Yet all this information barely makes a difference. We see the results every day of our working lives and experience has taught us overwhelmingly that almost every golfer naively believes that the next golden tip or magic clue will elevate them to a higher level.
Let’s face it, it’s what everyone hopes for, one quick fix and everything will suddenly fall into place. Unfortunately it’s not as easy as that. The majority of golfers fail to realize that golf must be learnt in the same way that one would learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument or fly an aeroplane. The reason for this is that it is possible for anyone to hit a good golf shot purely by accident. Learning a good golf swing is no different to learning anything of value. It must be learnt under controlled circumstances, slowly, one step at a time and in great detail.
The golf delusion:
The majority of golfers fail to realize that golf must be learnt in the same way that one would learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument or fly an aeroplane. The reason for this is that it is possible for anyone to hit a good golf shot purely by accident.
However, if there is one thing that can be said to be the most important thing in the golf swing, it is the directions that the hands and wrists swing the club, initially through the backswing and subsequent throughout the downswing into the ball and into the follow through. It is the hand and wrist action that most separates the good player from the bad.
This may indeed feel very strange but this only highlights the fact that in golf the position that you think you are in is actually very different to the position you are actually in.
The hands must be live and active, controlling the clubhead and swing plane throughout the backswing and downswing; anticipating and making the delivery of the clubhead into the ball. The interlocking grip does very little to help this. In our experience we find that it forces the club into the palms of the hands, thus disconnecting the club from the fingers and destroying the hands’ ability to swing freely throughout the swing.
Above all, the posture should anticipate movement. It is similar to that of a tennis player waiting on the baseline to receive a serve or a goalkeeper anticipating in which direction the penalty taker will take his shot.
He told us that he’d started to point his right knee slightly towards the target at address and was keen to hear our opinion as to whether or not this was good technique. We assured him that it was indeed good technique and something that was once part of our standard swing model. This slight inward flexing of the knee has 2 main benefits, as our friend had discovered. In the first instance, he felt that it stabilized his right knee on the backswing. Secondly, it allowed him to pre-empt the crucial knee, foot and hip movement into impact.
They simply wouldn’t believe where they were in their swing. One of the constant difficulties in the golf swing is that where you think you are, is rarely where you actually are.
The finish must also be learnt in great detail — it won’t just happen. The clubhead must maintain a sustained contact with the ball. The arms must retain their radius from the center point of the body through knee to hip height.
If you simply think about making a swing change and then proceed to swing the club at your normal speed, you will have very little chance of learning and mastering a new movement. The swing must be learnt in the smallest possible segments, what we term “super-slow motion.” By moving through the swing one frame at a time, you will be able to feel where the club should be at each and every stage of the swing and correct it if you feel it moving off its intended line.
Learning the correct takeaway dictates everything that follows.
It is vital that the clubface is square by the time it reaches a point 6 inches before the ball.
The arms must retain their radius from the center point of the body through knee to hip height.
9 out of 10 golfers are hopelessly out of position at the top of the backswing.
9 out of 10 golfers destroy the swing plane within the few feet of the takeaway.
As you take the club back you must try to take it back as slowly as you possibly can. Not only must you take the club back in super slow motion, you must also stop at each stage illustrated.
Once we have explained and outlined the takeaway, most pupils can take the club back, quite proficiently, to just before hip height. It is the next move, however, that almost all students struggle with. Just before hip height is the point at which the wrists must hinge slightly upwards and you must, while learning, perform this movement at the slowest speed possible.
Unfortunately, it is at this stage that 9 out of 10 golfers allow the wrists to roll or twist and drop the club to horizontal — the tragic move.
From 70 years’ experience we can say, in the strongest possible terms, that if a “magic move” exists in golf, this is it. So please read and re-read this page along with the backswing hand line master sequence. It is the most crucial part of our program for immediate improvement.
There should be positively no conscious wrist or forearm rotation in the backswing. The hands and wrists maintain the angle that they were in at the address and simply hinge slightly upwards. The scientific term for this type of movement is “radial deviation.”
