I should perhaps at the outset of this posting provide a caveat of sorts – when I say that Jack Nicklaus’ swing model was the closest I’ve seen to the optimal Classic Golf Swing, I mean a certain version.

His swing changed over the years with regards to his setup and sometimes it was not even a good one, let alone close to optimal – yes, even the Golden Bear strayed away from his principles at times, by his own admission.

The more I see of his 1963 swing however, the more I am inclined to use that particular swing model and aside from the stance being over-wide, it was very close to that optimal version of my mind and research.

Take this setup for his driver, and I’ll try to find this same swing without the zooming camera feature because it is messing up my attempt to verify something:

This is a superb setup and the swing action is magnificent as you’ll see in the video clip below:

Now, what is the thing I’m trying to verify about this ’63 action?

It has to do with JN’s head shift before he begins the back pivot – people have said that it was to give his shoulders more room to rotate, but I have found a different reason and will actually be researching this aspect in my next swing session.

I go where the evidence points me, you see – so I have gone down endless rabbit holes chasing leads that turned out to be red herrings, to mix my metaphors.

Doing so has brought me to where I am currently however, where I can dismiss very quickly most of the innovative bunk put out by the Modern Golf Swing industry with a “yeah right, been there, doesn’t work…”

The first time I remember that happening was way back in ’07, only two years into my swing research, when Nick Faldo ripped Stack & Tilt’s setup as unworkable, when I had literally just concluded that same a few weeks before I watched him say what he said on television.

It was why I was able to take one look at Tiger Woods’ setup working with Sean Foley years later in 2010 and say instantly, “no, not going to work out and it’s going to rip his back apart,” which it did over the next three seasons.

In this regard, I have looked at both Jack Nicklaus’ grip and pre-swing head shift before while chasing leads, but only now, as I close in on finding the key between one setup and three different swing models, am I getting to the benefits of both.

Without trying to seem mysterioso about it, I’ll just say that although the optimal Classic Golf Swing has a stationary head on the back pivot, where it is in the setup could be an issue swinging down to impact.

So, one might say, the place to which Nicklaus shifted his head was where it should be at impact and the shift meant that ideally his head wouldn’t move on the back pivot – but why didn’t he just set up in that position?

I believe I have the answer to this riddle, dear WAX Nation – but it is currently just something I have uncovered today in my swinging sessions and until confirmed, I will just say that whether or not Nicklaus himself knew why he did it, I think I have the valid reason.

By the way, there may be many things Nicklaus did optimally in his swing that he didn’t necessarily understand, aside from that it was how Jack Grout taught him to swing and he sensed that when he went away from that, his swing and game suffered.

So, it’s nothing I’m saying to attempt to seem smarter or more knowledgeable than Mr. Nicklaus, only that swing mechanics and how the body moves are all I’ve studied for over 18 years and that research has allowed me to answer many questions about the swing.

More to come!