A couple of weeks ago, I received this comment and question from Dwight, who had been having problems with his driver.
"Surge, great video today. Awhile back I was coming across my body with my driver all the time then I put a note on the blog about it and Robert F. suggested that I check the length of my driver as that might be my problem. Well, the next time I went to play I tried choking up about 1 to 2 inches on my driver and...problem resolved! Now my drives are straight down the middle, though not monster drives, but good enough for a 70 yr. old."
Dwight has discovered what I have been preaching for years. The single-minded pursuit of distance is injurious to your scoring average. We must have distance and accuracy if we want to make the green in regulation on a consistent basis.
But then Dwight continued with a new question.
"Help from the Surge Nation! How important is it to keep the left arm stiff throughout the swing? I have a problem doing this but when I bend my left arm on the backswing I seem to hit the ball just as good."
Well, Dwight the fact that you report that you can still hit the ball well means that whatever amount of bend you have in your left (forward) arm isn't severe enough to cause your arm to "break" at the elbow. If you recall, we never want to stiffen our arms to the point where they lock up and become hyper-extended. Why? First of all, doing so dramatically increases the muscle tension in your arms, shoulders and back to levels beyond where we want it to be. Also, when you hyper-extend your forward elbow it makes it nearly impossible to rotate your arms properly which means the club will go into the Catcher's Mitt in a shut position. Then, as you begin your lift, your left arm will be above the right one and the only thing that can happen at that point is for the club to flip and get flat and laid-off. And we all know what happens then--that's right, an unwanted trip to The Sacred Burial Ground.
Dwight, here's something to key on in determining when simple flexion turns into a bad break, I think the breaking point occurs when your forearm approaches a 90 degree angle to your upper arm. When that happens, the club collapses to your body and the only way to get back to the ball is to cast the club up and out which will likely result in a slice. So if you are still able to hit the ball straight, you are OK with that amount of flexion in your elbow joint.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
If you can't view the YouTube video above try CLICKING HERE. You must allow popups from this site for the link to work.