The Natural Golf Swing (16 page)

Here the golfer is warned against lifting the club as he starts the backs wing, or what I call the loading motion. The idea does encourage width in the arc, but unfortunately the wording causes golfers to emphasize the “low and slow” aspect while ignoring the important roles weight transfer and rotation play in moving the club back. The club goes back low and slow if the golfer initiates his motion through footwork. Initiation with the hands induces, rather than prevents, quickness and lifting.

This suggestion can also result in the dreaded reverse pivot. A golfer who pays attention to this tip is prone to dragging the club back along the ground. He’ll probably get stuck on his feet; he’ll have introduced very little lower-body motion by the time he has swung the club back low and slow.

If you think about it, “straight back” is geometrically impossible because of the pitch of the plane as set up in the starting form. The club must travel on a generally circular route.

You promote a smooth takeaway by refining your footwork on the takeaway in combination with rotation and passive hands.
The club will track as low and slow as it needs to before turning round your body as trunk rotation takes it there.

It’s true that a longer swing will result in more distance than a shorter swing. A bigger arc will result in a greater build-up of clubhead speed. This is why I’ve always said that I couldn’t beat Tom Weiskopf if we were both playing to the maximum of our abilities. He’s 6′3″ and I’m 5′10″. He’s bound to hit the ball further, all other swing-motion conditions being equal. He simply has more arc.

Notice that I said, “all other swing-motion conditions being equal.” I am assuming we would both be making the best use of the fundamentals of the natural golf swing. And since Weiskopf’s swing is longer than mine, he will generate more length. His height advantage will produce a greater circumference to his arc. He has room to build up more centrifugal force. But should he merely swing the club back a good distance without moving his body, he would develop very little energy. If this were the case, then, I would hit the ball further than he would.

Energy develops when the swing motion creates maximum extension under the conditions of weight transfer and rotation. We dissipate energy when we swing the clubhead. By all means, swing longer, but with your body, not your hands. Make an honest swing motion, not an ineffectual swing.

I dislike the notion of
placing
the club anywhere. Many golfers who go along with this idea do nothing but drop the club to what they think is the parallel location – parallel to the intended line of flight. They do so, moreover, by using their hands in the absence of body involvement. The consequence is that they generate very little momentum during their backswing; they make, in effect, an artificial backswing.

All the more power to the golfer who can
reach
parallel at the top of his swing; as long as he does so via weight transfer
and rotation. This is a true backswing – when the bigger muscles of the body carry the club to its inevitable destination. The club’s exact location at the top of the swing is also dependent on a golfer’s flexibility. I wouldn’t worry about where your club is at the top; concentrate on activating with the lower body and power will surge from the legs through the hips, trunk, upper chest, shoulders, and arms, and out into the clubhead. This is a natural sequence that you set in motion via footwork. Conscious hand action interrupts the pattern and falsifies the backswing.

The golfer who reaches parallel at the top of his swing has not necessarily made an effective swing motion. The appropriate top-of-the-backswing position is a result, not an action, and involuntary, not voluntary. Let the clubhead flow back. Give up control to gain control.

This rather captivating image is a variation on the previous theme. The thinking is that if you can hold the platter skyward you will have reached that supposedly desirable top-of-the-backswing position. We are again told to make something happen. But we will attain this position, or close to it, if we simply allow the club to flow back on its own, governed as always by balance, weight transfer, and trunk rotation.

Here’s one that could do some damage. The theory is that by holding the handkerchief you will keep your arms in close to
your body during the swing. The natural golf swing is one in which you don’t focus on the precise location of your arms. If you set up well and incorporate the principles of weight transfer and rotation, your arms will swing back on track. They can’t do otherwise if you don’t interfere. You’ve arranged the path during the starting position and established it by your motion.

We’re told to set the angle early, that is, break our wrists as soon as we start our backswing. Then we’re to retain that angle between the wrists and the clubhead until just before impact, when we are to consciously let our wrists uncock. Or else we’re advised to cock the wrists at the top of the swing, or as soon as we begin our downswing. The common theme is that we must
do something
that is a by-the-way, involuntary happening.

We’ve seen that the wrists cock on their own as we swing back and through. To add wrist cock is to exaggerate. We also influence the plane and arc by adding wrist cock. The damage done to the natural swing is irreparable. Remember the rule: we do nothing at the expense of balance. Cocking the wrists is an out-of-balance condition.

The golfer who concentrates on any single position during the swing is likely to exaggerate that position. Emphasis on the placement of the right elbow during the swing is an interference that will throw the club off-plane. You will also destroy your arc.

The transfer of weight and trunk rotation will generate a natural folding of the right elbow during the backswing. Maximum extension will ensure that the elbow is in its correct and most useful position.

