Kinesthetic Awareness of the Swing

Video Transcript

The legendary Sam Snead tough me this about the game. There are three clubs that outweigh in importance all the other club in your bag: 1) The driver, because it sets up what you are going to do on a hole; 2) The putter, because it is a scoring club; and 3) The wedges. The wedges I think are the least appreciated clubs in the bag and they have the most potential for scoring. Sam also helped me to understand how he got to be the world’s greatest wedge player. Many people, his contemporaries and even modern players marvel at the way he hit wedges. The key was to develop a kinesthetic awareness of the distance of the shot; that is the feel or the weight of the swing. So what Sam would do was go on the practice tee and hit wedges with his eyes closed or perhaps even with his shoes off. Then he could feel the body rotation and he could feel the length of the swing and all the other cues as to how far the ball might go. He located the target, decided that the swing he was going to make was an 82-yard swing and he hit it. He would practice with hundreds of balls each day these wedge type swings. So I think the fastest way to improve is through the wedges and through Sam’s kinesthetic tricks. Just try to feel the weight of the swing, hits shots just sensing and looking at how far the balls goes with every different style and speed of swing. You can really cut some strokes off with good wedge play.

Dr. Fran Pirozzolo
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza
Houston, TX 77030

Fran Pirozzolo is the mental coach to many PGA Tour Pros and is a performance coach for the New York Yankees. He is also the author of The Putter's Pocket Companion.

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