This is the old familiar “hitting too soon” or “hitting from the top.” When the intermediary links are used and the chain reaction is allowed to take its course, there is a late reaction by the club head, which then accelerates to great speed at impact. There is a common expression to describe the player who uses the chain reaction: “He waits on the club.” It may not be grammatical but it is descriptive.

What this all comes down to is, the expression of good timing is the late hit. The expression of poor timing is the early hit.Here, as we discuss timing, we isolate one key move that leads to good or improved timing. It is this: Let the body—not the hands—start moving the club on the downswing.

Once you can do this you are on the road to vastly better golf. You will have the feeling that you are starting down with arms and club close to the body—close to the axis— where they should be at this time.

So much has been written over the years about the importance of the hands in swinging the club, that many of us are entirely too hand conscious. A standing vote of thanks is due Bill Casper for stating, in a description of his swing as it reached the hitting position: “At this point my body is still swinging the club.” Many of us have been sure of that for years, but Casper, to our knowledge, was the first of the top tournament pros with the courage to say it.

The hands will take over soon enough, as an automatic, reflex action. The problem is to keep them out while still keeping them moving. If we keep them out while our body moves the club from the top, our timing will be far better.

Rhythm and Tempo

Rhythm and tempo can be considered together, because in golf they mean very nearly the same thing.

We mentioned earlier that the rhythm in the swing of a good player is noticed because of the measured cadence in the upward and downward movement of the club. In his swing there appears to be—and there is—a definite relationship in time between his backswing and his downswing. It is measured in two parts, from the time the club leaves the ball until it stops at the top of the backswing, and from the time it starts to move again until it hits the ball. The club does have to stop at the top, of course, for the instant required to reverse its direction, whether we feel it or realize it or we don’t. No object, not even a golf club, can be traveling in opposite directions at once.

These two segments of the swing can be accurately timed by a motion-picture camera, by the simple process of counting the number of pictures the camera takes during each segment. Such a count shows that the backswing of a good player takes almost exactly twice as long as the downswing.

This two-to-one ratio is the rhythm of the swing. The total time or tempo of the swing will vary with different good players, but the ratio or rhythm will not. Nor will it

vary from club to club. The ratio will be the same for the 8 iron as it is for the driver. The tempo of the swing will not change, either, for the individual player.

]]> http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/timing-tempo/feed/ http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/golf-thinking-your-way-around-the-course/ http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/golf-thinking-your-way-around-the-course/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:03:12 +0000 mihai http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/golf-thinking-your-way-around-the-course/ The physical actions of golf, the positions and movements of our hands, our feet, our bodies, our arms, and of the club itself are all important to master and the golfer will gain a great deal as he or she improves upon these aspects of golf.

There is another side of golf, though, that is all too frequently overlooked in our sometimes frantic efforts to master the swing. This is the mental or thinking side of the game. Happily, this is not nearly so difficult to master as the rest.

Basically, the thinking side of the game is the exercise of common sense, by which we give ourselves the best possible chance on every shot we undertake, adapting ourselves to the elements of wind, weather, and terrain, using our clubs to their fullest capabilities. We plan how we are going to play each shot, how we are going to position ourselves and our ball to play each hole.

The more talented or expert a player is, the more likely he is to carry out his plans. He has the ability to make the ball do, most of the time, what he wants it to do, within varying limits. The poorer player does not have this fine control of the ball, and he does not hit it so far, but he should plan every shot and every hole. He will not be able to carry out his plans as often as the good player, but when he does, they will save him strokes, and obviously the poorer player should overlook no opportunity whatever to reduce his shots.

The playing of a round of golf is a long succession of decisions on what to do, followed by the physical action of carrying them out. The physical action may be good but may fall short of success if the decision is wrong. For instance, having hit a fine drive, you decide the 8 iron will carry the trap and put your ball on the green.

You hit the iron perfectly—and drop the ball into the trap. The execution was faultless but the decision was wrong. You should have used your 7.

The selection of clubs, though, is only one area of the thinking department. A larger area is the planning of a shot to avoid trouble. This is, in a sense, a negative or defensive type of thinking, but it is extremely important. There are players who glory in playing everything boldly, in taking all manner of chances, and in scorning caution in themselves or anyone else.

