The old school waggle

jnug

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I was not sure where to post this. Eventually I decided that if I posted it in the golf section it would simply be about me. If I posted it here maybe it will help somebody.

First I should preface this by noting that when I was a kid growing up, watching PGA golf pros play on TV, they virtually all had some mechanism to start their swing, much like a baseball player will lift his front leg and then replace it or have a hitch in his swing as a means of getting himself moving into the ball.
Now we rarely see the pros using some sort of mechanism like that and when they do, it is much more subtle, like a little tilt of the head just before they take the club back for example or a little twitch in the hips right at the start. It has been abandoned to such a degree that Tom Watson appears to feel compelled to talk about using something like a waggle as a means to trigger your golf swing. In my efforts this year to come back from sixteen years dormant and off the courses, I have resisted the temptation to build something like that into my swing. I did not have any particular reason other than no longer seeing the pros nor even accomplished amateurs do it much anymore.

As the weather is getting colder now in the northeast I have really worked at getting out on courses and on the range a good deal in anticipation of it becoming much more difficult to practice or play. I decided to take Tom Watson’s advice with regard to using a waggle to get my swing in gear as what inconsistency remains in my swing in large part is not an element like, not hinging my hands or not keeping my head down or something like that. Most of my inconsistency comes from starting back just slightly off plane and spending the rest of my swing trying to catch up to the original mistake. So I decided it was time to give Mr, Watson a try.

I have been practicing using a waggle to start my swing now for the last three sessions and the results have been startling. So what does Tom claim about using some means to start your engine so to speak. Most specifically, Mr Watson claims to have difficulty understanding how his tour brothers release the tension from their arms without using some sort of mechanism to start the swing freely and without any tension in the arms. In fact I heard Nabelo commenting on one of the up and coming Asian players (I apologize for not remembering his name) and he basically said the guy has so much tension still in his arms when he begins his swing and that it is a major problem for him and a stumbling block his ability to advance in the game. I have been unable to reliably remove all of the tension in my arms and therefore keep my arms out of my backswing or my downswing. I can do it but not all the time and not the same way all of the time. So tension in the arms is a cause for me and it manifests itself in many different ways.

Using a bit of a waggle has taken all of the tension out of my arms and has taken my arms entirely out of my swing. In my case, I tap the ground with the club head as part of the waggle and I am off to the races. I can always tell at the top of my backswing if I have really taken the club back on plane or not. If at the top of my backswing I am on balance and ready to move my hips to kick off my downswing without wasting any unnecessary energy or making any moves to realign myself properly I am in great shape to hit the ball. If that is where I am at the top, I know I am going to hit the ball cleanly and that it is going a long way mostly if not all in the intended direction. I have used this little waggle now up and down the bag a few times and I am very pleased with the result.

At any rate, maybe you need something like this and maybe not. If you don’t use a mechanism like this and you find that you have this feeling of being out of balance at the top and keep looking for swing specifics as the root cause I would suggest that you give it a try. I understand the mechanics of why it works and as a consequence I am left beating myself up a bit for not having just relented earlier than this. Watson talks about such a mechanism a good deal so you can likely find something on the internet. Maybe Google golf waggle or Tom Watson waggle or something like that. You don’t have to do what I do. Again using the baseball analogy, look at how many different mechanisms hitters use to start their swing fluidly and on plane.
 
I've used them all.
I used to lift the club off the ground so that it doesn't stick during the takeaway. Still do it with my putter
I used to waggle the club before I swing but I felt it was changing my grip (placement/pressure)
I currently use a slight forward press to trigger the start of my swing. But My friend says it's throwing my swing plane steep and outside.
 
I think it is a great idea to do this. I tend to move my right knee towards the target line ever so slightly to start my swing. Without it, I feel like I am out of sync for the first part of the swing.

Glad it is paying off for you jnug.
 
I plan on working on somethings at the range today. I'm going to try to incorporate the waggle. I seem to remember doing it years ago and since I've come back last year I have not done it. Thanks for the tip Jnug
 
I should leave the door open for the form that the benefit takes being different for different guys. For me, it is definitely a combination.

I clear any tension out of my arms using the waggle. In fact I tap the ground a couple of times at the end of the waggle and the last vestiges of any tension in my arms goes out of them as I drop the club head to the ground for that last tap. Others don’t do that but I am sure that for them the last bit of tension leaves their arms at the bottom of their last waggle.
Also, and I think just as important in my case, when you incorporate something of a trigger that is really a move or a motion, you allow your mind to pick a spot somewhere along that path of motion where it thinks you are truly on plane and on balance. Your mind is allowed to make a choice because you are moving along a line of some sort and your mind gets to go through something of a process like “wrong, wrong, wrong ah that is right” and you begin the real part of your takeaway. When I take the club back from a static position, sure my grip is right and my address position is correct and I am making the best takeaway and backswing I can doing my best to maintain my triangle and hinge my wrists at the right spot. So, I am trying to give myself the best chance I can to get to the top in the right place, on plane and on balance. However, I have not allowed my mind to test that decision against anything. To be honest maybe I am just not good enough to figure it out before but if I am not where I need to be, then I know it for sure at the top of my backswing. What I find is that by incorporating some sort of a trigger in the form of a waggle or whatever one wants to call it, when I get to the top way way more often than not I am exactly on plane and on balance and I am not trying to make even small subconscious corrections at the transition point to the downswing. For me it is almost a feeling like I could stop there at the top of my backswing and admire what is about to happen. The only thought going though my mind at that point is about how much torque I am building between my shoulders and my hips. Everything slows down that much in my case.

Hope this helps. So many of us depend on feel that more often than not I find myself trying to describe how something feels to me hoping my writing skills are good enough to have it resonate for someone else.
 
I like to do a forward press. I think I read about it in a Harvey Penick book. Not sure if it helps.
 
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