THE QATSPY® Inside-the-Leather Sports, Health, and Lifestyle Page
By: Charles W. Boatright
The IQ Golf Swing Coach Strike Zone Technique Geared for Distance, Control & Consistency
On most sports television stations, like FOX Sports and ESPN, that televise MLB games, they virtually superimpose the batter’s Strike Zone relevant to the batter to help viewers locate pitches. This is pretty impressive technology used to confirm how the balls and strikes are being called by the umpire. More times than not, the umpire gets it right, even on the board line calls.
The baseball Strike Zone can also be used by golfers to engage one of the most essential parts of their golf game, which is the golfer’s subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is where 90 percent of the golfer’s capability comes from on the golf course. The golfer will depend on their subconscious mind for their instincts in their golf game. One key technique the golfer can use to tap into this massive potential is their imagination.
The imagination is what Sports Psychologists use to get the athlete to perform at their peak performance. The subconscious mind responds to mental images better than swing thoughts. Like Yogi Berra stated in one of his famous quotes- How can you think and hit at the same time? The answer is, as it relates to golf, the golfer can’t.
The Golfer’s Strike Zone Mentality
The golfer can take this same baseball Strike Zone technique from the batter’s box to the tee box to help them improve their mental golf game, swing plane, and impact, even during the off-season and training.
In the first series of golf sessions with a new student, I ask the student to bring a right and a left golf glove to their first few golf sessions. I take the student’s dominant glove (i.e., For the right-handed student this would be their right hand glove) and I take one of their golf clubs and with a black sharpie marker, I trace out the clubface onto their golf glove, as shown below.
The golf glove manufacturers should appreciate me using right-hand golf gloves in my golf lessons since 90 percent of people are right-handed golfers, when the typical right-handed golfer buys the left hand golf glove. My students feel like they are Tommy (Two Gloves) Gainey.
The Strike Zone applied to the golf game puts the golf swing back into the hands of the golfer, instead of trying to figure out how to manipulate the shaft of the golf club. This is the main reason why the baseball swing is more natural and easier to make than the golf swing is for most people.
The golf club shaft is essentially just the extension of the golfer’s forearms, so what the golfer is really interested in is the manipulation of the clubface back through impact. One technique you see in the case of a right-handed professional golfer, as part of their pre-shot routine, is how they stand like they are at address and swing their palm of their right hand through the Strike Zone over the golf ball on the ground.
This Palmer Technique is really a great technique and pre-shot routine for any golfer to use on and off the golf course. Even before the golfer goes for their golf club to make the golf shot this Palmer Technique provides the golfer with a virtual golf swing for practice.
This gives the professional golfer the feel for their golf swing, especially from hitting out of a difficult lie or the first tee box. This Strike Zone and Palmer Technique provide the golfer with a very useful mental picture of the golf shot that they want to create, in Yogi’s words– It’s like déjà vu all over again.
Creating The Golfer’s Strike Zone
The golfer creating a Strike Zone Technique can develop a golf swing that:
- Has more control, distance, and consistency.
- Is on the proper swing plane.
- Has better contact with the actual golf ball.
- Provides the golfer with the ability to improve their mental golf game.
- Allows the golfer to keep their hands on their golf game.
In the featured image above, I have illustrated how the Strike Zone is situated in my golf swing sequence to help me establish the critical swing plane and square impact with the actual golf ball.
For more information on the Strike Zone and how to incorporate it with your golf swing, please refer to my Online Download QATR-408 The Palmer Technique (Wrist Action in the Golf Swing):
This Online download will cover how to locate the golfer’s Strike Zone to virtually orientate the golf ball with the golfer’s dominant palm and locate the proper swing plane, or the offset toe line. The offset toe line can also be the chalk line of the batter’s box. This is essential for creating power and clubhead speed for more consistent golf shots from tee-to-green.
To give you an example of have techniques that I use to coach with, I have attached three (3) YouTube Videos below are a part of this download and are very helpful to create the golf swing mechanics, right where you practice your putting. I would strongly suggest that the golfer use a backstop in hitting what I call the Bunt-Type Chip/Pitch shots around your putting area, shown after the YouTube Videos.
Why this Bunt-Type Chip/Pitch Technique is important to you the golfer is because it is the exact same golf swing mechanics for the regular golf show for the tee or approach shots.
These YouTube Videos are sponsored by The Yankee Prestige-Style Traditional Apparel Quarter for the US WINGS A-2 and G-1 Leather Flight Jacket:
Bunt-Rap-Rip Golf Swing Video
Verifying THE QATSPY Golf Swing Medicus Club
TICK-N-TOCK Putting Technique
The CASPER Fitness Program