The History of Connection. Why connection is not a method, but the master fundamental of all sports!
My teacher, Sam Byrd, was the first and only professional baseball player to have ever won a PGA Tournament. His understanding of connection transcended to golf. He always maintained the baseball swing and the golf swing were identical, except for the plane you swung them on.
Sam's roommate of many years with the New York Yankees was none other than the great Babe Ruth. Playing backup to the Babe was no easy feat and Sam learned everything he could. Ruth taught Sam to bat and his main exercise to practice his mechanics was to take a handkerchief and put it under his lead arm pit (for right handers your lead arm is your left). When you hold the handkerchief, it ties the arm and socket to your left shoulder, your left shoulder being your pec and lat muscles - the whole shoulder girdle.
The idea of connection in baseball was if you held the handkerchief, connecting your arm to the shoulder girdle, that made your left arm very soft and allowed you to release the bat on a flat level plane. If you dropped the handkerchief, you couldn't get the bat back square and would have to pull up and across the ball, delivering a glancing blow (i.e. a blocked shot). Babe was trying to explain to Sam, you can't hit with the little muscles and how important it is to keep your arm connected to your body and learn to use your shoulder. The little muscles choke, big muscles will react.
When Sam took up golf, the first ball he hit, he put a towel under his left arm, changing his plane from a flat one to a tilted one through the ball and CONNECTION WAS BORN! He adapted his baseball swing to his golf swing like hitting a low pitch and getting behind the ball with his arm and shoulder coiling, then an unwinding of the body to a straight balanced finish, releasing the entire right side to the target with the eyes watching the ball till its drop.
I have always said, the key to golf is to keep your left arm connected to the body, with your elbow pointing down throughout the swing. If your upper arm ever leaves the body, then you have disconnected or pulled your plug and you have no chance of returning square to the ball in any consistent manner.
All great ball strikers have their left arm connected to the body. Remember that the left arm is connected and the elbow ALWAYS points down, throughout the swing.
