‘Humming Your Swing’
One of the biggest causes of bad golf shots is over-tightening of the muscles. I suppose that strictly speaking the use of the word over-tightening when referring to individual muscles is incorrect as they can’t be over or under contracted as they are either flexed or relaxed. However the term over-tightening is a good way to explain the problem and more simply put is probably the contracting and use of too many muscles to undertake the task at hand. Probably the best example of this is the dreaded YIPS when it feels as though every muscle in your hands, arms and shoulders are working against each other at the same time. With reference to the golf swing, over-tightening of different parts of the body at different times causes different kinds of errors and problems. When you read stuff like this it really makes you wonder how we hit the ball at all don’t it! Remember that we do this to ourselves for fun! Now you are not unique here because according to sports psychologist Tim Galloway, to tighten is a natural instinct for humans when faced with danger, doubt or the unknown. Ok then, just how do we reduce the impact or identify the presence of over-tightening on our golf swing and us? There are a number of different methods but the one that will explain will give you the most fun and pleasure when practising or playing, although you may get some funny looks! The next time you visit the practise area i want you to try ‘humming’ throughout your golf swing. Just take a few practise swings and’ listen to the humming’. Even those of you who don’t think they have an over-tightening problem will note a change of pitch of sound throughout their swing. You will note that at first the sound is smooth but during the change of swing direction and at the point of impact the sound becomes ‘strained’ .Particularly at the point of contact with the ball you will note the high pitch of the sound and can almost feel the tightening taking place and you may even notice that just after impact the humming sounds stops completely. Now that you understand what is happening to your body just what do you do now? Very simply you continue swinging and humming and use the humming as BIOFEEDBACK for increased and improved control. Not more jargon! No, just accept that at a subconscious level your body will start to relate the sound of humming to body tightness and make changes accordingly. Don’t try to swing deliberately slower because there is a danger that your swing will become loose and lacking power, simply swing and hum until you feel less strain in your humming. This whole process has little to do with sound but more to do with awareness within yourself of how your body works throughout the golf swing and how better to control it at times of maximum stress and pressure.