I was lamenting to Mrs. DJ that I can’t seem to write positive posts when it comes to the golf swing, which is a change from years ago.
It seems that every time I put my fingers on the keyboard, what comes out is going to end up being negative, but I have just figured out why that is.
I was conducting swing research in the early years and, until I built my own swing model using Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan, I was looking at so many great golfers and swings from the Classic Golf Swing era.
I posted back in February about Aldrich Potgieter after he had set the golf world afire in reaching a 660 yard par 5 hole in two.
I had said at the time that it shouldn’t be that incredible with his youth, size and strength and the equipment they use today.
I still don’t see, looking at him without a chart to measure his height, how he is listed at 5’11” and 87 kg (191 lbs), but whatever.
I was doing my usual tour through YouTube yesterday and posted about how the art or knowledge of the natural swing has been lost – it’s even more than that – the Modern Golf Swing has evolved.
It seems to me that lesson of the X-Factor wrecking lower backs has been taken partially to heart by the Modern Golf Swing world, and the swing theory has evolved, or devolved, if you will – back to the days of Stack & Tilt.
It occurred to me, watching things come across my YouTube feed earlier in the morning, that the knowledge or art of natural swinging has been lost, and the culprit is clear.
You simply can’t make a mechanically-sound golf swing with the leading heel nailed down and the hip turn being restricted, so instead of solving a simple problem by removing it, people are getting further and further adrift from proper mechanics in trying to solve it.
I’ve already highlighted the insanity that is golf “instruction” on YouTube, and I ran across this fellow we’ve already discussed with his “to swing like Ben Hogan, don’t do anything Hogan was doing or saying” video, however…
I really don’t know what to say about this video, and I’ll admit that I only watched the first minute, because I couldn’t listen to it any longer – this fellow violates every sports principle, and when he started talking about swinging like a pitcher throws, I was out.
One of the problems you find in the modern golf swing methodology is that whole “straightening the left leg” concept, of course, ostensibly for generating leverage and thus speed and power in the impact phase.
This is leading to a generation of golfers who will suffer from knee ailments as they inflict incremental damage on that leading knee with the hyper-extension you see in many power swingers. Continue reading
I originally posted this about Jack Nicklaus back in 2016 after KidCharlemagne had sent me the quote, and Scott from Arizona sent me a screenshot of the actual page taken from Nicklaus’ book “Golf My Way,” so why not re-post?
With all of our talk about Ben Hogan “experts” creating the Modern Golf Swing based on misinterpreting his mechanics and the explanations thereof, here is the G.O.A.T. telling it like it is, probably a few years after that infamous Ben Hogan video began misleading people the golfing world over.
Blame the Modern Golf Swing for this, to be sure.
An absolutely depressing piece of golf journalism greeted me this morning, and I don’t know where the game is going – one day, they’ll be loading balls into mortar tubes and not having to hit them at all, it seems.
The Golf Digest article at hand, “For Most, The 4 Iron Is Dead,” by E. Michael Johnson, should have the legends rolling in their grave.
If you don’t know who Lee Trevino was, then I blame the Modern Golf Swing world for forsaking all of the Classic Golf Swing greats who came before it, because that would be a real shame.
Trevino is another golfing legend from Texas, and he was so good in his prime that Ben Hogan didn’t trust anyone else to hit his prototype clubs when he was running the Ben Hogan golf club company.
I had a video out a few years back that focused on the Kinetic Chain, which is the connection of body parts one uses to produce leverage in the golf swing.
The reason that Modern Golf Swing models are all faulty and mechanically unsound because they break the chain when they involve restricting the hip turn and twisting the lower body against the restricted lower body to achieve the shoulder turn.
WAX Golf 