Releasing Of the Hands
This is a term used by golfers around the world and it seems to be used with the connotation of expected failure. Golfers are often excited about the sensation they achieve when they recognize that they just produced the allusive feeling of a pure release of the hands.
Along with the want to master the sensation, comes scepticism that the correct motion boarders on disaster, thereby creating reservation about the very move that related such a great result and sensation.
Over the last twenty to thirty years the hands have been given a bum rap in the golf world. However, the golf world still subconsciously knows the immense talent and the need for them, not quite yet has the younger generation of the golf instructors succeeded in convincing the masses that the big muscles are the secret.
I want you to take a leap and attempt to recognize that the hands trained correctly are light years away from ruining a good swing, but left untrained can spell a doomed result.
Rewards of the correctly released hands;
· Greater club head speed.
· A more relaxed body.
· A more relaxed mind.
· Higher ball flight.
· Far less chance of getting ahead of the ball.
· Fewer shots (for right handed player) going to the right.
The Hands (Right Handed) Have Received A Bad Rap:
As a young man, I heard many times that the right hand in the game of golf causes the ball to hook. This spread mass hysteria across the golfing world, which in turn could be the reason why the unsubstantiated thought about the left side pulling though the golf ball still exists. If we as golfers would just relax a moment and ask ourselves a few questions, the answer to the biggest mystery since the pyramids might unfold right in front of our eyes.
Questions:
1. Why are we humans not improving?
2. Could it be possible that we have been given the incorrect information about what correct is?
3. Is it possible that the old boys (Harvey Pennick, Homer Kelly, Earnest Jones and Percy Boomer) already had the game figured out?
The most important question of all; what does all of that have to do with my clubface?
Feedback or Lack of It:
If we realize it or not, we all learn by feedback and we have since the day we were born. I have no doubt we will continue to do so for many generations to come.
Golf:
If we could learn by muscle memory, wouldn’t we have done so by now? If we could learn by feel, wouldn’t we have it yet?
Logic would suggest that when a great shot is hit, a certain sensation would be felt and you could write down that sensation and then learn to reproduce it anytime you want. With that said, we all know that this scenario seldom works and never works for any length of time.
Here’s why:
At a swing speed of 90 MPH and taking into consideration that there is about a 1/20th of a second time delay between when you hit a ball and when you feel it. The golf club can travel two feet in that lost time, therefore not allowing you to feel it at the same instant you did it, so that’s when you try to produce what you think you did and it doesn’t work. We all know it doesn’t work but it’s never been explained in any way that would cause us to look for another scenario, hopefully until just now.
The TRUTH is that when you hit a great shot you feel nothing, you say it felt great but the reality is you felt nothing. My question therefore is, how do you learn to feel nothing? Conversely however, when you hit the ball poorly you definitely feel something and you can very much describe it. Given that the brain is the source to where all feedback goes, and with the understanding that the brain doesn’t have a no-no button, the only feedback that is ever registered is the feeling of a bad shot. (This really sucks!)
Do you think that you, to some kind of level could admit to being a product of your past history, reacting to certain smells, feels, looks, tastes and sounds? I hope you can because herein lies your possible escape and transformation from someone who doesn’t reach their potential to somebody on their way to their true potential.
Are you ready for the answer? Here it is!
Step #1 – Give up the idea that you can learn this game by feel without the knowledge of the mechanics that caused the feel. Feel is overrated and mechanics have been given a bad rap but together we have a winning combination. Those golfer’s who take the time to befriend these and make them lifelong companions will be truly rewarded. It is time to stop making feel and mechanics adversaries and start making them allies. The answer to our search has been in front of us all the time but we have been lead astray. So called experts want to tell you that feel is the way to go therefore let’s stomp on mechanics. Some want to say that mechanics are the way but these people don’t usually berate feel, they just aren’t sure of the role of feel. What I want you to buy into is the possibility of a team effort, learn feel through correct mechanics.
Step #2 – Perceive the human body as a miracle of nature. Recognize that through millions of years of evolution that it has developed terrific sensory awareness ability and that when asked to do so can monitor itself with tremendous accuracy. Also, understand that the brain is the central source for all incoming and outgoing feedback. Next, let’s examine the wiring system that has got us this far. By design you and I have nerve endings all throughout our torso and especially into our limbs, (arms, legs, feet and hands) assuming that our Creator realized that many of us were going to take up this crazy game of golf he decided to disperse the billions of nerve endings quite unevenly, a dramatic percentage went to our hands and feet and then a few remaining went everywhere else. Keeping in mind again that the brain is the only thing with a memory and that the largest lobbying group making the most noise usually gets heard. There can be no question who gets the most attention, the ‘hands’.
Step #3 – If you except that the brain is the central computer, we then need to give it information, and it needs that information to be coming from one source, not many sources all at once. It also needs a focus point so that it has a very clear line of command. In other words, if possible and it is, we must stop sending mixed signals to our control centre because you know what happened to the boy that cried wolf too many times?
We need our focus point to be narrow. Have you ever bruised yourself and then for the next week you seem to keep hitting yourself in the same spot? Could it be that the bruised area has become more sensitive than usual and your brain has zeroed in on it more than usual and now you are really aware of it? Well, this is what I am talking about. Creating an open line of communication between a given focus point or sweet spot of your clubface and your command centre or brain, one beautiful direct line through which all feedback travels. No more saying to yourself, “I think I feel it.” No more confusion of who’s steering the ship.
