Give Yourself “The Gift of Time”
Give Yourself “The Gift of Time”
By Dr. T. J. Tomasi
Keiser University College of Golf Senior Faculty and Director of Research
You make a golf swing in four dimensions, the three spatial dimensions of height, width and depth and the fourth dimension – time – the “when” you do something. In the golf swing, some things are simultaneous, and some things are sequential, and getting these two just so is the essence of your Time IQ. This distinction is important, for if you are not aware of the effect that the time dimension has on your golf swing, you will make mechanical swing changes where none are called for – and trust me when I say that your tinkering will lead to ruin.
First you learn how to operate your golf swing in the three spatial dimensions; i.e., where your hands should be, how your hips work, etc.; then you must learn to coordinate it all in the time available – thus your Time IQ is the biggest challenge of all, for it is far more difficult to maintain than your physical movements. Why? Because you – the operator – are constantly changing. In part, it’s the psychological stress of specific situations like the first tee jitters, but it’s also the natural changes your body goes through on a regular basis.
In a year, almost all of your cells are replaced with new ones; your electrolyte balance changes; the hormone concentrations circulating in your blood fluctuate as do many other parameters, like blood sugar, gut bacteria, and fluid content. Plus, there are circadian rhythms that hold sway over your sleep cycles and nourishment cycles, and there are times when you’re hungry, sick, or just plain worn out. You can’t get away from the reality you exist in – humans are always in flux – a bundle of intertwined cycles – intellectual, physical, and emotional. Thus, the stable “You” that you see in the mirror is a myth. Underneath the façade of solidness, you’re not exactly the same person from week to week, round to round, hole to hole and sometimes even from swing to swing. So, it is understandable that as you ebb and flow, so does your feel for the game. Of course, you don’t physically lose the template in your brain of how to swing the club in space — what you lose is your sense of time – the ‘When.’ The problem is that if your time IQ is un-synced long enough, it can manifest itself as a mechanical swing flaw with the danger that you will try to treat the effect as if it were the cause – you’ll change your mechanical swing when it was really a natural ebb in your timing.
Now a bad physical swing ruins everything, so you need to get the grip, stance, etc., learned, but once that is done (and it’s the easy part) here’s the rule: After you have learned your golf swing so that it’s technically correct, never make a change in the pieces of your swing to rectify a timing problem. Violation of this rule is responsible for the sudden and unexplainable disappearance of your golf swing.
Witness the player who shot 58 in the morning round of US Open qualifying and then in the afternoon round shot 74 – same pins, same weather, same course – ‘different’ player. Make your time IQ the first area you troubleshoot before you make major mechanical changes in your swing. The model for a good TIQ is what I call The Golden Sequence, a non-negotiable I have written about previously. Here is a summary:
Golf’s Golden Sequence
In your golf swing, the segments of your body – each in their turn – accelerate, then progressively slow in order to pass their energy to the next segment in the chain until, by impact, the clubhead has accumulated a majority of the energy of the entire system concentrated in one small area, i.e., the clubhead. In the kinematic sequence, energy is transferred from the body through the lead arm down the shaft and into the ball. Maintaining the efficiency of this process swing after swing is the job of your TIQ. The key takeaway here is that force is applied by physics using the principle of the conservation of momentum – not by you trying to make the club go fast. Because it is your TIQ that insures the proper sequence, never disrupt it by consciously manipulating the club to generate power, because when you do, you’ll foul the sequence. Thus, you must give yourself the gift of time, a gift that will allow Golf’s Golden Sequence to be your friend.
If you’d like to study with Dr. Tomasi and other PGA Master Professionals, contact The College of Golf today.
