Golf Swing Relativity

My recent posts have been directed at stating how much easier it is to hit a golf ball compared to so many other activities in life.  I will dissect this a little more here.  Making a golf swing at a driving range can be analogously likened to swinging a tennis racquet and hitting a tennis ball when it is just hanging on a string and held stationary, or making a swing with a baseball bat when a baseball is merely sitting on a batting tee.  When those feats are able to be reasonably accomplished, then each of these three mentioned sports have various additional swing aspects that need to be undertaken in order to develop a well-rounded game.  In tennis, serving and backhanded shots immediately come to mind.  Hitters achieving the highest skill level in baseball may practice the ability to intentionally alter the path of their swings and direct the ball to various parts of the field.  And not to be outdone, golf requires differing adjustments for unlevel playing surfaces and sand shots as examples.  All seems pretty fair to this point, until realizing that in tennis and baseball the ball is traveling around in different directions and at different speeds while trying to hit it, rationally the most difficult challenge faced in the performing of these sports.  Then there is golf, where the ball just sits mercilessly for one to wail away at.  This less challenging aspect is overcome by making the golf ball considerably smaller, adding difficulty in that regard.  Do not be misled with respect to how difficult a golf swing is based on this ball size relative to what is used elsewhere.  That is an unfair comparison.

Now do not get me wrong.  Learning how to simply hit a baseball off of a batting tee to begin with can still require literally thousands of repetitions to become accustomed to and develop an acceptable performance level.  This was one of the drills done in my baseball days, used to help develop proper footwork during the swing.  Even after years of training to play that game, I still somehow managed to mishit the ball off of that tee at times.  And being experienced at other, similar activities does not always lessen the number of repetitions needed.  After more than a decade spent practicing my baseball swing, yet having virtually no golfing exposure, I look back now and chuckle about how awkward it felt to grip and swing a golf club in those early days, slicing so badly the ball was nearly headed back toward me before it hit the ground.  Based on my cumulative experiences to that point though, I never thought for one second even then that a golf swing was a formidable action to achieve.  But even simpler activities may not be mastered quickly when they are new to someone.  More on golf swing relativity next time.