Bobby Jones on How Your Form Affects Your Swing

Since this is Christmas week and most of us are too busy for long posts, I plan to post a quote each day from a famous player or teacher. When you have a moment, this bite-size chunk of instruction will give you something to think about.

Today it's from Bobby Jones.



From Bobby Jones on Golf, from an article called How Form Affects Swinging:

The man with a faulty swing ties himself up so that a smooth stroke becomes impossible. The expert swings smoothly because his successive positions are easy and comfortable, and are such that the movement from one to the other is not hampered by unwilling muscles. The average golfer does not swing smoothly because at some stage he creates a condition that makes it easier for him to move in the wrong direction than in the right one. [p14]

This is a different approach than most players take. We tend to think that it's hard to make a good swing because our natural movements are wrong. Jones says that "unwilling muscles" are the problem... and if a muscle is unwilling to move a certain way, that sounds more like an UNnatural movement, doesn't it?

In other words, Jones says we have trouble swinging because we try to move in a way that ISN'T natural for us.

If we're having a lot of trouble swinging well, perhaps we should reconsider the swing we're trying to make. Perhaps it isn't the swing best suited to our body!