I would assume that if you play golf, you have gotten the idea of how to swing a stick at a ball and hit it. I don’t take that statement lightly. It’s not an intuitive act, and you have to learn how to do it. Turning that into a golf swing is the next step.
Everyone has a different golf swing. That’s because everyone has a different body structure, different strength, different flexibility, different personal history of movement. You can go the beauty parlor and get a hairstyle just like your favorite movie star, but you can’t go the the range and have the pro give you a swing like your favorite golfer. There’s a swing based on who you are, and if you find it, you’ll play good golf.
Get a hand towel. Wad it up in a ball and hold it in front of yourself with both hands. Stand like you’re about to hit a golf ball. Calm your mind and let go of any thoughts about hitting golf balls. Bring your arms back and “swing through,” letting go of the towel as you pass the bottom of your swing, as if you were tossing the towel to a friend standing a few feet away from you. In effect, throw the towel using a golf swing.
It will help to turn your head and look where you’re going to throw the towel as you actually let it go. By throwing the towel, you’re finding out how your body wants to move when you make the turning and directing motion that the golf swing is. After a while, you should be settling into a movement that feels natural and effortless, and your own. It will also have nothing to do with golf, and that’s good.
At that point, get out an 8-iron and begin again. Calm your mind and let go of any thoughts about hitting golf balls. Now swing the 8-iron in the same way you threw the towel. Just don’t throw the 8-iron, unless you’re (a) outside, (b) won’t hit anything that shouldn’t be hit, and (c) don’t mind walking after it every time.
IMPORTANT! Swing it the same way you threw the towel. DO NOT think to yourself that since you now have a golf club in your hand you have to go back to your idea of what a GOLF SWING is supposed to be. That’s what this exercise is trying to get you off of.
Just swing the club, no ball, like your threw the towel. For the fun of it. Because it feels nice. For any reason that you can think of besides that it’s for hitting a golf ball. Just swing the club.
The next step is to hit a golf ball with this swing. This will be fairly easy to do, much easier than it has been to make your practice swing your real swing. That’s because in the old days, when your mind switched from your practice swing to your real swing, you would start to think about a bunch of technical stuff that didn’t fit and never would fit in with the way you move.
Therefore you had no subconscious trust in what you had learned. And the reason you didn’t trust what you had learned is that it was someone else’s idea of what they needed to do. Had nothing to do with what you need to do. Nothing at all.
With this new towel-throwing swing, since it’s natural for you, you can trust what you’re doing regardless of whether there’s a ball there or not. That is the key to playing good golf– trusting what you are about to do, having confidence in it.
Now this won’t take an afternoon’s work and you’re set for life. It takes lots of repetitions to replace an old habit with a new one. But if you make on swing change this year, make it this one. Just work on this, and you’ll get the results you’ve been looking for all along.
Bob Jones
