is similar to understanding the tree from the level of the root. Now the question is what do you do on the next swing? That’s the $64,000 question.

You approach the problem from two angles. Certainly, you can understand the breakdown of the swing from an objective level—plain and simple, you just didn’t release the club. But that thought should not be in neon lights in your mind in preparation for the next swing.

If it is, then the pre-frontal cortex will just capture that signal and you will probably repeat the same flawed swing. The most fundamental intention on the next swing should be to just to do less. This is a swing thought that will never let a good golfer down.

All good swings are stored in the motor system and all that is needed is to allow the memory of those swings to unfold. Nothing much needs to be added to that memory, you just have to be sure not to add additional layers that will prevent you from accessing what you already know to do.

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1. The Right Way To Change Your Swing
2. Swing Keys vs Swing Thought
3. The Golf Swing Is Pretty Simple

We have a real treat for all you readers who are trying to improve your golf swing and your enjoyment of the game. I’d venture that’s all of us. So what’s so exciting?

There are some new breakthroughs in neuroscience that are having an impact on most sports, especially the learning process and how to maintain the highest levels of performance under pressure. One of the leaders in this science as it’s applied to golf is Steven Yellin. Along with his partner Buddy Biancalana (World Series shortstop for the 1985 Kansas City Royals), they wrote the book  ’The 7 Secrets of World Class Athletes’ in 2010. In it they share the neuroscience behind their work with teams from major league baseball, the NHL, the NFL and countless colleges. Now Steven is bringing the same approach to golf with what he calls ‘Quiet Mind Golf’.

We are fortunate that Steven has agreed to write two articles for us as a guest blogger. The first will be on what happens in the brain when a good swing breaks down. The second will be on the quickest ways to make changes in a swing. I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait as I’ve known that there was going to be a breakthrough in the mental aspect of golf sooner or later.

If you’ve ever felt, like Bobby Jones, that what happens between your ears is the most important part of the game, then you won’t want to miss what Steven has to say. Steven has recently been working with the PGA and will be teaching ‘Quiet Mind Golf’ techniques to PGA professionals. This is exciting stuff and could finally help address golf’s long term popularity issue: that too many golfers plateau their games, stop improving and eventually leave the sport frustrated.

The work that Steven Yellin and Buddy Biancalana have done is not sport psychology, but rather neuroscience. It’s based on new discoveries about how the mind and body actually work together, it’s not the old ‘mind over matter’ stuff. Stay tuned and find out what the buzz is all about. Your mind/body team will thank you and your game is going to improve!

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With the new golf season just around the corner in so many parts of the country, here’s something to try which may significantly improve your game and your fun out on the course; play some rounds with one club and a couple of balls in your pocket. That’s exactly what  my wife and I have been doing for the last 6 weeks in North Carolina. We’re both hitting the ball better, learned new things about our course and our swings. In short, we can’t wait to play our One Club golf.

Our official season won’t start for another month so I’ve been taking the opportunity of the unseasonably nice weather to see if I can’t pick the old game up a notch. My wife and I decided it would be better to take our walks on the golf course, but we didn’t want to be slowed up with all the baggage playing a round usually requires. I’ve played with one club before just to change things up a bit so I thought it would be a good way to have some fun on our walks and still get a good workout.

What we both found was a pretty dramatic improvement in our ball striking, but there were other benefits as well. First we had more time to enjoy the great natural beauty of the course where we play. Instead of worrying about the last shot we had time to notice foliage and wildlife that we probably would have missed. With one club the pace of play is quick because you don’t have to agonize over club selection. There’s also no bag and its attendant paraphernalia to manage. It’s a nice stroll with an occasional swing at a little white ball!

We don’t worry about score, but are pleasantly surprised when we get a par or even birdie using a single club, including putting with it. Makes you think that your strategy for playing certain holes might be all wrong. You end up hitting shots from places you haven’t been before and find out sometimes they’re better approaches. I’ve found that playing 5 iron, 5 iron on a particular par 5 puts me in a great approach position to score well and eliminates trouble that’s all to easy to find when using longer clubs off the tee. This may really sound daft, but I’ve learned a lot about breaks on long putts when using my 21 degree hybrid or a five iron. When you play with one club and no bag there’s not a lot to think about. Maybe that’s why I’ve discovered things about the course that I’ve never noticed before.

