Decoding One’s True Golf Swing DNA: Part Three

Trying to analyze and/or work on the quality of one’s root golf swing, particularly while utilizing multiple golf clubs in the process (can even apply to a single club if its fit or any other club characteristics are sufficiently flawed) is foolish at best.  Examples that should be obvious are a player using a swingweight-matched set of golf clubs where the player’s fulcrum rotation point is not equal to fourteen inches, and/or any given club(s) in the set where the portion of the golf shaft under the player’s hands is slightly out of round (both very common events).  There is no player on the planet that will not experience a certain amount of “inconsistency” when consecutive swings are made with perceptibly different clubs.  Yet typical golf swing instruction protocol readily submits to these inconsistencies in equipment as though absolutely no other choices exist, routinely labeling one’s swing as being “faulty” when such inconsistencies surface.  Developing a limb-only grip and swing for all else to be referenced against is by far the best way to conquer inherent golf equipment inconsistencies.

The routine switching between imperfect individual clubs, which repeatedly promotes and/or forces noticeable changes upon one’s golf swings during actual play, is a major contributing factor as to why so many players believe a golf swing is difficult and that their swings are so “poor and/or inconsistent.”  Virtually all golfers would be amazed at the results they would obtain upon eliminating all clubs or other “swing aids” from their swinging, producing their golf grips and swings using only the limbs of their bodies, and analyzing their swings using true swing DNA.  While most players’ swings would still clearly be less developed than that of typical tournament players, it would nevertheless be found that their swings are essentially no less consistent from swing to swing (over the short haul, not long-term swing developments) than the tournament players.  I constantly come across golfers not swinging well when practicing or playing, yet were I to take their clubs out of their hands and show them how to frame their golf grips and swings in order to eliminate any and all ill-fitting and/or inconsistent golf clubs, most would immediately swing better, accompanied by a change in attitude regarding golf swing difficulty.  On the downside, these golfers might then decide to utter some choice words about any swing teachers and/or clubfitters they used in the past.  I do at this time ask that you please not personally engage in this process until I conclude the current topic string titled Decoding One’s True Golf Swing DNA.

Golf’s very unique playing characteristics, including increased player sensitivity to any equipment changes as a result of swinging at a stationary object, have persuaded the development of a very unique gripping process that may help one play his best golf.  In other activities like hitting a baseball, a melding-together-of-the-hands gripping style as is common in golf, functionality wise, has much less merit.  For example, when swinging at a moving baseball, the swing itself must often be radically different from swing to swing.  Thus, there is little reason to intensely fixate on the memorization of any one particular swing motion, even if a “perfect bat” (defined here as no bat) is available for every swing.  Also, because the same actual bat is usually swung time after time, its characteristics are cumulatively gotten used to and adjusted to regardless of the gripping style used, severely diminishing the need to develop a “batless” swing as a base to reference against all other swings that need to be made.  But in golf, it is extremely beneficial and a scientifically sound basis to develop a process that allows golfers to foundationally and unaffectedly produce their golf grips and root swings in the complete absence of any clubs or other devices.  Even if pioneers like Harry Vardon and others were not fully aware at the time of what they began for the game of golf when starting a gripping procedure that has evolved into the current standard, they certainly deserve to be commended now.

Now if one has no future goal of moving to effectively form a golf grip and swing under limb-only conditions so that one’s true golf swing DNA can be determined and worked with, then there is no reason whatsoever to make the substantial effort needed to meld one’s hands together and become comfortable with that uncommon means of gripping.  When an actual golf club shaft is placed through one’s hands and that is the only way one ever intends to proceed, a more natural gripping style comprising the hands just butted up against one another, as is typical on a baseball bat, will be just as effective and consistent as when gripping with one’s hands merged together more.  As I previously detailed, hitting a moving baseball requires greater skill in several areas than that needed to hit a stationary (even much smaller) golf ball.  So if a baseball can be skillfully hit using a ten-fingered grip on a bat, then one can become just as skillful at hitting a golf ball with a ten-fingered grip, equaling or even exceeding comparable accomplishments of baseball hitters or those engaged in other activities where abutting grip styles are employed on equipment used.

A word of caution, though, is that other intertwined elements also come into play and also must be addressed if deciding to pursue this route.  For instance, overall grip sizes and tapers are primarily designed for “overlapping” or similar golf club gripping styles, since these are the styles that most golfers ultimately use.  If going to and/or staying with a more natural and initially easier baseball-style grip, I can pretty much assure you here that one will probably be best served by a different grip size and/or taper than one would need if utilizing an overlapping grip.  “Standard” golf grip sizes would not be the same dimensions if abutting grip styles were used by a preponderance of golfers.  I will expand on this a bit more next post, and I will also supply some genuine X-rated material.