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It is shocking how far the men on the PGA Tour hit the ball, however, pound for pound it is more amazing how far the women on the LPGA Tour hit the ball.  How is it that these women of ordinary size can develop so much club head speed?  If it came down to just strength, the average male golfer should be able to far out hit the women on Tour, but this is not the case.  Let’s take a look into how these women of modest stature create that kind of club head speed to deliver maximum velocity to the little white orb.

If you take pure strength and size out of the equation, it seems to come down to three things.  Although these women are not big and muscle bound, they are flexible, have a lot of technique, and have some of that magical intangible factor.  If I had to designate importance by percentage, I’d break it down to flexibility – 15%, intangible/speed factor – 30%, and technique –55%.  Let’s look at which ones you can affect the most and what they are comprised of.

Flexibility entails stretching the shoulders, lats, hips, hamstrings, forearms, and wrists.  The flexibility of these parts will dictate how big of a correct shoulder turn you can make using your big muscles, how much resistance your lower body can give the upper body in creating torque, and how much whip or release of club your forearms, wrists, and hands can accommodate.  This is something that you can affect quite a bit just by stretching for 15 minutes every day.  You should take advantage of this one thing you have quite a bit of control over.

The main physical move in the golf swing that the pros do, but amateurs do not do, relates to the separation of the upper and lower body, as mentioned above in ‘creating torque’.  The pros are flexible and posturally strong enough to turn their shoulders 90 to 110 degrees on their back swing and have their hips at only 30 to 45 degrees, whereas amateurs will turn their shoulders back 75 degrees and their hips 50 degrees because of lack of flexibility, incorrect posture, and lack of technique.  On the downswing the pros have fast enough hips to keep ahead of unwinding shoulders, and to keep the width in the arms.  This is akin to the discus throw, as the discus thrower’s body is going away from his target as he releases the disc.  He has taken out all slack, has as wide an arc as possible, and after winding up tightly, releases the wound up energy.

If you’ve seen a pro’s golf club in slow motion, you’ve seen it bowed on the downswing before it makes contact with the ball.  This bowing of the club is due to delaying the release of the club head, or keeping the club head back as long as possible.  As well as having correct upper and lower body dynamics, this delayed release is created by maintaining the wrist angle for a long time before allowing the club head to burst forward and turn over at just the right time.  In this way power and energy are loaded into the bowed shaft in order to transfer to the club head at moment of impact.  Most amateurs dissipate their energy too soon by releasing the hinged wrist angle too early and allowing the club head to get to the ball too soon, rather than leading with the handle and hands.

The technique factor is something you can affect to a moderate degree.  You will never have near the swing the pros have, however after ingraining some of the basic fundamentals and mechanics, you can learn the physics of the golf club in action, and how to use leverage, in order to deliver greater power to the ball.

Last but not least, the intangible speed factor is based on how much fast twitch muscle fiber you have in your body.  This can be changed a little bit, but we are born with a certain amount of slow twitch and fast twitch fiber, and these stay basically the same.  This is why some people will always be faster runners or be able to hit the golf ball further.  You can develop more fast twitch fiber through exerting yourself in burst or explosive training though.  You can train in an anaerobically high intensity way by doing sprints, speed bag boxing, plyometrics (jumping), and fast movement weight training.  I’d say you can increase your amount of fast twitch muscle fiber by up to 35% if you really applied yourself.

So, go forward with a goal to get in better shape, to become a student of the golf swing and golf club dynamics in motion, and to start taking salsa classes to some very fast Latin music!

Many golfers look at hitting balls on the driving range as boring, mundane work that doesn’t even seem to help their golf game.  Well, they’re probably right about it not helping their golf game, as they are using their time and energy incorrectly.  However, boring and mundane it does not need to be, as their practice time can be engaging, interesting, and rewarding, if used in an appropriate and useful way.

Golfers aren’t going to improve while searching in vain for the answers to their bad shots, watching without having any idea why the ball did what it did.  Having limited knowledge of ‘cause and effect’ in the golf swing, leads to many wasted hours of frustration on the driving range.  For what we think we are doing, and what we are actually doing, are most always two very different things.

So why is it that perception and reality are so very different.  If you’ve played golf for any length of time, first of all you know that nothing about the golf swing is natural.  If it was just an athletic, ‘hand-eye coordination’ maneuver, then Charles Barkley would have a golf swing we could actually look at without wincing, and Michael Jordan would be able to break 85.

