posted by chris on Dec 23
Recently, I had a conversation with a teacher of the modern golf swing. He has been teaching the game of golf to others for decades. We, of course, got into a huge debate about the differences between the mechanics of the modern golf swing and a true rotational swing. As usual, I let him speak of his conclusions on the subject matter first. He talked for a good hour and a half straight about how perfectly conceived the fundamentals of the modern golf swing really were. In his speech I was able to see his convicition to his beliefs and understood that when it was my turn to speak I had better be perpaired.
He talked about the grip, posture and ball position as being absolutes. Then he covered the movements of the body and the path that the club needed to make. Back swing and down swing. He talked about putting, chipping, pitching and every aspect of the short game. He really knew his stuff.
So when he concluded, my question to him was two fold. If this concept of the modern swing was so perfectly conceived then why is it so difficult for the average golfer to produce and why has the national or global handicap not changed for over 30 years. And if the short game stuff was that great then why is chipping one of the worst stats on the PGA Tour.
His response kind of shocked me when he said, “People just don’t practice the right things and you have no idea how hard the courses they are playing really are”. If I didn’t know better, I might have accepted that answer. However, my response was, “With all of the information available today on the modern swing how do you honestly believe that”. “People watch the Golf Channel, they read things like Golf Digest and they have all kinds of different aids they can purchase to help them in understanding it, so when you say people don’t practice the right things it kind of pisses me off.” I quickly followed with an excuse my language, out of respect for the old man. As far as the courses being difficult for the Tour players ,I thought to myself, had nothing to do with why the chipping stats were what they were. These are the best players in the world…. Anyways I said, ”I see people hitting balls at driving ranges and golf courses all over the place and what I do not see is the results the modern swing produces in a consistant manner”. ” All I do see is more confussion and fustration.”
Again, he said, “people just don’t practice the right things”. Now that it was my turn to explain the true rotational swing I just hoped he was going to listen as intently as I did to him. As I started off, I told him I thought the modern swing was so difficult for average golfers because the movements that needed to be made did not match up. He asked, “What do you mean”. I said,” If a right handed golfer needs to turn or rotate their shoulders to the right, then move the club vertically to the top, then drop the club into the slot, while truning their lower body back toward the left, then stop the hips for a brief moment and let the arms and shoulders and club swing by through the hitting area, then have the force of that action pull the lower body into the finish position just does not make sense and it does not add up”. “Plus, I will not even mention the fact of the stress this puts on all parts of the body”.
In mathametics rotation is described as an operation that rotates a geometric object around a fixed point. Vertical means being in a position or direction perpendicular to the plane of the horizion. If I applied these two forces into my golf swing they are going to cause all kinds of problems if I am off just the slightest. And I am a really good player. Timing these two movements together and then in the opposite direction, is even difficult for the best players in the world at times. This will always be the biggest issue with the modern swing.
A true rotaional swing I explained removes the lateral rotaion of the shoulders along with the vertical movements of lifting the club to the top with the hands and arms. The second that came out of my mouth, he replied, “that is not possible, how are you going to swing the club”? At least I knew he was paying attention to what I was saying. So I continued. First of all, if you think about the body correctly and the way it is structured or made then maybe it is very possible. The body’s skeleton is comprised of a spine, hips, legs, feet, arms hands shoulders and skull. The shoulders are not connected to this frame work by bone. This giving them more freedom of movement.
If you understand what it means to work under your spine and to use the levers in the body correctly then you will start to begin to understand true rotation. There are vertical movements but they are not caused by lifting, instead they are cuased by an action and the use of levers. If one side of an object moves down the other side will move up. If a lever stores a maximum load, when it is releaded it will release a maximum load. The rotation of the rotational swing happens around and under the spine. “Let me prove it to you”, I said. “By all means”, he said. So I continued.
What you need to do is stand straight up and extend your arms straight out from your sides, then move your feet out like in a comfortable golf stance and do this. While leaving your arms extended make the finger tips of your left hand touch the inside of your right knee. “Make sure you leave your arms extended”, I said. Now, from there leave your body in that position and move your arms and hands into a position as if they were holding a club at the top. He looked at me and said, “Even though my shoulders are at a stepper angle than they have ever been in my life for my golf swing, there is absoultely no pressure on my back “. “But where or how do I get back to the ball without putting the clubhead in the ground 3 feet behind the ball.” ”Great question” I said, and explained the movements that must happen in the lower body to shallow out the club. He looked at me and said he felt like a little kid waiting to open a Christmas present on Christmas morning.
After several hours of conversation he started to realize there really may be a better way to swing and play golf. When I talked about the short game and putting and shared my methods with him, he got even more excited. I told him in putting why does every teacher in the world get a player into a position to where they are looking at the golf ball out of the bottom part of their eyes. We are predators by birth and should be looking at the ball from the center of our eyes at all times. When I put him in this position he turned and looked at me and said,” I have never seen my line so big and clear before, its amazing.”
We did not have that much time left in the day so we wrapped it up and said good bye and good luck. I promise you this though, the guy has been teaching others to play golf for decades using the modern swing fundamentals, but I am willing to bet my house he is teaching the rotary swing fundamentals and short game principles. You to can learn these fundamentals at www.golflessonacademy.com we look forward to seeing you soon.
Sincerely,
Chris
