It is not as easy as it seems without a flexible tripod, which I don’t have.  But I was able to get the camera to sit upside down with a little fidgeting and propping on the tripod’s flat top, and I got a couple of slo-mo shots of myself hitting driver, to see what it would look like.

The results were again significant, even more so than when the camera is tilted sideways.

With the camera upside down, you now have the club head moving through impact at the top of the screen instead of the bottom, and so the camera doesn’t distort nearly as much as when it’s right-side up.  Take a look at the comparison with two driver swings around 120 mph taken at 210 frames per second.

The first sequence is with the camera right-side up.  This is significant distortion, and the club shaft actually appears to be bending towards the ball at below-waist height:

—–

This next sequence is with the camera upside down.  You will see that there is in fact no bowing of the club shaft towards the ball, with a significant bowing backwards of the shaft at impact, as one would expect with the golf ball’s inertia slowing the club head down:

—–

Quite the difference!

I blogged about Rory McIlroy, for example, back in ’10 when he began to get more television time, and I predicted back problems based on his swing.  Sure enough, less than a year later, he was on the disabled list with back problems.  I happen to like Rory, and I did then, so it had nothing to do with “hating” on a player, as some people think one is doing if one has anything remotely critical to say about “their guy.”

Rickie Fowler’s swing is another one of those “that’s not going to end well” kinds of motions.  And to be honest, the more I see of Rickie, the more I like him.  Nice young guy, plays fast and aggressively, and finally has a win to back up the constant golf media hype.

The swing, however, is not one I’d want to see anyone trying to emulate, and it makes me wince, the more I see it analyzed on television.  It is a swing based entirely on raw flexibility and fast-twitch muscles, and I can’t even guess where he’ll first experience problems – in the lower body from knee to ankle, or the hip, or the lower and even middle back region.  It’s an Xtreme Torque swing, and as he gets older, the more at risk his physical well-being will be.

–

Watch the twisting of the upper torso against the nearly square hips on the back swing, or watch the wrenching force on the spine as he starts his hips to the left while his shoulders are still turning back, or watch the torque on the lower back at he extends through impact and chases down the line, or watch the hyper-extending left knee- what I’m saying is that no 30 year old swings like this and stays healthy.

—

I wish Rickie the best, and hope that he makes some swing changes soon, changes that don’t change the hard-charging way he likes to play, ’cause he certainly is turning out to be a good player and someone who makes you wonder what he’s going to do next.

For those who don’t, it was because the swing was based on Mike Austin’s swing technique, but wasn’t something that only Mike Austin could perform.

MCS of course stood for “Mechanically-Correct Swing,” and it means that the way I swing is not the only way to swing, nor was the way Austin swung.  Austin was simply the first swing in a manner that was perfectly correct mechanically-speaking, meaning you were not going to find something in his swing of later years (his swing in the black and white clips showed a rolling left foot on the follow-through, something he corrected later).

Joe Miller and the Wide Stance

—

I critiqued Joe Miller’s swing after he won the 2010 Remax Long Drive, and I mentioned that his stance was very wide.  That in itself wasn’t the flaw, but rather his squared feet positions.  The wide stance simply was wider than required, but not necessarily a flaw, it he had made adjustments to eliminate the “jumping off” action of his down swing, which was because of both the wide stance and the squared feet position.

Here, I took a stab at recreating a Joe Miller-like wide stance, but you’ll see that I don’t have to “jump off” on the downswing, or do anything drastic because I have made adjustments to ensure that the swing is still mechanically-correct.  There is still absolutely no stress on my body or joints in this swing, and I was still swinging the club in the mid-120 mph range, the same speed as my regular swing on this chilly but sunny day.

–

Of course, my stance was still not as wide as Miller’s, but you get the idea.  Bottom line, a swing doesn’t have to be exactly like Mike Austin’s or mine or anyone else’ to mechanically-correct.  Following the principles of not putting stress on the joints and body overall, and not having to make big manipulations or adjustments during the swing, are what make a swing mechanically-correct.

