The Pivot
"It is my definite opinion that there need be no shifting of weight from left to right in the backstroke. The downswing or hitting stroke presents another picture." Robert Tyre (Bobby) Jones
The Weight Measuring Board And Cause of A Slice By Simon Holmes
Maximum Improvement DVD. Coordinating Your Motion. Weight of the Body. Filmed on location at Arcos Gardens Golf Club, Spain. Available on Amazon : Digital Golf School: Maximum Improvement [DVD]
How I Secure The Slice (1913) By Harry Vardon
"In playing for the slice, the stance should be open - the ball about opposite to the toes of the left foot, which should be pointing outwards, and the right foot advanced so that the executant finds himself well behind the ball.
Harry Vardon
The feet ought to be about the same distance apart as for the ordinary stroke; the first important matter is to dispose them so that they produce an open stance.
Every golfer must discover for himself just what degree of openness he needs, but it will always be something more than the ordinary, because he is going to aim in some measure to the left of the line (that measure depending upon the strength of the wind) and make the ball curl back into the proper path.
Now as to the manner of producing this latter effect.
I suppose that there is more than one way of doing it.
Some people say, "Keep the right shoulder down and trust to the swing to bring the face of the club across the ball." This is not necessarily sufficient.
Personally, I have a method which may - or may not - be different from that employed by the majority of players.
I have not so very long satisfied myself thoroughly as to how I secure the slice. Now I am convinced about it.
With the weight mostly on the right foot, I take the club up in an outward direction in just the same way as for the cut mashie shot.
There is the same slight sway up to the point where the elbows bend, and then as the club comes back behind the head, the latter returns to the proper position.
At the top of the swing, in that immeasurably small period when one braces oneself for the effort, I give my body a sharp turn at the hips - a turn a few inches towards the hole.
That action makes my downward swing the corollary of my upward swing where the intentional slice is concerned.
That small but emphatic turn of the body the instant before the club starts to descend causes the implement to come down on the same track as that which it occupied when going up.
It is sent out into much the same position as that which it occupied at the top of the swing for the cut mashie shot. Round it comes with quickening speed until it cuts right across the ball.
It must be done neatly and without a jerk, and it must be kept strictly within limits. "The operation consists of twisting the body corkscrew like by the aid of the club and arms; not of lurching away from the ball, and then making a hefty lunge at it. That point having been appreciated, let us now consider the operation in detail." Harry Vardon
Swaying Cause of Slicing (1912) By Edward Ray
"I have been assured that this is a phase of the game upon which I ought to be qualified to speak with a certain amount of authority, but it must be borne in mind that, beyond a few first principles, perfect driving is obtained by a variety of methods.
As an instance that bears this statement, it is only necessary to cite the methods of J. H. Taylor and myself.
He is as solid as a rock upon the tee, and hardly any movement of the body is perceptible.
In my own case, I am aware that in taking the club back I allow the body to go with it, taking care, be it observed, to get back again, and through, in the forward swing.
For golfers in general, however, this sway of the body is apt to upset the whole balance of the swing, for the difficulty lies in not getting back again in time; therefore, the steadier that the body is kept, and the more that the arms are used, the better should be the result.
Infringement of The Principle of Body Balance (1922)
"The errors of the swing which find their expression in pulling and slicing have been lightly touched upon, so far as the movement of the arms are concerned with the arc of the swing.
Regarded from another point of view, these errors owe their origin to the infringement of the principle of body balance.
Unless the arms take upon themselves unnecessary responsibilities, they should follow the central movement of the body.
If once the problem of the correct balance is successfully solved, the chances of the swing working out in a proper manner become infinitely greater.
Get the balance right first and the rest should follow in the ordinary course.
It is the action of the body, the part played by the shoulders and the legs, which govern the initial principles. The arms and wrists are the secondary elements of the swing.
An excellent model to illustrate the principle may be seen in the windmill, as representing in an inanimate form a perfectly firm central structure riveted to the ground, with its arms flying round at full extension in a slow but beautifully regular movement.
The windmill, which has a solid base, is not confronted with the difficulties confronting a human being, who has to carry the weight on two feet, closely connected with a pair of loose shoulders. The complexity of balance at once becomes evident.
Weight transference must be so managed that the central structure remains firm; and if it gets out of adjustment the trouble begins.
Some years ago the importance of this problem agitated golfing circles to such a degree that a weighing machine was constructed to record exact weight transferred to either leg at every portion of the swing, and leading players were invited to swing a club in the position of the Colossus of Rhodes, each foot on a separate weight recorder.
At Top of The Swing And Causes of A Slice (1926)
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| Proper Position | Causes A Slice | Another Slice |
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Reference : 'Suggestions That Will Reduce Scores, A Digest and Review of Helpful Hints by Recognized Experts', by George Girard, Golf Illustrated, April, 1926. Courtesy LA84 Foundation Digital Library at www.LA84Foundation.org
Keeping The Body Back of The Blow (1932)
"When an instructor tells you to keep your body behind the blow, he simply means for you to keep only your head and shoulders, not your whole body, behind the ball.
He certainly doesn't want you to keep most of your weight on your right foot during the downswing as you would, if you prevented the forward shifting of your hips.
The mere fact that so few players master it proves the proper body action to be the most difficult part of the swing.
At that, it is not so easy to control the head and shoulders, so that they don't sway back and forth or bob up and down, and at the same time allow the mid-section to move freely from side to side.
Yet it is upon this latter sort of action, or the correct order of movement, that the power of the swing depends. The correct order of movement produces a wind-up in the backswing and an unwinding in the downswing."
'Clearing Up Tips About Body Action' By Alex J. Morrison, The American Golfer, June, 1932. David Martin, California Amateur Champion - son of Ernest Martin, who hails from Carnoustie, Scotland (under whom Alex J. Morrison served his apprenticeship)- is shown at the approximate limit of the backswing.
Thrust A Little Forward (1933) By Joyce Wethered
"The movement of the hips is briefly as follows.
At the top of the swing the weight is on the right foot and the right hip has pivoted.
Before the swing of the arms brings the club down from the top of the swing, the weight must begin to shift forward on the left foot and the left hip will be thrust a little forward in the direction of the hole.
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| HITTING POSITION: The weight is shifted forward before the club moves down |
| Alex Morrison Calls Hip Action The "IT" Of Golf The American Golfer December, 1934 |
The dropping of the left heel back to the ground will at the same time cause the hips to pivot sufficiently.
The shoulders meanwhile should remain in their central position over the ball.
The left leg and hip now supply a firm left side against which the impact of the blow is to be resisted.
The shoulders are still free and have no part in this firmness.
If the hips and shoulders are both allowed to swing round together during the downward swing, then the left side will have turned too quickly without having offered sufficient resistance at impact and the shot will not be nearly so powerful.
