Chris Starkjohann

What is a swing thought and why do you seldom hear a golf pro talk about this topic?

What exactly is a swing thought and how many you should have?

Should you have one, two, three, or ten? What is the magic number?

Most students I have instructed have never known what they should be thinking about while they are swinging the club.

I break the swing into two processes: the THOUGHT process and the FEEL process.

Your thought process controls Direction and your feel process controls Distance.

Most students think about something during their swing that actually needs to be felt, which makes it part of the feel process rather than the thought process.

For example, if you think things like “keep my left arm straight” or “keep my eye on the ball” you will probably never know where your clubface is during the swing.

If you are too concerned about the tension in your left arm or watching the ball, then you probably will not have a clue if your clubface will be square to the target at impact.

I think the most you should have is two swing thoughts: One for each direction the golf swing moves. However, getting down to just one swing thought is ideal.

Come and see me and I will let you know what I think about when I am swing the club.

Chris Starkjohann, PGA member, is a successful competitive player who last week finished T-36 at the 2010 Senior PGA Championship (a Champions Tour event). He has been teaching golfers of all skill levels for 32 years and is available for private lessons. More info about Chris and how to schedule a lesson with him...