What follows is my answer to a recurring question students asked me about what to do in the winter months to improve their swings. The question is, “What are the best exercises to do during the off-season? My answer, “There is no off-season in golf.”
Just because the weather is not conducive to playing in your area has nothing to do with the golf swing. Matter of fact, it’s the best time to learn the perfect golf swing. Here is when you can focus on the proper movements the body has to make, with more “attention and intention”, without concern as to where the ball goes, and then get caught up in judging the results of the shot, rather than understanding the swing.
Of course I recommend and suggest that you do the nine exercises in, “Anatomy of the Perfect Swing”. The eight physical exercises will not only strengthen the muscles, tendons, ligaments an joints use in the ‘perfect swing’, but also give you the proper sequence in which they should be used. And the mental exercise on ‘visualization’.
I realize that each person is unique in the way that he/she processes information. And each one has their own style. But having worked with children as young as four years old, I found that children learn faster by applying the three basic fundamentals of learning. Observation, Imitation and Repetition. But as we get older we learn to intellectualize and become analytical. Then we get stuck.
Listen, the body is the instrument. And like most musical instruments it’s designed in a certain way. Once we learn the keys, the notes and sounds, we can play any type of music. (Now don’t confuse equipment with instrument.) That’s another topic. Just because you bought a Baby Grand doesn’t mean you will play like Duke. Or, let’s say you buy a Rolls and don’t know how to drive. You’re going to wind up in the ditch anyhow. That’s why you must learn the mechanics of the perfect golf swing by making habits of the fundamentals.
I recommend that you do each one 60 times a day for 21 consciously using the brain. In other words, it becomes automatic. This in not ‘muscle memory’. Muscles memory is impossible. Your muscles don’t have the capacity to remember anything. That is a mental attribute. Memory comes from your five sense organs. The brain does the remembering because it is able to convert the images from the senses into recognizable perceptions.
After the second week, begin swinging each club, putter through driver, five times the first day. Add one swing per club each day for six more days. Begin with a slow tempo and then increase it gradually until you reach a moderate tempo. This is not about swinging as hard as you can. It’s about learning the proper movements of the golf swing. Farther more, you’re not hitting anything. Each swing should be made in exactly the same sequence that you learned and practiced for the past two weeks. And you must hold the finish position for five seconds so you can experience what it feels like to have completed the swing. There is no other way to understand what it feels like to finish to the swing. Each swing should be about 30 seconds. So we go from understanding to feelings. From mental to emotional.
In one week you will have swung each club 56 times for a total of 784 swings. At two swing per minute, that’s 6 hours and 53 minutes for the week. You may divide your practice sessions each day as you please but always do what is required for that day. To prevent soreness, stiffness and injury do not exceed the number of repetitions for that day. “DISIPLINE IS TH E KEY. I AM ALWAYS ABOUT PREVENTION.”
The views expressed and shared here are based on principles, concepts, practical application and over 50 years of my personal experience in the golf industry. My only purpose for sharing my teaching experience with you is to help every golfer find a way to become a better player and person by recognizing your own INNER TEACHER.
Old incorrect ideas about your golf swing are difficult to change because everything you believe is rooted in them and prevents you from improving your game. You need to learn what is correct and incorporate that into your game. Sometimes revising how you think allows you to see things differently, bringing about the positive results you desire.
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ABOUT GLENNON E. BAZZLE
Glennon E. Bazzle
aka “The King of Swing,” is author of Anatomy of the Perfect Golf Swing, founder and CEO of Global Golf Institute, LLC. He may be contacted at Email
cell phone: 504-583-6842
TheGolfSwingKing.com
Photos by contributing photographer:
Myrna Moline, Global Golf Institute, LLC
