Today's video tip comes from a question Larry Davis recently sent in via our Customer Service Department.
"Surge, I am having trouble with the rebound/recoil after hitting a shot. I tend to "pose" and watch the shot rather than recoiling in front of the body the way you do. I find this very difficult to do. What is the importance of the recoil and what is a good drill to get the feel of this?"
Larry, this is an excellent question as I often find that my students forget the importance of the Recoil & Relax portion of the Peak Performance Golf Swing. First off, if you are able to "pose" in the T-Finish position that must mean you are making a pretty good swing and maintaining your balance throughout. You're almost there! But there are several reasons why stopping your swing in that upright position is going to prove detrimental in the long run. You see, we need to remember that we are making an athletically-balanced, powerful swing and if we pose at the end of the T-Finish position a number of things are likely to happen that we're not going to like.
Because we are swinging on a slightly inclined plane and our hips and shoulders are turning to finish square to the target, we build up a certain amount of momentum that is very difficult to stop without a recoil move like I teach. In almost every throwing sport, good players follow the same dictum: "Look where you throw, throw where you look". In a vertical golf swing, where we swing straight up and through the ball, we want to apply this thought as well. Without a Recoil movement we are likely to not check our momentum facing the target and our shot dispersal will suffer as we block or pull due to over-rotation or loss of balance.
Another reason comes from the Relax portion of this final movement. As we come to the end of the FUS at the T-Finish position with our hands near our forward ear, our hip, back, arms and neck muscles are under tension and our mind is still engaged. Keeping this position as we watch our shot burns an excessive amount of energy. To me, it's a senseless waste of a precious commodity--we have a finite amount of energy available to us during a round so why waste it after every shot and then run out of gas before we finish our round.
So let's learn to Recoil & Relax--there's no real drill I can recommend--you just have to build it into your subconscious swing thought. When you do, you'll find that your shot pattern will really tighten up, you'll put less stress and strain on your body and you'll maintain a better energy level that will carry your through the later holes in a round where a match is often won or lost.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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