Throughout the backswing and the swing itself, the body and hands and arms must work in unison. The shoulders turn on a relatively flat plane while the hands and arms swing upwards to an angle of 45 degrees. The movement is rather like a patting your head while rubbing your tummy at the same time.
Think of a footballer about to take a free kick (a useful analogy to golf, as the ball is stationary). The player positions his body in such a way as to allow a free swing of his leg and foot to the ball. He doesn’t pull his leg back against resistance (to store energy); instead he positions his left leg and body to stabilize the position. This then allows him to swing his right leg back and subsequently kick the ball.
An analogy he frequently used when describing the feeling of a correct left shoulder movement on the backswing: He told his pupils to “give it a backhander.”
Like most powerfully built men, he subconsciously believed that his bulk would be an advantage in propelling the ball great distance. This was most certainly not the case.
A lot of golf is counter-intuitive. It doesn’t seem to make sense. Ben Hogan put it best, “Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing.”
Stopping at the top is a great way to practice: It allows you to complete the backswing with ultimate care and start the downswing on its intended line. This allows you to complete the backswing with absolute precision. Think of an archer as he draws back the bow and pauses momentarily before delivering the arrow to its target.
Throughout the 70s and early 80s, the backswing body poise was badly abused. Teaching methods such as “square to square” (which was in fact closed to open) caused players to rock their bodies back and through the swing in order to keep the face of the club square. Players who flirted with this method ended up with a bad back from the pressure directed to the small of the back with the tilting and turning of the spine.
Top amateur golfers of the past tended to come from the “higher ranks” as golf was very much an elitist sport. You had to be reasonably wealthy to devote the time needed to be good and have the right connection to join the clubs that would provide a challenge for the better player. The professional ranks were generally made up by ex-caddies who had lived and breathed the game as they struggled to make a living. The rewards for the successful player were not great and offered no incentive for the comfortably-off amateur to balance his business with a life on tour. It seems hard to believe to day, with professionals lauded to star status, but years ago the pro was actually looked down on. In fact, up until the 1950s, the poor old pro wasn’t event allowed in the clubhouse!
- The wrists must not roll, either in takeaway or through impact.
- Concentrate on a connected body turn rather than an independent hit with the arms and hands.
If you take a look at the pictures opposite you’ll probably think that these tour players have pulled the club down stiff-wristed into the pre-release position. Nothing could be further from the truth! The hand and wrist action should be fluid, supple and about as far removed from stiff-waisted as possible. There should be no flail of the wrists, but a very distinctive play in the wrists, with the wrists live and active as the arms swing down.
This is impossible to see in still photography. There is no getting away from the fact that in these pictures they look as if they have chopped the club down. We can assure you they have not.
When we first started teaching, back in the 1970s, there were many individualistic swings on the professional tour. These days such swings are very much in the minority and 90% of tour pros share the same basics that you are being taught in this book — and with very good reason. The simpler the swing, the simpler it is to repeat each and every time.
In almost all other ball sports, with the exception of snooker, pool and croquet, you need to have a quick reflex and get to the ball before it gets past you. This is the total opposite to golf, where the reflex must be suppressed until the club is delivered to and through the ball. The idea of hitting at the ball is totally alien to good golfing technique.
As he tees off, he shudders as he recalls his 1st experience of the dreaded 1st tee. A man used to performing at the highest level in front of 42K spectators reduced to a quivering wreck by a group of established members sipping gin and tonics on the clubhouse balcony, wishing him to fail. They too have been hugely successful in their own fields: a doctor, a scientist and a veteran from a bloody foreign conflict, but they too have been reduced to a bag of nerves by the infamous 1st tee.
Conscious thought is the enemy of all golfers and it is totally impossible to play a round of golf while thinking consciously on any isolated part of the movement.
When playing full pitch shots, it is important to pay close attention to the follow through at the completion of the swing. The shaft should be vertical, almost in line with the pin. If the shaft is allowed to go to the horizontal, it is a sure sign that you have used too much wrist action through the ball.
