I was doing my usual tour through YouTube yesterday and posted about how the art or knowledge of the natural swing has been lost – it’s even more than that – the Modern Golf Swing has evolved.
It seems to me that lesson of the X-Factor wrecking lower backs has been taken partially to heart by the Modern Golf Swing world, and the swing theory has evolved, or devolved, if you will – back to the days of Stack & Tilt.
For years, modern swingers were trying to actually swing according to how the Classic Golf Swing was performed, except with that one major component of keeping the leading foot nailed down during the back pivot.
They had the setup that was more right-dominant, and they were fighting to pivot to the top with that right-biased setup, placing great strain on the leading leg joints and lower back:
Even as recently as 2019, Tiger Woods had that more traditional setup, with the right bias in his address, the right-tilting spine angle and the traditionally flared leading foot.
Of course, he didn’t always do this, as you can see back in 2018, he was more biased to the left in his setup:
… but the fact remains that the Modern Golf Swingers were more right-biased in the past.
Jon Rahm 2017
Rory McIlroy 2014
Perhaps it’s the lessons learned watching Tiger Woods destroy his lower back in real time, but it seems that today’s players are now shifting back, pun intended, to the Stack & Tilt era method of having the weight into the leading side on the setup, and performing the same reverse-pivot (when the weight stays on the leading side instead of into the trailing side).
This way, you don’t get the lower back twisting because you actually can turn the hips with the leading foot nailed down when your weight is on that foot:
That was Jerry “BT” Crowell demonstrating this major mechanical flaw back in 2015, when I shot the “MCS – Ultimate Leverage” video, which was the first MCS video featuring the Ben Hogan “Perfect Pivot” action.
If you think that looks silly and exaggerated, take a look at this:
And this top position here compared to Ben Hogan’s:
This YouTube “guru” is not doing this by mistake. Here he is below, purporting to give the secret to Hogan’s pivot action with the legs:
Now, if you watch another YouTube “guru” explaining the transition move with the hips, you can see why today’s players are having to perform the Squat & Dump move.
Watch how he is actually teaching people to turn in place like a barrel with the hips, without any shift of weight or the hips to the target:
Did you see that?
Watch again if you must, but observe how there is absolutely no weight shift on the back pivot, just a turning of the hips whilst the weight remains over the left side, and then turning the hips again in place without them shifting.
The whole farce where he says you’ll extend early if you pull the trailing hip up to match the leading hip – rubbish, because when you shift and pivot properly, the hips will shift toward the target and they will turn.
That means that the leading hip will start to move back away from the target line as you do so, and it won’t be a pelvic thrust toward the target line:
Not to mention, this fellow could barely maintain his balance just demonstrating this hip action, and look at this terrible footwork and leading leg extension – you’re taking swing advice from this:
So – why are they doing this now?
It’s because they are now reverse-pivoting to the top, and as I said yesterday, you have nowhere to go when you do this because if you hip-shift even slightly toward the target as one does naturally with the proper back pivot and down swing, you will lose the position from which you started.
Watch Ben Hogan’s hips shift significantly to the target past the address position as he transitions to the down swing:
Here is a rule you can bet on – if you don’t pivot so that your body weight shifts to the trailing side, you can not shift to the target to begin the down swing.
You have to spin like a top:
That’s the reason these guys are all teaching their unwitting audience to rotate like drills, reverse-pivot on the back swing and then trying somehow to generate some sort of leverage to swing down to the ball from the top.
You get the squatting, the rotation in place, the hyperextension of the leading leg to force the leading hip back before it can shift to the target:
Instagram Swing “Guru” Reverse-Pivot & Spin
So, the art of the natural swing is being lost and we’re back to the days of Stack & Tilt which was debunked years ago as being a ridiculous way to swing anything longer than a wedge.
Any longer, and you’re harpooning your way around the golf course:
All of this, because the first law of “How To Not Swing Properly” must not be broken – “Thou Shalt Not Let Thine Leading Heel Leave Ye Ground On Ye Back Pivot.”
WAX Golf 
Reading this part 2 has opened my eyes to just how much of the modern golf swing is just twisting.They literally do not shift at all. The most natural,and efficient movement to gain power and accuracy,is being fought. Everytime I look at modern golf I need to touch something to make sure this isn’t a mad dream.
