Sliding the hips vs rotating them...?

-Bob

Hmmm... The only other obvious one I can think of is; over rotating on the backswing...? 

After cheating and looking at the members vault we also have;

Stopping your rotation on the downswing and not staying committed to the shot for fear of hitting it left...

-Bob

LOL gwlee7

Well if it's not about anything mechanical; postions, angles, etc..., it must be something mental. Not staying committed to the shot for fear of missing left is a mental issue and that wasn't it so I don't know. I'm not good at the mental stuff.  I don't put any effort into the mental game. After serving in the military, and then being a defense contractor for the past 20 years, spending a lot of time overseas to include Iraq and most of the rest of the middle east during time of war. I just don't feel very much pressure when playing golf. Sure, I have inner demons like anyone when something mechanical goes wrong that I don't know what it is or why but when my mechanics are even just OK, I can play good golf. Having said all of that, I don't play sanctioned competitive golf but if I didn't piss my pants when taking small arms fire while sitting backwards in a C-130 performing a combat landing, I think I'll be OK when I do start competing

I don't want to take anything away from Chuck's emphasis on the mental aspect of the game though, most of my buddies that I play with don't put playing golf in the proper perspective and I probably don't either but all I really care about at this stage of life as a golfer is that it's 95% fun and only 5% frustration.

Regards,

Bob

All of your answers have been "correct" so far. Fear of missing left is a good one when it comes to mental goofs, but the thing I was looking for here is TENSION. Tense muscles pull the physical structure (spine, joints, etc) out of alignment and absolutely wreck a golf swing. This tension can eminate from anywhere, from the hands to the feet, but either way it will do damage when the swing gets to the "point of no return." At that point, the chips are going to fall where they may and you have no ability to change it's course.

Ok, now for the bonus round, what is at the ROOT of this excessive bad tension - and a lot of bad golf in general for that matter? If anyone provides the one word answer I'm looking for, I'll give them an online lesson for FREE. Note I said "root", you have to dig very deep for this one, the answer is not on the surface but it is there. You'll have to do some soul searching for this one. I know many of you will be thinking "trust" or lack thereof, but that's not what I'm looking for.

-C

One word huh??  How about incompetence  ?

Actually, I'll try FEAR. 

Hey gwlee, I was going to say fear.   Fear is the root of all evil and breeds pressure and / or anger which breeds tension  Can we both go with fear or do I have to come up with something different?

-Bob

LOL gw,

Didn't mean to change the rules on ya, but knowledge without wisdom isn't of much value. BTW, it's not fear because fear is nothing more than a byproduct of this.

OK, so we have we not only have to have gnosis but epignosis. Fear is a byproduct... hmmm... The antithesis of fear is confidence so it can't be that as fear would be a byproduct of a lack of confidence and Chuck said one word... Hey, maybe I'm doing it right now, "analysing".

Could it be analysis?

And the explanation starts with a cliche, "Parallysis by analysis". When one over analyses one particular piece, topic, or subject they often miss the point all together such as when I over analysed the takeaway drill or most everything else I do for that matter

Hopefully,

Bob

Pride comes from arrogance but these are all just thoughts. So now we're down to the obvious;

Thinking. If you don't think, you can't over analyse, you can't be prideful, etc...

-Bob

damnit I was gonna say that

The egomaniac test:

http://www.queendom.com/tests/minitests/fx/egomania.html - http://www.queendom.com/tests/minitests/fx/egomania.html

The deifinition of Egomaniac from Answers.com:  A conceited, self-centered person

I Thought we were supposed to stay centered in the golf swing

All bad jokes aside: 

EGO:  In psychoanalysis, the division of the psyche that is conscious, most immediately controls thought and behavior, and is most in touch with external reality.  (From Answers.com)

Way to go Clubcaster!!! Hopefully Chuck will cure you of that alias once and for all

Regards,

Bob

 My answer is still "doubt"............but that is just me.

I play to scratch......but I hit my share of bad shots.......99% of the time it is because I am setting up to the ball "wondering" if I'm gonna pull off the shot......and that "doubt'' floods the body with tension and I usually lose sight of the objective (target) then I start to think of "angles" as I take the club away ect....ect......

thank goodness for a decent short game

Close enough, Club, I'll give it to ya! I'll expound a bit more for you. Let's work with some examples. How about the infamous first tee jitters.