I think that a good way to imagine this feeling of this hitting position is to count, One, Two, Three, during the downswing.
- Imagine that the top of the swing, when it is reached is One;
- The transference of weight and shifting of the left hip forward is Two.
No part of the body above the left hip should be involved in this early transference of weight.
- While the actual down swing with the arms and hands is Three.
If these movements are thought of in this sequence, it will give a feeling of the desired rhythm and allow the club time for that almost imperceptible pause at the top of the swing which is so valuable.
There is no jerkiness or abruptness in this idea, because the movements should all melt into one another and very soon become a natural rhythmical action.
The three parts make up the whole, and I think it will be a help to know them separately, if it be merely while learning them."
Reference : 'Golfing Memories and Methods' by Joyce Wethered Open Champion 1922, 1924, 1925, 1929 English Champion 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924. With 54 Illustrations London Hutchinson & CO. (Publishers) LTD. Made and Printed in Great Britain at the Mayflower Press, Plymouth 1933.
"Only by recognizing the separate functions allocated to the hips and shoulders will the club head ever flow sufficiently to reach the ideal." Joyce Wethered
Every Golfer Has His Slice (1937) By Archie Compston
"Here is a curious thing - a man when he takes up the game can always slice.
It's only after several months of practice that the slice is eliminated, and develops sometimes into a hook. The reason, of course, is that the right side is always in control - which accounts for the loop in the swing.
So far as direction is concerned, if you draw a line through the ball towards the hole then hit along that line, you are bound to get a straight ball. If you come from outside in, you will slice or hook according to how the club face meets the ball - open or shut.
A slice or hook can come from the same weakness - outside in.
That's the object of the latest fashion in golf - hitting inside out.
It is a debatable point whether you can really do this - but as a mind presentation it is sound.
You have to remember that ninety-nine out of a hundred people are hitting from the outside, so that to avoid that you concentrate on the mind presentation of hitting from the inside.
Listen. In sixty per cent. of cases there is a faulty left-hand on the shaft - the wrist is pointing towards the hole.
Instead of being able to see two or possibly three knuckles on the shaft, you only see the 'V' between the thumb and forefinger.
The trouble with their grip is that it opens the face of the club - and never shuts it again. I will make a bet that if you have the right hand according to the left, you cannot do any such thing.
Similarly, I will bet that if you put your left hand under the shaft and your right hand over it, I will get you into such a position that you cannot do anything but slice.
That is, providing you guarantee to follow through in the ordinary way - not quit on the delivery. If you quit on the shot, you can hit the ball in almost any direction with any grip.
In other words, there are three points to look out for:
- Getting the right grip;
- Keeping the left side in charge;
- Making sure of a firm delivery and not quitting on the shot.
The safe stance, of course, is to shut it a bit - square, in fact.
There's a tendency to go back to what they taught in the days of the old 'feathery' ball - the right foot slightly behind the left. They are locking up one side of the fairway these days. You can stand in such a manner that you can only produce a right to left spin.
That is the modern tendency."
Reference : 'Go Golfing' with Archie Compston and Henry Longhurst. Profusely Illustrated. Duckworth, 3 Henrietta Street, London, W.C.2. First published in 1937. All rights reserved.
No Shifting of Weight Left To Right By Bobby Jones
Handling The Weight Shift Properly
"It is my definite opinion that there need be no shifting of weight from left to right in the backstroke.
The downswing or hitting stroke presents another picture.
There is a shift here, but there is no sway, and the difference is what the average golfer wants to understand.
It is this: the weight shift which is proper is a shift of the hips.
A lateral movement of the middle part of the body that does not alter the location of the head and shoulders with respect to the ball.
Handling The Weight Shift Improperly
The sway, which is improper, is a forward movement of the entire body, that sends the head and shoulders forward, too, and tends to upset the player's balance.
There are two common methods of handling the weight shift improperly.
a) The more damage is caused by settling most of the weight upon the left foot at the top of the swing; a beginner nearly always has a liking for this. Although we may sometimes overlook the root of the trouble, the result is a familiar sight.
The effort of hitting always throws the weight violently back upon the right foot. The player falls away from the ball, his left foot flies up into the air, and his balance is completely lost.
b) The other method, too, we have often seen, when in the backswing the player draws his entire body backward, and finds himself poised at the top with his entire weight upon his right foot and his left leg completely straight. This beginning ends in a despairing lunge that usually carries the ball nowhere.
A Sway Or A Shift To The Left Leg
If we examine the swings of several golfers, even with the naked eye, it is easy enough to tell whether the weight transference has been a sway or a shift.
One characteristic of the proper body action, that is to say, the shift, is that the left leg is straight at and after impact.
If you want to know why this is, you have only to look at the line, which marks the left side of the body.
It has been lengthened, without lifting the head, by holding the shoulder back while the left hip goes forward.
The characteristic of the sway, located again in the left leg, is a decided bend of the left knee in the same area; the entire weight of the body being thrown forward prevents the straightening of the left leg so that either the knee bends or the player falls flat on his face."
Reference : Bobby Jones' book 'Bobby Jones On Golf', Robert Tyre (Bobby) Jones. Chapter Three. Shifting The Weight. Foreword by Charles Price. Illustrations by Anthony Ravielli. 1966 Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York.
Available on Amazon : Bobby Jones on Golf -- Foreword By Charles Rice
"Improper pivoting is almost solely the cause of slicing and perhaps many other troubles and if corrected big improvement will result." Jack Gordon
No Need Of Any Shifting of The Weight In The Backswing by "Bobby" Jones
Robert T. "Bobby Jones" lessons. Volume 2 The Short Game. Presented by Jack Nicklaus
Buy on Amazon : Bobby Jones - How I Play Golf Collection, The - Vol. 2 - The Short Game [VHS]
'The Initial Move in The Downswing' By Robert T. Jones, JR., The American Golfer LA84 Foundation
Improper Pivoting The Cause of Most Slicing (1927)
"Once a player learns to pivot properly, he can keep on his game without constant practice or, in other words, ha can "lay off" for a period and get back to top form very quickly.
Pivoting is the winding up of the body, like a spring at high tension with distinct feeling of tautness - not looseness or flabbiness.
Proper pivoting is the basis and nearly three-quarters of the swing because if all arm action is eliminated, the winding up of the body furnish most of the power ready to be loosed when down swing is begun.
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| Correct - Top of swing. Complete pivot, shoulders at right angle to direction line, club shaft pointing to flag | Correct - Top of swing. Shows same position as left. Right elbow is kept down and left arm nearly straight | Incorrect - Top of swing. Hips have turned around too far, throwing weight of body onto left leg - slice position | Incorrect - Top of swing. Shoulders have not turned enough. Shaft pointing to left of direction line - slice position |
A spring-like Winding of the Body so that the Maximum Amount of Energy may be Directed at the Ball. By Jack Gordon Professional Country Club of Buffalo Williamsville, N. Y.
