Ken posted a great comment the other day that got me thinking to my old Swing Theory Golf Blog days, and I wrote a post on Harrison Sport’s blog section with the memories of the Push and Pull aspect of the swing.
First, the part of Ken’s comment that got me thinking:
For the golf swing we need to make one adjustment to this mental image. If that imaginary open door we are trying to slam could extent a few inches past the hinge into the wall, we would be able to grab that extension and pull toward us with the left side, while at the same time leaning into the right side and pushing the door closed. That is the golf swing. The fulcrum (hinge) on the golf club is the spot on the shaft that is right between your left and right hand, about 4 inches down on the grip.
It is really quite neat because as you near impact your body weight (through your relaxed left arm and hand) is basically pulling back on the butt end of the club AND your body weight is also driving your piston like right arm forward for the throw (push for short shots and throw for longer ones. You can feel the push part of the leverage easily in short chips.). If you can keep the left arm relaxed and feeling like nothing more than a taut string (so you can pull with your body weight, not muscle in the arm) through impact, you can throw with three right hands. Don’t lose the tautness of the left side before impact or the right side throw will overtake it and your dead.
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So, here is the post I wrote at Harrison:
When I was in the early stages of researching the golf swing back in 2007, I had an visual concept that one could either “pull” the swing using the leading side of the body (the left side and hand for right-handers), or one could “push” the swing using the opposite side and the right hand.
Looking at most golfers, especially the higher handicappers and those who struggle to create power with the golf swing, you’ll see that most of them are “pullers” or “pushers.” This usually manifests itself in various ways – a big head dip on the down swing, a strong over-the-top move and a great deal of upper body movement both going back and coming down.
What I didn’t realize for some time, until I began to look at the classic swing of long drive pioneer Mike Austin sometime in 2008, was that for a powerful and mechanically-sound golf swing, you had to combine the two into a motion that both pushes and pulls the swing. Looking at the impact and follow-through positions below in a Driver swing, I will try to create the visual picture for you that I use.
To use an analogy from another sport, the most efficient way to create power with the golf swing is to swing the club with the left arm and hand the way you would hit backhanded tennis shot, and to simultaneously swing the club with the right arm and hand the way you’d hit a forehand smash.
The key to this is to think of pulling the butt end of the club with the leading hand while pushing it with the power hand (the lower hand on the club). But you wouldn’t be pulling the club down with leading hand, you’d be pulling up on it! And this is where most people would look at the swing with completely new eyes.
If you think of the shoulders as turning vertically on a wheel axis (like a steering wheel or Ferris wheel, instead of a merry-go round), you will see in an efficient swing that the left shoulder comes up and back through impact, while the right shoulder moves down and forward. If a line was drawn through the shoulders, they would form a spoke, if you will, in a wheel that must turn counter-clockwise on the down swing (for a left-hander, the wheel of course turns clockwise looking at the swing head-on).
The leverage in the swing is created by the “pull” of the left side against the swing, and you add power and acceleration with the “push” of the right arm extending through the down swing. At impact the right arm is still bent, but in the process of extending in the “throw” action of a side-arm baseball throw.
If you are looking to add power and speed to your swing, remember that you have two sides to your body, not one. Don’t push, don’t pull, make sure you push and pull that swing!
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Video – Push and Pull
If you watch the above video, especially the slo-mo segments, you’ll see the combined “push and pull” aspects of the swing through the impact area. The left side, arm and shoulder are pulling up on the club end and the right hand and arm are pushing the shaft down and through.
I agree with the concept. I don’t see poor/newer players that ‘pull’ too much. I see all of them pushing too much. Typically the dominant hand is lower on the shaft and people seem to feel the need to ‘hit’ with that hand so much that it completely overtakes the pulling motion on the left. But I don’t think it is so much that they aren’t ‘pulling’ actually. Mike Dunaway addressed it well in the Austin video by putting the club in his right hand at the top of the swing and then ‘throwing it’ from there. He said ‘everyone says that is casting’ but it is only casting if you are not moving the body toward the target, i.e., the ‘pulling’ action of the left side toward the target. He then does the same one armed swing and does the ‘casting’ motion while moving the body aggressively toward the target and completes the swing. Now what was an ugly cast has become a powerful, coordinated, athletic movement. I think people get confused about the Austin concept of ‘throw’ the club because people focus on the right hand doing a throwing action as if it is some magical move occuring in a vacuum, independent of the body. When the body leads the downswing, then the ‘throw’ or ‘push’ can be as aggressive and fast as you can do it and will be a powerful and cooridinated action…the pull allows the push, without it, you have the the casting right arm and the chicken-wing left arm, and a lot of frustration.
