I keep going through swing clips that I’ve amassed in these years of swing research, and I can’t escape the nagging (and nearly maddening) reality that I had indeed figured out the optimal action for the golf swing ten years ago.

Notice that I said “optimal action,” which then leaves room for two things that I neglected to notice or fix, for the next seven years.

The first thing, which really wouldn’t have caused undue issues (it just wouldn’t have been optimal), was that I was swinging with a left-dominant action, as I’ve discussed ad nauseum now.

It wasn’t until 2022, while beginning a re-working of the entire process using athletic tuition, that I realized this issue and immediately began to work on the change.

Now, take a look at the second issue:

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The second issue, which is glaringly obvious at a glance, and which really, really irks me, is the personal issue of the grip – mine was overly strong with the right hand because I was focused on the left hand as I was swinging left-dominant, and this is where I part company with many “leave it as it is” instructors.

I believe it was Paul Azinger who, when he was an amateur, was advised to run away from any instructor who tried to fix his crazy-strong grip – it may not be, but the person is irrelevant – the issue is that just because someone is very good with a swing flaw built into their setup or action, then one should leave it alone.

One might ask oneself how many compensations Azinger or any other golfer would have built into their setup and swing action just to accommodate this flaw, and how much easier it would have been to just fix the issue at hand and allow for a period of adjustment.

How many more events, majors and money might Azinger have won if he’d fixed his grip issue in his youth and taken advantage of his pure golf talent, which was obviously  considerable given that grip usage.

I have now experienced that first-hand and am firmly on the “fix it if it isn’t correct” side of any flaw in the swing – and that means, if it’s fixable.  If, like myself, you have a defect in your physique (I have scoliosis) that prevents you from fixing the issue, then you make adjustments to accommodate the issue.

For me, it’s an adjustment to my foot line to make my shoulders square at address and impact, which they aren’t if I set up square to the target line with my feet.

So, with every swing video that I’ve ever produced, the theory and instruction of the swing model was always correct – it was my personal execution of said model that was flawed, and that’s why I’ve hated every single instructional video I’ve ever produced – I didn’t like the way I was swinging and asked myself what was wrong or not optimal in the model.

I’m reminded of Ben Hogan who once met a man who offered his hand, saying “I’ve read your book but it didn’t help me much.”

To which Hogan said while walking away and refusing the handshake, “Read it again.”

I should have taken my own instruction on the grip to heart, and this journey may have been over six or seven years ago.

Here’s the lesson – I spent 7 years between 2015 and 2022 trying to find adjustments to a problem I didn’t even realize was there – my overly strong right hand grip.

No matter what I did, I would have days where I couldn’t hit the ball any better, and then days when I felt I didn’t know which end of the club to hold, and all because that right hand grip caused impact club face and club path issues from time to time, and it drove me mad.

Every single one of the setups between ’15 and ’22, other than my right hand grip, were pretty darned good, if not great.  It was the grip causing the issue, and because I was focused on the left hand grip, I never thought the right hand was a problem.

But it was, and instead of going another seven years driving myself insane with “what is wrong with the model?” I changed the grip, as awkward as it felt in the beginning, and now it comes as second nature, and guess what?

The actual setup aside from the grip, and the swing action, aside from doing it left-dominantly, has not really changed in the last ten years.

With the grip issue resolved, my setup should be the same tomorrow as it will be in five years, or ten.

It was an expensive lesson, as it stalled my research for years before I figured it out, but it has given me unasked-for benefit of years of painstakingly taking apart and reassembling the model.

My misfortune will be to your benefit, WAX Nation.

More to come!