I have two Surgisms that I believe tell it all as to the importance of Alignment.
The first is, '90 to 95% of all swing problems arise out of Bad Alignment.'
The second is, 'Alignment'¦Alignment'¦Alignment'¦Don't play golf without it.'
Alignment is important because even with a perfect swing, alignment determines the direction the ball flies. The most perfect swing a golfer can make will end up in the wrong place if the alignment is wrong and aimed somewhere else other than the intended target. This is the same as putting in a wrong address into your car's GPS system. It will take you to the address you entered and not to your intended destination.
The main reason for always checking your alignment after making a good swing and hitting a good, relatively straight shot to a wrong place is for 'Peace of Mind.' As I have said in previous articles, making good swings and hitting good shots (pushes or pulls) because of bad alignment and calling them a push or pull is in fact when they were not is BAD. Really BAD for maintaining your grooved swing and your peace of mind. WHY?
Because making a good to perfect swing and hitting it to a wrong place and blaming or calling it a block or pull is, in effect, blaming and classifying the wrong direction hit as a swing flaw, error or mistake. Calling a shot blocked implies that the player moved slightly ahead of the ball and/or kept the shoulders a little closed, swinging straight down the outside line. Calling a shot a pull implies the player hung back a little in the transition and or pulled the shoulders and torso a little open, too much swinging inside the aiming line. This is 100%, heck 1000% wrong, because it was not a swing error but an alignment error. The real flaw in declaring and believing you just made a poor to bad swing is that you did not. In fact youmade a good to perfect swing. How can the brain function to make good swings when it now does not know what a good swing is? All because you classified a good swing as bad.
The key here is that dismissing good as bad messes up the learning cycle. We spend a lot of time practicing and fine tuning our golf swings and then go out an play and make good swings but hit the ball to a wrong place. Calling it a block or pull, even if the swing felt good, we have decreed it bad. This is counterproductive to learning because you have just thrown doubt and confusion into your brain as to what a good swing is and feels like. How can we play golf, or for that matter do anything correctly, confidently and consistently when we do it right and call it wrong. That is like teaching your dog to sit when you say sit. Then one day you throw a stick and say sit to tell him to get it. The dog is now confused as to what the sit command is suppose to do just as the golfer is confused as to what a good swing feels like and how to do it.
Golf is tough enough. We don't need to be messing up our minds, calling a good swing that hits a good shot to a wrong place a bad or flawed swing, when, in fact, it wasn't , if bad alignment was actually the cause that led to the effect of hitting to a wrong place.
The solution to keeping your golf sanity and ending confusion, and knowing and feeling a good swing when you make one on the course, after you have worked and practice hard to learn and remember that good swing is to NEVER make a good swing to a wrong place and accept it as a bad swing. ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, do (if you are sure your total body is aligned parallel) the 'Toe Alignment Check Test' to see and rule bad alignment in or out as the cause. Or, ultimately, if you doubt your entire body is lined up parallel, seek help from your PGA Professional or from a friend and do the 'Total Body Alignment Check.'
The key is simple. The mind works best if it is not confused. Calling a good swing bad creates confusion and doubt. So, I always recommend and PLEAD with all my students that when you make that good swing and hit the ball to the wrong place, please'¦please'¦pretty please, check your alignment.
And for playing really smart golf, when you make a poor to bad swing, please check your alignment. You will be amazed how often bad shots are hit because of BAD alignment. Remember the first Surgism at the top of this article, '90 to 95 percent of all swing problems arise out of BAD Alignment.' Knowing that Bad Alignment was the cause, on the next shot you focus on two things. Getting into proper alignment and making a good swing. That formula works as you will be playing by the second Alignment Surgism.
Alignment'¦Alignment'¦alignment'¦Don't play golf without it!
The Surge!