The finest aid to putting is confidence, which is gained mainly from walking up and picking the ball out of the hole. In putting, nothing succeeds like success. Confidence is also gained from the feeling that you are going to strike the ball as it should be struck.
The stance is balanced and comfortable and tension is not allowed to creep in at any stage of the stroke. The eyes are directly over the ball and the hands grip the club as lightly as possible, no tighter than is necessary for control of the putter. The back of the left hand and the palm of the right are square, to the line of the putt. Both thumbs are on top of the shaft.
Golf is a game that will always attack your nerves and exploit your imagination if you allow it to.
Your refuge, when the imagination threatens to overcome self-discipline and when you feel the tension mounting, is the picture of the shape of your swing, which you should keep stored in your mind. Only through this mental picture can you feel and sense the position of the clubhead at the various stages of the movement.
You must put your swing and delivery to the sustained test of regular competition golf, if real headway is to be made. Only by absorbing the atmosphere and reducing the tension through regular experience of competitive play can you give your swing and delivery a real chance to make the grade.
The bad shot must be accepted, shrugged off and forgotten.
Always keep in mind that you are not beaten, neither have you won, until the final putt drops into the hole.
Make up your mind to go on playing each stroke as it comes, giving your undivided attention to that particular stroke regardless of what may have happened before or problems which may or may not lie ahead. In this way you will learn with experience the invaluable, yet elusive, art of stringing your shots together.
Hit your first 10-15 shots in slow motion to ensure that you are moving through the correct angles. Gradually increase your swing speed until it is about three-quarters of what you believe is your natural tempo. In this way you will replicate the tempo of those at the very top of the game.
One of the most common errors into which your practice can lead you is the temptation to reel off shot after shot in quickfire style. This will unquestionably cause your swing to become quicker and quicker. The swing needs to be smooth and unhurried at all times. Take your time between each shot, and relax for a few minutes between each 6 or 7.
The game of golf is very much a battle between the conscious and the subconscious mind. You can think of making a position. You can think of making a shape to the swing. But the blending of a delivery into the shape must be done by training the hands and the clubhead to react subconsciously. That is, by imitating the intention which is portrayed in your practice swing.
If a player is so absorbed in the delivery that he is over-eager to make it, his reflexes take over from the top of the backswing. His intention races too far ahead and the action is doomed to be rushed and distorted. Hence the time-worn phrase “hitting from the top.”
The downswing should start with a slow downward swing of the hands and arms. Simultaneously, the weight should shift down onto the left foot, the furthest point from the hands. At hip height the hips should be back to where they were at address. When performed correctly this movement gives the hands room in which to deliver the club into the back of the ball.
Golf tips are like aspirin. One may do you good but if you swallow the whole bottle you will be lucky to survive.
To give you an idea of tempo and a feeling of the swing’s motion, we’d like you to consider an unusual, but highly effective, analogy. If you were to drive a stake into the ground, you would swing the hammer head smoothly and unhurriedly up on your hands and arms and almost drop it onto the stake. The deeper you wished to plant the stake the slower you would swing your arms. Essentially the speed would be going the right way, not up into your upswing, but down onto your target.
Similarly, if you were to hammer a nail into a piece of wood, the deeper you wished to drive the nail, the smoother your swing would be. If you wanted to drive the nail only a short way into the wood, you would use short, sharp, fast strokes.
Contrast this with the golfer who, in desperation for extra length, snatches the club away from the ball and throws it forward on the way down. The speed of the swing is in the wrong places, in the takeaway and at the start of the downswing. The club is actually decelerating as it approaches the ball and the speed is going the wrong way.
The follow through is not an afterthought. It must be learnt, understood and committed to muscle memory.
His reply was typical of many a naturally gifted professional:
“When I was good, I didn’t know what I was doing and when I was bad, I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Always make a point of holding the finish until after the ball has landed, as this will reinforce the feeling of swinging through the ball rather than at the ball.