I should perhaps at the outset of this posting provide a caveat of sorts – when I say that Jack Nicklaus’ swing model was the closest I’ve seen to the optimal Classic Golf Swing, I mean a certain version.
His swing changed over the years with regards to his setup and sometimes it was not even a good one, let alone close to optimal – yes, even the Golden Bear strayed away from his principles at times, by his own admission.
The video from Golf Digest is called The Science Behind Gordon Sargent’s Insane Swing Speed, but I’ll just call it what it is – A Recipe For Disaster.
I’ve already (long ago) pointed out that any real science that looks at the X Factor notion of Jim McLean infamy concludes that it is physically unsound and puts golfers at a higher risk of back injury, but why quibble?
For all of the analysis that has gone into Jack Nicklaus’ golf swing – that is, before the Modern Golf Swing madness took over the instruction world and all of the swings from Bobby Jones’ to Nicklaus’ disappeared forever from The Golf Channel – the engine driving his power was not properly looked into.
You hear about his power fade and how Nicklaus had the “flying elbow,” but what about his actual pivot action?
Would you want to actually swing in the manner I will show you below?
I don’t even want to name the instructor, because I’m not out to attack individual instructors, and this is a statement on the Modern Golf Swing.
He will miss the rest of the season having gone under the knife on his back, and we all know that once the surgeries begin…
You’ll recall my writing about him last year when he went down with the initial back woes and how I could show that the current “In The Know” characters were praising the same swing that broke his back not long before it happened.
Again, I am reacting to the Tweet and do not know or care who the person posting it is.
I’m sure he is not the only one doing this, so let’s just look at the content, shall we?
First off, this is not a personal attack on anyone featured below, whether it be golfer, analyst or instructor. My beef is with the entire industry.
I’ve been seeing a lot of Tweets regarding young Will Zalatoris after his maiden PGA Tour win.
I also got a look at his swing today, because as you all know, I almost never watch Tour golf on the television anymore due to heartburn and mental health hazards.
Words definitely matter when you’re speaking or writing about the swing, because if the diagram, picture or video were sufficient, we’d simply watch and implement, wouldn’t you agree?
In that regard, let’s just get rid of the word “shift” when it comes to the Classic Golf Swing, particularly the MCS version of it, because there is no “shift” in the optimal swing.
One of the reasons I was able to drive a golf ball 350 yards and up back in my late 30s and early 40s even while swinging with too much leading arm (left-dominant) was because I knew where impact was.
I may have been guilty of trying to pull the club through impact with the leading arm while still trying to hit the ball with my right hand – when I didn’t do it perfectly, I would smash the ball 350 yards, but when I did do it perfectly, I snap-hooked the ball off the planet or sliced it over 2 fairways.
I’m referring of course to the right-handed golf swing, so lefties swinging lefty would be the same thing here if you are left-handed and swing left.
But in the land of hockey, there are so many more right-handed Canadians who play golf left-handed than the average nation.
WAX Golf 