I never took alot of golf lessons, at least not consistently, or with a regular instructor. My Father introduced me to golf well before high school and provided a place for me to play and practice while growing up. He did a good job with my fundamentals and making sure I always had fun. Beyond that, his advice was simple. Go practice and you will get better. Admittedly, he never gave me formal instruction because he didn't know swing mechanics. Looking back now, that might have been the best thing that could have happened at that point in my golfing career. Bad advice is worse than no advice, when teaching a junior golfer developing his or her game. So I just played and practiced alot until I was better than my dad and most of my peers.

I had some success at the high school level and in college. This success was streaky, and my low scores were more a product of smart play and good short game rather than consistent ball striking. At the end of my college career I decided to dedicate my time and energy in finding a solution to my errant shots and understanding how the golf swing operates inside and out. I did the most logical thing I knew and started reading every piece of golf literature I could get my hands on. Starting with the top teachers and top players, I collected and read over forty (40) instructional books. Most were long descriptions of feel and vague tips to try and overcome personal tendencies of whoever wrote the book. Not very helpful, but educational, at least from a historical perspective. I then decided to turn to science instead of human perspective for my answers. That journey lasted just as long as the first. My time was consumed at the library, book stores, and on the internet, researching Newton's Laws of Motion, the governing principles of double-focal pendulums, and the physics behind rotational inertia.

Once again, I was not satisfied and still needed real cause and effect answers specific to the golf swing. So I watched golf swings, alot. Slow motion video of the world's greatest ball strikers replaced my now huge library of golf and science literature. And man did I ever watch golf swings. On a computer with V1 swing analysis software and a VCR of great players hitting balls became an obsession. The only consistent thing between all these great players is that they didn't fall down. Everyone was different. For every player who swung up, there were two who swung around. I needed a way to eliminate human free will and find the most efficient, effective way to apply a club to a ball no matter who, or what was swinging it. So, I asked myself if I engineered a machine to hit a ball straight every time, what would it look like and would it be possible to replicate that design in the human form? That question led me to The Golfing Machine authored by Homer Kelley. What a long, but worthwhile journey it was to finally find a scientific approach to golf swing mechanics. Even if I stumbled upon this piece of golf genius earlier in my search, I probably wouldn't have understood how important it would be to answering my questions about circles, planes, lever assemblies, motion that accumulates power, and all other scientific descriptions and definitions that organize a procedure to get from point A to point B.

So, how should you swing a club? Well, it's a little bit complicated at first but with a good teacher, some lasting thoughts, a proper picture of what is going to happen, and practice time, a golfer should be able to learn how to properly strike a ball. I am confident that that anyone committed enough to put in some brain power and physical effort can improve tremendously. Even if a mistake is made, the cause is absolutely describable. And besides, we are not machines, just humans trying to emulate one of the same form. So human error is acceptable now because it's not what a golfer does that matters, it's what he tries to do that really counts. If a golfer consistently tries to do the right things, he will eventually obtain them, and in turn, obtain an improved game.

Contact Scott:

balancedfinish@yahoo.com

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