The First Part of the Swing（1）

Some person who had made golf their career devote the major portion of their working hours to teaching the game. In contrast to the “home pro”, other member of my profession are, first and foremost tournament golfers who follow the circuit. There are a few professionals (but not many) who combine serious teaching and serious competitive golf but, for the most part, keeping himself tuned up for tournament golf takes all of a man’s time nowadays because the competition is much keener. Today you have to be a specialist in golf.

有些以高尔夫为职业的人，大部分时间用来教学，就是所谓的“居家球手”，另外一些则首先是一站一站跟着巡回赛的比赛选手。也有一些职业选手，并不多，能在从事严谨教学的同时，又参加重大的比赛，对于大部分职业球员来说，能全力以赴参加巡回比赛已经很了不起了，因为今天的比赛更激烈，成为行家里手，才有可能成功。

In any event, that has been true in my case. Preparing myself for tournaments and participating in them consumed practically all my time and energies. Far from leaving me with extra hours for teaching, it left me only with the regret that the days were not longer so that I could spend more time practicing and preparing.

备战训练和参赛事实上占用了我所有的时间和精力，几乎不可能留出时间从事教学，我只想着每天的时间再多一点，能让我有足够的时间来练习和准备。别的体育项目，也存在类似情况。

I have often wondered whether, if the demands of being a tournament golfer had not been so all-encompassing, I would have been a first-class teacher of golf. I really don’t know the answer. Certainly I didn’t and don’t have the ideal temperament for teaching, not compared to such natural teachers as Henry Picard, Claude Harmon and Al Watrous (who were champions when they were playing tournament). I think I was a pretty fair teacher, providing the pupil was seriously interested in improving his game.

我经常想，如果成为一个职业球手不是那么需要全方位的投入，我是否会是一个优秀的教练，天知道！相比那些天生的教练，如亨利.皮卡德，克劳德.哈蒙和AL沃特勒斯(运动员时，他们都曾获得冠军)，我的性情并不是那么适合从事教学，过去不是，现在也不是。除非我遇上一个非常渴望提高成绩的学生，或许，我会是一个相当好的老师。

Generally speaking, a teacher is no better than his pupil’s ability to work and to learn. There was a young businessman at my club, Fred Ehrman, who had this ability to learn, and we did a very satisfying job together. He was a 90-shooter in April. Five months later he was playing in the 70s and won the club championship. It was not fluke. The next season, although he was beaten in the final of the club championship by Carl Lobe Jr., his game kept on improving. This took place in 1938 and 1939. While it is undeniable that the more you know the golf the more you can keep on learning, almost indefinitely, I believe that by 1939 I knew quite well what were the true fundamentals of the golf swing. My knowledge in those days, though, was less integrated than it later became. While I sensed quite clearly the things that were important, I would have had a much harder time in 1939 explaining the reasons why they were. By 1946 I think I truly understand the dynamics of the golf swing.

通常，老师不见得在工作和学习上比学生强。我工作的俱乐部有一位年轻的商人，弗莱德厄尔曼，他就是一位我上面提到的渴望进步的人，我与他一起见证了他的进步。四月的时候，他的水平在90杆以上，五个月以后，他能打七字头了，而且赢了俱乐部冠军杯。这不是昙花一现。下一个俱乐部赛季，虽然在最后一轮他败给了小卡尔劳勃，没能卫冕，但他的球技继续稳定上升。这是38-39年间的事了。对高尔夫的理解越深，探究的心就越强，毫无疑问这一点是无限地螺旋发展。我那时对高尔夫的理解并不是很完整，所以虽然我非常清楚挥杆的原理，清晰地感觉到它们的重要性，但是要说清楚为什么这些是重要的却是比较困难。到了1946年，我觉得，我已经确确实实理解高尔夫挥杆的动力学原因了。

Beginning in 1946, moreover, I was able to win some of the big championships, and being able to win was the proof I needed that what I felt was correct was indeed correct. It worked. It stood up to the test it was designed to meet. Frequently, you know, what looks like a fairly good golf swing falls apart in competition. Sometimes this is due to the player’s temperament-not everyone is built for tournament golf. Much more often, though, the harsh light of competition reveals that a swing is only superficially correct and cannot be schooled for competition because it isn’t really correct. It can’t stand up day after day. A correct swing will. In fact, the great pressure you put on it, the better your swing should function, if it is honestly sound. I feel confident that what I tell you about the true fundamentals is right because the crucible of competition, in which those fundamentals were put to the test, proved to me they were right.

1946年开始，我开始赢得一些大赛冠军，赢，是我所需要的证据，证明我感到正确的，事实上确实正确。经受了旨在考验的测试，基本原理起作用了！经常有一些看起来非常好的挥杆在比赛时变形失常，有时候这是因为选手的性格，因为并不是每个人都是比赛型选手；但更可能的情况是，这些看上去不错的挥杆其实并不正确，不能在比赛中抗压的挥杆就不是真正的好挥杆。这样的挥杆总有一天会出毛病。而真正正确的挥杆是在压力面前表现依然出色。我很自信，我在本书讲授的基本原理，经历了比赛的严酷考验，证明了它们是正确的。