Jack had played golf for over 20 years and was suffering from lower back pain – especially after 18 holes. I went with him to the driving range and saw he was putting far too much effort into his swing. He just couldn’t relax during his swing and would regularly pull the ball off the tee. We looked at his preparation and managed to free up his neck and shoulders, get him a good stance and move freely during his practice swing. However, as soon as the ball was brought into the equation he would tense up during his back swing and try to hit the ball hard. He just could not accept that he didn’t need to swing hard to hit the ball 300 yards.

Later, sitting in the bar, he told me he was demolishing an old brick building in his garden and enjoyed swing the sledgehammer to knock down the walls. I asked him to try an experiment and not try to hit the wall hard but let the weight of the hammerhead (around 7 pounds) to do the work.

He rang me later to say he’d tried the experiment and was amazed that with less effort he could dislodge more bricks – he’d figured out that anything he added to the swing of the hammer actually slowed it down. So away from the golf course he realised all he needed to do was to get the momentum going and then let the hammer/club do the work. After this experience he was able to swing more freely the next session at the driving range and saw the ball go slightly further with less effort!

Also see: A Simple Golf Swing Tip