Revitalizing Sluggish Swing

by Kim Jeong-kyoo

Korea Times Golf Columnist

Sometimes you lack dynamics in your swing but have no idea what to do to hit the ball with any vitality. You are so distracted and dull in mind that you are left totally sluggish in swinging the club.

Finding yourself in such a stupor situation, just imagine the ball is the head of a fierce snake. What would you do if the thing below you was not a ball but a horrible snake ready to attack you like an excited cobra? You will hit it as hard as you can rather than swing the club in a sluggish way.

To put it in another way, when the impact seems loose, just imagine the ball below you is not a ball but something horrible or a poisonous animal like snake, and bash it hard to kill it.

That enables you to make a vivacious and powerful swing without thinking about complicated swing mechanics. That also helps you maintain the angle created between your wrists and arms as long as possible without any conscious effort. That, in turn, makes it possible for the back of your left hand, left arm and the clubshaft to correctly form a straight line at impact as it did at address, which is one of the core ingredients for a powerful, dynamic swing.

Incidentally, a good way to build the straight left-side at impact and get back your vitality in your swing is to practice swinging the club against an old tire or mattress. Performing some regular practices will strengthen your left side, helping you groove the delayed release of your hands through impact. That also facilitates hitting the ball with dynamic vivacity.

Another good way to give life and vigor to a sluggish swing is to accelerate the clubhead speed through impact as if you wanted to throw the clubhead off the clubshaft. That thought encourages you to hit the ball vigorously with a dynamic swing.

That also promotes square alignment of the clubface through impact, enabling you to hit the ball far and straight.

The root cause of sluggishness in your swing tends to be swinging the club with too many swing thoughts. You need to swing with only one swing key. With more than two swing keys in your mind it's difficult to swing freely or in an efficient way.

One likely problem of your sluggish, inefficient swing is poor posture. Posture largely determines the type of swing you make and setting up with good posture increases your chances of making a dynamic swing.

Recreational golfers tend to set up with too upright a posture, not bending their knees sufficiently. They also tend to let their shoulders slump forward, which makes it difficult to make a powerful swing.

To swing with vitality you need to keep your spine straight and bend forward from the hips so that your kneecaps are over the insteps of your feet.

To check if your posture is correct, set up normally without a club and let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders. Your fingertips pointing inside the tips of your toes means you are standing too straight, and fingertips pointing outside the tips means you are bending over too much.

A vigorous swing starts from a good posture. A proper posture sets a good stage for a correct takeaway that leads to on-plane backswing, proper downswing and powerful impact. That enables your hands to be positioned properly at the completion of the backswing without your having to try hard. Your hands that are dropped too much below your right shoulder means too flat a swing and your hands that are raised too much above your head means too upright a swing. In either case, it is difficult to make an efficient swing full of vitality.

Posturing properly with a correct distance from the ball prevents too upright or too flat a swing plane, thus enabling you to make a vigorous swing.

Incidentally, you will lose life and vigor in your swing as you get older. Age is something like a leak in your umbrella. You need to patch it to hit the ball as far as you did in the past. The only way to get your distance back is to promote your flexibility. You need a renewed commitment to physical exercise, particularly stretching. Stretching lengthens longevity, too.