Tips from Breed
TIP 1: FEEL THE CLUBHEAD
Few golfers are as in tune as they should be with the feel of the clubhead. I'm not talking about the feel of contacting the ball. Rather, I'm talking about how the clubhead feels in different positions while you're holding the club and also when you're swinging.
To learn to feel the clubhead, try this drill. Hold an iron in your left hand (for righthanders) so the shaft is parallel to the ground and waist high. You should have a moderately firm grip on the club. Put your right hand under the shaft to hold up the club while you slightly loosen the left-handed grip. Then begin slowly twisting the club in circles. Close your eyes and try to stop the club at four different points: so the toe of the clubhead points up to the sky, to the right, to the left and down at the ground. The balance, or weight, of the clubhead will feel very different at each position. In the correct position for hitting a shot, the clubface is square with your grip and the toe points up to the sky.
Doing this drill will make your sense of feel for the clubhead much more acute, and you'll learn to really understand what the clubhead does during the swing.
TIP 2: SWING FREELY USING A WALKING STICK
A blind person's walking cane is an outstanding practice aid for sighted golfers.
Hardly any golfer has any fear or problem when swinging a shaft that doesn't have a clubhead. They swing freely and smoothly. But once I give a student a shaft with a clubhead, the swing often goes downhill because the student's mindset changes and he begins making a huge effort to hit the ball and loft it into the air.
I'd love to get some walking canes for my students to swing. The students would feel uninhibited and free, which is how you should feel when you're swinging a regular golf club.
Suleiman is doing so well in part because he thinks of the golf club like it's a walking stick. He has no burning desire for liftoff, my term for getting the ball into the air. When I transition Suleiman from his walking stick to a club, there's no problem. He doesn't make contorted motions or waste energy to get the ball up. He just takes a pure, natural and free-flowing swing. His mind is free of much of the clutter that hurts sighted players.