The foot action works right in and is a vital part of the pivot.
On the down swing, or "unwinding", the weight-shifting from right to left begins, with the almost immediate return to the ground of the left heel, certainly by the time the clubhead and arms are half-way down.
The unwinding continues greatly aided by the shifting of the weight to the braced stiff left leg, and by the hard pulling of the left arm on the club handle.
Then, without detailing, the wrist action levers away the ball by the right climbing over the left with what might be termed a scissors action and the pivot continues until the right shoulder is around in the line with the ball as the left was on the upswing.
One of The Main Causes of Slicing
Hip action in the making of a good stroke is of the first importance and I am sure that most players have the wrong impression as to just how the hips should work.
The habitual slicer should urge the left hip forward to the flag as he starts the downward swing. This keeps him from unwinding too soon and gives him time to get the club head through before the body turns. "He must act in the area which he has allotted himself, because he wants to make not a lunge at the ball, but a swing. If his feet reach to either end of a sheet of newspaper, his body ought not to move outside the ground covered by that paper." Harry Vardon
Turn Your Lower Body In A Barrel By Tom Watson
Lessons Of A Lifetime DVD Disc One Lesson 12. Two Disc Set & Instructional Booklet
Instruction
From One of Golf's Greats www.tomwatson.com
Available on Amazon : Tom Watson "Lessons of a Lifetime" 2 - disc DVD Set
"The cardinal principle of all golf shot-making is that if you move your head, you ruin body action." Tommy Armour
Keep Your Head Still Until After Impact (Mcmxlvi)
"More is written and said about the head than about any other part of the anatomy, and rightly so. We are told 'keep your head down' and 'Keep your eye on the ball' ad nauseam, but both phrases require some explanation or amplification.
It is, of course, vital to keep your eye on that part of the ball (or if in a bunker that spot on the sand) which you intend to hit, but the phrase 'Keep your head down' has a rigid sound which I do not like.
If you are told to keep your head down surely the tendency is going to be to move your head down or tuck it down uncomfortably.
What you must do is to hold the head naturally.
Keep your head stillKeeping The Head Very Steady (2002) By Jack Nicklaus
"I regard keeping the head very steady, if not absolutely stock still, throughout the swing as the bedrock fundamental of golf.
It is inviolable as far as I'm concerned, which is why I bring the subject up early in the book. If you are hoping to improve your game through these pages, but can't, or won't, learn to keep your head steady throughout the swing, read no farther. There is nothing that I - or anyone else - can do for your golf game.
The reasons the head must stay steady are so obvious to me that I feel a little foolish enumerating them. But since so many handicap players do seem to move their heads around with cavalier abandon, I suppose I'd better.
They are as follows:
When you think about these factors it is easy to see why a steady head is the one fundamental of golf that is universal to all "methods" and to all teaching systems throughout history. Hitting the ball as hard as I do, I know I couldn't 
The Downswing By Golf Legend Gary Player
Gary Player On Golf Volume 1.
Winner of over 120 Tournament Championships
Available on Amazon : Gary Player on Golf Vol.1 [VHS]
The Beginner's Chief Fault (1924) By Cyril Tolley
"This fault, which has an appalling tendency to occur whenever there is an out of bounds on the right, may usually be traced to the swing and the distribution of the weight at the moment of impact.
A sliced drive generally reaps the full benefit of the error, for, apart from being considerably off the line, it seldom goes very far.
Even supposing it falls on level ground, it will not run any distance, ten yards' run being about the maximum.
The beginner's chief fault is that, as he hits the ball, all his weight is thrown on his right leg and he appears to adopt a sitting position, with the heel of his left foot off the ground and the toe of the foot pointing towards the hole.
In making this stroke, he instinctively pulls his arms into his side, and this accentuates the slice.
The cure for these two faults is to keep the weight almost equally distributed on both feet, with, if possible, a little more weight on the left foot, at the same time remembering to keep the right arm straight when hitting the ball, and keeping it so when following through in the direction of the hole.
It is essential that the right arm should be straight as far as the horizontal.
If, in taking the club back, the player transfers his weight too much on to his right foot, as he comes forward he brings his weight on to his left foot, this will produce a sway, which will also cause him to slice.
That is the fault he must guard against."
Reference : 'The Modern Golfer' by Cyril J. H. Tolley Amateur Champion 1920; Welsh Champion 1921, 1923, French Open Champion 1924 With 67 Illustrations. W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. August 1924.
"The whole shot is a hit rather than a sweep, and consequently there is not nearly so much pivoting from the waist, as in a full shot." Cecil Leitch
The Hips In Iron Play (1949) By Lloyd Mangrum
"In playing the irons, always remember that your woods are "swept", your irons are more generally "hit" on the downswing.
Always be sure that you hit the ball before contacting the turf with an iron.
This cause the ball to be pinched between the turf and the clubface, thereby forcing the ball up and increasing the desired backspin.
Lloyd Mangrum
Three Distinct Hip Positions
Three distinct hip positions are assumed during the swing of an iron, as follows:
- At the top of the backswing, your hips are turned away from the ball,
- At the moment of impact your hips are square to the ball
- In the follow-through, your hips are turned away from the ball's line of flight.
Examples for the No. 9 short iron and No. 5 medium iron:
Work on these three movements until you have them automatically incorporated into your swing.
Then your pivot action will take care of itself."
Reference : Lloyd Mangrum, from 'The Golf Clinic' book, by Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Lloyd Mangrum, Jim Ferrier, Ellsworth Vines, and Ed Oliver. Photographs by Arthur E. Haug. Copyright © 1949, by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Buy on Amazon : The golf clinic
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Harry Vardon at impact plus, as seen in a rare 1920s film clip with Harry Vardon showing use of the flail. Note head has not been moved up or around as yet. In discussing his Set Up for the drive Luke Donald states: "So really I am just working on being nice and level and solid through impact on my legs and let the arms swing through. And I work on trying to get the knees at impact in the same line as where I am going."
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Dale Douglass at moment of impact plus, with 8-iron and driver, as seen on the 'Tempo & Complete Your Backswing' video on our page on Power Golf. Note similarities, with head not moved up or turned around as yet. Notice also the hip action and footwork; right elbow close to the side and hands almost as at address.
"The player should move freely beneath himself." Abe Mitchell
Unwinding The Hips Too Early (1969) By Bill Cox
"In teaching I don't concentrate too much on hip action - in fact to do so is bound to put anybody off their game. .
Bill Cox
If you think too much about hips, you are almost bound to forget about your hands - and it is in the hands that the secret of golf lies. Nevertheless it is important for the new golfer to understand the importance of the hips in the golf swing, although he will find that if he carries out the correct leg and foot actions, the hips will function properly without his even having to think about it.
