chapter TWO
The Basic Fundamentals
There are five basic fundamentals. If there is a change in any one of the fundamentals your game will change. The five basic fundamentals are:
- Grip
- stance
- Posture
- Ball position
- Swing
We will cover the basic fundamentals briefly, since the major impetus of this book is to discuss the many subtle factors you may not be aware of. However, it never hurts to review the basic fundamentals. I would suggest that if you do have a problem with fundamentals, you take a couple of lessons from a qualified instructor with whom you have a good rapport. You should acquire enough information from experts to be sure that your fundamentals are sound before reinforcing them to become a learned motor response. (covered later) It is very difficult and time consuming to try to alter and re-learn motor responses as we will see.
We will be covering many subtle variables in the following chapters that are not considered basic fundamentals. If basic fundamentals are not sound and consistent then following information cannot be consistent either.
THE GRIP
It is a basic premise that within reason there are many types of grip that work well. Some golfers interlock the pointer and pinkies. Other golfers overlap the pinky to the second and third digits; and still others do not overlap or interlock at all. Since all hands are of different dimensions, including finger length and width as well as strength, you must find the grip that is comfortable and gives you the best consistency. It would be wise to get a professional's opinion since you will save yourself a lot of time with experienced advice of where to start. The most important fact about grip is that it must be consistent. That is, it must never change. Since the grip is the only connection of your body to the golf club it must be consistent or no matter what else you do, you will never have a consistent game.
The most important fact to understand about grip is that the more sensory information you gain from your grip the better control you will have. That is to say, that the more sensory receptors that are activated and travel into your central nervous system, the more precise the motor activity coming out will be. Our motor systems run on sensory information going in and not on motor alone coming out.
There are two secondary concerns having to do with grip. The first is that when you hold a golf club in your hands your personal space increases which alters your brains creation of your environmental mapping. If you alter the way you hold the club then it alters your personal space and changes the consistency of your environmental mapping that your brain has created. When you're received mapping of your environment is altered then all of the function in your environment is altered. The second concern is the fact that at times you will have to change your grip for special shots and this takes practice so that your brain has learned that this altered sensory information creates an altered response.
There is great diversity in the use of "weak" or "strong" grips. These terms are used to describe the amount of rotation of your hands on the golf club, and this depends upon the size and structure of the hands and wrists, as well as the mobility or flexibility of the wrists, forearms and other structures.
The "V" formed between the thumb and first finger of both hands should point toward the right shoulder for most body types. This, again, may be somewhat variable but is usually the case. Your hands, when gripping the club, should be secure but not overly tight since you want your arms to be relaxed. If you grip too tightly with your hands, you will have a central nervous system overflow of grip strength which creates tightness in the lower arm muscles and will prevent a fluid swing. This explains why the ball goes farther than you think it should have when you are relaxed versus when you hold on tightly and expect more. You think that you put more force into the swing but the club head speed was reduced by holding to tightly and stiffening your lower arms.
Some general, acceptable information concerning grip should be that the left hand should feel comfortable when you place it on the club. Usually this means that the thumb of the left hand is slightly to the right of center of the most vertical part of handle. The thumb of your right hand should rest just left of center so that it does not control the club. When you place the right hand on the club with the thumb slightly left of center and to your desired locking interrelationship with the left hand, it should feel firm and comfortable. The type of grip that you decide to be consistent with must remain the same. This is why you should get as much information about grip style from a couple of professionals so that you can begin to get use to one grip and not have to change it, which will alter your entire game. Your hands must work together as a single unit, and therefore must feel comfortable through the entire backswing and fore swing without any discomfort. If any discomfort arises, it will decrease the usable information which must be sent from the hands to the central nervous system, as we will see in further chapters.
THE STANCE
Stance is one of the critical basic fundamentals. You must backswing the club away from the ball and return it to the ball with precision and consistency. If the stance is not proper, then it is literally impossible to hit the ball correctly. You will not hit the ball square and you will not be able to control the direction. Also, if your stance is not correct, you will not be in balance and will never return to your starting position and be consistent. We must know what the optimum function is to be able to decide what type of stance is the most beneficial. The stance is nothing more than the most optimum body position to start and end a swing with precision. Stance is a compromise between stability and flexibility where one could be increased at the expense of reduction of the other. For example, one stance may give you slightly better club head speed at the expense of reducing balance and being more inconsistent. One stance may be more consistent but not allow flexibility for club head speed. The best stability versus flexibility is an individual compromise based on the individuals many, many variables.
Generally, your feet should be approximately shoulder width apart, realizing that the further apart the feet are, the better balance you have, although you sacrifice hip rotation. The closer the feet are together, the greater rotation you can produce but the less balance you have. Picture the long and wide wheel base automobiles that are more stable on the road and smoother over rough terrain with better cornering but lose their ability to turn sharply. Again, your stance width is dependent upon your body type. You must develop a width that gives you the greatest rotational potential without sacrificing balance. Whatever width of foot stance you pick, you must be consistent (on level ground) or it will have very negative ramifications by altering the degree of hip rotation and timing of upper and lower body coiling and uncoiling. The angle of your feet on the ground is also a factor which alters the amount of capable leg rotation. For instance, if the left foot is turned outward toward the target (being right handed), you will have less hip rotation to the right but more to the left. Therefore, the foot rotational angle must provide the best function and must be consistent. The more the feet are angled out, the more stability it creates at the expense of hip flexibility.
Ankle and foot structure varies from person to person and your neutral foot stance will not be the same as another's. The important point is to stand in your optimum position to produce the best function. Do not try to emulate another's foot position.
Again, consistency is the name of the game. The less number of variables that are in play the better off you are. Please remember that once your game is pre-programmed it becomes a learned motor response. The more you perform a similar motor activity the more it is learned by subcortical ganglia and this allows the upper brain(cortex) to fine tune function by altering specifics to acquire a desired result. Players like Corey Pavin had an amazing ability to alter setup to produce a desired result. This ability to increase variability and remain consistent comes after tremendous practice and concrete basics.
I would suggest that the weight is distributed quite equally to each foot with a slight weight distribution on the front of the foot in relation to the back. Creating a slight increase in weight distribution to the forefoot is a safety factor where the muscles in the calf can react and keep you stable without much other motion. If the weight distribution is posterior, you have to move your whole foot backwards or change hip or knee angle to compensate for backward falling which increases variability and therefore consistency. Slight forefoot loading will give you excellent balance and stability through the entire swing.
The...