One of the most enlightening things to come from playing with one club is how much my ball striking has improved. I can’t explain it scientifically, but it makes sense that by swinging the same club over and over you’d get better just because you’ve eliminated 13 other variables. I also think it helps create a ‘feel’ for a club when you play it for all shots, not just it’s full yardage. I was shocked to discover that I could hit my 21 degree hybrid from a green side bunker. It certainly isn’t the club of choice when you’re short sided, but it increased my confidence in the sand and has opened up a whole new window of shot creativity.

We’ve found so much enjoyment in the One Club approach that we wonder sometimes if we want to go back to 14. Of course we will at some point, but I feel that playing with one club has done more for my game than any other single thing. Give it a try, there’s a good chance your game will improve as well as your enjoyment of the game. And mix it up. So far I’ve used 18 and 21 degree hybrids as well as 5,6, and 7 irons.I also highly recommend it for players just starting out. Trying to hit 13 clubs or even 5 when you’re a rank beginner doesn’t make sense. With a couple of clubs you’ll learn faster what the golf swing is and you’ll play fast enough to hold your own on the course. From here on I’ll always make sure to get out and play some One Club golf no matter what time of year it is!

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Creating a smooth, integrated and powerful golf swing transition is one of the real keys to hitting solid, piercing golf shots. The trick is how can we better “feel” it so we can apply it to our golf swing.

Sean Foley is undoubtedly one of the hottest instructors on the planet today. Of course, being Tiger Wood’s swing coach doesn’t hurt either.

The more I watch and learn from Mr. Foley the more I really like his teaching philosophy. Everything he teaches or most of the videos I view just seem really on the money and simple to me.

Maybe, it’s just me and I somehow resonate more with his vibe or personality or whatever but it just seems to me clear, simple and directly actionable. that is, something you can begin to immediately integrate into your own swing.

The drill Sean shares in the video above is really great. It is something we amateurs probably all struggle with from time to time and that is the transition from backswing to downswing.

It can get downright violent. Like you’re trying to kill a frog with a hockey stick! I know this all to well. And it creates an instant power suck. And you get to proclaim after you hit the ball 130 yards on a 170 yard Par 3, “All arms, all arms!”

There is just no body integration that happens when you have this violent transition. Maybe violent is too harsh but a type of anxiousness that will immediately throw out of whack any hope you have of hitting a solid golf shot.

So please, try the drill that Sean Foley suggests in the video above. Like I said, it’s clear, simple and you can begin to immediately practice it.

It’s also so flexible you can do this anywhere. Us New Englander’s can head outside and practice this anytime, anywhere. You don’t even need a golf ball. To me, that’s a terrific, flexible and valuable golf drill.

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Golf Cards at www.stonehousecollection.com

If you’re reading this you’re probably a student of the game. Come to think of it, anyone who plays more than 5 times a year is a student of the game. Golf is just that way. How many things are there to learn about playing golf? I don’t think anyone has come up with that number yet, at least if you read the ‘how to’s’ in today’s golf magazines. You’ll drive yourself crazy with ideas if you can’t narrow it down. In keeping with the holiday spirit I’d like to share my Swing Keys and Swing Thought, as I try to keep it simple for myself.

At some point, namely when you step up to the first tee, you have to clear that instructional junk out of your mind and play the game. Golfers talk about keeping some ‘swing thought(s)’ in mind during your round. I’m of the school that any more than one thought is futile. Mine is simple – tempo. Golf is a tempo game and this might be the biggest misconception of anyone who thinks they have to ‘hit’ or ‘strike’ the ball. Tempo is the only way to keep the swing path where you want it. Without tempo your going to jerk or pull the club away from it’s path and cause yourself all sorts of problems.

Sam Snead said he used to hum a tune in his head to maintain his tempo. Great golfers look good when they swing. It seems almost effortless. That’s tempo. Golf is a head game and tension can make or break any round in a sport where being relaxed is tantamount. For me, tempo, is a great calming force and an idea I can feel rather than have to think about. It also keeps me from trying to ‘kill the ball’.

