ForeTought

By: Bob Skura on 01/26/10 08:44 AM

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If you could instantly develop the mechanics to drive the ball 293.7 yards, hit 70.13% of the greens and morph from the handicapper you are into number 551 on the World Golf Ranking would you do it?

If your answer is yes then you’re about to start playing cross-handed because those are the 2009 statistics for 31 year-old Nationwide Tour player, Josh Broadaway. That’s right. On full shots, right-handed Josh Broadaway swings with his left hand low. Were it not for being ranked 172 in putting, which is the one thing he does with a conventional grip, he would have secured a spot on the 2010 PGA Tour by being one of the top 25 Nationwide players.

For decades scientists have argued the role of nature versus nurture. Josh’s nature is to swing cross-handed while any instructor worth his salt would have nurtured him into a classic grip. Given Josh’s relative success who’s right?

Well, that depends. If an instructor had caught Josh on his first day of golf he could have set his hands on the club properly and let him play away. But because Josh put his hands on cross-handed he gained feedback and made progress from that unique starting point instead. In fact, Josh progressed so quickly that by the time he was 14 he was unable to hit the ball decently with a conventional grip.

That doesn’t mean that Josh doesn’t pay attention to fundamentals like ball position, swing plane and posture. He does. It’s just that cross-handedness was natural to him and he made everything else play second fiddle to it. And he developed to such an extent that if he were to change at this stage in life his efforts would never pay off.

There have been other players who knew how to play to their nature. Bruce Litzkie couldn’t hit a draw to save his soul so he chose tournament sites that favored his fade. Sticking to his plan he notched 13 PGA victories and seven on the Champions Tour.

So the moral of the story is this. If your natural tendency is unconventional but gives you good results don’t just change because someone says you should. Assess where you are in your career and decide if you would be better off staying with what you already have or rebuilding from scratch. Remember that Broadaway was only 14 when he reached his point of no return.

If you choose to embrace your natural tendency make sure your support it by working through all the other classic fundamentals golfers should be paying attention to. By doing so you could still reach a high level of success. Josh did.

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