What is The One Magic Move in your golf swing that you absolutely must do in the right way?
There are probably four (4) things in a Golf Swing that you could call magic. They are magical, because when it is done well and on time, the whole affair reacts as if by an unknown magic spell. As if there was some control over the swing.
The ball explodes from the club head and you feel that you have not really done much. It is effortless. And it's almost anti-climatic because you're used to consuming huge amounts of energy to hit a very bad shot.
But if the truth is known, you would admit that you never really felt that. And if you have that, you have no idea in the world what you did to feel that once in your life.
You will never be asked the question, so you are not in danger of coming up with a story. that will give you a bad feeling later on.
But I only asked the question and you are lucky that we are not in the same room, so you do not have to give an answer. Just answer yourself. And the answer is?
I already know.
Recently I played with a few friends in our club.
The wind blew 30 MPH. A hard day to play. The kind of day when balance and slew rate were very important.
I had to deal with a head wind on a par four, a light paw of a dog. While I was preparing the conditions in my head, I decided to test the theory of "when it is airy, easy to swing".
At the same time I thought I would make a small cut and let it fade the corner. That would give me a wedge in green. Good idea!
Here, the problem, I had to hit it far enough or else I would be blocked at the next shot.
I can make the cut shot OK, but it takes some distance from the picture and it tends to go slightly higher than my normal route. And so the wind would really have an effect.
I opened a little bit and thought to swing along my foot line would give me a good enough fade to strike. But that damn wind.
About halfway through the impact I committed a carnal sin of wave. That's right, I changed my mind.
I decided that in order to circumvent everything, I would have touched everything. Hurry up. Fold out the snot. Sit on it.
And I did!
I hit the most gawd terrible picture. I turned around as fast as a man could swing, and man, did I ever take a cut photo. More like a boomerang. Unbelievable!
Unbelievably bad is what I mean.
This is a photo that I would almost never touch. But the point of this is to tell you that if you do things wrong in the golf swing bad things happen to the golf ball.
And it does not matter who you are or what your disability is. The ball just does not matter! And your golf swing gives you what you give it. No doubt possible.
So you see a good player who ignores the basic bad results. A poor player who ignores the base gets bad results.
They are the same!
Now, what is that magic as the first movement in your downfall. Let's find out!
First I want to make sure that you understand that I make a huge assumption here. And that is that you are already in a great position in your backswing. If you are not, you might as well disable your computer.
It will not be good to make the first part wrong and then to be in constant correction and partial confusion the rest of the way to the golf course ball.
It is easy enough to do, the backswing that I mean. So that's the first part.
Oh yes and this. Let me remind you again that there are no good players with bad grip. Meanwhile you know what a good grip is, so now it would be a good time to take a "good grip"
Drum Roll! The first magic movement in your downswing is not a rotation of the hips.
Sorry for perishing a long cherished theory. Turning the hips is a formula for a reverse weight shift. Do not do this.
The first magical movement on your downfall consists of three elements.
Here they are:
1. First movement is a bump from your hips sideways towards the target while holding your head in the same relative position. It is very important to understand why these two things are so important.
The bump on the side of the hips shifts the weight to the front leg, this eliminates the inverse weight shift and the "no weight displacement" keeps your head under control in the original position is probably not possible, but the idea is not to move your head to the goal. That means you keep your head behind the ball. This is crucial for the mechanics of the body.
As you hit your hips laterally and keep your head behind the ball, this movement will rock your shoulders so that you are now in a position where your right shoulder is lower than your left hand and you are in a position of power from the inside of the goal line.
From here you can not get from the top. Nice is not it?
Now for you skeptics. You will notice that I have not said a word about your hips. Maybe you have read that you have to do that. Turn your hips.
Bury the thought.
Here is the test that proves that you will turn your hips whether you want it or not. And so you do not have to worry about that.
Go into a setup position. You do not need a club. Turn to your right as if you were sitting on your backswing.
Now push your hips against each other laterally and push them as far as you can (slowly) while keeping your head in the relative position. Keep crashing.
As you continue to bump your hips, you will soon see that you can not physically bump further and guess what happens.
Turn your hips. There you have it! And now you have let me say it. Turn your hips. But you do not have to do anything that is automatic.
Try it!
2. The second move is a drop of the right elbow on the right side while maintaining the angle that exists between your club shaft and your right arm. Just like the angle between your right wrist and your right forearm.
That sounds like a lot to remember.
Here is good news. You do not have to remember it. You just have to know.
If you hit your hips sideways and you were in a good position of the backswing, your arms will
automatically jumps into the right position at your right hip. The only thing you can do to be sure is, another drum roll, nothing.
That's right, do not do anything.
And I do not mean anything. Your hands and arms should just go along during the ride. Do not try to let them do it. Turn them into stone, or wood, or metal or whatever you want. But do not let them do anything.
This is a good example to go your own way. Let your arms follow your shoulders as you hit your hips sideways and they will go to the right place. Pretty cool things right?
3. Now just hit the ball. You are in a perfect position to attack the golf ball from the inside with power and accuracy.
Let's test this a little bit now. Take a club, go into the position of the backswing. Slowly push your hips aside and let your hands and arms go where they want.
Have they almost fallen to your right hip? They should have. Do this a number of times until you get the feel of the bump and the drop. It will not be easy. But if you do this, you will hit the ball as if by magic.
Who else does this. Well for one, Tiger Woods. You can see the proof of that if you look at his swing and watch his position when he tilts his hips.
His arms fall and he catches the eye in a squatting position. This is seen through to his knees. You will see that both are bent and leaning towards the goal. And they are well separated. Kind of an arch-legged look.
His head is still where he was placed, but from time to time you will see him crouching so often that his head falls down or he gets shorter. This is a small problem that we do not have to worry about.
That's because Tiger Woods develops a huge couple in his golf swing. Something we probably could not achieve.
But what we can do is achieve the exact positions as Tiger Woods just by doing the simple things that are correct in our golf swing.
Is it magic? Of course. It is as magical as you want to make it. You will hit the ball as if by magic. That is close enough?
So try this. Trust me, it works. It is another advanced lesson, but something. You will one day have to know how to do it if you continue playing golf.
Why not know it now?
Note. Do not listen to your friends on the range. They have listened to someone else who has listened to someone else, listened to someone else, and through and through.
This first step down is absolutely correct and every good player does it. You should also do that
Go get them! Let me know how you do it.