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Viewer Mail--Op Ed
#18
This is a piece of mail that I initiated. I decided to let the product
testers have a full summer season of play before doing a full-fledged survey of product
responses. In other words, I didn't get around to putting together a survey this spring. I
have a life too, ya' know.
On a whim I asked one of the testers for a general assessment of The
Golden Swing Thing™. I chose to ask the guy who had bugged me for months about the
product. I would receive e-mails from him to the tune of "what is it?" and
"where is it?" I knew before I even asked him that his response would likely be
negative. When the mind of the seeker is bent on the prospect of a secret in golf, the
outcome always some sort of letdown.
SS,
Any anecdotal evidence on the Swing Thing? Any game
improvement? Any temperamental improvement? Has it helped you to let go of the hands?
TS
Taylor,
Actually, no, I can't say that anything is
different. I was really into practicing with the Swing Thing, although I couldn't see how
what I was doing with the "thing" was going to relate to a better golf swing.
But the thing that really made me put it down, was your response to my question about
"how the use of the Swing Thing was related to a better or improved golf swing".
You replied with something like.... "...you couldn't answer that for sure, because
this whole thing was an experiment, and I was one of the guinea pigs".
Well ...you signed up to be a product tester,
and that's exactly what it was.
I decided I had enough problems making contact with
the ball, and if "this whole thing" didn't have some "proven" value
--I didn't want to waste my time with it, and possibly make my swing any worse than it
already is.
No training device "works," per se,
because poor golf is the result of mental ambiguities. But the swing thing is designed to
demonstrate three basic principles:
1. Quality golf is dependent on the total release of the hands to the Center.
2. Quality golf is dependent on the smooth and effortless application of power (making the
"T") See Product Web
3. Mental blockages can be removed and hand/eye coordination improved when we combine #1
and #2
Let me give you a free piece of knowledge that I have discovered on my own, after many
many hours of playing and practice and searching. It is quite simply this.
THE GREATEST FALLACY IN THE TEACHING OF THE GOLF SWING, IS THAT THE CLUBHEAD WILL CLOSE
(AT IMPACT) ALL BY ITSELF.
That is a biggest single thing that keeps players from shooting par golf. Yet it is
actually taught that if you just swing the club, the face will close by itself. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
SS
With all due respect, you are completely wrong. ** It is obvious that you have never released the hands and
allowed the center of your body to hit the ball. The inability to let the hands go is what
prevents the clubhead from closing all by itself. Please don't take offense, but there is
not enough time in the act of swing to do anything else. Any intention you have will only
eat up chunks of time.
See: The Illusion of the Club in the
articles section.
Thanks for testing the product. Best wishes to you.
TS
Next Day:
No offense taken. You are certainly entitled to your
opinion, ...and I am entitled to mine.
However, it there is one thing I've learned, through thousands of different
"little" swing keys and methods,
There's a problem right there (the observer arisen)
it's that; --anytime I lead with the body, and think that by turning
center, the hands will automatically square up the club face --I get nothing but a high
"blocked" shot that ends up in the right rough.
Then you are mis-interpreting my words. The body does not lead the
hands. Nor do the hands lead the body. THEY RECIPROCATE. When you speak of "this
leading that," you are stepping into the domain of mental constructs. This is
unhealthy for time sensitive chaotic dynamic systems. Perfect reciprocation occurs only
when the mind is unencumbered.
I don't like playing from the right rough, or the bunkers on the
right.
Conversely, if I simply attempt to have what I call
"active hands" (not necessarily trying to do anything at any particular place in
the swing path) ....but just make sure they act as if they are going to close the club
face; I get much straighter and longer hits.
... "(not necessarily trying to do anything at any particular
place in the swing path)" But of course! They can't do anything other than that! You
are proving my point sir. Thank you :~)
I can't argue with results, and probably more people play good golf
with "active hands" than those who are trying to play by swinging only the
center, and "hoping" that everything else will follow in the correct timing
(which often times, it does not).
My definition of "Active hands": the effort necessary to
prevent the club from lagging at the WHENING moment. This effort is very, very, very,
tiny. It's so tiny that, in the broad scope of swing, it is effortless. For most people
True Center is never realized because the hands are overly active and tense.
And until I see your name somewhere on TV, on the leaderboards, your
opinions of how to swing a golf club are no better or worse than mine,
Only swing knows how to swing. For me to appear on television would
be near blasphemy.
....and I will never play well enough to be dangerous either.
The goal is not to be dangerous as if measuring a continuum. The
goal is to be dangerous at any given moment in time. And before you know it, you're
dangerous all the way through. Or at least you have strung together several pure shots.
It's all about the temperament. Remember, the title of the book (I'm keeping the faith) is
Making Peace With Golf.
There is one thing that the really good golfers have, and the rest
of us DON'T. That is RAW TALENT. They get RAW TALENT as they exit the womb, at birth. If
an individual doesn't have RAW TALENT, they will never be anything but just another
average golfer, and no Video, or book, or lessons, or stick with a string and a ball ---is
going to change that fact.
I believe Peter Fox called it "the genetic timing
barrier." Perhaps Natural Golf is in your future. But in all seriousness, I generally
agree with you. It's hard to argue with the bell curve.My goal here is to get the golfer
to experience a few more of those perfectly lucid moments. These only occur when we
completely release desire and greed.
Thanks for letting me test the Swing Thing. I might make a lamp out
of it some day. If you'd of told me in the beginning what it amounted to, instead of
wrapping it in all the secrecy, I probably would've told you that I wasn't interested.
The product is a novelty and a philosopher's stone of sorts. It's
not a quick fix infomercial delusion. Do what you will with it, but don't insult me. I
would rather you give away to someone with an open mind.
Good luck,
TS
** There is a simple exercise
you can do for yourself with a golf club that proves my claim. There is another exercise
you can do with the Swing Thing to prove this automatic action of the clubhead beyond a
shadow of a doubt.
go back
up
page: [1] [2] [3]
[4] [5]
[6] [7]
[8] [9] [10] [11]
[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
The Progress of a Student and Teacher
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