Seven golf concepts that I've misinterpreted

[Coder]

Maybe you, or a beginner that you know, has also misinterpreted these?

(And maybe you don't agree with my revised interpretations!)

Interlock grip - at first I thought that meant fingers really, er, interlocked, i.e. meshed together tightly, resulting in a very weak left hand and inflexible wrists. In reality it's more just "in between" than "inter locked"!

Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird - well I've never held a baby bird, but I took this to mean a very light and therefore loose grip. I now think it means a grip that is gentle but immovable - maybe like you'd hold a small child's hand while crossing the street.

Restrict the hips - doesn't mean prevent your hips from moving - I think means feeling a connection through your core like you would if you were restricting your hips.

Lead with the hips - doesn't mean that your hips lead in the sense of going out first, like a dog on a leash! Actually means more like the way a horse leads a carriage. They both start moving at the same time, but the horse provides the force.

Make a full turn - doesn't mean turning around and away from the ball - really just means remembering to turn your shoulders rather than just using your arms.

Weight shift - doesn't mean mass (body) shift! It means moving your weight in the physics sense of weight (force), e.g. putting more pressure through the leading foot through impact.

Maintain lag - doesn't mean trying to actually hold (maintain) the lag using your wrists. It just means do other things, e.g. accelerating through impact, that cause lag to be maintained.

Can anyone offer up other examples of misinterpreted tips and advice?

[millsan1]

Fun - The act of paying money, to go out on a big lawn, hit a little white ball with a crooked stick, go find it, then hit it again.

[saevel25]

5 minutes ago, Coder said:

Interlock grip - at first I thought that meant fingers really, er, interlocked, i.e. meshed together tightly, resulting in a very weak left hand and inflexible wrists. In reality it's more just "in between" than "inter locked"!

I would take it as something that is definitively on the extreme like that. As long as the pinky finger of the right and index finger of the left are in the gaps between the finger then it is interlocking. 

6 minutes ago, Coder said:

Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird - well I've never held a baby bird, but I took this to mean a very light and therefore loose grip. I now think it means a grip that is gentle but immovable - maybe like you'd hold a small child's hand while crossing the street.

Most people misinterpret the degree in which they can hold the club tightly. I never believed in this old tip. It came from golfers who played golf their whole lives. They have built up hand strength. Gripping gently might be pretty firm for us. 

8 minutes ago, Coder said:

Restrict the hips - doesn't mean prevent your hips from moving - I think means feeling a connection through your core like you would if you were restricting your hips.

Yea, don't do this. Let the hips turn

8 minutes ago, Coder said:

Lead with the hips - doesn't mean that your hips lead in the sense of going out first, like a dog on a leash! Actually means more like the way a horse leads a carriage. They both start moving at the same time, but the horse provides the force.

Could be a feeling, could not be a feeling someone focuses on. The hips do slide towards the target in the downswing. All good players do this. They also have their hips open at impact. Much more rotated than amateurs. 

9 minutes ago, Coder said:

Make a full turn - doesn't mean turning around and away from the ball - really just means remembering to turn your shoulders rather than just using your arms.

Shoulders turn about 90 degrees. So some part of the back is turned completely away from the target. 

9 minutes ago, Coder said:

Maintain lag - doesn't mean trying to actually hold (maintain) the lag using your wrists. It just means do other things, e.g. accelerating through impact, that cause lag to be maintained.

You can add accelerating through impact. The club is near max velocity, so an acceleration of zero, at impact. 

Lag happens naturally, and it varies depending on the golfer. 

I think there might be another thread like this somewhere on this forum. 

[rehmwa]

now now.....

if people start having a common understanding of trite golf expressions instead of subjective confusion.....

why, thousands of instructors will lose out on thousands of McLesson opportunities to explain them, assign a drill, and then explain it differently on the next visit

[Patch]

Way back, when I was getting instruction, my swing guru and I discussed all these items as I recall. Just enough to understand them, in as much as they all had something positive to do with the swing. 

I remember we laugh about the baby bird thought. What if that baby bird was an albatross?

 

 

[Shindig]

41 minutes ago, Coder said:

Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird - well I've never held a baby bird, but I took this to mean a very light and therefore loose grip. I now think it means a grip that is gentle but immovable - maybe like you'd hold a small child's hand while crossing the street.

Yes;  there's all sorts of problems with holding the grip like a baby bird.  Check out this thread:

One of my favorite golf books includes this passage:

Someone once wrote that you should grip the club as lightly as you would if you were holding a baby bird in your palm, and you were trying to keep it from flying away without crushing it to death.  Obviously, this person was a lunatic.  

