Been really thinking about the back shoulder (right shoulder, right hand for me) and I seem to be striking the ball a lot better when I think about its path in the down swing. It's kind of a down motion and towards the target after is how I would describe it. Are there any good drills out there to work on that?
top of page
bottom of page
if you think the back should needs to go down then maybe do this lateral hip movement drill. That takes care of the trail shoulder, shallows the club.. etc. This drill accomplishes many things with just one simple movement.
Sounds good, Nick. And since you're in a cold winter location don't forget the Indoor Training Program, which is designed to keep you sharp from the comforts of your cozy home.
Lucky for me (unlucky actually) I live in a cold climate, so this is all just mat practice in my basement. To the point of there being no muscle memory, I would buy that, given that every time I do a drill, I start to overdue it if I do it too much (if that makes sense). I'm looking for a particular feel, even though my brain knows "feel isn't real" and I think that gets me out of wack. What I like about bouncing back and forth between drills, is that it balances out that "overdoing it" thing. When I'm on the course, I'm only concentrating on left shoulder down and playing as it's flying on that given day without looking for a "fix". Practicing different feels hitting into a net seems to help my mind adjust and keeps the tension down when actually on the course, and tension kills a round of golf everytime. Thanks Tom, I'll revist that portion of the lesson.
@nick westrick - There are a couple of videos in the Downswing chapter of Golf Swing Simplified that focus on the role of the shoulders, beginning with this one. There is nothing wrong with the "feel" you are trying to ingrain, of course as long as the builds in the prescribed shoulder motion.
As your practice performance becomes more and more consistent, then it's just a function of time in terms of when/how that will translate itself to the pressures and challenges of actual play. To @Ronald Burkholder's very valid points in this regard, as confidence in your swing grows you should find more and more that you are playing "golf" instead of "golf swing" on the course, at which point your mechanical thoughts will be reduced to one or two at the most, and you will be nearly entirely focused on your target and the type of shot you're going to play rather than on your swing.
TS
Just my view, I try not to think about body parts during the swing when playing on the course. Range practice, is different. I work on a feel using the “feels“ video tips from Tom. One feel per range session for me.
On the course I think about how I want the club head to strike the ball. I believe if you give the brain a task to accomplish it will find a way to do it. Club face and club head path at impact dictates ball flight. Pick a ball flight that will get the ball where you want it and then picture that flight pattern. I add the step of picturing in my mind the club face angle and path at impact that will produce that ball flight and then let my brain figure it out during the practice swing. Then I duplicate that thought routine after setting up to the ball.
My understanding of the neural science studies of the swing has confirmed that there is no such thing as “muscle memory”. Meaning the brain constructs the muscle firing patterns for the swing from scratch every swing. But it also learns from every swing and seeks to optimize the patterns based on previous results. Thus practicing results in the brain getting more efficient and more effective at constructing the patterns necessary to accomplish a task.
Therefore practicing has benefits, but you have to practice the right task and a practice session provides a better result when trying to accomplish a specific task instead of just pounding balls down the range as far as you can.
When practicing feels, practice feels and pay no attention to the ball flight result. You hear Tom talk about ignoring ball flight when practicing feels all the time. That’s because a golf swing encompasses a bunch of different feels. Tom does a great job in his school curriculum in building the feels in a logical pattern to accomplish a complete S&T swing.
Again, just my take on this subject. Your results may differ.