Relaxed Power, a Breakthrough?

[Tyk]

This is going to be a bit long, if you chose to read it, don't blame me! John Barry one time about a year ago requested that I expand a bit on how I seek to apply my martial arts background to my golf swing. I've always wanted to respond, but never quite had it, I didn't know the answer well enough to try to provide it. I think maybe now I've learned enough to at least share it.

 

As some of you probably know through some of my previous postings, I was at one time a pretty serious martial arts student, having achieved a pretty high level of competence in a few different styles from my teens through my 20's. I stopped practicing in an organized setting in my early 30s but have always kept and applied a core martial arts philosophy and mindset to my life, my body, and to my golf swing.

 

I started playing "beer-golf" with a buddy in my 20's. For a good part of that time, I don't think I even considered golf a game of skill. Golf was just an excuse to drink beer outside with friends. Step up, see how hard you can swing the club, see if you can drink a whole beer before you find it!

 

When I was around 30, my martial arts teacher closed his school and instead of traveling 50 miles to the next nearest school, or finding a different style to study, I began to play more golf. I began to appreciate and understand the golf swing as an athletic move and began to see how my martial arts training could be applied directly to the golf swing.

 

Most people probably understand martial arts as fighting, and of course that is a component of it. One is learning how to use one's body as a weapon. But the real fundamentals of martial arts are about balance, body alignment, economy of motion, and using speed to produce power. Relaxing to produce speed. Kicking and punching with power is not achieved by kicking and punching HARD, it is achieved by kicking and punching properly, quickly, and while being balanced, relaxed and in good form. Its all about ones' core, its about learning to use your body and your mind together. Its about being in perfect balance as you rotate, with your whole body lining up in the proper sequence to deliver power through a one inch spot, your knuckles, your heels, your shins, the ball of your foot, your elbows. . . Its about turning your opponents body against him, taking his balance, taking his motion and negating it or transitioning it to where you want it, not where he wants it, and then exploiting it.

 

Sound familiar? It should to all of us that have thought about golf more than passingly. The thing is, while I was very good at understanding how all of this worked in the realm of martial arts, I have always struggled to really get it to flow into my golf swing. I knew the link was there. Pieces of it were there, being dropped into place, but the whole. . .the whole wasn't flowing. I could deliver a kick that would knock the wind out of a training partner through a foot of foam. I could make a heavy bag jump on its chains, I could feel how to turn through a joint locking throw, using my leverage to generate power. But I could not get this to transition all the way into my golf swing! Why not?!

 

Its been coming in little pieces throughout the last 10 years, bits and pieces of it dropping into place. I learned how the core was supposed to move, I learned how the spine and shoulders turn through, I learned how the arms, the elbows and the wrists have to be aligned to come through, and I learned how the hips transition the power from the legs through to hips through the shoulders into the arms.

 

All those individual things helped my swing, I think I have them all good in their individual pieces, but something was lacking. Sometimes it would all work together, but never for long, maybe just two swings on the range out of 80 balls, sometimes I could feel the cusp of what I was seeking peeking through, maybe even for a few rounds. Rounds where I would light it up, spells where my handicap would start to drop! But I never could capture the feel of what it was I was trying to do. I could sometimes do it, but I couldn't understand why sometimes it would work, and sometimes it was just a memory.

 

Recently, a few things happened. A couple of what I call "EUREKA!" moments. My buddies and I went to the Masters and I saw the pros live for the first time. Wow! It was. . .mind blowing. Not how good they were, I know they are good. But their swings. They aren't swinging HARD! They aren't swinging hard at all! Its fast, but it isn't hard, they are flowing. The ball, it is LEAPING off their clubs as if it were a superball, the sound it makes. . .my ball NEVER makes that sound. WTF is going on there? How can it be so different? Why are they getting such power out of such relaxed smooth swings? I could see it but I didn't understand what I was seeing, I just knew I had been shown something that I should be able to grok. I filed it and thought about it, alot.

