This is in response to a poster that said he finally gets it with regards to hitting with the pivot. A couple of posters following his comments were confused as to what this "feels" like. My humble thoughts follow.
1. What this feels like is hard work and extreme focus, but only at first as you'll come very used to this. It has taken me months to "feel" this, but I finally know for sure that I swing with my pivot and not my arms. How do I know? Consistency of ball flight is one, a feeling of merciless power is another. I can't even swing with my arms anymore. All I can feel now are the firing of the big muscles of my upper back during initiation of the downswing (in response to the counter-torque initiated by my weight shift and rapidly turning hips) and my pectoral muscles at impact. Do I hit every shot perfectly, no. But all the shots I do hit true do one thing- go straight as an arrow. No more over the top pulldowns with my hands and arms.
2. One of the best tips I read about concerning this is the imperative of the relaxation of the shoulders during the swing. This one tip allowed me to do two things. First, it allowed me to better turn my shoulders farther and on plane during the backswing. This virtually sets you up for success coming back. Secondly, it allowed for the proper move down because the arms will move on plane with the hips if the shoulders are relaxed. For me, this one tip has grown my golf game exponentially and has sent my consistency through the roof.
3. Incidentally, swinging with your pivot can best be illustrated by chopping a log. I realized that this past weekend while camping. I started to employ the same concepts with the ax that I do with the golf club, most notably, relaxing the shoulders and letting the weight shift from back to front and the turn downwards propel the ax over my head and down into the log. When I relaxed I found the work easy with maximum power and speed being hurled at the log. Because the ax is much heavier than a golf club, this exercise forces you to use your big muscles to propel your arms and thus the ax. It also teaches you something about tempo.
Also, I found it helped me better feel release. For those of you who think that an early release versus a late release doesn't matter much, swing an ax on a log. The longer you can keep that ax cocked the more power you will have. In fact, the more I concentrated on this, the deeper I was sticking the ax- to the point where it was burying itself into the log in a deep and impressive manner.
I don't know if any of this will help other people, but I can fully identify with the difficulty of getting the right "feel" for letting the body do the swinging, not the arms. In my estimation, nearly all duffers suffer from this one malady (swinging with the arms) more than all others, thus all the slicing you see on the course.
Hit 'em straight!
1. What this feels like is hard work and extreme focus, but only at first as you'll come very used to this. It has taken me months to "feel" this, but I finally know for sure that I swing with my pivot and not my arms. How do I know? Consistency of ball flight is one, a feeling of merciless power is another. I can't even swing with my arms anymore. All I can feel now are the firing of the big muscles of my upper back during initiation of the downswing (in response to the counter-torque initiated by my weight shift and rapidly turning hips) and my pectoral muscles at impact. Do I hit every shot perfectly, no. But all the shots I do hit true do one thing- go straight as an arrow. No more over the top pulldowns with my hands and arms.
2. One of the best tips I read about concerning this is the imperative of the relaxation of the shoulders during the swing. This one tip allowed me to do two things. First, it allowed me to better turn my shoulders farther and on plane during the backswing. This virtually sets you up for success coming back. Secondly, it allowed for the proper move down because the arms will move on plane with the hips if the shoulders are relaxed. For me, this one tip has grown my golf game exponentially and has sent my consistency through the roof.
3. Incidentally, swinging with your pivot can best be illustrated by chopping a log. I realized that this past weekend while camping. I started to employ the same concepts with the ax that I do with the golf club, most notably, relaxing the shoulders and letting the weight shift from back to front and the turn downwards propel the ax over my head and down into the log. When I relaxed I found the work easy with maximum power and speed being hurled at the log. Because the ax is much heavier than a golf club, this exercise forces you to use your big muscles to propel your arms and thus the ax. It also teaches you something about tempo.
Also, I found it helped me better feel release. For those of you who think that an early release versus a late release doesn't matter much, swing an ax on a log. The longer you can keep that ax cocked the more power you will have. In fact, the more I concentrated on this, the deeper I was sticking the ax- to the point where it was burying itself into the log in a deep and impressive manner.
I don't know if any of this will help other people, but I can fully identify with the difficulty of getting the right "feel" for letting the body do the swinging, not the arms. In my estimation, nearly all duffers suffer from this one malady (swinging with the arms) more than all others, thus all the slicing you see on the course.
Hit 'em straight!
