narrominded
Happy Holidays from the Narros. Amber and I wish you and your
family all the happiness during this
festive time of year. We both are
very grateful that our magazine has
received such great support from
our readers and look forward to
continuing for many years to come.
We are very proud to do our small
part in promoting the great game
of golf in the Gulf States and appreciate the positive feedback we’ve
gotten.
Now that I am done slobbering
over myself, let’s talk about getting
better this winter. I’ve always tried
to use December-February to improve my game in one way or another. Whether it’s my short game
or making an adjustment to my
full-swing technique, I feel this time
of year is perfect to make improvements. I’d like to share with you
what I’ll be working on this winter so I’ll be ready to go when the
spring comes around.
As I assess my play in 2016, I
feel as if I make some nice improvements with not the best results.
What I mean by this is my back
felt great all year, and I got a bit of
speed back in my swing. I’ve been
doing planks religiously now for the
past three years, and it’s has paid off
big time. However, my play has not
lived up to my expectations, which
has been a bit disappointing. The
strange thing is I’ve played well but
seem to hit the wrong shot at the
wrong time, which in tournament
golf is a big no-no. So here is my
plan.
In my full swing, I need to tighten up my backswing by making it
a bit shorter. Sometimes with my
driver, I can see the head of the
club out of the corner of my eye at
the top of my swing. Imagine seeing a swing on a frame-by-frame
video. I want to eliminate the last
couple of frames before I start my
downswing.
There are a few reasons I want
to work on this part of my swing.
First off, when I over swing, my
weight transfer gets out of whack.
I’ll have too much weight on my left
side at the top of my swing which
leads to transferring it to my back
foot on the downswing. This leads
to mishits and gets my hands too involved in my swing.
I can get away with this flaw
when my timing is on, but it’s hard
to rely on when the heat is on. Another benefit from this improvement
would be accuracy and power. Even
though it feels less powerful to me,
a slightly shorter backswing is actually more powerful. The reason it’s
more powerful is it stores my speed
more efficiently for when it counts
most, at and through impact.
I’ll use a baseball analogy. Remember playing little league and
trying to hit a homerun? Generally didn’t work out very well, did it?
On the same hand remember choking up and just trying to make contact? That’s when the ball seemed
to jump off the bat the best.
I want that feeling in my golf
swing. Lastly, a shorter backswing
will also lessen the chance of the big
offline miss that results in a lost ball
or such. Like I mentioned earlier,
the wrong shot at the wrong time.
Short game also needs work. My
putting was good this year. Maybe
I missed a few here or there, but
overall, it was good. Doing a bunch
of drills to maintain the feel will do
fine. My bunker play is not terrible,
but it’s close. I need to spend a lot
of time in a bunker to regain some
confidence that I’ve lost.
My chipping is good but a bit
inconsistent. I hit it solid but sometimes struggle with distance control.
Once again, drills and practice time
should sharpen up this part of my
game. I really enjoy practicing my
chipping and pitching, which can
turn a bad round into a good one
and a good one into a great one.
Finally, I truly feel the golf gods
give good breaks to the ones who
practice when it’s cold and wet.
Let’s face it, it’s not that much
fun practicing pitch shots on soft,
mushy turf. Then add 50-degree
weather and a brisk north wind and
now we’re really grinding. If you
can hit a solid 7-iron when your
hands are freezing and the turf isn’t
perfect, you will be smoking it when
the good weather comes back. Take
the opportunity to get a little better while your buddies take some
time off over the winter. You will all
be pleasantly surprised next spring
when the golf season officially kicks
off.
Jake
Jake Narro, PGA professional, head golf coach at
Southeastern Louisiana University and Backspin
publisher
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