[HawkNballs]

I think "shifting your weight" if often misunderstood... even by decent players.  

[DrMJG]

For 40 years, I taught a physical activity (singing) by using a LOT of imagery as many small muscle activities were internal and could not be seen.  We often joked about weird things teachers said that were misinterpreted or even misunderstood. So this got me to wonder if it would be of interest to have people discuss what statements from an instructor must confused them or set them back.  So far I understand what my coach says I need to do to improve my golf game; I am just not consistent to see my mastery of the points just yet.

 

[dennyjones]

One instructor I use to visit had this on his wall:

 

[Grinde6]

On ‎7‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 12:28 PM, saevel25 said:

I would take it as something that is definitively on the extreme like that. As long as the pinky finger of the right and index finger of the left are in the gaps between the finger then it is interlocking. 

Most people misinterpret the degree in which they can hold the club tightly. I never believed in this old tip. It came from golfers who played golf their whole lives. They have built up hand strength. Gripping gently might be pretty firm for us. 

Yea, don't do this. Let the hips turn

Could be a feeling, could not be a feeling someone focuses on. The hips do slide towards the target in the downswing. All good players do this. They also have their hips open at impact. Much more rotated than amateurs. 

Shoulders turn about 90 degrees. So some part of the back is turned completely away from the target. 

You can add accelerating through impact. The club is near max velocity, so an acceleration of zero, at impact. 

Lag happens naturally, and it varies depending on the golfer. 

I think there might be another thread like this somewhere on this forum. 

You want your upper back to be turned towards the target, no?  Did you mean towards the target, or am I reading into this the wrong way?

[Lihu]

On 7/13/2018 at 1:17 PM, Coder said:

Maybe you, or a beginner that you know, has also misinterpreted these?

(And maybe you don't agree with my revised interpretations!)

Interlock grip - at first I thought that meant fingers really, er, interlocked, i.e. meshed together tightly, resulting in a very weak left hand and inflexible wrists. In reality it's more just "in between" than "inter locked"!

Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird - well I've never held a baby bird, but I took this to mean a very light and therefore loose grip. I now think it means a grip that is gentle but immovable - maybe like you'd hold a small child's hand while crossing the street.

Restrict the hips - doesn't mean prevent your hips from moving - I think means feeling a connection through your core like you would if you were restricting your hips.

Lead with the hips - doesn't mean that your hips lead in the sense of going out first, like a dog on a leash! Actually means more like the way a horse leads a carriage. They both start moving at the same time, but the horse provides the force.

Make a full turn - doesn't mean turning around and away from the ball - really just means remembering to turn your shoulders rather than just using your arms.

Weight shift - doesn't mean mass (body) shift! It means moving your weight in the physics sense of weight (force), e.g. putting more pressure through the leading foot through impact.

Maintain lag - doesn't mean trying to actually hold (maintain) the lag using your wrists. It just means do other things, e.g. accelerating through impact, that cause lag to be maintained.

Can anyone offer up other examples of misinterpreted tips and advice?

I’m still misinterpreting things people say, but some people are also misinterpreting what they are saying so I guess it’s okay 🤪

The great thing about golf is so many people do it The there are bound to be different opinions on just about everything.

One famous instructor says his swing is “effortless”, but when you see him hit a shot he’s all sweaty, hair disheveled and out of breath when he’s saying how little effort it took. 😂

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Grinde6 said:

You want your upper back to be turned towards the target, no?  Did you mean towards the target, or am I reading into this the wrong way?

You're saying the same things in different ways.

The torso turns so the back faces the target, but if you feel it's turning "away" from the target, you can understand what he means there too. Obviously you don't turn your back so it points "away" from the target on the backswing.

[nevets88]

3 hours ago, dennyjones said:

One instructor I use to visit had this on his wall:

 

I guess that's like his updated version of the power accumulators.

[GolfLug]

On 7/25/2018 at 8:09 AM, dennyjones said:

One instructor I use to visit had this on his wall:

 

No. 4 is confusing. Lot of folks interprete that as rolling right hand/forearm over left actively. I think lots of golfers stall and goat hump all day trying to do that. I imagine I still do it to some extent. 

[Buckeyebowman]

On 7/25/2018 at 9:21 AM, Grinde6 said:

You want your upper back to be turned towards the target, no?  Did you mean towards the target, or am I reading into this the wrong way?

No, I saw that myself. The back needs to be turned toward the target, not away from it. Unless you're swinging in reverse, which would be interesting!