Throughout the history of golf, there has been debate going back and forth about which side is dominant in the golf swing. There's the left side argument, in that this side leads into the swing and keeps the right side from taking over. The right side argument is that you do everything else with your dominant hand, so you should hit the ball with your right hand, too.
Let us never forget that golf is a two-sided game. One of the famous quotes from Ben Hogan's Five Lessons is that "as far as applying power goes, I wish I had three right hands!" This isn't an entirely accurate statement of what he did at impact and is thus misinterpreted. What he meant was that at impact he is pouring it on with his entire right side. He is definitely not telling you to bang the ball with your right hand or swing with your right side only.
What Hogan wants us to remember is that he got into position to hit with his right side by leading down with his left side. The swing starts down with the left side and puts the right side into a position where, at about the point where the hands are level with the hips, the right side can hit as hard as you want. Actually, Hogan says that both sides should hit hard.
Kathy Whitworth made a similar point in her book, Golf for Women. What she says, incidentally, applies to men just as well. She is very clear that the left side dominates the swing. That is not to say that the right side does nothing, but that it cannot take the lead role in the backswing and that it follows through the ball on the downswing.
Annika Sorenstam has mentioned that to start the downswing, you should have the feeling that the left side is moving into the ball and the right side is staying where it is -- that the left and right side are separating. Again, the left side is in control.
Go to the range and think, "lead back and through with the left, hit with the right." That might make things much simpler and give you some powerful hits.
Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com
No comments:
Post a Comment