I’ve been working on my short game thanks to a private par 3 course in my community that is usually empty. I can play a few holes whenever I want, it’s usually empty, and the cost is good (free). However, I realized my long game was in serious need of improvement if I was going to break 80 for a regulation 18 hole course. Lessons over the years hadn’t helped the long game, and part of that was probably not hiring the right PGA professionals. In any event, I bought a weighted golf tool last January. The salesman said in a few weeks your drives will be over 300 yards. Even knowing that 300 yard drives that go into the woods or OB was not very useful, I bought it anyway. It looks like like a normal club, about the length of the average driver.
The last 2 segments at the end unscrew. You practice with the lightest configuration, then add the 2nd for a while, then the third.
I brought it home, and made sure I let it age a few months like a fine wine. It came with a piece of paper explaining how to use it, but it was short on why or how it helped your long game. Before buying it, I asked a golf pro, and he told me they absolutely work. He told me to swing forward and backward and feel the lag. Now it was several months later, and before just swinging about randomly, I decided to look online and see about methods for using a weighted driving club for practice.
I found a very interesting video by Paul Wilson about the “body swing”. He sells videos and booklets about his method, but I was fascinated by his marketing video. It was like he was detailing what was missing and what was wrong with my long game and he had a method to fix it. Ironically, his videos cost the same as the weighted golf club. I don’t know if that was a good sign or a bad omen that I was wasting more money on the elusive goal to break 80.
So I decided to focus on the body swing and give it a try. I’ve tried swing changes before, they are certainly no fun. In the past I end up almost unable to move the club, and starting over and being humiliated is not my idea of fun. However, Paul Wilson has tips that allow you to ease into it with a finishing swing position first. You don’t have to try to do everything all at once, and you spend the first 2 – 3 weeks hitting shots 2/3 normal distance to get the feel for the proper use of body and less “hitting” with your arms. This was ideal. I could slowly integrate changes into my swing while seeing how it went. The first time on the range, it was ugly and annoying. A few days of just swinging in front of a glass door outside as Paul suggests started making it easier.
I started making progress, then stabbed my palm with a butter knife. Not in frustration nor in anger at my poor grip, but by being stupid trying to get brownies out of a baking pan. After a few weeks my left palm heeled and I started up again trying the body swing last week. I did a few in the window again, but I got impatient and went to the range. I also went out to my handy par 3 course and used an 8 iron on mostly 100 yard holes. This was ideal for me. Not only was nobody out there, but I could hit 2 or 3 shots and hit 2, 3, or 4 practice swings working on the body swing. As expected, it ruined scoring, but I wasn’t scoring to see how good I was, I was scoring to see if I could move the body swing in the right direction: improvement. The thing is that the “new” body swing felt really good. It felt more in control, it didn’t feel like hacking and slashing, and after initial problems, shots started straightening out nicely. It was sort of like when I had been skiing my entire life, and tried snowboarding for the first time. I knew I liked snowboarding and would never ski again, even though I would be starting over and get wet and fall a lot. So the body swing seems like a good fit for me. I’m a few days into daily practice now and I’m not losing as many golf balls as the first day. Those were mostly going way over the green into the woods. What I was finding was that using the body swing at 2/3 effort was going as long or longer than my maximum effort with my 8 iron before I tried this change. As I dialed back the power, the shots started getting straighter and straighter, and I went from 1 out of 10 greens in regulation to 6 out of 10 with my dialed down 8 iron using the body swing.
With my “old” swing that didn’t finish and was clearly an arm-focused swing, here’s how my scorecard looked. I was mostly on in regulation, and scoring better than I ever had. The problem was my long game would not get me in position to score. I had to figure out how to get off the tee and into position to score since my short game was ready.
Clearly I was able to score from 100 yards and in, arm swing and all. This was 11 out of 16 short par 3’s in regulation. You could still see really bad shots hiding in there. Those double-bogeys were shanks or lost balls from errant shots from about 100 yards in, so all wasn’t well in arm-swing land. Here’s what a few holes look like using the body swing with an 8 iron at 2/3 power after 3 or 4 days.
This was 6 out of 14 par 3 tee shots on in regulation with one 3 putt. My very first par 3 rounds were only 1 or 2 out of 10 par 3 tee shots on in regulation. I’ve also been doing the same body swing 2/3 power shots on the range almost every day as well starting several days ago. I’m going to stick with this for a couple of weeks, and once I can get the 2/3 power with the body swing repeatable, move to full speed shots and see how it goes. I’m optimistic because now I can self correct. I know when my arms get overly involved, know when I don’t reach the proper finish position, and have a vision of the swing I want in my mind. If nothing else, the shots feel effortless and in control at the same time. Just like it felt for me moving from skiing to snowboarding, I’m not going back even if it means some short-term embarrassment.
If anyone knows how to use that weighted club tool, please let me know. I still don’t know how to use it to gain distance.