Dealing with physical abnormalities.

[marcharing]

I am not handicapped in any way but I have a weird physical thing going on whereby my bones specifically in my wrists are too close together. For thirty years of playing golf I could not understand why I could never get through the ball like I should do no matter how hard I tried. Top coaches couldn't work it out. Then I worked out something was wrong with my wrists and a visit to a hand elbow specialist confirmed the bone thing through X rays. In the golf swing one of the bones in the wrist hits another resulting in me never being able to have anything other than a cupped left wrist and even the right wrist is barely able to straighten. Neither is ever bowed! 

As a result my swing is full of faults but through a strong grip and a significant over the top move, I have found a way of hitting the ball pretty well. In fact I often hit 15 or 16 greens with a fairly powerful (for a 56 year old) low fade. I won my clubs K/O singles last year and strung together a spell of nine rounds where my worst score was two over par. Not that shabby I guess for and old git like me.  I am just posting this because I wonder if any others have had to deal with quirky stuff like this. 

Heres my swing which I thing you'l agree has character and a shed load of lag at least!!!!!

 

[DrvFrShow]

Well... I use a strong grip and cup my left wrist at the top. If I have my left wrist flat I hook like mad. If I take a neutral grip, my thumb on my left hand starts shooting pain up my forearm. So I opt for the strong grip and the wrist cup. Sure it's a compensation. I'm 63. David Leadbetter is teaching this now. You're 56. You have a legit 5 HC? Is your ball hitting target? I wouldn't worry about it. I'd just play golf and have fun.

[marcharing]

I don't worry about it at all as the ball is hitting the target. Sounds like you might have something similar going on in your wrists as you just described my symptoms. I once forced myself to have a flat left wrist at impact and it felt like 20,000 volts went through my arm and of course I hooked badly.

Edited February 24, 2016 by marcharing

[Sandhills Golfer]

I always wonder if playing with one leg longer than the other makes a big difference. I have that issue and just curious if anyone else does

and if you've addressed it.

[SavvySwede]

33 minutes ago, Sandhills Golfe said:

I always wonder if playing with one leg longer than the other makes a big difference. I have that issue and just curious if anyone else does

and if you've addressed it.

If the back leg is significantly shorter I could see a potential issue with shifting the weight forward to the other foot. But I imagine if the difference were that great you could get corrective footwear to solve the issue. I played with a fellow who had them, seemed to work well.

[MrFlipper]

1 hour ago, Sandhills Golfe said:

I always wonder if playing with one leg longer than the other makes a big difference. I have that issue and just curious if anyone else does

and if you've addressed it.

Is your issue minimal or pretty serious? I suspect many people have one leg a minimal amount shorter than the other, manifesting in back issues, just don't know it. Doesn't take much to mess you up, hard part is figuring out what the problem is. That was my case, didn't effect my golf swing other than my back would get stiff/sore after 4 or 5 holes and I couldn't swing the same. Had a chiro work on me a lot when I was younger but now I just wear one extra thin sock on my right foot when I play. No problems. My doctor said to wear an adjustment that was half of the length difference.  If it's a big enough issue to directly effect your swing then you are probably having other issues because of it and orthotics are probably required all the time.

48 minutes ago, SavvySwede said:

If the back leg is significantly shorter I could see a potential issue with shifting the weight forward to the other foot. But I imagine if the difference were that great you could get corrective footwear to solve the issue. I played with a fellow who had them, seemed to work well.

By significant meaning an obvious problem requiring orthotics all the time, I assume it would effect your swing if you didn't wear the orthotics. But most folks don't have it that bad, or don't even have an effect on their swing, or haven't identified that they have a problem. I know when I was younger I just took some excedrin and gutted through it. Bad idea in hindsight.