That’s what I have always said about the “chicken-wing,” Steve, good point. The chicken-wing is caused by not being in position at impact to pull with the leading side, and you can add the infamous “left knee snap” of many pros to this issue as well. They are both caused by the body having to compensate for an inadequate “pull” through the impact zone.
I’ve always thought that this was a huge difference in the MA swing highlighted by Mike Dunaway doing the clothesline release into the rug. DJ, is it a pull at the beginning of the downswing and then a push into impact or is it a simultaneous action from the top? My experiences have been weak pushes or violent hooks trying to time the right hand push action.
Congrats on the Harrison blog. I hope they gave you some of their shafts to try out. Would love a review. Thanks.
Ed, I would describe the pull/push as a sequential action, where you’re pulling the grip end of the club with the left hand from the top and then using the push of the right hand to “give it a ride” from the half-way down point. This of course takes place too quickly to think of consciously, but try that imagery. Start the swing with the left-side weight shift and the pull with the left hand, and then give the club a push down through impact as you begin to turn into the hitting zone. Trying to “push” with the right hand right from the top is what usually leads to big problems, as Steve in MN describes in the first comment.
Hi DJ.
I’m currently 31 and used to pursue professional golf till the age of 26. After experiencing sciatic nerve damage in my left hip, and financial difficulties, I hung up my clubs and moved to Japan.(btw, I’m Japanese-American)
So for the past 5 yrs I’ve hardly ever played but recently I’ve been starting to itch, if you know what I mean, and for some miracle, I came across a video of Mike Austin. I was just amazed at the beauty and power in his effort-less swing.
I was taught by a disciple of “wild bill melhorn”, who from my understanding was one of the best ball strikers in his days, and also the worst putter on tour. So I was never a conventional modern day swinger, had decent control over the ball, but I also always thought I lacked power. 290~ 300yrds on a good drive, which isn’t bad, but I grew up close to Bethpage Black, and 300yrds doesn’t cut it out there.
So I really wanted to rebuild my swing based on Austin’s theories (I don’t have anything to lose, now that I’m not playing any competitive golf), and I came across your blog just yesterday.
This is the BEST blog/website on golf I have ever seen. I find your thoughts and insight to be really clear for anyone to learn.
If you wouldn’t mind, could you tell me/us your thoughts on how to maneuver the ball, left & right, using your MCS? Perhaps I over-looked it, but I didn’t see an article based on this topic.
Good luck on your MCS 2.0 project. I’ll definitely be a future customer.
Thanks.
Hyogo, thanks for the positive feedback! The thing about working the ball is that, for me, it’s a very “feel” thing that I haven’t really tried to explain. To work the ball, most people advise opening or closing the stance and then aiming the club face at the target. Open, you’ll cut across the ball and make it move left to right, and closed, you start the ball right and let it work to the left.
I do something a little differently for a cut or fade. I actually set up aiming down the target line and then, on my swing, I just try to pull the ball left without releasing the club face through impact. So the ball starts left and then fades back to where I was aiming. For a draw, I will do it the conventional way, where I will set up aiming slightly right of the target and then turn the hands over more aggressively through impact. Since I use a very neutral grip, I just make a swing down the target line and think of trying to turn my right palm slightly right of the line, which will make the ball turn over slightly on a little draw.
Hope some of this works for you. I find that shaping the ball is much easier than hitting the ball straight. As Moe Norman used to say, “And here’s the hardest shot in golf – dead straight…**pow**…”
Thanks for the quick reply!
I always played moving the ball, never really tried to hit a straight shot, unless w a wedge.
Moe Norman is on the money w his comment.
A pure straight shot is a matter of luck, not skill, as I was taught.
I’ll keep messing around w these new swing concepts. If I get to the point where I think it’s worthy of sharing, I’ll definitely send you a video clip.
Please keep up the good work!
May the best days be ahead of you.
Arigato!!
Hyogo
I’ve been reading your blog this week and it gave me that illumination moment. I’m 29 and had lessons back when I was 12 or 13. The instructors said I had an excellent swing with the only improvement being to enlarge my stance a bit. Sadly, I did not play enough to get a good constant swing so it slowly deteriorated. The little I remember was a brief period where I was trying odd stuff and I was able to drive straight and close to 300 overnight. That didn’t last long though.
A few years ago, I started reading the net for tips to correct slices and whatnot. For some reason, that made my swing even worse. I used to count my score by lost balls instead of strokes… Yeah it was that bad. On top of it, I have a weak lower back thanks to a slightly misplaced vertebra which hurts from time to time. You can bet it was hurting after a game.
