Setting up left - How much?

Mr. Trevino's belief in setting up left I believe starts in the comfort level of where his left hand and right hand sit on the club. He recently was filmed giving a clinic where he discussed the natural tendency of most of us having our palms facing inward when we walk. He coined this the "rebound" effect. This in my opinion means that the positions of the hands under stress coming weight from a club once released to the target they will tend return to where the want to be as they were when relaxed. Of course easier said than done...but this is where there needs to be a discussion by instructors on the combination of grip pressure and pivot.

*If 30 or 40 degrees is aiming you off the fairway or off the green, its ok to drop that down to 20 or even 10 degrees. I'll discuss that and post the scans of the book next time.

Lets define these for a minute. Grip Pressure. We've heard it all and time for me to add my two cents on it. I think among the pros there has to be variations on the levels of grip pressure they use and thats most likely in some proportion to the aggressiveness of pivot. But by and large their pressure is dwarfed by those of us amateurs. When is the last time you saw a 10-hcp have a soft enough grip that his pivot caused the shaft to change planes at P4 to P5? Answer...rarely.

Pivot. In simple terms its how your body moves from start to the finish of the swing. Lets keep the science bit out of it for the purposes of this entry. Long story short if we are to have a relaxed speed generating pivot wouldn't we want to have a matching grip? Well, it depends.

Here's why I bring those two things up when discussing alignment and having a rotary action that depends on being open-stance, This move can work for some if the pivot and hands do not actively drag, hold or steer the club you're most likely also going to fight off a hook by shutting the face down and causing the shaft to steepen.

This is the number one reason I believe Mr. Trevino was so repeatable and why its held up for so long. His pivot essentially guided the club on helical path around his body as opposed to "holding on" on every shot....or as some erroneously have thought that his body had to outrace his hands to compensate for a strong grip.

I strongly believe his back injuries have been linked for far too long to his swing and not enough on the lightning strike or the fact that he worked harder than anyone until TW or VJ showed up! If youre a weekend warrior like myself, you cant possibly out work a tour pro to the point of injury, but you can injure yourself if your not relaxed.

-Cheers Amigos, Flea Trevino.