One of the nice things about doing this blog is that I learn from it myself. I pretty much lay out what’s in my head and augment it with a little research and fact checking to make sure I’m not out in left field and also to fill in gaps in my own knowledge. Beyond that, it keeps the things that I need to do fresh in my mind. If I was doing all the things that I know are correct, then I’d already be on tour. The point is for me to absorb these things, but also to share them with you, in hopes that they help your game as well.

I’m doing my best to plug all the holes. At first, my game had as many holes as a pasta strainer, but slowly I’m plugging them up. Unfortunately, I can’t address them all at once. You’ve seen me identify alignment as a problem area in my game, but until now I hadn’t actively addressed it because I just have been working on so many things.

I decided that after I advocated using an aim club during practice sessions, I better make sure I make it a habit myself. This became especially important after a friend noted that both my feet and shoulders were misaligned.

I made it a point at my next range session to make use of an aim club. It really helped to align my feet. But I also noticed that while I had perceived that my shoulders were then square to the target, holding a club across them and comparing it to my aim club showed that they were seriously closed (aligned right of the target).

Eureka. This was explaining why I was so consistently drawing the ball. Taking a closed stance encourages an in to out swing (relative to the swing plane), which encourages a draw.

When I fixed my alignment and started hitting shots, something weird happened: I started naturally fading the ball (and sometimes slicing). I also had a tendency to block the ball way right.

At that time, I felt that my alignment was correct, and it also seemed that my swing plane had actually improved (I need to get myself on video to verify that).

That pointed to one culprit: I don’t believe I was correctly releasing my hands through impact. It all makes sense. Closed feet, closed shoulders. Strong grip. Serious inside-the-plane swing. All these things want to cause a draw. That means that to keep from hooking every shot, my hands had to intervene and not allow a complete release. I think I’ve been “holding on” through impact, just to keep the ball going near the target.

Every once in a while, I actually suspected as much after hitting a shot, but with the ball drawing, I think “no, can’t be that.” Well, now I think it was. See? I told you the body is smart. It was smart enough to realize that if I was going to do all those things to promote a draw (especially the strong grip) that there was only one way to stop from hooking the ball. Keep the hands from turning over until well after impact.

At today’s session, I’m going to try and see if I’m on top of things, or if I’m chasing shadows.

The reason I’m sharing this relates to what I alluded to in the title. In your own swing, it’s not likely that there’s only one thing wrong. The act of fixing one problem may uncover others. And the old adage is true: you may get worse before you get better. Resist the urge to casually eliminate possible causes just because symptoms don’t seem to add up. Take the time to prove to yourself that what you believe is happening really is happening.

Did you like this post? Get free RSS updates!

Leave a comment | Comment Policy | Trackback URL