Here’s one that makes golfers think they have found a genuine secret to the game. It also makes them crazy, since it’s based on a misperception of an effect of the downswing when we transfer weight from the right foot to the left foot, which drops the downswing plane. It appears that the golfer is pulling the club down as if he were pulling a
church bell. It even feels like a pull. That’s how it felt to Sam Snead, perhaps
the
natural golfer. He came up with this image. However, we are not pulling. We are being pulled. If you consciously pull, you will destroy your swing plane. We feel the pull because of centrifugal force; the clubhead is pulled outward and downward. The shoulder joints extend because of the force as long as we are relaxed.

The transfer of weight that initiates the unloading motion actually begins when we are still moving back. We’ve been intent on weight transfer and rotation from our starting positions – they are the motors that drive the motion. At the same time, we are focused on our target. That focus, that intent of moving to our target, is what initiates the downswing: Had we no serious intent of moving to the target, we would have a difficult time knowing when to begin the downswing motion. Given target awareness, however, and given our desire to maintain balance, we will begin the downswing motion when we sense it is time to do so; not to do so would be to fall out of balance. This is a sensory experience that we cannot codify or legislate. I cannot tell you when to begin your downswing motion. I can only tell you that as you become more sensitive to balance you will know when to do so.

This is a reasonable and popular means of transferring weight to the left side and checking against initiating the downswing with the hands. It’s been suggested that the golfer who initiates his downswing with a lateral motion of his hips will begin a chain reaction that will result in a multiplication of power and clubhead speed.

The majority of golfers will find it difficult to time the lateral weight shift with the hips. Furthermore, this is a disturbance
and impediment to balance. As you now know, I advise beginning the downswing motion with a transfer of weight from the right foot onto the left foot. Some teachers advise us to turn our hips back to the left, and hard and quickly enough to transfer the weight to the left foot. I believe that the
natural
movement of transferring weight from the right to the left foot will do the job more easily. As long as we keep our minds on where we are going we will transfer weight to the left foot. This will result in our hips turning out of the way to the left; it’s a natural result rather than a conscious action that we must learn; involuntary rather than voluntary.

The other problem that comes from concentrating on weight transfer through lateral shift is that we begin to worry about how much lateral shift we are to impose. We also are prone to throwing our hips forward while restricting ourselves elsewhere. A violent lateral shift can also be painful.

A suggestion: make a motion to the top of the backswing. Feel the weight on your right foot. Now transfer your weight onto your left foot. Observe what happens to your hips. They have shifted on their own.

Now begin the downswing by shifting your hips laterally. Notice how strenuous this feels. Do you also not tend to hold weight back on your right side?

We want to keep the motion intact from start to finish. So allow your weight to go from left to right and right to left. You’ll be able to repeat your motion much more often this way.

Unnecessary. Granted, your left heel will come up as you transfer weight from your left to right side during the backswing motion, and it will come down again as you move back to the left foot on your throughswing. But banging your left heel will force you off-plane by pulling your weight to the inside.

We are looking for maximum width in the arc without violating balance. A smooth transition of weight is the most effective means of doing so. Think of transferring the weight back on to the left foot and you will have every chance of attaining a stable finish position. You will ruin
your chances of doing so if you initiate the downswing by banging the left heel into the ground.

To pronate is to bend the left hand upward so that the angle between the left wrist and forearm is U- or V-shaped. To supinate is to bend or thrust the wrist forward. Many golfers feel they should pronate the wrists at the beginning of their backswing motion, and supinate the left wrist at impact so that the hands are ahead of the clubhead at impact.

Golfers who feel they must pronate and supinate misinterpret what they see. They observe certain positions and assume that the golfer they are watching has made them happen. But there is neither pronation nor supination in the natural golf swing. Passive hands and wrists generate proper positions on their own. You will see in the “plane control” drill that the toe of the club faces skyward during the loading motion and again faces skyward during the unloading motion. Passive hands have taken the toe to these positions, but the golfer who misinterprets what he sees will think he’s observing pronation and supination. The fact is that nothing has happened with the hands and wrists. They have remained in the same formation all the way through the motion.

The most enjoyable way to finish the swing is to let yourself finish it. There’s no need to contrive a position. The swing motion will take you to the best finishing position, in balance with all your weight on the left foot. You’ll be staring at the target in natural elevation. But you won’t have invented the position. It will be a logical conclusion to a pure motion. You’ll get to the “finish high” position naturally. You won’t have to put yourself there.

T
HE FOLLOWING DRILLS
are designed to eliminate any unnecessary motion in the swing. They will also introduce you to the weight transfers and rotations. I suggest you practise each one daily for a few minutes. You’ll soon be quite comfortable with the motions and will have eliminated much of the excess activity that was present in your swing. You’ll realize how economical and efficient the swing motion is. It’s the golf swing stripped to its essentials.

This opening drill will help you develop the sensations involved in transferring weight. It will also help you establish the starting and finishing positions.

Pick a target in a room. Assume the stance of the starting position. The right foot is square or at right angles to the target. Place your left foot slightly outside your shoulder with the foot pointed open about twenty-five degrees to your target. Your weight will be evenly distributed between your feet, that is, fifty-fifty. Your posture is up; you are standing proudly.