Ground Reaction Forces in Golf Swing
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 position. From this starting position every golfer losses this forward tilt from the torso so as to achieve a finish referred to as a second axis tilt. this means that one does not stay in posture. But when told to stay down or in the shot the results are usually a club that is stuck in the ground or arms that pull in as the body stops rotating. So it is ok and in fact necessary to come out of your posture so as to achieve ground forces.
Ground forces are just that they come from the ground up but anytime a golfer tries or is told to stay in ones spine tilt it is done at the expense of counter forces which will kill any ground forces. The reason ground forces work is that they are delivered in conjunction or piggy backed with a back and up force necessary to release the club. The club is released down and forward requiring an opposite force that is going back and up. This means that until one releases the club one will not be able to use the lower body but conversely as soon as one releases the club the lower body will automatically be used without the golfer trying to. Equal and opposite forces here will result in a look of a golfer staying in their spine tilt but they are certainly not trying to stay in their tilt. Its ok to let the body respond and release the spine tilt to the finish that way one will achieve ground forces without trying.
Keeping the head down is a good way to stop the body rotation through the shot. Its ok to let ones head come up that way the body can continue through the shot and one will be able to enjoy the shot. These three elements of coming out of your posture, spin tilt and head position, constitute what is referred to as a postural release and can be seen in many of the great golfers both past and present. And as a perfect example, for your enjoyment, Annika Sorenstam.
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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 walking. The next purpose of the backswing is to keep the club in front …
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There are Two Ways to Look at Impact With the Golf Swing The golf swing has two views of impact with the first being an almost instantaneous club to ball event of some 50 milliseconds . With this view one can see that there is very little time for any personal involvement by the golfer in controlling the shot. Now the sum total of an entire round of golf is less than a few seconds! But with new technologies many important events can be easily revealed and measured within this brief moment of time. Simulators offer a most comprehensive and accurate club-and-ball tracking. A few degrees can mean the difference between hitting a fairway or green or can impart a desired fade or draw. Here shot distance is measured, how far the ball has traveled. Carry distance is the distance the ball flew in the air. Club head speed is the speed at which the …
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Welcome! I have been accused of ranting sometimes when giving a golf lesson. Great, then let me take this opportunity to do some ranting right now. I am a golf instructor but, very seldom do I actually get to give a lesson. Instead I spend the majority of my time telling people all the things that they don’t need to be doing to their golf swing. It’s more like the Betty Ford golf detox center. So many people have made this game way more difficult than it truly is. I know I have…. in the past. I’ll give you some examples: But before I do this lets agree that the majority of golfers are rotary with a few exceptions like Colin Montgomery or Davis Love 111. Ok, so here’s one, turn your shoulders and then get the club down the toe line toe up. This is a complete biomechanical contradiction! …
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Things are not always what they appear to be The language of golf needs to change from trying to capture a look, a position or a favorite golfer to describing what is actually happening in the motion. Things happen for a reason in a golf swing and mostly if one gets overly involved in trying to make them happen the motion ceases to be functional. Here are some notable examples: Keep the left arm straight: well it sure seems that way but in reality the left arm is stretched, not straight. The need for this is that at impact the left shoulder is higher than it is at address and so if the left arms is not stretched one is apt to hit the shot thin. The swinging motion of the club itself will keep the left arm straight just as a weight and string does when swung in a circle. Adding to …
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How Golf Swings Miss the Shot Give Four Possibilities How golf swings miss the shot can be from hitting off the toe of the club or from off the heel and with both of these the path can be from inside out or from outside in. This gives every golfer four possible ball flights. This also means that if one understands these misses it is now quite easy to fix the problem. If one hits the ball off of the toe of the club and the ball goes left, this is from the body stopping and the arms wrapping. This club is coming from inside to inside. But this shot is mostly accused of being over the top as it is seen as going left. We can hear this all the time on TV “well Nick, he really pulled that one left”. It’s not a pull it’s an arm wrap and the …
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I was listening to a golf instructor on TV the other night talking about what you should do if you are “over the top in your downswing.” He described and then demonstrated this as a condition where one is out and over the plan and therefore swinging left. A solution was then given by sliding the lower body toward the target thus keeping the club from inside and no longer over the top. What about looking at why this golfer is over the top and then fixing that instead. Otherwise aren’t we just replacing one error with another error – sliding. And aren’t we now dealing with the effect rather than the cause. Its important to understand that many golfers go back on one plane and then down on a totally different plane. Some come down below their backswing plane, some come over their backswing plane and some go back …
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Seeing Vs Reading Putts
Posted on January 31, 2014 by Warren Raatz in About Golf, Golf Instruction, Newsletter | No CommentsSeeing the putt and reading the putt are not the same thing. I have been saying for years that a putter can only hit a flat straight putt but what we see depends on the individual. Here, let me explain… All of us know the need for reading putts but this read is based of off either seeing a line or a curve. The greats refer to it as linear or non-linear putters. I overheard in the opening round at the Dubai Classic Tiger Woods say to his caddie “there is no such thing as a straight put”. His caddie replied that “every putt is a straight putt”. And so this is a perfect example of how everything can be right and everything can also be wrong as it all depends. But the question is how is it possible that they can both be right and at the same time wrong? Tiger does not …
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Getting the club light is only possible from a correct grip Getting the club light in the backswing not only loads the right arm for power but allows any golfer to swing the club back faster and with more control. This light and levered condition can be easily obtained as it is established at address from a correct grip. With a good grip the club is already light as it is already in an up condition and only needs to be swung back. In the picture above we see a most talented junior golfer Austin Shah in perfect posture made possible from the grip. This club is already up at address as seen with the angle formed by the clubshaft and arms. With his grip the heel pad of the left hand is on top, the thumb is slightly on the side of the handle and the wrist joint is on top of the …