Golf is more art than game, and the golf swing is more of a craft than a sport; and these need to be taken into account when practicing.  The golf swing and game are a step by step building process of creation, like a sculpture in the works that you are chipping away at, or analogous to building a house from the ground up.  Sometimes we may get preoccupied with what color shades we want for the windows of our new house, before we’ve even poured the concrete foundation.  On the practice range, this is akin to becoming preoccupied with why our ball is going to the right before we’ve even learned how to grip the club, or how to position ourselves into a solid postural base from which to swing.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, as all amateurs do, trying to rush the pure and worthwhile endeavor of learning to swing the golf club.  Instead, sit back and enjoy the difficulty and beauty of it developing along the way.  We only value that which we truly cherish, so treat your golf swing and game in that way, giving them respect and patient attention.  Practice doesn’t have to be so frustrating and difficult, but can be simpler if focused on the most fundamentally important principles that you need at the time, rather than focused on your bad golf shot.

When a golfer begins to learn and understand the mechanical happenings in a golf swing that produce a certain shot, their practice takes on new meaning and productivity.  When, and if, a golfer ever learns to notice things such as rhythm, balance, and being centered while practicing, the effectiveness of their time spent will be multiplied.  Eighty percent of golfers on the driving range don’t know what to work on or how to practice, and have no idea what is wrong with their swing.  Getting to the crux of the matter entails patient and devoted, insight and study, into the real reasons for your club head action.  Intelligent attention is really the only way to have a more productive and fulfilling time on the range, so become a student of the game, ready for many new beginnings!

When new people come to golf, they often come to it with a conquering attitude, unfortunately.  They see the pros playing on TV, making it look easy, hitting it long and straight, and they decide that is something they want to do.  It doesn’t look like a lot of exertion, like say tennis or basketball, but it is captivating and alluring how far that ball flies.  They think that’s cool, like a video game or something, so they set out to go whack that ball way out there.

When people go into golf in this way, they don’t appreciate and value the game, and all that it has to offer.  They treat golf like they treat other things in their life, with a lack of understanding and respect, and as dispensable.  We trash our houses, cars, bodies, and minds while not adequately revering them, thinking we can just buy fun, entertainment, and well-being, not investing the time and energy to get involved and give our attention and care to things anymore.  We forget to realize that we only get out of life what we put in, and that if we just try to keep using and taking, it leads to much unhappiness.

And so this brings me back to golf, where this manifests before my eyes every week on the golf course where I teach.  I see people out there hurrying, flailing away, and desperate to hit good shots as they struggle in vain to dominate the golf ball, eliminate the unpredictability of the game, and occasionally want to quit because they can’t come close to controlling where their ball goes.  They have an ill-equipped and undisciplined mindset, that in its irresponsibility is leading to unnecessary frustration and anger, isn’t helping them get better, and isn’t allowing them to grow in the game.

Without writing a whole dissertation on this intensive subject, here are a few things to keep in mind as you go on in your journey in golf:

1)      Continually Judging Your Golf Shots is Unproductive – When our emotions and inner well-being are based on shot-by-shot evaluations, it means we are much too results-oriented rather than process oriented.  We forget that the good, rewarding results of the golf shot, are the dessert we get once in a while from insightful effort and time applied, they are not the norm.  The norm is the continual learning process of understanding and working through our bad shots, learning our errant swing tendencies, and rehearsing the fundamentals over and over.

2)      Most Golfers’ Expectations Are Incorrect – You can have high expectations, as long as those expectations are valid, and you have tolerance of your human limitations.  We view anything less than meeting our expectations as failure or a setback, when perhaps our expectations are short-sighted and an unrealistic pipe dream.  Making correct expectations means putting expectations on the things you have some control over, like where your attention, thoughts, and energy will be directed.  If they are usually directed outwardly at the results of your shot, you will have much frustration and discontent on the range; whereas those expectations directed at your actions are realistic, smart, and attainable as they lead to growth, progress, and better scores.  There are certain things that we have control over, i.e. the speed of our backswing, noticing our footwork, awareness of our grip pressure, etc.; and then there are other things that we do not have control over, such as where the ball is going to go — know the difference!!

3)      No Matter How Good You Get, You’re Still Going to Hit Lots of Bad Shots – This is something the tour pro has had to accept, yet the amateur golfer usually doesn’t understand.  After endless competition and hitting millions of golf balls for years and years from a young age to present, the tour player knows they will still hit many bad shots for the rest of their career.  If they want to get on tour or remain on tour, they know that what’s important is how they manage those bad shots, and themselves, on the golf course.

