Golf Digest’s October 19 issue reads more and more like my book every month. Their two lesson stalwarts are at it again – only Breed won’t read and Ledbetter copies my wording and ideas. Kudos! At least they’re smart enough to fill in famous copy with better verbiage. I take a bit of pride in changing our teaching vernacular in spite of the fact that terminology is misused all the time.
Michael Breed is cited as instructor for ‘Secret To a Draw’. (Breed) cited our ‘trail elbow’. Look back six years, and you’ll not see talk of “trailing” anything. (Mike) mentioned getting stuck without mentioning proper body sequence. You see? Golf Digest doesn’t want to help you. They want to keep your swing in varying degrees of brokenness while, simultaneously, increasing celebrity for ambitious types like Breeder.
Then, our father of instructional fiction, David Ledbetter, endorses their Short Game piece while using their impact descriptor, “Pop” (your ball). Again, look back six years, and “Pop” is not used to describe chipping impact. I agree, my observation is pretty granular. However, I believe their choices are symptomatic of instructional wordplay designed to harvest and yet misuse good ideas to cripple our golf education. Therefore, allow me to clarify both articles with ball flight laws and technique.
A draw, no matter our start line, is a ball – in flight, that falls toward our side of our target line. Now, what is our club doing at impact to create draws? For right-handed golfers, the clubhead is moving in a vector (path) right of our club face’s impact position. What do we do prior to impact to create a draw? We adapt to our set-up… short story.
Feet orientation, ball position, movement patterns, and athleticism all contribute to adaptive movement. People who don’t like modifying their swing to adapt to set-up changes generally choose to close their club face and aim right (righties). However, I like changing my swing while keeping my foot orientation constant (on a flat surface). My preference feeds an awareness of my club head throughout my swing. Obviously, my benefit is cultivating feel and better body sequencing.
In our other, written example, Led talked popping without talking technique. Perhaps he would instruct new swimmers on how to swim without covering why we cup our hands to pull then push ourselves through the water. Ball position alone can ruin our word-picture for impact. Forward positions require more trailing hand controls, and vice versa. Is he or are they finally leaving the curative measure to the individual golfer?
Not likely… otherwise, they would both have told you to ….
Open your stance, and play golf.
John Wright
The Open Stance Academy
https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/golf-digest-is-at-it-again/
https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/here-we-go-again/
https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/is-golftec-talking-out-of-both-sides-of-their-mouth/