.....Try hitting pitch shots, with your right forefinger extended down the side of the shaft. As you swing back, and change direction, notice the ˜pressure' on your finger? Great, now ˜keep that pressure'. That is lag pressure, one of the foundations of a great swing. Lag and Balance are critical.....
I originally posted this back in 2001 (EdZ drills 1,2 showing flying wedges, body/arm motion) and then consolidated many posts into this back on March 11th. I even sent them to Yoda back then (EdZ drills).
Not a knock against Lynn at all, just that some folks have given me a hard time and don't seem to give me any credit at all for my knowledge.
For the record, I hadn't even read TGM when I came up with all of my swing drills, including the finger down the shaft, but I have come to learn TGM very easily, since I already understood its concepts, just not the language used by Homer.
Not that it matters, I simply want folks to play better golf.....
First of all, can we stipulate that the 'finger down the shaft' is not exactly a new idea? I don't know how old you are, EdZ, but I dare say you were still in kneepants -- if you were yet born -- when I first heard of Gene Sarazen's 'After 40' Finger putting stroke in 1960. That would be 44 years ago, and there's no telling how many years he had been using it before that. Another great player whose 'extended forefinger' substantially pre-dates your drill is Nancy Lopez -- no longer a spring chicken -- who has used it almost every day of her golfing life. So, again, not exactly a new idea.
Second, no disrepect intended, but if I read your 'extended forefinger' drill, I don't remember it.
Third, what's new about the Grip I independently came up with (a few weeks before the Pine Needles Workshop and not on the spur of the moment as 6bee1dee's post suggested) is the way the Forefinger is positioned at the back of the Shaft. Very importantly, it is not "extended down the side of the shaft" as in your drill. Instead, it is 'crooked' at Right Angles. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the tip of that Finger -- far more than your simply extended finger -- and thereby produces an unmistakeable Pressure Point #3 Feel.
Beyond that, and just as important in promoting the proper support for the Frozen Right Wrist, it also drives the heel of the right hand into the Left Hand Thumb, thereby creating susbstantial pressure at Pressure Point #1.
And all this pressure -- both against #3 and #1 -- is established before you swing the club, not just during the Stroke.
So, any resemblance between my drill and yours is coincidental and very faint. That's the real story behind this new twist on an old idea.