 

I borrowed a Tour Striker. Amazing tool. It showed me that I was only sometimes in the right place at impact. I've been working with it alot in the last few months and I'm getting in the right spot most of the time. Results are fantastic.

 

I was stretching and I saw my old martial arts books. I thought of my old katas and forms from long ago. I started trying to remember my old katas from the last art I studied, Kuk Sool Won. They are great forms, even the low level forms. I have always used my stretching routines, daily for my whole life, but I had let the forms go. I started working my through them, I broke out the books to help me remember the positions. It was strange, something that had once been as easy as walking now taking so much thought. Pieces of them coming back, sometimes moving through 10 steps before having to go back to the book. Knowing that my balance and core were so very wrong, but I just kept moving through them, not trying to do them perfectly, just trying to relearn the sequences, getting down into the stance, down where it hurts, where the legs burn. Really, I'm not down very far at all, this shouldn't hurt old fella. . . Then I started to kick, and to punch. Slowly. Awkwardly. . .weak and off balance, and crap my 40 year old body does NOT move like my 28 year old body did! I did this for a few weeks and it started to get better. I realized something, my kicks, the roundhouse kick and the spin kick. . .they felt like my golf swing! What? Why? This was something I KNEW how to do! What was my problem? Lots of rust sure, loss of flexibility, sure. So what? Not as hard, not as fast, not as high, but still the body should be able to line up, the core can still turn, the power should still flow into the spot. . .but it wasn't. It was closer though, work on it.

 

A couple weeks ago, my kicks came back! And it was so easy. I RELAXED! I stopped working so hard to be in the right position, I stopped thinking about my body and let it flow. HOLY SMOKES, THERE IT IS! That is where the power is! Generate the power and send it out through your body and the technique to some extent is forced to follow it properly, it can't help it. I did 10 roundhouses, both legs, left is weak, but can flow. Spin kick. . almost fell down on the follow through it came through so fast!

 

Did I celebrate this. . ya, by grabbing the wedge in my living room and relaxing as I swung. There it is! There is a piece that I have been seeking. That is why the transition down, right where the hips are supposed to start to clear hasn't been working. That is why the follow through is not clean. I've been throttling my self, my body can't move through because I am tense, I am not allowing the power to move from my legs through my hips and get into my hands.

 

I couldn't wait to get to the range the next day. And when I did. . .Oh My God. . so much the same, everything I've been working on forever, but finally I felt the power actually get into the club head, I felt the ball compress for REAL, and it just sang in my mind. . "there it is. . there it is". I just relaxed. I don't know why I couldn't relax, I think I just was thinking so much about how to do it right, how it was supposed to work that I forgot to actually LET IT WORK!

 

That was about 2 weeks ago. I shot 77 the first time I played with this change. Shot 38 in league. I can't even describe the difference in the ball flight. Boring through the air with some sizzle on it. Hitting the green coming in on what used to be a hot trajectory and just stopping like it hit velcro. Distance is more, at least 10 yards, perhaps even 20 when I really get it grooved. 58* wedge as a 100 yard club?! It was an 80 yard club. . Played a round last week with my former teacher and shot 73, lowest round of the year and one off my career best. He was amazed at what he was seeing.

 

Still working on this, breaking the old habit of being tense, but the great thing is that it isn't a change in swing, everything I have been working on has been right, I just haven't used it right. I just have to do what I've been doing, I just have to relax and let the body transition through everything I've been working on and just let it go. Let my body do what I've been teaching it to do instead of restricting it with tension! Having to learn how to set up and just trust that if I deliver the power, it will go where I want, have to learn to use it under pressure, where the inclination will be to tense up and steer it.

 

Of course, all of this is what every teacher says, I don't know if they just don't really get it, or if I'm just a bad student. I think the truth is is that I was so close that it all looked pretty much right. My positions were pretty good, I was delivering the club square and getting good enough results, only I could tell that it just wasn't quite right. I just for some reason had never truly felt it, only glimpses behind the curtain from time to time without understanding it when the reality is that it is what I spent a good part of my life learning to do! Go figure!