So with all this said, remain patient and calm within when hitting bad shots, as you notice, sense, and feel your tendencies, while holding your finish for at least 4 seconds after every shot – especially if you have flubbed or missed it.  Be a smart golfer please, don’t be another one of those hackers on the range who’s ego is hanging in the balance – the one who beats balls in a frenzy while they are spinning their wheels out there, giving us all wincing entertainment through their silly, frustrated, out-of-control behavior.  Be better to yourself than that, slow down, respect the process, and look to reality as your friend.

Last week I wrote about abstract reasons for working out, basically to create and sustain a good attitude and internal mental environment, readying us for the demands of life. This week I am writing about the physical and physiological reasons for exercise in our lives, those more tangible reasons.

Exercise can cure type 2 diabetes!  Wow, what an astounding statement, are you jumping up and down in excitement right now knowing it’s that easy to avoid one of the scourges of our day?  That statement alone should be more than enough to steer us all to greater activity in our lives.  You would think the known fact that exercise can help cure and prevent many problematic issues and diseases would be all we need to know to physically challenge our bodies, regardless of the difficulty perceived or felt in doing so.  However, this isn’t enough for some, as it doesn’t seem worthy and applicable to our present enjoyment, and the correlation is not made or felt.  So I will plead the point with ever more groveling and gratuitous pandering to our more impulsive and fast food culture side, trying to immediately satisfy the need for ‘readily apparent reward’ and instant gratification.

Okay, here goes:

–Better Sleep:  We sleep better as our bodies are equally tired with our minds after some sustained level of activity.

– Injury Prevention:  When our bodies are fit, we don’t get injured as often when changing the light bulb, cleaning the windows, or tying our shoes.

–Healthy Nerve Function:  Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease progress via the loss of neurons, and exercise is one of the few ways scientists have found to generate new neurons and protect existing ones.

–Look and Feel Better:  Your heart will be stronger, so you won’t be huffing, puffing and stopping to rest going up those stairs.  You will have more lean tissue, your muscles will be more toned, and your dating life will skyrocket to the top!

–Rest for our Mind:  During intense exercise our minds are forced to shut down for a time, giving us a break from the endless impulsive thinking we engage in every day.

–Toxin Reduction:  When exercising we sweat toxins out, as well as removing more through increased oxygen intake and better circulation of lymph fluid.

–Structural Integrity:  Through inner postural, spinal and abdominal muscles strengthening, you will have better alignment and stacking of the joints, and therefore less joint injury and pain.

I have a neighbor who I’ve been friends with for almost 10 years, someone I really enjoy, admire, and look up to because of his consistent demeanor and vibrant, loving spirit.  Talk about going with the flow of life, he is that river that meanders to fit the terrain, and the tree that bends and bows to all weather.  Through noticing and watching him through the years, he has taught me that there is really no reason to get hyped up over things.  I have tried to emulate him the last few years, as I would love to be as even keel and easy going as he is.  It was fitting one day a few years ago  when he told me that working out for him released aggression, and that he can’t imagine what he would do with it all pent up if he didn’t work out.  I thought it quite interesting that while working out helped me with depression years back, the serotonin and norepinephrine increase lifting my mood, it helps him to positively express and utilize his unused, stored up energy, calming him in the process.  Perhaps we’d have a safer society, with less conflict and violence, and more happiness, if people got consistent activity in their life.

I hope I have proven my point for exercise in your life, doing it some justice.  Many of us take for granted our body’s abilities, our opportunities for activity, and the joy in movement.  Unfortunately, often one doesn’t realize what they have until they have lost it.  If you look after your body, it will serve you well, for a body in motion stays in motion.  Don’t diminish your body’s physical capabilities unnecessarily through neglect, for you may wish to get them back someday, only to realize you’ve done irreversible damage and have permanently limited your movement.  Who knows when you will be called upon by life to be the hero or to rescue someone; be ready and physically equipped for what life may ask of you or present you with.  As the ol’ saying goes, “Use it or lose it!”

“If it’s healthy or good for you, it must not taste or feel good”.  As silly as this sounds, many of us think this way much of the time.  We compartmentalize our junk food from our healthy food, and we set aside ‘penance’ time to drag our butts to the gym and sweat, before indulging and lounging guilt free.  We don’t view our activities as part of a complete whole, but rather the healthful parts as a means to an end, in order to have our ‘enjoyable’ time.  What if we could see all as the whole, enjoying both ends of the spectrum equally?  It’s all about yin and yang anyway; just like too much healthy food and too much working out are also bad for you.