But when you stop to think of it, what chance does the poor player or the average player or even the pretty good player have of beating the golf course? He is one poorly to moderately well equipped individual, pitted against more than six thousand yards of rolling country, studded with both natural and man-made hazards. For him to think he can beat this enemy is asinine. The course has all the advantages. The only sane attitude for any ordinary player to adopt is the defensive one, charting his way around or over the lurking dangers (thumbing his nose at them as he goes, perhaps), but at all costs avoiding them.

The besetting sin, the fatal flaw, if you will, in the poor or average golfer, is attempting too much. He gambles, on a decision born of sheer hope, that he will make a great shot from a poor position when the odds are heavy that he would not make nearly as good a shot from a perfect position. He takes a 5 iron when he knows he should take a 4, because the others in the foursome are using 5’s. He attempts to carry a trap from the tee when he knows in his heart that only a perfect shot, which he rarely hits, will get him over it. He tries to get distance from the rough when all he should try to do is just get out. In short, hope and pride—and apparently a belief in miracles—cause the average player to attempt too much. By trying to beat the course to its knees when he should only be out boxing it, the typical player loses strokes.

Now if we happen to be on the practice tee, where we can watch this player hit shot after shot, we will notice two other things. One is that he swings all his clubs at about the same speed; he doesn’t seem to hit the 3 wood any harder than he hits the 7 iron. The second thing we notice, when we let our gaze wander to other players practicing, is that while most of them are deliberate, there are differences in their swinging speeds.

Timing is the answer to the first accomplishment—the long hit with little effort. Rhythm produces the measured cadence in the upward and downward movement of the club. And the differences we notice in swinging speed among other players are differences in tempo.

Nearly all good players will give us impressions of timing and rhythm. The more graceful the player, the more vivid the impression will be. Sam Snead, among the moderns, is the perfect example. Among the giants of the past, Bob Jones’s swing was once called the “poetry of motion,” and the late Macdonald Smith was probably the most effortless swinger who ever played the game. The players of today swing harder at the ball than did their predecessors, with the result that theirs is more of a hitting than a swinging action.

Yet the ball still flies out much farther than it should, for the effort the player seems to be putting into it. This is very marked in the graceful players of smaller stature, such as Gene Littler, 1961 National Open champion, and Dow Finsterwald, former National PGA champion.

Timing

The answer to the effort-distance puzzle being timing, just what is timing? For one thing, it is a word that has been used more loosely, perhaps, than any other in golf literature. We have been blandly told that we should work to improve our timing, that our timing is off, that without good timing we cannot hope to play well. But there, having given the word the once-over-lightly treatment, the oracles have left us. They have never adequately explained timing or told us what we should do to improve ours. Our private guess is that they don’t know themselves what it is.

A dictionary will tell you that timing is: “The regulating of the speed of a motion, stroke, or blow, so that it reaches its maximum at the correct moment.” In golf, obviously, this would mean regulating the speed of the club head so as to cause it to reach its maximum as it hits the ball.

The key phrase is “regulating of the speed.” The better the speed is regulated, the better the timing; the poorer the regulation, the poorer the timing. It is here that at least 95 per cent of all golfers have their worst trouble.

They have it because the regulation of the speed depends not on how the club head is manipulated by the hands but on how and when other parts of the swinging system operate: the hips, the shoulders, the arms, the hands. If these move in the right way and in the right order, they will automatically regulate the speed of the club head so that it reaches its maximum as it hits the ball. It is, in effect, a chain reaction of movement, with the club head getting the final effect.

A perfect example of a top pro attacking a course was Arnold Palmer on the first hole of the last round at Cherry Hills in 1960. Palmer started that last round seven shots behind the leader. He knew that only the boldest of play could close the gap. The first hole was a par 4, slightly downhill, measured 346 yards, and the green was closely guarded by traps, although there was a narrow opening.

Palmer let out the shaft, as the pros say, and drove the green. He got down in two putts for a birdie 3, was off to a fast start, and as it turned out, a victorious round. Palmer has the powerful game to beat any course. He kept attacking Cherry Hills, subdued it with a 65, and won the Open.