Standing on the first tee with everyone watching, why do we struggle to hit a simple golf shot that we've done a million times when no one was watching? Why? Our ego of course. We get tense because we want to hit a good shot in front of everyone to either avoid looking stupid (which we end up doing anyway ) or in order to try and impress. Both of these reasons are to protect or boost our ego. What if we had no ego to protect or boost? We wouldn't care about the results of the shot and if we don't care about the result, why would we get tense over a shot?

Egolessness is an ultimate pursuit in not just golf, but man does it have a significant impact on your game. Our ego is what makes us start worrying about our scorecard or start trembling over a three foot putt. Our ego is what makes us pull out a 7 iron instead of the 6, the driver instead of laying back with the 2 iron or try to hit the driver a little harder at the last second. The ego is one of the biggest impedences to effortless golf and it is responsible for a multitude of golfing sins from tension to lack of trust to to fear. Fear is nothing more than a conscious warning signal that our ego is in danger of being damaged.

Good job Club and everyone else!

So what you are saying then is if I don't care (about the outcome of a shot),  then I won't be tense; and if I am not tense, I will maintain my spine angle because I won't be flinching, jerking, steering, manipulating, swatting, pulling, pushing, lifting, casting, dipping, and generally messing up because there is no flow in the swing.

Case in point for me would be how easy and effortless I played nine holes the other day with two guys I didn't know that well.  Whenever I am in a "new" group of golfers, I concentrate on being fun to play with more than anything else.  I will just walk up to my ball, give it a good look, think about where I want it to go and hit it there.  I hit 7 of 7 fairways, 6 of nine greens and made two birdies, two bogeys (lipped out the par putts), and 5 pars.  The ball was always going in the general direction that I wanted it to and the 36 could have just as easily been 34.

Today I played with my regular group and it is big group that ends up being your team against all the other teams.  Here lately I have been trying too hard because of the "ego" thing of wanting to look good, not messing  up etc.  I know that it has getting me overly tense.  I would be willing to bet that if I make being fun to play with the primarly focus here too that my scores will get back to where they have been. Losing myself in the fun of the game and the companionship of the great group of people I play with would help me be less tense.

So Chuck, tension is the killer of spine angle then.  Correct?

gw,

tension is a killer of spine angle, yes. I would just caution you making fun be your primary focus, but that is too much to try and explain here. I'm writing my articles and they are coming. The things that I'm writing about are the exact same things that I use in my own game and the same things I work with my students on. Paul is working with the "shift" now and is playing the best golf of his life by his own account.

 I for one.......have for some time now been trying yo play golf in a very "humble" state of mind.......

 that's probably not the word you are asking for

Grasssshopppperrr, you must free your mind of all impurity. It is the path to enlightenment that leads one to hit straight shots............

Alcohol relieves us of our inhibitions.

Like the T-shirt says, "Beer:  "Helping white boys dance since 1632!"

On the Dance floor we don't want to look stupid, so we are left with two options.

1. Don't dance.  (who wants to stand around and just watch)

2. remove the fear of looking stupid.  (this is where the alcohol comes in)

We have already learned that our fear is caused by our ego.  So it follows that our ego is the source of our inhibitions.  In the example above, if a person is a good dancer, he or she will not have inhiitions.  In golf too, the more confident you are in your ability, the fewer inhibitions you will have.

  I personally know no PGA tour golfers, but I have read that most are very egotistical people.  I think maybe their confidence has been  mistaken for ego.  I have also heard and read that the most important part of a pro's game is his or her confidence.  I am paraphrasing here, but Raymond Floyd once commented that he could miss ten three foot puts in a row, and still walk off the putting green believing he was a good putter.  How many of us could do that?  He went on to say that he would often lie to himself.  For instance he might have a hole that didn't set up well for his eye.  Instead of telling himself he hated the hole, he would lie to himself and say how much he liked the hole.

  I'm not sure if this is where Chuck is going--probably not--but the idea is to set up a reality (Fake or Real) in your mind that does not include your ego's fragile shortcomings.  Besides does anyone really think less of a person who can't break 100?  And if they do what does that say about that person?

Play Humble or be humbled!

 being serious.......I actually do know some golfers who "look down" on players of less calibur

most of em are guys with their name on their bag who play like they think they are on TV........

the kind I love to play against

old qoute........"pride goeth before destruction"