It’s funny that I’ve had the Mike Austin and Mike Dunaway swing videos for years, and have watched them all – the funny part is that, watching them now years later, things jump out at me that I never noticed before.
One thing about the MCS Golf Swing model theory that will never change, and can never change, is of course the “Leaning A” setup that mirrors Jack Nicklaus’ recommended setup from his “Golf My Way” book.
When you think about it, the Mike Dunaway-style golf swing still does have a free and full hip turn, but it doesn’t look anything like your typical “Classic Golf Swing” model.
I mean, if someone were to ask me to demonstrate a Classic Golf Swing, I would hardly rack up Dunaway’s model, would I?
So great to be back swinging again, if only just practice swings at home with the Momentus Heavy Iron that I am using right now indoors.
I am not going to say I’ve cracked the Mike Dunaway model until I have actually swung and hit balls with it, but from what I am doing now, I believe I have.
It is a beautiful thing – I actually said to myself on the last swing before sitting down at the computer, “the man was a human Iron Byron with this swing…”
There are of course a million different ways in which someone can swing a golf club, but the focus on this blog has been on building a mechanically-correct and proper golf swing.
Even here however, as you can see with my exploration on different pivot actions over the years, there are variations you will find in swinging in a mechanically-correct manner.
This is my latest line of inquiry.
It may seem counterintuitive, but that is actually true – a shorter back swing with a flatter top position CAN mean increased power translating into club head impact speed because of simple physics.
We tend to think that a longer back swing with the club going past parallel is the best way to increase club speed, but that isn’t always what happens.
I’ve been thinking that the “Late Hogan” pivot action needs a better name and, after investigating the similarities between that pivot and Mike Dunaway’s, I can confirm that the proper pivot action is a “Shift & Post” pivot.
You may think, “they don’t look anything alike,” and you’d be correct – they look different at a glance because of the differences between Ben Hogan’s and Mike Dunaway’s setups, and also their overall swing actions.
Something I noticed instantly when I began to make practice back pivots, now that my shoulder is improving enough to do so, was the much flatter plane I have at the top compared to my previous, more typically Classic pivot style.
I began to look into it, wondering why I didn’t have much higher hands at the top the way I used to, a la Jack Nicklaus, but the flatter plane is actually a feature of the “Late Hogan” pivot action.
Earlier today, I posted about how I view the optimal swing to consist of the Jack Nicklaus setup with Ben Hogan’s pivot, and I mentioned Mike Dunaway as well.
I couldn’t remember exactly what I had named this gif., so I had to go searching for it month by month in my media archives, remembering that I had made it when I was producing the “MCS – Drop The Hammer” video in early 2017.
Now, the thing to remember with all of my waxing poetic about Ben Hogan’s pivot actions, especially what I call the “Late Hogan Pivot,” which is the one he used in 1953 (when he won 3 of 3 majors played), you simply can not exclude Jack Nicklaus from the conversation on swinging.
This is because the optimal setup closely mirrors the exact same setup that Jack Nicklaus recommended in his book “Golf My Way.”
When I was working on the “Basics Of The MCS Golf Swing” video, a good part of my time thinking about how to present the principles was how to explain the late Ben Hogan pivot action.
While I was going over the pivot action, I began to get a familiar feeling – “I’ve been here before,” I kept thinking, and I remembered what it was yesterday when answering colorful47’s question about hip turn vs hip rotation.
WAX Golf 