| All crack players feel that they swing from | | | | that "you came down outside" is their tutor's |
| in-to-out when driving. | | | | most frequent admonition. And why do I say, |
| | | | "who is not a pupil of mine?" Well because I |
| I have been doing this so long that it no | | | | never just tell them that! It is quite |
| longer feels a "guided" or unnatural swing to | | | | useless to tell a pupil he has done wrong |
| me. | | | | when acting instinctively unless you tell him |
| | | | why he did wrong and so enable him to avoid |
| Indeed if I feel myself making any other sort | | | | the fault in future. That I always do. |
| of swing I know it will result in a bad shot. | | | | |
| | | | The player who comes down outside is almost |
| Yet with the beginner this in-to-out swing | | | | invariably thinking of where he wants to put |
| does feel unnatural and gives an impression | | | | the ball, and the only effective way of |
| that the ball will be pushed into the rough | | | | overcoming his trouble is by getting him to |
| to the right. This feeling will of course be | | | | concentrate on the swing that experience |
| corrected by experience. | | | | tells him will place it there. If this is |
| | | | done his conscious control-his feeling for |
| This disparity in feeling about shots as | | | | the right movements, plus a steady intention |
| between the crack and the beginner must never | | | | to follow will inhibit his natural desire to |
| be lost sight of in teaching. | | | | take disastrous short cuts. |
| | | | |
| Here we come back again to my reason for | | | | So it is best to build up a swing which can |
| standardizing as many shots as possible so | | | | be accepted by the mind as well as the |
| that they can all be played with the same set | | | | muscles as a satisfactory means to the end |
| of "controls." Only so I believe can you | | | | desired, and then concentrating on the |
| learn to play entirely by sense of feel. | | | | production of that swing. With a properly |
| | | | felt swing, the swing becomes the aim and the |
| Today, if I play a bad shot I do not start | | | | matter of where the ball will fly is left (as |
| asking myself why I played it badly, what I | | | | it should be) to take care of itself. |
| did wrong, etc. questions which are liable to | | | | |
| lead to more bad shots as we all know! I just | | | | And finally, the good golfer feels his swing |
| take an easy club and try it until I get the | | | | as all one piece. It is produced by a |
| right feel again. | | | | psycho-physical unison and its control is |
| | | | outside the mind of the player. Any control |
| Then because my shots are felt I know that | | | | that is within the mind is subject to the |
| the right feeling must lead to the right | | | | state of the mind and is therefore |
| shot-and further, that as all my shots are | | | | unreliable. |
| made fundamentally the same, I know that if I | | | | |
| get the right feel with say a No. 5 iron, a | | | | Every teacher has to keep continually in mind |
| very easy club, I shall be making my shots | | | | the fact that the natural thing for any |
| with even the difficult clubs correctly and | | | | golfer to do if he thinks first of hitting |
| with confidence. | | | | the ball to the hole rather than of making |
| | | | the shot correctly-is to swing the club head |
| What usually happens is that before the back | | | | down the desired line of flight. The urge to |
| swing is completed, the player transfers his | | | | do this is so strong that a merely academic |
| attention from the matter of making the | | | | knowledge of where the club head ought to be |
| correct swing to the matter of where he wants | | | | felt to go cannot stand against it. William |
| to hit the ball, i.e., somewhere at the top | | | | James said that where there is a conflict |
| of his swing he switches from a correct | | | | between the Will and the Imagination, the |
| in-to-out swing to one along the desired line | | | | Imagination always wins. So no Will to make a |
| of flight. Consequently he comes down outside | | | | correct swing-unless reinforced by our |
| the ball. | | | | conscious control-can resist, when |
| | | | imagination of the ball flying straight for |
| Anyone who is not a pupil of mine will admit | | | | the hole supervenes. |