Forms Cue Up Your Golf Swing

  

Instead of swing mechanics and negative thoughts, at some point in your development you need to occupy your mind with success images [forms] RE your swing -- and this week I’d like you to spend your golf time thinking about circles.

The Image

One way to think about your golf swing is that there are four circles that must be completed each in their own time. The smallest circle and the one that finishes first is the circle or rotation of your hips. The next circle is your shoulders which is slightly larger than the hips. Following that is the circle of your hands and it finishes next to last behind the largest circle, the clubhead. And they must complete their respective circles in that order.

Now your clubhead, hands and body don't really transcribe exact circles but the point is clear -  to keep everything on its appointed arc of rotation, in sync and on time -  one most allow the circles to do their thing.

This is what I call “form learning” where instead of focusing on swing mechanics I ask the student to tap into the power of the form. Here “form-ulate” and “calculate” are different levels of recognition. Most golfers focus on learning swing mechanics [calculations] vs the pure form of the swing itself. Oliver Sacks in his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, discovered this form power in two Idiot Savant twins who were so retarded they could not calculate 2 x 8 but they could form-ulate at a very high level as demonstrated by the following:

“A box of matches on their table fell, and discharged its contents on the floor: '111,' they both cried simultaneously… I counted the matches -- it took me some time -- and there were 111. How could you count the matches so quickly? I asked. “We didn’t count them, they said, we saw 111.”

 Unencumbered by normal mechanics they embraced the form of 111 i.e. 111-ness instead of calculating it. Perhaps we all have such wondrous powers running sub-rosa but they are obscured or sealed up by the exigencies of survival – to be kept safe from matches and their fire there is little use in knowing the form 111-ness. Savants have had the normal human powers used to navigate the world, ripped away by disease or a cruel roll of the DNA dice leaving the lone power that remains free to dominate by default.

For this week, focus on the form of your swing using the four circles as a guide. I believe that while you must learn the tangible mechanics of the swing such as grip and weight shift, you must play the game by allowing forms to cue your up your motor responses.