Professor Yeti

This month we’ll look at golf. The following is from an article in which golfer Ernie Els describes how he recovered from a severe knee injury and made it back to the professional tour.

By the time the World Match Play Championship came to Wentworth in September, I was able to walk around the course, watch some of the golf and practice chipping and putting. Soon after that, I graduated to the drill you see here. Sophie gave me two rubber balance disks to stand on while I hit pitch shots. The disks make you pay close attention to where your weight is at address and how it moves through the swing. Because the disks are unstable, you have to use the small muscles in your legs, back and stomach to stay balanced. It’s a great workout, and it also makes you feel very solid over your feet when you get back on the grass. The disks worked so well that I’m taking them with me when I travel this year. . . .

Once I was hitting balls again, I spent a lot of time on the phone with David Leadbetter, talking about what I needed to do to get my swing back in shape. My biggest issues were with my posture — which had gotten slumped — and my takeaway. I was getting too active with my hands and whipping the club inside at the start of my backswing, which put me in a too-upright position at the top. From there, I almost couldn’t help but swing a little bit over the top — and my divots went straight left. For my posture, I straightened my spine and pulled my shoulders back at address. On the takeaway, I want the club to feel light and in line with my left arm. Once I did that, all my power came back immediately. It was quite a relief to be able to hit the same shots I always have.

Source: Golf Digest

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 11:55 pm and is filed under Biweekly Jargon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.