A6, Compensations, and Understanding the Past and the Future

Great Video! After watching this the question popped in my mind, What is the most important position in golf, if there is one? A6?

I think A7 would be up there.

I thought the same thing but how you get there is more important. You can't get to "good" A7 without a correct A6. My thoughts anyway...

I tend to agree with that, but I got the impression there isn't really enought time to make compensations from A6 to A7. I figure what you had at A6 will translate into A7. For example, if the club head is behind your hands and closed at A6, how in the world are you going to make it inline and square at A7? You are most likely gonna hook it. Can you tell the shot a pro is gonna hit if it's freeze framed at A7, or A6?

I would guess that if you don't hit a lot of shots and develop some sort of pattern then you wont be able to. It isn't like the body is saying, oh clubhead is too in at A6. It's more or less sensing the overall movements of the body and trying to find the ball at impact with some sort of consistency. Over time they can develop those compensations into something repeatable, yet not nearly as consistent as you need it to be to have a good key 4 and 5.

Example, I played for years taking the club back too inside. I then developed a slight over the top move, but got close to on plane, but I was very steep due to bad turn rates. Due to this steepness, I played the ball further back in my stance and started to aim 20-30 yards right. Basically I would swing all out and hit a pull. These corrections were not something I thought of doing. It was just a natural progression to try to find target with the swing I had. You'd be surprised at how adaptive the body is in trying to produce a golf shot you want.

I thought I would post some information on "position" and "check points" as they are affected by differences in cognitive styles of different individuals.  This might some learners understand why the relate better to one style of coaching than another, and it might help instructors understand why they can reach some people faster than others.  This will be long and wordy, but I don't want to leave holes in the description.

There is a psychological scale, where at one end, a person sees movements in terms of check points or positions along the movement.  You can think of this as "connecting the dots," like the drawings that kids used to do in grade 1.  At the other end of the scale are those who see movements in their broadest sense, seeing more of the artistry and flair in the movements and not specific check points.  The first mentioned person, when learning a new dance, would like to be taught the elements of the hand and feet positions rather than just go out on the floor an imitate the other dancers.  The second mentioned person would just go out and imitate the others, and maybe even invent totally different movements, just moving to the music.  Then there are people whose cognitive styles populate the full range of the scale between the two extremes.

As a volleyball coach who was rather successful, II once almost ruined a volleyball holistic  hitter  by trying  to coach his as a technique hitter  like I had successfully coached other hitters.   I would say that the majority of hitters are technique hitters.   Then I learned of his natural abilities to learn motions holistically and only got confused by having to concentrate on positions.  On the other hand, I know of a dad whose daughter was taking softball position lessons.  He asked the coach for the various positions so that he could coach his daughter between lessons and was told, "We don't coach that way.   Pitching is a holistic motion."

Bottom line--the person who learns by connecting the dots musts be able to transition to holistic movements, and the person who learns holistically must eventually get the right dots.  The way golf seems to be taught to adults in any class I took is by first getting some dots.  The expression used by people who study things like this is "transcent."  Those who prefer the dots must transcend to holistic motions, and those who prefer to learn holistic motions must transcend and master the details.

On the other hand, kids seem to observe a swing and just copy it if they aren't taught the fundamental positions early on.

Oucch! the man on the right side on the first video is definitely my case. Thats why I slice, and sometimes hook. And that´s why I´m not able to drop my 20.0 handicap. What should I do ?????

The golfer on the right has virtually no weight transfer to the target. You need to slide your hips towards the target, it's how you can deliver the club on an in to out path.