Interest was focused on hip action when the great American, Ben Hogan, surely one of the most accurate strikers of all time, attributed much of his power to the fast unwinding and lateral movement of his left hip during the downswing.
He considered that this action helped him to create much greater clubhead speed at the moment of impact.
Suddenly this was accepted into the modern method of teaching, but I wonder whether those who accepted it appreciated just how dangerous this movement could be.
Hogan was successful with it because he was an exceptionally talented man and also because he was in a position to hit hundreds of golf shots every day whereas, for the average player, unwinding the hips too early can cause the right shoulder to unwind as well, throwing the clubhead on the outside groove and producing the bad fault of coming across the ball.
It really is quite difficult to unwind the hips without unwinding the shoulders at the same time.
Once we accepted that the legs should be relaxed and flexed throughout the entire swing, it became quite natural for the hips to slide laterally. The Magic Move (1992) By Harvey Penick
"IF THERE IS any such thing as a Magic Move in the golf swing, to me it is an action that I stress over and over on the practice tee and in this book.
You have heard it from me many times by now, but I will say it again - to start your downswing, let your weight shift to your left foot while bringing your right elbow back down to your body.
This is one move, not two. Practice this move again and again.
You don't need golf club to do it. Practice until you get the feeling and rhythm of it, and then keep on practicing.
Be sure your eyes are trained on the spot where the ball would be. Your head will stay well back.
I've read books and magazines that offered the "secret" of The Move.
The secret takes different forms for different players.
For Ben Hogan the move is pronating.
For Byron Nelson the move is a lateral shift and not pronating.
There really is no one Magic Move.
But when you learn the left foot-right elbow move I have described above, you will hit the ball as if it is magic."
Reference : 'Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf' Harvey Penick with Bud Shrake. Introductions By Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Betty Rawls, Mary Lena Faulk, Dave Marr, And Byron Nelson. Simon & Schuster Copyright © 1992 by Harvey Penick and Bud Shrake, and Helen Penick. The Magic Move page 96.
A Hip Turn On The Backswing (2002) By Jack Nicklaus
"One of golf's nastier sights is the "out and over" downswing of the long handicapper.
It often results from a hip sway instead of a hip turn on the backswing.
When a golfer sways his hips laterally away from the target going back, the chances are fifty to one that he'll immediately spin around his right hip and heel as he starts his forward swing.
Unable to get his weight off his right foot, he's committed to an ugly "fire and fall back" routine, featuring a pronounced "out and over" movement of the right shoulder and a resulting outside-in clubhead path through impact.
The cure is simple and usually very effective.
On your backswing think of the lower spine as an axis, and turn your hips around that axis without letting any weight shift onto the outside of your right foot."
Reference : Jack Nicklaus' book 'Golf My Way The Instructional Classic, Revised and Update' Jack Nicklaus with Ken Bowden. Illustrations by Jim McQueen. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks Copyright © 1974, 2005 Jack Nicklaus Copyright renewed © 2002 by Jack Nicklaus.
It's what I call A Lateral Rotation By David Leadbetter with Nick Price
Faults and Fixes By David Leadbetter with Nick Price. Part 1 - Swing Technique. Part 2 - Out on the Course wwww.davidleadbetter.com
VHS
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"I believe that both Abe Mitchell and Alex Morrison have recommended lateral sway at the outset. Well, all I can say is that I consider it dangerous and difficult." Alfred Padgham
Starting The Downswing (2006) By Maxine Van Evera Lupo
"Every position and movement from the start of the swing is designed to build up power through the backswing and downswing and then to release it through the hitting zone by starting the downswing with the feet, legs, and hips.
Data fed into the mental computer before the backswing starts, however, determine the start of the downswing. The movement is programmed from the moment the clubhead is positioned behind the ball.
Starting the downswing with lower body action delivers power at impact by shifting your weight from right to left, pulling your arms down from the top, turning your lower body, and releasing your hands and the clubhead through the hitting zone.
Returning the club with upper body action keeps your weight on the right, expanding power before reaching the hitting zone by throwing your arms and clubhead upward and outward from the top of the swing and releasing your hands too soon.
Downswing action is reflex action - a "moment of truth" - when positions at address and movements through the backswing are proved to be right or wrong by how the downswing starts. The downswing starts with either upper or lower body as a result of what precedes the action. Although it is important to understand the reflexive coil-recoil action of the backswing and downswing, one of the intrinsic values of understanding the overall swing is knowing that reflex action starts from the beginning of the swing rather than by conscious thought of action from the top of the swing.
Mistakes quickly show up through the backswing and are indicated by an inability of the feet, legs, or hips to initiate the downswing. The smallest correction before the backswing starts may correct the entire golf swing by promoting reflex action of the lower body the moment the backswing starts.
The initial movement from the top of the swing - whereby some part of your lower body shifts your weight back to the left to pull your arms, hands, and the clubhead down from the top - is so important at impact that there has been a continuing search down through the years for one key move or one key thought to make the downswing work.
Golf instructors promote this endless search by inadvertently using terms that advocate various moves from the top of the swing to start the downswing action, such as:
- Start your hips back toward the target.
- Turn your hips to the left.
- Start your hips back before completing the backswing.
- Start your left hip back.
- Start your right hip back in a "cross-lateral" shift.
- Pause at the top to start your hips back first.
- Wait for the clubhead.
- Leave the clubhead at the top when the downswing starts.
- Let your hips pull your arms down.
- Drive your knees toward the target.
- Pull your arms down from the top.
- Pull down with the last three fingers of your left hand.
- Push against your right foot.
- Shift your weight.
- Keep your head behind the ball and move your lower body.
- "Clamp" your left heel down.
- Stay behind the ball.
- Keep your shoulders behind the wall.
- Swing through the ball.
- Bring your shoulder under.
- Keep your right shoulder back.
- Swing your legs toward the target.
- Start your left knee toward the target.
- Start your right knee toward the target.
- Start your right elbow toward your left knee.
- Start your right elbow and your left knee toward the target.
Although any of these "solutions" may be used effectively - and each contributes a good swing thought - by continuing to focus attention on action from the top of the swing, golf instructors create a universal impression that the downswing starts from the top rather than from the beginning of the swing.
Actually, all of the actions listed should occur - and do occur - when the swing is sound, and almost any swing thought may be used to start the lower body first.
This can only happen, however, when rhythm, timing, and accuracy throughout the swing make coordination possible when the swing thought is used.
The most important point is that whatever happens at the top of the swing must be the result of a key swing thought at the beginning of the swing, because starting from the top of the swing changes timing and rhythm.
As important as positions and movements are in promoting reflex action, positions must still have time to coordinate. When the backswing is sound, rhythm and timing become the primary factors in moving the lower body first in the downswing action."
