After a lifetime in sports, I am still confused by the golf myth that in order to swing a golf downward, you must push upwards from the ground.

It is easily the silliest and most “debunkable” myth, as well, which makes me wonder why swing analysts are pushing this.

Is it more gibberish that ensures a golfer will never master the swing, thereby ensuring years’ worth of employment for the snake-oil salesmen?

Think about it:

• The club is above you at the top of the back pivot,
• The ball is sitting on a tee or the ground below everything but your feet (standard shot),
• If you let go of the club at the top, it would fall to the ground because of gravity,
• Why then, are people being told that they have to “use the ground” to swing downward?
• Why are they being told to “push off” the ground when the club would naturally fall on its own?

I would ask anyone willing to perform this experiment (I believe I’ve done it before), with a golf ball and a cushion, if one is indoors:

Stand with a golf ball in your throwing hand, raise the ball to above shoulder height and then throw it downward at the ground or cushion as hard as you dare, without injuring yourself.

Similar to below, where I am throwing a golf ball at another ball on the tee:

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Now, do it again and ask yourself if you were at any point anywhere near wanting to leave the ground with either foot as you did so.

The answer of course, is “No.”  There is no advantage gained by directing your body upward whilst attempting to throw downward.

So, why would anyone think that this works with a golf club?

“You do it to clear the leading hip to allow the club to release through,” I’ve heard.  What a load of tripe – if your leading hip is impeding your club release, I do believe you’re nowhere to near swinging it properly.

“The foot is square at impact but you need it pointing to the target on the finish…”

Another bizarre statement.  Simply address the ball with your leading foot flared outward before you begin to swing.

“But that places too much strain on the leading hip and knee during the back pivot…”

If so, then that’s only because you’re not letting the leading heel lift and the hips to turn naturally and the leading knee to swing inward.

“But letting the leading heel lift makes too many moving parts, too unstable…”

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Golf is the only sport I know where extra moving parts are intentionally and needlessly added to an otherwise simple motion, because of a fundamental lack of knowledge of kinesiology in the instructional world.

I have no kinesiology degree, but participation in and excelling at multiple sports tends to teach one basic kinesiology, through intuition and/or instruction by coaches.

Here it is in black and white:

Other than preventing yourself from incurring a severe twisting force injury because, for some reason, you insist upon anchoring yourself to the ground with your trailing foot or because your leading foot is square to the target line, there is no reason to perform this action.

That’s why golfers will spin on their leading heel through a shot – the foot is too squared and/or they are not releasing the trailing foot:

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You can solve both problems by flaring your leading foot in the direction of the target and by making sure that as much weight as possible is on your leading foot at impact, which means your trailing foot will either slide forward of its own volition:

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… or you will simply “step-around” post-impact, into the finish:

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If you are standing and swinging on your trailing leg alone, then the leading leg is irrelevant, but that’s not how one swings or throws properly. One swings or throws properly by transferring one’s weight and balance to the leading foot in the direction of the action.

I don’t know how much longer this nonsense is going to last.  But people one day are going to look back on the golf instruction of the past 30-35 years and ask, “what on earth were these people teaching, and why??”

A safe and Merry Christmas to all.