Weighted Clubs

One of the qualities of a good, repeating swing is the coordination of the arms and body. When properly working together, as in my Y Shape method, maximum power is delivered to the ball with minimum effort. Troubles begin once either the body or the arms becomes too dominant.

Warming up with an object which weighs more than a normal golf club tends to make the arms and hands very active in handling the extra weight. Weighted clubs may be three times the weight of a regular club and in swinging these heavy objects the hands and arms become overly dominant in trying to effect your regular move.

Two cases in point: 1) The transition area at the top of the swing should be a change of direction with both the shoulders and arms completing the backswing and then both starting down together. Warming up with the additional weight is hard work and this extra effort tends to destroy this coordination as the arms will tend to swing past the point where the shoulders stop. Additionally, there may be extra effort to get the club started down, promoting casting. Since Bobby Jones said that this is the most difficult area of the swing I would recommend not using any kind of extra weight which would severely tax this part of the swing.

2) Through the ball the club should not be pushed or forced. The feel of extra weight will force the right hand to push excessively through the shot leaving the player with hooks, mis-hits etc. – overall, a very 'handsy' type of move.

The softer and more relaxed your upper body, and especially your hands are, the better you'll feel the clubhead and the better you'll play. A golf club is weighted so you can deliver mass to the ball and swing the club with speed. Golf clubs are not heavy objects. As a result it's important to feel the weight of the clubhead. So as feel, with a capital F, is so important in this game, isn't it a bit ironic that you would put extra weight (2x-3x times) in your hands and then, when you tee off, be asked to feel something much lighter?

I would rather see a body type motion to warm up, with importance being placed on a full turn with the proper leg action to accompany it. The next time you arrive at the course with no warmup time and are  forced to get in a few swings before that first shot, grab a club upside down, holding it near the head. Now as you swing your body will be forced to make a full turn, you will feel your feet as apart of your body turn and your hands/arms will be as they should be, passive. And you'll feel the clubhead!

Save weighted objects for baseball's on-deck circle.

Feelings

Feel vs Reality is always a hot topic on the lesson tee. “I didn’t know I was doing that!” is usually what I hear when a student views his/her swing on video, and not just the first time viewing it. We tend to unconsiously manipulate the clubhead to suit our instincts. This is true regarding the action of the club through the ball.

The act of the clubhead lagging behind the hands allows power to be built up from the core outwards to the clubhead. The arms stay in plane longer into the downswing, preventing wayward shots. A solid hit at impact is virtually assured if you lag the clubhead.

If you are confident that your through-the-ball move allows you to hit the ball fairly straight most of the time, and you want to increase distance and have more consistency, try this thought: The left arm/shaft structure at the top includes a 90º angle which must be held as far into the downswing as possible. To accomplish this, picture the entire left arm/shaft structure simply revolving around your neck and maintain this structure to impact. That is, the ball is struck with the same structure present at the top of the backswing.

You’ll gain more distance if you don’t try to accelerate the clubhead into the ball. The feeling you want is to push out and generate power after impact so wait until impact to push weight off the right leg. 1) Revolve the left arm/shaft structure to impact then, 2) push off the right leg.

Lagging the clubhead is not a block; the clubface must eventually rotate through the ball. Let rotation be your intention as the downswing begins.