How do you get feel from Mechanics?

You observe yourself, or have someone helping to observe you, doing a planned specific set of motions. When you can do the motions by thinking about them, you can also perceive how the process feels.

And how do you feel them. ie what with?

I could be waay off here, but I find feel comes from your minds eye, or what you think you are doing that your eyes cannot see. Thats why I find it is easier to establish feel with my eyes closed. Its kinda like linking up the the sensations in the muscles moving with a visual image you have of the action in your head. Although perhaps from mechanics it involves a comprehensive knowledge of the set of skills you re looking to acquire. You need to know the sensations that you need to feel (as you would have practiced the mechanics many times before) and then you can pair them up with the images in your head.

you could always just ask them nicely….but make sure they wash their hands after tinkering with your car :)

Someone will come up with the answer today:)

Feel from mechanics…nice topic.

Feel is a very difficult thing to explain at times, and feel relies a lot on past experiences. Someone with a takeaway that is massively inside and off plane when shown an on plane take-away will feel as though they are going outside the line. That is where Laney is correct to learn the feel you need some guidance, another pair of eyes, a mirror, a video camera, anything so that you can correlate what you feel to what is real.

Almost anybody who has taped their swing will look at it the first time and shake their heads ‘I don’t do THAT do I?’ This is because feel when not monitored and trained can be our enemy.

So how do we feel…with the nerves in our body. What are we really looking to feel? The correct motion of the swing to put the club on plane with a controlled clubface. What dictates that…the hands.

So our hands become the guiding light for our swing…they need to do less than most people make them do, and the hands themselves are just clamps with inbuilt pressure sensors. The pressure points of the hands can tell us a lot, if we listen.

Ah grasshopper has made a good reply:)

My question is, how does the average golfer put feel into their game. Learning mechanics is great but what is feel? Golf is all about putting the ball in the hole in the least amount of shots? My answer to “feel” is being in the moment and knowing what you can do and knowing what you cannot do depending on what is presented to you. No matter how good or bad or average one may be with golf, just think…......

Real feel is what mechanics do loading clubs during swings. You can sense those feelings and learn from them. Pressure in you hands and body changes with different motions and so can be learned via whatever those feelings are.

Those feelings for say ‘having touch’ around a green come from learned skills and knowing just how much pressure to play with shot by shot.

Being in the moment is a huge part of the mental game. Its different from ‘feel’ though. Being in the moment is about letting the right side of your brain just do it without the word processor left brain getting in the way yelling control instructions.

If anyone wants to listen to PP#3 in the hands – try swinging their club with the bottom hand setup with right forefinger and thumb sticking out straight off the club (much like you’re making a hand gun with your right hand) – swing the club back and from the top you should feel pressure on the base joint of your forefinger, keep this feel of pressure right through the swing – then you are feeling the lag baby – but feel that pressure all the way to swing completion and don’t throw it away early… Can be done while hitting balls too.. (think thats right Guru – its your drill! I’ll let you fix it up, if I stuffed it)
And ya’ll thought there was enough ‘pressure’ in golf already..

And how do you feel them. ie what with?

Eyes on the ball and your mind in your hands.

Educate those hands.

People ask why I teach putting, chipping, pitching, ie up the power chain. It is because you can feel and see what’s going on in small work zones and become very very aware of pressure and stretch changes in all sorts of parts of your body. One aware you can use that awareness towards reproducing the mechanics of each stroke.

Short shots allows ‘look look look’ as well a ‘feel feel feel’ and put them to work together. Add there too listen listen listen as you can hear the difference in compression as well as feel it.

So we educate eyes, mind, body and arms/hands ( as they hold and control the stick) to work as one.

Hmmm…to get the right “feel” I believe you need to have the right mechanics. Something easier said than done.

Someone might tell you to focus on the “feel” of the loading on PP#3, but unless you are actually loading PP#3 (you might THINK you are), the “feel” will be fleeting or non-existent.

So, learn to execute the mechanics properly and the feel should follow.

Sure is easier said than done but any other way becomes a total guess and reason why most learning does not stick as it is fleeting.

How often is it heard by a coach “boy this feels weird, but it works.” That is because the mechanics are so different.

No one has mentioned the most important feel organ: the brain. The brain sees the shot and decides how to hit it; the hands carry out the instructions sent to them. The hands do relay information back to the brain. This is of most value during practice swings and allows the feel of the shot to be refined. “Mind in the hands” – not really. The hands don’t visualize or create, they carry out instructions.

Yes and that is why we call them Educated Hands:)

Hi Nidan, when we talk about mind in your hands really, all we are saying is feel your hands, at all times feel where your hands are, know what they are doing. By saying your mind is in your hands, people start putting their attention on their hands and start feeling where they are. After a while you can sense where you hands are right through your entire swing. You can sense when your hands are in the correct position at impact. Your left hand if flat and square at impact which you can feel. Or if the ball goes left,the left hand is flat and slightly closed. Ball goes right , flat left wrist,the hand hasn’t rolled enough back to square. This what we call club head control.

