- There are many sports that involve hitting a ball. Examples are Tennis, Cricket and Baseball. These sports and others expect you to have good reflex skills and great hand/eye co-ordination. Along with the above requirements, the ball is travelling at you at speed which requires you to have to think quick and make your decision about what you are going to do so the outcome is positive.
In Golf, the ball is static and we have more time to find the correct option so we can hit a good shot. You would expect with all the time that we have to hit the ball, we should be able to make the right choices…..but we don’t! We worry about the result, we overthink what we should do during our swing and worst of all, we try to manipulate the swing rather than just letting the club “swing”!
The biggest mistake a golfer makes is trying to control the outcome rather than trusting their technique and judgment and allowing the result to occur.
If you think about Cricket, the batter is waiting for a bowler to deliver a ball at around 100mph, if the batter is unsure about the shot that he wants to play, the chances are he will play a poor shot and get dismissed. Another thought is, if the batter tries to manipulate the shot at the last minute, the chances are he will get dismissed, therefore the great batter trusts his judgment and plays his desired shot without hesitation.
When playing Golf, we do not have to rush to make a decision and therefore we do not have to try and manipulate the technique during the swing….so why do we?
There are a couple of reasons I feel that people do not swing freely:
- Lack of trust in technique
- Result orientated
- Lack of understanding about body rotation in the swing
- Fear of failure
These are a few points that need to be addressed.
As human beings, we use our hands to do virtually everything we do in life. Therefore, telling a golfer to use their body to rotate through the shot rather than use their hands to manipulate the shot, is a challenge, but not one that cannot be achieved.
Understanding this point will help you become more consistent in your game, more accurate and it will add distance to your game. Having tense hands through the swing will cause a player to lose distance and to be inconsistent with the accuracy of the shot played.
Relax your grip pressure, trust your technique, be positive with your shot selection and find out how to rotate your body correctly.