 

Pretty excited about what is to come, I think I have just cleared a major hurdle in my golf game and I'm about ready to freak some people out on the course!

 

If you read this, thank you! I've been seeking this for a long time and hope it is not a mirage!

[BK in TEXAS]

EXCELLENT write up.

[dru_]

It would be interesting to see how your launch monitor numbers altered through the process. (Wouldn't it be nice if the various launch monitors could upload to a central stat repo like MapMyFitness does using iPhones).

[JMiller]

Great write up...

 

I could not agree more, power comes from kinetic energy, proper technique you have to learn but at a point you have to trust that your body knows how to preform it after so many reps. Normally 100 reps gets you started 3000 - 5000 it becomes automatic and you can fully trust it...

 

I have always tried to have a routine that allows me to have analytical thoughts up to a given point. Then I just commit to the visualization and feel of the automatic part of my ability and make the swing. Since you were at the masters how many pros did you see that didn't have a set pre-shot routine starting with the interaction with the caddie? As long as you are not death gripping the club you can stay very lose and relaxed with a pre-shot routine.

 

pre-shot routine does three things very well if you have one that works for you

1) analytical portion of distances and yardages, selecting the club and pulling it from the bag

2) committing to the shot and visualizing and feeling the shot might consist of 1 - 3 set practice swings a 20 to 40% speed to just stay relaxed

3) walk into address position with a waggle or two and visualization, last thought should be tempo based of some kind "smooth" maybe?

[RoverRick]

I agree with everyone else that this is an excellent write up. I also agreee with you.

 

I have only been doing this for a short time, the relaxed power. I often complain about me "trying to birdie" or "trying too hard" and screwing up a hole. But what I really mean is that instead of continuing the "relaxed power" swing, I try to hit it too hard, and at best that makes it fall short, and at worst it will pull the ball out in the coolies. I did it Sunday and turned a 70 in to a 75. I played 9 holes and a couple of times I turned an easy par into a difficult bogey.But then again, Jim Furyk is probably more upset about overswinging and pulling the ball than we will ever have a right to be.

[Tyk]

Thanks for all the responses guys, I wanted to get a few more rounds in before revisiting this, just to make sure that it was in fact a Eureka! moment and not a mirage! Pretty cool to see this thread in the "Best of the Rest" on the newletter! I got a kick outta that!

 

I am happy to report that this breakthrough appears to be genuine! I've been to the range a couple times and I got to put it to the test in an even up match play match on Wednesday against a very tough opponent in a 30 mph wind. The swing was fantastic! I shot even par on the front 9 to get a 3 hole lead, went 4 up then through a series of events not really related to poor swings let my opponent hang around too long but finished the match with a 2-1 victory! I was getting a little nervy on 17 but managed an easy up and down for par 3 to close it out.

 

Ball striking through the first 13 holes was outstanding! Distance control with the irons is continuing to improve and I'm noticing an increased confidence with the scoring clubs as I am getting better at flighting the ball and beginning to dial in spin for the right shot. I think there is still alot of improvement to come from this as I continue to figure it out.

 

The great thing about this is that this does not feel like a swing change! Its not taking any thought beyond remembering to relax and find the power and move it through my body into the clubhead. I'm not having to fight this at all, its almost the opposite, this swing is easier than my old swing. I guess that might sound kind of weird. What I mean is that I am not mechanically doing anything different. I'm not changing my takeaway, or my stance or posture or swingplane or any of that. I still have thoughts related to doing those things properly, and I can still miss a shot from doing those things badly, but it isn't happening very often! Jmiller; I've incorporated a slight little waggle into my practice swing and right before I pull the trigger which seems to help key me to stay relaxed and let the body move through the swing.