Reference: 'How to Master A Great Golf Swing' by Maxine Van Evera Lupo Illustrations by Dom Lupo Foreword by DR. Jay Brunza. Chapter Two Learning To Use Fundamentals, Chapter Twenty-Two Starting the Downswing pages 225 - 237. Taylor Trade Publishing Copyright © 1992 by Maxine Van Evera Lupo First Taylor Trade Publishing edition 2006.
Golf's Little Secret (2011) By Stanford University
"When it comes to hitting a ball hard, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified several biomechanical factors that appear to separate the duffers from the pros.
Researchers recorded three-dimensional motion images of the golf swings of 10 professional and 5 amateur players. Among the 5 non-professional golfers, one was with a handicap of 4; two with handicaps of 15 and 30, and two were novices.
The findings, published in the Journal of Applied Biomechanics, could be used to help improve golfers' ability to hit the ball farther and do so without increasing their risks of injury.
The authors, including Conrad Ray and Jessica Rose - senior author - cite studies showing that 26-52 percent of golf related complaints involve lower-back injuries, 6-10 percent shoulder injuries and 13-36 percent involve wrist injuries.
"Over-rotation is one of the leading causes of back injury", Rose added.
Researchers analyzed several biomechanical elements of subjects' golf swings, measured in degrees, including:
- S-factor : angle or tilt of the leading shoulder relative to the level position; 48 degrees
- O-factor : tilt of the hips, and,
- X-factor : the relative rotation of the hips to the shoulders; 56 degrees.
X-factor data
Among the 10 pros in this study, peak X-factor during a hard swing was highly consistent, at a mean of 56 degrees. Their club speed at impact also were highly consistent, at a mean of 79 mph.
In contrast, peak X-factor of the 3 least skilled amateurs - the handicap-30 golfer and two beginners - fell below the professional range at 48, 46 and 46 degrees, respectively, and these smaller X-factor angles correlated with slower club speeds at impact at 68, 66 and 56mph, respectively.
S-factor data
In addition, the study describes the S-factor, a term coined by the researchers, for the first time.
The researchers found that peak S-factor occurred after impact and was highly consistent among the pros, at a mean of 48 degrees.
The handicap-15 player and the two novices had lower S-factors of 42, 42 and 33 degrees, while the S-factors of the handicap-4 player and handicap-30 player both fell within the professional range.
Vital for Generating Power
Conrad Ray, the Knowles Family Doctor of Men's Golf at Stanford University and a co-author of this study, said the findings give scientific backing to the elements of golf-swing that professionals have long understood are vital for generating power.
How to Initiate the Downswing?
The study also helps to clarify some unresolved questions about golf-swing biomechanics, Ray said. "One question that always comes from students is, what starts the downswing?" he said.
People have different answers. "Some would say the hands, or others say the shoulders or the lower body. But the study confirms that rotation of the hips initiates the downswing. So that, to me, is an interesting finding."
How to Hit the Ball Longer?
Ray, who as the men's head golf coach led the Cardinal to five appearances in the NCAA championships and its eight title, said the study validates the importance of X-factor in generating club speed.
"All golfers want to know how to hit the ball longer, and this study supports that speed is really a factor of relative body rotation", he said.
They were limitations to the study. The authors note that they were unable to measure the outcome of the swings, such as distance and accuracy; measurements were made in a lab, with players hitting the ball into a net."
Reference : Provided by Stanford University Medical Center to PHYSORG.COM. Copyright © Stanford University Medical Center, Jessica Rose. Published as "Study of golf swings pinpoints biomechanical differences between pros and amateurs." at www.physorg.com 29 July 2011.
Thrust A Little Forward With Newest Golf Superstar Rory McIlroy
6 Step Golf Lesson by Michael Bannon, Coach to Golf's Newest Superstar Rory McIlroy.
Double DVD with 3D teaching model. www.6stepgolflesson.com Available on Amazon : Six Steps to Better Golf [DVD] [2009]
"It is my definite opinion that there need be no shifting of weight from left to right in the backstroke. The downswing or hitting stroke presents another picture. There is a shift here, but there is no sway." Robert Tyre (Bobby) Jones
Key Learning Point
"At last we are ready to begin, but we are not yet prepared to play our first round ; indeed, I will ask to let your clubs stay in the bag until you have mastered a simple exercise or two.
For I have now to impress upon your mind one of the prime essentials of good play.
It sounds very simple - keep your head steady.
But in practise it isn't so easy. The natural inclination is to let the body follow the club in the up swing, and of course the head goes with it. This swaying to the right is a common fault of the beginner, and it is quite the worst one that he can commit.
It keeps the body from entering properly into the stroke and as the arc of the circle in which the club head swings is constantly changing, accurate hitting is rendered impossible.
It may be laid down as an indispensable principle that the body turns only upon its vertical axis throughout the stroke, while the head is kept virtually stationary.
To make you understand this I am to give you a "setting-up" exercise, as they call it in the army.
Draw a chalk line on the floor or ground and stand with the left toe just touching the line and the right foot half way across it. Let the knees be slightly bent, as this will throw the weight back upon the heels where it ought to be.
The feet should no be too near together nor too wide apart, and both toes should be turned out. Let the arms fall naturally at the side with the head inclined a little forward and looking down.
Now turn the body to the right, still keeping the head in its original position.
After you have made about a quarter turn you will not be able to go further with any comfort unless you do one of two things - either you must sway to the right or you must ease off the strain on the left leg.
The first is wrong, the second right ; but you will not get the correct idea by simply rising on the left toe.
The proper motion is to let the left knee knuckle in towards the right leg. This will naturally drag the left heel off the ground and so permit the body to make a half turn to the right and still maintain its perpendicularity.
The swing to the right properly ends when the left shoulder faces squarely to the front.
The rest of the exercise is very simple.
From the extreme position to the right bring the body back to its original stance and then finish with a half turn to the left.
As the body turns back the left heel naturally finds the floor and the right one rises with the half turn to the left.
And all this time the head has been kept as immovable as possible, with the eyes fixed on the floor.
There is nothing difficult about this exercise ; it can be acquired perfectly in five minutes, but it is most important as tending to impress upon your mind the absolute necessity of keeping the head stationary.
A second essential is the proper wrist action..."
Reference : 'Lessons in Golf', Lesson I, First Principles by Alex Smith. Open Champion, United States and Western Open Champion New York, Arthur Potow, 48 West 27th Street 1907. Copyright by Arthur Pottow. Grannis Press New York.
Insights
"We love it when a tour player comes up to us and says, "Hey, you're working with so-and-so. I saw him on the range doing this," and he mimics a backswing with the spine tilting way left.
We love it because that's exactly what a good backswing should feel like.
The swing we teach looks different because the body never moves off the ball and we call it the Stack & Tilt swing.
