Day two - May 26, 2009

The pause that refreshes
Now that you have practiced small swings you can move to larger ones. How do you do this? Start with the knee dip, no muscles of the arms are used. At 45 degrees start breaking the wrist to lift to 90 degrees (horizontal).
At 90 degrees start lifting the arms (always keeping the head still). Don't try and go way back, like John Daly, but only 3/4ths of the way, enough so the club in your hand does not start to separate from the palm. Keep your hands firmly gripping the club.

All of this motion is going backward. At the top of your swing, PAUSE (think of Camillo Villegas who has a lovely pause at the top of his swing. Even with this pause he can hit the ball beyond 300 yards)! That pause allows you to shift gears from going backward to going forward. It also has the psychological effect of allowing you to focus precisely on the ball and to stop thinking about your swing. Don't start the down swing until your mind is clearly on the ball.

Pendulum
I have found that letting the club, by itself, start to swing forward, say, 10 degrees before you apply strength to the arms causes a much more aligned swing (goes where you want it to go). If you apply pressure at the very top of the swing your balance and swing plane is not as well defined as when the club is already starting to come back. At that time you can then give it power.

That swing, up and back, is like a pendulum. Just let it do its thing. On the way down, give it hell!