Let’s look at this thing called exercise.  When most people think of working out, they think of the weight they need to lose, the cardiovascular health their doctor says they need to achieve, or working on the lack of muscle tone they notice in the mirror.  They then set out to ‘fix’ these things in order to get them done and over with.  This is a very limiting way of exercising your body and experiencing your body training sessions, as if there is a finite result or end destination of your working out.  This is akin to the ‘quick fix’ mentality of our society that we see when a scumlord or city are trying to meet their bottom line.  Let’s face it, patches and maintenance tactics, only last for so long.  How many pot holes get filled in by half-assed efforts of the city, only to be back to being bigger pot holes six months later?  Or how about the scumlord who keeps patching the rusty pipes, allowing the corroded pipes to infect the water, until one day the whole plumbing system busts and floods the units.

The patches are equivalent to our intermittent efforts applied when we get desperate from back, hip, or knee pain, or are in dire straits because our extra weight is leading to complications, thus backing us into having to put in a paltry, ‘after the fact’, effort.  The thing that is being patched is inevitably getting weaker, corrupted, and structurally less sound as we are standing by watching.  Rather than occasionally filling in the pot holes, we need to keep the road well-paved, constantly renewing our body and mind.  Rather than putting electrical tape on rusting pipes, let’s keep the pipes shiny and clean through constant efforts of willful and aware exercise and exertion. 

These consistent efforts will entail being present with your mind while you are working out your body, experiencing your workouts psychologically as well as physically.  We fail to do this in many things in our lives, as we think of what we’re going to do over the weekend while we’re at work, or we rush to get done cutting the grass on Sunday so we can have a beer and sit on the couch.  This mentality of always doing something to get to a future activity, then shows up in our workout sessions as we are not consciously aware of what we are doing, but just going through the motions to get to the reward.  Because of this, our efforts will usually be temporary and the effects will be minimal.  ‘Do what you are doing’ – in other words, when you are working out, be there working out, and willfully live that reality at that time, rather than just getting through the ‘drudgery’ to a future time.

Most people’s desires when they go to the gym are purely superficial, as in, how will this make my body look better, or how will this make my back or hip hurt less when doing my normal activities.  These are fine and dandy, but they can be limiting and short-sighted if not accompanied by an inner awareness, more often than not.  When working out becomes a way of life through an awareness of what it brings to our life, and is not just a means to an end, then it won’t be seen as drudgery anymore.  When it is embraced as a part of who you are, it will have a real affect on your psyche, and the other activities of your life will be more enriching through better clarity and balance within.  Embrace the difficulty, don’t detest or begrudge it, for without difficult things to overcome we would be faint-hearted pansies with no heart.

Consistently working out as a way of life, and the discipline it entails and fosters, readies us for the difficulties of life.  The other obstacles aren’t so daunting when I have a sense of accomplishment physically, knowing I can push myself when low on energy, energizing and motivating myself in the process.  When I know I can control my actions and behaviors during that time, it creates a greater sense of self-confidence in my ability during other endeavors.  Working out supplies the texture of our life, something for the other parts to hold and attach onto.  One must have a solid foundation and base from which to grow, share, create, and interact.  It is easy to get scattered and disparate, and a sense of order in our lives starts with fostering singular focus and purpose through diligence in exercising our physical body.

The body and mind are not separate units, so stop trying to make them such.  Realize how they are infinitely intertwined and tied into one another, for there is  no lasting happiness until this is realized.  If I don’t experience my body while I am working it out, I am not truly connected to my body’s physical well-being.  You cannot be happy by just indulging and fulfilling the body, that will be short-lived and soon lose the appeal it once had.  Until you make physical awareness of your body a part of who you are, working out will be a laborious, necessary evil that you are only doing to affect a future health state.  Be present and thankful for the activity at hand, and feel what your body is going through.  When it becomes difficult, view it as a challenge designed to strengthen resolve and determination in all areas of your life.  There is no greater sense of accomplishment and fulfillment than powering through a difficult workout when you feel you don’t have it in you.  When we find ways to tap into our power within at a physical level, the affects it has on our mental state are quite amazing, as we rise above the limitations of our inherent laziness.

