What can you learn from the last page of a book or the final scene of a movie? Most of the time, the ending gives the answers.
Last week, we discussed the importance of finishing in balance at the end of your golf swing, with your weight on your left foot and your body rotated, with your belt buckle and chest facing the target on every full swing.
Taking a deeper look at the end of your swing can tell you a lot about what you are doing correctly and can also help you fix mistakes.
It’s a bit easier to analyze when your swing is finished and you are no longer moving as compared to the actual swing, where the golf club and body parts are moving quickly, separately and in unison.
The two most common types of finish positions in the golf swing are the high finish and the low finish. Each relate the where the hands and golf club end up in relation to your left shoulder at the completion of your swing.
When a golfer finishes with his hands above the shoulders, it is indicative of swing path that is inside-out through impact. While an inside-to-out swing path is ideal, overdoing it can cause some errant shots.
An inside-to-out club path that gets the club traveling too far to the right of the target line may produce shots out to the right such as blocks or push hooks, depending on the orientation of the club face. An inside-to-out club path with the face pointing right will result in a push or slice, and an inside-to-out path with the face closed will result in a hook.
An excessively inside-to-out swing path can also deliver the golf club under the ideal swing plane and affect where you contact the ball on the clubface. Too much inside-out can produce shots toward the heel as well as thin shots caused by a club delivered too shallow and on the way up before it hits the ball.
The other common finishing position is the low finish caused by an overly outside-to-in swing path, which causes the golf club to swing over the top, with a club path that cuts across the ball.
A outside-to-in swing path with the club face open will produce a pull slice, and an outside-to-in swing path with face closed will produce a pull or pull hook.
The outside-to-in path results in a steeper angle of attack, causing big divots and slices across the ball. That type of action is the result of a downswing that has too much upper body and arms doing the work and not enough feet and lower body.
With that in mind, consider your finish the end of your story. If you turn to the last page, you just may see all of the answers you’re looking for.
Peter Harris is the director of Golf at the Fore-U Golf Center in West Lebanon. His column appears weekly on the Recreation page during the golf season.