I keep coming back to it, and I keep seeing it – I had actually nailed the MCS Golf Swing setup – the likely optimal one, at least for myself, way back in 2015, which was the first year I had built a swing model not trying to copy anyone.
Sure, I of course had looked at the greatest swingers when studying their setups and swing actions, but when I actually got over the ball, I wasn’t trying to emulate Ben Hogan or Jack Nicklaus, Mike Austin or Dunaway – I was just getting over the ball and slamming it.
Bear in mind, the actual swing itself wasn’t anywhere near optimal – I have chosen the best face-on setup from 2015 that I could find, but it was only during a two or three day span that I actually set up in this manner because I was looking for better, and my setup changed virtually every day.
And the down the line setup wasn’t optimal – so the pivot wasn’t optimal either, because you can only set out in the car you’re driving, so if there’s something not perfect about the car…
Anyway, here is a comparison of my best ever setup in ’15 and what I was doing in ’22 before I took my swing research indoors and spent the next two winters studying and working on a right-dominant swing action:
I’ve already compared the ’15 setup above to Jack Nicklaus’ setup and it was close, but for my personal physique, I can’t see anything in the ’22 setup that needs changing.
The ’15 setup had two issues – a slightly-over-wide stance and another issue that comprised of two components – a right hand grip that is far too strong (that’s a long drive type of grip) which is actually caused by the fact that I was swinging left-dominant.
You can see that as well, the way I’m strangling the grip with my left hand and a very stiff left arm – but that’s the arm with which I was swinging, and the right arm and grip were an afterthought.
The issue with this setup is that I was swinging left-dominant, but I’m not actually left-handed – I’m cross-dominant, which is defined as performing certain tasks with one hand (writing, eating, hammering, shooting a firearm or arrow) and other tasks dominantly with the other hand (throwing, punching, shooting a basketball, bowling, etc.).
So there were times I could literally knock down flags with my irons or drive the ball dead down the middle, and a country mile, but there were other times I’d pull or hook the ball off the planet – that was usually when I tried to put a little extra mustard into a swing and my right hand instincts would take over, with disastrous results.
Why am I talking about all of this again?
It’s because I keep working on the setup and swing in preparation for the outdoor season, and nothing has changed since 2015 with regards to my face-on setup other than that cross-dominant issue and a slight difference in stance width.
This setup was so money that could set up over the ball and make a swing this quickly – dead down the line:
I’ll have a better pivot now that I’ve spent a couple of years examining the pivot action in greater detail, but even in ’22 with this setup, I couldn’t have hit the ball any better than likely will come this year:
I don’t regret that time spent since the summer of ’22 where I went far afield researching various things such as the right-dominant model and other things, because I have checked and re-checked everything about the setup and pivot action so many times that I know all is on point.
Unless I’m massively off the mark, the new swing model will feature a setup that should look virtually if not exactly like below:
Note: Keep in mind that my angled foot line is to accommodate my scoliosis – most swingers will likely be pretty square unless they have a similar issue to mine.
A simple adjustment to the grip and stance width, now knowing how to not swing left-dominantly, and I’m just waiting to shoot clips for the swing video that will be coming out late spring.
I’ll just leave this here, and we’ll revisit it later to see how close the model looks to what I was doing at season’s end in 2022.
WAX Golf 