It is rare these days for adult Americans to have a profound nutrient deficiency, as most people have too much nutrition in the form of unused energy versus the energy they are expending.  Our body had to store the extra energy somewhere and it went to our abdomen, hips, and other lovely places as fat stores.  We don’t usually get disease because of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, we get them because of excess energy in the form of triglycerides on our overweight bodies.

Before the 1900’s, people died from deficiencies because they weren’t knowledgeable about nutrition, and didn’t realize the importance of certain foods in their diet to provide essential nutrients.  For instance, many sailors died on long voyages as late as the 18^th century from scurvy, because it wasn’t known how important vitamin C is to one’s health and survival.  If only they had some citrus aboard those vessels in the early days, they could have avoided those deaths, and the term British ‘limeys’ never would have come into vogue.

Even if one doesn’t eat fresh fruit and vegetables these days, they can still survive, as many of our staple foods are fortified to give us the basic nutrients necessary for our body’s basic functioning.  Cereals that have been stripped of most of their vitamins and minerals through processing have been fortified with some essential nutrients, our salt is supplemented with iodine so we don’t get hyperthyroidism, and calcium is added to some orange juice in hopes of avoiding bone problems in our population.

It is through constant exposure to drink and food products today, and the sheer volume of our intake of them, that we get the necessary minimum vitamins and minerals that our bodies need.  When foreigners come to the U.S. they are stunned at how cheap our food is here, and how big the portions are.  Since 1960, our dinner plates have increased in size 36%.  Today, those who are deficient in a vitamin or mineral are usually at a life stage that requires more, i.e. pregnant women need more iron and older people need more vitamin D, or they have caused it through their chosen behavior, i.e. vegetarian women and women smokers can get iron deficiencies, and vegans can become calcium deficient as they don’t eat dairy.

It is our over-consumption of empty calories however, seen in processed, packaged, and fast food with little nutrition other than lots of the macronutrients of fat, protein, and carbohydrates, that leaves us overweight and unhealthy.  It can be argued that some become obese because their bodies are looking for more of what they need, left unfulfilled from eating these empty calories.  They get hungry quicker and aren’t satisfied for long as their bodies are looking for more micronutrients, as well as mistaking their unquenched thirst for hunger.  They eat twice what they need to get the proper nutrition, becoming overweight in the process.

We need to eat more nutritionally dense, whole, fresh foods, in order to quiet the cravings.  You can quiet your cravings by eating 3,000 calories of crap, or you can eat 1800 calories of nutritionally dense food that will satisfy you even better.

Here are some tips to quiet the never ending caloric wanting within:

1)      Drink a glass of water before you eat.

2)      Rest between bites and put your fork down, this way you will realize you are full sooner than you think.

3)      Stop eating when you are 75% full (Most of us have overeaten to 120% for so long, that we have a skewed version of full, and what seems to be 75% is actually 100%).

4)      If you are still hungry an hour after eating dinner, have a little dessert.

5)      Make 80% of your beverage consumption regular water (by greatly reducing your sugar and aspartame intake through drink, you will curb your cravings).  If you are going to drink bottled teas, sodas, or juice drinks more often than 20% of the time, add water to them so they are 1 part water, 1 part packaged drink.  To spice up your regular water, add lime or lemon on occasion.

6)      Eat more of these nutritionally dense foods:  almonds, eggs, yams or sweet potatoes, fish, basmati or brown rice, avocadoes, whole grain bread, carrots, meat, beans, walnuts, raw green and red peppers, chicken, broccoli, apples, seeds, peanut butter, whole grain al dente pasta (lower glycemic index), cabbage, blueberries, green beans, and hummus.

7)      Avoid fried and battered food, white and wheat bread and buns, white and wheat pasta, white sticky rice, over-cooked pasta and packaged items that say low-fat on them.

We all want to feel satisfied, but seek it in the wrong way.  We feel groggy and reach for a soda or coffee, but they actually play with our metabolism and moods, making us crave more and deal with restlessness and fatigue.  Yet because of never-ending brainwashing media campaigns, we now think we need certain products in our refrigerator.  We think that Coke or diet Coke are staples, as well as tea drinks like Snapple, and so-called naturally sweetened, zero calorie water drinks such as Vitaminwater.  The FDA isn’t very strict on labeling and a company can put naturally sweetened on their label while those natural items, such as corn, have been highly corrupted and processed.  Also, other man-tampered ingredients are added to make the water richer and fuller tasting.  Look at the back of the label, and if it has things that sound like scientific concoctions or chemicals, i.e. erythritol, crystalline fructose, xanthan gum, then they probably were created in the lab to make your taste buds yearn for their concocted formula.  Zero calorie, all natural, yummy flavored water that is full- bodied – come on now, a little common sense please.  Water is meant to satisfy our thirst, not to give us the sensation of the clouds parting for us so that a rainbow can alight onto our front porch to take us to the magic world.

