It looks crazy at first with all of the bouncing and shifting around before the back swing pivot, but if you look closely at the reigning World Long Drive Champion Martin Borgmeier’s swing action, it’s pretty solid.
You can see the swing I’m featuring below on YouTube and I’ll break down what I like about it, as well as the “flying foot” compensation that has taken over the entire golf world from junior tours to long drive: Continue reading
By impediments, I mean that there should be no part of a golf swing where one’s setup or mechanical action impedes the freedom of the swing itself.
In modern golf, you have the planting of the leading foot on the back pivot, which leads to every other problem you’ll find in modern swinging due to that massive flaw in the mechanics.
You’ll remember my looking at a particular Jack Nicklaus setup from back in the 60’s and how I declared it nearly optimal, except for the extra wide stance?
Well, don’t look now, but the more you compare certain things in setups of great swingers, the more you see how you should be doing it yourself.
If you need any proof that the Classic Golf Swing hip action provides enough power for even the modern game and equipment, look no further than Ian Woosnam and Patty Sheehan for the evidence.
I just wrote a post on Patty Sheehan’s great MCS-like swing action, but don’t forget the “Wee Welshman” Ian Woosnam, who was one of the longest drivers in the game in his day and who, standing just 5’4.5″ or 164 cm tall, was pound for pound the most powerful driver, period.
I will never be accused of having looked at too many golfers’ swings, because I have invariably focused on the male subset of swingers, but I came across the Sybervision video featuring LPGA legend Patty Sheehan’s swing that just blew me away.
I have featured Mickey Wright’s swing in the past, but this swing model of Sheehan’s is absolutely the closest thing I’ve seen to the MCS Classic Golf Swing model I built between 2014-2017, to be completely honest.
I came across this GolfDigestOnline article about Michael Block’s son who at eighteen years of age is swinging with a Classic Golf Swing and generating some serious speed with it.
Now, I wouldn’t exactly call it a “playing swing” in which he generates 132.7 mph club impact speed with a 3-wood, but even when he dials it down to a controllable action, he’s likely in the mid-to-high 120s mph with a driver, which is still fabulous considering Cameron Champ leads the PGA Tour at around 128 mph average club impact speed.
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.
While working out the model I’ve been building of late, I fell across something that may have solved my issue of “head shift on the back swing or into the down swing, head shift at all or none” that has been on my mind.
First, does anyone remember how Jack Nicklaus used to get over the ball and, just before he began his backswing, he’d tilt his head to a certain spot and then swing?
When it comes to the Classic Golf Swing, I’ve always used Jack Nicklaus as an example of a near-optimal motion, but there’s someone else who has been overlooked, even though I mention him quite a bit.
That person is Greg Norman, who is considered to be the best ever driver using a persimmon club when you take into account driving distance and accuracy.
In case you’re wondering how to hit a very low-lofted Driver, there are two keys – the very first is Attack Angle, because without a lot of loft to create backspin lift, you must create the lift yourself.
The second is impact velocity – the ball will be spinning lower than one launched at the same angle as a higher lofted club, so you need impact velocity to get as much spin as you can because of course, spin increases with higher velocity contact.
WAX Golf 