Before we go into the specifics of thinking, there are two things we can all do. We can learn both the rules and the etiquette of golf. The rules are many and they are sometimes peculiar, but the etiquette is simple. It is merely the application of the golden rule to golf: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Most of the rules of golf are restrictive; they tell us what we cannot do. But many of them afford us relief, too, from particular situations. Be certain you know the rules on a lost ball, out of bounds, an unplayable lie. Learn the rules governing water hazards and lateral water hazards. Know what a hazard itself is and what you are permitted and not permitted to do when your ball is in one. Familiarize yourself with the rules on obstructions, and bear in mind always that you cannot “move, bend, or break anything fixed or growing” except in special circumstances.

Read, also, the rules on casual water, on obstructions deriving from course maintenance, and read the local rules printed on the score-card. Sometimes you find some surprises in the latter.

The rules and etiquette are issued annually in booklet form by the United States Golf Association, the best and wisest sports governing body in America. You owe it to yourself to have a copy.

Since we play this game with clubs, our first thinking should be about the weapons we use. And there is plenty of material for thought here. How heavy should they be, what should be their swing weight, how stiff should the shafts be, how many should we carry, and which ones should they be?

Weights of clubs seem to go in cycles. In the early 1930’s the tournament pros felt that with light clubs they could swing faster and thereby get more distance. The word spread about how the pros felt, the demand for light clubs increased, and the manufacturers of course obliged.

This lasted until somewhere in the 1940’s, when the pros decided that with heavier clubs they expended less physical effort; they would, in effect, let the club do the work. So heavier clubs came in. By 1960 the trend had begun to go the other way, toward slightly lighter sticks, not much but a little.

We prefer a club a little on the heavy side, for the reason that it doesn’t have to be swung so fast. It can, and will, do most of the work if it is given a chance. With such a club the player can concentrate more on swinging correctly, making the proper moves that will bring direction, and not concern himself with getting adequate distance.

Hence there is no rebound. The club starts down solely in response to the shoulder and hip action—and we are off to a late hit instead of an early one.

Since the late hit is the true manifestation of good timing, you have, right there, one reason the early backward break promotes good timing. The fact that there is no rebounding from the top, and no hurried effort then to get the club head to the ball, is also why this system makes it easier to establish a good, even rhythm.

But, you will say, the pros have no trouble with the late break and this rebounding of the club head. No, they don’t, because they subconsciously time their movements with it and also because they “tame” the club head by keeping a tight grip at the top. This grip is tight enough so that the club never gets away from them. But for the average player the timing is much more difficult.

The feeling that you have to move the body to get the club down to the ball, has its origin in the fact that for the last half of the backswing you are moving the club largely with your body and shoulders.

You are not moving it by breaking your wrists. So, since you have brought the club back with your body and shoulders, the natural thing to do is simply to leave them in command and start the downswing with them. This is exactly what should be done—the hips sliding laterally, and turning and rocking the shoulders to bring the club down.

The wrists leading at impact with no temptation to pronate or supinate are accounted for largely by the position the early break puts the hands and wrists into, aided by the fact that the body is swinging the club during a large segment of the downswing. With the perfect late hit, when the club catches up with the hands at the last possible moment, the hands will always be slightly in front at impact. The club has caught up enough to strike a straight, solid blow, but it doesn’t get exactly even with the hands until slightly after the ball is hit.

This will vary among the top pros, but pictures of many of them, taken at impact, show the left arm and the club in a curving line, not a straight line. Bill Casper and Wes Ellis are two examples.

The fact that a solid contact is produced on the centre of the club face is, really, the cumulative effect of many of the movements which have preceded it. Whenever the hit is late and from the inside the contact is much more likely to be accurate than if we hit too soon and/or from the outside.

]]> http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/golf-benefits-of-the-early-backward-brake/feed/ http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/benefits-of-the-early-backward-brake/ http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/benefits-of-the-early-backward-brake/#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:29:07 +0000 claudiu http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/benefits-of-the-early-backward-brake/ With the early backward break you do not get a bouncing effect at the top. From the time the hands are hip high only the arms, actuated by the shoulders, are moving the club. The club itself is not moving fast as it reaches the limit of the back swing, and there is a noticeable but not violent pull on the hands and wrists when it gets there.

Hence there is no rebound. The club starts down solely in response to the shoulder and hip action—and we are off to a late hit instead of an early one.