That was until I stumbled on Mike Austin and started reading on it. Eventually came here and saw your trebuchet videos. That’s when it clicked. The swing I was taught way when I was a kid was a Mike Austin type swing, but I never knew it. I guess I was lucky enough that Tiger Woods was not a star back then with everyone and their moms wanting to emulate his swing. The mental imagery I had when I was driving long and straight was more of a seconds hand in a wrist watch. You know how they are bigger on the opposite end? That was my head and torso. The hands being the pivot and the club the long end. However, I never understood why it seemed to work since I thought the center of gravity would go back which would weaken the swing. In reality, when I saw your videos, what I thought was the head and torso going back was actually the hips going forward.
So yesterday evening, after the rain cleared, I went to the range to try it out. Seemed like everything fell back in place. It took a few swings to teach my body where to go and I was back to the long and straight drives. I couldn’t tell where they landed since it was dark and the 200+ area was poorly illuminated, but that’s a good thing. Going from heavy slicing at 100 yards almost killing the guys on the other side of the net to losing the ball in the clouds was enough improvement for one day. The actual distance can wait!
As a bonus, my clubs are now clean thanks to the rain and my body does not hurt this morning.
I’m sure I still have a lot of stuff to integrate into the swing, so I’ll be sure to follow your blog and check out MCS 2.0 when it comes out!
David,
Thanks for leaving this great comment! Sounds like you’re on your way back to hitting the ball straight and long. The most satisfying part of playing golf, for sure. Good luck with your progress and make sure to let me know how things go.
Hey DJ,
The push and pull aren’t constant through impact are they? Its more like a coasting through impact? Like you feel like you pull and push the hands down in the direction of your right foot then you relax and let the pivot take care of the rest. Is this correct? I feel that if i try to throw all the way through the impact and beyond then i lose control and speed because my muscles are flexed instead of relaxed. If I am right then this is exactly like when i was learning the difference between hitting for power and hitting for average in baseball
I would agree with you, Brandon. At the impact, the swing should be over, and if one is still “swinging” after impact, then one isn’t reaching maximum efficient velocity at impact.
I feel as if I’m swinging when I start the downswing with the weight shift and the pull from the top. I give the club a helping right hand push on the way down, but gravity and centrifugal force are doing most of the work by the time I reach impact.
As I have said in many previous discussions, I end my swing shortly after impact. I’m trying to throw the club head through impact as if the club shaft would stick into the ground a foot in front of the ball if I let go of it.
Great point regarding throwing the club into the ground post impact a foot in front of the ball. A great workout routine is to get a 4lb excersise ball (one that will bounce is best) and hold it in your address position. From there, swing the ball to the top of your backswing and then swing down to impact, letting go of the ball down your target line past your forward foot. If you do it against a wall, you want to stand at a distance to where the ball will one hop the wall and you can catch it after its comes up off the wall on the one hop. Talk about feeling STRONG in your golf swing through impact after this excersise….THIS IS IT!
Something for anyone to comment on. One way to know if you “have it”, the downward action of the right arm lever is to hit balls in bare feet and even on wet ground . I find the Austin or m.c.s. swing is not dependent on pushing off the back foot as is the modern golf swing and therefore swinging with bare feet will have you focus on a proper execution of the downward lever. This discovery was made for me quite accidentally when I showed up at the golf course without my golf shoes on an extremely wet day. There should be little if any loss of distance. Can’t wait till winter comes to check principle on ice.
LOL – be careful, Chief. You’re right though. The summer I was playing a lot of golf and still working on the Austin theory, the longest drive I hit that season was one that I never found, on the 400 yard hole that I later hit a 380 yard drive on. But on that day, I hit my drive straight at the green, which has a river valley behind it, and we never found my ball. Might have caught a good bounce off the bunker down-slope about 60 yards in front of the green and gone right into the valley. And you know what- I was wearing deck shoes because I had forgotten to bring my golf shoes to the course… I didn’t slip in those flat-soled shoes, and I lost no distance.
Chief is absolutely right – If you’re pushing off the rear foot in any way, you’re not making a mechanically-correct swing. The swing is vertical, not lateral.
Could you explain what you mean by pulling up on it instead of pulling down on it? Are you saying feel like from the top you actually pull up on the club? It sounds intriguing, yet hard to conecptualize.
jd, it’s not easy to visualize if you’ve never swung this way. Basically, the modern conventional golfer pulls down into the swing as if pulling a bell rope. With the Austin or MCS type of swing, you’re moving the lower body first, with the hips and weight shift towards the target. This causes the torso and spine to tilt to the right (for a right-handed swinger) and the hands to begin dropping.
Like taking a vase in your left hand and up-ending it to dump out the water, you’re pulling with the left hand, not down, but across the body and upward as the hands naturally drop with the down swing. Of course, the hands don’t actually come up, this is a sensation, but at impact, your leading shoulder and arm should be pulling up and back, which is where the actual “pull” becomes apparent.