In case you landed here and are wondering what this blog is about - I have decided to create a plan and document my progress towards the objective of attaining a scratch handicap. Hopefully by sharing my progress I will remain disciplined and who knows maybe inspire someone else to achieve their own goals.


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Pivot and Hinge

When I had my first lesson with TW, I asked about his teaching philosophy. He told me that from a technical standpoint we would work on 5 main keys - Grip, Posture, Stance, Pivot and Hinge.
The Grip, Posture and Stance elements have been reasonably easy to consume (although I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have them spot on).
The 'dynamic' elements of the swing - pivot and hinge, have been much more of a challenge. Essentially the body (torso and hips) make a pivot (backswing and downswing) while the elbow and wrist hinge and unhinge.
I feel that I have consumed the hinge quite well. However, to this point, I am still struggling with the pivot. I have this tendency to drop the right shoulder on the downswing and for some reason, I am having an incredibly difficult time eradicating this move. By all accounts it is a killer. Without getting too technical, I think I have always done it because I am conscious at the top of the backswing that the club has to move along way downwards to get to strike the ball. Incorrectly, I have been accomplishing this by dropping my right shoulder and throwing the hands down at the club.
This downward motion of the clubhead needs to be achieved by unhinging the right elbow and uncocking of the wrists at impact while making a level turn/pivot.
This is something that I need to work on a lot over the next couple of weeks.

On a side note, I got my hands on a copy of Homer Kelley's The Golfing Machine. Seems interesting but an extremely difficult read, so much so that I had to order another book that breaks it down into more simple terms.

No comments:

Post a Comment