This blog is about getting a smooth swing in golf. It is not about how to hit your ball as far as you can, or how to get a hole in one. Personally I think that’s great, and if you want to do it, you should absolutely read this. However I am not going to spend time writing about that. I want to write about how to play golf smoothly and entertainingly.
I think that many people who play golf are not bad at it, but they aren’t really good either. Many of them have the attitude of a good golfer: “It’s my job; I’m supposed to be good at this. I’ve done all the drills, I’m always prepared.” If you have the attitude “I’m a professional golfer; it’s my job”, then you will never be able to play well, because there is a lot of room for improvement. You will tend to focus on things that are easy for you and ignore things that are hard.*
There are two ways to get better at golf: by practicing and by thinking. There is no way around them both.*
I was working on a story about how to play golf with a smooth swing, and I got curious. So I Googled it, and the first thread I came across was a blog called “How To Play Golf With A Smooth Swing,” by the guy who writes this blog.
The post that caught my eye was entitled “The Golf Swing Is Like The Physics Of The Universe.” As he explained it, the physics of the universe are all in constant motion; so are golf swings. The understanding of one leads to the other.
I thought, sure, why not? Then I thought, really?
What is a smooth swing? And what is entertaining to read? A good swing is one that makes it look easy. A smooth swing is a smooth motion. The motion is like this: the club goes up, the ball goes up with it, and then the club goes down before the ball does . . . that’s all.
Everything else is decoration, styling, and style. It isn’t the kind of thing you need to do well; it’s just something you can do nicely.
You can get a rough idea of what makes a good swing from watching someone who doesn’t know how to play golf. (I am not saying it’s easy to spot; I am just saying it’s possible.) What you don’t see are the ways in which he makes things look easy that are actually hard work. He doesn’t blow the shot, but he doesn’t make it look easy, either.
The easiest way to think about golfing is as a kind of dance-movement that requires a lot of physical coordination but no real mental effort. You have to move in particular ways at particular times, but you don’t have to think about what you’re doing or why you’re doing it. That makes golf a lot like writing code. Both require mental
The fine art of golf is to play the shots with absolute smoothness. The ideal swing is as natural as breathing.
The art of golf is not, however, to walk up to the first tee and hit a perfect drive, or a perfect second shot, or a perfect third, etc. It’s to take a series of perfectly smooth swings that result in you hitting the ball on the green.
To do this requires two things: timing and rhythm. A good golfer has both, and if he doesn’t, he can’t make his swing smooth. That’s because there’s a lot more to making a swing smooth than just keeping it straight; it’s about getting it just right on each shot. And to do that you need to pay attention to rhythm.
Rhythm is what makes the difference between being able to play golf well and not being able to play golf at all.*
I have been playing golf since I was a kid, and it has been a pleasure to pursue the game ever since. There is just so much you can learn about the game from playing it that it is hard not to want to share what you have learned with others. But I understand that many people prefer to be able to practice their skills in private. I don’t blame anyone for this preference – there are many good reasons for it – but I do find the idea that there is something wrong with sharing information about how to play golf with others amusing.
I was born in Japan, where women are underrepresented in golf. Even though I am married to an American woman and am currently living in the U.S., my preferred method of practicing my game is to play with other Japanese players, or with other men who are similarly interested in learning more about golf.
I have found that when I play with other people, they tend to behave more aggressively than when they play alone (they will hit the ball farther and harder if they think they might win) and more frivolously than when they play alone (they will take more risks on every shot). This makes sense: if you go out and buy a lottery ticket on your own, you might as well buy a few
So how to play golf? You might think that the key is to concentrate on the ball. But people who do that are actually wasting their time. The ball is only about 1/17 of your swing, and you’ll get nowhere if you’re not hitting it properly.
The secret is to find a way to hit the ball in such a way that you can be concentrating on something else completely. For example, if you want to hit a long drive and the ball comes off your clubface too high, you can split your stance and move it up by half an inch.
This leaves your backswing entirely free of worry, so it’s easy to swing smoothly. And because you don’t have all that weight on your front foot, it’s easy to swing with a big arc without dropping your hands too soon or twisting at the waist while you’re doing it.
If you have a big swing, it doesn’t always make sense to swing as hard as you can. For example, there is a lot of debate about the value of “toe-dipping.” This is not just a statement of opinion: it’s an objective test that has been performed with almost perfect accuracy.
There are three ways to judge the degree of toe-dipping. One is to see if you can get through a whole round of golf without hitting the ball high (you can’t). Two is whether you are penalized for it in your handicap (you aren’t). Three is how easy it is to follow through on a bad shot without lifting your foot off the ground, which will cause you to miss the ball