Keeping your weight on your front foot is the simplest way to control where the club hits the ground, which is the first fundamental of hitting the ball.
Golfers who shift to the right on the backswing have to make precisely the same shift back to the left by impact. That complicated maneuver is the biggest source of frustration in the game today.
Let's go through our swing with Aaron, who has been stacked since last year."
Reference : The New Tour Swing, How it works, by Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett. Photos by J. D. Cuban, 2009. Golf Digest
Purpose: The magic line drill is tremendous for learning the basic body motion for the first move on the downswing.
It will help you move your lower body laterally on the downswing while keeping your head back. That's the magic move.
Tools: One alignment rod
Setup: Stick an alignment rod vertically into the ground. Without a club, walk into the alignment rod so its standing vertically from inside your left leg. Cross your arms and lower yourself into a good posture.
Drill: With your arms crossed, coil your upper body against your lower body and feel your weight moving into your right leg. The only part of your body still in front of the rod is your left foot.
When you start to feel tension from your coil, move your hips laterally so your belt buckle moves in front of the alignment rod. Do this while simultaneously keeping your head behind the alignment rod.
Result: The vertical alignment rod represents your ball position line, in which your hips must move towards and your head must stay behind. This will create optimal biomechanics for great driving - the lower body leads while the head stays back.
It can be a strain on your body if you practice this drill for a long period of time. But if you really want to be a great driver and add more yards, this is your drill."
Reference : 'Finally Down the Middle, 2011. A New Focus on Driving the Ball Farther and Straighter' By Adam Kolloff. Page 52, 53. Scratch Golf School. www.scratchgolfschool.com
Download: Finally Down the Middle December 2011 or Previous version August 2010
"Misconception 19: The golfer should try to shift his weight.
Reasons: The weight shift is created by shoulder and hip rotation. The shoulders turn and the one-piece takeaway is responsible for most weight shift on the backswing while the hip turn is responsible for the weight shift on the downswing.
There is minimal amount, if any, of sliding the hips during the swing."
Reference : 'Appendix 3 Golf Swing Misconceptions by Dr. Jim Suttie, PGA Professional Cog Hill Golf Course Lemont, Illinois, The PGA Manual of Golf by Gary Wiren PGA Master Professional, Ph.D. MacMillan USA Copyright © 1991 by The Professional Golfer's Association of America
"Pivoting," so called, consists in the turning of the hips and shoulders on the up and the down swings. There are two methods of pivoting:
a) Where the first movement of the pivot consists in a slight lateral movement or sway of the hips to the right ("hip-sway"), and thereafter the turn of the hips, and
b) Where the hips are turned without any conscious or intentional lateral (side) movement.
The inexpert player would be well advised not to turn either hip very much.
A fairly full turn of the right hip is permissible, but only for the expert player so that at impact he may get the benefit of its weight and power.
He gets much of his length in driving from adequate use of his ankles, legs and hips, as well as his arms and shoulders.
On the down swing, re-pivot the hips slightly in advance of your shoulders.
Be careful not to permit the right hip to drop at the commencement of the down swing. If it is allowed to drop, turf will be taken with consequent loss of direction and distance."
Reference : JAS. Currie Macbeth 's 'Modern (1933) Golfing Methods by British and American Experts'. Edited by Jas. Currie Macbeth, Vice-Chairman, Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, and Hon. Secretary, Pitreavie Golf Club Dunfermline. Copyright Reserved.
Remember, the backswing is a turn, not a sway.
Your head and upper body should remain directly over the ball.
Don't let them sway laterally to the right as you take your backswing.
A sway would require you to lunge back to the left as you return to the ball, ruining your swing.
The swing is a tilt and a turn, not a sway and a lunge.
Make the turn as if you were going to turn around and look at someone behind you.
The hips and shoulders turn smoothly together.
The left shoulder tilts and tucks itself under the chin."
Reference : Sam Snead's book 'The Driver Book, by Sam Snead', Chapters Three and Four. Preface by Byron Nelson, The Kaye Golf Trilogy, Vol. 1. Nicolas Kaye, London. Copyright © 1963 by Golf Digest, Inc.
Buy on Amazon : The Driver Book
"Any man who plays great golf over a long period of years must be a great driver. Obviously, Sam Snead has been one of the best. Sam has won more than 100 tournaments since he turned professional in 1934.
And who will ever forget Sam's 18-hole score of 59 against top competition during a round of the 1959 Greenbrier Open? During my playing days Sam was the best driver on the tour.
The history of the 275-yard drive down the middle has been a little like that of the four-minute mile. It seemed impossible until Roger Bannister ran it, and then many others started breaking the four-minute barrier. Snead did the same thing for driving a golf ball. Now, of course, fellows like Nicklaus and Palmer accurately hit well over 275 yards with regularity.
It is obvious Sam Snead can speak with authority in a book on driving. His voice makes it the book on driving. Byron Nelson, September 1963."
Body weight, in both ground strokes and in service, is transferred to the forward position before impact.
Because of this a player can follow through the ball farther without checking the racket speed.
If the body weight, being thrown in at impact, were the reason for additional power, the experts would have to keep their weight back in order to transfer it at impact.
The motion picture camera shows that this does not happen. The illusion that the body weight is thrown in the service stroke is due to the fact that the body gives more violently to a fast swing.
The eye cannot detect this moment of weight transfer.
Until the camera proved differently, tennis players believed that the body weight was thrown in at impact.
Now that this theory has been disproved, the power to hit is generally regarded as racket speed.
The body simply gives easily to the swing. Then why transfer weight at all?
Players transfer weight in order to get a longer backswing and a longer follow through. Over the long distance, more speed can be generated more smoothly.
This is especially important in the service, for the ball has no speed in it.
Reference : 'Design for Tennis' by Mary K. Browne A. S. Barnes and Company New York. Copyright © 1949 A. S. Barnes & Company, Inc. Foreword Helen McKinstry, LLD President Russel Sage College. Mary K. Browne is one of the great women tennis champions of all times. She has been three times National Singles Champion, five times National Ladies Doubles Champion, of the United States; as well as Wimbledon Ladies Doubles Champion of England and twice Captain of the International Wightman Cup Team.
"Mary Kendall Browne (June 3, 1891 – August 19, 1971) was the first American female professional tennis player, a World No. 1 amateur tennis player, and an amateur golfer.
She was born in Ventura County, California, United States. Browne was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association in 1913 (when the rankings began), 1914, 1921, 1924, and 1925. She was the top ranked U.S. player in 1914. Browne was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1957.
American tennis champion Mary Browne had been playing golf for only a few years when at the 1924 U.S. Women's Amateur, she was runner-up to champion Dorothy Campbell Hurd".
'As They Think' by Mary K. Browne, The Mental Attitudes of Casual Players Compared with Those of Champions, The American Golfer, June 1926.
