The 'Swing'

[Brookwood]

I have been lying awake all night mulling over the comments in an earlier post on ‘lessons’ likening the golf swing to a garden swing. I had never heard that before so gave it a lot of thought.

I don’t get it. The garden swing works entirely from gravity; you increase the momentum of the swing by moving your centre of gravity outside the arc of the swing. That limits the height you can get on a swing because eventually your CofG stays within the arc and therefore doesn’t increase the momentum.

Giving somebody else a shove on a swing doesn’t relate to the golf swing because nobody is going to do that on the golf course. And if you try to give yourself a shove after the swing has started won’t that introduce a jerky hit at the ball?

I agree the golf swing is nothing like the baseball swing but not because the ball is moving, more that they stand with the bat at the top of their swing.

My own personal view is that the backswing winds the body up like an elastic band. More like those old medieval war engines where they used to throw huge rocks or dead cows at castles. The ones where they pulled a huge arm back against twisted ropes.

I believe the spine angle stays constant and the shoulders rotate around that angle while winding up your big back muscles. You set the hips at the first 1/8th of your turn then they stay still while you wind your back until your left shoulder is under your chin and your back to the target.

Then the start of the downswing is just a case of releasing the twisting motion and letting your back unwind. The extra speed comes from your wrists uncocking somewhere near the bottom of the downswing which adds speed to the club head at the moment of contact with the ball.

I know there is more to it than that but does anybody else agree that that is the basic principal or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

[Teetotal]

You think way too much!
The body is one huge coil of power coming from the core. That's why a lot of the pro's like tiger and sorenstam do pilates. I have noticed though that the taller the person the less twisting. Have you seen how much the tiny asian girls like Mi Hu Kim twist round - their clubheads are virtually round the back of their heads on their backswing!

 

[ANDYTROW]

In my short time as a golfer the one thing Ive learnt is not to disect advice and instructions to the nth degree. My golf and Im sure Im not alone in this need to be kept simple and not broken down in to technical disection. Keep the swing smooth, like the chains on a swing, keep the swing plain smooth and constant, like the seat on a swing(or a pendulum. I took the advice as a means of what I needed to achieve not how the mechanics of the body differs from that of a swing. As I get better Im sure I will quite rightly start to disect more as I try and gain that little bit more. At this stage I need to do a pareto and find what will gain me 80% improvement for the 20% of effort.

 

[The_Golfer]

Brookwood, you are on the right track with regards the torque created by the bigger muscles winding up and storing the energy to initiate the swing, but in reality you neither "swing" the club back nor just let it unwind without manipulation. If you truly swing back then this will create a sway and you will have to compensate on the downswing. As for the unwinding, on the upper body it starts with the chest, then shoulders, arms, hands/grip, shaft and then clubhead. To understand what the hands are actually doing, assuming you are right handed hold the club with you left hand only take it back to a three quarter swing and let the club just drop, you will see the club fall because of gravity. Now do the same with your right hand, you will see more of a swing because the ever so slight “pushing” energy of your right arm is stronger and more “natural” then the left. Remember that Hogan said that he wished he had more right hands to hit the ball with, this itself confirms a controlled right hand that is adding forward energy. You can see the same with tennis players, the back hand is harder to control than the forehand, yet with the forehand there is definitely a last moment forward thrush with the wrists/hand. We may beg to differ on the swing, and as others have suggested, it is best not to complicate the same for playing golf, but all good golfers will know the feeling of lag created by supple hands and coming down on the inside, this is because right hand is gently (maybe not consciously) turning forward and increasing forward energy of the clubhead and at the moment of impact the “snapping” effect is the right hand releasing and once more increasing the forward energy. Look at the short game of professionals, notice how when they chip the clubhead never passes their hands; this is because they are pushing forward and the do not release the right hand? Also with the flop shot or greenside bunker shots, they flick/push with the right hand and release very early, letting the club pass under the ball and keeping the clubhead open; this is all technique of hand, the right hand especially and “forward” energy.
Finally, and I will not bore you with any future “ideas” on the golf swing I promise, if golf was a subject, say for instance “French”, after a couple of years I would like to think we would all speak damn good French if not fluently. Yet with all the instruction and hours of practice /playing that most of us dedicate to golf ask yourself, why are we not all single figure handicaps? For me it is in the main because of a misconception of how the golfswing and particularly the “downswing” actually works; anyway boring myself now so must go get some practice in for the weekend!!!

 

[birdieman]

Cripes,
I thought I'd logged on to the NASA website by mistake.
I reckon just align shoulders hips and feet, position ball correctly in stance, flex knees, arse out, slow backswing, keep eye on ball and hit it hard, has got me to a 4 handicap so far.

 

[ANDYTROW]

That is the best advice Ive been given. Not a lot to remember or forget.