I had a hunch, I wrote a couple of weeks back, about something I had been looking at 12 years back with regards to the relationship between the back pivot and the down swing involving the concepts of “push” and “pull.”
Seems I was right on the money back then, and it took looking at Mike Dunaway’s “Peace River” video demonstration of his own back pivot concept to spur me to check it out once more.
If you are looking for a great example of how someone can generate power with a short back swing and proper leverage evidenced by a low trailing heel impact, then look no further than one Tony Finau.
Yes, he’s a very tall player with long limbs (levers), but when you look at how ridiculously short his back swing is and how effortlessly he’s leveraging the club, you will realize that Finau could be monstrous-long, a good deal longer than he already is, with an adjustment or two.
That sounds very counter-intuitive, I know, and it’s a little like the conundrum of the chicken versus the egg, but it’s been my experience.
Do you want to know why so few people understand or even get Ben Hogan’s pivot action?
I was able to get out to the range today to see how the adjustments to my setup worked out, and I was quite pleased with the results.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to get a much better impact position than I did today with regards to the footwork, but while I continue to look at video, you can have a look at a drive that I absolutely slammed.
I am pleased and more than a little humbled to say that the WAX Golf blog has officially passed 1 million views as of today.
Thanks to WAX Nation, and the nearly 10,000 comments that you’ve all contributed to the discussion on mechanically-correct golf swing principles.
I went about it all wrong on Monday when I hit the range for my first swing session since last summer.
First off, I made adjustments to my action as I have been writing about, during the winter layoff, and when I got back out there, I was trying to do it all at once.
I wrote a few years back that Rory McIlroy might have discovered the key to increasing power through technique when he was spotted letting his leading heel come up during his back swing, but it turned out not to be a permanent thing.
Now, it seems he might be back on a right track, with his apparent discovery that the hips and shoulder are connected.
I am still waiting for conditions in this area to allow some good swinging and video-taking, but while doing so, I’ve been getting my swing muscles back into shape after a long season off (I haven’t hit a ball in about 9 months to date), and I discovered something surprising today.
I’ve been working on the speed aspect of the pivot, just trying to get raw speed with the SwingRite, and take a look at the top position of my absolute fastest swings through the bottom:
I’ve been talking about how I tightened up my pivot action and got a lot more pop in my down swing over the winter, and there’s a process you can follow to get the same results for those times you feel you really “got hold of one” with a swing.
I don’t like the process of trying to convey one’s “feels” to another, but for yourself, the “feels” are the key to your own swing.
Here’s what I saw when I went looking for Brooks Koepka’s 6 mph decrease in club head velocity between 18″ pre-impact to impact, and it should be plain to see for anyone who analyzes motion.
I’ve said before, been saying for years, actually, that when you squat into the address you will restrict hip turn, and when you restrict hip turn on the back swing, your hips will reach impact position before the upper body.