I got an email last evening from a gentleman that is the kind of email I would love to get from everyone who tries the Austin/MCS principles.

I will excerpt a portion of the correspondence from “K,” here below:

“I purchased MCS 2.0 last night at around 2 AM and watched until 3 AM. I have been using Dan Shauger’s books and video, which are great, I have practiced his swing for over one year, with a swing speed on my driver of about 115 (achieving 117 to 119 rarely, never able to reach 120mph).

Today I tried MCS, unbelievable, my first swing 120mph, after about 3 minutes my average was 124mph. I have literally beat my arms to death trying to break 120mph before, today it felt easy and smooth. I know I’ll break 130 with practice. By the way I turn 56 next month.”

That’s some great stuff to hear, I’ll be honest.  A 9 mph increase overnight is amazing, especially once you get over 100 mph.  If K does get up 130, that would be a theoretical increase of about 45 yards increase in driving distance, perhaps more, with the right equipment.

And at 55 years old!  I couldn’t be more tickled.  Way to go, K!

I wrongly concluded that he was decelerating into the ball because his club shaft appeared to be flexing forward before impact, instead of bowed as it would be at the midway point, and someone pointed out that it was actually an optical illusion created by the camera due to how digital cameras record and store moving images.

Basically, they take images from the top of the screen down, so any fast-moving object (the club head) near the bottom of the screen will be recorded incrementally following the middle of the screen (say where the hands and top of the shaft are), creating an effect where the club shaft appears to be bending towards the ball.

It is more severe, the less the frame rate at which the image is taken, so a real-time video of a golf swing at 30 fps will be much more affected than a slo-mo at say 210 fps.

This photo is from a video clip that was taken in real-time at 30 fps.

–

Today, I turned the camera 90 degrees to take a slo-mo clip of my driver swing, and the effect is obvious when you look for it- First, the clip itself:

—

Picture A is the 90 degrees, and B is from a clip that was taken with the camera at the regular angle.

—

Just for interest’s sake, but it does prove the explanation I was given back then.

I should have actually taken a clip in real-time at the 90 degree tilt, I will have to remember to do that sometime this week and provide the updated comparison.

I’m throwing in a clip that some might remember, from four years ago, around the time I began to look at Mike Austin’s swing but before I’d begun to implement any of his theoretical stuff.

This clip is from summer 2008, from my “Swing Theory Golf” blog days that ran from around August of 2007 to spring 2009, when I started the “Smash Golf” blog centered around my summer of studying Mike Austin and playing golf.

—

2008 was rather a fun summer.  I would simply go to the range, hit balls for a couple of hours at a time while the video camera ran from different angles, and then I’d take the tape home and study what I’d been doing.  I didn’t really do much more than try different swings and grips and address positions, trying to figure it out from an athletic point of view.

One interesting thing is how, even before studying Austin, I had a method of having the club shaft line up almost exactly on the same angle as my right forearm, with my upper arm hanging vertically, just as Austin prescribed.  As I said in an earlier post, I had changed this for some reason and was going back to it.

I’ll probably be in and out of the comments section over the weekend, but I don’t see myself posting anything, so have a great weekend, everyone!

DJ

(P.S. Anyone who so much as mentions how much thinner I was four years ago will be forever banned from posting comments )

I won’t go into the details again because I have done so already, but this clip of Tiger in today’s Players Championship shows him again going left – missing left twice on the same hole, the par-5 9th (which was his 18th hole for the round).

This swing of his where he’s trying to go hard inside left through impact and the follow-through, I still don’t know the reason for it.  It’s a swing like trying to hit a wide-open lob wedge out of the rough for a super-flop shot.

It practically ensures that a miss is going to go hard left, and either a pull or a pull-hook.

