Sunday thoughts.

One thing that has struck me, since I began to unravel the mystery of the pivot action and since I have figured out the optimal grip (Classic neutral), has been how unnecessary and literally obsolete “tips” and “drills” have become.

This is, I suppose, because proper technique eliminates the need for little special things that you find all over YouTube and in magazines.

There is one drill that I find personally beneficial, and that is practicing my pivot action when not actually swinging a club.

Even when swinging a club, I focus on the pivot action for several swings, then I just switch to swinging with only one swing thought, and that is regarding the pivot on the back swing.

If you know the proper setup, and that includes ball position and grip in addition to the actual stance, and if you know how to perform the pivot action, it transforms the golf swing from some mystical action requiring gurus to a simply mechanical action no different from any other athletic motion.

I still come across clips from videos like “Austinology,” for example – and remember that I have stated my belief that Mike Austin’s swing model was the closest in theory to what I think is the optimal golf swing, so I’m not attacking or trying to belittle him – but when I come across “Austinology” clips, my immediate thought is, “My goodness – how long does it take to explain a pivot?”

Or the hand action?

If you have the proper grip, then the hand action is as simple as I’ve explained with regards to the flexing of the trailing hand and the release, none of which take any conscious thought if you’re performing the pivot properly, and even if you think about it, it’s “flex” on the back swing, and the release comes naturally when swinging down.

Who thinks of flexing the hand when hammering a nail?  Or releasing?

Let’s face it, for most people, the only thought involved in hammering (I am the son of a carpenter and was swinging a hammer at a single-digit age, so perhaps I have a different view than the average person) is to get the hammer squarely onto the nail.

No one is thinking about the hand action, are they?  I certainly don’t.

I see clips on YouTube that run 10-15 minutes or even longer, on “how to release the golf club.”

Seriously?  A fifteen minute discussion on how to release the golf club?

I imagine the primary purpose of taking so long is to give the impression that it’s more complicated than it actually is.

The release in the golf swing happens naturally into the swing bottom in a proper swing, without any effort to actually release – but then WAX Nation citizen AK and I were discussing “hitting” vs “swinging” via email, and I told him simply that I don’t know how one “hits” a golf ball, since I just swing through to the finish and let the ball get in the way of the club head.

It’s like hammering a nail – I don’t think about “hitting” the nail, only swinging up and down and letting the nail get in the way.

Releasing the hammer?  It happens naturally with the swinging down.  Who thinks, “OK, release the hammer now” when hammering a nail?

So, when you build the proper stance and know how to make the pivot action, you really don’t have to think about much more than the pivot action.

Because I’ve changed my pivot action dramatically since the last time I actually had a ball-striking session, I think about the shoulders on the pivot – if my shoulders are doing what I want them to, as in the pivot drill, then the pivot is working properly – and perhaps where I want my hands at the top of the back swing.

On the down swing, it’s nothing more than getting into my leading foot – leverage takes care of the rest, and really, it happens so quickly that I don’t see how any swing thought would help.

That is why I have stressed two things in the months since I unlocked the Late Hogan pivot – those are the optimal grip and the actual pivot action.

With the proper grip, you never have to worry about squaring the club face if you simply flex and release the trailing wrist.

I’ve been just as guilty as the rest in engaging in long-winded explanations of this action or that action, but I found that as soon as I knew the proper setup, complete with ball position and grip, and knew the pivot action, the need for these explanations disappeared.

I may or may not have benefited from an education in kinesiology in my golf swing research as in having saved me time in my research, then again, I see that this type of education has done nothing to solve the problem of the Modern Golf Swing and its mechanical flaws.

Do you want to know why it took me so long to get over the finish line?

Regular readers already know – I didn’t realize until 2022 that I was swinging left-dominant because I am cross-dominant (not ambidextrous), and I ignored my own instruction on the grip for over a decade.

If I had figured out the cross-dominance issue and had gripped the club the way I was telling everyone else to, I’d have finished my research a decade ago.

But let’s say it would have – my thoughts on the golf swing would be, “It may take a kinesiology degree to figure out a proper golf swing, but it shouldn’t require one to learn it from someone who does.”

I won’t bemoan my stubbornness regarding the grip however, because I have spent the last decade exploring just about every possible thing in the golf swing trying to solve the mystery of why I didn’t yet “have it” yet and I believe I am better off for that time.

All of that research time also taught me that the golf swing is a very simple and basic action, as is every other athletic motion, and it doesn’t need breaking down into a million segments, nor a two-hour lecture, on how to swing a golf club.