What then are Swing Keys? These are the things that most people are trying to remember to do during their swing – like left arm straight, left wrist flat on ad infinitum! As soon as we hit a bad shot our tendency is to try and figure what Swing Key we messed up. This doesn’t work very well while in the heat of battle.  Too often we miss what’s wrong and go and change something that was OK. The result is a death spiral with one bad habit creating another until the golf club feels like a broom!

Swing Keys are what I go over before I go to the first tee as I’m warming up. There’s no pressure then and I can go through my checklist like a pilot before takeoff. This only takes a few minutes, about the average time most amateurs take before teeing off. If you know your game, then you’ll know what your Swing Keys are. As your game changes, so might your swing keys. I have 7 Swing Keys or Checkoffs that I use before I tee it up, whereas some one else might have 4. Because they’re easy to go through, you can go through them again almost anyplace on the course if your swing really starts to go south. Swing Keys are personal and should be crafted for your game. Here are mine (I’m right-handed).

1) Be aware of the tilt of the shaft at address. Different clubs and situations require a different tilt at address. There’s not one particular one I’m rehearsing, just remembering that it’s important to be aware of it during setup. The wrong angle can mess up an otherwise perfectly good swing.

2) To begin the backswing, push club with left shoulder and left side. This keeps me from pulling the club too far inside on the takeaway giving me no room to come from the inside on the downswing.

3) Keep the back of the left wrist nearly vertical through the backswing. I have a tendency to let it start pointing too much skyward. When this happens it gets very hard to square the club at impact. If I rehearse it before I play it tends to take care of itself.

4) Once the club gets to waist high in the backswing without manipulation (see 2 above), complete turn and allow arms to move up the chest SLIGHTLY. When I want to hit the ball farther I start raising the arms high to deliver a mighty blow. Unfortunately all this does is ruin my spine angles. This Key helps me make a full turn without getting the arms out of sync.

5) Keep wrists supple. If they’re not your cooked, done, roasted. My test for this is simple. Once the club moves past vertical by a fraction, if my wrists are supple, the weight of the club head will cock the wrists automatically. That’s all there is to it.

6) Keep right elbow away from right side in the backswing. This also keeps you from getting the club too far inside on the backswing, which gives you no room to come from the inside on the downswing. Once you begin the downswing the right elbow should come down to the right side. Just don’t put it there during the backswing.

7) Power is applied in the 9 to 3 zone. Imagine a big clock from your feet to your chin with the face pointing outwards. 9 o’clock is waist high to your right and 3 o’clock is waist high to your left. This is where the action is, where the snap of the club head takes place. In my mind I see my club vertical at the 9 o’clock position on the downswing, my job being to get it vertical at the 3 o’clock position on the upswing (thank you Marc Brady). This of course is approximate. The longer you can wait to release lag the more your club will move towards 8 or 7 before it’s released. One note about release, it’s two things here; 1) release of the wrist cock and 2)rotation of the forearms. It’s both of these that contribute to tremendous club head speed in a short space. If you’re relaxed and wrists are supple, this release happens naturally by the forces built up through turning your legs,hips and torso.

Whatever your Swing Thought and Swing Keys, I recommend you don’t confuse the two. Keep your Swing Thought to one thing. If it’s something to calm you down then you’re headed in the right direction. Whatever your Swing Keys, use them as your pre-flight checklist and not Swing Thoughts.

Happy Holidays to all and may we all find the peace on the golf course that is ours for the taking! Golf is a big river you jump into. You can’t direct it, but you can go along for a beautiful ride.

Related posts:

1. Swing Keys – Do They Work?
2. Understanding the Swing Plane
3. Hogan’s Sweet Swing

Rehearsing Your golf swing, I believe, is a very valuable practice. It really sets your body physiology in a way that allows you to hit quality golf shots.

So here’s the trick. How do you really know what good positions are if your game is in the dumps? Yeah, maybe you’ve felt it a shot or two throughout your round but how can you “brand” this int your physiology so you can produce it consistently?

I have found one of the best ways to do this is by rehearsing certain key positions in the golf swing.