Tiger Makes Par the Hard Way

—-

Anyways, Tiger was -1 on the four par-5 holes, making one birdie and three pars, and this par was hard-fought, saved only by a good-quality wedge and a good putt.  The first three strokes were certainly not anything to write home about.

Again, Tiger Woods is going to retire as either the 2nd all-time or greatest player in PGA Tour history (only Jack Nicklaus is still in the conversation, although Ben Hogan was pretty awesome), but what he’s doing now has everyone who has done anything special in golf scratching their heads.

Never mind what I think, what the media thinks, or what his fans and haters think – the ones who have played the game and who have taught the game are all confused by Tiger’s problems.

I have been looking for ways to tighten my swing for playing purposes rather than just swing away for speed and distance, and I found it while looking at a down-the-line shot of MA.

This is a comparison of my address position last week, compared to Austin’s…

—

And this is what I came up with on the weekend, after looking at Austin’s address position for a while…

—

Comparing the two, there is a definite difference in how I was building my stance and how I see Austin doing it…

—

I am talking of course about the angles (two of them) regarding the upper arm from shoulder to elbow, and the club shaft to the forearm of the hand on the club (right for right-handed swingers).

This is in marked contrast to the conventional swing of course, which emphasizes having the arms hang completely vertical from shoulder to hand.

I was over-doing the arm extension and getting away with it by hand-eye coordination, and I haven’t explained the exact position of Austin’s stance with regards to his arms and the club (other than to point out the ulnar deviation), so the HD video will be a perfect opportunity to do so.

Also, you will not the angle of Austin’s neck to the top of his head and how it does not follow a straight line down his spine.

Austin’s position was superior in so many ways.  It allowed him to swing more purely around the 7th cervical, it increased his leverage potential, and it also allowed for maximum club speed with the tighter circle.

I haven’t even hit any balls with the new position, but when I took that picture in my living room to see how close I was to Austin’s position, I could feel a huge difference in my swings with the speed stick.  It was a tighter swing, for sure, and felt much more controlled through the swing bottom without losing any of the speed.

That’s Jaacob (right) in the inset picture with Phil Reed (Austin’s biographer) and the man himself, around the time Phil was working on his book.

Jaacob has been a welcome and regular commenter here when he finds the time to visit, and he has very recently completed and released a swing video which is available on his site SwingManGolf.com.

I just finished watching the video and it offers Jaacob’s personal interpretation of the Mike Austin swing theory, as well as his own philosophy of swing which includes how to make your swing “your own.

I enjoyed the video, as Jaacob’s conversational style is relaxed and easy to listen to.  I told him that I believed anyone who is passionate about the Mike Austin story and swing would likely would want to add his video to their collection.

You can watch a preview of the video at Jaacob’s site, which runs about 6 minutes, and get the rough idea of the video’s contents.

Thanks to Jaacob as well for the mention in his video, as he mentioned several people in his closing credits who are part of the Mike Austin circle.  He also referred to the “Short Stop Slide,” giving yours truly the nod for coining the phrase.

I might add in parting that Jaacob has played the Desert Rose golf course where Austin hit his 515 yard drive, and I would certainly love to check the place out one day before it’s gone.  According to Jaacob in the video, it’s kind of fallen on tough times, but it’s still there.

I still find it amazing that no one ever mentions him when it comes to power swings and long driving prowess.  He was a much longer driver than just about anyone out there back then, and it wasn’t like he was a duffer.  The man could play.

Even in this film clip, he’s recognized as being able to drive the ball up to 400 yards.  And that’s with persimmon heads and balata balls, people!

I take the old guys over today’s long drivers, any day.

Anyways, here’s an amusing little clip showing that free-flowing and very natural and mechanically-sound swing of Jimmy’s.

—

How ridiculously awesome is this address position, really?  Check out the spine angle, the hip tilt, the kicked in right knee, the feet (angles and width), the grip, ball position, weight distribution…

Even at rest, the man was poetry in motion.