Alternate Way to Learn the Golf Swing

I'm teaching my wife S&T such as stance, shoulder rotation, club position at the top, wrist position at the top, impact position, etc. She is not new to golf, but needs to unwind everything she was taught by others over the years which never resulted in any improvement. Plus, like many other folks, the second she has a club in her hand and a ball on the ground, her brain goes into "OMG, this is HARD!" mode.

So instead of her standing on the range pounding balls, we agreed to approach the movements like she was in a professional dancer, like those on DWTS, who are tasked to learn a new routine for next week's show. I said, "let's pretend you have to hit positions for an upcoming dance routine." Her brain immediately switched gears and went into "fun mode"....not the dreaded movements required for a golf swing. It was interesting to see her body and brain immediately switch gears to take on the challenge. Plus, as with the pro dancers, the moves have to be near perfect, not close or good enough.

Within the first few sessions she started hitting the basic positions that Tom teaches for the swing by using an alignment stick as a mock club. Plus, as with the professional dancers, all the "dance" movements were performed in a mirror, at all angles, to ensure each move was completed. We repeated this routine for several weeks, maximum 20 minutes per session.

After the above sessions, I handed her a 9 iron (still using a mirror) and told her the club will be added as a prop for the show, thus she'll need to get used to the added weight of the club yet hit all the positions. It was interesting to see how the added weight of the club caused "disturbance" to her otherwise fluid movements with the alignment stick. So I said "let's think of the club as being a workout weight to become conditioned for the dance". The goal is to hit static positions, then swing the 9 iron with the same fluidity as with the alignment stick. It was interesting for BOTH of us, especially her, to see how the added weight of a 9 iron created a little "lifting" and "pulling" that was non-existent with the alignment stick. Thus she could both see AND feel how the club's added weight was impacting her movements, and she naturally started making positive adjustments to replicate the alignment stick swing. Also, it became clear that her muscles and tendons were not sufficiently conditioned to control, and/or easily swing a 9 iron, thus getting her out on the range and hitting balls would have been an exercise in frustration.

As of today, we both agreed that this is superior learning process by focusing on correct positions and movements, and the understanding of how the added weight of a club impacts those positions and movements. Then the important realization that she's not yet sufficiently "conditioned" to swing a club and hit all the positions. As noted, putting her out on the range from the "get go" would have been putting the cart before the horse. She would have quickly created a host of faulty swing manipulations which would have taken far too much time to correct.

So now the workouts are alternating between 10 swings with an alignment stick, front and down the line swing point checks (dance routine), then 10 swings with a 9 iron, 10 sets of each. Our next step is to add a swing weight donut to the club for added conditioning....this is a process that cannot be sped-up. After that we're going to a practice bunker, and draw a line in the sand, and have her swing and hit the line to learn (and easily see) low point consistency. After that, if she can hit all the positions with fluidity with the swing weighted club, then without a swing weight, and create decent low point consistency, then the next step the range to practice various 50 yard shot drills.

What I've learned through this process is the golf swing could easily be a dance movement, and if the movements are practiced without adding the pressure of hitting balls, they can be learned in a much shorter time period. Thinking of the swing as a dance movement is somewhat "freeing" to focus on being a dancer who must hit certain positions, not a golfer.

The goal is to master the correct positions and movements, both see and feel them, then repeat them over and over and over. This works to get the movements engrained. The next phase is with a "partner", or a club. The next phase is the final recital session before the show (the range), which is the preamble to the "televised show" or the golf course. Then after that it's back to the "studio" (mirror work), then again the alignment stick, then weighted club, then club, then range, then golf course. Rinse and repeat...it never ends. If positions or movements feel "weird"...well that's just too bad...those are the required movements to be on the show....LOL.