Position Golf (aka Video Camera Follies)

[iacas]

Pardon the interruption for a brief public service announcement.

In no way is what I teach, or what any good golf instructor teaches, "position golf." It's a trap fallen into by a lot of golfers, particularly those teaching themselves, and I hope to explain it away here so that this will not not affect you.

Position golf is defined as "making someone hit a series of positions under the premise that doing so will create a perfect golf swing."

Video cameras have made it easy to record and play back our swings at 200+ frames per second, highlighting every flaw and every little twitch and sway and wobble in our swings. We can say that we're slightly across the line at P4, we can see that we've flipped the club at impact, we can see that our head has risen 1.7 inches on the backswing, etc.

And many of you have heard me say things like "at P5 your left arm is too far out" and such.

Here's the thing... every good golf swing hits certain positions within a (perhaps surprisingly) fairly wide range. No good (right-handed full) golf swing has a flat right wrist at impact, for example. There are lots of other things no good swing has or every good swing has, and while they can be distilled as "positions," I view them merely as checkpoints through which we pass .

You cannot learn to hit positions. It's basically impossible to do and still maintain anything resembling an effective golf swing. Do not get obsessed with the positions you hit in your golf swing.

What matters? The things that create the positions. It's a subtle but important variation.

Someone I know describes The Golfing Machine as "learning feels from mechanics." The book describes the proper mechanics and asks that you, the machine, program yourself with the appropriate feels to recreate the mechanics. Know the checkpoints (and they vary somewhat for everyone), but know how you need to feel in order to achieve them.

I view "position golf" as similar. Say you're having trouble with your transition, from P3 to P5. TGM would tell you what you needed to do and, with a mirror or camera, you could put yourself in those positions, but what you should be doing at those times is paying attention to your body to see what feels it's providing to you. What does it feel like you're doing? That's the important thing.

"Position golf" is trying to connect a series of static positions. A golf swing is a connected series of feelings (many or most of which become ingrained over time - I'm not preaching 27 swing thoughts!) that are unique to you and which dynamically result in checkpoints being passed through during your motion.

Simply put, the golf swing - and any feelings you generate - are dynamic - position golf is static. We "pass through" checkpoints, we don't "hit" positions.

[Stretch]

Has anyone informed Charlie? Will he now be known as "Checkpoint Charlie?"

[RedFox999]

so your saying there are people out there who dont use feeling of how they got to that position or what the position feels like? thats kind of against human nature isnt it, as in its pretty much the only way we can get to those positions without looking at our swing from the outside for every swing we make

[B-Con]

  RedFox999 said:

so your saying there are people out there who dont use feeling of how they got to that position or what the position feels like? thats kind of against human nature isnt it, as in its pretty much the only way we can get to those positions without looking at our swing from the outside for every swing we make

I think he's concerned that some people could get too caught up in remembering specific things, like "do this", "move that first", "get X above Y", etc, that they just make their swing one big checklist of positions they need to get in. More importantly, you need to know why you're doing what you're doing. He's more concerned that you know how to setup and make use of position X than he is about whether you got to position X an inch out of alignment. Going through position X should usually be more of a natural result, not a mental checklist item. I'm sure there are people out there who get far too obsessed with setting and hitting checkpoints that they distract themselves from learning the actual swing itself. At least, that's what I interpreted his concern to be.

[pbailey]

  B-Con said:

Originally Posted by B-Con

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedFox999

so your saying there are people out there who dont use feeling of how they got to that position or what the position feels like? thats kind of against human nature isnt it, as in its pretty much the only way we can get to those positions without looking at our swing from the outside for every swing we make

I think he's concerned that some people could get too caught up in remembering specific things, like "do this", "move that first", "get X above Y", etc, that they just make their swing one big checklist of positions they need to get in. More importantly, you need to know why you're doing what you're doing. He's more concerned that you know how to setup and make use of position X than he is about whether you got to position X an inch out of alignment. Going through position X should usually be more of a natural result, not a mental checklist item. I'm sure there are people out there who get far too obsessed with setting and hitting checkpoints that they distract themselves from learning the actual swing itself.

At least, that's what I interpreted his concern to be.

I know a guy who's being taught like that and he is paralyzed with the number of thoughts running through his head while trying to swing.

[TourSpoon]

Paralysis by analysis can strike anyone. Make sure it doesn't happen to you. I guess that is why I like Clampett's work because I am the kind of person that would get hung up on positions. I much prefer the dynamic approach and feeling the swing ala Toski.

[walk18]

Yeah I don't think you want any more than 2 swing thoughts, 3 max. And they're still just part of what should be a fluid smooth swing.

[mattttt25]

I have struggled with this problem, even though my instruction (all the Leadbetter books) warned against it.  I've just started filming my swing and it's an invaluable tool.  No better way to see your faults.  But I agree, you can't set yourself in the perfect contact position and then focus solely on trying to get to that position.  For me, I stop hitting through the ball and my swing becomes nothing close to fluid.

[DBC]

I seriously LOL'd on that one.

  Stretch said:

Originally Posted by Stretch

Has anyone informed Charlie? Will he now be known as "Checkpoint Charlie?"

[mck]

reminds me how I 've never understood what is meant by the "mechanical player" vs. a "feel player".  Like Faldo built his swing like a robot and Couples has no clue what he's doing but just "feels" it.

[TourSpoon]

When I started back last year with some lessons my instructor asked me what I was working on so I showed him the impact position I was trying to hit. He watched a few swings and said that I had that position just fine but that the rest of the swing needed some work. I learned that day that getting hung up on one position is not the way to go as hitting these positions is the result of executing proper fundamentals with the correct balance and tempo. In fact, my biggest issue was swinging in balance and when I was able to work that out a lot of other things worked out on their own. It's easy to put the cart in front of the horse so to speak which is why having solid instruction is so important. The golf swing is a fluid motion with everything being connected and it happens in a fraction of a second with a clubhead traveling at 100 mph. My point is that many times these desired positions are the result of something else done well and not necessarily the cause. Good thread!