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Use balance, not speed, for accurate, powerful golf shots.

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	Mind over motion Great swings emphasize balance and focus, not speed From the great Shawn Clement (Golf Tips Magazine) brush the grass Take any club and start swinging it back and forth about waist high. Keep the pressureon both heels back and through. Allow centrifugal force to power the club and let it brush the groundas it moves through the hitting area. Examinethe spot on the ground that your clubhead hits consistently. That's where the ballshould be played. When you put your golf swing into motion one of two things is going to happen: You're either going to maintain your focus on the ball until the club swipes through it or you're going to lose your focus and "black out" before impact. Most of us "black out" a good percentage of the time. The reason why is because we lose our balance. We may not fall down, but we're very close to doing so. When you were very young and learning how to stand and walk, how did you do it? Through evolution and imitation you simply stood up because you saw mom and dad doing it. What happened then? You guessed it: You fell down. You probably don't remember, but it hurt and you certainly weren't going to fall in that direction again. Instead, you fell in every other direction until one day you were able to stand comfortably. From that point on your central nervous system's priority number one became keeping you standing and safe. The millisecond you lose your center of gravity, your CNS goes into survival mode. The body's center of gravity runs through the center of the head, shoulders, hips, knees and finally the center of the ankles. Try this: Stand as tall as possible with your head held high and your arms hanging along the sides of your body. You should feel the pressure of your weight on the heels of your feet through the ankles. Now, lean back a little. Can you feel your abdominal and upper leg muscles tighten up? As soon as your center of gravity (which is about a quarter of an inch wide) is compromised, a signal shoots from the small fluid pocket inside your ears that controls balance to the brain. The brain identifies where the out-of-abalance condition lies and activates the necessary muscles to correct that condition. When you swing a golf club, you produce centrifugal forces that can easily pull you out of balance. When you do, your body goes into survival mode. Signals are passed, muscles are activated and, of course, your focus is compromised. In a sense, your body would rather have you remain standing than see you strike a 9-iron to three feet. We're our own worst enemies, but it doesn't have to be that way. Pull! Most golfers have the tendency to get pulled off the ball in the backswing and get pulled into the ball on the downswing. Why? Well, imagine yourself on the edge of a cliff falling forward. What would your natural reaction be? You'd pull up! When you swing the club toward the ball, there's a certain force pulling you forward into it. If this force is great enough to pull you out of balance, you'll react by pulling up. Pull up too much, however, and you'll hit the ball off the toe or you'll top it. If you don't react fast enough, you'll hit the ball on the heel of the club, shank it or hit it fat. That takes care of contact, but what about direction? When you pull up, you change the path of the clubhead as your arms come in toward you, causing the club to brush across the ball. If the clubface is square or closed, you'll pull or hook the ball. If the face is open, you'll push or slice the ball. Regardless, falling out of balance, in my opinion, is the number-one cause of poor golf shots. Back To Balancing Basics Good players with good golf swings maintain balance by taking care of business at address. Once a player knows how to create static balance at address, he or she is well on his or her way to maintaining overall balance during the swing and greater consistency. When you address a golf ball, don't think of your body bending forward to get to the ball. Rather, imagine your body as protruding rearward, as if someone behind you is pulling on a rope fastened to the ball joints of both hips. Next, activate the knees, which is to say bend them slightly. If you bend them too much, you'll place too much pressure on your toes; not enough and the fronts of your feet will start to lift off the ground. Your shoulders should remain along the sides of your body. As you bring your arms out in front of you to position the club, don't allow your shoulders to slouch forward. After all, your center of gravity runs through the center of your shoulders. Move them out of position and you'll immediately hinder your ability to maintain balance. As far as the head is concerned, it should remain in-line with the spine, with the chin up and off your chest. For those players who wear bifocals and trifocals and need to peer over the bottom lenses to see the ball, you're likely placing your head out of alignment and out of balance. If you must wear glasses when you play, make sure they're single lenses and have someone else keep score. Mind Over Motion The critical component of a balance-maintaining address position is finding the correct distance between you and the golf ball. It's also one of the most critical components of good ball striking. Here's how you find it. Take any club and start swinging it back and forth continuously about waist high. As you do so, keep the pressure on both heels back and through. Allow centrifugal force to power the club and let it brush the ground as it moves back and through the hitting area. Examine the spot on the ground that your clubhead hits consistently and place your clubhead in that spot. That's where the ball should be played! When you address the ball at this position, it should feel as if the clubhead is hanging directly from your shoulders, and that the shoulders and armpits are resting against your rib cage and are supporting the clubhead. Now, you're in balance. The final step is to provide a specific object for your eyes to triangulate. Triangulation allows our bodies to perform a task in relation to an object. When the phone rings or when you want to reach for a 7-iron, your eyes triagulate where the object lies and automatically motion your hand toward it, whether it's the phone or golf club. For the golf swing, the ball is a good source of triangulation, but I ask my students to look for something more specific. Use the number or logo on the ball and focus on it until the clubhead swipes through it. If you start in balance, you'll likely finish in balance. The ideal finish position for a right-handed person has the weight on top of the left ankle with the left foot flat on the ground. Your body should face the target, with your hands resting comfortably over the left shoulder and your right foot on its toes with little or no weight left on it. Your center of gravity should align itself through the center of your head, shoulders and hips and over the center of the left knee and the center of the left ankle. When your body finishes in its proper alignment and in balance, there's no strain or stress in any of the muscles or joints. When your body knows where to go, it will get there much more efficiently. your cns and you Imagine a telephone. It rings. What do you do? Unless you're avoiding calls that day, you pick up the phone and say "hello." Do you actually think about grabbing the receiver when you pick it up? No, you just do it. Believe it or not, the same goes for the golf swing. The key is vision. When you want to touch an object, your eyes triangulate the object and tell your brain where to put your hand. If the object is out of reach, your eyes will tell your brain that the object is too far away and to make the neccessary adjusments. This is done without thought, without conscious effort. When you hold a golf club, your eyes need to tell your brain where to position the club and how to align the face. For this, you need something very specific to triangulate. The golf ball? That's a good guess, but I've found that for the purpose of triangulation, the ball isn't accurate enough. Therefore, I ask my students to position the ball with the logo at the back and focus on that. The goal here is to stamp the number or logo in the center of the clubface.