The End of the FBR Open, The Start of the AT&T Pro-am, and Your Golf Swing

What a weekend at the FBR Open! I am not quite sure if the FBR Open is a party with a golf tournament or a golf tournament with a party? All I know is my buddies who came out to the tournament have booked their hotel rooms for next year.

Off to Pebble Beach and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Movie stars, titans of business, and professional athletes tee it with the pros from the PGA Tour. I will say this week allows you to see just a little difference between the swings of the pros and the amateurs (maybe more than just a little bit).

You can notice a difference in their approaches to the swing. Funny how just last night I was watching the Golf Channel and the breakdown of an amateur’s swing.

The actual show was an instructor breaking down the swing of an amateur on video. As the instructor viewed the swing he was speaking about the inability of the golfer to release the hips correctly in the swing.

The instructor pointed out that the reason for the hips not releasing was a lack of flexibility in the golfer’s hips! For me it is another example of the connection between your swing and the body. The golfer in the above example, regardless of how hard he works at the range, will not improve his swing dramatically. Improvement will only occur once he improves the flexibility in his hips.

This to me shows how important the connection is between the body and your swing. It is your body swinging the club, and it must have specific physical parameters developed within it to perform the swing correctly. If the body is in poor golf condition the swing will suffer. In the above example, the golfer would not need to spend more than 5 minutes a day to improve his flexibility in the hips for the swing. This would result in a dramatic improvement in his swing mechanics.

It becomes pretty simple when you look at the big picture. The body and swing are connected. You cannot improve the swing without working on the body.

Sean