Cupped hand, cock, Norman wrist trainer, hip turn, delayed hit

What does this all have in common? What can a wrist cock, Hogan's cupped left hand, Greg Norman's plastic wrist cock trainer, delayed hit and a right hip turn have in common? The main thing is they are all describing the same golf move in different ways and in different perspectives.

Let me go directly on how to describe this to myself so I can remember this move. After developing the body turn hit as described in previous postings, I noticed that one thing missing in my technique is power. Since I have heard from a few golfers and books about the right hip providing the added power to the golf swing, I tried searching for how to execute - of course, as an enhancement to my upper body turn technique. I could not figure it out. I tried and could not figure how to do it.

Last Saturday, November 1st, 2008, Rene Jose came and played golf with me. After the game, he showed me the Greg Norman contraption that is supposed to teach the correct swing, the one that forces the hip turn. When I wore it on my right hand, I was amazed for two reasons.

First, it mimicked and felt like an acquired way of me gripping the club lately. It is the right hand pressing on the handle and acting like a slight dip forward - more like a forward press but done as part of the gripping of the club. I noticed that whenever I do this, my hits become solid but I did not want to encourage myself to using it because it logically seems that I am weakening my grip too much. However, it does help the swing so I use it when I feel like it.

Second, when I wore the Norman grip trainer, I realized that not only does it resemble this grip but it actually forces you to bend the right hand much farther backwards, yes backwards but wrist-breaking backwards! Rene said that this will force you to hit with the right hip because that is the only way the club will square itself to the target - by turning the hip. He said try it first with chips because this is where it is very apparent - whatever that is.

Let us digress for a moment on what happened when I tried chipping in my bedroom. Because of the necessary hip turn, it opened my eyes to how the club comes in more on the heel and while the hips is turning, it also turns the club face around - all in the same golf action. This realization now made it possible for me to do what Anthony was trying to teach me - the Norman chip. The Norman chip is the club is left open to the extent that one may look like he is trying to heel the ball with the club. But because of the hip turn, like Anthony's explanation, the ball really rolls from the heel to the toe of the the club. Realizing and learning this technique, it made it so easy for me to know how the professionals lob chips the ball as what I had seen them do at the Connecticut tournament.

Going back to the previous topic, I went to the driving range to figure out how to apply this to my swing. As usual, I started with my body twist. After a few trials, I figured that to implement this together with my body swing, I had to grip the club the same way as before (like the forward press) but I had to to go from light to heavy cocking while the club is being brought up - on the upswing. THE LEFT HAND IS ACTIVELY PART OF THE SWING. It steadies the club from upswing to downswing - even sort of pulls the club on the downswing. The result is a more powerful swing. But it is more than that. It just like what Hogan said, you cannot over do it - it is possible to give it all you got and still it will be correct.

It is noteworthy to say that the swing is still my body turn swing, not done by the hips. However, there is a pronounced late hit where the body is forced to turn - because the mind knows that the club has been brought back and the face of the club has to be brought back to square. What I am trying to say is the technique is still the body turn (hit) but mentally, I am forced to finish. No more finishing of my right foot!

The left hand is an active part of my body swing. I meant to document this before but I had not done so. I'll document it here. Because I was not keeping the left hand active, my body turn swing caused an injury to my right shoulder. It pulled the shoulder muscle joint. I guess this is like the tennis elbow - this time a "golf shoulder." In order to prevent injury, the left hand and arm must take full control of the swing.

The left hand and left arm must be the dominant holder of the club - like Anthony Kim. And like Anthony Kim, the left hand grip must be low so that there is a feeling of the left arm in total control of the club. At impact, the left hand drops the club head to the ball.