I’d like people to keep in mind that when I write posts like this, if you’re getting a “comedic” feel to it, you’re probably right.
I’m not bashing Hank Haney – I wrote about his earlier project with Charles Barkley- I’m just unable to do anything more than laugh when confronted with the modern swing and anyone who teaches it.
I don’t know any other way to put it, but the Modern Golf Swing has to go. It is stupid. There’s no other way to put it.
There is no other action or motion on this earth that is taught to people where they turn their torsos against a resisting lower body and then apply huge twisting forces to them in the opposite direction.
All for the purposes of swinging a 13 oz golf club.
Let me try to put it this way, so people who don’t like to think of tearing muscles and ligaments can grasp why the modern swing is bad for you – Inertia…
We’ve all heard the “Law of Inertia” from our school days, and what does inertia have to do with the modern swing?
Well, it’s the way the modern swing separates the lower body from the upper body, rubber-band style, as I indicate in my previous video below here, talking about shifting vs twisting.
I have made a little tutorial clip illustrating the differences between the modern golf swing and the classic, Mike Austin-pioneered mechanically-correct way of swinging using the spine as the engine for power.
In the clip, you can see the basic motion of the spine in relation to the C-7 vertebra at the top of the spine and the hips at the bottom. Pay close attention to the spine!
It’s amazing how much Ben Hogan’s swing is analyzed and how many golfers have tried to build a golf swing by emulating his action.
Funny thing is, people don’t actually see how Hogan swung…
I’ll bring two things to your attention while you watch the video clip on Youtube below, and ask you to keep them in mind:
I wrote post earlier in the week in which I showed a Youtube clip of Russell Henley, rookie winner of the Sony Open, swinging a good deal like the ideal “modern swing.”
It wasn’t perfect, but close. I went out today and got a little video showing that I can make a full back swing (I deliberately over-swung on the front view swing, just to show I can John Daly it and still my feet planted) and a powerful, leveraged down swing as well.
The reason for this is that the thing I was referring to yesterday in the Russell Henley post has to do with this. If you are a thrower and you like to shift your weight as if to throw, then the Austin/MCS is the thing for you.
But most PGA and conventional swingers and instructors don’t think of Throwing. If you listen to them describe their imagery or motion, and you watch what they’re doing in slo-mo, you can see that they’re trying to Hammer the ball with the golf club.
I saw some rerun footage of the tournament in Hawawii on the weekend, and has anyone else had a look at the rookie who won?
Russell Henly is his name, and I heard something on Morning Drive earlier in the day where one of the talking heads predicted a Hall of Fame career for this young man. Of course, I scoffed at the hyperbolic Golf Channel’s typical restraint, but then I got a look at the swing.
I had the Golf Channel on last night while I putted in the living room, and a show happened to come on featuring Annika Sorenstam giving a lesson on how to hit the Driver.
It was while watching her that it suddenly struck me why her swing always looked peculiar to me, while of course being utterly devastating on the LPGA Tour.
I had an email conversation last week with a gent who has been implementing the MCS swing philosophy, and he wrote me that it has really been helpful in allowing him to keep playing golf with a left hip that he knows will have to be replaced.
I asked him if I could share some of his sentiments, and Neil readily agreed. It’s really the stories like this one that give me a great deal of satisfaction in trying to convert golfers to a more mechanically-sound golf swing technique.
Adam Scott was once regarded as the “next one,” and is also known for having a swing that most resembles the one first swing type that Tiger Woods brought to the PGA Tour before his endless “changes” began.
As a modern swing, it’s a beautiful action, like Charl Schwartzel’s, but also one which is not feasible for most people without the flexibility of warm chewing gum to try to emulate. It’s easy to swing in the manner of Adam and Charl if one is so blessed, and has unlimited practice time, but the majority of people will never achieve the positions in Adam’s swing.
I have made a couple of clips from my pre-Austin golf research, namely from the September-October of 2007 time.
Both clips are of a 5 iron swing in real-time and slo-mo, and you can see clearly who I was studying for my models of swing research – Moe Norman and Ben Hogan.
One of my blog readers posted a link to a swing training system and the swing of a young man that I found interesting. I decided to take a closer look at this swing, and compared it to mine for the sake of doing so. I found some interesting things.
Originally Posted on the Smash Golf Blog
Jack Nicklaus has some thoughts about the “modern” golf swing. Briefly, he doesn’t think too highly of it.
Originally Posted on the Smash Golf Swing
I’ve always wondered about why golfers stopped swinging with the athletically correct “classic” style of golf swing, which puts no stress on the body when performed correctly and is so much easier to perform than the so-called “modern” golf swing. Continue reading
Originally Posted on the Smash Golf Blog
I wrote a post last year about Rory McIlroy’s golf swing and what I didn’t like about it. Continue reading
