Haney on Swing Thoughts--Part 3

Haney stressed the importance of taking the club back on the proper plane, not too far outside (upright) or too far inside (flat). And he said to forget about taking the club back along the ground, which forces the club too far inside. “That is a wasted thought,” Haney said. Taking the club back too low and too inside does not create enough wrist hinge. On the backswing, Haney said the upper body coils and the lower body resists. The downswing, he said, starts from the ground up. He noted that Tiger tries to achieve a wider backswing and the hold his body back on the downswing as his arms and hands get moving to the ball. Recently, Tiger has been working on improving his backswing because he was taking the club back too straight.

Haney also scoffed at the notions of keeping your head down and keeping your eyes on the ball. “The ball isn’t going anywhere until you hit it,” he said. Once you hit the ball, Haney said, let your eyes follow the ball “so you can enjoy your good shot or so you can see where the ball lands with a bad shot.” Haney said everyone should have a swing thought. Tiger never hits a ball without thinking about the direction, the trajectory, etc. “His swing thought changes depending on what he’s trying to do,” Haney said. Haney said everyone, including the pros, have negative thoughts enter their head, but that you have to replace those negative thoughts with a positive thought that will allow you to hit a good shot.

Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Chris Perry.