I watched an analysis of 3rd World Ranked Cameron Young’s golf swing from a couple of years back and noticed that he’s performing the Late Hogan pivot (very good), but his down swing is all wrong (mechanically), as was the analysis of his whole swing model.
It’s amazing that, to today, they’re still going with the “using the ground” nonsense with the Flying Foot (Trevor Immelman calls it a “floating foot) and trying to call it a power-enhancing move when there are two reasons for Cameron’s Flying Foot.
They are:
- He’s anchoring his trailing foot, which means with turning hips, the leading foot has to fly to prevent snapping him in half (on irons, it’s a spin on the leading heel, another swing flaw that Immelman praises) and
- He’s spinning like a top through the impact and down swing because of his ridiculous ball position with the driver.
Here is the clip, and I’ll comment on the parts that are just, well, comment-worthy.
At the 1:00 mark, the analysis begins with a promising look at the down the line pivot, and Young is obviously using the Late Hogan pivot action:
As you can see that, even though his leading heel is down, he gets that big hip turn, and those of you who are following the pivot drill in the “Basics Of The MCS Golf Swing” video download can see he’s doing it exactly the way I describe it’s done.
In the face-on view that you’ll see later in the analysis, you can see the obvious Late Hogan pivot – that big a shoulder and hip turn (leading thigh is actually vertical) without the hyper-twist of the lower back that you see in the Modern Golf Swing.
That’s as good as it gets, however. It goes downhill when Immelman starts to analyze the face-on swing view, and these are his lines that he’s drawn, not mine:
Far too wide a stance and the ball position is even worse, because even if Cam’s left foot was just outside his leading shoulder, the ball would be where you’d have it for a mid-iron!
Even with a normal stance width, Cam would be (with a proper weight transfer to the leading foot on the down swing) snookered by that ball position and would have to spin out to make clean contact with the driver.
Did I say “spin out?”
No problem for Immelman, though, no sir – because he loves this:
Because of that ball position, Cam has had to spin out with his weight remaining on the trailing foot instead of getting into the leading foot as is mechanically-proper, and the spin plus the hip turn mean that if he’s not releasing the trailing foot, the leading foot is going to fly, baby, fly, which it does, and Immelman absolutely loves it.
Grade – Great back pivot, extra marks – but a terrible stance, ball position and down swing mechanics, but the down swing is doomed from the start by the stance and ball.
As for the rest of the video about his iron and wedge swings (terrible setup and technique, however good the ball-striking is), I just can’t even begin to describe everything wrong with a very good, top 3 in the world pro golfer who sets up and swings like an amateur with the leaning toward the target, gouging out beaver-tail pelts, no release of the club and spinning out on that leading heel.
It goes to show you that you can be a great golfer with terrible setup and mechanics with enough athletic ability, hand-eye coordination and practice.
As I’ve said on the blog, I’m not here to judge the quality of a golfer where the game involves much more than just how one swings a golf club, only to look at their swing mechanics.
If one wants to ask me, “if this is so bad, how is he ranked 3rd in the World Rankings, genius?” – I would answer, “if everyone is doing something wrong, someone is still going to be the best, 2nd best and 3rd best…”
Just as I love to say, if you had a sprint final with the competitors running backwards – which we can all agree is not the proper way to sprint – someone is still going to win.
If you held a tent-peg driving contest where the competitors are using their foreheads instead of a mallet, someone is still going to win. Someone is going to be better at doing something the wrong way.
Tiger Woods was the best player in the world for years in a world with horribly damaging swing models, where virtually no one was swinging with a mechanically-sound technique, and he was the best at it – and he wrecked his knee and his back doing it.
Cam Young is a physically and athletically gifted individual – and who knows what he could do with a good, mechanically-sound golf swing model – but the average person swinging the way he does wouldn’t be close to playing good golf.
WAX Golf 