Post Surgery Mobility Improved - No Ball L-to-L Swings

Every day, several times a day I perform movement exercises on on my surgically repaired collarbone to increase my range and mobility as quickly as possible. Everything is based on feel – I could feel when the bone started to mend by how the pain of movement moved from the bone area to muscle area. This fused bone feeling started becoming apparent late last week. The muscles that cover the collarbone were cut and sewed back together and it took some time to feel like they were working correctly. Now that it feels like the bones are fused and I am dealing with muscle repair by moving arms and shoulders until I encounter resistance and pain. For example doing a chicken wing arm lift is extremely tight over the surgery scar but is improving. Where last week it was impossible to lift arm above shoulder height, I can now get slightly higher than that.

Yesterday, and today I was able to work on backyard L-to-L swing movements without a ball. I will wait until my doctor’s visit Aug 2nd to see if he approves ball striking with smaller L-to-L swing. If you’re not familiar with L-to-L swing drills, this Malaska Golf Video is a very well done example of a tool that will help your swing if you work it.

L-to-L swing versatile for grooving good swing mechanics.

Over time I have assembled a good number of dynamic swing mechanics that fit my physique and mentality. With my no-hitting restriction, this time provides a great opportunity to see if massive repetition of ball-less L-to-L swings working on what I consider key areas will result in improved strike when I finally do get to hit balls on the range. Every day, sometimes several times a day I grab either an 8-iron, or a 5-hybrid and execute swings developing feel for things I consider important to improving my ball striking.

Swing sequencing with video examples.

The first area I want to develop is sequencing which is most effectively shown with Shawn Clement’s “Perpetual Motion Drill” video. From his teaching I have developed this swing thought – “pause, plant, fall” to help enhance the timing of the motion. The “pause” occurs at the top of the backswing and helps promote not rushing the downswing. Usually rushing the downswing occurs when I try to hit the ball with my arms. I correctly start the downswing with the “plant” by pressing my left (forward) heel into the ground forcefully. Watch the first few seconds of this Lee Trevino video to see how he vigorously plants his left heel at the start of the downswing – this is the feel I want to have to ensure I transfer my weight forward. Finally, “fall” describes how I want my hands to fall downwards rather than out and around.  Malaska Golf has a great video that describes how the sequence motion helps the hands fall and includes how the club correctly pivots. In one of his videos I recall him saying a swing thought or visualization he has is to return the hands to the same place at impact as they were at address. It was this thought combined with working on hip turn instead of hip thrust that resulted in more 6-iron bomb shots.

When I start hitting balls I also want to work shaping balls with the L-to-L swing drills. This Malaska Golf advanced L-to-L drills video shows how this swing drill is the perfect vehicle for learning to shape different shots.

Finally, my most common fault is a pull and when I hit that I feel like my right shoulder comes out and around. The swing thought I have to help prevent that fault is to feel that I’m making a deep boxing right uppercut. This golf channel video lesson demonstrates the idea but I wish I could find a less cheesy example.

Putting it all together

It may seem like I’m working on too many things at once. However, swinging constantly with the perpetual motion drill allows me to work on different feels with every swing. On every swing I mutter, “pause, plant, fall” during the swing but I’m both feeling and seeing what’s happening and on subsequent swings fixing the feel of things that are off. I look to see if I’m brushing the grass on inside-out path, I’m feeling my right shoulder dropping into the upper-cut, I’m feeling my wrist flat or cupped or bowed, and I’m feeing that I’ve successfully shifted weight – in both directions. Did my hips turn or thrust? Did I stay centered on my feet or fall forward on the balls of my feet? Did I correctly rotate my forearms and wrists with the Malaska pivot move? All of these get evaluated bit by bit, but in the end I feel like I’m making that effortless, powerful swing where, even on reduced L-to-L drills I can hear the whoosh of good club head speed and feel like if a ball were there it would start right and draw gently left.

When I do get to hit some balls, I will follow one piece of advice – I will start out making 3 ball-less L-to-L swings before every ball hit. I think this will help reduce the chance of hitting with a different swing with the ball than without. I am really enjoying the swing practices and it feels so good that I can’t wait to start my L-to-L drills with a bucket of balls.