Mechanical Principles II-A: The Full Golf Swing HITTING THE SWEET SPOT The first Mechanical Principle of the B.I.G. system, which we will emphasize frequently, is the importance of precise, center of club contact with the ball. Let's be clear. The ball isn't just a bit player in this drama - it is the antagonist that twists almost everyone's golf game story into a tragic comedy. This is the first concept mentioned because golf is all about the ball. It is the measurement of everything. Every stroke, shot, and score you will ever achieve is based on that little white orb. The ball is touched for only a few nanoseconds at contact; from that point on, you are simply a bystander. The ball is soaring into the abyss with only the momentary physics you applied. If you miss it by just a tiny margin, it will impact your ball flight. Thus, it is essential to continually evaluate how pure or clean your strikes are so you can register, remember and analyze what happened. This evaluation will give your subconscious improvement data to work with. How you evaluate the ball strike matters. __________________________________ EVALUATING THE BALL STRIKE 1. Right after contact, take a moment to determine where you made contact with the ball on the face of the club. Toe, heel, near the leading edge, fat or high on the face. 2. Consider your lie. Was it sitting down? Were you on a slope? Etc. 3. Don't evaluate the "why" on a specific shot. Let your subconscious simply file it as a data point. Over-evaluation may lead to poor adjustments or decisions. 4. If a number of mishits go awry in the same fashion, then take some practice swings to identify and correct the issue if possible. Make contact evaluation a habit. Over time it will make you a more consistent ball striker. The risk is you become overly obsessed with ball contact perfection. Even great players will miss the ball some during a round. Moving your head is a cause of some mishits, but too much focus on head stillness may impede other proper body movements. Good ball striking and head stillness are correlated, but the root cause could be other factors. Be wise in how you change your swing when you are not satisfied with your contact consistency. ___________________________________ DON'T "HIT" THE BALL The second Mechanical Principle of the B.I.G. full swing is to avoid thinking about "hitting" the ball. Remove that notion from your thoughts. Instead, think about "collecting" the ball. It may seem like a nuance, but this conceptualization of the moment at impact does several significant things: 1. Limits the impulse of coming over the top and trying to flip the wrists to hit at the ball. 2. Fosters the notion of soft shoulders and arms. 3. Develops a smooth tempo that results in consistent swings. _______________________________ Balance is almost everything in golf. And the good news is if you can walk reasonably, you have some. If you spontaneously fall over all the time, well, then maybe playing cards or painting may be a better pastime. I'm presuming most reading this are successfully ambulatory; thus, you have this skill. Could you be better? Yes. How? By working on it. Trying something like yoga would be great. But even if you aren't interested in mastering the downward dog or warrior pose, don't worry. Simply by concentrating on and developing balance you will get better over time. To become highly skilled, you must have balance in every stroke, from driver to putter and everything in between. Let's get you into a balanced golf swing position to start the process. Stand completely erect without a golf club in your hands with your feet shoulder-width apart. Now simply bend to a natural golf position at the hips and bend your knees ever so slightly. Let your hands hang down directly underneath your shoulders completely loose. Now feel the ground beneath your feet. Rock onto your toes and then to your heels, slowly feeling the changing pressure points in the soles of your feet. Once you have these sensations, find the perfect balance in the center of your feet. Feel the stability in your body by being grounded and balanced. Don't underestimate the importance of this ability. Yes, it is a relatively simple skill, but its importance is frequently overlooked. Practicing and mastering this perfect balance state is one of the most important skills, especially as we move and shift our weight during the swing motion. The first motion from this position is simple. From the balanced posture above, arms hanging limp, clasp your hands together. Feel your arms hanging. They should have no stress and are dropping straight down. This balanced position is so powerful because it allows you to "swing" your arms naturally. Now let's begin to rotate our shoulders very slowly,mimicking the start of a backswing keeping your head relatively still and both arms straight. Once you reach a 9 o'clock position (left arm approximately parallel to the ground), slowly reverse your rotation in a downswing motion around to a 3 o'clock position (again, left arm approximately parallel to the ground). Even though this exercise emphasizes shoulder movement and balance, it also demonstrates the importance of using your legs. If you are so flexible that you don't need to use your lower half to achieve this motion and stay in balance, then congratulations. For the rest of us, your legs, hips, and shoulders should start to work together in a coordinated and balanced fashion. Once you have this down in slow motion, start doing so slowly and rhythmically. Shoulders and arms without tension, arms always straight.and rock. Once you feel balanced, begin gradually speeding up the tempo. Never stray from perfect balance. You will notice the pressure points with the ground at the bottom of your feet will change. If your heels have to leave the ground to get to 3 or 9 o'clock, that's fine. Balance still needs to be maintained just as it was when you were standing still, but now your balance needs to consider the shifting weight your turn has caused. Just keep on finding the balance. Once you have mastered this balanced back-and-forth body movement, the next step is to master the concept of weight transfer. Before incorporating a weight transfer component into this movement, it is important to discuss what weight transfer really means and, more importantly, what it does. As you move your arms back your center of gravity shifts mostly because of the weight of your arms and club. Athletically, your body is also "loading up" power that will be necessary when it comes time to accelerate the club in the swing. This should be a natural movement if you have ever played baseball, tennis, cricket, bowling, or thrown anything in your life. You are doing basically the same thing, using the power of your weight to move or hit an object. Now with our rhythmic hands clasped straight arm swing, we will add a powerful transitionary move. Taking your hands back, as it begins to near the 9 o'clock position, you are going to accentuate pushing your right butt cheek back toward what would be your target line in a golf swing. That is, of course, if you are a right-handed golfer, if you are a left-handed golfer I have no idea what you do..kidding.turn the other cheek! This motion is the starting point of getting your weight to your right heel on your backswing. This weight shift may be the most important aspect of having a fluid and powerful swing. Most golfers don't realize the weight shift to the appropriate position creates power. It also creates repeatable tempo and proper swing mechanics. If you don't shift your weight back correctly, you will inevitably create compensating twitchy response movements in your swing. Your hands may become too active, you may interrupt proper hip and shoulder turn.the list is endless. So in this section on balance, it is critical to find balance as we shift our weight back. From this position, the weight shift transitions to moving forward. Moving from neutral at the address to the right side in the backswing and to the left side on the follow-through is necessary but not sufficient. There are four elements of the weight shift forward to consider: 1. Moving your weight early in the backswing to the back heel of your right foot so 80% of your body weight is supported by the right leg and 70% or that weight is in your heel. This is necessary to support a rotating instead of a "swaying" motion. 2. The weight shift forward begins just before the top of the backswing. Move forward onto the left side with a slight "squatting" in the knees. Many golfers do not complete this move and then need to throw the club with their hands creating an outside-in swing to keep their balance. 3. The left hip doesn't move so far forward that it goes past the front foot. After moving forward and squatting onto the left side, the left leg pushes against the ground and fully straightens, turning the hip back away from the target. It is critically important to straighten the left leg aggressively. If the left leg is bent, it...