Once you figure out that the Classic Golf Swing is the mechanically-sound manner in which to pivot and swing a golf club, you will never be able to watch modern golf again without experiencing psychological trauma.
I watch more than a few minutes and I feel as though I’m in a fever dream, and the only way to wake up is to change the channel or switch the TV off.
Nightmarish.
Having gifs on hand helps.Have saved quite a fair few from your blog on top of making my own haha
I wonder how the old timers – Bobby Jones, Snead, Nicklaus, Hogan, etc., learned to swing.
As you pointed out DJ in a prior post, the guys we admire all have the same mechanics, just different idiosyncrasies.
How did they learn or discover these mechanics? It could be that sound mechanics are natural movement patterns that we knew as kids but as we got older and filled our brains with bad information we lost it. Maybe we need to all learn how to swing like kids again.
Bobby Jones had a great instructor, Stewart Maiden. Snead, self-taught hitting stones with tree branches in meadows. Nicklaus had Jack Grout. Hogan dug it out of the Texas dirt.
What is important is that there is a way for the body to move, and the Classic Golf Swing is the manner in which to swing naturally. So, when you left people to their own devices, some figured it out and taught others, and some simply figured it out. Being individuals, they may or may not have had idiosyncrasies, but the main plot remains the same.
What happened with the Modern Golf Swing is that you have people who have no clue what they’re talking about, trying to dissect and explain the swings of the greats, or simply misinterpreting what the greats said about their swings.
With the ubiquity of video since the 60’s and then the internet, things just got more and more mangled in the explanations. It’s no coincidence in my opinion that the proper way to swing began to fall apart with the introduction of cable.
The Golf Channel used to run so many old tournaments, exhibitions and instructional segments from the Classic Golf Swing era, and now they don’t. My bet is because everything in the Modern Golf Swing is absolutely destroyed and refuted by that old material.
And we can’t have that, with expensive equipment and body-destroying lessons to be sold.
Funny you should mention that:youtube used to have a lot of old videos of the classics until 8 years ago.Wonder if that’s related. I mean,who would be taking down old golf videos with 5000 views at most lol
I’m no conspiracy theorist, but there are or would be powerful interests not wishing to see the golf swing go back to its natural iteration.
It’s too easy to maintain once learned and does not require fancy, expensive equipment to play golf. I could go out tomorrow with persimmons and blades, and the only difference I’d find was in the distances I hit the ball.
People hang onto these old YouTube clips so dearly, you would have to wonder WHY the Golf Channel has scrubbed everything to do with the Classic Golf Swing from its rotation. If anyone has a better theory or explanation than my suspicions, I’d love to hear it. 🙂
Apologies until 4 years ago.haha I think you may be on to something.It was as if overnight great videos of Payne Stewart,Tom Wastson,Nicklaus etc playing against each other in full just vanished.Tons of great footage is no longer on youtube.They only exist now on the vhs videos at the homes of fortunate people.
I think you’re right DJ. The golf industry is big money and there is an un-satiated need to pump out more training aid gimmicks and clubs every month. It’s a viscous circle – teach some modern swing movement to “cure” a problem, develop a training aid that compliments, break something else, scrub and repeat.
I love watching the old timers talk about how they swing the club.
An interesting observation I noticed is how much the old timers stress balance, tempo and rhythm along with developing good fundamentals, namely the grip, alignment, lively feet and keeping a steady head. This is very much different than today’s hyper analytical focus on every minutiae of the swing, focusing more on positions, wrist angles and the such.
I can’t imagine Sam Snead having 8 different swing thoughts during the 1-2 seconds it takes to swing the club lol. He just gets that waggle going and the forward press and off he goes.
If you’re interested in watching old golfers who just swing without much thought,this Byron Nelson match is the one for you.
I actually played with an old fella of about 80 yesterday,he was a big fan of sam snead (even wore the same hat and classic shoes). The man could only use hybrids,a wedge,and a putter.But,even despite (or because 🙂 )his old age,and physical limitation,he still swung with complete balance and rhythm.That says a lot.
Love it! I will watch tonight.