If anyone wants to listen to PP#3 in the hands – try swinging their club with the bottom hand setup with right forefinger and thumb sticking out straight off the club (much like you’re making a hand gun with your right hand) – swing the club back and from the top you should feel pressure on the base joint of your forefinger, keep this feel of pressure right through the swing – then you are feeling the lag baby – but feel that pressure all the way to swing completion and don’t throw it away early… Can be done while hitting balls too.. (think thats right Guru – its your drill! I’ll let you fix it up, if I stuffed it)
And ya’ll thought there was enough ‘pressure’ in golf already..

I have a question that has bothered me for a long time. If you are a swinger and you turn (rotate) your hands on the backswing, how do you feel pressure on pp3 until you roll the club on the downswing. With a sequenced release, wouldn’t the pressure only be felt towards the bottom of the swing (again, in relation to pp3)?

Thank you

You will feel the lag on the right index finger pressure point from the moment that you start down as the hands start moving in the opposite direction form the clubhead at that instant of time. From the top all the way down and out – unless you bust the FLW.

Anyone wish to take a crack at the turn of phrase of “rotated lag pressure point for a swinger” and what it means? And how it differs for a hitter?

You will feel the lag on the right index finger pressure point from the moment that you start down as the hands start moving in the opposite direction form the clubhead at that instant of time. From the top all the way down and out – unless you bust the FLW.

Anyone wish to take a crack at the turn of phrase of “rotated lag pressure point for a swinger” and what it means? And how it differs for a hitter?

I am not trying to be argumentative at all, 100% trying to learn so please take my questions with this attitude. If your pp3 is at the side of the shaft and your move is longitudinal, at the most would you not feel just a small amount of friction between the shaft and pp3 until you roll?

My questions come from this is what I feel, not what I think should happen. So if I learn, my swing will improve.

Hacking dog

The PP3 point is actually underneath the shaft at the end-backswing position – when the right hand is fully back-hinged and the right hand is held like a waiter holding up a tray of dishes. The PP3 point only becomes behind the shaft after the clubshaft passes the delivery position and the right wrist has already started unhinging. So, during the early-mid downswing, one should be able to sense a “feling” of constant pressure at the PP3 point. However, i don’t personally believe that one needs to sense a “feeling” of pressure at PP3 to have a perfect clubshaft swingarc during the downswing. One only needs to learn how to pivot the body properly so that the clubshaft moves through a series of “correct” positions.

At the end of the early downswing (when the left arm is parallel to the ground), the butt end of the clubshaft should point at the ball-target line. Then the clubshaft should move through three other checkpoints.

This next photo shows the first two checkpoints.

Downswing checkpoints

The first image shows the butt end of the clubshaft pointing at the ball-target line. The next image shows the first checkpoint – the clubshaft should intersect the mid-lower right biceps a fraction-of-a-second later. The second checkpoint is shown in the third image – the clubshaft is along the right forearm.

The third checkpoint is shown in this next photo.

Checkpoints

In this photo of Adam Scott – you can seen his clubshaft successfully passing through the “correct” checkpoints.

Position 3 – shows the butt end of the club pointing at the ball-target line and the clubshaft interesects the low right biceps. Position 4 shows the clubshaft in line with his right forearm. Position 5 shows the clubshaft at the delivery position in a perfect position – along the toe line but parallel to both the ground and the ball-target line.

If a golfer can get his clubshaft to pass through all those “correct” positions, then he doesn’t have to “feel” a sense of pressure at PP3 to hit the ball straight. A sense of pressure at PP3 does help one monitor lag. However, lag is maintained by a fast downswing pivot action that gets the hands down to the impact position very fast and very smoothly – whether one senses presuure at the PP3 point, or not.

Jeff.

If you are on plane at the end of your backswing, you have rotated (maybe fanned) the club 90 degrees, or close, open and your left hand (with flw) is laying on top of the plane then your right hand is laying on the bottom of the plane. If the force from your pivot is longitudinal down towards the plane line, then until you roll how can you have pressure on pp3? Isn’t the pressure on pp1 and 2 until the roll? Again, I am just trying to learn and improve my golf game and this is a point that I have never understood or felt as others have described. I also can’t understand it from a intellectual level. Thanks for your understanding and willingness to help.

Hacking dog

I will let others describe the ‘feeling” of pressure at PP3 throughout the downswing. However, I do think that the PP3 point is mainly underneath the clubshaft during the early-mid dowswing, and behind the clubshaft as the right wrist unhinges during the late downswing (after the clubshaft passes beyond the delivery position).

Jeff.

Hi Nidan, when we talk about mind in your hands really, all we are saying is feel your hands, at all times feel where your hands are, know what they are doing. By saying your mind is in your hands, people start putting their attention on their hands and start feeling where they are. After a while you can sense where you hands are right through your entire swing. You can sense when your hands are in the correct position at impact. Your left hand if flat and square at impact which you can feel. Or if the ball goes left,the left hand is flat and slightly closed. Ball goes right , flat left wrist,the hand hasn’t rolled enough back to square. This what we call club head control.

BiO,

Nice explanation.

Maybe it’s just semantics, but I personally associate ‘mind in the hands’ with a beginner’s level. When someone is first learning a complicated task (tieing shoes, playing an instrument), their mind, by necessity, is in their hands. The resulting movements are mechanical and forced. Once the task is learned, however, the mind can leave the hands and movements become smooth and automatic. In the golf swing, subconsciously aware of what the hands are feeling/doing has to be a higher level than consciously monitoring those feelings/doings.

Nidan