Brian Manzella
Administrator
If you made a perfect backswing pivot, like the one we detailed in last month’s article Perfect PIvot Part 1 and shown below,
and you simply un-wound your torso on the same axis that you rotated about on this backswing, you would make a very ineffective body motion (picture below).
Yet this very notion of unwinding on the same axis is what most golfers do and believe it or not, what most ‘name’ instructors teach (picture below).
This literally “misguided” procedure will create a force that will not be focused on the ball and for most players, cause an ‘over-the-top’, off-plane start to the downswing which can only be saved by an equally off-plane force with the arms in the opposing direction.
Whew!
How about we just learn to “Do It Right.”?
The primary reason we should try to make a backswing like in the first Picture, is to get the right shoulder in a ‘deep’ enough location to reach a plane that it can travel straight down to and though impact, giving both guidance and power to the arms, hands and club. This down-plane force will give the golfer their best chance at maximum distance and accuracy.
As the golfer rotates around his spine on the backswing, his weight is ‘shifted’ from centered at address toward the right foot at the top of the backswing. This is due to the fact that the spine is 'behind' the golfer's torso and not because the golfer moved his weight to the right.
However, it is very important to note, that you should NOT be able to pose this position if you want to make functional, dynamic pivot. Because the right leg should not lose its address angle--even if the right knee is allowed to straighten some--the golfer should ‘fall’ back toward the left foot after getting to the top of the swing.
To experience this ‘counter-fall’/change-of-direction, make a backswing pivot with no club. At the end of the backswing motion allow the force of the rotation to assist you in lifting the left foot completely off of the ground (picture below).
If you can ‘balance’ yourself at the top with your foot off of the ground, you have ‘swayed’ off of the ball. In the proper application, the left foot should immediately ‘fall’ back to the ground, ‘starting’ the downswing.
From this into-the-ground fall, the golfer should feel as if he continues going down slightly, like a basketball player going down into the ground before springing up for a rebound. This will put the golfer into the highly desirable ‘sit-down’ position where he then can use the ground to both tilt his axis to the right and forcefully unwinding through the ball to the swivel.
Coming out of this sit-down position is where the golfer, by way of moving his hips toward the target while keeping his head back, tilts his axis to the right. The precise amount is determined by the movement of the shoulders. They must switch from their backswing plane, well above the ball, to a much steeper plane running just inside the ball.
This axis tilting is what puts the right shoulder in position to drive the arms, hands and club through the ball with power and precision. The left shoulder, being at the end of the golfer’s primary lever, moves in the near exact opposite direction the club is moving in during this delivery into the ball. As the club goes downward, outward and forward, the left shoulder is moving upward, inward and backward.
This motion continues deep into the downswing, with the axis is fully tilted and the unwind in full force, pulling the arms to release point.
correct axis tilt shown below at impact
This continues through just before impact, where the pivot slows to a near halt, transferring the speed of the pivot to the club. By the time the left arm has gone from across the chest to the right arm being thrown across the chest, the pivot is waiting for the force of the clubhead now pulling the chain in reverse of the order that occurred through impact.
Most golfers and teachers think that the pivot unwinds non-stop all the way to the finish. In my opinion, they are being 'faked-out' by slow eyes. It just looks that way.
To see what really happens, look at the picture below.
This is where I, or anyone else throwing a golf club out of a golf set-up, looks when they have released the club. Not only that, but this is the position that golf-club-thrower stays in, long after the club 'helicopters' in to the open field. In essense, this is the real end of the pivot. The reason that golfers finish like the picture below
is that the club 'pulls' the golfer the rest of the way around. This would happen to the club-thrower also, if the club he was tossing was super-glued to his hands.
Dispite the finish position being a result of being a pulled-by-the-club station, Learning how it feels and looks when it happens correctly is very worthwhile.
At the finish the right foot has 'spun' to the very top of the toe and there should be no bend in the foot at all in this position (below picture).
The knees will touch as well as the legs abobe the knees and the right hip and right houlder should be at least as close to the target as the left hip and shoulder. The shoulders should out-turn the hips a bit. The golfer was bent over at address and should remain in some of that primary tilt at the finish. The rearward axis tilt is difficult to maintain past the swivel, so a relaxing of this alignment is not only allowable, but in the case of golfers with back trouble, recommended.