There will be a little learning curve in all of this as we have to re-train our taste buds, and thirst mechanisms (which are virtually non-existent now).  We drink so little water and think we are satiating our thirst when we drink soda, alcohol, and coffee – but we are not, and we need to treat those beverages like the treats that they are.  Make treats a treat again, by having them only occasionally; don’t let them rule your actions and behavior for then other parts of your life may get out of your control as well.  To reclaim power over your life starts with carefully monitoring and choosing what you will put in your body, rather than being an unwitting pawn in a rich CEO’s scheme, who uses your eroding health to line his pockets.  It may take a while to retrain your taste buds, but you will through changed behavior and choices, and then you won’t be beholden to the same physical and emotional cravings.

Many golfers watch the pros play on TV, and are stunned by how far they launch the golf ball.  They notice the amazing speed of the golf club as it is moves through the ball and strikes it with a tremendous force.  This leads the amateur golfer to go to the range and commit two main errors in their efforts to hit the ball far like the pros:

1)    They think they need to take the club back quickly in order to get it to come through quickly.

2)    In trying to hit it as far as possible, they try to wind up and gather power with their arms, taking them as far back and around as possible.

 These errors lead to:

 *Disconnection + Swing Breakdown* *Failure to use big muscles of the body properly*

The Body Initiates the Backswing

A concerted effort needs to be made to wind up with the torso rather than the arms, because the golf club weighs so little it tempts us to snatch it back with our puny little hands and arms.  To use the body properly, the core needs to be engaged and ready from the beginning, so that it starts the club back.  This entails having the stomach muscles a bit contracted at set up, as if someone were about to punch you, ready for action.

To remedy the problem of snatching the club back quickly, we need to simulate a move in which we are taking back something heavier than a golf club.  The analogy I often use with my students is to pretend you are a manual laborer hoisting 50 lb. bags of flour onto a truck bed.  If I tried to swing that bag of flour back with just my arms in order to build momentum to throw it onto truck, I will either drop the bag or not come close to getting it up on the truck.  I need to get my center of gravity beneath that sack of flour and use my belly to build the necessary energy and strength back and through to get it to fly up on the truck.  It needs to be supported by my core muscles, just as my golf swing.

Limited Arm Backswing:

Less skilled players always try to use the arms too much on the backswing, bending and breaking them all over the place, disconnecting them from the body.  This leads to a dissipation of power and an unsolid strike of the ball.  Once you learn to initiate the backswing with the body, you won’t feel the need to take them back quite as far, as your body will now be coiled properly with your back facing the target. However, your arms will probably still be too scrunchy and behind you, rather than extended, and in front of you with your hands up high and arms taut – feeling like you’ve only made a 1/2 to 3/4 arm swing.  I liken this to the structure that a ballroom dancer has, as they don’t let anyone into their space, arms firm and creating a structured boundary.

Free Not Loose

Some of the excess arm swinging on the backswing is a reflection of people thinking they need to be loosey goosey in order to be relaxed and hit it hard.  However, the pros are never loose and noodle-like, but rather are free and purposeful.  You want to be relaxed, but swing with defined structure.  I liken this body sensation to that of a boxer in the ring, as he throws powerful, controlled punches with muscles engaged, dancing around lightly on his feet, bobbing and weaving.  He is relaxed and free, yet has defined, contained movement.  He is not wispy and jello-like, for if he were he would go down pretty quick.  Likewise, in our backwings we want some pressure and tightness in the right places (right inner thigh, right lat, last three fingers of left hand, left underarm/upper left tricep), and yet a freedom to coil up and release the club with speed on the way through.

- – -   When in time you learn to put it all together through the trial and error of your practice, you will see improved golf shots that are more consistent, accurate, and longer.  When one becomes a better player, they learn how to swing more efficiently and use their big muscles properly so they don’t have to work as hard.  They use all their parts more effectively, leading to more easily repetitive and dynamic moves.  You too can get rid of the power drains in your swing, and harness your true power to unleash onto the ball!   – - -