"I have been asked more concerning my pivot that I have been asked about any other part of my stroke.
I am not aware that it differs radically from the pivot or turning that many other players make. I know that, again, it was through the influence of Alex Smith that I became accustomed to coming up so high on the left heel.
I have a little scheme of telling you how to gauge the feeling of the pivot.
If you stand as you would do in an ordinary manner and place both hands easily on your hips, you will find nothing akin to the golf stroke in that; next, however, I want you to turn your head and look at an object directly behind you.
Your hips have made a turn such as they will make in a full swing of golf.
If you return the head to the front without changing the position of the hips and look at the spot where the golf ball would have been if you were playing a game, then you will find the head and hips in the correct place for a hit and, also, the correct bend to the left knee while the right leg has the proper straightness.
I think it is a good plan to try this over in front of a mirror.
Body Balance
The feeling of the bend to the knee, the shifting of the weight from left leg to the right one, and the whole scheme of the balance, or equilibrium, are then felt and understood.
This is the first mention I have made of body balance, but it really is not so hard as some people would make it out to be.
Balance means to me the keeping of myself from falling over.
When I lift one foot from the sidewalk as I go along, I am not conscious of my one hundred and twenty-five pounds (57 kgs) being on the other foot. When I go from left foot to right on the swing I am still unconscious of the shifting weight.
However, I have the weight on the right foot, where I want it. For I want my weight back of the ball, where I can make use of it in sending the ball on its journey.
To Find Out How Far The Hips Can Go Around
To find out how far the hips can go around without making the head move, I have met in my golfing travels this scheme, and here is how I use it.
If I place my forehead against a wall and bend myself at the waist as I would addressing a golf ball on the tee, and then place again my hands on the hips, I can feel the hips moving from left to right. Thus, as I pivot, I can find out how far the hips will naturally move for me and yet maintain my head still and a perfect balance.
One of the most helpful thoughts to good golf is the thought of hitting with the hips.
I often try to see how far I can send the ball by taking the club as I ordinarily would and, not paying any attention to pivot, just turning the club with the hip movements. It surely is a surprise to see the distance that you can get in that way.
I think at times of pulling the right shoulder under on the swing-back and hitting through with the right hip.
Not so strange as it sounds, if you can get what I mean."
Reference : 'Golf For Young Players' by Glenna Collett, Women's National Amateur Champion (at age nineteen). With illustrations. Little, Brown, and Company 1926. This is a facsimile of the 1926 edition of the book "Golf For Young Players" Published by Old Golf Shop, Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio 1984.
"Too much thought about the mechanics is a bad thing for anyone's game. Now the reason why golf is so difficult is that you have to learn it and play through your senses.
You must be mindful but not thoughtful as you swing. You must not think or reflect; you must feel what you have to do.
Part of the difficulty arises because, apart from simple things like riding a bicycle, we have never learned to do things in this way.
The most difficult thing about learning golf is to learn to distract your mind from everything except the feeling of what you are about to perform.
Now no teacher can tell you in exact words how it feels when you make a certain movement correctly. You will have to use your imagination to interpret what he says, and if he is wise he will encourage you to use it.
Let me give you an example. I want to teach you to pivot from the hips.
Now I can show you how it is done and issue the usual mass of detailed instruction, but that does not call up your imagination and it gives you no conception of how it feels to pivot correctly.
So, instead of explaining all the mechanical and atomical details of the pivot to you, I show you how to pivot and then tell you to do it yourself imagining that you are standing in a barrel hip high and big enough to be just free of each hip but a close enough fit to allow no movement except the pivot.
At once you get the feeling of the pivot.
Incidentally nine out of ten golfers would improve their games if they would use this image to the fullest degree in practice.
So far so good; we can learn to feel the body turn to the right and round to the left, beautifully fixed in space by the hips.
Let me give you an example. I want to teach you to pivot from the hips.
Now I can show you how it is done and issue the usual mass of detailed instruction, but that does not call up your imagination and it gives you no conception of how it feels to pivot correctly.
So, instead of explaining all the mechanical and atomical details of the pivot to you, I show you how to pivot and then tell you to do it yourself imagining that you are standing in a barrel hip high and big enough to be just free of each hip but a close enough fit to allow no movement except the pivot.
At once you get the feeling of the pivot.
Incidentally nine out of ten golfers would improve their games if they would use this image to the fullest degree in practice.
So far so good; we can learn to feel the body turn to the right and round to the left, beautifully fixed in space by the hips.
Now carry the image a stage further: first, as you pivot sink down from the knees - you will feel that if you sink down, even ever so little, you will become stuck in the barrel.
This will not do, so you must feel that you keep your hips up on a level with the top of the barrel.
Do this and you will develop the feeling of keeping your hips up as you pivot - a thing which unfortunately for our golf very few of us do.
Now the golf swing is a connected series of sensations or feels ad when you get all these feels right and rightly connected you will swing perfectly.
I have just given you the feel of the pivot - the movement on which the modern swing is based.
Now to that one basic feel, the pivot, we will add other feels, and every feel gives you a new control until your whole game is controlled and you can play it as you will.
But do not think you cannot play until you have this whole series of controls established. Lots of players go through their golfing lives and get a lot of fun out of the game without building any controls at all! But the more controls you can build and link together, the better for your game, the finer the conception of the swing you will evolve.
Let us get back to the visualizing of your swing.
We have laid our foundation by getting the feel of the pivot from the hips. This movement goes up through the body to the next control point - the shoulders. And here I believe that wrong imagination does a great deal of damage to many people's swings.
We think that in the fine swing we see the left shoulder come down as we come back and the right shoulder come down as we come forward; so we feel that this shoulder movement is right and tend to encourage it - to the detriment of our swings because it is wrong.
And I say it is wrong, cheerfully certain that it is wrong in spite of its almost universal acceptance.
How much the shoulders actually dip depends upon how erect we stand when addressing the ball. We should stand as erect as possible and I contend that we should not feel our shoulders go down but feel that we are keeping them fully up.
As we address the ball we look at it a little sideways - we peep at it. The head is fixed (because you "keep" your eye on the ball), and the movement of the shoulders is not an independent movement of the shoulders at all, but is due to the shoulders being moved around from the pivot.
We can only keep the shoulder movement in a fixed groove and make it repeatable time after time, by keeping the shoulders at the limit of upness in whatever position the turn from the hips may have placed them. Any excess of upness (that is, actual shoulder lift) will result in the ball being lost sight of.
In short, the fixed head determines the limit of lift and dip of the shoulders.
You will see that this is why you must feel you keep the shoulders up to the same degree with, say, a driver and a full swing and a mashie niblick (a more upright club) (Ed. equivalent to the present No. 7 iron) and a half swing.