To me the most important detail of the finish is the location of the golfer's weight. It should be directly over the left heel, because the left knee is dead straight at this point and the leg is situated over the heel.
and you simply un-wound your torso on the same axis that you rotated about on this backswing, you would make a very ineffective body motion (picture below).
Yet this very notion of unwinding on the same axis is what most golfers do and believe it or not, what most ‘name’ instructors teach (picture below).
This literally “misguided” procedure will create a force that will not be focused on the ball and for most players, cause an ‘over-the-top’, off-plane start to the downswing which can only be saved by an equally off-plane force with the arms in the opposing direction.
Whew!
How about we just learn to “Do It Right.”?
The primary reason we should try to make a backswing like in the first Picture, is to get the right shoulder in a ‘deep’ enough location to reach a plane that it can travel straight down to and though impact, giving both guidance and power to the arms, hands and club. This down-plane force will give the golfer their best chance at maximum distance and accuracy.
As the golfer rotates around his spine on the backswing, his weight is ‘shifted’ from centered at address toward the right foot at the top of the backswing. This is due to the fact that the spine is 'behind' the golfer's torso and not because the golfer moved his weight to the right.
However, it is very important to note, that you should NOT be able to pose this position if you want to make functional, dynamic pivot. Because the right leg should not lose its address angle--even if the right knee is allowed to straighten some--the golfer should ‘fall’ back toward the left foot after getting to the top of the swing.
To experience this ‘counter-fall’/change-of-direction, make a backswing pivot with no club. At the end of the backswing motion allow the force of the rotation to assist you in lifting the left foot completely off of the ground (picture below).
If you can ‘balance’ yourself at the top with your foot off of the ground, you have ‘swayed’ off of the ball. In the proper application, the left foot should immediately ‘fall’ back to the ground, ‘starting’ the downswing.
From this into-the-ground fall, the golfer should feel as if he continues going down slightly, like a basketball player going down into the ground before springing up for a rebound. This will put the golfer into the highly desirable ‘sit-down’ position where he then can use the ground to both tilt his axis to the right and forcefully unwinding through the ball to the swivel.
Coming out of this sit-down position is where the golfer, by way of moving his hips toward the target while keeping his head back, tilts his axis to the right. The precise amount is determined by the movement of the shoulders. They must switch from their backswing plane, well above the ball, to a much steeper plane running just inside the ball.
This axis tilting is what puts the right shoulder in position to drive the arms, hands and club through the ball with power and precision. The left shoulder, being at the end of the golfer’s primary lever, moves in the near exact opposite direction the club is moving in during this delivery into the ball. As the club goes downward, outward and forward, the left shoulder is moving upward, inward and backward.
This motion continues deep into the downswing, with the axis is fully tilted and the unwind in full force, pulling the arms to release point.
correct axis tilt shown below at impact
This continues through just before impact, where the pivot slows to a near halt, transferring the speed of the pivot to the club. By the time the left arm has gone from across the chest to the right arm being thrown across the chest, the pivot is waiting for the force of the clubhead now pulling the chain in reverse of the order that occurred through impact.
Most golfers and teachers think that the pivot unwinds non-stop all the way to the finish. In my opinion, they are being 'faked-out' by slow eyes. It just looks that way.
To see what really happens, look at the picture below.
This is where I, or anyone else throwing a golf club out of a golf set-up, looks when they have released the club. Not only that, but this is the position that golf-club-thrower stays in, long after the club 'helicopters' in to the open field. In essense, this is the real end of the pivot. The reason that golfers finish like the picture below
is that the club 'pulls' the golfer the rest of the way around. This would happen to the club-thrower also, if the club he was tossing was super-glued to his hands.
Dispite the finish position being a result of being a pulled-by-the-club station, Learning how it feels and looks when it happens correctly is very worthwhile.
At the finish the right foot has 'spun' to the very top of the toe and there should be no bend in the foot at all in this position (below picture).
The knees will touch as well as the legs abobe the knees and the right hip and right houlder should be at least as close to the target as the left hip and shoulder. The shoulders should out-turn the hips a bit. The golfer was bent over at address and should remain in some of that primary tilt at the finish. The rearward axis tilt is difficult to maintain past the swivel, so a relaxing of this alignment is not only allowable, but in the case of golfers with back trouble, recommended.
To me the most important detail of the finish is the location of the golfer's weight. It should be directly over the left heel, because the left knee is dead straight at this point and the leg is situated over the heel.
