. . . And Then a Golf Swing Perception From the Athletes in the Game

Due to its unique requirements to achieve success (including a certain lack of athletic prowess and experience), there will probably always be a substantial segment of the golfing population who will be convinced that a golf swing is one of the most demanding motions to undertake.  The hard-fought goal for players in particular is to build and maintain confidence in their swings, and the reward for accomplishing that is being able to easily dismiss the many inane claims made about golf swings, swing aids, and the latest rhetoric in golf club design and fitting.  Of course that is much easier said than done even for the finest players on the planet sometimes, let alone novices at golf who do not own other athletic experience(s) to mitigate what is thrown at them.  Speaking of top-notch golfers, at the other extreme end of playing ability, why do many competitors there also consider a golf swing to be so intricate?

At the highest levels of the golfer talent range, while there still reside many players who believe a golf swing is a complex creature, their conclusions are often rooted within different factors than their less-experienced counterparts.  I can readily tell (based largely on my own background) that some of the top performers in golf could hold their own pretty well against skilled athletes in other sports.  Many talented golfers are physically strong, well educated, and mentally tough, also having other athletic endeavors firmly under their belts.  On any given day, such players would not seem out of place in a professional baseball or basketball game as examples, and elite golfers could retain high confidence levels competing even there.  And yet, it appears that so many golfers at the higher levels of playing ability, who seem in some ways to be even more qualified for success at golf than many star professional athletes who perform in other sports, just cannot seem to achieve up to the level that they themselves or others expect of them.  This can be a real baffler at times to anyone analyzing the specifics.

While not the tell-all reason for the disappointing underachieving of every single individual who has encountered this predicament, one of the strongest forces precipitating this occurrence is the second element of becoming an accomplished golfer that I referred to at the start of Waggle Weight Wisdom.  This comprises the proper fitting of equipment to players.  Being deficient in such regard can occur even at the highest levels of playing the game, and the smallest details of insufficiency always seem to rear their ugly heads at the most inopportune times.  There are various reasons why this can occur even among professionals in the business, and I will more explicitly note some of them as I get into the subject of golf equipment in more detail.

The most natural way for players (and not just in golf) to do things is pretty much to ignore the topic of equipment fitting until they feel they can first perform the expected motion reasonably well.  Then, as their experience and confidence levels slowly increase, they will begin to learn about their equipment and how it can affect their performance.  This is perfectly okay and the way it should be, as proper equipment fitting becomes a more relevant and important issue as players become more physically talented and mentally confident in their abilities.  It is ultimately an integral part of one’s skill.  Players with the most beautiful swings in the world are nowhere close to being true “golfers” until they at least reasonably grasp the principles behind the equipment they use.  Notwithstanding that the skilled fitting of golf clubs is usually more crucial as players become better and/or more serious about the game, there are some extremely important, fundamental concepts in fitting golf equipment that, if understood well and applied properly in fitting one’s equipment, can positively impact the play of anyone, even a novice at the game.  I will now get into some golf club fitting.