Linskey's Laws

I have been an avid sports fan all my life and have played most sports competitively at some stage. It seems to me that the basic fundamentals of most games involving a ball are the same.

1. The first law of all ball games is watch the ball.

Now in golf, this means that you focus on the ball at address and keep watching it until you hit it. It does not say, keep your head still or even worse keep your head down.

2. The second law of all ball games is that your weight must go with the motion.

If you want to throw a ball you firstly get your weight onto your back foot with your body coiled back and your arm cocked, then you move onto your front foot as you throw. A forehand drive in tennis is the same weight back, racquet cocked step forward and hit it. If you cast your mind through squash, cricket etc the hitting motion is the same. The motion during the golf backswing is back so the weight must go back. On the forward swing the weight must go forward.

Your weight must go with the motion 'not ahead of it, not behind it' but with it!

3. The third law of all ball games is that the club, bat, foot, hand or racquet must be accelerating when it hits the ball.

This means that the clubhead is actually travelling faster after impact than before. The fastest point of the swing for good players has been measured to be around 45 cm after impact. People who are going to be good players understand this point very quickly, either consciously or by instinct. The average player mostly never understands and hits 'at' the ball all their life. Good players seldom talk about 'hitting the ball', they make a pass or a swing through the ball. The ball happens to be in the road of the clubhead!

4. The fourth law is there are no more laws!

What you are trying to do is to get your weight going with the motion, accelerate the clubhead through impact and see the club hit the ball. Whatever advice you get from books, magazines, friends, enemies, or even golf pro’s like me must relate to these laws. Always ask yourself this question 'will....... help me

• watch the ball?
• get my weight going correctly with the motion?
• accelerate the clubhead through impact?

If you do not get a positive answer to one of them then it is probable the advice is not valid!