Just a little clip showing a Drive with my TaylorMade RBZ Tour driver, 7.5 degrees stiff flex (I’m going to need X or XX shafts, this thing felt like a wet noodle when I swung it at the range yesterday).
I will try to get some more video of the Driver, both RBZ and Geek drivers, either today or tomorrow (raining right now). But this is the first video of my swing using the “formula” I’ve developed for the Address Stance in the New MCS model.
(Originally posted on the Smash Golf Blog July 22, 2009 – Updated as New MCS will re-examine my earlier MCS work)
There is a misconception about the whole “Clearing the Hips” thing in golf. Apparently, you only have to think about it to do it. Wrong.
You can’t clear the hips on the down swing if you’re not properly set up to do it. At least, you can’t do it without hurting yourself.
Note a brief note about the New MCS model that I’m building. My Members will know what I’m talking about when I say that I have discovered an inherent stance model in what I envisioned with the golf swing.
Meaning, in the stance that I’m showing you all right now for the chipping portion of the upcoming Short Shots – the correct distancing procedure is in there for all clubs from the chip to the full swing Driver, and that includes the Modern steep-lie Driver!
(Updated with Answer at bottom – see if you can still guess without peeking…)
Here’s a little puzzle for you all – there are three swings in the latest video clip – 4i, 7i and P-Wedge. Guess which address position is which club in the picture sequence below.
Now conventional golf theories say that there are differences in the swings with different clubs. I say that aside from the difference in the length of the club and shaft lean, there really is no difference in any swing with any club, at least with the irons.
(Update down by the Impact picture in the posting)
I can’t believe I even wrote the title of this posting. But there you have it – of my first swing models (Moe Norman and Ben Hogan), I’m returning to one of them in my MCS Theory completion.
The problem with all great swingers is that their swings had one or two or more variants from a “perfect swing” that usually were unique to the person with the swing, and trying to duplicate the exact swing would only lead to failure.
That’s why there was only one Bobby Jones, only one Byron Nelson, and so on. Such great swings, but the mechanical flaws in each technique made the whole swing difficult to copy. Make that impossible.
(Update – Student 3 at Bottom) I started the W.A.X. Membership program at the end of January or so, which makes roughly two months that we’ve been exploring the golf swing on the other side.
Now, things were kind of rough going for everyone as I beat my brains out trying to teach the golf swing as MA performed it, the way he taught it.
But wouldn’t you know that as soon as I began a couple of weeks ago to change my methodology to MCS from Mike Austin (and to further develop my MCS as I explore athletic motion vs just mechanical execution), and the results -
Sometimes something falls out of the sky (and hopefully it isn’t an Acme Safe) and lands square on your noggin. This happened to me this afternoon while I was thinking about the Address Position.
And all I can say is, “Wow…”
If it really is what I’m thinking, I will be able to add yet another piece to the Motion Theory as it relates to the golf swing (motion is motion, how you employ it is the difference in different sports) for my Members!
I’m talking about the golf stance, of course. You’ll hear the modern golf instruction talking about the “athletic stance” that is the modern golf address position, and why it’s so great.
I was watching a segment of the Champions “Learning” program on the Golf Channel, and Fred Funk was describing how when you’re playing basketball or football etc., you have to be an in a balanced, athletic squatting position to be ready to react and move in all directions, or ready to receive a thrown ball or tennis serve.
(Update) BigToilet and I were Skyping last evening and he wanted me to clear up the point where I said “I was shocked when BT reported that he’d made some adjustments on the weekend and was hitting it the same.”
Scratch hitting it the same to hitting the same numbers but straighter, much straigher! And as for his new numbers yesterday, I’ll let him tell you what he wrote me in his own words:
I’ll be doing some theory work today, because what I saw in the video that I took yesterday at the park sparked a big ol’ light-bulb in my head regarding the down swing weight shift, hip action and how to create the blinding speed that MA did.
First of all, anyone who doubt’s MA’s technical genius simply hasn’t learned enough about the human body motion (kinesiology, basically) to realize what he was doing, let alone talking about.
I was discussing something with Seb in an email a while back and he asked me a question that I want to share with the rest of you, because I think the answer is important.
Seb asked me the following:
“What I can’t get my head around is this… How is it that you have a similar build to Mike Austin, and yet with a shorter back swing and follow through he was able to get similar/longer distances and 20mph more club head speed?
Mike Dobbyn is a long driver who holds the current world record for the longest drive in competition at 551 yards.
He was the 2007 Remax Long Drive champ and came runner-up in ’08 and ’09, being beaten both times by Jamie Sadlowski.
He is also a very big boy, stacking up at 6’8″ (2.03m) tall and 315 lbs (143 kg).
But what gives him his enormous power and distance is not so much his size (which of course gives him an advantage), but his great technique through the ball. I’m talking about leverage here, friends.
Seb brought my attention back to the old Pico Rivera video last week with his comment about Mike Austin’s form in that clip.
This is an amazing video, for those who haven’t seen it (though I imagine almost everyone has by now who has any interest in Mike Austin’s story). You’re looking at a man in his late 70′s (I believe he was 77 when this was shot), who can crack a ball like no one else.
Another video clip showing the timeless Jimmy Thomson with a great look at something related to what I’ve been harping on lately.
Take a look at Jimmy’s address position, and you will see something you rarely ever see anymore, except for the Mike Austin school.
Can you guess what it is?
If you look very closely at Mike Austin’s address position, you will see that he was very meticulous about his setup.
From his established position, all he then had to do was pivot to the top, and then use his weight shift and spine tilt on the down swing to power the club through the impact zone.
Even I feel as if I’m “turning” through the golf swing with my hips on the down swing, even though I have captured more than enough photographic evidence to convince myself otherwise.
Watch Mike Austin or Mike Dunaway hitting balls down the line and you will see that there has been very little hip “turn” before impact. The main part of the hip turn occurs after impact, during the post-impact extension, follow-through and finish. What has happened to this point is mostly a lateral hip shift, and very little turn, to the target.
I really can’t stress enough my belief that the key to performing a proper, powerful, consistent, accurate and mechanically-correct golf swing is in Position.
Out of the Fundamentals Trifecta I’ve identified in the MCS swing process, the first and second are obviously important.
I had a good day of working out at the range yesterday, just getting used to the new and improved address position that I’m changing from last year and earlier this year.
The changes involve a more parallel line with my feet to the target line, making sure my shoulder line is square with the target line instead of open, and straightening my posture to a more upright one while still bending at the hips.
I haven’t been blogging much of late, due to the busy summer season and not getting much time to think and write about the golf swing as much.
I’ve also been working, when I can, on the changes that I’m making to my own swing to tighten it and make it more of a playing golf swing than a “just bomb it” motion that I have had until now.
I spent the day on the range last Friday just working on re-establishing proper implementation of the Fundamentals Trifecta with my own swing.
I foolishly got away from the proper fundamentals while working on several changes to my swing this year, mostly to do with my Address Stance, and things went all haywire for a little while until I got the feedback I needed to realize how far afield I was.
