Hand-Eye Coordination

[RecGolfer]

How much do you rely on hand-eye coordination in your golf swing? With me, it's everything. If I swing at the ball, it's a crap shoot. But if I deliberately make the clubface hit the ball in just the right way I hit good shots much more consistently. To put it another way, I'm not an "it's a swing, not a hit" guy. I definitely hit at the ball, not swing through it. Any others out there? Or, to put it another way, my target is not the fairway or the green. It's the ball.

Just the swing, though. Pitching and chipping are different.

 

[mantan]

I'm on opposite side of the ledger. I'm pretty much a swing and 'the ball gets in the way' type. The only exception is with the driver. There are times my body knows the clubface is too closed and holds it square. I can tell by the follow through I held off a hook. But most of the time, I'm relying on my swing motion to deliver a square club face and not thinking about squaring the clubface through impact.

 

[InTheRough]

I'm a swinger. Wait... that didn't sound good. I swing the club. The ball gets in the way of the clubhead. The lowpoint of the swing is after the ball. Just relax thru the whole thing. People see me take practice swings before a round and start sweating bullets, and then I step up to the ball. It's either a snap hook or a block into the woods on the first hole. And the bogey golf begins.

 

[mantan]

I'm a swinger. Wait... that didn't sound good. I swing the club. The ball gets in the way of the clubhead. The lowpoint of the swing is after the ball. Just relax thru the whole thing. People see me take practice swings before a round and start sweating bullets, and then I step up to the ball. It's either a snap hook or a block into the woods on the first hole. And the bogey golf begins.

My twin!!

 

[Architex]

I used to swing like you described. But now I swing through the ball. It is much more consistent this way. Before I could shoot close to par and if the timing was off I could easily shoot close to 90. Now I consistently shoot in the 70s by swinging through.


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[Gsea]

It’s semantics….. it is a combination of both

 

[razaar]

I have never needed hand/eye coordination in golf. It is a stationary sport - the ball is stationary, my swing hub is stationary and I'm swinging my hands down towards my feet in the downswing not at the ball. It's all technique with me.

 

[1860VS]

One of my wedge drills I practice frequently is to adress the ball, close my eyes and make a little 50 yard pitch. It works to help me keep the timing and slot grooved. It amazing how well you can pitch by feel alone. Doesn't work so well with the driver fo me. Lol

 

[JonMA1]

Great topic and I wish I knew more about this. As @1860VS suggested, if there wasn't some hand-eye coordination involved, it seems like we could just close our eyes and get the same result with a full swing. So maybe there are micro corrections made based on visual feedback????

The only example I have for how much I rely on vision is when I decided to try prescription sunglasses one day which were not bifocals like my regular glasses. It was scary bad on the first tee... not even close to usable contact on several shots in a row. The clubhouse runs alongside the 10th tee box and all I can say is that it's a good thing they have a net in place. I immediately went back my regular glasses.

Maybe that's why I don't excel at golf, maybe I need to have more of a "the ball just gets in the way" approach.

 

[PatsFan]

How much do you rely on hand-eye coordination in your golf swing? With me, it's everything. If I swing at the ball, it's a crap shoot. But if I deliberately make the clubface hit the ball in just the right way I hit good shots much more consistently. To put it another way, I'm not an "it's a swing, not a hit" guy. I definitely hit at the ball, not swing through it. Any others out there?

Just the swing, though. Pitching and chipping are different.

I am more of a hitter that's trying to become more of a swinger. It's more with the driver than my irons which I hit pretty well.

I played a glowball tournament and shining a light only the ball with pitch blackness it wasn't that hard to play.

 

[DataDude]

The more active my hands are the more variance to results there are. Active hands for me end up with 2 direction misses. Passive hands seem to keep the face aligned to path for a long strip of the contact zone.

 

[pinger_72]

The more drive my hands are the more variance to results there are. Active hands for me end up with 2 direction misses. Passive hands seem to keep the face aligned to path for a long strip of the contact zone.

I try to take my wrists out of the swing. Like you indicate its easier to keep it square with less moving parts. Losing a little distance doesnt matter

 

[MacTourney]

But is the ball really stationary. It is, no doubt there, unless a strong wind comes along or an ant kicks it loose from its mooring, but is a ball stationary relative to how our senses perceive its location considering we are operating a rotating, or moving, system which simultaneously employs changing lever lengths, angles, starting distances, etc.

 

[That post]

I used to swing like you described. But now I swing through the ball. It is much more consistent this way. Before I could shoot close to par and if the timing was off I could easily shoot close to 90. Now I consistently shoot in the 70s by swinging through.

Same for me. I struggled for a long time with swinging at the ball instead of thru. Must be all those years in baseball.

I still revert back to it from time to time especially when I’m playing poorly. It’s a constant struggle but I get much better results swinging rather than hitting.