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Putters face balanced or toe weighted are designed for ones individual stroke as one naturally arcs the putter or swings it more straight back and through. This means that not only are there two kinds of putters but there are two kinds of putters. So lets look at both the putters as well as the one who is putting. The next two pictures show the two different weightings of the club heads. The first picture is of a toe weighted putter. When this club is swung back and through it is designed to swing on somewhat of an arc and as it does this the club will stay square to the arc opening in the backswing and then closing in the through swing relative to the target line. To facilitate this the clubshaft is longer and a bit flatter making it easy to capture this arcing motion. On the other hand …
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Keep The Club Front And Center Keep the golf club in front of you: a statement of extreme importance in every golf swing. Having the club front and center means that everything is happening between the lines of the right and left shoulders from address to finish. Here the arms are swinging on the line of the shoulders, the elbows are pointing down throughout the motion, the clubshaft is staying between the left and right forearms and the upper body is staying on top of the lower body. The arms swing very nicely on the line of the shoulders as they are attached to the shoulders. Doing this allows the club to swing on plane and since the arms are swinging the legs automatically coordinate. Having the elbows point down throughout the motion keeps the clubface square and on plane, opening to a neutral position as the right arm folds in the backswing and closing to a …
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The Importance of Posture in the Golf Swing Determines How One Swings the Club The importance of posture in the golf swing is such that it takes precedence over the other four elements in the set up but ironically it is released and even abandoned in order to reach the finish of one’s swing. Posture is achieved by bending backwards from the knees and forward from the hips same time and same amount which lowers one down into a balanced athlete starting position. Said another way: stick your back end out. The importance of posture shows that the golfer is down to the ball and has room for arm swing and by lowering down like this the torso can be matched to the incline, an ideal, determined by the clubshaft at address putting the club and spine at a right angle. This means that the shoulders can easily assist the arm swing back to the ball. Here the motion is …
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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 release to the ball. Here is a golfer who uses vertical forces when …
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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 a golfer must actively be involved in doing this or one will suffer the consequence …
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I just watched a video of a golfer who was being described as having a” one plane” swing due to his left arm being parallel to his shoulder line at the top of the backswing. The golfer in question is a one plane golfer but having his left arm in line with his shoulders, as seen down the line at the top, is not why he is “one plane.” I think this might be misleading and confusing to the reader. Let’s start by using logic and common sense here this way we can all avoid the inherent problems of sounding like a know it all. If a golfer can setup with the club shaft at right angles to the spine at address they are well on their way to having a “one plane” golf swing. If a golfer cannot do this they are well on their way to having a …
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Learn to use the clubface The golf swing has a number one choice to hit the outside the inside or the back of the ball. Each choice has an advantage and a disadvantage that comes with it. Lets start by looking at the objective of any golf swing and that is to hit the ball to a chosen target with a square clubface delivered on a desired path and on an incline plane determined by the lie angle of a club, striking the ball in the center of percussion of the clubface at maximum velocity. But when doing this one can chose to hit the outside part of the ball, the inside or the back of the ball. As long as the face is square to the target or intended target at the moment of separation, (between the ball and the clubface), the ball will end up at the target. There are advantages and …
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Face Determines the Path Cure for the slice in the golf swing is from a clubface and path that produces a draw found from a correct setup and swinging motion seen as in to out path. But anytime the face is opened unnecessarily, either in the setup or swinging motion, the path will have to be out to in so as to square the face at impact. This out to in path with an open clubface is the source of any slice. The fix is to return to having a clubface, one that necessitates an in to out path. And with this clubface one can also relearn to release the club and use the lower body resulting in a draw. Here is a simple drill that reverses an out to in path to one that is more in to out. This drill also changes the need for holding off the face to releasing it, a move that puts the legs back …
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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 arms swing back and forth the shoulders are controlling the …
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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 the swing begins back to the ball the stored energy, …
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Junior Golf Swing Requirements Junior golf swing requirements are quite similar to any adult swing in that they both gain momentum from the ground up by using the chain reaction of legs, hips, shoulders and arms through strength, flexibility and balance. Both adult and juniors create coil by getting the upper body wound against the resistance of the lower body through arm swing. But since juniors can be very flexible the focus for them should shift from achieving some degree turn to capturing some degree of coil . This does not mean that they don’t get turned but rather what they need to prioritize in their swing is coil. This is achieved but first squaring the feet and then having the youngster do nothing as they swing the club back. They will still get turned but now they have the ability to create coil. In all golf swings it is all about achieving a balance, that is why one either …
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Simplifying the Golf Swing
Posted on July 28, 2014 by Warren Raatz in About Golf, Golf Instruction, Newsletter, Swing Analysis | No CommentsSimplifying the Golf Swing is a Result of Bending to the Ball Simplifying the golf swing is easily achieved from a correct posture and then allowing the arms to swing on the line of the shoulders. By bending backwards from the knees and forwards from the hips one can lower down to the ball putting the torso on an incline that places the clubshaft at a right angle to the spine at address. With this torso tilt the shoulders are put on a parallel incline with the clubshaft and since the arms can swing very nicely on the line of the shoulders it is now very easy to swing back to the ball. With this the club will naturally go up in the backswing and then down in the downswing to the ball without any effort on the part of the golfer, the arms have room to swing on the line of the shoulders, the …