 

I've been trying to break down the differences a bit, I think the big difference is in a couple places. Alot of it is in the forearms, I don't think I was really gripping the club to tightly, but I think my forearms and elbows and wrists were just too tense to allow my swing to flow. I also think that I was having a bit of a weight transfer issue occurring right at the start of the downswing, I think I was transitioning from right into left too abruptly and getting my weight moving to soon, resulting an almost stuck like position with my hands/arms/shoulders as my body got ahead of the ball. I think this was due most to the tension in the forearms but also a little bit in the hips as I was very concerned previously with starting there. I think I was anticipating the hips starting the downswing but in so doing I was tensing them in preparation for initiating the swing instead of just letting them initiate the swing! The tension, instead of preparing the hips from the move was rushing them into the move and then inhibiting the rest of the body from following.

 

I have a cup match today, playing handicap 4-ball with a partner where we have a history of going out and just crushing our opponents. Should be another good opportunity to test the new feel, I'll let you guys know how it goes!

[Tyk]

Well, the cup match was a mixed bag yesterday. Good news is our team won 7-2, and we won our match 2-1.

 

Bad news is I struggled a bit for a 4-5 hole stretch with the driver. Irons were really good through the whole round. Was able to work the ball both ways and was attacking the pin very effectively through the whole iron set.

 

Started off rough with a pretty poor warm up session on the range. Just couldn't get comfortable and get into a groove there. Gave it up about 1/2 way through my typical warmup because I could feel myself getting frustrated and didn't think I was going to be able to work through it so I went and worked with the wedge and putter a bit more than usual and hoped that once I got on the course it would come to me.

 

Started the round pretty well and played a big part in getting us 3 up through 8. Then the driver got wild and our opponents turned things around and we were 1 down at 12. I pushed a couple drives into trouble or OB, overcorrected and pull hooked a couple, then settled down well enough to get the ball in play and help close it out.

 

Was able to stay relaxed and execute most of the time. I think most of my problems with the driver were in large part due to the tension in my arms creeping back into my swing. Just wasn't my best, but I did alot of things well enough (and we won) so I'm not too worked up about it.

 

Another big 2-day tournament coming up this weekend, another chance to test the game!

[Aotearoa_Brad]

Tyk, I saw you mention this thread somewhere else so just read it through - fantastic write-up and definitely deserves a bump!

I definitely needed to hear this - great advice!

Brad

[sparnar]

Hi Tyk

Very interesting topic. I have also felt the same thing, but on very rare occassions. And only on a single swing here and there, nothing that I can reproduce.

 

Would also love to read more about this.

[Firstkart]

I had not seen this thread so thanks Brad for giving it a bump.

 

Great write up Tyk and as a martial arts student for over 40 years and an instructor for 20 years I can certainly back up your comments.

 

I have been applying my techniques to my golf since June last year and I have slowly seen significant improvement in distance, shame I can't say the same about direction control but it will come. As I mentioned in another thread I have also been playing a 6 iron Miura baby blade and I am hitting it stupid distances (for me anyway, 170M average) and this is by applying the same relaxed timing (not power) into the golf swing.

 

A good point to note regarding some similarities in all sports is that the earlier you start the more natural you are at it. I started martial arts when I was 5 and if I had started golf then and was as good at golf as i was at 20 years of age at martial arts my name would be on a major trophy (ok maybe if I was lucky, but you get my point.)

 

Also having had students start martial arts at 30 years of age, I can say that it takes at least five years of training at 3 to 4 sessions a week for them to be half as good as one of my 15 year old juniors and then the stark reality that they will never get to the same level of competency as that same 15 year old when he is 20.

 

Of course that does not mean he does not understand the principals but he will just not be able to apply them as efficiently.

 

I would be interested to know how you have seen your game improve since you first posted this.

