WEBVTT

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In this golf smart insight, we're going to talk about adjusting from a life of

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tennis.

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So if you are a new golfer, or if you're a golfer who's kind of plateaued, I

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like to

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ask, and when I interview golfers, I like to ask what other sports they played.

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There are a couple sports that can provide great platforms for golf, and there

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's some

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that are so close that they can pose a few problems.

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This is one of those hybrid ones where I think that it can pose some really

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good advantages,

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especially being able to use your lower body, but it can pose some problems and

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some barriers

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that can make it tough for you to get into the elite level of golf.

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So let's talk about what the three main problems will be transitioning from

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playing tennis

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to playing golf.

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And the reason you're going to have these problems is basically the way your

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brain

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stores patterns, it can very often see swinging this golf club the same way as

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swinging this

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racket, and so it will use a lot of kind of the already established patterns

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from your

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days of playing tennis.

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So there's three major issues that I see when tennis players start to play golf

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.

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One, in tennis, your weight is almost always moving in towards the court.

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So when I'm hitting a forehand, when I'm hitting a backhand, I'm kind of moving

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in from my

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heel to my toe.

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Very often, tennis players will tend to have kind of this subtle drift in

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towards their

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toes.

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They might not fall over like I did there, but they will tend to have this kind

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of little

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drift in towards their toes, which is one of the platforms for early extension.

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That can cause a number of contact issues that can cause a number of

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consistency issues,

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and can make wedges and kind of tight lies that much more difficult, which is

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one of

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their usual problems.

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Number two is the release.

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This is actually probably the biggest one and the hardest one to change, in my

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opinion.

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So in tennis, we talk a lot about this kind of windshield wiper movement, where

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basically

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I'm going to turn to where the ball is going to be coming.

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I'm going to have my body unwind creating this little lag move, and then my

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release is going

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to be on about the angle of a car windshield going across kind of like a

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windshield wiper.

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At least if I'm using a more modern technique or a more modern grip.

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Well, that problem there, the release point, the contact point is going to be

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almost behind

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my body or even with my body.

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So what I like to consider it, it's much more of a shoulder release than it is

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a wrist release.

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If you were to make the good golf release that I talk about in my program with

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a tennis

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racket in your hand, you would pretty much hit every ball outside of the court,

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like over

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the fence into traffic.

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So oftentimes, tennis players will have this look of this arm being very

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disconnected kind

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of back like there, because that's exactly how we use a tennis racket instead

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of a golf

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club.

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And then third is going to be this lack of sensitivity of subtle lateral

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movement.

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Because in tennis, you're kind of always shifting back and forth kind of ready

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to react.

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So tennis players when they come to play golf will often have a fair amount of

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sway as part

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of their trigger, or they may have slide as part of their release.

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But they'll have a fair amount of this lateral movement.

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Now one of the other kind of three A that works with the slide move is the most

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powerful movement

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in tennis is going to be your serve.

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And so tennis players get very, very comfortable in this back bend position as

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a place of power.

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So oftentimes, tennis players will have this little sway reverse spine, and now

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I'm almost

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in my tennis serve position, and then I can kind of go from there, and that

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encourages

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me to go in towards my toes.

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So tennis players tend to struggle with some of these, the release tends to

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cause more

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of the slice pattern, and then these two big body movements in towards my toes

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and lack

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of lateral sensitivity tends to cause consistency, early extension, lots of

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contact problems.

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So if you're a really good tennis player, you're going to have a hard time

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getting

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below about a five handicap until you can separate what you do with a tennis

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racket

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and what you do with a golf club.

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So I've had a number of these guys in, in my teaching career, and when you get

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it clear,

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it can really flip some light bulbs for them, but when they go away and let's

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say they have

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a tennis tournament and they practice a lot of tennis when they come back, some

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of these

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things are going to creep back into their game.

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So always be aware of how the other sports are going to affect your golf game,

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because

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the brain is storing these patterns, you're not just building muscle memory.