WHY DOES SPEED TAKE BACKSEAT IN GOLF?
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The greatest stumbling block to improvement in this sport is also the biggest myth ever perpetrated on any group of aspiring athletes.
I’m referring, of course, to the old distance/accuracy tradeoff theory—if I gain distance then I will lose accuracy.
There is no tradeoff. I hate to think of the damage being done to the millions of potentially great playing careers of perfectly capable players.
That myth permeates every aspect of learning, instruction, and performing. Unfortunately it’s dug in up to its eyeballs, yet there’s not one shred of evidence to support it.
Common sense doesn’t. How, for instance, is a struggling Joe Average, who can’t shoot 95, supposed to reach a par four of decent length in two strokes?
Yet, he’s been allowed to live in an environment of illogic including the following bits of ill advice:
"Now, nice and slow...slow it down... take it easy... swing easy and let the club do the work."
If you will simply think about it, doesn’t that fly in the face of sport itself? Is a football coach going to tell a running back not to run fast? You think that a homerun hitter is allowing the bat to swing itself?
It flies in the face of physics, too. Isaac Newton told us that the ball will not move itself, and that the faster the clubhead is traveling the farther the ball will go. The speed of the clubhead has nothing to do with a ball flying off line!
In fact, provided two conditions are met, a clubhead traveling at 120 mph is more likely to result in greater accuracy than one traveling at 95 mph. The two requirements are obvious: the club fits the player, and the player allows the toe of the club (clubface) to release through impact.
The resulting ball response is going to be longer and more accurate because the ball is compressed on the clubface longer through the impact interval.
That is a guarantee made by Isaac Newton’s basic laws!
Mythology breeds misinformation and underachievement is the only possible result.
When players under perform (two-thirds of the core golfers in this country can’t shoot 90), secondary things become elevated, replacing primary things. Swing details replace principle.
Here’s an example. Clubhead lag is presented as a foundation of success. That’s certainly true. But, convention continues to present clubhead lag as an entity all it’s own. Legions of players are being asked to delay the release of the potential energy stored in the golf club, to the point that most never release that energy!
The “late hit” has become the “no hit”. A player is already swinging far too slow and now he or she is supposed to hold on to achieve a late hit! Late? He or she is already late!
I’ll tell you how to force the clubhead to lag—increase hand speed in the forward swing! With hand speed, the clubhead—which is the distal end of the swinging element—is put into a condition in which it is forced to catch up.
Like a homerun hitter swinging a bat, the barrel lags behind the handle. The faster the hands, the greater the catch-up speed required—BAM! The clubhead is forced to catch up (assuming that the club fits the player).
That’s a matter of physics.
Let's get Good!
I live in New England, where we have four distinct seasons. Being a Texan the most distinctive feature during my 16 years here is the annual changing of the foliage colors in the fall.
All of the sudden, driving to our performance center last week, bang—green to yellow, to orange, to red—in the space of 24 hours!
It’s like taking the blinders off, like ditching the shades. Wow!
I see with new eyes.
There is genius within each of us. However, too often in golf it’s buried beneath layers of old ideas and myths that were never relevant anyhow. Many of the old teaching ideas of what’s right and what’s wrong go back to Bobby Jones heyday.
The sport’s light years different today.
I’m suggesting that you ditch the shades.
We’re presenting new information. No, not hypothesis, not theory, but principle!
"Let's get good!"
Of course, there are exceptions, and too, I can't substantiate with scientific results, but here's what I know:
The differences go beyond physical dimensions, beyond IQ, and beyond so-called innate abilities. The very qualities that most of us believe make the difference, are not those at all. The differences go beyond that, and maybe because we tend to believe that size and innate abilities make the difference, these notions keep us from making significant progress.
I recently worked with 3-time world long-drive champion Sean Fister, so let me use him as an example.
He's more open to changes, more diligent, more committed to success, and competes with the heart of a lion, even in training sessions against himself.
He, like most of the other long-drivers that I know, is not just a giant guy with a funky swing using gigantic drivers, either. He's a good player.
What is it with the average guy who believes that because one can fly a golf ball a long way, that he can't also putt and chip? Is a 7-footer in the NBA not supposed to be a good free-throw shooter?
Sean (The Beast) wants to improve. He's not "hedging his bets" like so many other players do. He's not clinging to yesterday's "rules and regulations" of what's right and what's wrong. Many, many others are afraid to learn and implement what they don't know, and that's a huge stumbling block on the path to lower scores.
Sean is not reluctant to make a solid commitment.
I realize that in this discussion we are dealing with human intangibles, and maybe that's what makes it exciting and interesting. Maybe this discussion will provoke personal examination. That's not a bad thing, is it?
I truly believe that all golfers are serious about improvement. Let me put the ball in your court. Why is it that a 3-time world champion athlete is so open to change when so many other serious golfers are not?
Let's get good...Ben
Let's Get Good! Ben