I have managed to be the longest or 2nd longest driver in my group these last couple days, and in the middle of the fairway, Despite not knowing the course I played and hitting some terrible chips and putts, I was 10 over!

In TGM terms I used a swinging motion with medium Extensor Action. Hula, Slow Pivot back and hands to shoulder level holding the Lag in # 3 PP. Step and then extend the right arm straight down, keeping the right hand and Lag facing the plane as long as possible.

Thanks for the good teaching.

ICT

The difference comes from the way you “see” things.

From the top, the Hitter “sees” a direct line going from the top to his aiming point (let’s say the ball to simplify) and intends to direct his thrust down that line.
On the other hand, the swinger thinks in terms of “whirling” the clubhead into orbit and “sees” curves instead of line.

The blur of the clubhead passing over/through the ball in a curved path (in to out for instance) is what you see in your mind when you swing.

As a drawing is often worth a thousand words, take a look at this image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/golflagtips/3477469577/

The hitter will only have the blue to red arrow in his mind – a line.
The swinger will only have the yellow curve in his mind and will imagine the clubhead travelling (in a blur!) over the ball to low point.

Could you explain the use of the visual equivalent for a swinger, 2-J-3-A per The Golfing Machine? It talks about the blur of the clubhead but I don’t understand this at all. The equivalents for a “hitter” are very straight forward but this is alluding me.

Can you shed some light?

If you turn your hips “furiously” to initiate the downswing they’ll in sequence furiously turn the shoulders and put you at great risk of doing the dreaded OTT (Other The Top) – fore right!

The proper sequence is to perform a Hip Slide FIRST then you are free to turn your hips as “furiously” as you want.

The Hip Slide is often referred as “clearing the hips” in magazine (They claim that it gives room for the hands to come from the inside without colliding with the hips – and is a “pro” move…!)

The precise reason is as follows:
1) Do a Hip Slide toward the target WITHOUT moving the head – no sway/bob (practice the move in front of a mirror to check that).
2) Sliding the hips toward the target will lower you right shoulder and put it back ON PLANE.
3) Well, from there you are on PLANE – you’re safe! Be aggressive with your PP#3 and drag/drive a heavy Lag/pressure to the ball.

“Or are you just pushing off with your right instep and the hip turn is just a reaction due to your hands keeping PP#3?”

This is a very interesting question…
Incubate this: when you try to throw a stone with your hand, do you consciously think of spinning your hips to throw it hard?
Or is it the natural byproduct of your intent to throw it far with your “mind in your hand”?

Hint: Drag the Wet Mop ( http://www.golflagtips.com/drag-the-wet-mop/ ). Max out pressure in PP#3 (press your clubhead against a heavy tire) and check how your hips naturally move to comply.

Result: The more you increase PP#3, the more your hips strongly rotate to provide support (Body Power – PP#4 – where your left arm hugs your chest).

This said, the source of power in the Swing is centrifugal force.
So the goal is to generate it on plane and let it go – and I explained how to do it in this post

Or are you just pushing off with your right instep and the hip turn is just a reaction due to your hands keeping PP#3?

I mainly just dont understand what is the source of power in a swing and I think I’ve been under a false pretense that it is the hip just turning furiously that creates power.

You’ve talked about trying to hammer the club into the ground outside your right foot. If you perform that action/feeling trying to hit balls, how do you make this happen on the inclined plane without digging the club into the ground way behind the ball?

Well, this is only the geometry of the circle!
http://www.golflagtips.com/hit-down-on-the-golf-ball-dammit/

Pure geometry: if your clubhead is travelling in a circular motion on an inclined plane with a radius center at your left shoulder and the ball between your feet AND YOU REALLY GO TO LOW POINT, it is IMPOSSIBLE to hit the ground BEFORE the ball no matter how hard you try!!!

Again, “trying to hammer the club into the ground outside your right foot” is a good drill/feel. But at the end of the day, the clubshaft still lays full length on the inclined plane!

There is very often a huge difference in what you think you’re doing and what is really happening.

Also, how do you control shots fade/draw? I’ve been taught that the initial path of the ball is controlled by the direction of the swing plane and the open/closed club face controls the spin or fade/draw.

Shot making is only done by opening or closing the clubface, aligning your body accordingly and swing on your newly oriented swing plane. Just forget that your clubFACE is shut/open, forget that your body is closed/open and perform your normal swing!

A very common knowledge in Golf is to think that the ball will start along your swing path and finish where your clubface is aiming. This is in fact the opposite that is happening: the ball ALWAYS leaves the clubface at right angles!!!

But this is a huge topic on its own that must deserve a full length post!

Indeed, Hitting and Swinging are mutually exclusive. If you try to overpower centrifugal force with muscular thrust you end up with timing issues.

It could be done but it’s very tricky with little benefit:
It would be like spinning a bicycle wheel by pulling the rim and then push the spoke… pretty tough to time uh?

You are right: In Hitting, straightening the right elbow is very active and done radially while in swinging it’s more passive and goes along with centrifugal force.

In swinging it’s straightening of the right elbow right and not by muscular effort thrusting that right arm?

I suspect your erratic shots are caused by your right arm straightening too soon.
This facilitates a straightening of the RIGHT wrist right at the ball which in turn causes consistency problems.
You can go away with that with the other sticks because the ball is not at low point and you still have a bit of right arm left but the driver won’t let you go away like that!

Ideally, you should make sure that your right arm is still bent at impact with the driver, but you already know that and may have trouble doing it.

There is another solution : you must focus very hard to keep your right wrist bend (the more the better!) while straightening your right arm: I repeat – learn to straighten your right arm without bending your right wrist!

This is not a natural move and you could Feel that your clubface is way too delofted and that the ball won’t be able to lift off – but this is the right way and you’ll look right on video!!!