Timely Tips

Cause and Effect                                          by John Yacobellis

 

“Got a minute, pro?” came the voice from the head pro’s doorway.

“I always have time for you, Sam,” replied Dave.

How in the world did Sam Gardner get past the counter and back here?  I told the guys I had to finish this report today.  Ten to one, Clay left the pro shop.  Again.

“Have a seat.  Did you play today?”

“No, Dave.  I’m staying off the course for a while.”

“That doesn’t sound good?  What’s happening?”

“Well, when I retired last fall, I thought that I finally had the time to work on my game and get my handicap down to a single digit.  Instead my slice has me up to an eighteen.   What’s more, I’ve lost a lot of distance.  I’m so frustrated I’m thinking about quitting.”

“That‘s pretty radical, Sam.  Why don’t you just lay off for two or three weeks, and then quit?” 

Sam’s eyes widened.

“Just a lame old joke, Sam.  Sorry.  What all have you been trying?”

“With bad the weather this winter and the course closed so much, I decided to go to Tech-Golf.”

“Did they help?”

“Well, I got a lot of information and some neat videos of my swing, but somehow I just can’t do what they want me to.  Guess I’m just too old.”

“What did they do?”

“They put me in a harness with some electronic sensors and had me hit into a net.  That gave them some measurements.  Here’s the printout.”

“Let’s see.  At address your shoulders were 6 degrees closed to the ball-target line and your hips were 2 degrees closed.  At impact your shoulders were 10 degrees open and your hips 15 degrees open.  The club head path was 9 degrees closed and the club face was square.  The ball started left and sliced right.  What did they do about it?”

“They squared up my hips and shoulders.  It felt really uncomfortable.  A little bell rang if I started back without being square.  Then they showed me video of some touring pros, mainly Tiger Woods, Trevor Immelman, and Aaron Baddeley.  They pointed out their club path and their hand and hip action, and they said I had to swing more like them.  God knows I’ve tried, but I just can’t coil my shoulders or spin my hips that fast or use my hands like those guys.  The computer said I was still outside-in.”

I wonder what the computer said about your tight palm grip, and the fact that you try to scoop every iron shot?

“We use computerized video here, too, Sam, and some other tools, but they’re just that - tools.  They’re certainly not a panacea.  The video can reveal a lot about movements, and it’s very good with set up if the correct camera angles are used, but it doesn’t help much with grip and alignment.  And of course, it can’t tell you what the student is thinking or trying to do with the golf club or ball.  Sam, do you know what causes a slice?”

“That’s easy.  The club face is open at impact.”

“Open to what?”

“To the target line.”

“Really?  Your Tech-Golf printout said your face was square to the target line.  Look at the illustration.”

“You’re right, Dave.  But the path is left, so maybe it’s when the face is open to the club head path?”

“Correctomundo, Sam.  So it doesn’t have much to do with target line, does it?  If the path was on the target line and the face was open, you’d still have a slice, only the ball would start right of target and curve more right.  Your slice, according to Tech-Golf, starts slightly left and then curves right.  So the slice action of the ball is an effect of the face being open to the path, regardless of where the path is directed.  Now what causes that?”

“In my case, being over the top or swinging outside in, from right to left.”

“Is that a cause or an effect?”

“A cause?”

“You think so?  Could it possibly be an effect of something else?”

“I don’t know.  I never thought about it that way.  All they told me was to stop doing it and turn my core faster like Tiger or V.J. or Mickelson .”

“Think of it in terms of a shot in pool, Sam.  Forget about the pool cue or the shooter.  If the cue ball knocks the eight ball in, let’s call the cue ball the cause and the movement of the eight ball the effect. Now if we have a five-eight combination shot, the cue ball hits the five-ball and the five-ball hits the eight into the pocket.  The cue ball is still the primary cause and pocketing the eight-ball is still the ultimate effect, but the five-ball is what’s called an intermediate cause.  It is both a cause and an effect at the same time.”

“Maybe I should take up pool, Dave,” he joked.  “Are you saying that coming over the top is an intermediate cause and there is something else causing it?”

“You bet.  Your slice is the ultimate effect.  The open face is an intermediate cause.  So are the outside-in path and the over-the-top move.  Now let’s track those effects back through your swing to get to the primary cause or causes.   There are some clues on the Tech-Golf printout.”

“I thought it was odd that my shoulders were closed at address but way open at impact.  I feel really tight and powerless at impact, like being jammed by a fastball on the fists in baseball.  Could that have anything to do with it?” 

“Did they check your alignment?”

“Not really.”

“Tell me, Sam.  If you were inadvertently aimed fifteen yards right on a hundred-fifty yard shot, and your body moved in that direction, but your eyes and hands instinctively worked toward the target, what kind of swing would you have?”

Sam stood up, set up to a phantom ball with a phantom club, and took a slow- motion phantom swing.  His hands moved toward the center of Dave’s window while his body moved right, toward the wall.

“That would certainly be outside-in.”

“So, alignment could be a cause.

“All they told me was to aim at the target in the net.  The system is calibrated on a target line from the ball on the mat to the bull’s eye on the net.”

“Did they ask whether you played a draw or a fade, or did they just assume you were trying to hit every shot straight.”

“Straight.”

“So theoretically it is possible that you were aiming right and trying to draw the ball back to straight to pick up a few extra yards, but it didn’t show up on the Tech-Golf printout.  Right?”

“Well, that‘s how I learned as a kid, Dave.”

“My point is that body alignment, which affects movements, depends on the intended shape of the shot, and that has to be taken into consideration.  What about ball position?”

“It never was an issue, but I feel like I’ve been lunging, so it may be too far forward.”

“If that’s the case, then there are at least two possibilities connected with it.  The forward ball position could make you lean too far left at address, especially with the longer clubs, and at impact you could be too far onto your left side, in front of where you should be at impact.  Or your movements and swing shape could be good, but by the time the club reaches the ball, the club head path is moving left, coming back to the inside from the target line, so the face would be open to the path.  So ball position, which is part of set up, could contribute to your slice.  What about your grip and grip pressure?”

“Not much.  They said I might try to interlock like Tiger and Jack.”

Perfect.  I guess it’s more exciting to jump right into the movements and effects with just a cursory nod to the main causes.  Grip, alignment, and set up are so-o-o boring.  And you don’t need modern technology to teach them. 

“Look, Sam.  We’re not going to cure your slice sitting here.  My main point is that the golf swing is all cause and effect.  And no matter what approach or method you use, you have to address the primary causes of grip, alignment, set up, body positions, and body movements, and in that order.  In your case, I would take a hard look at the static causes - grip, alignment, and set up.  Those three combined determine where and how you can move.  Furthermore, they interact.  A grip that is too “strong,” that is, turned too far to your right, can cause you to align yourself in a closed position, aimed to the right of your intended line.  And the closed stance can cause a ball position that is too far forward.  Put them together and you have a right-to-left swing.

“Hogan said the swing is like a western movie.  If you set it up so that the good guys win, the bad guys can’t take over.

“If you had pneumonia, it wouldn’t do any good to treat the symptoms - the fever, the cough, the lack of energy.  You would have to cure the source of the infection in the lungs.  The golf swing is the same. 

“We have to keep working back from effects to causes.  We’ll never solve your problem by trying to change effects like manipulating the club path during the forward swing or trying to imitate Tiger or Nicklaus.  Let’s set up a session for day after tomorrow to check out the basic causes in your swing.  Change them and you’ll change the effect, which is your slice.”

“You’ve got a deal, pro.  See you then.  In the meantime, I‘m heading for the pool table in the locker room.”