excessively one side dominant golfers

[pendlebg]

HI, I am curious for input from anyone who has a natural tendency to be very dominant on one side of their body. In my case it is the right, but for this question, it will not matter which it is.

Not looking for drills so much as how do you handle it over time. I will try to explain.

I am much more righthanded then most and in some sports it serves me well. I play a lot of tennis and am able to serve and hit forehands very strongly, although further strengthening my right arm (it is noticeably larger then my left, something you see often watching tennis).

In golf however, my largest problem is at every stage of the swing from takeaway through followthrough, is keeping my right hand, arm, shoulder out of it until it naturally should kick in. I can and do play very good rounds (for me, anyway, low 80's and could go lower with a better shortgame, but that is a whole diferent thread) and have very good range sessions where I can accomplish the goal. But invariably, on any given swing it can appear out of nowhere and I am mentally unaware I am doing it, it is just feels like my bodies natural tendency kicking in. The good part is that distance is not a problem, direction however is a huge problem. The typical problem is that if I have the rest of the swing going allright then if the right side gets too active, then either a pull or a pull hook results. If there are other components of the swing amiss, well we won't even talk about that, but for all other things I can go back to specific drills. When it sticks around for awhile, I can end up amassing a huge amount of lost balls and penalty strokes at worst, or at best am often playing from behind trees and out of horrible lies (and my aforementioned shortgame skill or lack thereof does not give me too many scrambled pars).

My real question is, for anyone who feels they have this and even better has been able to keep in relatively in check. Is it just time and good practice, banging a million balls and getting the muscle memory to set in and eventualy overcome the seemingly primal urge to overuse the dominant side? Or is there some other things you have tried and had work? As I said, I am not really looking for a particular drill to compensate (but if there are some would happily try them), or even to permanently eliminate it (seems unrealistic), just thoughts on anyone who has this happen, and how to manage it / minimize it to only a few swings per round, and when it appears, try to get it to go away faster instead of staying for multiple holes or even multiple days or rounds.

Thanks

[Hombre Lefty]

most of it is time and PROPER practice, and trust me i know where you're coming from, i am just getting past it myself!

I'm right handed and have swung right handed at everything (tennis, baseball, etc) EXCEPT HOCKEY. Played hockey lefthanded, and probably for that reasone only, started golfing lefthanded. It took me awhile to realize most of my flaws were because i had less coordination in what was supposed to be my main hand, and vice versa. I looked into it xtensively, even t the point of asking a sports kinesthesiologist i was seeing for an urelated sports injury. she told me there are several distinct ways being off-handed affect your golf swing :

1) eyes. your dominant eye is on the opposite side of what would be ideal, so it really causes you to misjudge line, especially putting.
2) coordination. normally your leading hand swings the club, but the trailing hand is crucial to getting it just right as far as accuracy and hitting it straight. problem is, if your trailing hand is your non dominant hand, you're at an immediate disadvantage
3) strength. the obvious one.. swinging on your dominant side usually results in more power.

so after lots and lots of experimentation and such, here's what i do, (since changing back to right handed isn;t an option for me)

- for the eyesight, i practice putting with one eye closed, then the other one. And whenever i have an opportunity to, i do target type activities with my left eye only (ie pool, darts, etc). it makes a huge difference

- for coordination. i went to the range and started out with a wedge, and hit balls one handed. right hand at first then working it to the left only. i now have it to the point i can chip with either hand easily and even hit my driver reasonably well. the point is, it evens out the hand eye coordination

- working out. for me, i didn't realize the muscles in my back were stronger on one side than the other, and this was making me line up not straight. I worked on some isometrics to fix it somewhat, and i saw immediate results.

[landlord]

I think HombreLefty said it all when it comes to longer-range cures, but for a quick, in-round fix, try focussing solely on your follow through; i.e., make it the only thing that matters. Don't hit at the ball; swing through it. The latter is one of golf's ancient wisdoms, heard a million times by everybody, but it's also a rare (and very good) golfer who doesn't forget it.

If you want another word for it, try "tempo." You have to keep your tempo all round long or you'll get aberrations like the hook or pull hook.

Also, if you're anything like me, your back stiffens at least a bit as the round wears on. Near the end you're all hands, and all one hand come to think of it, just to work around the fact that your turn has diminished. Anyway, the "follow through" or "tempo" thought will compensate for that somewhat.

As for putting (and alignment in general), my only suggestion is to TRUST AND COMMIT TO the line you see standing behind the ball. That'll be the truer one. Once you start looking sideways, as when you're standing over the ball ready to go, your line changes. That principle also holds true for full shots, so you have to pick a line in the distance and trust that when you align yourself. Don't let the last-minute sideways glance affect your thinking.

[dekker]

I wouldn't worry too much about it and just try to make it work in your favour.
I'm left eye dominant,and play a few sports from the left side but for all intents am primarily right sided. To balance things out, I treat my left as the most influential side, even though all the power I have comes from the right side. In other words,my left has assumed control and completely determines my swing arc and as such the direction,shape and height of the shot. I have mentally prepared it that way to establish a balance,otherwise I would likely come over the top and pull my shots.