Since the late hit is the true manifestation of good timing, you have, right there, one reason the early backward break promotes good timing. The fact that there is no rebounding from the top, and no hurried effort then to get the club head to the ball, is also why this system makes it easier to establish a good, even rhythm.

But, you will say, the pros have no trouble with the late break and this rebounding of the club head. No, they don’t, because they subconsciously time their movements with it and also because they “tame” the club head by keeping a tight grip at the top. This grip is tight enough so that the club never gets away from them. But for the average player the timing is much more difficult.

The feeling that you have to move the body to get the club down to the ball, has its origin in the fact that for the last half of the backswing you are moving the club largely with your body and shoulders.

You are not moving it by breaking your wrists. So, since you have brought the club back with your body and shoulders, the natural thing to do is simply to leave them in command and start the downswing with them. This is exactly what should be done—the hips sliding laterally, and turning and rocking the shoulders to bring the club down.

The wrists leading at impact with no temptation to pronate or supinate are accounted for largely by the position the early break puts the hands and wrists into, aided by the fact that the body is swinging the club during a large segment of the downswing. With the perfect late hit, when the club catches up with the hands at the last possible moment, the hands will always be slightly in front at impact. The club has caught up enough to strike a straight, solid blow, but it doesn’t get exactly even with the hands until slightly after the ball is hit.

This will vary among the top pros, but pictures of many of them, taken at impact, show the left arm and the club in a curving line, not a straight line. Bill Casper and Wes Ellis are two examples.

The fact that a solid contact is produced on the centre of the club face is, really, the cumulative effect of many of the movements which have preceded it. Whenever the hit is late and from the inside the contact is much more likely to be accurate than if we hit too soon and/or from the outside.

]]> http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/benefits-of-the-early-backward-brake/feed/ http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/solo-electric-golf-trolley/ http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/solo-electric-golf-trolley/#comments Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:01:47 +0000 claudiu http://www.planetgolfuk.co.uk/news/2007/06/28/solo-electric-golf-trolley/ Planet Golf UK proudly presents three brand new products.

1. SoloKaddy Electric Golf Cart

SoloKaddy represents the very latest in power cart design and technology. The golf cart with all of the answers at a great price. This ingenious device delivers smooth, quiet, controllable power. The detachable power unit does not require a fixed axle, this enables SoloKaddy to fold like a normal pull golf cart. Add to this the telescopic handle and you have a powered golf cart that really fits in the smallest of spaces.

2. SoloKing Electric Golf Cart

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Unlike the unique front wheel drive of the SoloKaddy, SoloKing is a conventionally-driven, rear wheel drive powered cart. Rest assured, however, that SoloKing shares the high design and manufacturing standards which are present throughout the Solo range.
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SoloKing’s aluminium frame offers an excellent balance of strength and usability. Simply clip on the front and rear wheels, extend the adjustable handle, attach the battery pack, and adjust the speed to suit yourself!
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SoloKing features a unique, ‘scissor-type’ folding mechanism which allows the main shaft to halve in size for easy storage and transportation. A wide track rear axle gives all the stability you’ll need with even the largest golf bag.

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For the golfer who wants the ultimate in versatile power, the Solo Power unit is the answer. Attaching to your existing golf trolley using the QuickRelease clamp provided, Solo converts the ordinary humble trolley into a superb powered cart. Solo is a complete power unit, containing the battery, power management and QuietDrive mechanism that takes powered golf to a new level in performance and versatility at an affordable price. The barrel design provides superb traction in all conditions and the centre rubber tyre ensures smooth running on hard surfaces. The charger is one of the smallest available. But don’t let size fool you. It will fully recharge the Solo Power unit in less than 8 hours, whilst protecting the battery life.

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Stenson took the lead at the first and was never headed, alternating between two and three up from the fourth hole.

US Open champion Ogilvy was one down after seven but took the decisive lead on the 9th before winning on the 16th.

Immelman and Campbell will fight it out over 18 holes for third place on Sunday.

“I’m knackered now, playing two rounds today. It was nice not to have to go all the way to the end in this one,” said Stenson, 30, who held off Ernie Els and Tiger Woods to clinch his fifth European Tour title at this month’s Dubai Desert Classic.

full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/6394069.stm