 

AJ

[Paul S]

This is an excellent post! This is exactly what I've been drilling through my head and swing all winter so far. My keys have been balance, spine angle, and rotation around my core. I've found that when I set up and find my balance over the ball that it inherently involves relaxing. I do need to focus a little more on maintaining the relaxed posture throughout the swing however. I feel like I'm right on the cusp of a major game improvement...

 

Is it summer yet? I'm suffering by not being able to really swing fully. Though I feel like the constant slow motion swing practice is programming my muscle memory.

 

We'll see. Once again, excellent post!

 

Paul

[RoverRick]

Excellent post! Still after 6 or 7 months. How is your progress working out?

 

Joe Dante in his book, the Four Magic Moves to Play Better Golf, called this "The Conservation of Angular Momentum". Relaxed Power is much easier to spell.

 

I have been working on this for the past 15 months now. It is still a work in progress because I keep forgetting this part of the swing. I refer to it often as tempo. When my "tempo" is good, I am awesome. Shooting below or at par depending on my putting that day, but it is such a struggle for me to remember this. A life time of hearing faster is farther and hit it hard and so many other bad things I learned.

 

This year I have the net set up and have been going out everyday and wacking a few balls into it with the swing meter on. It is amazing that the right swing and "slower tempo" (relaxed power) gets me 90 mph with a 6 iron. And if I tense up and swing hard and fast it is 79 to 80 mph. Sometimes if I really catch it I can get it down to 77. But just the relaxed, correct form swing is totally different. The ball sounds different also.

 

The guys I play with tell me they know on the first tee if I am going to win that day. Because if my "tempo" is good, if I am relaxed and making proper contact I am good to go. And when I am on, I am told I am "deceptively long" because while it does not appear that I am swinging hard but the ball

[Tyk]

Guys, I appreciate the renewed interest in this thread. I always intended to get back to this and report on my progress, unfortunately my report is a bit of a mixed bag.

 

I had a fantastic year on the golf course last year! I attribute most of that to the Relaxed Power breakthrough. I brought my handicap down to a 4, which is as good as I've ever been. Of my 20 scores on my handicap card, I got all but 2 of the 20 of them in the 70's. I shot my career low and first round under par. I had stretches of play where I was hitting my irons perfectly! For me, that is probably what I like the best. I was hitting them with such confidence that there were times where I was no longer really thinking about hitting the ball, but had moved beyond that to thinking about what I wanted the ball to do. I could settle in over a shot and realistically expect to hit a 15' draw at the right edge of the green and expect it to stop. That is alot of fun. Not only is it fun, but hitting greens helps the score, and hitting greens in the right spots REALLY helps! Being able to transition from a "safety first" center of the green mindset to consistently being able to attack pins is big difference.

 

Not only did I play well, but I played well pretty much all summer and into fall. I usually have spells where I lose it for a couple weeks, that didn't happen last year. I was scoring well and looking and feeling like I could be a real threat in our end of season tournaments. I intended to play the Open division and I intended to be competitive.

 

That didn't work out. I got sick just as tournament season started, got the flu, ended up with pnuemonia and spent a few days in the hospital and then several weeks recovering. I missed all the important competitive events, which really sucked. I pretty much took a solid month off of golf, then winter started and while I've been able to play several rounds, I've been struggling a bit to find the game. My timing was off, my distance was WAY off. To add to it I won all that gear and bought some new irons, my whole setup is new, so I've got alot going on at the moment!

 

I was so off that even though I was aware of what I had learned I was having a hard time applying it. My timing and position at the top were off pretty badly and I was not delivering the club to the ball consistently. I've actually stone cold shanked a few, which is a very rare thing for me! Doing too many things wrong makes it pretty hard to get into a Relaxed Power mindset! As I reread my first post it has helped me begin to get back where I was. I've been working on swing positions with a mirror (patio door!) and the past few rounds while I haven't scored well I am starting to get some good ball contact and starting to get the ball popping off the face of club again. I'm getting less worried about just making a good swing and am starting to settle down a bit and relax over the ball.

