by John Riches
Why do I miss my roquets? There are many possible answers to this
question, but players and coaches are often unaware that some clues
can be gained by observing the path of the ball.
Diagram
"A" shows the striker's ball traveling in a straight line but missing
the target ball on the left hand side. This means, of course, that
the ball was simply hit in the wrong direction - but why? Assuming that
the body was correctly positioned after stalking the ball to get hips and
shoulders square, and there was no unnecessary body movement during
the swing, the most common cause is that the grip was tightened just before
the mallet contacted the ball, destroying the straight alignment
of the mallet. This is most likely to happen in tense situations
when the player finds it difficult to relax during the swing. The
coach cannot actually see the tightening occurring, but a further
clue is that the forward swing will almost always be hurried rather
than "letting the mallet do the work", and the backswing will often
have been shortened.
To overcome this problem, the player must be taught not to tighten
his grip during the swing. A competent, accredited coach should
know how to go about training the player to achieve a relaxed,
smooth swing with an even grip tension throughout.
In Diagram "B" the miss was not the fault of the player at all
- it was caused by the ball hitting something on the lawn which
caused the path of the ball to bend noticeably at one particular point.
All you can do is congratulate yourself on a good, straight hit...and
blame the greens keeper!
Diagram "C" shows the ball taking a curved path and missing the
target ball on the right hand side (for a right-handed player). This
suggests that the player has "sliced" the shot, by swinging (or rather,
"pushing" with the bottom hand) his mallet across the line of aim.
He may need to get his bottom hand more directly behind the shaft,
use a straighter backswing (this also needs correct training, and
may require adjustment to foot and body positions), play the stroke
more with his top hand instead of his bottom hand, and concentrate
on following through long and low along the line of aim.
These observations should provide clues to the cause of the miss, but
only good coaching and diligent, well-planned practice sessions will
correct it.