Do you ever have a swing thought during a round that helps you hit better shots? Perhaps you have a eureka moment on the driving range before your round. Regardless, if you're constantly thinking about your swing fundamentals and ways in which you can execute them properly, keeping a notepad in your golf bag is an absolute must!
I've got a notepad in my bag that dates back to the eary 2000s. I don't write something in it every time I play. Instead, I only write something down that I know I should never forget. This is because waiting until the end of a round could cause me to forget exactly what I want the swing thought to be.
I would highly recommend having a notepad available and keeping it tucked away in your golf bag. If you're in the midst of a few bad rounds, pull it out and look at the swing thoughts that are in it, as they might just be what you need to start hitting the ball solid and straight again.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
Comments
Extension after impact/hitting through the ball
I recently found a powerful swing image while surfing the web for hitting the ball straight and solidly. Swing guru Dr. Gary Wiren was talking about hitting the ball straight on par threes. Instead of laying a tour stick flat on the ground, on the target side of the ball on the ball target line, as an alignment aid he did something that was a little different. He had the stick poked in the ground on the other side of the ball and sloping up on about a 20 degree angle and pointed at the target.
Visualizing the swing tracking along that up sloping stick, immediately helped me swing through the ball and get a great feeling of extension of the arms after impact. The ball just gets in the way.The following Surge video link stresses this vital part of the swing. In his video Surge says that thinking about swinging up rather than down is a key part of the downswing. This visualization helps me do just that.
https://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/pop-tart-adds-power
Being able to visualize swinging up and along this sloping stick has also helped with working the ball because it helps me to visualize the line that I want the ball to start on.
The Notepad
Bang on Surge, I have created a little card which folds in two and update this with labels which I stick over the previous one when I find something in my swing in that moment of "EUREKA", it beats having a notebook with lots of pages and points to scrum through. Each label is created and stored in a file
on my computer of my swing and can be reviewed or replaced at any time.
If, at any time, I start to bleed during my game, I can pull it out of my back pocket and do a quick mental check and usually find the source of the problem. I have a label on SETUP, BUS, FUS & PUTTING. The SETUP up label is the one that's most commonly used during a game, as it doesn't involved any mechanical thought process, the others are mostly used on the practise range.