Watch the Faldo video in the right hand column and he’ll give you 2 excellent positions to rehearse. And the key is to really rehearse these – over and over and over again – just like an actor rehearsing their lines.

I wrote about proprioception training in a recent article and you can also check out the Sean Foley video on balance which gives another terrific “rehearsal” drill.

What I have found about these drills is they they are much more difficult than they actually sound (Foley even mentions this in the video above so listen for it) because they really take patience and discipline to do them slowly AND correctly.

We all want to swing out of our shoes for some reason (and I’m including me in this group as well) so it takes tremendous determination to go very slow and really FEEL the correct positions. Notice I said “correct”

You will have to constantly monitor yourself to make sure you are practicing and rehearsing “correct” golf positions. As we know, even pros have to constantly monitor and assess their swings via themselves and their coaches. It’s no different than you other than I assume you probably don’t have a full-time golf coach.

Finally, after researching this topic I found a number of coaches and experts recommending that you also take full practice swings at your regular swing speed every 5-6 “rehearsals”

This is meant to really “ground” your swing in your physiology so you can feel it at it’s proper speed. Then go back to your slow-motion, rehearsals swings and then back to full-swing again.

Now that is is off-season it’s a great time to rehearse correct positions. Keep in mind, they might feel awkward but that doesn’t mean their not correct positions. Again, what may “feel” correct to you can be just the opposite.

Related posts:

1. Perfect Your Swing With Position Practice
2. Hit solid, thud-sounding golf shots with Correct Sight
3. The Golf Swing Is Pretty Simple

This blog could have a lot of different titles, like ‘Learn by watching, not thinking’ or ‘Feel the swing you want’. The Internet, particularly with the proliferation of videos, has made golf instruction available to the average person on a scale never before available. Have a problem getting out of the sand? Go watch a video of Gary Player showing you how it’s done.

The image above is linked to a video at Golf.com (or click HERE) where instructor Brady Riggs demonstrates one way to stop overswinging. That’s nice in itself, but perhaps more importantly, it might introduce you to a new way of learning; first feeling what’s being demonstrated, then letting your body mimic it.

My wife has been taking some lessons from our local pro. I went to watch the process, liked what I saw, and have been incorporating the basic move he’s been demonstrating into my own swing – with some good results I might add. Why the success? I haven’t been trying to breakdown what’s he’s teaching into components. I’ve tried to remember the IMAGE of him demonstrating the move and then trying to feel that in myself.

Right now you may be thinking I’ve lost my mind, so let me explain a bit more. Think of learning to catch a fly ball or dancing. If you start by breaking these into minute components you’re dead. Most of us observe and then suspend our analytical minds, just letting our body take over mimicking what we’ve seen. You could sum this up as ‘Feel then do’.

Back to our video. Watch Brady Riggs demonstrate a way to stop overswinging (great stuff). Don’t think too much about the instruction, just watch him swing. This is what I see; a simple athletic movement that’s packed with effortless power. I’d love to look like Brady when hitting a ball. And I think it’s possible to get close if you let your body ‘feel’ what he’s doing. Your goal becomes duplicating that effortless/power feeling, not all the basic components you could break it down into. The technical tweaks come after you’ve mastered the feeling. I’m convinced you can’t do it the other way around.

Use internet videos to your advantage. Watch a great demonstration of something you want to improve. Hold that image in your mind as you practice. Come home, watch it again, and go out and try to get closer to the feeling. If you can get someone to video your practice, even better. Watch yourself, then the instructor. Turn off your analytical mind and let your body’s natural mimicking talent take over.

I love this Brady Riggs demo and will watch it many times, particularly when my own swing gets stiff and feels forced. The one bit of advice I’d add is ‘Relax your grip on the club’. It’s critical to getting your body going in two directions at once, which is key to generating speed. It’s unbelievably easy to start strangling the club when the going gets tough.

Remember this, the harder the shot the more important for the shot maker to relax. You can’t force a shot, you have to let it happen, which means releasing tension. Tense muscles are slow and jerky!

Related posts:

1. Want to Stop Hooking The Ball? Then Check Out The “New” Tour Move