Keepingswinginorder

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KEEP THE SEQUENCE OF YOUR SWING IN ORDER

The following quote came from the Monday Backspin page on the PGA Tour website, dated March 14, 2011. I added the yellow highlighting.

"I was going just a little bit right of the pin, but I know how good Dustin is. And it wouldn't have surprised me at all if I made a par there; that if he would have made a birdie to force a playoff. I'm thinking, I have to be in this moment, right now, because this is all that counts. And then, my caddie Chad, just says, just give yourself time. Get a full turn and give yourself time. So that's what I tried to do."

--Nick Watney first describing his approach shot that landed inside of 13 feet on the 18th hole Sunday, and what he was thinking on the finishing hole that has water left and trees right.

What's important to understand is that the caddie, Chad, isn't trying to tell Nick to swing the club slower. My take is that he is trying to tell him to make sure he finishes his backswing before transitioning to the downswing. This way the sequence of events in his swing will stay intact.

You can benefit from this simple thought as well, just by making sure you don't get over anxious to hit the ball before your backswing has finished. This become more important the harder you are trying to hit the ball.

Every individual has their own, very specific, sequence of events, or steps, which must take place to hit a good golf shot. I see a lot of students with good swings that simply get, what I call, disjointed. The normal sequencing of events get out of order. Where the club is still going back and the lower body has already started the downswing motion, this usually forces the club to lag too far behind the rest of the body on the downswing, resulting in one of the following:

1) The club face won't have time to square itself to the target, which will result in a push or slice.

2) You will try to get the club head caught up with the rest of your body by trying to throw it back around in front of you with your hands. Just about anything could happen as a result of this (fat, thin, pull, hook).

3) You will try to square the club face to the target by rolling your right hand over your left. Just as in option 2 above, just about anything might happen because you will be relying on split second timing at impact.

So, whether your swing is smooth as silk or violent as a storm, one of the keys is making sure the sequence of events in your swing happen in the same order each time. If you can develop consistency in sequencing the events you will be rewarded with better golf shots.

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