The older WAX Nation citizens here will of course remember Gary Player very well. The man nick-named the Black Knight stood only 5’6″ or 168 cm tall, yet he won 9 majors between 1961-74, competing against Arnold Palmer and Prime Jack Nicklaus.
So, how did such a diminutive fellow compete against larger and heavier players during the persimmon driver and Classic Golf Swing era?
I don’t know how many of you played golf before the advent of the Modern Golf Swing nonsense probably around the ’80s or so.
I myself remember beginning to take an interest in golf in the summer of ’95 (I didn’t have my first lesson until April of ’97 when TW won the Masters and the very next day, I bought a range membership that came with five half-hour lessons).
Note: Thanks to long time WAX Nation citizen Chief Cowpie for forwarding me the attached video clip.
This is really getting out of hand – we’ve gone from a time where golf analysts were clueless about mechanics and so tried to explain and excuse swing flaws in a positive manner – i.e. the flying foot became “using the ground” and “vertical lift,” but we’ve reached bottom.
Now, we’ve got Bryson DeChambeau taking a swing flaw – the jumping leading foot to avoid snapping oneself in half due to not releasing the trailing foot – has turned it into swing instruction.
I haven’t posted anything recently because I’ve been at work on the “model for everyone.”
Meaning, I am working on the setup that allows one to swing with whichever arm they feel dominant, or both, for those who don’t feel they are using one arm over the other.
I came across a comparison video between world long driving champion Kyle Berkshire and home run hitter Shohei Ohtani and there’s only one problem with the mechanics, albeit a glaring problem.
I wonder if anyone would be able to say what it is?
I’ve been quiet in recent weeks due to not having much to say about golf swing mechanics, due to the fact that I’m deeply into the issue of the grip and how it changes everything in the swing process.
I can say at the moment that the likely reason my efforts to replicate Mike Dunaway’s swing action comes down to the grip issue.
I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable New Year – but I’ve just watched a Youtube video from a channel that purports to be about “Athletic Motion” in the golf swing – and all they’re doing is superimposing a modern pro swing model onto a screen and comparing it to the struggling student’s action.
At this point, I switched the video off in disgust and said aloud to no one but myself, “Golf is the ONLY sport…!!!”
It’s certain that this will be WAX Golf’s last post of 2023 and I thought I’d return to one of my pet peeves.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to convince the world at large that the Flying Foot Syndrome is a swing flaw and not an aid – it goes back so far that I even found evidence of it going back to the Bing Crosby event days.
I have continued to work on the swing model and am currently just doing speed work with the swing aid to prepare for my next swing session.
One thing I’ve noticed is that, since I came up with the stance and mechanical action for my re-made swing, I would likely swing exactly the same way whether I was making a smooth swing on the course or trying to pound the cover off the ball.
Here’s something neat that I’ve recently worked out about the Nicklaus head turn before he began his back pivot – it wasn’t a shift, just a turn.
If you already knew that, here’s the catch – it wasn’t to “get his head out of the way of the shoulder turn” as people have stated in their analysis – it was simply that his final setup component was to put his head where it was supposed to be at impact.
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