The closer you stand to your ball the more upright the swing and the more directly downward your sight of the ball...also, the less extensive the swing you can make without losing sight of the ball.
From the shoulders our power travels down through the arms, and as to arm action also I believe the common conception to be erroneous. Most people think they lift their arms to get them to the top of the back swing. With a modern controlled swing they do not lift them...and the arms work absolutely subjectively to the shoulders, that is why there are controlled.
But, you may say, if I do not lift my arms how do I get them to the top of my swing?
To find the answer, think this out.
As you stand to the ball with the wrists slightly up, there is a straight line practically from the club head up the shaft and along your arm to the left shoulder, and as your hands are already waist high it needs only the inclining of the shoulders as we turn (on the pivot) to bring them shoulder high, without having altered their relative positions at all.
They have not been lifted; they have gone up in response to the shoulder movement. This accounts for the curtailment and the control of the modern swing.
Naturally, the more flexible we are the more we can get our hands up without breaking this connection, that is, without moving the arms independently.
The triangle formed by our arms and a line between the shoulders should never lose its shape...
Now to my mind the foregoing are the three basic feels of the golf swing
- the pivot,
- the shoulders moving in response to the pivot, and,
- the arms moving in response to the shoulders.
These are the basic movements of a connected and therefore controlled swing, and they must all be built into the framework of your feel of the swing.
Of course there are many additional nuances and supplementary feels which you will build up and recognize as your game develops, but though you will add to these three fundamentals you will never alter them. Therein lies much of their value."
Reference : 'On Learning Golf' by Percy Boomer. Chapter VIII Preparatory to the Swing. Copyright © 1946 by Percy Boomer. First published in the USA by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
"All the good shots in the game (all, at any rate, except the putt, which is a thing apart) are founded on the principle of the body turning on a pivot instead of swaying back and then lunging forward at the ball.
The pivot is the waist.
No doubt everybody who has made the slightest study of golf appreciates this piece of orthodoxy, but the number of people who disregard it, even though they realise its importance, constitute about half the golfing world.
There is many a person who will declare that he is not swaying, when you know all the while that he is.
A common cause of swaying is a tendency to take the club up too quickly.
If you are standing properly, the procedure which produces a satisfactory shot is simply this: The club-head starts first, the arms follow, and the body screws round at the hips with the head kept still until the instrument is in position behind the head.
Coming down, the club-head again starts first, the arms follow, and the hips unscrew until the ball is struck, and the pace which the club has been gathering on its downward journey produces what we call the follow-through.
If you turn correctly, the right leg will straighten as you take the club up."
Reference : 'The Gist of Golf' by Harry Vardon, Chapter I: The Driving Swing, pages. Illustrated from Photographs Posed by the Author. New York. George H. Doran Company, 1922.
"Balance is critical to athletic performance.
In golf, one deals with balance in two directions.
As in other sports examples of athletic "at-ready" positions, the forward-to-back balance in the setup will be near the balls of the feet for the full swinging motion.
The heels and toes are used as stabilizers like training wheels on a child's bike.
Once the swing begins, the weight then shifts toward the right heel on the backswing and toward the left heel on the forward swing.
Only in the short game (chipping, pitching and putting), where the ball is played closer to the body, does the center of balance shift more toward the heels in the setup.
There is, in fact, a progression of weight distribution from the balls of the feet to the heels as a player works from a long to a short club.
It is a natural adjustment.
But, if one is not sure that he is adjusting properly, here is an easy way to check.
On short shots, the forward-to-back balance should allow one to wiggle the toes when set.
For full swing shots, one should be able to comfortably tap the heels on the ground."
Reference: Gary Wiren's "The PGA Manual of Golf The Professional's Way to Play Better Golf", PGA Master Professional, Ph. D. Macmillan A Simon & Schuster Macmillan Company Copyright © 1991 by The Professional Golfer's Association of America.
"One of the most difficult faults to cure in golf is that of the right shoulder coming forward and outside on the way down.
It should come down inside and, when it does not, it is because it has become part of the hips; its connection with the hips is so lacking in flexibility that it is controlled by them and follows their movement.
Actually we should use the flexibility of our back muscles to delay our shoulder action (in its relation to the pivot) in the same way that we allow our wrists to break back in order to set up delay in our clubhead...
When our right shoulder persists in coming forward, it is because this flexibility has been lost by the muscles of the back being too tense.
Now I have already told you that the clubhead follows the movement of the right hip; that is, the brace forward and to the left of the right hip will induce the swing that feels to go from in-to-out. How does the right shoulder operate in this?
When you study the feel of flexible shoulder action, you will find a number of sensations.
One curious sensation is that we do not feel that the right shoulder comes inside from the front of our body but from behind it.
We feel not that it is being pulled inside by the muscles of the chest, but that it is being pushed inside by the muscles of the back."
Reference : 'On Learning Golf' by Percy Boomer. Chapter VIII Preparatory to the Swing and Chapter XIV The Force Center, . Copyright © 1946 by Percy Boomer. First published in the USA by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
"Do YOU realize that 95 per cent of the people who play golf are slicers?
There are several reasons why a slice is so devastating. Since the drive on 14 of the 18 holes, usually, are with a wooden club, it means the slicer is getting off to a bad start on most of the holes every time he plays.
He may even lie three, four, or five by the time he finally gets his ball on the fairway. All chance of a decent score on that hole is gone, even though he plays his irons well to the green.
What exasperates the slicer even more is that the harder he tries to hit the ball straight, the more he slices. On the rare occasions when he unconsciously hits a good shot, he doesn't know how he did it.
A wild hope surges, but this is dashed a few shots later, and the unhappy soul spends the rest of the round trying to figure out how he happened to hit that one good one.
What causes that exasperating curve to the right?
It is caused by the face of the club being "open" at the moment of impact with the ball. By "open" we mean that the face points, or faces, to the right of the direction the club head is following. The direction of the club head determines which way the ball will start. The position of the club face determines whether the ball will curve, which way, and how much.
So the open face is what we are going to attack and eliminate. How will we do it? We will do it by teaching you what we call the Square Face System of hitting the ball."
Reference : 'Stop That Slice' by Joe Dante and Len Elliott. Illustrated by Bill Crawford. London : Herbert Jenkins Limited Copyright © 1954
"To hit a good iron shot, your club must contact the ball before the sole of the club gets to the bottom of its arc.
This gets backspin on the ball, eliminates hitting behind the ball, and gets the hands ahead of the ball as the shot is hit.
Having the weight borne more on the left foot than on the right as you're coming into the ball is the way of getting the correct downward path of the iron."
Reference : Tommy Armour's book 'How To play Your Best Golf ALL THE TIME', Illustrated by Lealand Gustavson, Copyright © 1953, by Thomas D. Armour. Published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. New York, 1953.
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