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Ground Forces
Ground forces power the golf swing with vertical, rotary and linear motions. And any three of these to all of these can be used as a dominate force. They become layered in varying degrees based on the individual to create maximum acceleration on the ball.
Golf swings develop momentum from the ground up with a chain reaction of legs, hips, shoulders and arms. This chain develops from a transference of energy that works up through the body; accelerations created from braking actions, not unlike a car when moving at speed, applying its brakes is felt in the restraints of the seat belts.
Beginning with the legs before each part of the chain has finished the next part has already started to accelerate, causing the forces to sum as they add to each other vertically through the body.
As …
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Sergio Garcia Swinging Like Ben Hogan
Sergio Garcia swinging like Ben Hogan is a much talked about comparison. In transition from backswing to downswing both Ben and Sergio are seen to flatten the club shaft and increase the angle. This is a fair likeness but there is something far more significant that makes their golf swings comparable and it happens in their delivery to the ball.
In Hogan’s “Five Lessons the Modern Fundamentals of Golf” he talks of: “the turning of the hips inaugurating the downswing. This movement of the hips automatically lowers the arms and hands to a position just above hip level.”
Essentially this is a tucking motion similar to baseball. The batter, starting with the hips, tucks the right elbow flattening the bat and leveling the hands to deliver the handle of the bat towards the ball. …
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Jordan Spieth’s Hit Hold Move
Jordan Spieth’s hit hold move is considered by many to be a secret move, one that gives him an advantage over the field. Lets take a look at his swing in slow motion to see what is happening.
The first thing one can see is that he does not have a straight left arm at the top. And it is not straight coming down, into the ball or afterwards. This shows how the golf swing is based on momentum rather than through positions. With his dominate hand, the right, he is getting the right arm as long as possible through the shot.
With the right arm fold at the top of the backswing it straightens down to the point where both arms are straight. This is the point of release and it is past the …
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Jordan Spieth’s Practice Swing
Jordan Spieth’s practice swing from waist high to waist high captures the golf swing’s core principals of plane, path, clubface and sequence. With little or no effort, he has these four elements in complete control. Here’s why.
His practice swing starts with the right arm folding in the backswing and then the left arm folding in the through swing. As he does this back and forth several times the arms are traveling the wrists are hinging. This is arm swing and it is also perfect path.
Path is the direction the club travels specifically the sweet spot of the clubface. Referenced to the target line at any one time this can be down the line, in to out, out to in, up or down. In motion the swing goes through all of these directions.
As the …
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X Factor can be viewed 4 ways
Golf swing and the X Factor is a term used to describe the difference in turn angle between the shoulders (upper body) and the hips (pelvis), in the backswing. Added to this is the X Factor Stretch which is an increase in the X Factor at the beginning of the downswing produced by the hips starting down before the shoulders. This new revved up version, referred to as downswing loading, intensifies the coil created in the backswing. OK everything here is completely correct and horrible wrong at the same time.
From this definition it is saying that good golf is directly proportional to how much differential one can achieve between the upper and lower body. And also from this, every golfer is obligated to start the downswing from the hips, that you as …
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For Every Effect There is a Cause
Golf swing cause and effects are born out a most cherished principle in physics that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, called conservation of energy. This fundamental law can be seen in all aspects or our lives from the heat one uses to make a pot of coffee, the gas put in our cars to make them run, the food one eats to keep oneself moving, the orbit that the earth takes around the sun and when one makes a golf swing.
The principal of conservation of energy has been validated many time over by scientist, however it was put on very firm ground some 100 years ago from a German mathematician by the name of Emmy Noether, who observed that all conservation laws are based on symmetries of nature. Physical laws …
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The World of Long Driving
The long drive championship was hosted by eight incredibly athletic finalists, each one capable of hitting drives upwards of four hundred yards or more. Looking at these swings one can see some rather obvious similarities. The first is that most of them are truly beasts or at least slightly different. Not only are they large and or powerful individuals but all used drivers measuring 48 inches, the maximum allowed creating a wide swing base and prodigiously long drives.
All had very strong grips especially with the left hand. This makes since as it gives one more clubface control and allows for use of the legs and hips. However Joe Miller, the linebacker of a golfer, had very much an upper body dominated motion and with slow hips was seen to jump as he delivered his …
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Purpose of the backswing is two fold, to put the club at right angles to the line of the shoulders and to create momentum so that the arms and legs will coordinate. Momentum results from arm swing and as long as the arms swing the arms and legs will automatically coordinate. This means that one can swing slow to slow, medium to medium or fast to fast.
Doing this satifys a time IQ that all golfers posses. Because every swing takes a set amount of time, if one swings slow to slow the swing will naturally shorten and if one swings faster back, or more medium to medium the swing will lengthen so as to satisfy one’s time IQ. This is how arm swing controls the legs and reflects how the golf swing is a hard wired program just like …
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Source of Forward Shaft Lean
Forward shaft lean in golf swing is made possible from the three power connections of grip to club, arms to body and feet to ground, resulting in body turn, and it is this body turn that creates the shaft lead. You don’t do it. This means that the focus in any golf swing should be to capture and maintain these three power connection rather than trying to lean the shaft at impact. If instead if ones focus is on trying to lean the shaft with the arms, it is done at the expense of these all important connections. Here’s why.
The first power connection is grip to club and here one grips the club for impact. The faster the hips are the more the clubface and shoulders are opened at impact. This means that a …
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Every Golfer has a Postural Release
Ground reaction forces in golf swing, vertical and rotary are seen as coming out of posture, one’s spine tilt and allowing the head to come up to a finish. But all too often advice is given to the contrary on all three accounts and anytime one does try to stay in posture or spine tilt or keep the head down these forces are immediately reduced or completely eliminated. Lets look at each one of these separately so one can see what is really going on starting with the posture.
At address posture is created by bending backwards from the knees and forwards from the hips at the same time and same amount. By doing this one lowers down ideally placing the clubshaft at a right angle to the spine and into a balanced athletic …
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