 

So I guess it's a mix of good and bad. My relaxed power epiphany is not a be all end all, I have to have a good foundation working underneath it! That seems like a pretty "DUH!" realization, but this is the first time I've struggled since my epiphany moment! One thing I know is going to help is that I do still KNOW where I'm going. I have the good swing in my mind I'm just struggling a bit to find it. I think that once I get it there things are going to fall back into place pretty quickly, I'm already seeing glimmers of it, I just need to get some reps in and get used the new sticks. I anticipate starting next season strong and am really looking forward to playing some good golf!

[RoverRick]

Thanks for sharing.

[Shambles]

...

 

So I guess it's a mix of good and bad. My relaxed power epiphany is not a be all end all, I have to have a good foundation working underneath it! ...

 

I disagree with the implications of this portion. Relaxed power, described differently over the years, is actually a great foundation from which to launch just about any variation of swing you may need to adapt to on the fairways. I think you have a chance at a breakthrough provided you do not wander off into the dead end side roads.

 

 

Shambles

[Tyk]

Well, perhaps I worded it poorly. But the truth is that I did not build my golf foundation properly the first time. Since I don't have a Men In Black mind eraser, I've got to work with what I have! That doesn't mean that Relaxed Power is not going to be a huge part in putting things back together (and really, for all my grousing, its not like I'm horrible at the moment, I'm just not breaking 80 often enough!). That is why I think I will regain my form quicker, because I know where I've been, so I don't have to relearn everything again.

[sparnar]

All the best, Tyk!

 

And if you're ever able to bottle that relaxed power, count me in for a couple of cases.

[RoverRick]

What the hell? ;-p

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

 

Would I make that up?

[Firstkart]

Would I make that up?

 

Not that old chestnut.

 

AJ

[RoverRick]

No Dude, I know, that was directed at Dante. I love when a golf pro tries to sound like an engineer.

 

I've got Dante's book(I've had it for years, HaHa) but I gotta admit that I haven't read it yet. Is it worth reading?

 

Thanx much :-)

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

 

No. I answered this better in the Dramatic Improvement thread.

[Tyk]

Thanks R.P., I haven't been feeling much like a player lately!

 

However, I played 27 yesterday and I think I finally got things turned around. It was, of course, just a little thing that I wasn't doing right.

 

I played the first 9 horribly, didn't have a single par and tossed in a triple with my 8 other bogeys. Hit 2 acceptable full swing shots. The back nine was better, got several pars and had some birdie putts but mostly felt like I was just learning to manage a bad swing better. Finally on 14 I hit a good driver and actually thought I felt something! Hit a few more good shots finishing the 9 and then with my last long iron on 18 the missing piece fell into place.

 

It was my posture, or as we like to call it around here "ass and titties"! I just wasn't getting down into my setup at all, my spine angle was off and my shoulders weren't back. I was swinging but by body wasn't aligned so I was basically flailing around all over the place. Once I identified it and got down into "ready position" (ass out, chest out) viola! Suddenly the club hit the ball normally and was able to swing through freely with some speed! I was so excited I had to play a bit more. Went to the front again and shot 1 over with two birdies, including a beautiful 185 yard 5 iron over water and sand to a tucked pin to 8 feet for an eagle (oops, stupid putter!).

 

It always amazes me how I can forget little pieces of the basics from time to time. I'm considering getting a tattoo on my forearm that reads something like:

 

"grip-not too strong!

ass and titties!

straight wrist back!

Relax!

Rotate!"

 

Of course I'd get it done in fancy script so it wouldn't look weird.

[BK in TEXAS]

 

"grip-not too strong!

ass and titties!

straight wrist back!

Relax!

Rotate!"

 

Of course I'd get it done in fancy script so it wouldn't look weird.

Yep.....Gotta be fancy script

[finalist]

A friend of mine took Jujitsu (sic?) for several years. He talks punch and sword technique while I talk golf swing technique all the time. Usually I end up learning more.