The Natural Golf Swing (12 page)

Jack Nicklaus’s teacher Jack Grout makes the point very well about the importance of proper alignment. He tells of watching Nicklaus prior to a round in the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Nicklaus, it seems, was hitting the ball worse than he ever had. It was all due to his very closed shoulder alignment; the trouble was that Nicklaus didn’t know it. He had compensated for his sloppy alignment by re-routing his swing. Since he was doing so subconsciously,
he had no way of correcting himself. Nicklaus thought he was setting up down the centre of the fairway, but he was aimed out-of-bounds to the right.

Grout saw Nicklaus again a few days later at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Nicklaus was still setting up far to the right with his shoulders closed. Grout turned him around properly, even a bit open, as the shoulders should be, but Nicklaus had gotten so used to his misshapen alignment that he refused to believe he could get the ball in the fairway from the position Grout had put him in. Grout told him, effectively, “Trust me. Swing.”

Nicklaus swung all right. Every ball flew straight down the middle. The greatest player in the world hadn’t known that he was aligning himself improperly. He needed another pair of eyes to help him see his mistake. Until Grout corrected him, Nicklaus had been compensating physically for his visual distortion.

I mention the Nicklaus story to point out the importance of accurate alignment. Always be on the lookout for any laziness that creeps into your set-up. If you go wrong here, you will go wrong elsewhere. Start in a good position, as I must emphasize, and you’ll help ensure that you’ll finish in a good position; the result you desire will be the inevitable by-product.

The length and lie of the golf club determine our posture in the starting position. We want to stand as tall as we can. We neither stretch to the ball nor reach for it.

Take a five-iron in your hand and grip it as instructed. Place it on the ground so that the sole lies flat. Now, simply bend slightly from the waist to allow the arms to hang in a natural extension. Your knees will flex a bit as you do so.

Proper posture is proud posture. If you stand to the ball comfortably and in good height you will pre-set the conditions for attaining a maximum arc during the motion.

Arc is the perimeter of the swing, as defined by the line the clubhead traces through its path during the motion. You could define the arc if you were to trace the line of that perimeter. All we want to do is ensure that the arc is never less than maximum throughout the motion. It’s easy to repeat a maximum arc because there is then no question as to swinging in an intermediate space. Imagine that you are driving on a ring road around a city. The road can be represented as an arc. You know you need only stay on this road to reach a certain destination, or exit. But you might get lost if you went inside the ring, into the congested city space. You might also get lost if you travelled outside the ring, that is, beyond the arc. And this would result in a loss of balance.

The starting form.

The arc in the golf swing is the ring road, as measured by its distance from the centre. Stay on it and you will be consistent. Vary from it and you court inconsistency.

Anything less than a maximum arc is an out-of-balance condition. A maximum arc is a matter of elevation and posture throughout the swing, along with extension. And we can construct the foundation for this in the starting position.

You’ll give yourself your best chance for a maximum arc if you let your arms hang in the starting position. They’ll stretch to their maximum as you swing. They’ll also move along at a reasonable and correct pace since there’s neither restriction nor resistance.

One more item: it’s important that you evaluate your starting position every time you prepare to make a swing. Here’s a check list:

Practise the starting form whenever you can. Think about balance and the elements will fall into place. Get the grip, stance, alignment, and posture right and you’ll be well on your way to developing a natural swing motion. You’ll be a well-organized golfer. You’ll have arranged the preliminary items in such a way that you’ll have a splendid chance of getting the job done. It’s amazing how much progress a formerly confused golfer can make just by getting the starting position right. It really sets him up. It really makes him feel like a golfer. And balance is the key. If we don’t understand balance we have no basis from which to operate. Everything in the natural swing motion derives from balance.

B
EFORE
beginning the swing motion, let’s review the reasoning behind the starting form. Since the golf swing is one unified motion, it’s fair to say that the starting form is a lead-in. It sets the tone of harmony and ease. It asks nothing of you but a sense of balance and proportion. You’re now ready to make an efficient motion. The starting form gives you a chance to execute properly.

Why do I prefer to call the backswing a loading motion? I believe the word “backswing” alone suggests that we
take
the club back to a position. It implies that it is a discrete part of the swing. Certainly it is convenient to divide the swing into the backswing and downswing portions, but I differ with the idea that these are two separate actions. They aren’t, as we will see. In fact, the unloading motion begins while we are still in the loading motion.

The term “loading” seems to me a useful one. It implies energy and commitment. The very tone of the word gives you the feeling that something is going to happen, something vigorous and energizing.

Weight transfer and trunk rotation.

The purpose of the loading motion is to gather energy. We do so by transferring weight to the right foot while rotating the body around the trunk. These actions seem to happen in unison, but in reality we initiate the motion with a shift of weight toward the right foot. The upper body and shoulders pick up the beat almost immediately and follow. The feet carry the body, as in walking. It’s important to understand that there need not be any sense of urgency in loading. We want to feel relaxed. Transfer weight and let the energy accumulate. This will generate a pleasant feeling in which we feel connected; a far different sensation than if we were to initiate the motion by picking the club up. This, of course, would immediately ruin balance and compromise arc and plane.

We have completed the loading motion when approximately seventy-five per cent of our weight is on our right side. I say seventy-five per cent because it is impossible to shift a hundred per cent of our weight to the right side without losing balance. The loading motion is also less of a rotation than the unloading motion, and so some twenty-five per cent of our weight remains forward of the right foot. While loading, we rotate through ninety degrees; while unloading, we rotate through 180 degrees.

It might appear that during the loading motion the clubhead is travelling first, followed by the hands, shoulders, hips, knees, and finally the left foot. However, all parts are moving together. It just so happens that the clubhead is travelling further than the hands, shoulders, hips, knees, and the left foot. Everything is moving in unison.

Fully loaded.

You might wonder how you know that you have completed the loading motion. After all, you haven’t got a scale that tells you when you have shifted seventy – five per cent of your weight rearward. The indicator is a sixth sense that you will develop and that is dependent upon your sensitivity to balance and your awareness of your target. Let me explain.

Centrifugal force will have carried the club a good distance; as far, in fact, as it need go. You don’t have to worry about reaching that much-talked about position where the clubshaft is level to the ground with the clubhead pointing down the target line. The force propels the club to a position that represents an outer limit for
you
, given your flexibility. Were you not practising the natural swing governed by laws of motion and balance, you might think you should carry the club further back; or perhaps drop it to what you think is a level-to-the-ground position. (Golfers mean this when they ask: “Have I
reached parallel?”) They are referring to the level-to-the-ground position. Such maneuvers are superfluous. They create a false sense of security because they take place
after
you have completed the loading motion. The loading motion is over when centrifugal force has taken you as far as you can go while maintaining balance. You’ll soon learn and become sensitive to any extra manipulations. You’ll realize that you are letting yourself get out of balance. Let the club flow. That’s the key word: LET.

The intensity of your target awareness will also contribute to your sense of when you have completed the loading motion. It operates in conjunction with your sensitivity to balance. You know that your objective is to make a motion toward the target. You’ve fixed the image of the target on your mind’s eye. And since you are so aware of the target, you also sense when it is time to start moving toward it, that is, to begin the unloading motion. This will happen sometime toward the end of the loading motion, which is why I say that loading and unloading are part of the same motion.