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Extending your horizon
Okay how about this, which you suggested so long ago:
The camera finds you wearing a rain jacket, windshirt or long sleeve shirt, but with your left arm out of its sleeve. With the sleeve dangling, you open with:
"Hi, I'm Yoda, and I'm here today to demonstrate how the two arms work in the golf swing. Oops, looks like I've forgotten to put my left arm in its sleeve. [Pick up the sleeve -- no stretch yet -- with the right hand and show it to the audience.] No matter . . . the left arm doesn't do all that much anyway. It functions like a piece of string. But we all know that the left arm -- the string -- needs to be straight, so it needs to be 'stretched out'. How do we do this? With the right arm! Like this." [Demonstrate a good stretch of the sleeve.]
"Now, how do we get this 'arm' to the top of the swing. Not by turning the shoulders! [Demonstrate.] And certainly not with the 'sleeve' itself! [Demo with chuckle: 'See, it won't move!'] Again, we use the right arm! " [Demonstrate how the bending right arm takes the sleeve to the top.]
"Notice that the right arm keeps stretching the sleeve. This same action in your golf swing will give it width and structure. But a lot of you stop stretching and so you look like this. [Demonstrate a backstroke with an unstretched sleeve.] So, your swing has no structure. It is flimsy. Keep that sleeve -- your left arm -- stretched!"
"Now, notice that the right arm can't be straight, it has to bend. That's because this sleeve is acting like a leash. See? [Demonstrate backstroke again]. Now it wants to be straight -- [Demo: let go of the sleeve halfway back and let the right arm rapidly extend and straighten out.] -- but it can't!"
"In fact, the right elbow gets more and more bent as it approaches the right shoulder [Demo backswing] and can't begin to straighten until it moves away from it [Demo release]. It can't be fully straight until well past the ball [Demo follow-through]."
"This is the way your arms work in the swing. The right arm lifts and lowers the left and keeps it stretched out. Now, go put on a jacket or a long sleeve shirt, but leave that left arm out of the sleeve. Get the feel. [Demo as you talk.] Without a jacket . . . [Quickly remove yours and toss it to the ground.] . . . simply grasp your left wrist with your right thumb and forefinger [Demo as you talk] and stretch that left arm! Now take it to the top, like this. [Demo as you talk.] Keep the stretch! [Demo] Into the downstroke, impact and followthrough. Keep the stretch! [Demo].
"Do this little drill for a few minutes a day, and you'll soon find yourself playing better golf. I'm Lynn Blake, and I'll see you on the tee!"
This is a reprint of Lynn's suggestion to BBax a few years back.
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Drew
Let Your Motion Make the Shot.
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